Walked Stockholm

What a day!!!  It was supposed to be  a light day for me.  I was planning on taking Outdoor Fit at 9:00 and then heading home to continue cleaning and organizing my house.  I had one stop, the lighting store.  We are searching for a light over the kitchen table so my buddy "Schneider" can come back and hang it for us.  Well... plans are meant to change around here and.....

Lori and I met after drop off to head to the park for our class.  There were a few new ladies in class today, so we were able to meet more people.  The class itself is not as challenging as I would like, but the social aspect is great.  I'm meeting a lot of new people through it, so I will continue on Thursdays only.  Lori and I met a new lady today that lives in an area of Stockholm that neither of us have been to yet, Östermalm.  Through course of conversation, Lori mentioned that she was searching for a specific lightbulb that she hasn't been able to find.  Ally, our new friend, brought us to a lighting store near her house.  She then walked us around and showed us great stores, coffee houses, boutiques and designer stores (April, I took the Louis Vuitton picture just for you), and much, much more. We got an education on the health care here as well (more on that in another blog).  She told us about this amazing place called Saluhall.  The pictures are worth a thousand words for this place.  There were fresh cuts of meat, imported cheeses, restaurants, produce etc.  All of it looked amazing!  Of course I didn't have anything to carry it all back in, so I will have to return tomorrow with my new grocery cart!

Saluhall when you first enter

Saluhall from the outside

I took pictures of some things that amazed us.  Check them out....

Look at the red section of this picture.  That is a very large fish for sale.  If you look closely, the eyes are still there and it's mouth (red section) is wide open.  We were stunned that people eat this scary looking thing.

Perhaps this will be our Thanksgiving turkey.... but why is the head still on?  

After our tour of Saluhall, we decided to buy a delicious salad at one of the vendors.  We grabbed a seat nearby and began to eat.  No sooner did the fork go in my mouth, that I had a woman yelling at me in Swedish.  The puzzled look on my face along with lettuce hanging out of my mouth, clued her in that I had absolutely no idea what she was saying.  She then began yelling at me in english...saying that I was sitting at her sushi restaurant table and that I needed to move immediately.  Oops!!!  So we packed up our salad and ventured out to the streets to find a park bench.  The temperature dropped drastically.  We were sweaty from the workout and began to get really cold.  We did find an area near the water to sit and eat.  As you can see in this picture, it was not quite the enjoyable picnic in the park we were hoping for.

Did I mention that we were searching for a tea house as well as this obscure lightbulb?  Both Lori and I were craving tea.  We were still so amazed at this new area we discovered that we decided to get brave and try to find the eyebrow threading salon as well.  Off we went in a direction that we hoped was correct.  I knew as long as I was near a train stop, I could always find my way home.  :)  For the next hour we walked and walked.  We stumbled upon two more lighting stores, neither had the bulb.  We found quite a few coffee houses, but no tea.  At that point, we decided to take the train to Odenplan, Lori's stop.  She is not as familiar with the train system because she walks everywhere.  Since I have a bit of a clue, and had taken this stop yesterday to pick up Jake from a friend's house, I felt brave.  We got off the stop, walked in circles a few times, but began heading in the direction of the threading place (thanks to google maps).  After walking a few blocks, Lori seemed to think she had walked these streets before.  We kept going and before we knew it,  we hit her apartment.  I was too close not to go up and see it... so we stopped.  Awesome place!!!  She was bummed that she still hadn't found the lightbulb, so when I mentioned there was a lighting store near my house, she decided to join me on my walk home.  We live less than a mile from each other, but neither of us had a clue which way to go.  Google maps to the rescue....  before we knew it, we were crossing the bridge to Kungsholmen (my neck of the woods). She came up to see my place but at this point it was 2:00 and I had to pick up Chase at 3:20.  I showed her how to get to the lighting store and I jumped in the shower, got ready and headed to the school.  Lori found the bulb that she walked about 8 miles to find!  Still no luck on the threading place though, but we can say we visited EVERY lighting store in the entire city!!!

My original plan was to pick up the boys from school, go home, get them settled, prepare dinner and leave for Back to School Night.  Without going into detail, Steve got hung up at work so the boys were going to come to Back to School Night with me.  The school provides childcare in the library.  Now that's a brilliant idea!!!  So instead of dragging the boys (especially Chase) all the way home, to turn around and head back there 30 minutes later, I chose to let them play and then grab a snack to hold them over.  The boys wanted slushies from 7/11 and I wanted a tea (I desperately needed one today) so I headed in  the direction I thought I could find both.  We stumbled upon the 7/11 first and directly next door was the coffee house.  Instead of tea, I chose a latte (they have lactose free milk here).  Dee, Eabs and A.. can you believe I drank coffee?  Sweden is changing me slowly.  hahaah  The boys and I had a great time together.

Chase chose ice cream

Jake  and I hanging out

Smitty enjoying his slushy

I"m reinforced after tonight, that the boys are in an amazing school.  I'm not sure if this is Europe, Sweden, or the International school itself, but they do education right here!  The teachers don't seem to be bogged down with an overabundance of paperwork and ridiculous testing.  Instead they are focusing on learning, planning fun and exciting lessons, and finding ways to meet the needs of all the students.  The main focus here is learning and how do each of us learn best.  They believe that each person learns differently and it is the teacher's job, along with the student, to figure out what that learning style is.  They spend the first two weeks assessing, for lack of a better word, how each individual student learns.  Once the teacher understands her students' learning styles, she can plan her lessons accordingly. Each classroom will look different in terms of activities.  Jake's teacher went into detail on some of the activities she does in her class.  I was amazed!  Like I mentioned earlier, I tend to be internally critical of my childrens' teachers... but I am so impressed by her.  I feel so blessed that all of my boys got teachers that are experienced, intuitive, flexible, and extremely sweet.  Smith's teacher is so in-tune with the student's needs.. she picked up on the fact that Smith is missing his friends and feeling a bit homesick. She told him anytime he is feeling lonely or sad, to just tell her and she will give him that extra love he needs.  She too has only been in Sweden for two weeks, and understands how he feels.  That's a great teacher!  I could go on and on about the school.. but I'll end by saying this, I've been debating on whether or not I want to go back into teaching when we return to the U.S.  I hate what has happened to education and how it is all focused on testing and money (or lack of) and how teachers are treated with no respect.. evident by the salary for one.  After being a part of this school for only two weeks, I told Steve today that I would love to teach here.  Who knows... maybe I'll be able to put Sweden on my resume one day.  :)

I'm tired from all the walking I did today, but feel great after a very productive day.  Productive because today I experienced  a new section of this city.  Each day is like an adventure.  I'm so happy that I have a group of friends here and and I'm so thankful for how they welcomed us new-comers with open arms.