A challenge and three blog awards

My intention was to answer all the comments before writing a new post but I will just try to do that as soon as possible. In the mean while you can get to know me a bit better according to the challenge I got from Brysselkakan:

What did you do ten years ago? I was an intern at a small human rights NGO in Geneva and I was monitoring UN human rights meetings such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Working group on the Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People(s). I shared a tiny, cold apartment with my neighbour from Eslöv. He had his second child 4 days before V was born and is coming to Brussels to visit us with his whole family in March, I can’t wait! The 9th June 2002 I arrived to Brussels and started to work at the European Commission. Ten years ago already… at the same time it feels like a life time ago!!

What did you do a year ago? I was pregnant, but I didn’t know it yet! I had just come back from the French Alps with the European school where I had injured my knee after 5 minutes’ of skiing. On the 31st January I went to the hospital here in Brussels and they made a [urine] pregnancy test which turned out to be… negative! so they x-rayed my knee (anterior crucible ligament was damaged but nothing broken). On the 7th February a blood test showed that I was pregnant!

Five snacks that you like? Swedish crisps (Estrellas grillchips!), Swedish sweets even though since my pregnancy I am not at all as fond of sweets as I used to be!, green olives with stones (it’s something to do with the consistency that I prefer to pitted olives) or stuffed with lemon, popcorn and Côte d’Or’s dark chocolate with marzipan.

Five songs that you know the lyrics to: I have realised that I don’t even know the lyrics to the most simple children’s songs when trying to sing to V but at least I know the Swedish lyrics to “Itsy bitsy spider” (Imse vimse spindel) and “Clap your hands” (Klappa händerna). I am the worst singer who can’t hold a tune but I can sing along to many pop songs. However, I only sing when alone or around people I know very well…

Five things you would do if you became a multi millionaire: Buy a nice house in Brussels, renovate one of O’s parents’ apartments so that we could stay there when in Spain, build a second guest house next to my parents’ summer house so that the whole family could stay more comfortably, travel, and save money for V.

Five bad habits: Procrastinating (I need to continue working on that to-do list this week!!), not ironing (my mother-in-law is horrified that I don’t iron more!), not doing enough sports / exercise, keeping too much stuff (magazines, books, papers etc…) and writing lists of things that should be done instead of doing them.

Five things you like to do: Read, blog (I wish I did it more often), cuddle with V and O, sleep and travel… (I actually sleep really well while travelling by bus, train, plane or car!)

Five things you would never wear or buy: This one was difficult but extremely pointy shoes (I have wide feet), and then I need to copy My’s answer: I would never buy children’s clothes with weapons or action figures, nor toy weapons for that matter.

Five favourite toys: Hm, toys? It is true that our home is slowly being taken over by V’s toys, which I am enjoying (so far) but my favourite “toys”? The computer, the camera, the kettle and ok, the old bird from my childhood that both V and I enjoy while changing nappies and the cd-player with which I can play children’s songs for V.

Five persons that I would like to answer the challenge: I am quite late so I think that most of the bloggers I know have already done this list…

And then I also have to thank Brysselkakan, Millan and Saltistjejen for the very nice award that she they gave me. I am a bit embarrassed to get awards when I have been so bad at updating the blog lately (the last year really!).

UPDATED: Most of my favourite blogs have already received this award but there is one blog that I would like to encourage you to read: my sister’s blog and that’s not because I am biased! She has a perfect combo of interesting subjects (exercise, interior design, books, travels etc) and I want to cheer her up as she is now in a similar situation to mine a year ago (not the not confirmed pregnancy but with a ligament injury). Maybe she would like to answer the challenge as well!?

Summer of 2011 list

I think that it is time for a list that has been circulating on the Swedish expat blogs:

Which countries did you visit?
Only Sweden, in June. Our plans to go to Spain were cancelled due to my house arrest [as there was a risk of a premature birth].

Which date from the summer of 2011 will you always remember?
The 16^th June when I started my new job contract and managed to work only half a day before being put on sick leave by my doctor!

Best buy?
Hm, I didn’t buy much as I have been at home all summer. Maybe some of the books I bought on-line?

What did you spent most money on?
Medical bills… I still have to claim them back from the insurance company.

Did something make you really happy?
Yes, that I still haven’t given birth and that our baby will not be a preemie!

How did you spend Midsummer’s Eve?
At home, on the sofa. It was just in the beginning of my sick leave and we were so worried that the baby would arrive prematurely, that I hardly dared to move around the small studio apartment that was our home.

Favourite tv-programme?
Didn’t watch much tv despite the house arrest. But I like the BBC productions of Rick Stein’s Spain (food and travelling) and Waking the dead.

Which is the best book you have read this summer?
Well, I have so far read 28 or 29 books since the 16^th June and many of them were really good. The Book Thief, Just kids and The Help are three that stand out.

Is there anything that would have made your summer better?
Under the circumstances no, but of course I would have preferred being able to continue working and to have had some normal summer holidays…

The summer’s sweetest?
When we got an incredibly clear ultrasound picture of our little Sweet Pea with his eyes open, that was just so sweet!

The summer’s biggest love?
Of course the love we feel for our unborn child, and our families who have been wonderfully supportive – my parents and my sister, and O’s sister and niece who came to keep me company and take care of me and the household!

The summer’s best?
That our friends lent us their home while they went to Sweden for the summer, and that we are now able to share another apartment with some other friends until we can move back to the “summer apartment” in November. That’s what friends are for!

The view over the Baltic Sea when we visited my aunt at the old summer house in June

Q & A

This Q & A has circulated on several blogs, most recently I saw it on Lia’s blog…

* How old are you in five years’ time?
Oh, the scary thought – I will be 39 40 and 7 months!

* Who was the last person you met?
My two best French friends in Brussels – S and C for Sunday lunch. We went to a great place called La maison du peuple, which has a nice atmosphere and food. Unfortunately their cappuccino was really bad!?

* How tall are you?
168 cm

* Which was the last film you saw?
Yesterday I saw the great The Way Back, I would definitely recommend it!

* Who was the last person you called?
French C to organise the Sunday lunch plans. Last person who called me was my mother-in-law but I missed her call!

* What did your last text message say and to whom?
My last text message was for O who is on a business trip in Singapore. It said “Sweetness in February” and showed a picture of a present he will get when he gets home next weekend.

* What are today’s plans?
Vacuum-clean and do laundry but first publish this blog post.

* Do you prefer to call or send a text message?
Depends, usually I prefer sending a text message (or an email!).

* Are your parents married, living together (without being married) or divorced?
They have been married for 37 years this summer!

* When was the last time you saw your mother?
The 10th January, we left for Brussels just a few hours after my grandmother’s funeral.

* Which colour do your eyes have?
Green

* When did you wake up today?
First at 8 o’clock, I called O and he told me that he was out walking in Singapore taking lots of photos. Then I fell back to sleep and woke up again at 9.45.

* Have you ever found a cat?
No

* Which is your favourite place?
Skåne and the old summerhouse that my maternal grandparents built in the 1950’s. Also I love the Geneva lake in Switzerland, where my father’s uncle used to live.

* Which is your least favourite place?
The luggage belt in an airport! People always behave especially selfish there, bringing their luggage trolleys right to the front and taking up all the space. Why can’t people understand that taking one step back and leaving the empty trolley behind them would allow more people to see when their suitcases arrive??

* Where do you think that you are in ten years’ time?
If only I knew! Maybe still in Brussels, maybe in Spain… maybe somewhere else? But as long as I am with O and we can easily travel to see family and friends, I’ll be happy.

* What scared you as a child?
My reoccurring nightmares that I could never explain afterwards…

* Who made you laugh recently?
My French friends C and S, we misheard each other so many times today over lunch – probably because of the noise in the restaurant. One of the funniest misunderstandings was when C and I thought that S said that she had once seen a woman “breastfeed a shop keeper / merchant”! Actually, that is not at all what she said; she said that she had seen a woman breastfeed “while walking”!! (au marchand / en marchant)

* Are you too young to own vinyl records?
Definitely NOT! My first real LP (i.e not counting the children’s records) was A-ha’s Hunting high and low that I got for my 11^th birthday in 1986! I have lots of LPs and I am not planning on getting rid of them, rather to bring them and a record-player to Brussels.

* Do you have a laptop or a desk top?
Laptop

* Do you sleep with or without clothes?
With PJs. Don’t like sleeping naked.

*How many pillows do you have in your bed?
Too many according to O, I say too few / only four at the moment…

* How many landscapes / regions have you lived in?
Skåne and Östergötland in Sweden, Hampshire in England, Veneto in Italy, the Canton Geneva in Switzerland, Haute Savoie in France, Bruxelles-Capitale in Belgium and San Juan metropolitan area in Puerto Rico.

* Have you ever puked while drunk?
Nope, never!

* Do you prefer shoes, socks or barefoot?
I hate wearing outdoor shoes indoors, but I usually wear my slippers. In Puerto Rico I was always barefoot at home. I love walking barefoot outside in the summer…

* Are you social?
Yes, I would say so. I was very shy as a child but I don’t think most people would say that nowadays

* Which is your favourite ice cream?
Straciatella and frozen yoghurt / I never managed to pronounce yoghurt correctly in Italian, which was very annoying when I lived in Italy and my friends and I would take gelato-breaks almost every day in the summer when writing our master’s theses.

* Do you like coffee?
Yes, I learnt to drink coffee in Italy so I don’t drink percolator coffee (bryggkaffe) but I like a nice espresso.

* What do you drink for breakfast?
Tea or water. Caffe latte on the weekends.

* Do you sleep on any special side?
No, just on my side! I can’t fall asleep on my back and definitely not on my stomach.

* Do you know how to play poker?
No

* Do you like to “mysa” (to have a cosy time)?
Yes, I love the idea of the Swedish word “mysa” – it can be anything from cuddling with O to light some candles and drink some tea on my own.

* Do you know anybody with the same birthday as you?
Yes, my Spanish ex-colleague’s wife who is one year younger than I. We had a great joint birthday celebration in 2003 in an Italian restaurant here in Brussels.

* Do you want children?
Yes! Hoping that it will happen soon.

* Do you know any other languages than English (questionnaire was in Swedish originally so the question was ”Do you know any other languages than Swedish?”)
Swedish (my mother tongue), French, Spanish and I used to know Italian quite well but I have forgotten most of it due to learning Spanish – unfortunately.

* Have you ever been in an ambulance?
Yes, once. I fell when cycling on a road with black ice in Linköping. I only sprained my ankle but at the time it was thought that I had broken my leg.  

* Do you prefer the sea or a pool?
I love the sea! Both O and I really miss living close to the ocean, in Puerto Rico we could see the Atlantic from almost all the rooms in the apartment and we had 2 minutes walk to the beach.

* What do you prefer spending money on?
Books and interior design, dinners in restaurants and travels!

* Have you ever smoked?
Nope, never.

* What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
A chewing gum, I hate the taste of coffee in my mouth.

* Who is the funniest person you know?
O, he is the silliest and funniest and can always make me laugh even when I am angry with him!

* Choose a scar on your body?
I don’t have that many scars… Maybe the scar on my chin from where I bit myself (!!) when I fell from a chair on my grandmother’s birthday when I was 2 or 3. My parents thought that I had lost one of my front teeth but it turned out to have been pushed up in my gums!

* Where was the photo taken for your blog header?
In Petra in Jordan, I went there in 2006 while on a work mission in Jerusalem.

* Do you know how to change the oil in a car?
Nope, unfortunately I am completely uninterested in cars…

* Which was the last book you read?
I am about to finish a Swedish collection of short stories called ”Min mormors historia” (My maternal grandmother’s history), which I love!

* Do you read newspapers?
Yes, every day – on-line… When I am at home in Sweden I read the newspaper every morning and I enjoy it so much that I read almost every article!

* Do you have a magazine subscription?
No, for a few years I subscribed to Sköna Hem, a Swedish interior design magazine but I am not sure that it is worth the price for an international subscription when I can buy it in one of the two Scandinavian shops in Brussels.

* When were you last time in church?
My grandmother’s funeral was held in a chapel at the graveyard so I would say Christmas Eve 2010.

A Blog Questionnaire

I haven’t done a real blog challenge / questionnaire in such a long time, but here is one that I found on Annaluna’s blog:

How long have you blogged?
Since 25^th May 2007. I started reading blogs a few months before, when surfing the net for information about expats living in Puerto Rico and the US. I started my own blog as I thought that it would be a great way to keep in touch with our families and friends when moving to Puerto Rico…

How many blogs do you return to regularly as a reader?
Many! Nowadays I keep track of updates through Google reader. I read more blogs than I comment on…

How many of the blogs you read are “diary blogs”?
Most of the expat Swedes’ blogs are diary blogs but I also read a lot of interior design blogs which might be categories as ”theme blogs”?

Do people who know you IRL recognise your personality in the blog?
Well, I don’t have that many IRL / old friends who read the blog (at least what I know). However, I have made lots of new friends through the blog and one of them wrote just the other day that my post about the Food Cellar was a typical Petra-post. I like that I seem to have found my own blog personality 

Have you found a working balance for how private / personal you want to be in the blog?
I think that I am quite personal but not private on the blog. I hardly ever put photos of myself / family / friends on the blog and I don’t mention names, unless I write about a blog meeting (with a blogger who puts photos on her own blog).

Do you blog in order to get recognition / acknowledgement?
Of course, I think that it is an ego thing to blog and to get comments! If nobody read my blog and nobody commented, it wouldn’t be as much fun. It’s a reciprocal thing, I read blogs and comment, and I expect people to do the same on my blog. There is not a “comment-obligation” but it is always nice to get feedback and acknowledgement that people have read and liked your post.

Have you met people IRL through the blog?
Yes! Only one was a random anonymous reader, the wife of one of O’s colleagues who when we met at an office function, realised that I was Petchie whose blog she had been reading!

The rest have been very planned blog meetings: Saltis and Sporty-Petra in New York (several times), Monica (doesn’t blog any longer), Lotta K, Ing and JaCal in California, Annika in Virginia (and in NYC), Anna Fair and True in Stockholm (and NYC), Lia in Skåne, Brysselkakan and Cosmopolitan-Mirtha in Brussels, Bejla… And we had bloggers staying over with us in Puerto Rico – Annika and her family, Desiree and her C who used to live in Alabama but now back in Sthlm, and Saltis and her family. Not to forget the Swedish girls who live / used to live in Puerto Rico – B (who doesn’t blog anymore) and Annaluna! I hope that I didn’t forget anybody!?

Only two of my IRL-friends blog: Erkaperka whom I studied with in Linköping & Annecy in France, and M who used to live in Brussels. My Irish friend MT used to have a nice interior design blog but unfortunately she stopped a few years ago.

Do you think that it might be dangerous for some people to blog?
Maybe. I think that some people might regret being too private on their blogs or become too obsessed with it and forget to live IRL…

What are the drawbacks of blogging, for you?
It takes time to read, comment and write. But I enjoy it so much at the same time! I am happy that O completely supports my blogging. The only thing we disagree on is “going commercial”. I don’t want to and he thinks that I should…I try telling him that it is a matter of principle, and anyway I don’t think that there would be much money in it for me..

Do you think that you will still be blogging two years from now?
Yes! In one way or another I think and hope that I am still a blogger!

And now over to something else: I am starting to work again tomorrow!! So, my blogging might become erratic again, but I will try to keep up with the writing!

Show & Tell / Friday theme: Hysteria

A slight change of plans last week (this week still actually as I am writing this Sunday evening) meant that I didnt have time to post a Friday theme on the right day… One could say that it was due to a certain hysteria which coincidentally was the theme for Friday, chosen by Bejla. Her Show & Tell themes for May are:
7/5: Hysteria
14/5: When I was a child…
21/5: Hidden in my wardrobe…
28/5: Summer plans

So, what happened last week? Well, it wasn’t hysteria as it is defined by Dictionary.com (Definition No 1: an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.) but rather several almost hysterical (synonyms: in a panic, agitated, carried away, excited) events happening at the same time:

1. We made an offer on a house – the house I showed in the blog post from last Monday that we thought we wouldn’t like! The house offer process was a little hysterical as O had to prepare the legal document with all our conditions in French. With the help of some kind colleagues and our relocation company (!) we now have a great model. Also, the fax machine of the real estate agent was not working properly so it took two days to submit the offer, which of course made us a little agitated but fortunately O never does anything in a panic!


The house… on a street whose name almost sounds like an 80′s rock band!

2. I was told that there was an job opening as an “interimaire” (interim / temp) in an European Commission agency and had to  register with a temp agency in a hurry.

However, in order to make an offer on a house and register with the temp agency, we first had to become Belgian residents! We had not been able to register at the commune (municipality) before since we had been living in hotels and with friends, but since last weekend we have a more permanent address which allowed us to register. It was a bit of a panic on Thursday morning when O realised that he didn’t have his employment contract and had to rush to the office to get a letter from the HR manager saying that he is a Belgian employee as it was needed for registering.

Registering a new address in Belgium is not entirely straight-forward, regardless of whether you are a Belgian or a foreigner and it includes several visits to the town hall. We have now a new appointment for the first week of June, but at least we have proof of having started the process and we have “recovered” our old national numbers (personnummer in Sweden). We will eventually get our new Belgian identity cards which will make our lives much easier in Belgium.

Registering with the temp agency was quite straight-forward, hallelujah for the European Union and free movement of workers! No work permits to be applied for, just show your passport proving that you are an European citizen (and that you are registered in Belgium, which I don’t think is entirely necessary but probably makes it easier!).

All of these steps were accomplished on Thursday morning, including the second fax to the real estate agent (which finally had to be re-sent on Friday morning).

My new office building seen from inside and up. I am on the 14th floor (above the atrium) with a beautiful view over Brussels

Friday morning I became a working girl after having been a desperate (?) housewife since mid-October 2007! My post is as an administrative assistant for a small Commission [agency] project on research for reducing the environmental impact of the aviation industry. The contract is only until Midsummer (24th June) but it gives me some time to get into the swing of working again, and hopefully I will be able to find a more permanent job soon.

My first day was quite hysterical as well as I was confused with somebody else and ended up sitting in front of a German man who was asking me questions about a project I had no idea about. You can imagine that I was frantically thinking if I had missed something when reading on “my” project’s web-site. I was in the wrong office (not my fault!) on the 18th floor instead of the 14th and nobody had heard of my contact person!! I was panicking a little bit but eventually I found my way to the right place in the big building*. It turned out that my boss had been delayed on her way to the office, which was why she didn’t answer my frantic phone calls, and the secretary had thought that I was to show up at 9.30 instead of 10 o’clock.

After that first hick-up, the first day went well, the colleagues were welcoming and I was very happy to be back in the EU world. I worked for less than 6 hours the first day and this following week I am only working 2 days (since we are off to Sweden on Wednesday for Ascension) so a soft start to get into the habit of working again.

Our view on Sunday morning – I was quite confused to see all these tents and stands that had sprung up over-night. More about our weekend another day…

Oh, and the house? Well, the offer wasn’t accepted since somebody bid 10 000 EUR higher than us and we chose to not top that (which was the initial asking price). Nevertheless, we are optimistic that we will soon find our “first place” and as O said; we are not “virgins” anymore when it comes to making offers! (HGTV jargon: there are several programmes about “property virgins” and “My first place”…)

So that was my “interpretation” of hysteria, lots of potential and actual changes happening quickly in our lives and even if we didn’t end up buying a house, at least I am working again! (and I have handed in my notice as the household ironer – O will have to iron his own shirts from now on )

The other Friday theme participants writing about hysteria: Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Jenny, Mais-oui, Mrs Clapper, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Pettas, Saltis, Strandmamman, Sunflake and Taina.

*) It reminds me of my first day at the European Commission in June 2002 when I couldn’t find my way out of the building at the end of the day… It turned out that the exit was on level 5 in the elevator!

Show & Tell / Friday theme: How embarrassing!

The last day of April and Taina‘s last Friday theme is: How embarrassing! That was not an easy subject, especially not to illustrate… However, I will tell you one of the most embarrassing things that have ever happened to me:

The summer of 2006 I had a very intense travel and work period; we had a wedding in Zaragoza at the end of June, in July a visit from my Swedish best friends to Brussels plus one week in Sweden, back to Spain in August for one week’s holiday and a wedding, one week later a 24-hour trip to Italy for a wedding, three days later I went to Malta for a week for work, one or two days after coming home from Malta we headed to the north of Sweden for another wedding (actually my 5th wedding that year as I had also been to one in France in May) and spent one week in Lapland and Lofoten (in Norway), and one day after that holiday I was supposed to go to Israel for a 3-week mission* for work.

Is it possible to do laundry here? A hole in the floor in the house we stayed in at Svolvaer, Lofoten, Norway

As you can imagine it was a bit stressful with all this travelling, but also fun. However, between Malta – the north of Europe – Israel I only had 2-3 days at home and this posed a certain laundry challenge! The first stage of the unpacking, washing laundry, drying and repacking went smoothly, especially as the temperature difference between the Mediterranean and above the polar circle is quite high so the same clothes were not needed. When it came to underwear I was running out though and had to pack some old pairs (that I had not brought to Malta).  

When coming back from Lapland I managed to wash everything but since we didn’t have a tumble dryer, not all my laundry was dry when I had to repack the next day… I decided to pack all the wet items in a plastic bag and to try to remember to hang them up once I had arrived to the hotel in Jerusalem. Since I was going for three weeks and I knew that it wouldn’t really be possible to do a lot of washing, I really had to bring all my underwear but with a mental note of throwing the oldest ones away at the end of my stay in Israel.

Laundry hanging to dry in Venice

Monday morning, I went to the office with my suitcase and met up with my French boss with whom I was travelling. He had been travelling back and forth between Brussels and Jerusalem for a few months already and had left most of his stuff at the hotel, and was just bringing a half-empty bag. When he saw my big suitcase, he offered to take some of my things so I wouldn’t have to risk paying for an over-weight bag at the airport. I opened my suitcase and since my wet laundry was on top in a plastic bag, I gave this to him and explained that I hadn’t had time to dry my clean clothes.

Off we went to Israel, flying via Vienna and arriving in Tel Aviv after midnight. A driver picked us up and drove us to the beautiful hotel, The American Colony, that would be my home for the next 3 weeks in Jerusalem (I will have to write about it one day). Arriving at the hotel at 03 in the morning, and considering that in the last 3 days I had travelled by boat from the Lofoten islands in Norway, plane from above the Polar Circle to Stockholm, attended a 30th birthday party in the Swedish capital, back to Brussels to unpack/repack, and then to Israel I was quite knackered to say the least. I checked in, got the key for my hotel room and said goodnight to my boss who was staying in another part of the hotel.

The painting above the bed says in Swedish “Joseph becomes king in Egypt”, the photos on the wall show Swedish missionaries / Christians at the American Colony at the turn of the century

Just when I had climbed into bed, under a traditional Swedish painting (!!), I realised “Oh no, my wet laundry!!!”. Oh well, there wasn’t much to do, I had no idea which room number my boss had, I was in my PJ’s and I was very, very tired. With a little prayer that my boss wouldn’t open the bag of wet laundry, I fell asleep. The next morning I met with my boss for breakfast and I had forgotten about my clothes… We walked to the hotel across the street where our offices were and then I remembered the bag that I hadn’t recovered from the other one’s suitcase!

A little embarrassed I said to my boss; Hey I need to get my laundry back from your suitcase because it is still wet and I need to hang it up so it doesn’t smell… What do you think he answered me? “Pas de problème, j’ai étendu tes vetements dans ma salle de bain” (No problem, I have hung up your clothes in my bathroom). OMG, I wanted to die, how embarrassing!! My BOSS has been hanging up my OLD UNDERWEAR!!!!

Can you imagine my embarrassment – this was not any new and shiny underwear**, these were my old cotton underwear that I was going to throw away before going back to Europe!! Of course I felt a need to explain my old, not so white anymore panties and mumbled something about it all going in la poubelle (garbage) at the end of the mission, and hoped that he hadn’t inspected them too closely. I actually don’t even remember how I got them back, but I guess neatly folded and dry, ha ha!

How do you think the beduin families do their laundry? The desert Wadi Rum, Jordan

The same evening we went out for dinner and my boss suggested that I should start stop saying vous (polite form of you, “ni” in Swedish) to him and that on peut se tutoyer, non? (use the more informal form of you (“du”). I refused!! It was enough that he had seen my underwear and I guess I was trying to draw a line at the intimacy between us… a bit too late though.

We did sleep in a beduin tent together in the Jordanian desert a few weeks later but fortunately there were some German tourists sharing it with us and I avoided (??) another embarrassing situation when in the middle of the night I tried to sneak out for a pee under the stars (no toilets of course), and my boss asked me if he should go with me - NON MERCI!!  

Other embarrassed Friday theme participants:
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Jenny, Mais-oui, Mrs Clapper, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Pettas, Saltis, Strandmamman, Sunflake and Taina.

And speaking of embarrassing, I just read in the Swedish newspaper that more than 100 drunken and unruly Swedes had been rounded up and sent back to Sweden from Denmark tonight. How embarrassing!! People used to do this in the 1980′s when the alcohol was so much cheaper in Denmark, but it is 2010 for goodness sake!

*)  A so-called mission as it is called in international organisation lingo… My father always questioned if we are missionaries

**) The question is: if it had been sexy – would that have been more or less embarrassing?? I mean he could have wondered why I was bringing sexy underwear for a work trip!? Oh well, the best would have been if he had never seen my underwear, full stop!!

Show & Tell / Friday Theme: Power

Today’s theme of Power can have different meanings, and the meaning I have chosen is not the same as for the Swedish word “makt” which was the word Taina has chosen. However, I hope that she doesn’t mind that I use “Power” in one of its English definitions… (it is actually an excuse for me to show you some more photos from Spain )

Power: a particular form of mechanical or physical energy: e.g. hydroelectric power (Definition No 17 out of 32, from Dictionary.com)

One afternoon (before eating lunch so maybe not afternoon for Spaniards who eat really late) when we were in Spain, O’s mother asked us to come with her to a neighbouring village to buy meat. While O and his mother spent 20 minutes (minimum!) in the carnicería, buying different cuts of meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken) and sausages (chorizo, longaniza) I walked around the village trying to take some photos. But something was annoying me – everywhere I turned the camera, there were power cables; tangled across the streets, on the walls of the houses… Maybe not all of them were power cables, but telephone lines but they were everywhere!

Carnicería (the butcher’s shop) with power cables above the entrance

Well, you can see for yourselves in these photos:

I find it extremely fascinating that this narrow street is a two-way street!

More power lines across the street

Panadería means Bakery – this photo had been so much nicer without those annoying cables / tubes above the sign! (I guess I should try to learn to use PhotoShop!)

It never ceases to surprise me how many services Spanish villages have – bakeries, butchers’ and fish mongers, banks…

At the same time the streets are almost always deserted – it is rare to see people walking in the street. People seem to like their cars almost as much as the Americans and Puerto Ricans! The flags across the street were probably left after a celebration (celebrations are an integral part of Spanish village life – religious holidays such as Easter and the days of the patron saints etc)

An almost vertical cable of some sort

On the way to Zaragoza from O’s village there is a whole town dedicated to power, La Muela (meaning: molar / back tooth or millstone which is quite suitable considering the modern-style wind mills!). The landscape is covered in wind turbines, and it is quite impressive to drive on the motorway in the night when the only thing you see is hundreds of blinking red lights!

Another fascinating phenomenon in Spanish villages is the loudspeakers: The quality of the film below is not very good (and very brief) but I was attempting to catch the announcement from the loudspeakers, which are set up all over the villages. They announce important events in the village, offers from the shops (“Today the carnicería has a special offer on 1 kg of chorizo”) and during Christmas time they play Christmas songs!!! Crazy if you ask me and maybe no wonder that I sometimes long for some peace and quiet when in Spain!

Other Friday theme participants:
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Jenny, Mais-oui, Mrs Clapper, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Pettas, Saltis, Strandmamman, and Taina.

Show & Tell / Friday theme: Nails

Already Friday again, which means that we have been 5 days in Europe! I wanted to show something from our week in Spain and since Taina has decided that today’s theme should be “Nails”, this is what I came up with:

On Wednesday we were baby-sitting O’s niece M (3½) after school and she was very pleased when we invited her to El Corte Inglés (Spanish department store) for churros con chocolate…

What does it have to do with nails, you are wondering??

Look, O’s nails dipping a churro in the chocolate… The chocolate is so thick that is almost impossible to drink, think liquid chocolate mousse. The churros are dipped in the chocolate and what remains is eaten with a spoon.

O drawing a donkey, which both M and I thought looked like a horse!?

O’s and M’s nails (and chin)

Going to El Corte Inglés for churros and chocolate is something we do almost every time we come to Spain and I told M of the first time we went with her, it was almost exactly 3 years ago and of course she was too young for churros. The three of us were definitely the youngest in the cafeteria on Wednesday, as we were surrounded by posh old ladies (and a few men) taking a break from shopping while having tapas or churros.

Some of you might remember my blog post about my Puerto Rican toe nails… O was joking last week that I might want some fake nails as a Puerto Rican souvenir, NO thank you very much! Fake nails are just too fake for me and it doesn’t matter if they are short and have French manicure, they still don’t look real. The very long fake nails so popular with certain Puerto Rican women are quite disgusting, I always wonder how much dirt they gather, and extremely unpractical!

My Puerto Rican toe nails – a once in a lifetime experience

Maybe the other Show & Tell:ers are bigger fans of painted nails than I am? Check them out here:
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

PS Once again I have to apologise for not having had time to answer all your comments on the previous posts, and to not having had much time to comment on other blogs lately…

Show & Tell / Friday Theme: In my Easter egg I would like…

Taina in Connecticut is the April hostess for the Show & Tell and her chosen, very challenging, themes are:
2nd April: In my Easter egg I would like…
9th april: Nails
16th April: White lies
23rd April: Power
30th April: OMG how embarrassing!

We have no Easter atmosphere at the hotel, but last year we followed both Swedish and Spanish / Catholic Easter traditions, including eating fish on Good Friday and lamb on Easter Sunday:

Good Friday procession in the Old San Juan – religious processions are an integral part of Spanish Easter celebrations

Swedish Easter egg

Swedish Easter decorations – on a plate. Next year I would like to take in branches from [our?] garden and decorate them with these ornaments

This year there is no Swedish Easter egg filled with Swedish sweets , we are not going to the Old San Juan to look at the Easter procession (O is too tired after having worked until almost 10 o’clock last night) but we are going to eat fish today as good Catholics (Hello, I am protestant!?). O has promised me sushi, which might not be the most traditional way of eating fish on Good Friday…

Conclusion: this year since I won’t have a proper Easter egg,  I will make do with sushi at my favourite Japanese restaurant in San Juan!!

I apologise for my not-so-updated list of Show & Tell participants: Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

Show & Tell / Friday theme: Change

I really have to apologise for my sporadic participation in the Show & Tell / Friday theme, but here’s at least an interpretation of today’s theme which is CHANGE, chosen by Saltis.

Our lives, as I have mentioned so many times before, will change in a week’s time (or so, probably Easter Sunday to be specific) when we leave Puerto Rico and move back to Brussels.

Here are some photos to show the way our everday views will change from living in San Juan to re-making a life in Brussels. It is probably not an entirely fair comparison, but I want to underline that I love both cities and just like I have missed Brussels, I will miss San Juan and our life here.

Street life in Old San Juan

Brussels street view

A rainy (Midsummer’s) day in San Juan

Brussels on a rainy (National) day

Punta / Playa Escambrón, San Juan

Parc Leopold, behind the European Parliament, Brussels

The City Wall in the Old San Juan

The old City Wall in Brussels – not much left of it…

Plazuela de la Rogativa, San Juan

Manneken Pis on Belgium’s National Day (21st July), Brussels

The Raíces (Roots) fountain in the Old San Juan (usually spraying passers-by with water)

Fountain in the Parc Royal, Brussels

Old San Juan by night (seen from our departing cruise ship)

Brussels Town Hall at the Grand’ Place, by night

I will try to make the blog round today but I can’t promise anything with all the things I need to do before the movers arrive on Monday morning…
Anki, Anna, Anne, Anne-Marie, Annika, Bejla, Desiree, Erica, Helena, IamAnnika, IngaBritt, Mais-oui, Musikanta, Nilla, Olgakatt, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Taina, and Under Ytan.

PS I did a similiar post comparing a Swedish autumn with autumn in Puerto Rico – click on the link.