My Reward for Yesterday's Rain

Friday was cold and rainy here in Sweden.  Walking to the post office after work (it was half sunny and just spitting a bit), I was rewarded with this absolutely gorgeous rainbow.  My pictures do not do it justice.  It was a full arch and the full spectrum of colour through out.  The second picture show the colours better.  It made my 15 minute walk to the post off worth while.

  

The walk to the post office was a new adventure since I had not explored that area before.  Much of the walk was through trails at the edge of a bush and was nicer than walking on the roads.   I rather enjoyed it, even with the rain.

The trip to the post office was a necessary one, since I had to pick up a package.  Sweden can be a bit strange.  I needed peroxide to die my hair, so I went to the beauty supply to buy it and was refused.  You can only purchase there if you are currently employed by a Swedish hair salon.  Thus I had to buy it on line from Britain.  Oh well,  now that I have it, I can colour my hair.  A couple of week later than I should have.

Sweden is also strange about vitamins and supplements.  I am having a hard time replacing mine as they run out.  I will definitely have to stock up at home over Christmas.

Another somewhat bizarre law is that you can only leave your dog alone for a maximum of 4 hours at a time.  As a result it is very expensive to own a dog since many of them have to go to dogie daycare during the day.  But in order to get them there dogs are allowed on the buses since most people use transit to get to work.  However, they are not allowed on the trains or subway, only the buses.  Some people have a longer commute due to not being able to take them on the entire transit system.  It is however nice to see the dogs on the buses.  They are usually extremely well trained.

Well that is all for now, I have to get to my hair, marking tests and learning Swedish.

Chris

Saturday's Events

My landlady is away in Britain for a couple of weeks and I have had the apartment to myself all week.  So I decided to stay in Saturday and enjoy the peace and quiet... relax in my pajamas late and catch up on some lesson planning and marking.

In the evening I went out for dinner and the movie with friends from work.  We went to a cute vegetarian restaurant in Sodermalm.  I had ricotta and spinach cannelloni in a fresh homemade marinara sauce with lots of veggies.  it was really good, but the portion was huge.  I ate less than half of it.

After dinner we went into Stockholm for the movie.  We saw the new Mark Walberg movie Mile 22.  My advice is save the money.  There was a terribly  predictable, weak story line  and it was very violent.  

They had cute square boxes for the popcorn but no hot butter.   The popcorn was not as good as what I'm use to and much less salty.  There was a wall of candy that for a price you could fill a bucket with a mixture of whatever you wanted.  Pop was surprisingly inexpensive, but everything else was theatre high prices, Swedish style..... which means even higher relatively speaking.

The theatre was small and cozy with only about 60 seats.  My friend said they have larger theatres also.  The film was not dubbed with Swedish, but rather had Swedish subtitles.  There were a few parts when the characters were speaking  in foreign languages that I didn't understand, but got them explained to me by my friend. 

This was my first movie in Sweden and it was nice to be at a movie again. 

Mentor Day

Well it has been a busy week.  Thursday was Mentor Day.  A team building day for the students in the class as well as their mentor teachers.  And a fundraising day for Walk for Water ..... a charity that raises fund to build infrastructure to bring clean water to those in need.  So walk we did, with all the children sporting their blue Walk for water backpacks.

It was a beautiful day with full sun and a bit windy which kept it cool.  Most of us had jackets on.  A great day to go on a hike to a park just over  1 k away.  The unfortunate thing is our map makers had not bothered to check out the park, but rather just used google.  The park was under construction and closed.  So we had to scramble and find an alternate site for our team building games, which we did.  It was not nearly as big or as nice but the kids had fun and we came away with no major injuries.

We went back to the school for lunch, bathroom break and some play time.  The off we went on our second walk.  This one was picturesque.... walking though a wooded area and then along the lake at parts.  We found this interesting mushroom on our walk.  Isn't it pretty.  The kids said it was poisonous and not to eat it.

Best part the park was not under construction and the students had fun playing in the park.  On the way home we stopped at the Troll park.  It is calls thus since it has troll and mushroom statues in it for the kids to play on.  Then off to school we went for home time.

It was a lot of fun, but very tiring.  I walked over 26000 steps that day.  Also I usually have 4 hours max with the students broken up with breaks, but we were together all day.... 6 continuous hours.

Success on Saturday

Saturday I went to the Mall of Scandinavia which is in Solna, north of Stockholm City. (I am south of the city.) It is a beautiful mall with high ceilings and wood trim, very attractive and rich looking. 

It is allegedly the best mall in Stockholm according to several different sites.  On the first floor I felt like I was on the wrong side of Sumerset Mall......all designer names .... Hugo Boss, Vera Wang, etc with designer prices.... out of my price range.  However I did find a selection of other stores on the lower and upper levels.  

The best part of the trip was that I finally found work clothes, three  blouses which actually match my pants.  And at a not too terrible price.  However, my budget has been spent for right now I so guess this means my shopping quest is over for now.

I will have to go back to site seeing for a while.  The trees are starting to change and it is feeling like fall s it will be fun.

Chris

Short Day Thursday

Thursdays |I only work until 1:30 pm.  I usually end up staying at work and getting my planning done but yesterday I didn't.  I decided to go shopping instead.  

I started with the beauty supply store to get peroxide.  My roots are in dire need of colour.  However, they refused to sell it to me.  They only sell to people who are working in a salon in  Sweden.  Bummer.  I guess I will have to find it online.

Next I went to Skarpnack to the mall.... still looking for work clothes.
                              

I found a cute dress and a rayon blouse in the mall.  Also something for Lucas for Christmas. (My first Chritmas present of the season.) Then I was shocked........ and disappointed .........the first Mall in Stockholm that I have seen these in.........

                               

All the other malls have, no pay, play areas with animals to climb on.

Next I went to Krungers Kurva to the mall there. There wasn't much different for  the first mall.  I didn't get anything there.  

Then I crossed the street to my favourite Swedish store ...... Ikea.  

I picked up a frying pan for the kitchen.  I don't like using the cast iron pan that is there and also a cube to use as a night stand for my bedroom.  I rearrange the bedroom last week and now have nothing to put the CPAP machine on.

Then I went home and had a lovely conversation with Lucas.

It was a great day.  I like short day Thursday.

Chris

Saturday's adventure ...... or walk ......or shopping trip

I came across a google list of the top 30 shopping centers in Stockholm ...... I have committed to seeing them all by Christmas .... well maybe Easter.

Today I went to Nacka to the Nacka Forum.  I chose it because it had several stores I wanted to look in and was father away from home than some of the others.  It took me about an hour to get there on two buses and a train.  The train, which was between the two buses, ended in Sickle.  While waiting for the bus I took this picture.

The buildings are shorter than the trees and the church steeple rises out of the trees.  Yes i have a thing for churches.  Stockholm has a lot of tall and beautifully designed churches.

So the bus arrived and dropped me off at Nacka forum. (You can see the bus stop in the picture)

It amazes me how most of the malls are attached to other things, like business, apartment buildings and so forth.  Not many are the typical Canadian mall set on its own property and surrounded by parking.  The parking is often underground in Sweden.

The mall was nice with three floors.  Unfortunately, I didn't find any work clothes.  Well none that I wanted to  pay the price for.  Some prices in Sweden are too high, just like Canada.

I did find some office supplies in the giant tiger store (not related to the one in Canada) which come from Copenhagen.  It is about the closest thing to a Dollarama as they have in Sweden.   

I also found a new store, well one i hadn't seen before called Normal.  It has makeup. shampoos and other pharmacy type stuff at low prices.  I bought some Kleenex in there.  You would not believe how hard it is to find Kleenex.   The Apotek (pharmacy) here only have drug store stuff (no Kleenex), no foods or candy or chips or anything.  Just shampoos, shaving stuff and vitamins, etc.

In the malls in swede they usually have play areas for kids but they do not entice the parents to spend money.  No coin operated merry-go-rounds.  They are usually animals they c an climb on with rubber flooring under them.  There were cute chickens in this one.

Next I headed for home via Liljiholmen because I had to pick up a few groceries.  Here is the mall by the train and bus station.  It actually connects to them on the lower level where the grocery stores are.  The upper levels are nice and filled with stores.  I am here often.  But no work clothes here either.  So I got my groceries, and hit my step goal and headed home.  Here is the mall, again with apartment over and beside it.

I hope everyone had a productive Saturday.  Enjoy your weekend!

Mentors and Mentees

Wednesday was Development Talks.  The Swedes believe that the  parents should be involved in their child's education and take an active role.  So the students were all off school except for their 20 minute mentor talk with their parents and teacher.  By Law the parents had to be given time off work to attend their child's talk.

It was a very interesting day.  I am mentor to 16 grade 4 students, many of which do not speak English yet.  So I was very thankful the parents all spoke English and could translate for me.  

Our mentor class has 32 students and two teacher mentors.  We split the class in half randomly, not knowing who any of the students were, and fortunately my teaching partner Linnea pick all the students who needed Swedish translation.  This is fine for her since she speaks Swedish.  It is funny how sometimes thing work themselves out.

During this talk, with the support of their parents, the student set 2 goals for the year related to their education and what they want to improve over the next 10 months.  Then they must set a plan for achieving theses goals.  

Next they set a goal for improving the school community.  These goals include creating a caring environment, a safe community, leading by example, crating an engaging classroom environment and coming up with new ideas to improve the school.  Needless to say most of my students picked either caring or clean.  A couple go-get-hers chose leading by example.

Then they asked how the school can help them achieve their goals and then how their parents can help them achieve their goals.  It amazed me that many of my students thought that the class was too noisy and they needed a calmer, quieter classroom.  This I agree with, but what amazed me was that it was the chronic talkers that asked for this!  Go figure.

The best part of mentor talks was going out for beers afterwards with the staff to de-stress.  I was not drinking beer, rather just enjoying the company and went home about 7 pm.  Several of them went to a different bar after the first and didn't get home till late and were pretty funny Thursday morning when they dragged themselves into work.  

That's all for this blog

Chris

Lazy Sunday

Today is Sunday, a get things done day and then laze around. 

I did take time out to go to church with my landlady.  She goes to a very evangelical church that follows the bible literally based on their beliefs.  Which in my opinion are a bit archaic and not very Christian.  But I enjoy the music and the fellowship and haven't found an alternative for now.  It is also nice to spent time with my land lady outside the apartment. 

Then I did wash, lesson plans and prep work for the week ahead.  Now I am going to watch a movie and go to bed. Work in the morning.

No Labour Day holiday for me tomorrow.  I hope you all have a great Labour day.

Pleasant dreams everyone.

Chris

Saturday's Adventure

Well I started  out in Södermalm. It is a district and island that is in  Central Stockholm.   It is often called just Söder which means south in Swedish and it is south of Stockholm City. 

Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, water to both its north and south does not flow freely but passes through locks.  On my boat trip we went through one of the locks.  it was really cool. It is connected to the other islands by bridges and roadways.

Once a working class neighbourhood, Södermalm is now the hipster's paradise with trendy vintage clothing boutiques, cool independent galleries and intimate little bars.

I went to Södermalm to explore and see what I could find and what all the hype is about.  I wandered through the streets which have gorgeous 16th century buildings and went into some of the shops.  It is a nice place. 

       

Since it was a beautiful day I kept walking until I realized I had left Soder and was now in Slussen.  So I decided to explore (I hadn't gotten my steps yet) and ended up looking at Gammla Stan across the water.  I was excited that I may be able to take a boat to get there, but it ended up being a bridge, so I walked to it

The subway is on the north side of the island and I came onto it from the south so there were lots of new things to see and shops to look in.  I found this gorgeous old church all enclosed in it's rod iron and brick fence
 

  

   

I found one of the many ice cream shops and stopped for a handmade waffle cone with Swedish chocolate brownie ice cream.  I wandered the streets making my way to the subway while I enjoyed the rich chocolate cone with bits of brownies in it.  I actually found the subway without having to ask anyone.  That is a first.  Usually I get all turned around and cannot figure out where I am.  But today I was successful.  either that or practice makes perfect.

Chris