And Even More

Preem is a gas station chain in Sweden. All the stations display this innocuous and sweet yellow bear. When I was in a bad state of mind, Peter would remind me to think of "Peach Birds, Yellow Bears, and Daisy Dogs". The peach birds part came about via an experience in the Ugglarp cabin. One night as we were falling asleep there was a flapping noise around the ceiling. I asked Peter what it was and he nonchalantly said "Oh, probably just a bat" Not being of hearty Swedish extraction, my response was something like "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" I decided the only way I could deal with it was to pretend it was something else. I put both Peter and I to sleep with my story of a fat, peach-colored, adorable Disney-esque bird who spread joy and good cheer across the land.

Women in Sweden ride their bikes at 90 miles an hour on icy streets even when they are 9 months pregnant. Am I exaggerating? Only slightly.
When I was posting my blog from Sweden, I was going to do a whole post on "Fart Signs of Scandinavia". There are a whole bunch of Swedish and Danish words that end in 'fart'. In this case the Preem bear is directing us to an exit.

This is the logo for the government of Halmstad. Since Peter works for them, he has a jacket with this logo on it. I have a tote bag I brought home with this logo on it too.

More Photos

This was my farewell lunch at the Copenhagen airport. Pretty traditional Scandinavian fare. It was really good, although I only ate the middle one and the one on the right. I gave my shrimp and egg one to Peter (not because I'm nice, but because I hate shrimp and hard boiled eggs).

Other than perhaps Manhattan, the walk-up news stand seems like something you see almost everywhere except the US.
This is a very candid picture (my favorite kind). As I started to take this picture Erik, Peter's 17 year old son, was telling me it was going to suck. I don't think I have any other pictures of him in this blog, so I wanted to include one. He's a really nice kid, smart and good looking.

Yes, I know my last (melodramatic and whiney) post proclaimed it would be my last. However, a friend of Norweigan extraction revisited this blog recently and told me how much he enjoyed the photos- and that he wished there were more. So...since I miss Sweden and since I was born to blog, I thought I'd throw on a few more.

The Final Post

It's been a year and a half since my time in Sweden. It didn't work out with Peter and me. But yes, I'm glad I had the experience. Ten weeks in a foreign country is enriching in a way that supercedes any other form of learning.

It's tempting to say something melodramatic like "It turns out that Peter had a heart as cold as a Swedish winter." but that's not true. He's basically a nice man who is trying to figure out what he wants. I suspect he will live in the same house the rest of his life. He's happy sharing his neighborhood with moose and boar. I wouldn't be. I'm a city girl who thinks such critters belong in zoos (come to think of it, why does one never see a moose in a zoo?)

All I can do is wish Peter well, and hope he wishes good things for me. My plan is to fall madly in love and get married to someone right here in my own country. Hopefully that man will love to travel, and one day we'll visit Sweden and Norway. I need to see the northern lights and I think somewhere in Scandinavia- maybe near the arctic circle- would be an awesome place for that.

Food Movies

It all started, by accident, with the Pizza Movie. In an earlier blog entry, you saw a photo of my lovely 'Bahamas' pizza. Since I'd only had the camera a few weeks at that point, I didn't understand what was happening when I kept pressing on the shutter release and nothing was happening. It turned out the camera was on movie mode, so what resulted was a 15 second movie of a pizza, accompanied by the following dialogue: "PeteRRRRRR, ever since you told me to turn off the flash, the camera doesn't worrrk...."

Peter thought the Pizza Movie was the greatest triumph of my photography career. That led to the equally brilliant Smorgasbord Movie, which I emailed to some of you.
There's also the stunning "Apple Fritter Thingies Movie".

To request any of these movies- amazingly free of charge- send an email to wsue503@yahoo.com.

Peter and his daughter Veronica

Some of you have asked about the names and ages of Peter's children, so I will clarify: Twin daughters Veronica and Helena are 23. Daughter Marika is 20, and son Erik is 16. They are all attractive, talented, and nice kids.
Veronica came in the day before I left. She lives a few hours east of Laholm, closer to Stockholm. She's very sweet; I'm happy I had the chance to meet her.

New Windmills

Fields of windmills like these are a common sight in southern Sweden.

Halmstad Architecture/Back in the US

BTW, I am back in the USA now. I came back on the 21st. My time in Sweden was an amazing experience. I'm not doing a separate post about returning home because I have managed to go 48 hours with only crying once and I don't want to start again. Peter and I have gone back to taking by Instant Messenger several times a day. We try to be online when the other is going to sleep or waking up. It is a wholly inadequate substitute for being together, but it is going to have to do for now.

I am going to continue this blog indefinetly. I still have a lot more photos to post, and I'll be posting photos Peter sends me. I'll also of course be adding posts of Peter and I together which I hope will be sooner rather than later.
Anyway, here are some cool buildings in Halmstad.

This first one may not be an example of Halmstad's finer architecture, but I liked it and the many other ice cream colored buildings I saw in Sweden.



This lighting fixture, or a similar variation, is found in the window of almost every Swedish home and office this time of year.

Evening in Copenhagen

Isn't this sort of surreal, like "Fast Food Galaxy"?


I like these holiday decorations. I also think the heart theme in the first photo is cool. We spent about two hours walking around downtown Copenhagen in the evening. I always knew I would love this city. I can't wait to visit it again.