this "country girl" ain't so country

I feel the need to inform you all that today is a beautiful day in Stockholm - the sun is shining, and it's 16 degrees Celsius outside (about 61F). Not bad for almost October, I think. One of the Stockholm guidebooks I read said that light is the characteristic of the city - when the sun is shining the city is so beautiful, mainly because anywhere you look you can see strips of the Baltic Sea, and we all know how gorgeous the sun is when it catches onto the trees when they're changing colors. Everything has that reddish, golden glow to it right now. It literally pains my heart that I don't have a camera yet to document these things...but don't worry, one is on the way. A good one, I might add. I bought a Canon digital SLR, which I'm ridiculously excited about. It will never take the place of my last one, which was honestly probably the nicest, most generous gift I've ever gotten from anybody.
SO - speaking of beautiful, the Norrlands were AMAZING! Again, not having a camera is a tragedy, but I'll do my best to describe it for you. Wherever you live, picture the countryside in the fall, with the big, open fields of hay and green grass, maybe you have some rolling hills here and there...quaint red barns and charming farmhouses...and picture the bluest sky you've ever seen atop it all. Lastly, put this beautiful, rural countryside right on the coastline of the ocean. This is the best description of the Norrlands I can give you - the town I went to is called Skelleftea (Sha-lef-tee-a), and it was this rural little village right on the coastline of the Baltic. Klara's grandma picked me up at the tiny airport, and I spent the day with Klara and her grandparents, visiting friends, going for walks up the road to see the neighbor's sheep, cows and horses, and eating waffles with heavy whip cream and blueberries, and having thick slices of gourmet cheese on homemade Swedish bread...it was all very picturesque.
However - nobody told me that Skelleftea was a small country town and that I'd be taking walks to visit farm animals. When I got dressed in the morning, the first thing I put on was a simple button down shirt, and a cardigan to go over it. Had my sensible, brown J.Crew boots on. But at the last minute I changed my mind and decided that I didn't want to be so casual, so I changed and put on some dressier jeans, a black shirt and black cardigan, and zipped myself into my new, dressy Euro black boots, grabbed my nice black jacket, and ran out to catch the taxi to the airport. I knew I had scored with the outfit - it was one of the few times I've gone anywhere in this country and didn't feel like my outfit screamed Old Navy.
Do you see where I'm going with this story? I showed up in this little country village and spent the day taking walks down a dirt road to pet cows and sheep, raked leaves with Klara, and visited their friends in the village, all the while looking like I'm going shopping in Stockholm. Or to a wine bar. Needless to say, I felt ridiculous all day.
I went to a couple different places this weekend here in the city -

the soap bar - yes, that was the name of it. Kind of an odd name, but definitely one of the coolest places I've been here. It was a bar, but it had a very low-key, classy feel to it. The people were all very trendy and older.
the dubliner - an Irish pub where I had my first beer in Europe! I don't remember the name of it...all I know is that it was a dark one, and I didn't love it. They had a live band that played old 90's songs, and occasionally played an Irish jig.
chokladfabriken - this means The Chocolate Factory in Swedish. A ridiculously cute chocolate cafe that served all sorts of truffles (they called them 'creams' - chocolate creams), and other chocolate desserts. I had a brownie, although it wasn't really a brownie at all. It was more like a piece of flourless chocolate cake. It was heavenly.

So that's been the extent of my weekend. I went to church this morning and had a great time there - the people are wonderful and welcoming, and I met some really nice Swedish girls today. It's nice to know that you have a place to go, and that you feel welcome there. And, on a sidenote, this coming Thursday marks my 1-month anniversary. Hard to believe...looking back it has gone by FAST, but while the time was passing it didn't feel like it was going very quickly. If every month can be as good as this one has been, then I'll be just fine.