Snow and then no snow

I was so happy yesterday. I got a call from Jesper at 5.30 as he was coming past uni (he has to walk past my building to get home from the station) saying I should come down and give him a kiss in the snow. Absentmindedly I said "Can you come up to my office, I'm not quite done". I hung up and sat down again. Then it suddenly dawned on me, did he just say snow. I went to greet him at the door "Did you just say snow?". And it had snowed and I was so so excited. It was beautiful and white when we went outside. I really wanted snow for Christmas and for a brief moment I though maybe we were going to get it. My first white Christmas.

Except when I woke up this morning the snow has melted and it was warm again (well 3 degrees but I guess my definition of warm is changing). And not only that but it was icy and slippery so I had to be very careful on my way to work. I tried to tell Anders the workshop guy of my sorrow (he doesn't speak much English and as we know my Swedish is anything but good) "Anders, jag är ledsen... inge snö (translating as I am sad, no snow). Yes it is a bit simplistic but it describes my sentiments pretty exactly. So no snow and 5 days till Christmas. Keep you fingers crossed (or your thumbs held if you are Swedish) for me and I will keep you updated on the snow situation.

Expedition to Ikea

It was a sunny Sunday when we decided that it was finally time to make the journey to the world's biggest Ikea. I was still mostly living out of a suitcase on the floor, due to lack of drawer space and my belongings were starting to overflow and take over the room. Besides which we had no wine glasses and there is something so distinctly unclassy about drinking wine out of a mug. So four of us climbed aboard the train are rode it to the end of the line. My Ikea companions were Jesper (of course), David (another Swedish guy from the corridor) and Emil (my Icelandic neighbour).

Jesper and David on the endless escalator at Universitet (and it's not even the longest!)

I was already feeling happy due to the small amount of sunlight I was receiving. It is amazing how much a tiny bit of sun can change your mood. People were actually smiling at me in the streets. I even felt like skipping (much to everyone's horror).

Cue: Space Odyssey theme music... dnn dnn DNN DNN boom boom boom boom etc

So there you have it, the world's biggest Ikea. But the question is does it have the world's biggest ball room. Unfortunately due to height limit issues (the one time I wish I was shorter) I could not find out for you. Anyway... there is something inherently gross about ballrooms. I mean I used to love them as a kid but I distinctly remember the number of times we went to Ikea and ran to the ballroom only to be greeted by a sign reading "The ballroom is closed due to cleaning". Which can mean one of three things; vomit, pee or poop. And rolling around in balls which have been previously drenched in these bodily fluids doesn't really appeal to me so much anymore, no matter how much they have been disinfected.

So anyway... this Ikea is really big... I mean REALLY big. Which is a very good thing seeing as the majority of the inhabitants of Stockholm were wandering around in it. And of course we always managed to be wandering against the grain and bumping into people. But gosh I love Ikea! And so does everyone else my age in Sweden. Any apartment I visit is sure to have the familiar lamp and coffee table (hell, even Maddy has that coffee table and she is living in Delft). But it is sort of nice... you feel at home no matter whose house (or room should I say =) you are visiting. I do feel a bit sorry for the people who buy the Ikea artwork though. I mean you can't exactly pretend to be an art connoisseur when everyone has seen your latest picture in Ikea the week before.

So we happily wandered around for about four hours, stopping for swedish meatballs (which I wasn't brave enough to eat as I have heard very mixed reviews) and picking up every second thing saying check this out. About three hours in we had SOPSC (Sudden onset post shopping collapse... a term coined while travelling in Europe with my family). Suddenly all we wanted to do was leave. Ikea is generally not too clogged with people, until you get out of the circular bit and start the walk through nick-nack heaven. This part is awful, trolly traffic-jams every way you look. Unfortunately this is also the bit were you pick up all the items you have seen in display in the round part. By the time we finally got to the cashier we were exhausted.

One tired verity among the mayhem of the final hall.

Then as we were struggling along with copious amounts of bags and a trolley (thank goodness Emil came along with us... he brought the trolley) I spied a stall selling cheap kanelbullar (my favourite, favourite Swedish food). They are sort of cinnamony and very tasty. Emil proved to be the saviour again (ie the only one with spare money) and bought a bag for us to have when we got home. Which proved to be more difficult than anticipated. When a bus finally came we all piled on and waited for it to leave. Instead the bus driver came and started talking quite loudly (the equivalent of yelling in Sweden) at Jesper and told him we had too much luggage and we had to get off the bus. We weren't in the way (and it turned out there was a luggage area a bit further down the bus that we hadn't seen) but the man was probably just angry that he was a busdriver and made us get off the bus. He was really rude to me too and didn't want to give me my money back. When he finally did he gave it back in mostly 1 krona coins. Bah! So we stood shivering in the cold for a while until finally a bus came that we could take. David unfortunately had been left behind on the original bus (or maybe not so unfortunately for him since he made it home earlier).

When we finally got home we sat in the kitchen for a well-deserved cup of coffee and a kanelbulle (or fika as the Swedes call it... we don't have a translation in English but it kind of means a coffee break sometimes with cake).

Kanelbullar!!!!!!!

The boys in our kitchen.

When we went back to our room to unpack, Jesper said excitedly "I guess we can take turns on who puts things together". I looked at him incredulously "You actually like putting the things together?". I hate putting the stuff together... I just want it to be done. I knew there was a reason I found this boy =). So he happily assembled all our stuff, accompanied by Katty who stopped by and it seems is also a putt-togetherer. So now we have space in our room again... although that was a couple of weeks ago and only now have we finished tidying up. I'll put up photos up next time. Until then hejdå.