Spoke too soon

I spoke too soon. I'm not really at home in Sweden.

Today I tried to see a doctor about my bloated belly. It's been huge and uncomfortable and I've been feeling like I need to burp all the time, but not being able to burp. So I went to the local health center and was told that I could see a nurse at 10.10am. While I was waiting to see the nurse I went and sat in a garden and read my book. While I was sitting, I had a seagull shit on my bag, my ipod and just missed my leg because I moved out of the way. I got a coffee at a cafe and the guy there helped me clean up my stuff. The coffee was nice and he even gave me a complimentary biscuit because my day had been so crap. This was the highlight of my entire day.

I went back to the health center and somehow the nurse managed to miss me. I was told I could wait. I waited for another half an hour before they told me that it'd take too long to wait and I should go to the acute/emergency center that I'd been to before. I did that and waited another hour to see a doctor who was able to tell me that while he could understand there was something wrong, that center didn't send you away for any tests or anything. They were just an acute center. So that was 200SEK down the drain. He was very understanding though.

So finally, the nurse from the other place called me up and asked what was wrong. She called at 2.30pm. I explained the situation and she got me in to see a doctor tomorrow at 11.30am. So, it took me from 8.30am to 2.30pm to get a doctors appointment for tomorrow morning.
This whole thing reminded me that I don't know the swedish system and frustrated me endlessly. I'm sick of feeling constantly like I need to burp. I'm sick of starting the day looking relatively normal and by the end of the day looking like I'm 5 months pregnant. I'm sick of worrying that everything I eat is going to provoke more bloating. The only upside of it is that I have managed to pretty well establish that lactose probably isn't the cause (I've excluded it for over a week).

But the good news for today is that is delightfully sunny outside, the sun is warm and friendly and the sky is clear, there are birds singing and I'm going to be able to go for a walk in the sunshine and relax a bit. And truth be told, I'm probably okay with Sweden, today was just a bit of a trial.

Oh so many things

You will be pleased to know, if you were following the continued saga of my lactose intolerance that my gut is somewhat back to normal today. Certainly the shirt I am wearing today (a new one from Lindex) which didn't fit over the weekend is now doing up nicely and I'm not feeling quite as big.

I have a number of things that I wanted to talk about here. The most pressing in my mind was that I have come to realise that I'm actually settled in here in Sweden. I was thinking last night as I left dancing, walked home and got ready for bed, I have friends. I have a number of people that I have met that I really like and enjoy talking to. Thinking back to just 3.5 months ago when we first arrived I was really worried about doing just that, making friends. I was homesick for a place where I knew people and they knew me. I didn't want to have to make new friends and make all that effort to get to know people. But it's happened. I don't have any best friends yet, but I do have some people who have that potential.

Truth is, while it was super hard in the first few weeks of settling in, it has become so much easier. I don't know why I worried about it that much. I think I am possibly one of the most social people I know. But I was missing having people I already knew and didn't have to play the get to know you game with. But anywhoodle, it struck me on the way home etc, I have managed to integrate myself a little into Swedish society. I feel kinda at home here. I put the kinda in there because there are times and things that happen that make it abundantly clear that I'll probably never be completely at home here.

Other things that have been cogitating in my noggin will have to wait for a little bit, I have to do some kind of work today.

more information than you'll probably want

I should probably state upfront, if you don't want to hear about ladyparts, don't read on.

I had a PAP smear this morning. This is partly due to me gaining a personal number here in Sweden. About a week after my personal number was granted and I existed as a person in Sweden I got a letter. This letter stated that I was due for a PAP smear and should present myself at the appropriate clinic at 8.30am this morning. I guess that on becoming a person who really exists they all of sudden have a need to look at your genitals, or something like that.

I turned up on time and although I had an appointment time, I had to take a number. B this I mean a number like you take at the deli counter of a supermarket in Australia, so they know which order to call you in. Taking a number is an important part of Swedish culture, I am sure. When I signed up for SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) I had to take a number to talk to someone so I could get another number to actually enroll. But onto the cervix story. I took a number and waited. The lovely nurse Annika came and collected me. I got to have my legs in stirrups for the very first time, all very exciting!

The one thing that I want to note in this post is the following, it was not at all uncomfortable. I've had real problems with PAP smears in the past, all kinds of semi painful scrapings of my cervix. But today, I barely noticed it at all.

Huzzah for Swedish healthcare! Please return to your normal life, I've got experiments to do.

Guess where I'm going in three weeks

So, I hope that you can see that that is a lovely beach and is a small hint. The boy and I are going to Tuscany for a wedding, huzzah! We booked the hotel, flights and other stuff this afternoon and I'm terribly excited. 4 days and 5 nights of relaxation in a Tuscan village, a wedding of a good friend and hopefully some of his (the good friend's) mother's cooking.

Don't you just hate me?

Lessons to be learned

Evidently I don't understand what contains lactose. Either that, or I don't care. I ate 'Princess cake' today. It has cream in it. I am once again bloated like a mofo. I hope this means that I've learned this lesson and will avoid all lactose in the future. I was going to go out dancing tonight but I think I might have to stay home for a while and hope that my stomach deflates enough for me to do up my pants again.

I'm now off to drink a truckload of peppermint tea and rub my belly for luck.

Here is a picture of the cake that did me in:

Taken from tartelette.blogspot.com

Bloatsville -population me

Recently I think I mentioned that I had discovered that I was lactose intolerant. Well, I kinda ignored that tonight and now I'm paying the price. I did the very silly thing of eating a lot of vienetta:



That was very very silly. I went for a run after dinner tonight. It was lots of fun and I think I ran for about 40 mins or so. I didn't time it exactly. It was a good run. But when I stopped running I noticed my belly was feeling a little sore and a little rumbly. This is approximately what it looks like (taken from pedro.bitterpill.org, a pregnancy blog):



So I anticipate some feeling a little rumbly and gassy over the coming hours. Lucky the boy is away this week learning about his job. He won't have to suffer the noise, or the smell.
Right, I'm off to have a shower and amuse myself with my pseudo pregnant belly.

el procrastinatoratron

Today is a public holiday in Sweden. Something to do with Easter and some Christian thing. I really don't know exactly what it's for. But it means a day off, so I'm pleased.

I'm using the opportunity of a day off to do some work on my thesis. It's so tantalisingly close to being finished. But there are so many fiddly details to fix up. I can definitively say that there are 2 chapters that are done and dusted, completely finished. 2 more that are close, but not quite there. And 1 that is yet to be sent to my supervisor to be commented upon. The 2 that are close are driving me nuts. There are all these pissy details, like references that I didn't think I needed, and small changes to figures to make. I totally understand why those changes need to be made, it's just frustrating that they aren't quite ready yet.

So with these things I'm feeling a little like doing almost anything else. I've put some of our bottles that we've been collecting for a future beer brew into boxes, ready for the move. Did I mention we're moving? Yeah, we're moving about 800m away from where we are now, but has a separate bedroom and a projector. Anyway, I've done that, I've packed up my mum's birthday present up ready to be sent, I've made a shopping list for lunch and dinner tonight, I've called my family (brother just graduated, woo!) and I'm now preparing to head to the shops to buy things for lunch and dinner and put my plastic bottles in the recycling dealy that gives you a discount on your groceries. I have also done some work on the thesis, but it hasn't been huge. I shall attempt to do better after lunch.

Cortege

Every year for the last 100 years Chalmers students have organised a parade with floats depicting the happenings of the last year. It's held on the 30th of April and turns into a bit of a drinking fest towards the end, or so I've heard.
This year it was the 100th year, so there were floats depicting stuff/important happenings from the last 100 years and not just from the previous year. The boy and I went along to check it out. He's placed a few photos up on his flickr photostream. We saw all sorts of funny things, a car filled with water (car pool) a couple of guys on a couch that had wheels and a motor, lots of girls doing marching band kind of things with flags and sticks, some guy dressed up as Obama with a ridiculously large paper mache head, and girls dressed as police officers complete with penises made out of stockings filled with socks. I'll try and get the boy to give me a copy of a photo of these girls to show you all.
One member of my lab decided she wasn't going to go to the parade, because 'You never know who's been to Mexico there and there are so many people. I'd rather stay home'. So as with everywhere else, Sweden is also filled with people worried about swine flu. I haven't felt sick yet, so I'm guessing we're safe and sound.

Friday was a 'red day' here in Sweden. It was May Day and we were able to have the day off work. We (the boy and I) went to lunch at a co-workers house with the German guy who's visiting our lab and his family. We ate lots and lots of Persian food and lots and lots of lollies and chips and consequently did not need anything for dinner. It was a lovely sunny day too, so combined with the food overload and the sunniness of the day, we had an early night in the Burgermeister household.

Right, I should now go and do something fun/productive. I've completed the writing I wanted to do today, sending chapter 5 back to the supervisor for further reading/reviewing. So, now this afternoon will be knitting and possibly baking a pie, possibly plum and apple, or strawberry and apple. Mmmmm pie.

More elk-ness

Hej på dig! As they would say here.

I found an article in the local paper that shows a photo of the elk I saw. Check it out here. It's in Swedish, but you can put it in translate.google.com and read the article that way, should you be so interested.

In other news, I have a Swedish mobile phone now, but no credit on it. So I can receive calls and messages but not send any.

ELK!

I was walking to dancing last night. It's about a 20 minute walk, over a couple of hills. As I got to the top of the first hill, what did I see before me, but an elk. A freaking elk walking down the street. It was huge!

For those not familiar with elk, here is what one looks like.

Other things to tell you

Hello once again,

Today is a good day for so many reasons. It's sunny outside, I've found out that I only have 2 more chapters of my thesis to fix (of five) before I can submit it and finally call myself Dr Kate. Well, not really, as it needs to be passed first and all that kind of nonsense. But, it's almost to the point that I can leave it alone for a while and concentrate on my paid work.

The paid work, by the way, is going rather well. I have two mutants that I'm working with. One has a distinct phenotype and I've started mapping the gene. The other one I'm yet to really start working on, but I'm hopeful of getting some good results with that one too. I'm currently sitting in the office waiting for my timer to run down so I can set up another wash of the first embryos. Once I've finished with all this washing I can finally go and get myself some lunch. Mmmmm lunch.

The thing that I really wanted to mention in this post today was something that I'd like to remember for a long time. It has been about a week since I first started noticing bumblebees around the place. I've seen lots of flowers and other such things, but I've never before in my life seen a bumblebee. The very first time was about a week ago, as I said. I was walking to work. This is an uphill climb through the community gardens, with their little houses and pretty garden beds. And buzzing around was a bumblebee. They are such fuzzy, fuzzy animals.

For those not familiar with the bumblebee, here is a photo, taken from this persons flickr stream

Photos from Easter weekend

Here are a selection of photos from our Easter adventure on Saturday.

Spring vs late winter

This is the view from our apartment now towards a large street nearby. I didn't really think that it was that different to when we first moved here. But then I looked at my photos, and found this:



Turns out it's very different and rather delightful now. Hooray! I wish that my allergy prone body didn't really react so well to it though. I'm now in hayfever mode. But at least I've got my eczema and lactose intolerance stuff under control.

I'm going to be DJ Kate tonight. I'm both excited and scared about it. It should be fun, but I just hope that they like the music that I do. It's good though, or so I think, so it should go fine. More photos coming soon.

Swings and roundabouts

So today has been a day of swings and roundabouts. Actually, most of it was lovely, but the last little bit has been not so great. I've recently discovered that I'm lactose intolerant. I stupidly had a coffee with milk in it at the lovely party/dinner I was at. We made it home in time for me to have a good old sit down, but it was a close run thing and my guts were very unhappy.

The other thing that isn't so fabulous is that our neighbours upstairs are having a party and we can hear it. It seems as though they are doing karaoke or something to that effect. We've been lucky enough to hear their rendition of "hit me baby one more time" and many other delightful songs. I hope that they can it before I really want to go to bed.

The good stuff that happened today was something along the following lines, I'll hopefully fill in the rest of the details later. We got some new forks and knives from the charity shop across the road, as well as some new tea towels. We only had two before, tea towels that is, and all our forks and knives are tiny. I think the forks are cake forks or something of that nature. We washed all our clothes and mopped the floor. The floor here gets very dirty, very quickly. I think it partly has to do with the lack of a doormat, but it means that a lot of the time there is a layer of crap attached to your foot when wandering about. I got an opportunity to speak to my lovely friend EE and her husband about the arrival of their daughter two weeks ago. Apparently, according to EE, breastfeeding is like having your nipples tattooed. Mind you, she has never had a tattoo, so it's just a guess. She is, however, happy with every other aspect of motherhood and fingers crossed her nipples hold up under the strain. I got to talk to my parents and my brother for a little while too, which was rather nice. My dad has bronchitis, which he got from his sister. He says he's feeling better than she is and has antibiotics. He should be better soon.

Other good stuff from today: we were invited to a Swedish easter dinner. We went to a member of my lab's house for dinner, starting at 4pm-ish. We were picked up by my boss and her husband and went to S's house. It's a lovely house, near to the ocean and very light and breezy. There were four couples/families there. We were the only one without children. There were 7 kids there, two of whom were called Embla. Three kids were from a newly arrived German family. We had a Swedish easter dinner with salmon, potatoes and pickled fish of different flavours, lamb, salad and bread. It was really tasty. I took some photos and will post them later.

After dinner we went for a walk down to the water, through the forest and had a few adventures up on the rocks. Ask, one of the kids, lost his shoes when dangling over the edge of a small cliffette. He sounded quite calm when he asked for help to get down, so his parents didn't realise how precarious his situation was. But he was okay, his shoes were found and he was hoisted back up the cliffette. On the walk back from the ocean I had the pleasure of a conversation, somewhat one-sided, with Josefine, a 5 year old German girl. She could really talk and required little from me, so my German held up well. She was most amusing. I also put my German skills to use in helping her older sister Johanne (sp?) play monopoly (Gothenburg version) with the kids of the household.

We were there quite late, and had to get a lift to the closest tram stop. We made it there just before a tram arrived and had to walk about 15 minutes home. In that time, my guts were quite unhappy and I was concerned I wouldn't make it home. Fortunately, for me and the boy I made it home safely and without incident. I wish that I hadn't had that coffee with the milk.

The other delightful thing about today was the weather. It was blue skies, sun and warmth all the way and I got to see a bumblebee. That makes me ever so happy. They are such ridiculous looking animals.

Right, almost bedtime, I hope the neighbours pack it in soon, or I'm going to have get all nanna-like and go up there and tell them to please be quiet. I wonder if banging on the roof here would work?

I love swedish children's television

This was on TV this morning and you don't have to understand Swedish to get the hilarity of it all. Also, in case you are wondering, it's probably work safe, nothing rude, no swearing.

Sometimes you see something that tickles your fancy

I saw this at the supermarket the other day and _had_ to take a photo. Do you think that pussi would taste as good as it looks?




Edited to add: I'm just looking at the eyes on that cat and I find them somewhat disturbing. Why are they staring so?

The harvest

I harvested a couple of chillies and all the capsicums I had been growing just before we left Australia. I made them into a pasta sauce with some tomatoes and zucchini from my cousin's garden. They were very tasty. I did my best to get a decent photo of them before I chopped them all up. I was rather proud that they managed to survive the stupidly hot weather and the ripened really well.

Hooray for gardening.

Temperatures

So I noted today, not for the first time, that temperatures here appear warmer than in Aus. So, for example, today we went to IKEA and it was about 6 degrees outside. Thing is, it felt more like 15 degrees would at home, or near enough to. Why is that? It was cold, yes, but not that cold. At one stage I was wasn't wearing my coat. This would be completely unheard of if it were that cold in Melbourne/Canberra. So what is the difference?

We got one more step closer to having a bed that fits two adults today. We went to IKEA, found the mattress we wanted and the kind of slats would go underneath it. But I was worried that the bed frame we liked the most would be too wide for the space we have. So we decided to go home and really work out whether it would fit. Turns out, it wouldn't fit, so we're lucky there. But we have two other options that will fit. The first of those two will fit the best, and has underbed storage (score!), but the second one is prettier (I think) and matches the chest of drawers we bought to go in the hall. We're so excited about the idea of having a bed that is wide enough to fit both of us on comfortably.

More stories tomorrow, I have nachos to go eat.

SNOW!

As I write this blog post, it's sunny outside and positively balmy at about 7 degrees C. But last Thursday it snowed. It snowed a lot. I got the boy to come and pick me up from work, because it was dark and it's nice to have someone to walk home with. He joined me and we walked down the hill together, in the snow. It was rather lovely.

Here is some evidence:

Fambly

I was showing another member of my lab some photos today and came across a couple of photos of me and my brother. One from when we were very little and one from late last year. The one from last year I think describes our relationship well. In that photo I think, if I remember correctly, he had just licked his hand and pressed it to my forehead. I'm pretty sure I did it to him first. That's my job as a big sister.
Here they are, one after the other.






I've spoken to my brother more in the last few weeks of being here in Sweden than I have in a while. Well, I've spoken to him more frequently. He's called a number of times, it's good. I think he's usually calling at my mother's behest, but I usually speak to him first.

They called this morning. Mum was worried about me, because of the homesickness post. Just to reassure her again: Mum, I'm fine, I'm just undergoing a little culture shock. I'll be perfectly fine in about 2 months time. For the next 2 months, I'll be adjusting, then I'll be sweet. There are so many things to explore here. Tonight the boy and I are going for a walk. I want to investigate the tower I've seen on another hill near our house. I'm hoping there are a lot of stairs.

More to come from me, some posting about snow, sunlight and maybe dancing related news.