Västerås

Yesterday we took a 6-hour bus ride from Oslo to get to Västerås, (pronounced VEST-ter-ohs) Sweden. It's a little weird how crossing borders in the EU is no big deal. I didn't get a stamp in my passport in Norway, and there was not even a mention of it when we crossed the border into Sweden on the bus.

Anyway, once we got here we met with a lady who showed us our new apartment and much to my pleasant surprise it really does look a lot like an Ikea showroom! They even have the same coffee table we had at home. It's actually bigger than where we lived in Raleigh, which was a real shock. I'll put up some pictures later once we get everything unpacked and it's a little less of a hot mess in here.

The town of Vasteras is really cute and we're right in the center of it, so that's pretty cool. There are tons of shops and restaurants really close. The grocery store and movie theater are about a block away, and H&M is about 3 or 4 blocks. Juan's office is about 5 or 6 blocks away, and the train station is just a bit further. All in all, everything is pretty convenient, and for the stuff that's not there are buses and trains to make everything really easily accessible. It's so cool to be able to walk to anywhere I might need to go. In Atlanta and Raleigh I was really dependent on my car, and this is a nice change. Of course it's in the 50's outside now, and I might change my tune once the temperature starts dropping...

The people here are a lot less stylish than in Oslo. I guess that's because anyone who can afford Oslo can afford to dress like a model. Here I've seen a ton of goth teenagers and some real unattractive piercings. Also, I've been mysteriously mistaken for Scandinavian by people both here and in Oslo, which is funny because everywhere else I've traveled I'm always so obviously "gringa". I suppose it's because of my glowing pallor and the stud in my nose that I just blend right in, but several times already people on the street have asked me how to get somewhere in either Norwegian or Swedish. I just tell them that I only speak English and they're real nice and tell me what they were saying anyway. Yesterday at the grocery store there was a latino couple. It took me a minute to realize that they weren't speaking English and I actually understood them. I guess I have gotten pretty used to not knowing what people are saying around me, which is a little disconcerting. I guess I should get to it and learn some Swedish.

Oslo Fjørds and Björns!

We got to Oslo around 2:00 pm yesterday. After settling into our hotel, we wandered out into the streets to find a place to eat. Because the weather was cool and sunny we decided on a cute little pub with some outdoor seating. We ordered a personal-sized pizza, a calzone, and two beers, and the total for our order was nearly $60. Turns out Oslo is among the most expensive cities in the world. A Coca-cola at 7/11 (yeah, they have 7/11 in Oslo) is just under $5, just as a point of reference.

Last night I fought off sleep as long as I could and ended up passing out around 7:00 pm local time. Juan tried to make me stay awake longer, but when that didn't work he responded by falling asleep too. I guess he showed me. So now we've been awake since 4:00 am. That's 10:00 pm in Atlanta and 8:00 in Guatemala, so we got to call and talk to the parents, and then we meandered upstairs for Norwegian continental breakfast. That breakfast consisted of an assortment of grainy bread, ham slices, swiss cheese slices, and hard boiled eggs... yum!

So then we set off to the Swedish embassy, where they say we need passport photos for our work visas. The Swedish lady tells us that there's a place to get them in the train station, and we head off in that direction. On the way we pass a portrait studio with a sign that says "passport photos!" so we go on in and tell the lady what we need, she snaps a few shots, hands us the photos and says "Its 500 Kroners". In my head I try to estimate the cost in dollars at an exchange rate of 5.8 K to $1 and I think "wait, WHAT??" But Juan just pays the lady and we leave. A few minutes later we realize we just paid $80-something for passport photos... ouch! But then we figure that Oslo is just real expensive so we try to just shrug is off. Shrugging it off becomes impossible, though, once we pass a photo booth that takes passport photos for 60 Kroners- that's $10! I think I speak for Juan too when I say I'm still really peeved at that photo lady. She got us real good.

Anyway, we then continued on through the city, which is actually really beautiful, and we took a boat tour of the Oslofjord. It wasn't quite as dramatic as I had been lead to believe, but it was still a really cool boat ride. After that we wandered around some more and went to about 3 different H&M's and then popped into a grocery store for a bottle of water. In the grocery store we observed a couple guys open an small, empty suitcase and start loading beer into it. The situation looked a little sketch, but I tried not to assume the worst. But then Juan Carlos saw the fools walk right on out the store just like that. Who steals beer? I mean I know Oslo is expensive, but come on.

Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2207983&id=12816218&l=252f816f0b

Frankfurt

We’re sitting in the airport in Frankfurt now, and let’s just say Guatemala’s La Aurora Airport is like 1000 times nicer. We had to take stairs outside from the plane to the ground and ride on a bus for about 20 minutes to get into the terminal. We stopped for a quick bite to eat and observed several Germans enjoying beer with breakfast. Juan thought I had made up breakfast beer, but let’s be honest- I am hardly that clever. I mean I have had a few good ideas in my time, but breakfast beer is just a whole other level of genius.

Anyway, aside from my irrational terror and takeoff being delayed almost an hour, the flight from ATL to here really wasn’t bad at all. I think I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep since we were the only two people in a four-person row and I was able to lie down. Poor Juan Carlos had no such luck. Allegedly I used all the pillows and he couldn’t get comfortable. Now we have an hour-and-a-half layover before a quick two-hour flight to Oslo. Juan found a cute little B&B right in the city center and we’ll stay there until Sunday so I can take the LSAT at the University of Oslo on Saturday. From there it will be off to Vasteras, Sweden to get to know our new home. Juan’s company set up an apartment for us, and his boss said it’s a “doublet”, whatever that means. I’m really curious to see what it looks like. I’m picturing a tiny little place straight out of the Ikea catalog. In fact, I’m kind of picturing all of Sweden as just one huge Ikea showroom, with sleek modern furnishings as far as the eye can see, and streets chock-a-block full of Vovlos and Saabs. I think I’ll be real disappointed when things turn out otherwise, but we’ll see.

Up In The Air...

That title refers to the plans, not us... yet. Turns out the date for the trip got changed again. We now don't know when we're leaving or exactly where we're going. If Juan's work visa doesn't get processed in the next couple days we'll leave on Monday or so to go straight to Norway for me to take the LSAT in Oslo. From there we'll go to Sweden assuming Juan has a work visa. Updates will follow once there are any...

Bouncing Baby Fuserdog

This "luxurious Walnut Creek apartment" is kind of small and as such there's just not very many places to throw the ball where Fuser and Alfie (Foofie and Alfie according to my favorite 2-year-old cousin) won't come running back with it in about 2 seconds. So Juan Carlos decided to trick the puppies by throwing the ball out of their reach... or so he thought. Joke's on him, though, because Fuser jumped right on in the box. Fuser 1, Juan 0.