A Review of Week Two

Here we are, having almost been here a full two weeks! It feels like longer. We are both settling in quite well, perhaps even better than expected!

Here is a picture of our house, which isn't labeled in any way and doesn't really look like a house:

And inside, here is Dan:

This is one of the streets I walk down almost daily, with cobblestone and old architecture:

Our shipment arrived last week, and finally today I had a chance to begin putting things away. I think it's safe to say we shipped too much, but nonetheless it feels so good to have our own pillows, blankets, and artwork too. Our apartment doesn't need much else and it's really growing on me in the way that a new home does.

We've had a few adventures, like accidentally buying Swiss cheese instead of cheddar, and buying whey butter instead of sour cream. Or the endless search for tofu which is actually kept in the cheese section without any special area or designation whatsoever (thank goodness for the guts of a friend of mine finally asking a store employee).

Just yesterday Dan and I decided to play the tourist and take a day trip to Malmö. We successfully boarded a train and walked to the old castle, which was mostly burnt down a long time ago and now looks more like a factory.

Here is a view of the front:

And the entry way:

And the place where they shot arrows/bullets/cannons from:

Inside there were a ton of museums, including an aquarium, a natural history section, art, textiles... It was huge and we got lost.

Afterwards we saw a bit of the city of Malmö. Dan described it as a "poor man's Copenhagen," because it had a similar cosmopolitan feel but wasn't quite as large and costly - although the dinner prices were still frightening.

I got this picture of the governor's residence in the main square of town before it got too dark:

Speaking of dinner: Dan and I got to that hungry-cranky point and dived for the first reasonable restaurant we saw - which, embarrassingly, was TGI-Fridays. Yeah, yeah, pathetic. But we were strangely curious about it since we saw one in Stockholm. We went in, and sat ourselves, as you do in most Swedish restaurants. We waited. And waited. We gave the servers looks, waved, everything, to no avail. Maybe 15-20 minutes later, a couple next to us was seated by a server with menus and silverware! Things we hadn't yet seen! We realized perhaps we weren't supposed to seat ourselves. Wandering around the restaurant, I couldn't figure out where to find the host! I asked someone and she escorted us to an entirely different side of the restaurant with a typical dining room. Finally we had made it!

As we waited for our cheeseburgers and french fries, we watched the way everyone else ate. There was a gentleman who got a huge burger (TWO PATTIES!) and proceeded to dump ketchup on it. Then - get this - he ate the patty by itself with a fork and knife, French-style. What the heck! What are you doing! Get your hands dirty and dive in, dude! Then he ate the bun, finally with his hands, but plain and all by itself! Super strange.

Our food came and it was pretty good. We of course ate it with our hands, ketchup dripping almost to our elbows... A little different, not quite the same flavor, but nonetheless satisfying. We definitely paid the price. That food made both Dan and I totally sick. We did not have the greatest evening afterwards. Karma for stooping to American lows, I guess!