Ever been chased by a Viking horde??

Probably the most “fun race” I’ve ever done was the Peachtree 10k road race every year through the middle of Atlanta on the morning of the 4^th of July.  The whole city gets behind it and by sunrise, the streets are lined with people cheering, bands playing music and kids waving little flags.

Last Saturday I ran in the equivalent race here in Stockholm – my coworkers were telling me about this from the day I showed up here.  And while I don’t think people were camping out at sunrise – that was only because the first heat of runners took off at 930pm that night.

Showing up at the race, there were A LOT of people (30,000 runners I think?), all wearing the same blue race shirt (mandatory).  They were also all REALLY ready for this race – I’ve never seen so much running in circles and stretching.  For some reason, my boss and I are in the third group – the first group after the semi-pros!  I look around and realize that I am surrounded by

What I did on my Summer Vacation

 If you didn’t know, I was able to take 6 weeks off this summer, combining Swedish parental leave with some vacation time.  I haven’t had 6 weeks off in awhile – maybe 2002?  So when my boss “highly recommended” that I take the time, I figured out a way.  (It was really fun for me when a US coworker emailed me halfway through, and when he saw my out-of-office email that I wouldn’t be back for 3 weeks he was shocked.  He didn’t realize that the message had already been up for 3 weeks!)

The perils of teaching your child about nature

Calvin helping me pick blueberries

The nature trails/forest around our house is full of berries and it is really fun to walk along the paths and snack as you go.  I decided, being the nature-loving mom I am, to take Calvin on a fun blueberry picking extravaganza.  I had visions of strolling along the forest path and showing him the joys of picking berries.  He loves picking the black currants in our backyard and successfully picked some without eating them all, so I figured we could actually do well on this mission.  We might even pick enough for blueberry pancakes tomorrow!

It turns out that Calvin was more interested in

Going "Full Swedish" = "Getting awesome"

Lately, we have been using the term "Full Swedish" or asking, "Should we go 'Full Swedish'?"  Basically, that question or statement means that we are doing things the local way.  For instance, Jon and I walked into our local, beautiful, nature-ish swimming pool and there was a sign (in Swedish) that said,

"Note: Parents, all children must wear bathing suits in the small and large pools for health."

Why is that written in bold letters on a white board as soon as you enter the pool?

The Dwyers invade the Capital of Scandinavia

Stockholm!   So many ideas and so many things to say.

How to begin??? hummm…..with the delightful Calvin? The beautiful Lisa? The wonderful Jonathan? Or even the friendly Bessie? All good beginnings. They are tremendous hosts and were happy to share the best of their new city.   Or do I begin with all of the things that we had heard about Sweden before we left America?  That is it full of tall blond people who love to drink? That it is a clean, nearly sterile place? That Swedes are not very friendly? That all Swedes speak English? That it is very expensive?