On the Road in Sweden

I am utterly exhausted. My knees ache, and I even skipped Swedish class. Not only have I taken up running (again), but yesterday Dan and I rented a large moving van in order to pick up 3 loads of furniture in preparation for our move.

Why pick up furniture ahead of time? Well, in March Dan and I found the ideal couch from a lovely Slovakian couple so we sprang for it. When we realized we'd have to (expensively) rent a van in order to move it, we decided to find as much great used furniture as we could and pick it up all in one day. That day was yesterday.

I was definitely nervous about driving in Sweden. I had driven a bit before for a babysitting job, but it was in a normal car in a very small quiet neighborhood. Now I had to drive to Bjärred, Lomma, and Malmö. There are huge roundabouts here, with multiple lanes many "exits" that I tend to lose track of as we go: "Third exit? How many have we passed?!" (Don't worry, you can always go around again!)

It was raining, but all of the pickups went smoothly. Dan navigated, I drove with minimal confusion, and we got to our locations safely. We picked up the sofa (lovely!), a coffee table, and bed frame, and lastly a huge table. For the table, we stayed at had a late-night "fika" (coffee break, usually with something sweet) and compared American and Swedish politics. Coincidentally the very friendly couple we were picking things up from had lived in the US for many years (the guy was a professional football player!) and it was fun to get the dual-perspective. They also threw in a free dresser and some vases!

On the way home though we finally got epically lost, as I am wont to do and which really we should've expected. We somehow went the OPPOSITE direction for about 25 km. It took us way too long to realize it. But there was no yelling or complaining and we got ourselves turned around.

We returned the truck 10 minutes late and with an extra 100km than we were supposed to have driven. For our offenses we were charged an extra 830 kronor (a little over $100). Then I bought a hot dog and they were out of ketchup. I was a little crabby on my bus ride home. I reminded myself that this is an investment: we are getting a "home," a place we can stay as long as we'd like, a place to finally have cats, and furniture that doesn't smell funny.

But when I got home I immediately perked up because Dan had rearranged the living room in order to set up our new couch. We now have the most populated living room with an awkward - but remarkably comfortable! - amount of seating. It'll be cramped living quarters for us until we move in May.

I can say that the experience was good. We met such nice people, and I again showed myself that I can do some unexpected things (tackle roundabouts with confidence!). Next up - maybe I'll learn to drive a manual car. Sweden, watch out!