Read Some Stewf

First Month Review

It’s been one month. Let’s take a look at Stewf’s Attitude Indicators (SAIs):

Personal Funds: ↓ down
Stockholm Approval Rating: ↑ up
Salt Lake City Nostalgia Index: ↑ up
Weight: ↓ falling (no Power Bars or Ichiban)
Optimism Quotient: ↑ steady rise
Swedish (understood): ↑ up
Swedish (spoken): ↔ unchanged
Pastry Needs: ☻ continually satiated

Notes:

1. first snow fell yesterday, buckling down for the 5-month winter
2. Jamie still to arrive in December, school plans as yet unknown
3. experiencing back pain from awful work chair, bed, no weekly basketball
4. flat near work acquired, spirits boosted
5. fruit fly friend still creating nuisance
6. Contact/Matt is as it/he always was — generous and fulfilling
7. yes, I miss you

Diary of the first week in Sweden coming soon, with imagery.

Buggy

There is a fruit fly that has followed me since day one in this country, hiding somewhere, perhaps under my lapel, and revealing himself only when I am holding some food, at which time he materializes, hovers about, directly in front of my face, and deftly avoids any attempt to catch or destroy him. I hope winter does the job.

The Language

Midway through the Miami to Paris flight I began to feel good. Mostly due to new confidence, the fading of worry. My biggest apprehension about the move to Sweden was language. I’ve reached a point where I am comfortable meeting new people — but that assumes I can communicate with them. As I got closer to my new home I reminded myself that nearly everyone in Sweden understands English.

Still, they understand English, but they don’t speak it unless they need to. Perhaps the worry came from knowing that most of what I learn about people comes from observing them before I engage them. This is not a very effective gameplan when I can’t understand their conversations with other people. This was made clear on the Air France flight on which I sat next to a group of Spaniards. I wished I could listen in on their chatter, certain I could chime in with something that would spark a much needed short-term friendship for the long flight. I was frustrated that I could not.

I’ll just have to be more assertive if I’m going to make friends and influence people in Sweden. But that’s not news. The potential for that sort of personal improvement is one of the main reasons for my move here.

My Home Country Is a Movie

Today, while chatting with Eric online, he sent over a couple files, “Beth Orton.Ooh Child.mp3”, “amazing soccer save.mpeg”. Nothing too unusual, standard internet file sharing. But those were immediately followed by “skeletors reaction to the california gubernatorial election.jpg”.

Ahh, Arnold. It’s difficult to be abroad in this time of embarrassing American politics. My Svensk coworkers can’t stop laughing at the news from the U.S. I tell them I am here as a political refugee.

Getting Clean

Chatting with my pal Norman of the UK...

norm: homesick yet?
Stewf: no
Stewf: i only miss soft toilet paper and decent brooms
Stewf: what's with these short handled, weak brooms?
Stewf: i thought swedes liked to clean
norm: same here
norm: bristles too soft as well
Stewf: weird
norm: no manly push brooms either
norm: i brought one over from the states
Stewf: hehee
norm: just now getting better buttwipe here
norm: though i still have fond memories of Job Squad and Bounty
Stewf: yes, paper towels too
norm: don't start me on garbage bags
norm: i've just gotten my blood pressure down

Crippled

Due to some painful pan-atlantic postal lunacy I am still without the Powerbook that Matty shipped to me more than a week ago. The first few days of vacation from the internet were just fine. It provided me with the time to fully explore Stockholm without being characteristically tied to my Mac. But now I need to work. I feel crippled and unproductive, an artist trapped on an island without his paint and brushes.

As soon as I receive my machine (the optimist in me says “tomorrow”) I will post my first impressions of Sweden illustrated by 10 days worth of photographs.