Hello from an American In Sweden

Hello Ex-patriots

The suburb of Gothenburg, Sweden where my beautiful Swedish wife and I live is quiet, convenient for shopping & public travel, and well suited for our needs. It is a great deal different from New York City where I was born, raised and worked in the Computer Networking business for most of my life. The environment here is sort of similar to my house in Vermont that I haven't sold yet(mind that word “yet”) but not nearly as cold.

Americans are well received here and I am never lacking for a good conversation when we stroll down to the local pub. Everybody wants to speak English!!! I feel like I am in an episode of Cheers every time we walk into the bar. Everybody is sitting in the same place and I hear my name shouted from across the room accompanied by gestures inviting us to join in on the fun.

The wife and I will be celebrating three years of marriage in the beginning of October and neither one of us can believe how fast time flown by. Sweden is home now. The wife's family are a great bunch of people although I have a tremendous language barrier to overcome. Not everybody here speaks English. Language school was a bust, although I holdout hopes of plodding through the school books with the wife. It seems I do not have an ear or the ability to pick up languages easily. The sounds of the Swedish words seem to shoot in one ear and out the other seemingly missing my brain altogether. Speaking Swedish is even more difficult for me then hearing it. With time this will all work out.

All my life I have been a News, Politics, Science and History person, so getting through the Newspaper is important to me. I find I can understand the basic elements of news articles on my own, further details when necessary are provided and clarified by the wife. The first card I lined up for myself here was my Swedish library card. There are plenty of hefty Swedish books lined up and waiting for me.

From the front door we can see one small lake and a 15 minute walk further into the woods there is another larger lake with a small island that we like to swim out to and pitch a tent or lay out a blanket. I have most of my fly fishing gear here but have yet to cast a line into the water. There is plenty of time for that some time in the future. My neighbors are eager to have me join them at the lakeside so I will have no lack of company regardless of whether I want company or NOT!

Other then sticker shock at the cost of many items here and not knowing where to purchase certain things I have no complaints. That and not being able to get American Chewing tobacco(I would walk on glass for a few cans of Skoal), and getting hooked on Swedish Snus, darn I even make my own Snus a few kilos at a time now and I can't stand the stuff. Nasty habit, I know.

While I have been aware of this site for some time I have not surfed it yet, I decided to come on this morning and see who the people are and what info I can pick up. One of the things I have to figure out is how to condense a house full of stuff back home, condense it into a few boxes and ship it here to our apartment in Sweden without breaking the bank. So hints on moving is one of the things the posts will be searched through thoroughly by me shortly.

Anyways...
If you happened to walk past us my wife and I, on the street we are really easy to spot. We are the ones with the biggest smiles.

Glad I finally logged in and registered,

ttl entry aka Paul