The small things…

It’s the small things in life that are important. That we should all appreciate more.

Today I decided to get out of my apartment and actually go somewhere just to breathe some fresh air and see people!
So I made my way over to Södermalm to Moncafé. A GREAT little café that has amazing (and cheap) good quality coffee.
I hung out there for a bit, chatted with the girl that works there and had a little quiet time. It was so nice and just refreshing to be sitting somewhere other than the table I’m sitting at right now.
Not having my computer in front of me, endlessly checking my email to see if I’ve gotten any responses to job applications etc.

After I left I decided to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things… I was getting low on “main” ingredients haha so I bought food. Which is good.
My favorite part about that trip though was the fact that I had 300kr (5þús isk) in my wallet and I couldn’t spend more than that.
So I walked around the store and without calculating how much everything was that I was putting in my cart I decided to just take what I wanted/needed and hope that it didn’t cost more than 300kr
So I got all that I needed that would last me for several meals and went to pay.
Total 302kr (and yes I had those 2 kr) so that made me super happy.

Especially since I didn’t calculate but just hoped that it would be enough and it was!
Small things…

Now however I am pretty much broke. So now the real test begins. After today I won’t be able to afford much but I trust God and I know that I definitely won’t starve.

It really is hard to just trust God and hope & pray that everything will work out. I had a bit of a crying session earlier today but it was good. Just what I needed really and then on the bus on the way home from Moncafé I was just filled with this optimism and certainty that everything will work out. And I LOVE that.

So even though my day started not so great and was kinda tough before I got out of the house, it got a whole lot better as the day went on.

And tomorrow & pretty much the next few days will be amazing. I’m actually gonna be hanging out with people so that’s nice haha

But if you could pray that I find a job soon then that would be amazing. Seeing as how I won’t be able to even refill the balance on my phone until I get a job. :/ hehe

I am happy though and today was a beautiful day.

Shortcuts etc…

So due to the cold I haven’t walked around the city as much as I should have I guess. Especially since I have all the time in the world but it’s just so cold and there’s ice on the streets and I’m not a big fan of walking in that.

However the little walks I HAVE taken have been lovely and I keep finding more and more shortcuts from my house. Which is just AWESOME.
Who doesn’t love shortcuts?
But I also maintain that the back entrance from my building is some sort of magical entrance. Cause it doesn’t matter which direction you go in from that entrance, it makes all walks shorter… you cut off a few hundred meters in every direction by going out the back entrance. But if you use the front one, which isn’t nice anyway and being rebuilt at the moment so I’m not actually able to use it if I wanted to….well that one makes everything longer.
So I’m a big fan of my back entrance which comes out into a nice courtyard.

Next on my list is ICA.
ICA is your local grocery store…it’s a chain similar to Nóatún, Krónan or Bónus. Now I realize that there is a major price difference between Nóatún & the other two but they don’t sell clothes like Hagkaup so yeah…
Anyway so the thing I’ve noticed about ICA which I just find odd is that the prices are different depending on location. I know it’s like this in other cities as well but I just find it strange.
It’s the same chain yet the prices vary…
So an example. There are 3 ICA stores close to where I live… S:t Eriksplan & Birkahallen are the closest ones and I’m only gonna use those two as an example.
Now birkahallen is like 2 blocks away from the s:t eriksplan store yet the price difference is insane!
I went to the store the other day to buy some apple juice concentrate cause it’s cheaper than buying a liter or 2 of apple juice and I buy this brand called “Bob” though the ICA one is just as good.
ok so at S:t Eriksplan the container was like 12.90kr and the ICA brand was like 10.90 and I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to walk back to Birkahallen and see how much it was there.
the BOB brand was 5.90!!! TWO blocks and the price difference is 7kr!!! (they didn’t have the ICA brand there btw…)
So I think that’s just weird.
However…most of the time I go shopping at PrisXtra which is cheaper so that’s good. But sometimes I just wanna see Euroshopper products and feel like I’m at home hahah

Hm…what else can I share.
For the Icelandic people….The swedes say OJ OJ OJ a lot. But “OJ” does not mean “OJ” like it does in Icelandic but more like a “úúú” eða “Ahh” “vó” etc. Which takes some getting used to.

In other news…no job yet. Hopefully I’ll get one soon. I’m really bored with not doing anything.
So those days that I do get to babysit are AWESOME cause at least I’m doing something and it’s so much fun!!

Anyway I should go to bed since it’s almost 1 am and I have booked laundry time from 8-10am tomorrow…

So until next time..

Waiting…

So my life consists of waiting these days.

Waiting to hear back about jobs, waiting for new job ads to be posted etc.

I guess in a way I should enjoy this time, enjoy having all the free time in the world but a part of me thinks it’s so unbelievably boring that I just wanna start working, preferably yesterday.

Then there’s also the whole money issue. I have money but I’m saving it for next months rent. So the whole money for food thing is a bit scarce but I trust God.

And I have plenty of cup-a-soup haha so I should be good.

But I’m really enjoying this time in my life though. I’m dirt poor but I have a roof over my head. Life is exciting, it’s fun starting out fresh and just to go with it!

People have for years always said “ohh that’s so brave of you” when I moved to Australia, alone. Or this time around, Sweden, alone. But I don’t really feel it’s a brave thing to do. It’s just moving.

The brave thing for me is the whole, trusting God that he will provide a job. But even that doesn’t really require bravery, just faith. And I am full of faith these days!

I absolutely 100% trust God that he will find the PERFECT job for me. So until I get that job, I guess this is a test in patience and faith.

Or maybe I’m just more adventurous than most people. I was 12 years old when I went overseas for the first time.

I was going to Florida where I would spend two weeks with Fjóla and her family. But they left a week before I did so 12 years old I jumped on a plane for the first time in my life and flew to Orlando. I spoke English but a 12 year old going through an International Airport alone is kinda crazy…

Thankfully the flight attendant realized half way through my flight that I was flying alone so they sort of escorted me through the airport but only through customs really…after that I just had to find my way. And I did with the help of airport personnel but it was no big deal for me.

I just thought it was so much fun. I was pumped to be in Florida and pumped that I got to speak English all the time.

After that I’ve traveled a bit but only twice have I actually traveled with a group of people. Never any family members, just friends. So from day one traveling has just been the next fun adventure. International airports are all the same. Except Bangkok, the new terminal that is… that one took me a while to figure out but once I did. Awesome! haha

So the point of all this rambling about traveling. I guess the attitude that you have and how you approach things, circumstances etc is really important. At 12 I chose to look at flying alone to Florida to be a very exciting and fun thing to do. Not a scary thing and I guess that has shaped the way I look at things a bit.

So moving to a new country where you don’t necessarily speak the language isn’t a scary thing. It’s a fun and exciting adventure and this time around I already have friends in the country. Not like Australia, though they came quickly.

But most important of all, I have God, a stronger faith in God. So while I have Him and hold on tight, everything else will work out in His time.

This post turned out to be a lot more serious than I intended but serious can be good too.

EDIT: Something I need to add. Though I’m super optimistic and think this is a fun & amazing adventure. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t had my moments of “was this a mistake?” “can I do this?” etc… of course I’ve been scared to do this but I overcame the fear by #1. Making the decision to go. #2 Actually going. #3 Putting all my trust in God.
When you first read what I wrote, it might sound like I’m totally chilled about all of this. Which I am for the most part but I do have my moments of fears/doubts etc…but I don’t let those moments control me or take over. Cause if I did. Then I would be back in Iceland.

Ok…just felt like I needed to add this.

New place

So yesterday I moved into my new apartment!!!

VERY exciting stuff!

The first night I spent the night on the worlds crappiest mattress and I could pretty much feel the floor through it which was awful.

So today I made a trip to Ikea and went crazy! (Though within my budget limit!)

As I’m still cleaning and setting everything up I’m not posting pictures yet but I will maybe tomorrow or Saturday.

But I’m really loving my new place… it’s pretty dirty I’ve found out…the guy that lived here did not clean AT ALL. So it’s kinda gross but whatever… I have cleaning materials so I’m just cleaning away!

However everything is coming together very nicely. I think in time this place will be cozy   I wish I had money to spend on deco though! hahah

Once I get a job I might go to Ikea and buy some of those self-adhesive flowery things or something. Just to have something on the walls.

But I have a BED! So I’m REALLY exciting about going to sleep tonight. I’ll probably sleep like a baby.

It is really amazing though how you can get pretty much EVERYTHING at Ikea… it’s ridiculous really.  However I am really happy that I didn’t have to go to a million different places and Ikea is pretty cheap so that was nice as well.

Anyway… small-ish update but an update all the same.

Adios

Really quick…

I’m too tired to write a really long blog but here are a few things that have happend.

I got a job at a ghetto school that I then decided to decline after spending one day there because it was the craziest school I’ve set foot into in my life. 6 year olds behaving worse than teenagers and teachers not really caring if they’re in class or not. A bit too much for me.

I got an apartment!!!! It’s in Vasastan which is a GREAT location! Seriously amazing… So I’m really pumped about that.

I get the keys tomorrow and so yeah.. I’m happy about that.

Church was amazing as always today… seriously LOVE my church & the people in it. It truly is a family and I’m so blessed to be a part of it!

I may have more news concerning jobs soon but I won’t say anything until I know for sure

Went to a bar on Saturday night and saw this band called Karl & King www.myspace.com/karlandking – check them out! Really great music!

Went to the movies on Friday night and saw the movie “Precious” oh my goodness… one of the toughest movies I’ve seen but SO good. Like it has a GREAT message and it’s definitely worth seeing.

So it’s been a super busy weekend! Which is great! haha

Ok … I need to go to bed now but I’ll try to blog more soon!

Hugs & Handball

Oh Stockholm… such a lovely city!

Another  fantastic few days behind me… I haven’t really done much but it’s been enjoyable all the same.

I played board games or rather card games on Friday night with some friends… found my board game soul mate here in Stockholm…turns out it’s a 13 year old girl from America who moved here with her family hahaha

But yeah…I had a great time playing Bohnanza & Apples to Apples… hopefully I’ll get a chance to play Settlers of Catan soon!

Like a true Icelandic person I’ve been watching every single handball game Iceland has played over the last few days and tomorrow will be no exception!

But it’s been great to keep up with that at least…

I watched Sweden vs. Germany on friday night on TV4 which is a Swedish channel and I’ll say this… I know a lot of people cannot stand the Icelandic commentator but he’s WAAAAAAAAY better than the Swedes…

It was just ridiculous, they never got excited about anything. Someone scored a goal and they just didn’t care… it was weird as! But much to my happiness, Germany won!!! AHHH yay

Anywho….Church was Uh.Maze.ING today! Sooooo good. Andreas is in London so we had a guest speaker, Lasse PP Nylén, he was really good but I found him even more hard to understand than Andreas so it definitely was a challenge to keep up with what he was saying but I think I did pretty good.

And I’m on a team now! YAY!

I’ll be serving on the new people team…though I probably won’t be doing a lot of talking with new people since my speaking level in Swedish is that of a 3 year old but maybe soon… or eventually! haha

But I’m just pumped to be on a team so I can serve and really just get into things.

So another observation that I’ve had… I don’t think this is normal Swedish culture but more just Hillsong culture. But people very freely give out HUGS here.

Which makes me extremely happy! I LOVE getting hugs and that’s one of the things that annoyed me about Iceland…people never hug when they see each other. It’s always just a hey…but here it’s hugging left and right which is awesome. Unless you don’t like hugs, then sucks to be you haha!

Anyway… tomorrow I’m off on a job hunt! I’m starting with this English school that’s in a suburb north of Stockholm but I’ve been told they need teachers for kids so hopefully I can get a job there!

And I’m also going to look at an apartment!!! WOOHOO! So that’s VERY exciting

It shall be a good day indeed. So you can definitely pray for me/with me that #1. I get a job (tomorrow would be nice haha) and #2. I’ll want to take this apartment cause it’s in an excellent location so yeah…very exciting stuff.

I took ONE picture today but its on my phone so as soon as I transfer it over to my computer… I’ll show you the one picture haha….I’m bad at taking pics these days cause I hate my camera :/

Anyway….adios.

A few observations…

Ok so after a week in Stockholm I’ve noticed a few things.

Since 66°N isn’t exactly the norm here, Canadian Goose parkas are.

Everyone and their mom has one….except for me. I am finally unique and not like the rest of the sheep hahahah

…….

Pretty much every single dairy product from Arla that that I’ve tried is good. So I’m sticking with Arla products.

Apple juice from the middle east is gross.

I’ll stick to “Swedish” apple juice.

Swedes are a lot like Icelandic people when it comes to not sitting next to strangers etc.

One shall ALWAYS leave a seat between them & a stranger unless the train is packed and you want to sit. Then you sit down wherever…..haha

I’ve been told that Swedes are closed off and hard to get to know but everyone has been super open and lovely with me so maybe it’s a cultural thing….they know I’m the same way so they accept me immediately? haha

Anyway…I’m getting better at knowing when to use different pronunciations. Sk is hhh (sort of like a spitting sound) haha

It’s all a bit weird but I’m getting there. I’m just focusing on listening to the language for now, hopefully I’ll find the courage to say a little bit more than “bra” (good) soon haha.

But listening… watching tv and reading the swedish subtitles

Men mit liv blir verkligen bra!

As for last night…. we had a Touching Heaven night at church (Worship night) and it was SO good!!

Seriously amazing, the spirit in the air, God really showed up and touched a lot of people. I love my church!!

I can’t wait for Sunday, it’s gonna be great!

Oh! I’ve also gotten my personnummer… only took 4 working days instead of the 2-4 weeks they said it would take. Ah the perks of being from another Nordic country. So now I have a Swedish kennitala…

So I guess that’s it for now… it would be awesome if all u peeps that are reading this could pray that I’ll find a job & a place to live!

xoxo

French Press? For french fries?

So today I went to Ikea.

The world’s largest Ikea mind you. Also the world’s most complicated Ikea.

It’s on like 4 different levels and each level has a sub-level.

It took me like 30 mins just to find towels. Or well, I found towels but thought surely there must be a bigger selection than this and went on a search for more. However I found out that what I’d found was indeed the entire selection. So I bought a couple of towels, which was nice.

Other essentials I got at Ikea were hangers & this thing….called Skubb… so now I have unpacked all my stuff and all my clothes fit nicely into one little thingy of that….

So it’s VERY nice to be finally out of the suitcase! I do not enjoy living out of a suitcase.

However I might need to start packing again cause I may have found an apartment in Vasastan, which is a GREAT location. So I’m super pumped about that!

Anyway on with my adventure in Ikea & other stores….

So after Ikea, I walk over to Elgiganten or El Giganten like I would like to call it….otherwise known as Elko to Icelandic ppl.

My mission there was to find a french press. Now I realize that a french press does not require electricity but I’ve seen them at Elko in Iceland so I just assume that they’ll have them here as well.

Boy was I wrong!

I look all over the place and see nothing, so I decide to ask.

“Excuse me, do you have a french press?”

“French press? For french fries?”

“uhh, No. For coffee.”

“oh!”

“It’s not electrical”

“oh, we only have stuff that requires electricity”

So that was that….no luck.

Before I go on, where the Ikea & Elgiganten store are located is called Kungens Kurva and it’s a place with only like MASSIVE stores….

So I continue my walk in the snow with my blue Ikea bag and make my way over to a building where I see Apoteket, pharmacy for the Americans. Cause I needed to get some stuff from there.

Anywho so in the same building is this massive store called City Gross. Which I find rather funny but knowing that the german word for “big” is “gross” makes it at least make sense.

So I fell in love with that store… it has EVERYTHING. Even some American stuff…. like reese’s peanut butter cups, lipton ice tea (I bought some peach!!!) and Cherry coke! (it had other gross drinks like dr.pepper but I wasn’t interested)

However I didn’t buy much there…just the ice tea, and some other groceries. But I continued on in my search for the french press and City Gross did not sell it either.

So I decide to walk on over to the ICA store…which is basically the local grocery store…..it’s all over Stockholm, just different sizes…But much to my surprise…there I found my LOVELY french press, on SALE!

So I was super excited about that!

At that point though I decided it was time to go home since it was like 5.30 and I’d been there since 2pm and I was dead tired.

But I was very happy with my day.

Tomorrow my aim is to go and talk to a man about a job. hehe

It’s at an English school in Rågsved which is about 20 mins out of Stockholm but the Tunnelbana goes all the way so that’s fine. I don’t really care about the location of my job. I just want A job.

But the highlight of my day was definitely “French press? for french fries?”… I am very proud of myself that I didn’t laugh in that woman’s face. Cause that would have been rude. But I try my best in life, not to be rude. hah

Adios!

A great weekend!

Wow. I barely have words for how good this weekend has been!

Friday was awesome…I had lunch with Röggi & we hung out for a few hours. It was really nice being able to speak Icelandic for a little bit haha though we did get a lot of looks from people…either cause I speak so loud or because they were wondering what language we were speaking haha…probably both!

I also went and looked at a room in Rågsved which is a suburb about 20 mins out of the inner city but you can still reach it by tunnelbana which is great. I don’t know what I’m gonna do yet though… but I do have few other options. So I’m just thinking about it all…

After that I had dinner at this GREAT restaurant in Gamla Stan called Vapiano… Apparently it’s the place to be haha cause it was PACKED. I loved it… it’s affordable but still nice.

Saturday I decided to chill…. so I did absolutely nothing. Except catch up on American Idol & go for a walk… other than that I just had a nice day at home, relaxing.

I’ve learned that it can really wear you out if you’re constantly traveling back and forth on the train. Esp since Tuna (Tumba) is so far away from the inner city. But it’s a nice area… lots of trees all over the place.

However it will be good to get my own place which will hopefully happen soon.

Then today… today was the BEST day of all. Sunday = Church!!!

First of all… the idea of spending the WHOLE day in church makes me just want to cry tears of Joy cause I truly love nothing more than spending Sunday in the house….serving or whatever.

Church is just THE place to be on a Sunday. Seriously it was SO good.

I got there around 1.40pm so set up was still going on… then everyone had a late lunch & then we had kick off which is I guess the beginning of the day for the volunteers. Prayer meeting etc…

So that was really great… I wanted to just sit in on this Sunday and just enjoy the services and just take it all in. But I did help out a little bit before the services started. Cutting some papers and being the klutz I am, I managed to cut 2 fingers so I rocked these AWESOME blue band-aids during church haha

Anyway… church was so good though. It was so great to just enjoy the worship & just being in the presence of God.

Being who I am, I want to learn Swedish so I didn’t even consider using translation so for the first service I understood quite a bit but Andreas Nielsen speaks SOOOOO FAST! It’s ridiculous…however I am happy with myself cause I was able to follow a little bit with what he was saying… at least I got the bible verses down cause well… the word for Romans in Swedish & Icelandic sound pretty much the same hah!

But for the second service, I don’t know what it was…maybe the coffee I had after the first service, but I was able to completely follow along with what he was saying. So I was VERY happy with myself.

So I’m excited about the coming weeks… I definitely understand more now than I did on Wednesday so hopefully I’ll find the courage to start speaking soon haha.

One of my goals is to definitely learn how to speak Swedish. It’s a fascinating language.

Then after church I went to dinner with a lot of people from church. None of whom I actually knew before I moved here so that was really nice. I love making new friends and everyone was so nice tonight.

So all in all… it was a fantastic weekend. Wednesday night is Touching Heaven which I am PUMPED about. Seriously, can’t wait!

So now I’ve done of of those boring blogs of … first I did this and then I did that … but you will just have to deal with it! haha

Adios for now…

Skatteverket

Ok so I got one complaint about my blog being in Icelandic & therefore said person could not read it so now I shall blog in English.

If someone complains about that…then I might consider doing both! haha

Anyway so today my mission was to go to Skatteverket. Which is place where one can get their personnummer, also known as kennitala in Icelandic or something similar to Social Security Number for the americans.

Now I found this blog before I moved…don’t remember the URL but I remember reading about Skatteverket and it’s short opening hours and how you have to wait in line to get a ticket so you can wait some more etc.

So I was picturing having to stay there like half the day.

After much confusion thanks to google. I walked in a huge circle trying to find the building but I found it eventually and it should have been SOOOOOOOOO easy to find except I just walked in the wrong direction, Yay me.

On with the story, so I walk in and there were SO many people there and nobody really seemed to know where to go etc. So I just go over to this info desk where they have the ticket machine and a staff member walks up to me and starts speaking swedish. I don’t understand a word so I just say that I’m here to apply for a personnummer. So I get handed an application & a number, B448. I look up on the screen and see that the current number is B407 – yay.

Anyway so I fill it out to the best of my abilities, get help with the remaining stuff & eventually sit down and start waiting. 45 mins later my number is up!

So I go over to the lady and talk to her for like 10 mins, she photocopies my passport and asks me a few questions and tells me that I’ll get a letter in the mail in 2-4 weeks and it will either be positive (I get a number) or negative (I don’t get a number) so now I’m waiting.

Now considering the stories I’d read about Skatteverket and my expectation of it, I must say that 1 hr is just pretty good.

I even got to see a lady get upset & be escorted out by security and the mouths of employees etc was wide open. If only I understood what she was so upset about. hahah

Also the opening hours are not short… I find that everything here is open later than in Iceland.

I learned a few new words today. I heard them over and over and over again yesterday so tonight I asked Sara and she explained them for me.

The first one is a slang word for “Hi”

Tjena it’s pronounced something like “Sjene” – for the Icelandic… just think of the word Séní and say Séna instead haha!

Next word is “Läjet” but it’s pronounced/sounds like  “Laget” and it means “How are you” so people apparently say “Tjena läget”

Grymt in it’s traditional meaning is “cruel” but as a slang it means Cool or Awesome or Great etc….

So that was today’s language lesson.

I also went and got a pre-paid phone number… which I hate but I can’t afford to keep my Icelandic number open and you need a personnummer to get a contract so I’m stuck with pre-paid and my blackberry shall be a glorified phone until I can get a blackberry contract. *sigh* So I’ll be old school for a while… only being able to text ppl! hah!

In other news I’m going to look at a room that’s for rent tomorrow… more info might come or it might not….we shall see.

Tomorrow will be GREAT…Lots of fun things planned so I’m excited but I’ll share later… and perhaps a few pictures if I ever get around to actually taking some.

OH and I bought a dictionary.

One step at a time….