12th anniversary of my arrival to stockholm

12 years ago today I arrived in Sweden to what I officially consider my immigration day. Chapters were closed in Budapest and I had just spent over two months back in Boston after a 2+year absence. Here I was. Officially. Permanently. Or as it's said in Sweden...until further notice.

I shared a taxi from Arlanda and the other guy got out at the Grand Hotel. I was originally focused primarily on the encroaching twilight at 3.30pm, but I saw that Kunsträdgården, the large park square in central Stockholm, was fenced off.

The driver informed me that the police barricades were a result of the anticipated neo-nazi demonstrators who would convene at the base of the Karl XXII statue, their adopted mascot.

That made me smirk. How ironic that my "immigration day" to Sweden would coincide with "skinhead day" as I have come to call it.

12 years on the demonstrations in Stockholm have moved to Salem (a suburb) and to another date (December 9). The anti-immigrant sentiment seems more subdued today, but there are hints of a relapse into blaming immigration for growing social ills.

All in all. I am happy as a resident of Stockholm.

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verification

name change

I changed the name of the blog today to Light Reflections on Stockholm
It's a play on what I really mean, light-hearted thoughts about my host city and that there is so much water surrounding this town.

Today is a poster day for what we want November to look like in the future...sunny, dry and crisp.

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early mornings

Stockholm isn't a particulary early town on the outside. The people who are out and about before 10 am are mostly trying to get somewhere: to work, to their children's daycare to the shop. I hear that Swedes are early risers, but that they devote the wee hours to sipping coffee and poring over their daily newspaper.

I'm not a morning person. But having a toddler thrusts you into a life of twighlighty dawn. I sometimes wonder why the little one awakes when it's still dark and there is still a hush about the city. That's what has always kept me snug in my bed until the city begins to hum.

I once romanticised the notion of being among early risers. It was while I was living in Budapest. I had an early flight and my taxi passed the mini town square by my house by 5.30 am. It was abuzz with commerce and could easily have been confused for mid-morning rather than the daybreak. Shopkeepers were hawking, customers were haggling and the crowd that just hang around were already on duty. As the taxi carried on into the morning commute I realized that I already enjoyed this morning scene. At that time of my youth I often grazed past it; it was just the end of my day rather than the beginning.

I wish Stockholm had a livelier pulse in its morn now that I awake while the hip crowd slink home.

bloging is the 21st century answer to letter writing

Back before faxes and email I used to write letters. Long letters. Descriptive letters. I lived in Budapest for a couple of years in the early 90s and I think I wrote someone that I spent about 25-50% of my measly income on stamps. I used to sit and write for hours in the evenings since I couldn't watch TV and the telephone wasn't an option. Not only was a call abroad prohibitive financially...but there wasn't one where I lived.

So I wrote novella-like letters to friends and family about my experiences and observations of living in Hungary. And I sent them away. Gone. And then if I wanted to repeat my thought, I wrote it all over again.

Blogging has become the new epistolary art. We write to our audience, either conceived or random, and express our thoughts. And we get to invite as many as we like to watch and participate.

Finally I am back to writing about my experiences and observations of a country and culture that I live in. And everyone gets to take a peek.

Stockholm was particularly beautiful today. The weather was crisp, but the sky was blue and the sun shone through. Usually I think November is a miserable month...This November has been glorious.

first post

Having read so many negative opinions about Sweden I've decided to start my own upbeat, on-line forum to express my opinions of living in Stockholm. Most certainly there will be days that something gets me down and Sweden bashing will be the quick and easy answer, but as I long ago committed to positive attitude towards my adoptive city and country, I will do my best to analyze the upside to the experience.

I don't know what to expect of my new blog. It might become a site to help new visitors or residents to Stockholm or Sweden. It might become my own regular mental therapy. It might fall by the way-side.

Now isn't this exciting...a future open to us all.