Month in Review: January 2025
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What We’re Doing
January 7 : Justin’s First Day at SAAB
After considering several great options in several great countries (Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, the USA) we kept feeling the pull to stay in Sweden. The past few years have been atypical for us in general and we felt that we weren’t ready to leave Sweden just yet when Justin’s previous company went through a reorganization. We haven’t even scratched the surface of life here and it just didn’t feel good or right to leave. The lifestyle and culture in Sweden suits us so well and is so healthy and balanced in general. Although we pushed the boundaries of our visa timeline and the slump in Sweden’s economy weren’t working in our favor, Justin was offered a wonderful opportunity at SAAB. His first day was January 7. He is working alternate weeks from a local office here in Gothenburg and in Linköping until we relocate at the beginning of March. His old company was English-speaking due to the majority of employees coming from outside of Sweden. SAAB is a Swedish-speaking organization with documentations in English. Justin will be joining me in serious pursuits to learn the language (I have been enrolled in Swedish language classes full time since September of last year in addition to part time studies for many months in 2022-2023). Already I have heard countless tales from Justin’s first weeks there of how well-cared for the employees are and we are both excited to see what our future holds.
What We’re Eating: January 12 Marzipan Day
In another effort to make a point of venturing through the foods of the area, I decided we would celebrate “Marzipan Day.” I am sure this holiday was created as the lowest sales of marzipan in the entire year are likely right after Christmas (as that is a typical holiday treat). There is a whole slew of these manufactured, obscure food holidays I fully plan on participating in and documenting them here.
We used Marzipan Day as an excuse to try marzipan-centric treats I had yet to sample. One of my most insatiable curiosities is finding food that looks completely foreign and where I would have no conceivable notion of what it is, what’s in it, and then trying it.
Peaking my curiosity are these green orb-like cakes that are everywhere, all the time, the whole year. What could possibly be in that and how did such a thing come in to existence? With such prevalence?! They are called ‘Princess Tårta’ (AKA Princess Cake). The same thing goes for a ‘dammsugare.’ It’s about the shape of 2/3 length cigar, double the circumference. The name translates to… drum roll please….
… vacuum cleaner.
The Princess Cake is layers of sponge cake, vanilla cream, whipped cream, and raspberry jam topped with a sweet, green-colored marzipan sheet, a pink rose, and powdered sugar). It was published in a cookbook written by the teacher of three Swedish princesses in the early 1900s in Sweden. However good you think that cake sounds, multiply by 5 or 10 and that’s how good it is.
Dammsugare are mashed cookie crumbles, cacao, butter, punsch liqueur (tastes like rum to me), rolled into a marzipan casing and the ends are dipped in chocolate. They are usually green and brown. Are also know by the less popular name ‘punschrulle.’ I prefer ‘dammsugare.’ To me, it tastes like unbaked cookie dough with rum mixed in, dipped in chocolate. Yes. Yes, please!
So, naturally we seeked out the two best konditori (confectionaries)/bakeries in town… Ahlströms (founded 1901) and Kampanilen.
January 13/22: Apartment Photo Tour in Honor of Two Years in Apartment
One of my absolute favorite things about living abroad is experiencing the uniqueness of a place through our apartment or house and its distinctive features and design. Japan had gas stoves, video intercoms, wall-mount individual air conditioning units (allowing custom-control of climate throughout the house), on-demand water heating, and electric/autofill/reheating extra large bathtubs standard in most places. In our current place in Sweden, my favorite and most distinctive features are things like: our glassed-in balconies, our view (both Scandinavian-style historic buildings to the north, the city to the northeast, and a type of rocky hill/cliff which is unique to Sweden/Scandinavia to the west).
Also characteristic to Scandinavia/Europe/Sweden (but maybe not SO exciting):
A shower stall or cubicle. VERY common. Learning the word in Swedish (“dusch cabin”) it took me sometime to figure out the comfortable English alternative as I am not sure I had ever really known it before…
Radiant heating in all rooms (hello cracked knuckles and static cling! LOL)
Central hot water
Induction stoves (oh, this is actually pretty exciting…).
Outlets above all windows (for the cozy window lighting/decor, Advent stars Sweden is famous for!)
Central trash chutes 2 feet out our front door (and on every floor).
Environmental rooms (“miljörum”) - a central area for all recycling for the area/apartment building (in lieu of recycling collected curbside on a schedule in Japan).
Basement storage units for all apartments.
So, as I am always so curious what everyone’s place of residence looks like, ESPECIALLY when someone lives abroad, I am giving you a little tour of our place. It is our third (!!) apartment in Sweden, our first firsthand contract and we just rounded the bend of living here for two years. Which, in the scheme of our time abroad seems to be the magic number of years between moves (by choice or otherwise!). See the video for a quick demonstration of how our glassed-in balcony can be opened for nice weather. (or vice-versa). Such a cool feature. We are located on the seventh of eight floors.
Demonstration of a Swedish glassed-in balcony!
January 22 - Friluftsframjändet Hike - Swedes in the Wild
Part of my goals for this year is to get back in to community activities (especially outdoors, especially with women… especially with Swedes!). There is an organization which is nation-wide here and is for all outdoors activities called “Friluftsframjändet” (roughly translates to the promotion of the outdoors). They do all sorts of activities (distance skating, skiing, hiking, overnights, kayak skills indoors, etc.). I joined it for a cheap price for the year and now have access to all activities.
There is a saying in Swedish “det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.” There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. So, midweek, the forecast completely yuck, I joined a local, urban-ish hike. I rode the bus down to the start, we hiked around speaking Swenglish for a few hours with a fika break midway. A great chance for me to meet new people and to pounce on them, innocent and unsuspecting, with my Swedish skills. An important key to Swedish weather: you can often call it’s bluff. It didn’t rain once.
Me, Maud, Carolin and a man whose name I failed to get after my first Friluftsfrämjandet hike!
January 24 - Justin’s first “Fancy Friday”
Justin’s previous employer was more international than Swedish. SAAB is solidly and fully and proudly (and wonderfully!) Swedish. So he recently was invited to participate in “Fancy Friday.” Can you guess what this is? …
The Friday just after (or just before in the case where the 25th falls on a weekend) payday, everyone gets dressed up. I hear the phrase “Fancy Friday” in my head in the bouncy Swedish accent and immediately find it so endearing. A lovely juxtaposition to our “casual Fridays.” Possibly the thing I find so nice is finding an everyday reason to celebrate something or make something nice. Note: Justin is not as fancy as some (ties and suits are common, apparently!) as he does ride his bike to work.
Justin on his first “Fancy Friday” (post/near-payday cute Swedish excuse to get dressed up… Suits and ties are not uncommon. Justin is a little less fancy for having cycle commuted to work…
January 27, 28 Nationella Provet/National (Swedish) Test for Swedish Language Class (Svenska för Invandrare AKA ‘SFI’)
As of September 9th I re-enrolled full time in the Swedish Language Classes which are provided free of charge to immigrants in Sweden. The classes are 15 hours a week. I completed the “New Beginner Level C” in October of last year and have since been in the “Continuing Level C”. So far both of my teachers have been immigrants themselves to Sweden (see the photo below of Patricia, my first instructor from the last class). This has made them particularly qualified to teach as they have been in our shoes (albeit ~20 years previously). I took my first ‘Nationella Provet’ (the official tst for the SFI courses) on January 27 from 9:00 am - ~1:20 pm and on January 28, I completed the speaking portion. We had individual speaking tests with instructors and another test with a student partner. On January 29, I found out I passed the test and will move into Level D and then after that I have Swedish as a Second Language. I believe I would be about junior high/early high school level by that point! I will do a few weeks of classwork in Gothenburg and then re-enroll after we move to Linköping with their SFI course.
Test schedule for today for Nationella Provet C Nivå. Nivå is level, läsa is reading, höra is listening, and skriva is writing. And paus is a break.
Me and two of my favorite classmates on our speaking test day (Jan 28). Gülçin (center) is a special needs educational consultant for Turkish kids with a huge following online and Svitlana (right) is a professor of economics and lectures students about startups at a university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. I adore them both so much. I have been totally blown away by the super intelligent people in my Swedish language classes.
Me and my instructor (“lärare”) from my previous SFI course, Patricia, on my last day in her class (SFI Kurs C Nybörjare Nivå - “New Beginner Level”). She came from Hungary when she was 19 years old (photo from October 10, 2024).
Coming in February… I might write about…
February 3 is Carrot Cake Day! Of course February 14 is Valentine’s Day here… It will be our last month in Gothenburg. So, lot’s to celebrate. If you have any particular ideas for exploration/experience or foods to eat in Sweden, things to try, write about or other random Sweden things, send me a note!
In the meantime, how is your work? Have you tried any international foods? New outdoor hobbies? Met new friends? Taken language lessons? Has anyone met international friends in your home country and shown them around? (This is admittedly most intriguing to me for future life in the USA after being on the flip side for the past ten years.) If you are living abroad for a long time now, what do you enjoy the most about your new country? What do you miss about your home country? Send me a note, bonus points for sending photos. The best thing about this blog is using it for connection (which is TWO WAYS ;-D ).
