Living in a snow globe

Uppsala really is meant to have snow. I didn't realize how much we were missing out on last year. Working now it great, I enjoy making money again and being with students. But I miss have free time during the day to go outside and play. We've had some beautiful sunny days recently, which also means temperatures around -15C. Stunning, but cold. I'm still biking to work, which many see as crazy. But it's quite nice after a stressful day at work. Plus, I'm now often biking in the remains (or beginnings) of daylight. Summer is coming!

Biking home from work, 3.45pm

On Saturdays we are going to Västerås to run on the indoor track. It's a real treat and I love going. I miss track running. Last Saturday it was about -22C outside. I got to run indoors in shorts and then enjoy the view on the car ride home:

 And just because I can, two pics from home. I miss you!

Yep, I look like I'm going to attack the camera. I was just excited :)

Snow

More snow continues to fall here in Uppsala. My little weather widget calls for snow everyday, but it's only a centimeter or two.

The sun is rising later and on my morning bike commute to work I even saw the sunrise... at 9.05am.

Actual beer

 I continue to bike to work. Last Wednesday during our snowstorm I was biking through the wind and snow, glancing up only occasionally to see if there were any bikes coming towards me on the bike path. I was surprised at one point to glance up and see not a cyclist, but a skier coming towards me. That probably would have been faster, especially on the way home where I ended up walking. It was faster than dragging my bike or trying to take the bus.

Grocery Store beer

I've sampled a few holiday beers over the past few weeks, although my cold had stopped me from trying more. I actually enjoyed the low alcohol Frosty Bulldog the most. Last night I made delicious eggnog and am enjoying a morning Eggnog Latté.

We also went skiing up in Harsa, about a three hour drive north. We were only there from Saturday to Sunday, but we had a very cozy house and the trails were beautiful.

View from our rented house over the frozen lake

Commuting

My commute this morning on my bike:

Just after collecting my bike from the indoor bike room.

Down the quiet side street.

The morning bike commutes have been a bit more slippery than the evenings. Both of these past two mornings it has been snowing and the plows hadn't been out on the bike paths recently. By the evening there was more gravel down and it was freshly plowed. What I do enjoy, though, is that they often don't plow all the way down to the pavement. This would leave space for water to pool during the days and ice to form. Instead, there is always a layer of snow and gravel on the ground. With snow tires being mandatory on cars, and more people have studded tired (some even on their bikes!), this seems to work quite well.

Leaving work around 4. Last bike outside.

Uppsala Training Weekend this weekend! Planning on a nice long orienteering run in Lunsen tomorrow, followed by two sessions on Sunday. Lots of out of towners here too - over 120 people participating. Should be beautiful tomorrow in the snow! After some dire weather predictions of -14°C, it's only going to be about -5 tomorrow. I can deal with that. Good thing I have wet socks :)

Weekend Fun

This weekend was the Linné Gala, which signifies the end of the season and time to relax and have fun. The organizing crew (which included Ross) did an amazing job decorating, serving wonderful food and having lots of games and awards. Plus, great music to get us through the night. Ross won the Sunshine Award for all of his enthusiasm and cheering.

Solstråle Ross

Sunday was, due to a late night, a lazy day, but I got excited and baked one of my favorite seasonal Swedish deliciousnesses (yes, that word is a noun).

Lussekatter (saffron rolls)

I put on Christmas music and pretended that it was December. With no Thanksgiving to hold you back, Christmas celebrations can start a lot earlier.

Plus, they made my Monday morning at work much better.

On Wednesday we are headed to the opera in Stockholm with some friends, but also Ross's parents! Eric and Mary are flying in on Wednesday and will be staying with us through the weekend. Hopefully we will get to show them all the exciting Uppsala sites... like the forests. The weather has improved, since it's not constantly raining and it's above freezing, so I hope it continues this way while they are here. The morning bike commutes to work are beautiful, as I'm often biking during sunrise. Soon it will be completely dark, but for now it's quite magical.

October

October in the US

Em and Baby Ben! Bath Time.

Boggle Games at North Americans. Really, we did race prep...

Delaware Water Gap. iPhone doesn't do the colors justice.

Exploring with Alex, Ross and Karen

Being tourists in the woods.

Fall! With pies, and pumpkins, and apples and cakes and donuts!

This is why I love fall. So excited to stop at the stand.

Look, I'm pie!

October in Uppsala

It's hard to tell, because it's the iphone, but it's a gigantic moon rising by the cathedral.

Clothing Exchange party. Combined with a fantastic brunch and, of course, an urban o course. (Link to Claire's blog about her year in Sweden and with Linné)

Bowling with work - the winning team. Notice I was not on it. It was a horrible bowling evening. I need to brush up on my skills.

Sunset outside the apartment.

And we moved, in September. We didn't go far, just across the street. But instead of living in apartment 23, we now live in 4. The walls have yet to be decorated, but we'll get there!

Disappeared?

No, we're still here. Life is great, even though it feels like it's the end of autumn, not the end of summer in Uppsala. This morning I wished I had gloves for the bike ride to work! But, my 60% is really more like a 100% job, so I spend most of my days at the school. I am teaching orienteering in PE next week, and hopefully not only to the year 4 and year 5, but also to the 6-9 years. I have a lot of fantastic ideas, but it's a lot of work to organize orienteering activities for 6 classes a day, for 3 weeks! I think I have to scale back on what I was hoping to do. Right now I'm updating the map around the school to something that is close to correct. Next, I'm updating the university sprint map across the street, where I hopefully can bring the year 7-9 students for some sprint orienteering. Now, do you think I can get the club to lend me the SI units for a day or two? :)

I think it's really special that orienteering is one of the two specific things that you must teach in PE (swimming is the other). The core content says that students should learn:

• Using maps to orient oneself in the surrounding nature and outdoor environment. Maps – their structure and symbols.

• Orientation in unfamiliar environments using maps and other aids to locate position.

• Rights and obligations in nature as set out in the public right of access to land.

I was just browsing my training log from last September (trying to seei f I had any DM long results), and I came across this entry:
An easy morning run in the blustery weather. There were lots of children in Stadsskogen woods this morning out orienteering! And they were all lost. Every single group I saw was wandering aimlessly. One group looked like they were going to ask me for help as I approached, but they wimped out. If I felt more confident in my Swedish I would have stopped. I have to wonder what sort of instruction was given to these kids - they all looked thoroughly confused! I glanced at a few of their maps as I ran past and they were certainly not great quality - definitely photocopies.

Talking to a few people here about their experiences with orienteering in school it sounds like a lot of the programs aren't well run. They use old maps and don't provide good instruction. Instead of encouraging people to do orienteering, they turn people away from it. I'm sure this isn't the case in all schools, but I heard this account from more than one person. It's too bad, considering how well it could be done!

Well, then, I guess after all my talk I better do a good job!

Training is still hard. I'm struggling with motivation and energy. My weird hip pain that's been around for over a year has decided to make itself known again and it's hard to want to go running when you know it will hurt. No panicking! It isn't that bad, and I'm stretching it. It's just annoying. This weekend I start racing, and I'm starting with the long distance district championships. I think that's the perfect place to start. My shape isn't great, but it's certainly enough for me to put in a good effort this weekend.  Last year's DM Long: map results splits

Goals for this year's long DM:

• Use what I've learned. I'm smarter now, and a better orienteer.
• Simplify.
• Check the compass. Pay attention to it!

And, because no blog entry is complete without a picture, here are favorites from Plitvice Lake National Park, Croatia:

Home

Uppsala is certainly home now. It's not my only home - I still refer to the house I grew up in as home, and my two apartments in Newton still remind me of home. But Uppsala is certainly home now. There has been one dreary day since returning, but otherwise it's been perfect Swedish summer weather. Plus, on the rainy day I had the opportunity to wear all my rain gear to bike frantically into work. Instead of getting wet from the rain I started sweating from the layers. I must learn to manage that a bit better. I started work on Wednesday, bright and early after getting home the previous night around 11pm. I'll be teaching P.E. and doing some special education work at Internationella Engelska Skolan Uppsala. It's a 60% job, so I should still have plenty of time for training. Plus, I've already told them that I must take a week off in October for North American Champs :)

We grilled one beautiful night, and followed the yumminess with a game of Power Grid, where Ross was the supreme victor. This morning Ross started washing the outside of the kitchen window, which I've been wanting to do for months. I couldn't stay away from the fun, so I joined in "to help." I think he would have rather done it himself. Then we framed some IKEA pictures, and even assembling the frames was a challenging task. Now, I'm relaxing after running hill intervals on backbanan and chatting with Hanna. Game night and pizza later with Uppsala friends.

It's good to be home!