Settling In

I keep thinking that I need to take all my photos around town as soon as possible.  Pretty soon that feeling of wanting to fit in is going to kick in and at that point the last thing I will want to look like here in Lund is a tourist.  For the moment we are split two ways.  On one hand we are most definitely tourists:  we want to sight-see, we still don't know our way around, to say our Swedish is limited is being kind.   But on the other hand, we need to figure this all out.  We are learning where the good grocery stores are, how to say more than "thank you" in Swedish and we have been busy mapping out the bus lines to the girls' schools.

For now, though, I'll bridge the gap and be a tourist even on our everyday excursions.  Cameras at the ready!

Our first real grocery store trip. 

After some discussion about who got to pull the grocery basket, the girls decided they both needed one.  Thank goodness they got over that excitement after the first trip.  It is hard to herd two children with baskets-on-wheels in uncharted grocery territory, all while trying to figure out what all these Swedish food products say!

Heading into town. 

Here's one of our first times walking into downtown from our apartment.  You can tell it is one of the first outings because the girls both brought their dolls along.  They are such car kids!  They are used to bringing bags of entertainment for car rides.  Now they have learned that they don't want to bring anything to carry.  First, they don't need the extra entertainment and second they actually have to carry it.  That gets old fast!

S continues to call our apartment the "hotel."  I can't figure out what is driving this confusion.  It could be that she's so unfamiliar with apartments the concept is still too foreign to her.  It could also be the fact that we left our house a full month ago and have been on the move since.  She's used to travel so the idea that we are staying here temporarily probably makes a whole lot of sense to her.

Our apartment looks out over a grassy square with a nice playground in the middle.  We frequently see kids playing there but so far we've found only parents who speak English.  Our girls and the other kids smile at each other and show interest in what the other is doing, but that's about as far as they get.  In this respect I can't wait for my girls to start school. Even if it takes them a while to learn Swedish, at least they will start meeting friends.

We've been calling the square our "backyard."  The other day a man on a mower started cutting the grass.  They girls thought it was so cool that someone had come to mow our backyard for us!

S was so excited someone was mowing for us! 

One of the very best outcomes that has already happened with our girls is the way they play together now.  After weeks of having toys packed up, TV disconnected etc etc I can actually see their imaginations unfolding.  They've had to be creative and resourceful in coming up with ways to play with very few props.  And they have become such good friends!  I have always felt lucky that for the most part they play well together.  However this time together, as W and I were frantically prepping us to leave SC, and then travelling together, has forced them to stand each other in close quarters with little distraction aside from each other's company.   I hadn't really anticipated that at all, but it has been so fun and gratifying for me to watch.

The girls have wasted no time in getting a fort set up. 

Weed burning

E, S and I were walking in a park when I looked across the street and saw this man in orange walking along.  I even asked E how obvious I was as I held my camera down low at my waist and took this photo quickly.  But I just couldn't help it!  He was walking along with that cart, blow-torching away the weeds in the cobblestones!!!  Of course!  A blow torch!  I get so worked up about chemical weed removal, (I mean, really, how do more people not see Round Up as the enemy?)  I was too excited about this idea not to take the photo.  I needed proof that I didn't imagine it.  Surely this concept could be applied more widely?  Like, maybe in Greenville, South Carolina?

W's lunchroom.  Free hot chocolate machine.  Expect to find the girls here frequently. 

We visited W's work this week.  His colleagues have all been very welcoming and helpful.  Without their advice we wouldn't know what we are doing!

This is the view from the lunchroom at W's work.  The twin spires in the back ground are Lund Cathedral.  This was taken on a rainy day but on clear days you can see all the way to Denmark (off towards the right hand side of the photo).  Shortly after I took this, the weather cleared a tiny bit and we could just barely make out Turning Torso and the Oresund Bridge in the distance.

Waiting at the bus stop. 

Here are W and E wandering through the market square in the center of Lund.  The market happens every day except Sunday.  Venders sell everything from flowers and veggies to clothes and fish.