Party!

Last night DH took me to a party for his new work.  It was really cool to spend an evening with him - he is the love of my life after all!  and he's been working so hard since we got here that I feel like one day I will get home and he will be there and I will call the police because I won't recognise the intruder! It was a really important event with loads of super VIPs he had to network with (I can't go into too much detail about what he does, that's one of the reasons this blog has to be so anonymous except for my friends who already know who I am!). 

It actually felt weird to be going over to the Central part of Stockholm for once, since we got here my world has pretty much been the island of Södermalm, kind of like I'm starring in my own little version of lost!  But it definitely felt good to get dressed up and I even got a tiny bit buzzed!  It was a really beautiful venue that overlooked this museum that looks like a fairy-castle, and also the sea.  DH was super busy, doing all his schmoozing, so I got to explore on my own a little - I would hate to be the kind of wife that hung around the edge of her husband's conversations like some lost little dog or something!  Luckily I've always been super social and confident with strangers, so I let the poor guy get his work done and I "worked the room" as they say!

I met this really sweet lady who is also wife to one of the partners, and we totally bonded - maybe I've met my first Swedish friend!  The only downside is that she looks seriously Swedish so probably I will have to kill her.  I basically looked like a 3 foot tall troll next to her, and even though I got highlights done the same afternoon, it's not the same as someone who was actually born with Barbie colored hair!  So maybe not, but she was fun to hang out with anyway.

The only min-weird thing was that it turns out that Eric trains her too!  I guess that's how DH heard of him to book him for me, and obviously I'm not jealous or anything stupid like that - the poor guy has to make a living, right!  It just felt kind of weird to hear her talk about the stuff they talk about, which is kind of the same stuff we talk about, and I don't know, I'm being really stupid of course, but I'd kind of thought a little bit that he enjoys hanging out with me, you know?  I know I'm just a job to him, I get that of course, it was just more maybe I thought that because we laugh so much he was enjoying himself too.  And I know he is, I'm not saying it was all totally ruined or anything, I was just a tiny bit bummed that it sounds like he laughs with her too.

Okay it's official, I need a life!!!

Arrgghhhh!!!

Oh my God I just thought of something!  Could you imagine if one day I was out jogging with my Eric and some paparazi or something thought it was Alexander/Eric and there were headlines like "Alexander Skarsgard goes jogging with  Mystery Woman"!!!  Ha ha ha !  I would FREAK OUT!!!

Awesome!

Okay this looks fun. 

They do do some cool things here!!

This Week

Oh.  My.  Heavens. I literally can barely move my fingers to type this - my fingers hurt from working out! How is that possible?!  Eric is a psychopath!  That's how! He's been putting me through my paces all this week and now I think I'm going to die.  I mean, I was always pretty in shape, taking good care of myself has always been a really big part of my life, but I think this guy is training me to swim home across the Atlantic or something.  But no pain, no gain, right?  So going by the amount of PAIN I am going to have the most smoking body EVER pretty soon.  Even my fingers I guess!

And he's been telling me about all the places to go and hang out around Södermalm which is making me think it's a more fun area than I thought (I just think I felt so let down by that stupid movie tour that I thought I'd been completely wrong about it being a cool place, you know?) Not that an old married lady like me should be going out and doing fun things like he does.  But he was really encouraging me to come out sometime, so I guess I don't want to let the guy down!  Actually if I'm honest, he was a teensy bit coming on to me - I think at least.  It's so hard to tell with Swedish people, they're not flirty exactly, but they look at you in this really direct way that seems like they are lazering "I want to have sex with you" in a tattoo on your brain even if you're just talking about coffee or drains or something.  So I don't know, I mean, it's not likely, an old married lady like me being hit on my a guy who looks like that (did I mention the Eric from True Blood thing???) but I don't know, maybe he was just being friendly.

Speaking of Eric from True Blood, no more celebrity sightings this week I don't think.  Well, I saw a young guy who looked kind of Skarsgårdy at one point, but basically all Swedish guys look kind of Skarsgårdy, so I really can't be sure.  And to all the people who emailed me asking about a photo of Stellan, well I'm hardly going to whip out my cell in the grocery store and invade the privacy of my own neighbour, am I? Seriously!  But if I see him again I will try to subtly, even if only to prove to weird haters on the internet I really saw him!!

Ha ha - my personal trainer's show!!

I've just been laughing my ass off watching this -- too funny!!!

Dream Come True

So today, my doorbell rang and when I answered it who was standing there but ALEXANDER SKARSGARD!!  Okay not exactly, but close!  And it could have been - his Dad obviously lives in my neighbourhood and he could have been visiting and maybe one of his buddies used to live in our apartment before we moved in and he didn't know they moved... well it could have, right????

The guy on my doorstep was about 8 feet tall, muscles bursting out everywhere, blond, piercing blue eyes... he smiled at me and I pretty much fainted dead away, right there in my hallway.  But luckily I didn't quite, because actually he is my PERSONAL TRAINER!  Yes gang, I have to get up close and sweaty with this guy who would actually make the real guy feel kind of crappy next to - he is that hot!! (oh my god I hope he never reads this -- stay anonymous on the internet folks!!!!!!!)  And GUESS what his name is..... ERIC!!  Except he pronounces it like "Aye-rick" and I think spells it with a K.  Damn I get sick of how every single word is pronounced differently here - even words that are exactly the same as they are in English!

Yes gang, I have a personal trainer and he is a god!  I was saying to DH the other night that I was bored and feeling kind of crappy, and he was like - so get off your ass and do something about it, and he was so right!  And he booked the trainer and paid for it and everything - how amazing is my husband, right?!  How many guys would deliver their wives their very own Eric from True Blood and ORDER her to get sweaty with him THREE TIMES A WEEK... Yep, OhioGirl is pretty happy right now!!

Yeah, pretty much says it all

The truth!

About Swedish people!  Everyone thinks they are so cool and always drinking and being naked and stuff, but I am here to tell you different!

This morning, there was a LINE outside the library BEFORE IT OPENED!  I'm sorry to be the one to tell you people, they are geeks ;-)

Just kidding!  Literacy is so important!

!!!!!!!

Hey gang!

On Sunday I did the Milennium tour like I said, and honestly it was kind of disappointing.  Well, really honestly it was a big old dud! 

Basically they take you a big walk around all the locations that were in the books which is cool, but not really as exciting as I was expecting - it's just people's apartments and offices and coffee shops and stuff, I walk round those every day!  I mean, if this was the US, it would feel more like a movie tour, like the actors would be there or something, this was basically the same walk I do every day round my own neighbourhood!!  But I took some pictures:

Yeah so big whoop basically! 

Anyway, so I was kind of bummed on my way home and I stopped at the grocery store to get some stuff for DH's dinner (guess I had to thank the guy even if his big surprise sucked!!).  So I am wandering around my very own local grocery store when I suddenly saw the actor Stellan Skarsgård!  (Mom you know him - Orlando Bloom's dad in the Pirates movies and he was in Mamma Mia and a bunch of other stuff - really tall and kind of scary looking). 

Just walking around the grocery store like a regular old person.  I'm not really into celebrity stuff and whatnot, so I didn't even realise why I recognised him to start with and nearly went right up to be like 'hey, I know you' then luckily I realised just in time! I'm not really the kind of person who approaches celebrities or whatever so can you imagine if I had gone up to him by mistake?  I couldn't see what he was buying, just some regular groceries I guess - just like me!  It was kind of like, 'hey neighbour'!!!!

I actually had a little bit of a Hollywood experience myself once upon a time which maybe I'll blog about someday, so maybe it was a sign that my Stockholm life is about to get a whole lot more intersting...

Sorry! It's all Cool!

So I was going to delete my last post because I was just in a crappy place on Friday and didn't really mean to freak out, but then I thought that I'm human, I've got a right to be upset and act out so why pretend it didn't happen!  But I really apologise that anyone was worried about me and I just want to say that I'm okay and psyched to be here!  And the ice mostly got cleaned up now so I got one of my wishes!

Well the day finally came!  Today I'm going on the tour of all the places in the Millennium books and stuff so I am really excited about that.  It's sucky that poor old DH has to work after all on a SAturday poor guy, but he's a busy guy, what can I say!  I am going to take loads of photos so you will practically be able to watch the movies again through this blog - how cool is that?

Today I just woke up wishing I could be home again for one minute.  I love new experiences and adventures so I am really excited to be here, but I wish they could be just regular for maybe half an hour so that I could feel normal again.  I wish people could talk English all around me so that I don't have to feel stupid when I don't know what they are saying or ask them to say it in English, and I wish they would pronounce Js in the regular way and I wish that all the freaking ice could be just cleared away so that I don't keep falling on my ass just about every time I walk out of the apartment and I wish it was light for more than three hours or something a day, and I wish the guys would dress like regular guys and not like out of some magazine or something, I mean seriously, is there one freaking straight guy in this whole city?  With their skinny jeans and weird hair and all of them carrying babies, what is that about?  Everywhere you freaking look there are babies it's like they don't do anything but reproduce in this country!!!! I love kids as much as the next person, I just don't need to see one every single second of the day!  And I know this is all new and exciting and I swear I'm not being a stupid American hating everything because its foreign, I just want to be normal for ONE HOUR.

Finally!!

A WOMAN with a kid!

I'm all for women's lib and whatnot, but seriously, every single guy here pushes a pram (I swear, practically whether they have kids or not!!) - seriously guys, man up!

Best Hubby in the World!!

So when DH got home last night (super late - poor baby is working crazy hard right now), he said he had a surprise for me - on Sunday, we are going on a Millenium Tour!!  It's the coolest thing ever, they take you on a walking tour of the city and show you all the locations that are in the books and movies.  I am so excited, I love it here already but I think when I really see the Stockholm that I imagined, it will feel even more real.

Although I've already been to the 7-11 of course - I wonder if it will be on the tour?!  AND!  I went to a coffee shop the other day and a little birdie told me that they had been filming the American version of the film there a few weeks ago!!!  I might have sat on the same stool as Daniel Craig did - there basically aren't enough exclamation points to say how exciting that is!!!!!!  I seriously think he is just the BEST actor to play that part - the guy who played him in the Swedish one was okay I guess, but not that hot.  But Daniel Craig is HOT.  I wonder if they will be shooting any more around here?  Not that I would go and watch or anything, I don't really get people who are obsessed with celebrities and stuff (like, I heard that the guy who was in Pirates of the Caribean and Mama Mia is practically one of our neighbours, and I was like... and?  cool and everything, but whatever), but it would be cool just to know that this major movie was filming right in "my" neighbourhood.

It's really starting to feel like "my" neighbourhood, and I'm sure that after Sunday it will even more!

The Coolest 7-11 in the World!!

So why am I uploading a picture of a random 7-11 I hear you ask?  WELL!

When Dear Hubby announced that he got transferred over here and we were going to move to Stockholm, Sweden, the FIRST thing I did was read all those Dragon books so that I was prepared for life here.  I thought they were AMAZING and it made me even more excited to live in the world where they were set.

I got talking to one of our neighbours last night, and she told me that the 7-11 right near our apartment (which is super different to the 7-11s I am used to - no slushies!!) is the very one where the Lisbeth Salander character goes to all the time in the books!  I guess she didn’t get slushies either!!  So I felt kind of stupid taking a picture of 7-11 but it was so cool I had to share!

No I just have to hope that the Secret Police don’t have the place staked out and now they are after me!!!

Swedish People

So the jet lag is clearing a tiny bit and I’m kind of feeling less like a crazy person from wandering around the apartment all night, watching TV on the internet and nearly crying when I hear Oprah’s voice, then sleeping all day and eating at really weird times (I guess I’ve kind of been living like a college student!!), I’m starting to explore a little bit and feel like I really live here.

The people are different here.  For a start, they all speak Swedish!!!  It’s weird, but I realised yesterday when I was sitting having a coffee (luckily the baristas all speak English so I can actually order a coffee!!) that I’d never really heard people talk a foreign language before.  I mean, in French class in high school of course, but that would just be a sentence or two, and I was looking around at these people, and kids too, and just thinking wow, they speak Swedish all the time!!  And before you all think I’m just a stupid American, of course I knew that already anyway, it was just weird to experience it in real life.  I mean, to me, everyone seems super smart because they can all talk a foreign language, but maybe I seem super smart to them because I can speak English!!  Or American!

Anyway, one thing I noticed is that some words sound kind of like English, like they say ‘okay’ which pretty much means ‘okay’!!  And to say hi, they say ‘hey’ (they spell it hej, which makes me want to say it like ‘hege’ but you don’t pronounce the j).  The first time I walked into a store and someone was like ‘hey’, I was like, ‘hey, what?’ like they were kind of being rude, but then I learned that they were just saying hi.  I think maybe that when people say that Swedish people are being unfriendly, it’s just because it sounds like they’re saying ‘hey’, like ‘hey you, cut that out’ when really they are just saying hi.  Because I think they are super-friendly!!!

This is the view of the island opposite from near our apartment.  Did you know that Stockholm is on a bunch of islands?

Välkomen!

So here I am.  American gal, born and raised in Toledo, Ohio and now living here in Stockholm, Sweden!  I kind of have to pinch myself a little to think I’m really here - maybe I’m partly writing this blog to convince myself it was all real!

Not exactly sure what my impressions are so far, it’s all kind of in a haze of jet lag, and just kind of ‘did I just step into Oz weirdness’.  I’ve been kind of Euro-obsessed my whole life, I took French in high school  (bonjour!) and feel like my personality and outlook on life is kind of more European.  I’m pretty open minded.

Which is a good thing because when I went into the tiniest pharmacy you ever saw in your entire life last night, guess what was on the self, right there for everyone to see - vibrators!  I swear to God (sorry mom, you know I don’t know what one is or anything!!) - they were right there on the shelf next as bold as day.  Where I come from, that’s the kind of thing you order off the internet and it comes in a plain brown envelope (not that I ever did!!!).  I mean, kids could have seen them!!  But whatever floats your boat right, to paraphrase, I guess I’m not in Toledo any more!!

Alan Ball I will hunt you down

If this is an actual indication of what the next season is going to be like:

It's like a tampon commercial meets Dallas meets a grade school ballet recital.  What the what the what?  Rip somebody's head off already!