Erin's Visit to Sweden

So I haven't written in my blog lately because I have been fairly busy. Erin, my identical twin, came to visit us for a week, there were a couple days of depression after she left, followed by a visit from Anton's sister and my cleaning/organizing rampage. Also Anton requested I make a Blizzard Battlenet UK account to play a game with him called Hearthstone, that we have been watching be played by some of our favorite gamers. I have become an addict. Our baby Rosalind has been sleeping a lot lately but when she is awake she demands our full attention. Now she is in bed and Anton and I are half paying attention to the Superbowl. All in all I have felt busy since my last post.

                                                     Rosalind & Erin, don't they look alike?

I believe Erin enjoyed her trip to visit us and meet our baby for the first time. When we picked her up she appeared a little lost, like I did the first time I arrived here. I think it has to do with the long journey here and not being able to sleep on planes or in airports. Rosalind seemed a little confused by Erin because she looks a lot like her mommy. We told her Erin was her second mommy here to visit for the week and she seemed to accept that as much as any 3 1/2 month old can. I had planned, shopping, the libraries, lunches out, the entire week for us and I guesstimate we managed to do 80% of everything planned. Erin wanted to make sure there was down time and lots of time with baby, which there was of course. The only thing I wish we did do was take Rosalind to the pool. Rosalind loved hanging out with her second mommy.

                                            Our first lunch at Taco Bar Erin, Anton, & Baby

On our second trip to Uppsala, we had falafel and went to several stores. Baby got a couple of cute clothes at H & M. We accidentally ran into the English shop, that had imports from the UK and US. Thanks to Linnea for telling me about it, when I saw the sign I knew we'd have to go in and I found my canned pumpkin! The store clerk said they sold a lot around Thanksgiving, which made me happy because it means there are Americans in Uppsala, I just need to find them now! I was able to show Erin the main library branch and the English book shop.

This is a book I found on the picture book shelf in the English bookshop, definitely not a picture book, but and important one! The bookshop is right outside of the library, can't you tell! Library is bibliotek in Swedish and biblioteca in Spanish.Well we had a lot more adventures including a dinner at Garlic & Shots in Stockholm (I recommend the food!), running around my town Tierp, doing laundry in our building, but we spent a lot of time playing games after baby went to bed.

                              Erin and Anton playing Munchkin Booty with Swedish Organic Vodka!

One day while we were hanging out Erin made a list of some things she liked about Sweden or things she noticed were different than from the US. Here are her lists:

Book Return

Things I like in Sweden
1. Electric gate doors at stores
2. Rolling baskets at grocery stores (in addition to or in place of shopping carts)
3. Book return at the Uppsala Library (it's like Redbox!)
4. Stones or pebbles on the ground on top of snow instead of salt.

Things that are weird
1. They don't cut your pizzas for you, they will charge extra to cut it.
2. Tiny cups/glasses/mugs (What is this a country for ants???)
(this one drives me crazy too!!!)
3. Negative floors on elevators.
4. Swedish beef. Tried Max and liked it. Different, weird flavor, but good. 


I am sure there are many more thoughts and inquiries Erin has about Sweden, but that's all she wrote or shared with me. I know it may be a while for Erin to come back to Sweden and that makes me sad, but in five months I'll be going to the US for 6 weeks for my wedding and visiting. And that makes me happy.