Saturday, August 25, 2012

Settling in


Hej! Hello from Uppsala, Sweden where I'm celebrating my one week anniversary. I'm safe and sound and settling in quite nicely. I've been nesting as evidenced by lots of new kitchen wares, probably a few too many. I'm living in student housing, which my Swedish friend who picked me up from the airport informed me her parents lived in in the 60s. But it is nice and has been remodeled at least once. I'm on the 7th floor so I have a nice view of the surrounding fields and woods, as well as a divided highway. Most of the time, until the snow gets too impossible, I'll ride my bike the 5km to class past a community garden, woods, a couple housing developments/student housing and then into the old town, where my department sits right next to the canal in the old town square. 

Thus far I have mostly been settling in and arranging things like immigration, internet, bus cards, student IDs, etc. I have visited the Migrationsverket, Skatteverket (twice), Uppdok, studentkår (many times). That's the migration, tax, registration offices, and student center. My Swedish vocabulary at this point consists of government offices and food. Although I do hope to soon be changing that. 

My favorite written material to date is "Cycling in Uppsala: A popular activity" A popular activity... :) There are more bikes than people, I'm convinced. Luckily, my Rotary host counsellor's husband has a vintage bike, complete with a leather seat and handles that he's going to let me borrow for a while. So I will soon be cruising around fitting into the place. Although I feel sheepish having to ask people to speak English, everyone I've met is basically fluent and although they often think I'm Swedish, they quickly help my lame American self. 

Finally, I am SOOOO happy that have 3 close friends and cousin safely through pregnancy. There are 4 new, amazing girls who have entered this world healthily. I can not wait to meet all of them and watch them become incredible people.  Knowing these little ones have enter the world makes me hope to work harder to contribute in small part to making this a world in which they and other children can grow up in safe communities with access to health care, education, and employment. And a world in which they can be content and have many occasions for happiness.