Ice Skating Adventure!

Over the weekend, we experienced the aquatic equivalent of cross country skiing: long distance ice skating! Looks like this:



This adventure took place on a frozen bay with paths plowed into the snow (we just got 20-30 cm of snow on Friday and it's not melting in this -5 to -20ºC weather!).

Just as there are street bikes and mountain bikes, so too are there special ice skates for this purpose:

They have longer blades than hockey or figure skates, which makes it easier to pick up speed. They're also completely flat (no up/down curve in the blade) for a smooth ride over the ripply or snowy surface of the ice. It's harder to make a sudden turn but it's not something that comes up that often. (Kevin had a much harder time in his non-long distance ice skates, so it seems to really make a difference!)

Anyway, the view was phenomenal, and it felt really nice to get the blood moving after spending so much time carefully maneuvering snowy and icy pathways.

Kevin's Daily Commute

Kevin works in an area of Stockholm called Liljeholmen, and while we are looking for a permanent place to live, we are staying with Melissa's aunt and uncle in Järfälla, a suburb of Stockholm. We have no car, so every day, Kevin must make the commute from Järfälla to Liljeholmen by public transit. Public transit in Sweden is very efficient and widespread, so it is fairly easy to get from anywhere to anywhere else without too much of a hassle. Even so, it takes Kevin about an hour each way to and from work.

Each morning, he gets on a bus near the house we are staying at, which takes him to the nearby commuter rail station. From there, he takes a train to Stockholm's central train station, where he transfers to the subway to get him the rest of the way to work.

This is a map of the area, and the approximate path the train and subway takes (Google maps doesn't display transit directions for Stockholm, so this is a car path):


View Larger Map

However, that is what Kevin does on a normal day. But yesterday, a huge amount of snow fell and blanketed the region, completely overwhelming Stockholm's mass transit system. All the buses were cancelled, so Kevin was planning to walk to the train station, but a good samaritan drove by and offered Kevin a car ride to the station, which he gladly accepted. The trains were also delayed, so by the time he got to work, nearly two hours had passed.

Here's is a medley of scenes from his commute to work yesterday morning:

Skiing in Stockholm

As you might expect, skiing and ice skating are popular winter activities in our neck of the woods, but you might be surprised by how easy it is to go skiing right here in the middle of the city:



We have not gone skiing or ice skating ourselves yet, but Kevin will definitely be doing some skiing in April when his whole company takes a weekend trip to some secret location in Europe.

Our search for an apartment continues without success yet, but despite that we have started to get used to living in Sweden. We have made a number of friends, Kevin's new job is going well, and we get better at Swedish every day. We make a point to speak only Swedish with Melissa's family, and Kevin speaks as much Swedish as possible at work.

We're Official!

Yesterday we got letters from Skatteverket (the tax authority) confirming that we're official Swedish residents! Kevin has a shiny new personnummer, and mine will do more than get me a passport. Without a personnummer, there's not a lot you can do in Sweden, including opening a bank account or getting a cell phone. We have been told there's an issue with Swedish phone companies not giving contracts to people without a credit history here, but we haven't tried yet, so we'll let you know.

Personnummers are Social Security Numbers in the US, but they are not kept secret. Even your resume has your personnummer on it! We still have a lot more tasks to do before we are fully integrated into the Swedish system, though. From opening bank accounts, to getting an apartment, there are so many things to think about, but we're managing to get by pretty well so far.

Wish us luck!