One hour in Finland

On Friday/Saturday, I went to Finland with Ann-Charlotte and Kathy from my lab. I never actually stepped foot in Finland, though. Ann-Charlotte is Finnish and was going to visit friends for the weekend. She was taking the overnight ferry and had booked a cabin so she invited Kathy and me along for the ride.

We boarded the boat Friday night and booked a table at the smorgasbord for dinner. We had unlimited beer and wine with our meal so we hung out there until they kicked us out for the next seating (but we asked them to take our picture first). After dinner, we went tax-free shopping. Alcohol is very heavily taxed in Sweden so we were able to buy some liquor and wine for about half the price we would pay at the liquor store on land. The tax-free shopping is one of the main draws to this Stockholm-to-Finland boat trip. Also, "tax-free" is "tax-free" in English, Swedish, and Finnish. (It was hilarious to hear these little kids in the elevator yapping away in Swedish....tax-free....more Swedish.) After shopping, we went to the bar and then the club (partying being the other main draw of the boat). We made a lot of interesting Swedish friends.

We docked in Finland around 6am. Not having had much sleep until that point, I pretty much slept right through it (other than mumbling goodbye to Ann-Charlotte) and woke up when we were well on our way back to Stockholm. Kathy and I had some brunch at a table over looking the water. It looked so cold and uninviting - grey skies, white-capped waters. and large pieces of ice crashing on the deck from the top of the boat. We decided there was nothing to see and we should go back to bed. We watched Napoleon Dynamite, read, and napped until we arrived back in Stockholm Saturday night.

It was a fun little, relatively last minute, trip. The water was a bit to rough for my liking for a few hours both ways - but I got over it. I'd like to go on the same trip again in the summer when I can actually walk out onto the deck and enjoy the scenery.

Indoor shoes

These are my "indoor shoes". A lot of people here leave clogs or sandles (which they wear with socks) or something similar in the office so they can wear their boots to lab and comfortable shoes during the day. I'm sure this isn't unique to Sweden and happens most places that get snow. However, it seemed weird to me after being in Atlanta for 6 years - but it makes complete sense. I bought my indoor shoes two weeks ago - just in time for the snow.

I was looking for a more neutral color but they were sold out of grey and brown. The green is growing on me.

22 hours ahead

I’ve been in Sweden for over 2 months now and I’ve gotten use to most things but time still gets me every now and then.

Everyone here uses 24 hour time. I agree that 24 hour time makes more sense than 12 hour, but only in a world with only digital clocks and digital watches. Anyway, regardless, it’s still not automatic for me. We get an email announcement for something at “kl. 14.30”, I read it fast and think 4:30pm. Hence, I’m two hours behind. Also, I should mention here that I’m glad time is straight-up in the morning. If time started at noon instead of midnight, I’d be so confused when my digital (24 hour) alarm clock went off in the morning.

It’s not only time that throws me off but dates too. Calendars start with Monday on the left going through Sunday on the right (as opposed to Sunday thru Saturday). I never realized how little I look up at the day column in a calendar. If there’s something marked in the second square of a given week, it’s happening on Monday, right? So, that puts me a day ahead. I suppose it doesn’t help that I have my Long Island calendar (that I got as a gift from friends at home) posted at my desk, which is different from everyone else’s monthly calendars and my lab-issued weekly calendar, but at least I can read it without thinking twice (and it has prettier pictures).

I use to be so good at keeping dates and times straight, knowing where I should be and when. Not so much anymore! At least I’m usually a day in advance and 2 hours behind - which still leaves me 22 hours ahead.

Winter has arrived

Yesterday, I experienced my first real Stockholm snowstorm. It has snowed a bit a few times here so far, but just a dusting to an inch. Several inches (6-ish?) fell yesterday.

The snow was coming down hard all night. It was Kathy's birthday so she cooked dinner for a few of us and then we went out to two bar/clubs.

The first bar we went to (I don't know what it was called) had the feel of sitting out on the streets. It's a weird setup, surrounded by stores (ie. H&M), all of which were closed at that hour. The seating at the bar was on stone steps, but they provided cushions. All of the walls and (most of) the roof were glass. Three of the walls, were the store front windows of the clothing stores. Regardless, you could see the snow.

Then, we went to a club called Musenbache (I'm sure the spelling isn't even close!). I believe we were on the third floor of a building and the room with the DJ and dancefloor had several floor-to-ceiling windows. It was strange to be so warm (it was crowded and everyone was dancing) and watching the cold weather outside. At this club, the music was really weird but everyone was into it. It was Baltic music, apparently. It sounded like a cross between Russian (including many "hey"s) and polka.

(To be honest, I'm back posting - catching up! I wanted a winter picture. I took the picture on my way to work on Tuesday.)

Sick days

There was an article in "The Local", Swedish online news in English, yesterday about sick leave. Rather than describe the article I'll just directly quote the beginning of it here:

"Sweden is notorious for its high rate of sick leave, but figures released on Friday show the problem easing.

Swedes aged between 16 and 64 claimed they could not work due to ill health for an average of 39.9 days in 2006, according to figures from the Swedish Social Insurance Administration (Försäkringskassan), which controls state payments to the sick."

40 sick days/year! That's 8 weeks! (Keep in mind that I believe that everyone in Sweden starts off with 6 weeks of vacation per year.) And, the problem is easing?!?! According to the article, last year, the average was 41.3 days/year.

So, this can't be right! At this rate, if I were an average person, I would have taken -40 divided by 12 times 2- SEVEN sick days already since I've been here about two months! Clearly, I'm missing something - or just unusually healthy by Swedish standards. The only catch I could find was that the stats include Swedes who are on health-related early retirement. Ok, so that'll offset the number some but isn't that still really high?

Friskis & Svettis

I joined the gym on campus today. It's actually a regular gym, called Friskis & Svettis (frisk = healthy or well, svett = sweat; I don't know what the "is" makes them, though; regardless, we make fun of it), that has space at the KI. It would kind of be like having an LA Fitness or Gold's Gym on a college campus. The memberships for KI students and staff are discounted (big time), but other people can join too.

After joining, I went to a step aerobics class with most of the girls from my lab. I was regularly going to step classes in Atlanta so I knew the "steps". It was a good thing because the classes are called out in Swedish! Unless the Swedish name was the same as the English (ie. "step touch"), I had no idea what the step was until everyone started doing it so I was always a bit behind. I don't think I picked up any new words (I was too busy trying to catch up!) but it was good reinforcement of höger and vänster (right and left). I'm told that the cardio boxing classes are easier to follow since they use the same terms (hook, jab, roundhouse, etc).

Tacky Christmas

Before Christmas, I was talking to one of the guys I share an office with about Christmas decorations. He said that he thought the way Americans decorate their houses for Christmas is tacky. (He's Danish.) The Swedes (and I guess most Scandinavians) definitely decorate their houses much more conservatively (candles, stars, and the occasional string of white lights).

Friday, I went out to a bar called Pepper with some of my labmates. The pictures below don't even do the place justice! It seriously looked like Santa threw up Christmas inside the bar. We were all hysterically laughing right when we walked in the door. Unfortunately, Jesper wasn't with us but Ann-Charlotte took some pictures for me to show him. In the second picture (which I had no idea I was in), the red lights on the left are little santas climbing up a ladder.

The Departed

I just got back from seeing The Departed. I really enjoyed the movie. It was one that I wanted to see in Atlanta. But it opened a week or two before I moved so I didn't have the time. I found out today that The Departed just opened in Sweden this past Friday. I figured it had been in theaters for a while.

This was my first movie theather experience in Sweden. There were many things that were different.
- Just about everyone buys tickets ahead of time online. (Then, you swipe the credit card used to buy the tickets at a machine in the theater and you get your tickets from the machine.)
- It's assigned seating. You choose your seats when you buy your tickets online.
- The movie theater actually looks like a theater (stage, curtain, balcony seating, etc), which I'm told is typical. They pull the curtain back when the commercials and previews start (no trivia questions or local ads on screen before that).
- The tickets cost different prices depending on the movie you go to see. This is standardized throughout Stockholm (at least) so it doesn't vary from theater to theater. I have no idea how this is decided. However, I think The Departed was the most expensive one running at 100SEK (~$15).
- There also Swedish subtitles, of course. Those were kind of distracting at first because I felt like I should be reading them.

Changing topics almost completely....I'm disappointed that I'll be missing the 24 premiere tomorrow and Monday. Not only will I miss the premiere, but the 24 parties that we had in Atlanta almost every Monday night during the season. However, I suppose my fellow 24 watchers are all scattered now. I read an article (well, it was in Swedish, so I should say I picked up a few key words from an article) about 24 in a paper here. Apparently, one of the three channels I get on my tv will be showing 24 (yay!). I don't know when it starts, though. Hopefully, it'll be like Lost and I'll only be 3-4 weeks behind.

Fika

Swedes are very serious about coffee. Scandinavians are number one in world coffee consumption per capita, averaging 4-6 cups per day. There’s even a Swedish word for having coffee and conversation with friends – fika.

Our group (4 spinal cord research labs) has fika twice a day, at 9:30 and 2:30. There’s a table on our floor that is in the corner of the corridor with floor to ceiling windows on two walls. The timing and location is perfect to see sun, even though it’s really close to sunrise and sunset this time of year.

Everyone in the group is assigned a week to make coffee. On Thursday mornings, the person responsible for coffee that week also has to bring in cake (usually 2 or 3 so there’s enough for everyone). Frequently, one of the cakes is a “princess cake”, which is white cake with cream and raspberry that is coated with a hard, light green, sugary icing. That’s it in the picture. (If you’re really curious, you can get it from the Ikea food section in the US.) Occasionally, the coffee person for the week forgets to bring the cake on Thursday morning (this happened today) and some people get really upset, even when cake is promised for the afternoon. (It’s actually pretty funny to watch the reactions when people find out that there’s no cake.) On your birthday, you have to bring in cake for the morning fika. With somewhere around 50-60 people in our group, there’s an average of about a birthday a week.

Tuesday afternoons our entire department has fika (coffee and cookies) in the lunchroom at 2pm and the chairman makes announcements, if there are any.

I’d say that at least 2/3 of our group (including the professors) attends most coffee breaks – and 99% of the group if there’s cake. They last anywhere from a grab and go (talking to people on line) to 30 minutes-ish.

I really like the concept. You get to take a break from what you’re doing to socialize with other people doing similar research on your floor – whether it be about science or current events or weekend plans or whatever. Additionally, I think it helps build a sense of community. Even though I’ve only been here 2 months, I know most (if not all) of the people in the group.

Back in Stockholm

I got back to Stockholm on Saturday. Amazingly, I made all of my flights (although, I had 2 close calls in Heathrow) - and so did my luggage!

I won't start with the airport complaints because I'm sure I could go on for pages! However, I will advise anyone who comes to visit me to leave more than 2 hours in between flights if connecting in Heathrow. Also, security rules in the US, EU, and UK are all different so make sure you know the strictest ones (currently, that would be the UK) before heading to the airport.

I had a good New York trip. It was good to see my family and some of my friends. Christgiving (or Thanksmas) was nice and relaxing. My family had Christmas (presents and brunch) followed by Thanksgiving (football and turkey dinner) on the 25th. I missed Thanksgiving so we made up for it. I went into NYC a couple of times with my family - saw the tree, looked at the store windows, went to Chelsea Piers, and saw Mama Mia. I saw the Good Shepard (which I thought was really good but a little too long). I went to the holiday light show at Jones Beach. I went to the Jets game on New Years Eve. And, I know I'm leaving out a bunch of other things.

Anyway, jetlag hit me hard on the back end of this trip so I haven't done much of anything in the past few days. Blogger was down earlier today when I was ready to post. But, I'll be back to posting more regularly later this week when I fall back into routine.