My day started with Swedish class as each week day does. But this time I knew that I had to give a little report on a meeting I went to. To give you the background, a couple weeks ago I was voted "class representative" of my Swedish class. I did not run for this position; I didn't even want it. But I was voted in so I didn't say no, probably because it stoked my ego. The position means that you help out the new students in class every Monday; the students report to you if they can't attend; and you attend monthly course representation meetings. Now back to the original point: I had to report what went on in the meeting. I didn't plan ahead at all, I just spoke straight out, in Swedish of course. It went quite well - people only looked mildly confused.
I had to leave class a bit early because Dan and I had a full day running around Malmö. First we had an appointment at a homeless cat shelter. The bus dropped us off, and we had about a 20 minute walk in the typical Skåne wind, which quickly made both of us a little crabby. And the building we were going to, for whatever reason, didn't have an address so we just had to scope out the street and find it. We found a milk factory, a car factory, and weird old farm buildings. After knocking on some doors and stumbling across a doggy daycare, we found the cat home.
While there we met the 3 main volunteers who run Katthjälpen (literally The Cat Help, or maybe The Cat Helpers). They showed us two pairs of adult cats. They didn't have any kittens in the joint, and many of the cats had been there for years. Their conditions were good though; they had room to play, a small outdoor area, and large kennels that they slept in at night. As we left, Dan really liked one pair of kitties and I really liked another.
After that we went across town to a foster home affiliated with Katthjälpen. A sweet young lady met us at the bus stop (so considerate of her!) and then let us meet her adorable 1 year-old kitties, named Kodak and Kompis. Kompis was a real ham, playing and running and pouncing. He is a brown tabby with white feet and neck. His brother is a unique pattern, sort of tabby-tortoise combination. Kodak was much more shy but he introduced himself and even sat on Dan's lap for a few moments.
As you can probably guess, we fell in love with these cats. We made an offer to the agency to adopt them, but we're worried. They have to do a home visit before the adoption can be approved, and we won't move until May 2nd, so someone else could take them! Noo! So we're waiting to hear what they'll say. (To quell any questions, yes we realize the difficulty of moving kitties but we intend to keep them forever.)
The adventure continued! The foster mama was so sweet as to give us coffee then drive us all the way across Malmö to our next destination - a meeting with a family selling a table. Turns out this family had lived in the US for many years and they were happy to chat with us for a while. We bought the gorgeous huge solid oak table, then they walked with us and showed us where the train station was. Again, amazingly sweet people!
All in all it was a good day. With the purchase of the table, it feels as though the apartment details are coming together. It's been surprisingly time-consuming to search for furniture. You have to find a thing you like, then contact them (I do this in Swedish now, yay!), then set up a meeting, bargain, etc. So far we have bought (all used) a lovely couch, a bed frame, a coffee table, and of course the dining room table and chairs. We have tons of little things to get yet, and I'm sure it will take a while to get settled. Exactly one month until we move!
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