A Swedish inconvenience

Obviously yesterday was St Patricks Day, and I was invited out for drinks by some of my colleagues. This was my first ever experience of a big inconvenience here - not being able to go out because I was doing my laundry!
Like most buildings here, we have a communal laundry room that you have to book a timeslot for. The timeslot is called a tvättpass, which I inevitably read as something a bit ruder. Anyway, having specifically booked an evening slot for when I was home from work, to avoid my boyfriend being lumbered with having to do it all himself, there was nothing I could do but decline the invitation out. When I commented to my colleagues that I couldn't believe my laundry was affecting my social life now I was told "Welcome to Sweden".
As it happened, I wasn't much in the mood for going out, as I'd spent my whole working day taking minutes in a meeting without a lunch break, so by the time I got home I was exhausted, hungry, buzzing from coffee, my fingers were bent into claws, and I desperately needed to pee constantly. In England you would never move into a furnished home that didn't actually have a washing machine, but it seems here I will have to get used to planning my social life around my tvättpass.

Påskmust?

A couple of days ago I had the slightly dubious joy of tasting påskmust for the first time. Påskmust is a traditional Easter soft drink in Sweden, and is basically exactly the same as Julmust, a Christmas drink, but with a new label. I understand that it's much more commonplace around Christmas. Swedish people take it quite seriously. Uncle Wikipedia tells me that in December 45 million litres are consumed!

So in my endeavours to understand this country I tried a bit. It was odd. I don't know if I liked it or not. It had quite a strong flavour and seemed very fragrant, to the point that it felt a bit like drinking a bottle of perfume. The bottle that I was offered had gone flat, so maybe it's better when it's still fizzy.

It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but I think it might be an acquired taste. I'm certainly willing to try some again, but I do wonder if I could manage to drink a whole bottle. A few sips was enough for my first time.

If anyone in the UK, USA, or Canada is keen to try this, you can apparently buy bottles from Ikea during the Christmas period. The påskmust I had came from Ikea, but I don't know if it's sold abroad around Easter. I think this is one I'll have to come back to to make up my mind. My housemate says that another brand is better and I should taste that instead. Perhaps by the time it's Christmas my tastes will have adapted a bit and I can join the rest of Sweden in guzzling it.

Recent lovely observations

Things have been busy and stressful this week, so I'm very happy that it's Friday! We've now signed the contract for our flat though, so we officially live there. Although I've been busy I've noticed a few things later that make life in Sweden a little bit more lovely.

1. Bus drivers

I'm used to living in London, where bus drivers tend to be grumpy at the best of times. Maybe the bus drivers in Stockholm are a bit happier in their jobs, but they are so much nicer! Since moving to Högdalen I've been travelling to work using the t-bana and then a quick bus journey, and I've found the bus drivers to have a totally different attitude. Often they say hello to you when you get on the bus, which is totally alien to me. Even better, when they can see you running down the road desperately trying to get to the bus stop in time, they'll actually wait for you! I cannot count the number of times that I missed a bus in London because the bus driver just drove off even though I was running as fast as I could towards the bus - in fact it was a novelty if the bus driver actually was kind enough to wait.

2. Flowers for name days

In the local supermarket there is a small flower section, and I noticed the other day that they have a sign there telling customers the name days for the week, so there's no excuse to forget your loved one's name day. Being from England I don't have a name day, but I still think it's a nice thing.

3. Dogs

This is not a new observation, but there are so many cute dogs in Stockholm. It almost seems like everybody has a sweet little dog. I love pugs, and I've seen so many pugs since I got here. In fact a few ways ago I was walking down the street thinking about pugs (as you do), and a lady suddenly appeared walking two of them. Maybe I just have a weird superpower that allows me to summon pugs. I'm sure that has many useful applications in life. On the way to work this morning I saw at least four lovely looking dogs, including one pug.


This week has certainly not been the easiest, so the little things can make all the difference when you feel a bit down. This weekend I hope to relax and cheer up, and I'm thinking of going to an hour long meditation class tomorrow morning to start the weekend in a calm way. It's easy to get overwhelmed in a new country when you're trying to establish yourself; perhaps I've been too harsh on myself and expected too much of myself. My only comparison to this experience is living in Finland, which turned out amazingly well in the end, and I think it's easy to forget the more difficult aspects of that experience, and the fact that there were so many challenges. Obviously, some of the challenges I face here are different - it's a different time, different country, and different circumstances. Perhaps this week can be a reminder to slow down, accept that it's not all easy when you have a lot of commitments and interests to balance, and keep going.

A delicious new experience

Last night I had a new experience, but not a very Swedish one. Our housemate suggested an Ethiopian restaurant to us, so Kai and I went for dinner there. I'm certain that there are Ethiopian restaurants in London, but I'd never really eaten Ethiopian food before, so it was new for me.

We went to Gojo in Södermalm, and it was amazing. We hadn't booked a table but they managed to fit us in anyway with a time limit. There was a nice atmosphere and the restaurant is comfortable and looks great, with portraits of Ethiopian people and colourful lamps. It felt really homey, and they played Ethiopian music too. When we left we noticed there's a live show on Saturday nights - we were a bit too early for that last night.

The menu is small, and there's just one vegetarian meal, but after eating it once I have no problem with that at all! I loved it! 

The food is presented beautifully, with the plate set in a woven basket with a lid that the waitress took away. It looked nice on the plate, and tasted so good. Even the salad was seasoned perfectly. Every item on the plate had a unique flavour and texture, and it all balanced really well. I can't think of many occasions when I've been to a restaurant for the first time and been so impressed. Kai had a similar meal that included meat, and he loved the food just as much as I did. Of all the small dishes I really can't choose a favourite - the salad, cabbage, beans, and potatoes with carrots were all unbelievably tasty. The bread is really good too, but very different in texture, flavour, and appearance, to European bread.

We read on the menu that coffee is a very significant part of an Ethiopian meal, so next time we go to Gojo we'll definitely book a table so we can take our time and drink coffee too - we finished eating just in time last night so ordering coffee was unfortunately not an option. After this experience I would undoubtedly recommend Ethiopian food, and Gojo too. It wasn't even very expensive; the vegetarian meal cost 145kr. 

I know of a couple of other Ethiopian restaurants in Stockholm - I walk past one of them every day, it doesn't look great from the outside but is almost 100kr more expensive than Gojo, and my housemate read me an online review that said someone found a bug in their food. So I don't think we'll be going there, but there's another near Rådmansgatan that we could also try. 

I've been really impressed with the restaurants in Stockholm - the variety of food available, and the quality. Every time I've eaten out here I've been very satisfied. I'm used to living in a very multicultural city, and I'm glad that Stockholm also has such a mix of people, meaning that authentic food is available. I think Gojo has replaced Greasy Spoon as my favourite restaurant in Stockholm, and its location is ideal for us, it's so easy to get to. I really can't say anything negative, and I've found a new type of food to enjoy!

A beautiful Swedish silent film

The building I work in was previously a school for blind children, and last night I watched a really beautiful film from 1932 about the school. It can be viewed on the Film Arkivet website here. It's a silent film, so I'd recommend it even if you cannot understand Swedish. There are also some scenes of Stockholm almost 100 years ago, which is really interesting to see.
I was really impressed to see the children doing amazing dance routines, and making things so accurately, despite being blind. Maybe it's just the tone of silent films, but there's something very ethereal and beautiful about it. The children look so happy and seem to have so many opportunities in this film, especially considering that it was a different time then.
For me, it was also very interesting to see places in the film that I see every day. It's strange to think I've probably been in some of the rooms that are shown in the film, and I certainly recognise the outside areas. It's about 20 minutes long, and worth watching. It gave me another chance to practice reading Swedish too!

Fun with Skatteverket part 3

I should really just accept that visits to Skatteverket will probably be a fairly regular occurence for the foreseeable future. Yesterday I went back to apply for a samordningsnummer, which I understand allows me to pay tax and not much else. I already had the paperwork for this, as I was given it when I applied for the personnummer, but was still expecting to wait for a long time.
On this occasion I was actually in and out in about five minutes. My form was already complete, so they took photocopies of my work contract and passport, and as this is basically guaranteed because I'm working in Sweden I was told I'll get the details in the post shortly.
What alarmed me a bit is that the lady who helped me told me that I'll need to reapply for this number every year! Which basically says they are happy to let people live here for a lengthy period without being given full rights. That's certainly a bit of a worry. There's a space on the
I asked the lady what would happen if I eventually had short term contracts at one workplace adding up to a year or more, bearing in mind that during my first ever trip to Skatteverket I was told, possibly by the same lady as last night, as the two looked very similar, that you must have a personnummer if you live in Sweden for more than a year. She told me what I had suspected, that even if you've lived here for 10 years with short term contracts it doesn't prove that you can support yourself for at least a year into the future. As my workplace usually offers short term contracts this is a big concern for me at the moment. She seemed to find it very difficult to tell me that, as though she knew it was a bit stupid.
She told me that to qualify for a personnummer I would usually need a work contract of at least 6 months. When I went to the exact same office three weeks ago, the man who helped me told me that you usually need a work contract of at least 12 months. Those are two very different periods of time! When I got home last night I looked online for more information about the samordningsnummer, and at what point this can change to a personnummer, and it seems that everyone who moves to Sweden is equally confused, which at least is some consolation. There doesn't seem to be a definitive set of rules, and whether or not your qualify seems to be depend on who you speak to, what day it is, and what mood they're in. I've now been given three sets of different information, all from the same office, an office in central Stockholm that I would imagine has a lot of visitors in similar situations to mine.
Kai is currently having interviews for a job, and I really think he's going to be successful. Initially he'll get a six month contract - three weeks ago I would have told him not to waste time applying for a personnummer, and to just apply for a samordningsnummer in the first place. Now I've told him to just apply for a personnummer anyway if he gets the job, because it seems that some people at Skatteverket will accept a 6 month contract, and that'll mean we both get personnummers.
I suppose it's a step in the right direction, but it's still frustrating, and I really am surprised that the system is so disorganised. When I first researched what I needed to do when I got to Sweden it seemed very straightforward, far easier than when I went to Finland, but I'm now finding that's not really the case. Everyone, whether they have moved here or actually work at Skatteverket, seems equally confused.
One positive is that I've discovered I can open a non-resident bank account here. My employer can pay into my English account, but the bank in England takes some commission for accepting the payment, so it would be much better to have an account in Sweden. My housemate sent me a link to information about non-resident accounts from the Handelsbanken website, so the plan is to go to Handelsbanken to set up an account, with this information in hand in case they try to argue about it. Conveniently, a branch near to where I live is open until 7pm on Wednesdays, so I think I'll go there tomorrow. It's all baby steps, and it feels like things are still very up in the air, but everything is a small step in the right direction. Let's just keep hoping for long term work contracts.

Louise Bourgeois at Moderna Museet

Today was a very exciting day because I finally went to the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Moderna Museet. I've been looking forward to this since I found out about it last September, and although it's been on for two weeks I waited until today because I planned to see it with some others. It was definitely worth the wait!
The artist is one I find very interesting, and I'm able to draw inspiration quite a lot from her work. There was a huge amount of work in the show, and I think it's an exhibition you could happily see more than once. What I've always really liked about Louise Bourgeois is that her work spans across a lot of disciplines and media, but with a common theme bringing it all together, and I really admire such versatility.
Her versatility is really evident in this show, and featured some methods that I'd not even seen from her before, which just impressed upon me even more the variety within her work. I really feel that anyone could see this show and find something that they like.

The last exhibition at Moderna Museet, Skulptur Efter Skulptur, was quite minimal, and I hoped that this would not be the case with this show. Louise Bourgeois' work comes across as so rich and deep, so I'm not sure a very small show would work. I feel like her work needs to be emphasised, and thankfully this was quite a large show. We didn't even look at the permanent collection and were still at the gallery for a couple of hours. Walls had been set up within the room so that you kind of moved in a spiral, and it gave the impression of getting further into the artist's psyche. As her work is intimate, and at times explicit, this seemed to make sense with it. The show felt kind of intense, but I think that really worked well. Once again, Moderna Museet has not disappointed me.

The other really cool thing about my day was the people I went to the exhibition with. I found a group for female artists and creatives in Stockholm, which was only established fairly recently, and it was so nice to meet other creative people here. Obviously it's important to make like-minded friends, but there was also a lot of discussion about formally setting up some kind of creative collective, actively arranging group shows here together, and looking for opportunities. Networking is such a big thing in Stockholm, so I've really been aiming to meet other artists and creative people, especially because I'm new here and there must be so many people with much more experience within art in Stockholm, and Sweden as a whole. Even though there were only a few of us there today we already found some parallels between the work that we make, even if our mediums differ. That's cool in itself as we are from different countries and backgrounds, but still have common concerns that transcend that.
Everyone seemed to be equally motivated to search for opportunities together, and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with these people again and hopefully developing our ideas a bit more. Seeing as there are several nationalities involved we may even be having international touring exhibitions before you know it! I'm really happy I met these people, and I hope that the ideas we talked about today get pushed forward. I feel like this was a big step in the right direction in terms of developing my career here, plus I got to see an amazing exhibition. So all in all it's been a very successful day, and it's just a shame that the weekend is pretty much over!