ulrica rhymes with fika.

2009-01-03T01:28:00.003+01:00

Yet another night out has come to an end - but there will be more tomorrow! Me and Björn met up with Viv from Italy who is in town for a few days. We went to Anchor together with Corvus (in picture) and three of Björn's friends.

2009-01-02T17:59:00.002+01:00

Today I've visited the exhibition Mary - The Dream of Woman at Historiska museet, as I was in the neighborhood anyway. It's about virgin Mary and how the image of her has influenced the ideal of women throughout hundreds of years.

Is a woman supposed to choose between being a madonna or a whore? Men have been taking on both - or none - of these roles in all times, without even considering it to be a choice.

Since the museum closed already at five, I will go back some other day. It's quite relaxing to walk around in a big, almost empty museum and just look at things.

2009-01-01T18:45:00.002+01:00

You'd think a double espresso and that chokladbiskvi for breakfast would make me less sleepy. Still I went back to bed and I'm not sure if I've woken up yet. Today I've only been grocery shopping enough to make salmon pasta for dinner.

New Year's in Stockholm was busy and crowded as usual - with pretty fireworks! It wasn't as cold as expected. Still many people wanted to go inside the nearest bar - or even rather, McDonald's - for warmth.

We ended up in a pub along Götgatan but I only stayed for an hour. Me and Vanessa took a walk to her hostel in Zinkensdamm, where I had a nice burger before catching the night bus home at 3 am.

2008-12-31T19:15:00.005+01:00

I've been out and about since 9 am and now I'm frozen to the bone. The coffee at the restaurant barely helped and now I'm so happy to be home with a big cup of tea.

Our first stop this morning was Sigtuna - the old capital of Sweden, from a thousand years ago - and of course, Tant Brun. It's a café situated in a small wooden building from the 1600's. The roof is very low so you have to watch your head!

Here you can see the view over parts of Sigtuna and the lake Mälaren. This point was actually meant for people, in historical days, to watch out for unwelcome ships.

Me and Vanessa then went to Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, which we barely got through in two hours. It all looks the same as when I was there five and fifteen years ago, except for the exhibition about gay animals and the one about climate changes.

The former one got me thinking about how researchers tend to be influenced by society in their own time and culture. It used to be said that "homosexuality must be abnormal since humans are the only ones doing it" - while this exhibition wanted to show that homosexuality is quite common also among animals.

Now I'm off to a hot shower and to prepare myself mentally for tonight - I WILL wear a skirt despite it being -5 degrees and windy in Stockholm.

2008-12-30T22:54:00.003+01:00

My friends Ruth, Willie and Vanessa came by today, together with Ruth's sister Eva and her friend Anja (did I get the names right?) for a house-warming fika. There was indeed a lot of cookies - they brought both lussekatter, wienerbröd, chokladbiskvier, some German cookies and also carrot cake. They left some for me and now there is only this left:

It's a sweet almond cake in the bottom, filled with chocolate cream and then covered with more chocolate. I love them very much but even I can't have more than one in the same evening!

We have been planning tomorrow night, talking about the weather appearing to be much colder in Stockholm and discussing the women who are still brave enough to wear only stockings in -5 degrees.

And I've realized now that not everyone in the world have experienced their toes going numb from cold.

2008-12-28T08:03:00.003+01:00

My new place - so far. Now I'm off to Ikea.

2008-12-23T20:37:00.002+01:00

You'd think shopping right before Christmas would be stressful. After 7 pm tonight I had the entire mall practically to myself - and the sales have already started!

So I got myself these as an early Christmas gift - less than 5 euro. Sorry, they were the last pair.

2008-12-23T00:50:00.002+01:00

Just for the cuteness - this is my great-uncle Lennart at the age of 4, picture taken in the late 1920's.

He is still alive and if I'm lucky, I might be able to visit him this weekend!

2008-12-22T00:12:00.006+01:00

I'm still alive... I've kind of missed writing in my blog so here I am again!

The beginning of this semester was quite stressful for me, so I fell out of the habit of posting. Now I'm just about to move to Stockholm, for my internship at the local newspaper Mitt i Stockholm - while also doing schoolwork and travelling for Christmas - so it's not much less going on now. I'd hate to live a boring life, though.

Today I've just been lazy and catching up on sleep, as I might need that for the coming weeks. Although I did do some genealogic research while in bed - enough to find out I have yet another German ancestor. I suppose it really is time for me to learn German - or at least visit Germany for a holiday!

This weekend I visited my aunt in Ö-vik. Then I also photographed some of her old pictures she got from my grandmother. I might even have found one of my great grandfather's brother, who died as a child. No names are written on the back and I can only get clues from other pictures of his parents, taken 30 years later. What do you think?

This would be taken around 1910 if it's them. The older boy would be my great grandfather - or some complete stranger. These people don't look similar to anyone else in the family.

Frans and Helga Andersson - my great great grandparents, photographed by my grandfather in 1940, funny enough in a village named Ulrika.

Here's also some Swedish snow - or rather "rimfrost" - for any of you who might miss it.

2008-09-04T23:25:00.005+02:00

University life is already at full speed. At least we're doing something I really enjoy - investigative journalism. Currently, me and Anna are digging out all sorts of fact about a man with power. Me, Moa and Helen are trying to shed some light on a matter which I have personal experience with. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it all.

I've finished this knitted top tonight. It was meant for summer but I'll wear it when the sun comes out - and next year.

2008-08-29T23:19:00.015+02:00

My aunt Noomi gave me her childhood photo album, for me to scan so that she would have a digital copy of it. I wasn't able to install my old scanner after all, but I've copied a few by taking a photo of them... that explains the poor quality.

My grandfather, Sune Hällbro - he died in 1986 at the age of 65, only a few weeks after his retirement. I was four years old then and one of my first memories is from going to his funeral. He had more than one job in his life but one of them was to be some kind of technical support guy at a high school. He was active in church and has written songs for singing praise and such.

My great-grandmother, Elin Berglund who lived between 1890 and 1964. The photo was taken by a Mauritz Edlund in Stockholm, who moved to another studio in 1914 so I'm sure the photo is older than that, at least. He later became a photographer for the royal family.

Elin married Gustav Karlsson who worked for the railways - they lived in Stockholm for a few years in the 1910's but moved later on to Törnevalla outside of Linköping. That's where my grandmother and her five siblings grew up.

My great-grandmother Elin serving coffee to my grandmother, Gullan. My aunt Noomi is in her lap, on the left is my grandfather's grandmother, Helga Andersson and to the right is my grandmother's father, Gustav.

Helga was originally from Eksjö in Småland but she married Frans Andersson who is from Östergötland and they lived in Linköping from what I can recall of my grandmother's stories. Both Helga and Gustav died in the late 1940's and Noomi was born in 1945, so the photo must have been taken around that time.

On the topic of fika - this carrot cake turned out really well.

2008-08-29T01:24:00.003+02:00

Cina opened her yarn store today - congratulations! It looks really good & I'm sure I will pass lots of time in there trying to avoid spending too much on yarn.

I've started on a pair of mittens - they're knit in thick, wool yarn and the needles are 8 and 9 mm's in bamboo. I love the sound they make when they click together, it's very relaxing.

Anna, Sus, Ida and Jess came by for a fika at my place in the afternoon. We all concluded that the best thing with being back in Sundsvall is each other's company.

2008-08-27T22:33:00.002+02:00

I've been cooking today! Here's the recipes - in Swedish - one is with salmon and pasta and one is with chicken and rice. If you can't see the whole recipe it's probably just that you need to be a member, which luckily doesn't cost anything.

This afternoon I've had a fika with Sus and Ida at Wayne's - they've re-decorated and I like it much better now. Then we had some kind of introduction at Kåren before the welcoming of the new students - which I couldn't wait to leave in order to stop by at the knitting café. During my half hour there I had a nice chat, knit a few rows and had an amazing cappucino.

Now I'm off to make an apple cake!

2008-08-26T22:57:00.009+02:00

Everything is starting all over again. My friends are returning to Sundsvall & today I met Sus in the staircase of our building. On Thursday I have a date with Anna & we have a lot of catching up to do - despite our hour-long conversation on the phone this afternoon.

Late summer & early autumn is my favorite time of the year. It gives me a sense of freshness and the feeling that I have the chance to do it all right this time.

It also gives me inspiration to re-decorate my apartment, get a new hairstyle and buy new clothes - or, as of lately, buy the yarn to knit new clothes - all at once. Maybe getting nicer (as in, too expensive) food will get me started on cooking again?

At the grocery store, someone had taken a bite from probably half of the plums in the box and then put them back with the bite mark facing down, so that noone would notice. That's an idea on how to get free food.

I've started on a new sweater. Most of my knitting readers have already seen it, but I can at least proudly announce that I got past the hard part and as of tonight I've done 17 cms on the second sleeve.

2008-08-22T00:21:00.002+02:00

I had lots of fun & lots of work during my last weeks in Gävle. There's one million things to tell and I'll write down some of them eventually.

For now - some of my articles are here and here for a while more. And here's me & Hedda at Wasteland (O'Learys hard rock club):

As some may have figured I'm back in Sundsvall. Anyone else here?

2008-08-21T21:59:00.002+02:00

I've been challenged... by my knitting friend Mrs Petersson. I'll pass the challenge along to my fellow journalist students Sara, Sus, Ida and Mika. (Yes, you have to pass along to four people & then let me know when you've posted your answers!)

* What five items are on your to-do-list today?
1. Respond to emails I've been lazy enough to ignore for the past days. (OK, weeks for some... sorry about that!)
2. Drink coffee in order to stay awake to do so.
3. Make my bed.
4. Clean my bathroom.
5. Make a to-do-list for what I need to do before uni starts again... only one and a half week left of vacation!

* What did you do ten years ago?
I was at this big youth camp in Karlskrona, arranged by the church. The days were filled with activities but I can't recall that much of them... except for making friends with Lovisa and Josefin & making out with this cute guy from Israel. I haven't heard from him since & I still don't know if he really did have a girlfriend back home or if he just told me so since he was 23 and found out I was younger than him. Though it was pretty romantic with the whole watching fireworks by the sea thing at the end of the camp.

* In what places have you lived?
Märsta, Visby, Umeå and Sundsvall for longer periods and now Gävle for this summer.

*Five things you would do as a billionaire!
(OK, I'll skip "give food to starving children" and such as that's so obvious...)
1. Travel! Anywhere, anyhow... and bring a much better camera.
2. Buy a good car - I don't care about brand names but it has to be fast, red and with black leather seats. I'd also get a good stereo and a driver's license to go with it.
3. While travelling I would buy a lot of clothes & shoes so naturally I'd have to get a big apartment in Stockholm with a walk-in closet to store them all.
4. Pay back my study loans.
5. Carry on the life I lead now, just with more expensive coffee, going out more often & never even consider making a lunch box.

2008-07-15T22:17:00.001+02:00

"En av din kompis har en krossa på du."

Best translation ever.

2008-07-13T15:13:00.005+02:00

Tom sent me pics from midsummer, where I'm picking flowers...

...and proudly presenting my very first "midsommarkrans".

2008-07-13T14:05:00.011+02:00

I had a good time at Björn's barbecue last night. The sun even came out right at the time we started. I've found a fellow genealogic researcher - Jonas (in the red t-shirt) shares my hobby.

I also celebrated my cardigan being finished! (Although I need to do some adjustments as I crocheted too many stitches around the right front piece - that's why it's slightly longer - but that won't take long.)

After dinner we went to Godislandet for ice-cream - I had one After Eight and one cappuccino flavored - yum!

While watching the movie "Kiss kiss bang bang" at Anna's place, I was knitting on my new project - a white, cotton top. I'm thinking it will be great for summer days that are slightly chilly.

Trisse says hello to everyone - although right now he's out enjoying the summer weather, which I'll do in a few minutes, too.

2008-07-12T00:38:00.004+02:00

My cardigan is almost done, yay! I only need to tie in the loose ends & sew in buttons.

I'm quite happy for my first attempt at a full size cardigan. Some mistakes of course but that was to be expected when still learning. (The big white stain is only in the picture.)

2008-07-08T23:08:00.003+02:00

This day led me to a historical building outside of Valbo. Yesterday I did an interview with a guy in Sandviken. In order to check for misunderstandings, today I read the article to him over the phone while he was just about to go off the ferry to Visby. This afternoon I curled up in the sofa to read a children's book about the Gävle fire in 1869. (I won't tell more about the articles I'm writing before they've been published. Just in case anyone was wondering.)

My big excitement right now is that I'm soon finished with my sweater - likely this week, if the cat will let me. Although tonight I decided to go for a bikeride since we had sunshine and reasonably warm temperatures. Right now I'm looking for a new pattern to start working on. I find a million different sock patterns which I can't start since I want a project that's portable & doesn't make sounds. I also find about a thousand sweater patterns for 8 mm needles - lovely but way too big to bring along. Where's the neverending 2.5 mm projects when you need them?

Other good news for further in the future is that Björn invited me for a barbecue on Saturday night. Next weekend my friend Hedvig from Östersund will visit me - yay!

For the first time in years, tonight I've played the piano. Mostly children's songs like "När lillan kom till jorden" and "Sov du lilla videung" and with only one hand - since I never actually learned to play before. My main source of experience is my grandmother's piano which she patiently let me practice on when I was around 15 years old. Since there's a piano in the house I might just get back to teaching myself - luckily, my only audience for tonight was a cockroach (? it's icky and big anyway) in the window.

This is what I spotted on my way from work:

2008-07-06T19:22:00.003+02:00

Sara, Susanna, Saartje, Sebastian (yeah, lots of names starting with S) and Christian and me went for a fika at Coffee House today. After eating & drinking I was teaching Saartje how to knit & I must say she learned quickly.

Then we had the usual discussion about Swedish drinking habits and alcohol laws. The two guys from Germany, Christian and Sebastian were surprised that it's illegal here to drink in the street. Christian said that it explained the weird looks he got when drinking a beer openly. Sebastian concluded that the two discussion topics he always comes back to here in Sweden is alcohol and dubbed movies.

Now I'm off to Gävle for at least one more week, probably five. I'm not sure if I'm coming back to Sundsvall before I've finished working - I have all I need there now.

2008-07-05T11:05:00.007+02:00

I'm back in Sundsvall for the weekend. I came here around 9 pm and went almost directly to bed after having dinner. On my way here I had to make a stop in Hudiksvall, for switching from the train to the bus - I wish I could've stayed there a while longer.

This second week at work has been a mix of writing portraits, making long interviews and planning ahead to see what I should fill the family pages with. On Monday I went to Tierp and I did get to take one picture that was actually published, yay!

I'm happy that people are OK with what I write about them. It's indeed a tricky task, to get a full picture of another person's life and personality in a one hour interview. Then again I'm not doing a psychological examination, of course - rather I let people tell me what they find to be important. One thing I've noticed is that so many people don't seem to think they have a story to tell.

Summer has been here for a short visit this week. We've had picnic lunches twice and some warm evenings. This little sunshine has also been visiting us for a few days, along with his mother Mia - Abbe is one year old and Sivan's grandson.

Here are some pictures of Gavleån.

Now it's cold and grey again so I'll have the time to stay indoors and clean... :S I think I need more coffee first.

2008-06-25T23:25:00.004+02:00

Work was quite busy today as I did one interview and wrote two portraits. I'm having a very good time though and I'm feeling more confident now than on my first day. Tomorrow will be my last introduction day - on Friday they've asked me to work as a news reporter. Monday I'll be on my own - with a bit of help still available of course - and probably on my way to Tierp with a camera. I'm definitely up for taking pictures if needed.

My cardigan is going well and I'm 1/3 done already with the right front piece. I've realized that knitting where others can see you is quite an icebreaker. From my previous experience I've also learned that crocheting on the subway will always, with some exceptions, lead to that strangers will start a conversation with you - yes, even in Sweden.

Today I got my first comments on this blog, yay!

2008-06-24T23:17:00.002+02:00

At work today I did an interview with someone who lives in Älvkarleby. It seems to be a very nice little town with beaches, beautiful nature and a fish restaurant. So I'm considering to take a bikeride there some weekend, when I have enough time to be out in the sun all day.

I really need to catch up on sleep, it seems...

2008-06-23T23:10:00.008+02:00

I've arrived safely in Gävle where I now work for the local newspaper Arbetarbladet. I will be editing the family pages for the next seven weeks. The first day went well, despite being a bit nervous to begin with - now I feel fine although I'm quite tired. I do need to make a checklist of all the little things I will have to remember each day - there are a lot of smaller tasks in this job that are still important to keep track of.

For this time I am staying with a co-worker, Sivan, and her husband Hasse. They will be on vacation for some of the weeks I'm working - therefore they need someone to take care of this sweet little creature named Trisse.

In the evening I went for a bikeride and ended up taking some photos by Tolvfors bruk. Some of my ancestors were smiths back in the 1600's, even if not at this particular place. Still I'm fascinated by the environment in which these people spent most of their lives.

Yesterday I had a goodbye fika together with Nadine, since we're both not going to be in Sundsvall for quite some time. It was nice to see everyone for what was hopefully not the last time. These months have passed by so fast and I hope that also goes for the time until we meet again.

2008-06-22T13:04:00.005+02:00

Holland didn't manage to get revenge on Russia for us last night. The dessert was good, though. It was some kind of pudding with blueberries - yum!

2008-06-21T17:50:00.024+02:00

Midsommarafton was spent at Norra Berget in daytime. We've watched the Maypole rise, danced around it and picked flowers for binding a ring - as in a typical, Swedish midsummer. I wanted to show these traditions to the exchange students who stayed in Sundsvall for the holidays.

Since I've never made a ring of flowers for my hair before - other than a few improvisations as a child - me and Whitney went to get some help from Medelpads Hemslöjd, who offered to teach visitors to bind rings. At times there were even 30 people sitting around the tables, filled with different kinds of flowers, birch and binding thread. I'm satisfied with the result of my first attempt and I know how to make an even nicer one for next year.

While searching for flowers, I managed to catch a butterfly.

Dinner started at 6 pm, with the traditional sill & potatis (pickled herring and potatoes) - or meatballs, for those who don't like fish. Unsurprisingly, the typical Matjessill is often too much of an acquired taste at the first bite. Knäckebröd seems appreciated, though.

The strawberry cream cakes for dessert was gone rather instantly - even though I had made three of them. I noticed that some people were taking pictures of the cakes, though, so they will live on for a while longer.

About 30 people came to the party, most of them are exchange students but there was also some Swedish people. I definitely enjoyed sitting in the garden for hours, just talking to people and have a snack every now and then.

During all evening there was at least someone playing kubb - some people seemed to be in every game. The daylight faded around midnight but it was never dark. People stayed until around 2 am and I'm very happy that so many people came. I hope everyone enjoyed what was for many of them, their first Midsummer party.

2008-06-20T01:28:00.007+02:00

I've been walking barefoot in the sun today. Actually I've walked quite far - with shoes on - as me and Tom went to City Gross to buy groceries for the midsummer party. 28 people are coming to eat, some are also joining in later - the more the merrier, I'll say.

The evening was spent in the kitchen of Tornvillan with Tom and Andres. I made three strawberry cakes and we all helped out with peeling 7 kilos of färskpotatis (the tiny ones that appear in June).

Another part of preparing for tomorrow was to introduce Tom to the Gotlandic game of kubb. A while after midnight when the sun was rising again, we played a national championship where Holland had a bit of beginner's luck.

2008-06-18T20:45:00.007+02:00

The Italian coffee place Delicerano got two visits from me today. In the afternoon I met up with Andres, who is helping me plan the Midsummer party for the exchange students who are still in town.

Later on I joined the girls of Mittmaskan for an evening of knitting. I've happily realized there is so much more left for me to learn about knitting than I had imagined. One of the girls even told me about a course that will take place in autumn (?), where you get to color yarn with the help of mushrooms. Somehow I think you can never know everything about handicraft. What I do know now, is that it's indeed much nicer to knit in the company of other knitters.

Now I'm going to watch the Sweden-Russia soccer game and keep knitting on my sleeve. Since I'm already on my 7th skein of yarn I'm beginning to believe my 3oo sek budget will break. On the other hand, if you knit a cardigan yourself, you will still keep the yarn even if you don't like the knit item any longer. (Sorry about the blurry image, but that's what you get when going to a coffee place twice in a row.)

2008-06-18T11:27:00.016+02:00

We met up for another goodbye at Biteline last night. Most of us had the tacobuffé while I tried a Cobbsallad, which was actually quite good. I did steal some guacamole from Tom which was delicious so I'm going for that the next time.

The rest of the evening was spent in Nacksta, watching the soccer games. We actually had two TV:s standing next to each other, one with France-Italy and one with Holland-Romania.

Since France lost I felt a bit sorry for JB, so I let him be the first to try the Swedish nyponsoppa. I brought it with me from ICA since it's the last chance for some of the exchange students to try it. Most people liked their sample of what is now also referred to as "nipple soup".

I'm also preparing for midsummer and therefore I bought some pickled herring that was cheap at ICA. We tried making Stefan eat it, since it's his last night in Sweden, but it didn't work. Even if he likes tomatoes... It will be interesting to see how much of it is actually eaten on Friday.

2008-06-17T01:58:00.001+02:00

There's a certain feeling to walking by a graveyard at the break of dawn, when the birds are singing loudly.

Tonight was filled with saying goodbye, mixed with "see you at the reunion" and "see you in Amsterdam". Danique had her last fika with 10+ people at Tant Anci och Fröken Sara where we stayed for two and a half hour. Pictures can be found at Kitty's.

The rest of the evening was spent at Tornvillan, where I packed up some things that would otherwise have been thrown away by people who are leaving.

I've also bought my last unhealthy snack - a TipTop icecream cone, which btw costs 8 crowns more now than when it was my favorite - before saving up for my driver's license. There, I said it and now I will have to follow through. Coffee doesn't count.