Telefoneplan

+ Many things are much, much nicer here in Sweden. The streets are cleaner, there is less crime, etc. However, it was a comfort to learn that UPS in Sweden is just as incompetent and dishonest as UPS in the US. It is so egregrious it feels like it just has to be on purpose. After two missed deliveries at my office at CHESS I scheduled a delivery for between noon and two this afternoon. At two I called and was told the driver would be notified to call me immediately. Of course he didn't call, and at three I had the same phone call except this time the woman told me that I should call immediately if I hadn't heard from the driver by 4:15 because at that point he would be in "big trouble." Ok. At four I got a call telling me that the driver had come before twelve and no one was there, but that he'd come by the end of the day. He came at five, and even though Jake already paid a large amount of money to have this bloody package shipped quickly to Sweden, I was informed that I had to pay 571 kronors, which is over eighty US dollars, as some sort of COD thing. Incredible. I know this is mild as far as delivery and package stories go, but it impressed me nonetheless. Anyway, now I have a gorgeous new BlackBerry Pearl that will make up for some of what my Swedish cell phone lacks.

+ When I finished my time on the elliptical the other day, the screen flashed "SLUT!" (pronounced "sloot") at me. This just means "done," or "end," but it made me laugh.

+ I ran a 5k relay race with some of my new colleagues at CHESS on Saturday. The race is called Bellman's Stafetten and it's held in a beautiful park called Norra Djurgården, but it rained the entire day. Running my 5k leg was by far less painful and exhasuting than standing around in the pouring rain for hours. I ran it in 32:55, which was less than ideal but I had to dodge huge puddles of mud and water constantly so I'd like to think that slowed me down. The sole man on our team - both teams, actually, as CHESS had two teams of five each and he ran different legs for both of them - apparently used to be on the Swedish national team and of course he could run the 5k in about twenty minutes barely breaking a sweat. There's a fairly amazing video posted of the end of his leg for my team, he's the one sort of in the middle with the black shirt with the white Nike checkmark striding in to hand the baton off to me off screen.

+ On Friday I leave this cozy little apartment where I've been staying way out past Fruängen. I'm taking the train to meet a friend that evening in Lund, Sweden, all the way on the west coast, then heading to Copenhagen, where she is actually living for the year, for the weekend. On Monday I start staying at the Wenner-Gren Center in one of the guestrooms for visiting researchers, and in the woman's confirmation emails about the room she calls me "Dr. Phoebe C.....," which is pretty funny although I don't think I should correct her because technically I think you're supposed to have some sort of doctoral degree to be eligible to stay at these apartments. Then, finally, on September 28, I move into my new one-bedroom apartment in Kungsholmen. You can see the location
here on the Swedish version of google maps. It's only until January 1 but it's like a miracle. It's a beautiful neighborhood and a beautiful little apartment and I can't wait to move in.

.



The beautiful lake a block away from where I've been staying. Sadly it hasn't been sunny since the day I took that picture.

.



This a horrendously ugly photograph but there are rabbits that hang out all the time on the lawn in front of the building where I work, next to the Wenner-Gren Center. Big, fat, sweet city bunnies.

.



And last but not least, these fabulous pictures were taken by Ben and/or Megan a few days ago of my brand new niece, Lucy. This has nothing to do with Sweden except for the fact that my heart is broken that I'm here and she's there and I haven't met her yet.