It's been snowing a lot the past week. This morning there was a beautiful snowstorm. The snow on the sidewalks all melted by the afternoon, although it kept flurrying on and off all day, but there's about 3 inches where it stuck. Not the most fitting Easter weather, but better late than never, for me.
It was a looong holiday weekend, with both Långfredagen (Long Friday, aka Good Friday) and today, Annandag Påsk. The Swedes are excellent at holidays. I don't think they have more holidays overall (and I don't want to even begin to broach the subject of their conceptualizations of the appropriate work/life/vacation balance), but they celebrate them well.
On Långfredagen, I went to hear Bach's Johannespassion at Katarina Kyrka. It was really intensely boring but I'm glad I went. Saturday I had a nice lunch with S. near Stureplan, then we walked around a bit and she showed me some jewelry stores I'll check out next week in my wedding band quest, and we looked at beautiful modern Swedish furniture at Nordiska Galleriet. I also bought a beautiful 2008 daybook and some other things at Bookbinders Design, which rivals only Papier Plus to me. Sunday was a lovely brunch over in Årsta, with the cutest little boys ever going on an Easter egg hunt in the snowy backyard, plus a failed trial of the arch support inserts Jake sent me, which sadly sent searing pains up my shins.
This morning I had brunch (kardemumma lyx and Söderblanding tea!) with P., M., and another of P.'s friends who she went to med school with at Karolinska, at the Hornstull Vurma while it was snowing and snowing outside. P. promised to help me learn how to properly bake some Swedish pastries soon, and I learned that geriatrics is one of the most well-compensated medical specialties in Sweden! This blew my mind, since in many parts of the US geriatrics is disappearing rapidly because nobody wants to do it. It's not that glamorous in Sweden either, but the system really works, with enticing people to the specialty by paying them more! This came up when we were talking about the recent NYT article about the "lifestyle" specialties in the US - it sort of blew their minds that something like dermatology could be so competitive, but (sadly, I think) it makes so much sense given the way healthcare in America is structured right now.
Two of the things I'm going to miss most about Stockholm are the pastries and the eucalyptus steam room at Sturebadet.
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