IKEA!!!

When a trip to IKEA makes your day.... well, enough said.  I dropped the kids off at school at 8:30 while Steve rented a car.  We met back at our apartment around 9:00 and headed out.  We accomplished a lot these past few days in terms of unpacking and organizing our house.  Steve has been putting furniture together for one solid week.  With that, comes a lot of boxes and garbage.  If you remember in my last post, I mentioned that dumping large items is no easy task.  Steve loaded the car with tons of boxes and headed to the recycle bins a few blocks away.  There were a few more left in the apartment along with a cabinet that got damaged in the move... so we decided to take that with us and find a dumster somewhere closer to Ikea.  We needed to get to the store as soon as the doors opened because we were on a time schedule.  Claudette picked up Chase from school at 12:30 today so we could spend more time at the store.  She came to my rescue again!  Here's Steve in our new ride!

We have been contemplating whether we will need a car here and have considered shipping ours over.  Well.... after today,  I vote NO!  Beside the fact that there's no parking, and driving around the block 14 times to find a spot is not how I want to spend my free time, driving on these streets is not easy.  For one, the road names are ginormous, it took 10 minutes to read them and at that point we missed our exit.  The Swedes love a roundabout.... so while we were looking at the map on our phone, all the bikers and walkers were sprinting for their lives.  Finally, the GPS was about 10 seconds behind, so you can imagine what that looked like.  Ikea is north of the city so it was completely unfamiliar territory for me.  Steve did all the driving, especially because it was a stick shift.  We all know how well I drive those!  I was the co-pilot and not a very good one at that.  We did make it to Ikea with 20 minutes to spare so we decided to find a dumpster for the junk in the trunk.  We decided on dumpsters behind some stores that were not opening until 10.  We figured we could sneak it out quickly and nobody would be the wiser.  It worked!  My hubby the criminal!

We headed in, grabbed our carts, read our list and shopped for 3 hours.  This store was very organized.  It was easy to shop, especially because there weren't any crowds yet.  We bought more furniture for Steve to assemble along with lights (yes, we are still in the dark), bathroom accessories, and much more.  We even had time to hit the appliance store for a vacuum.  My apartment is not the cleanest right now.  As a matter of fact, today is the first day we could actually see the floor.  Smith walked down this morning and commented on how he could walk out the door without tripping on a box.  Oh... the things we learn to live with. 

As many of you know, I was able to get my Swedish phone number today.  I jumped through hoops, did magic tricks and walked 5 miles round trip, but I got it!!!  I also learned how to write my address today.  Don't laugh, they put their postal code first on the line and the apartment number comes after the street name.  It's quite confusing!  Since our mail just started arriving, I had to wait until I could see it written on an envelope before I sent it out.  I know you are all going to rush out and send me mail now... but remember, I don't know how to retrieve mail that is larger than my skinny mail slot, so don't go sending me any care packages yet.  That's next on my things to learn.  I heard you pick up your packages at the nearest grocery store.  Now that's funny!

Things are done a lot differently here in Europe.  For one, communication is not quite their strong suit.  I'm a very type A personality.  I have a very specific calendar with each childs' activities color coordinated.   I'm very punctual and I feel that I'm pretty good at multitasking.  Well, those skills are not needed here... we are just going with the flow.   Plans change as often as the wind blows and we are going with it! 

I have already met some really great people here.   I spent Thursday morning with two new girlfriends (well Claudette isn't really new).  We went for fika (tea) after drop off.  This cafe/tea house was awesome.  I love tea and I love a cozy tea house.  I can't wait to see it in the heart of winter.   Might be the only thing I'm looking forward to about winter!  We sat upstairs overlooking the city on big, comfy couch chairs.  The tea was delivered in huge mugs and we sat and talked for hours.  It was exactly what I needed..... girl time!  Here's a picture of Lori and Claudette before we got our tea. 

I am proud to announce that someone asked ME for directions today!  The reason I'm so proud, I must not have that clueless I'm a foreigner look anymore.  Here's the most exciting part.... I actually was able to give the directions. 

Today I was in the train, people watching.   I love listening to Swedes speak.  I love this language, it's very easy on the ears.  Some languages are so ugly!  This one is not, it's pretty!  Anyhow, it got me thinking about languages as a whole.  It's so amazing to think about how many different ones there are in the world and how we all communicate.  Where did these languages originate?  I do wish I spoke another language.  Everyone's English here is perfect!

There are things I'm really missing about home... for one, I miss our friends and family.  Each time I see something pretty or hear something funny or experience something unique, I wish I could share it.  I also miss my car pool girls (Judy and Meghann).  Soccer practice is becoming quite the ordeal and poor Chase is dragged around until all hours of the night.  I brought my jog stroller with me, but I'm holding off on pulling it out for him.  Once he's chauffeured around town, he will never walk again! I really miss teaching at Lifetime and working out in a gym.  I miss having my car and grocery shopping with ease.  I miss the food I'm accustomed to and not having to guess at every restaurant.  I miss tennis.  And finally, I miss my neck and spine therapist.  My body is a mess right now.  I guess I"m not used to carrying heavy things for a long distance because I am in desperate need of Dr. Pugh.  :)  Meg, tell him to jump on the plane and come for a visit.  I could use his help!

I will end with a positive because we really are enjoying ourselves here.  I love this city and I love the adventure each day brings.  I know it will only get better as we get settled and we can relax at home and enjoy our new life.  I should mention that Steve and I went out for Sushi ALONE today (lunch) and it was really nice.  In Atlanta we were very good at date night.... thanks to our fabulous babysitters that we left behind.  I REALLY MISS MY BABYSITTERS!!  :)  Sushi was great and it's only about 100 yards from our apartment. 

Tomorrow is Saturday and we all need a little down time.  The boys had a very busy week meeting new friends, getting acquainted with new teachers,  navigating a new school, and learning new routines.  Steve and I have a had a week of unpacking, cleaning, building furniture, organizing a home, learning new things and getting very little sleep.  I'm hoping tomorrow we can get out and have a little fun with the boys.  We all need it!!!