Kitty’s Place

Spring is really working hard at arriving. Today it was 17 C when we got home from school. The trees are budding as is my favourite lilac bush. Flowers are peeking out of the ground and the birds are ecstatic.

The kidlet was well enough to go to school on Friday, mom was not. I had chills Thursday before I left for Stockholm but only a fullblown coma would have kept me away from our evening out. Champagne and wine made me forget the fever and chills but Friday morning they reminded me they had just taken a little break. *laugh* I spent the day in bed, only getting up to pick up the kidlet from school.

Saturday was a basically quiet day. The day started with the delivery of two large bags of Legos and 35 kid movies that I bought from a woman who posted on Amerikanska. Llywellyn was so excited and spent lots of time checking out what was in the Lego bags. Then he went shopping with his grandmother and bought more marbles. My fellow was not feeling well, he complained of being dizzy all the time. He did go in the afternoon to help his sister change the oil on her new car, but he walked over, feeling he was dizzy enough not be able to safely drive. The kidlet went with and I joined them later, we all had dinner at his parents.

Sunday Ibo was not any better. His blood pressure was a bit low but nothing to be worried over. He stayed quiet all day. LL watched a number of the new videos he got.

This morning I was up early and took LL to school on the bus. I had all intentions of going on myself but when I got to the bus station in Sigtuna I had such severe abdominal cramping I switched buses and came home. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, I think it is a hold over from the last time we were sick. Ibo and I went to Rävsta for a parent teacher conference and then we came back to Märsta, he went to the doctor’s and LL and I went to fika at the library cafe. The doctor thought the same as I did, an inner ear infection, so some blood work was taken and he was sent home to rest for the next couple of weeks, or until the dizziness subsides. I feel bad for him, he went through a bout of labrynthitis a couple years ago and it seems that here in Sweden they don’t give things like antivert to relieve the symptoms, you just tough it out until they disappear.

Tomorrow is our group presentation on Africa. I have uploaded my powerpoint presentation to the school computer, gathered up the pictures I am taking and after the kidlet goes to bed I will make the hibiscus tea that we will be serving as part of our presentation.

Tonight we went to a work related event. The kidlet was home all day but the fever was gone and he went off to his grandparents at 1600. I went to Stockholm to Skeppsholmskyrka for 1830. We had dinner and between appetizers and the main course we listened to Shirley Clamp live and between the main course and dessert we listened to Martin Stenmarck live. Then after dessert we had them both on stage before a crowd of about 200. It was delightful. We got Shirley Clamp’s new cd as a gift. It was a fun evening and I spoke lots of swedish and wow …. people understood me. *laugh* Now I am off to bed.

Apparently the dress code for our evening out tomorrow is business casual. I asked my fellow what that meant and he thought if I just wore my white linne (undershirt) that would be enough. Men! *laugh* I took it as no jeans, which is not a problem since I don’t own any. I was thinking my ankle length red skirt and a long sleeved white blouse would be ok, does that sound appropriate?

Happily the Samrådsmöte (discussion meeting) for parents at LL’s school this evening has no dress code, so I can throw on a denim skirt with impunity. *laugh*

I am home with a sick child. He had a fever at bedtime but no other symptoms. This morning in addition to the fever he has a cough and runny nose. So I kept him home with me, even though I was planning on studying at home today, since I foolishly agreed to do a book report Friday on a book I had not started last Friday. So in between getting drinks, food and playing games, I am trying to finish this darn book, so I can write the report today. Tomorrow evening we are going out! The kidlet will sleep over at his grandparents and Ibo and I are going to have a grown ups evening at a work related event, where we will have dinner and entertainment.

Just at the moment I am having some lunch and then it back to the book. *laugh*

Ibo is a politician at the kommun (municipal) level here in Sweden. His love of politics is one of the factors in our moving here from Canada. He was elected to “municipal council” but gave up that seat when he moved to Canada. So once he came back here from Canada, he got right into politics again. At this point he is an ersättare (reserve) member of the Kommunstyrelsen (municipal steering committee?) and Kommunfullmäktige (municipal council), as well as vice chairman of Utbildning- och arbetsmarknadsnämnden (education and labour market committee?). I believe he is also a member of the förening (board) for the area of the municipality we actually live in and I know I am missing something here but goodness knows what. *laugh* So he is at meetings a minimum of 3 evenings a week, more likely 4, as well as meetings before work, at lunch and occasionally on weekends. He gets reams of papers to read each week, most envelopes are at least an inch thick and he gets a fair number of phone calls from local residents with questions and concerns. He absolutely thrives on this, so I don’t complain at all. I figure he is being a responsible member of society and that is certainly better than him going out partying every evening. *laugh* Besides I grew up with a grandfather who was a municipal councilman for years and my parents were both politically aware, so I understand his interest to a certain extent.

So why am I babbling about all this? It is because of what Ibo told me when he came home last evening, “I have bad news from the meeting”. He had been to the yearly bostadrättsförening (condo association?) meeting. When he said that my heart sank and I thought “oh no, they decided to jump up the monthly fee a lot”, even though there was a meeting at the beginning of the year where they explained fees would be going up a bit (ours increased by 40 sek a month) for the first time in 9 years because of the upcoming stambyte (renovation). Then he said, “I got voted onto the styrelsen (board of directors)”. I just laughed and asked him if he needed something to fill his abundance of spare time. Then I asked if he said ok so he could get better parking, in reference to a Frasier episode where he wanted bigger parking spots so he campaigned for president of the condo association. Ibo did not really appreciate my attempt at humour. *laugh* I am pleased for him, he has been really active here since we moved in a year ago, but when is the man going to sleep? *laugh*

We had a nice weekend. Saturday LL went out with his grandparents for the afternoon and I did laundry. They phoned a bit after 3 pm and asked if we wanted to meet up with them for dinner at the sushi restaurant, so we had a lovely dinner out. Not only did Ibo’s mom hem all my new sheers, she hemmed the christmas curtains for the living room and turned one of the extra curtains into a cap for between the side panels, so our curtains from the old apartment will look lovely here next christmas. On top of that she sewed LL a red bag for his marbles that has his name on it. Marbles are the big thing at the moment and I am learning the names of all the different types, even though I remember most of them from when I was kid and the kids here call them by the english names.

Sunday I did more laundry because on Saturday farmor and farfar took the kidlet shopping and bought him some cool new clothes; shiny jeans with a skull on the back pocket, a long sleeve brown shirt, a white hooded sweater and three pairs of socks. He wore them to school today and was just so pleased when he got dressed this morning. We didn’t do much at all on Sunday, some studying, some ironing, some cleaning. I went and curled up in bed to read some of my swedish book but fell asleep and only woke when my fellow was almost done making dinner. *laugh*

Today at school I was sure I had to do my class on population sampling in math, but my classmate was just as sure that I didn’t, that our teacher said we would be doing prep work this week since he is away and the substitute teacher could not come till next week. So the other student went to the computer room and we went to get a coffee from the machine. When we got back, the sub was there waiting. *laugh* My classmate explained to her that we did not have to present any topics till next week so I never did do mine. I felt sorry for the substitute teacher and would have done it if she had suggested going and getting the other woman from the computer room, but she seemed content to wait. So I researched my next topic, mathematic philosophy and will do that one in two weeks. Next was study hall and we talked a bit about our trip to Milano. Then our course coordinator recruited volunteers to meet with and talk to the students who are coming next week for their intake interviews. I volunteered for Tuesday after our classes are done for the day and will stay until 1600. Then I spoke with her about Stavfel. If you haven’t seen this blog, check it out. It is in swedish and a number of the contributors are livejournalers. They were mentioned last week in one of the big swedish newspapers as a swedish blog worth checking out. I pulled it up and showed my swedish teacher and explained that I thought it was a good site for my classmates to look at, because they can read how other immigrants have progressed with their lives in Sweden and see that there is hope that one day we will be able to write swedish confidently enough to let others read it. So I am doing a little presentation on the blog on Friday and then we are all going to the computer room so everyone can get online and check it out.

I got a bit upset at lunch because of the english police thing. I started out eating with the russian woman who is here for intensive english and speaks no swedish. The people who joined us one by one were reminded that they needed to speak english and did so. After half an hour, the russian woman left and myself and the other student who are there for swedish studies switched to swedish. But some of the other just kept on with english which was fine with me as long as they didn’t care I was speaking swedish. Eventually we were overheard by one teacher who called over to the table with a comment along the lines of “Oh, I hear english!” and one of the swedish people said back in english, “We have to speak english at this table.” It was no time until my swedish teacher stopped by to point out that the other girl and I needed swedish, not english. I tried to explain why english had ended up being the language of conversation but I felt like a little child having to defend myself. One of the others pointed out that at lunch time we could speak whatever language we wanted and the return comment was along the lines of the other student who is there to learn swedish is getting lazy about it. So lunch ended with a bad taste in my mouth. *laugh*

After lunch I read my swedish novel for a couple hours then it was time to go and get the kidlet. We got a ride home with one of the other mom’s and she and I set up a time for her to pick me up Wednesday for the parent meeting at LL’s school. Ibo can’t go so I will go with her instead, since I think it is important that parents be involved in planning at the school.

Now I am going to have a cappuccino and watch CSI:NY.

This is the question of the week. *laugh*

LLywellyn has a friend here today. I picked the boys up from the school bus at 1230 and then we took the city bus from there. We stopped to fika (coffee break) at the library cafe and then came the rest of the way home. They are now in LL’s room playing and gales of laughter are dotting the non stop talking between them. We are coordinating the next school friend visit for two weeks from now. I think it is good for them to visit back and forth since not many of the live close to each other, the downside of not going to the neighbourhood school.

It has been an interesting week. Monday I was so excited to be able to watch the premier of CSI:NY and then I fell asleep on the couch halfway through the show. *laugh* Tuesday we met at school for group work on the history/civics project we are doing. Only 1/2 the group showed up and since I was basically done, one of the women was half finished and the other had nothing to work with because her partner failed to show up with their research materials, it felt rather like a wasted day. Of course I spoke swedish all day so it really was worth going in. *laugh* Wednesday I forgot my papers for my math presentation. I am just so absent minded at the moment that it is bizarre. The other two did their presentations and there was time for mine but I couldn’t do it. So I will present on Monday. Thursday we had a movie in swedish. I got up early and printed out my homework assignment at 0630, then forgot to take it with me. So I will hand it in on Monday too. We had lobbied for a light, funny film, since the last one, Ondskan was so intense. We ended up watching Min store tjocke far (My big fat father). It was just plain strange, a movie with a totally dysfunctional group of characters that was difficult to understand. The only redeeming factor was the beauty of the countryside.

Today we have a self study day because our teacher is away on a course. We have two projects to do, first a book report that needs to be presented next Friday and then a presentation on a subject of our choice to be given at the end of May. I chose to do a talk on Gustav Vasa because I have been wanting to learn more about him for a long time. Of course instead of working on either, I did some housework and now I am posting and watching the boys play “Winnie the Pooh’s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure” on the playstation. We have no plans for the weekend so I will finish my book then. I am reading Herman Lindqvist’s “Brödrafolkens Fel” and am about halfway through. It isn’t so hard reading the book, but I am not looking forward to writing the book report. *laugh*

My it has been much too long since I updated. I am recovered from the nasty virus, still tired but otherwise feeling chipper. *laugh*

I honestly can’t recap the last 11 days, they are rather a blur. I know we went to my fellow’s parents for dinner on the 3rd. We went back to school on Monday and it went fine. I gave my talk on the metric system and one of my classmates did a talk on genetic mapping. Wednesday my other math classmates did a talk on homosexuality and how it has been researched through the years. Then she and I got on the bus and came back to town where I shopped for new shoes and also bought hair dye. Thursday and Friday were both fun and interesting. LL and I went to IKEA with Ibo’s mom and his sister Thursday evening. I got new sheers for the bedroom, a frame for the big papyrus painting we bought in Egypt, a new blanket and pillow for LL and assorted little things.

Saturday we had a busy day, laundry, dishes, vacuuming, floor washing and grocery shopping. After the kidlet went to bed, I dyed my hair because I refused to turn 47 with any white hair showing. *laugh* I had an early birthday call from Meaghan, which was a lovely surprise.

Sunday was a nice day, although I was majorly crabby in the morning. I really miss celebrating my birthday the way I did growing up. I think on my birthday someone else should bake a cake and make dinner or else take me out to dinner. That however is not the swedish way. Here people make their own dinner and cake and entertain. I was ok with that, although not happy, but making breakfast and then having my son go out to play instead of eating with us, really put me out of the birthday mood. *laugh* The guys went out after my major growl and I cooked and baked with the soundtrack to “The Big Chill” blaring and that got me out of my funk. Eric phoned and then Aunt Maud so I had great visits with both of them. Ibo’s family arrived at 1630 and we had dinner followed by cake and then gifts. I got a lovely travel bag filled with toiletries from Ibo’s family and a hilarious card. LL got me assorted flavoured coffees, a red heart shaped ornament that looks and feels like a pin cushion, Ibo got me a sandwich maker, something I asked for when I sick because I wanted grilled cheese sandwiches in the worst way and a cordless phone, so no more sitting on the floor in the hall when people call. They also got me the biggest birthday card I have ever seen. It is almost poster size and has both swedish and english on it. So it was a very nice birthday and I was quite spoiled. Ibo’s mom took my new sheers home with her and is going to shorten them for us this week and my fellows have framed our papyrus, so our bedroom will soon have a facelift. *laugh*

Today I worked from home, even though it was supposed to be a self study at school. I have learned that if I go to school I spend more time talking than researching so I stayed here and did 5 hours of work on two projects. Tomorrow is another self study day but I will go to school since we are going to work in groups for a presentation. I did the bulk of my section today, so tomorrow will be tweaking.