Urban Pilgrim

Weird Swedish food… Fika

urbanpilgrim — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:14:30 +0000

The title of this post is a bit misleading; this Swedish tradition is not weird at all. In fact, I think it is my most favorite thing about Sweden. It beats the free graduate school, the six weeks of vacation, and 18 hours of daylight in the summer. It’s called fika and it’s glorious. It’s [...]

Home again, home again…

urbanpilgrim — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:00:03 +0000

…jiggity jog. My grandmother used to say that so it’s impossible for me to think about the first part without the dorky last bit. After three wonderful weeks of home-cooked food, a warm house and fantastic company I am back in Stockholm. My Christmas visit home to my parents house outside Philadelphia was a wonderful [...]

Vitamin D, I miss you

urbanpilgrim — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:00:43 +0000

I swear, I didn’t know. I heard rumors, you know, scuttlebutt, but I never imagined. Now I think it was carefully concealed, only to be revealed day after day until December 19. That’s when it happens. That’s when the sun sets at 2:47 pm. The darkest day of the year, with just six hours of [...]

I’m a chocolate law breaker

urbanpilgrim — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:26:48 +0000

Swedes loooove their rules. They have rules for everything. Can’t wear your outside shoes inside the gym (guilty). Can’t drink during the weekdays (guilty). Can’t eat the second layer of chocolates until you finish the first (really, really guilty). It seems that I misunderstood the common Swedish rule about the red box of Aladdin chocolates. [...]

Indoor week!

urbanpilgrim — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:44:24 +0000

Ok, that’s a self-proclaimed event. But when you’re a grad school student and work from home as a freelance editor you can decide to just not go outside whenever you want to. And when the temperature dipped to -17 C (1 F) this week I decided it would be wiser to stay in my warm [...]

Fffffreezing Stockholm

urbanpilgrim — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:32:15 +0000

Eight days. It has been snowing for eight straight days. Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely lovely. Everything is covered in white and most days the snow sort of hangs in mid air and gently floats down to Earth. But the sub zero temperatures that make this snow possible also make our lovely apartment [...]

A Swedish-American Thanksgiving

urbanpilgrim — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:42:02 +0000

We had our second annual Swedish-American Thanksgiving on Saturday (a week before the real one I know, but who cares; turkey is good any day). Having held it for a second time, I can say without exception that Swedes make Thanksgiving way more fun than it is at home. I know that is a bold [...]

I have a wooden taste in my butt

urbanpilgrim — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:01:15 +0000

I have been in Sweden for more than a year now and have diligently been learning Swedish (if diligently means skipping Swedish classes occasionally and switching to English when I can’t remember a Swedish word). I can have basic conversations; talk to my boyfriend about his day, converse about banking (sort of) and argue with [...]

Berlin – Fractured and beautiful

urbanpilgrim — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:41:20 +0000

Follow my blog with bloglovin I am a terrible tourist. The most significant statistic about Berlin came as a total shock to me. Probably because I couldn’t be bothered to research the city before I left. Ooops. Seventy percent. 70. That’s how much of the city was destroyed during World War II. I had no [...]

Tom Tits

urbanpilgrim — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:46:51 +0000

You see “tit,” you think boob. It’s funny. I know. I have the sense of humor of a 13-year-old boy. I can’t help it. But it was not the intention of the advertisers to put shapely breasts in the minds of passersby… It is an ad for an educational science museum. For children.