SKYNI

I conclude that Linn is too young to attend the Chinese school.

We tried her out in another class last Saturday, recommended by the school principal. This is the most basic class available in the school. Some parts of it are ok…for example the teacher will show pictures and tell the kids how to identify the objects in mandarin. But the parts where the kids have to write the a, e, i, o, u is not ok for Linn. They even practice writing the chinese characters such as ‘cow’ and Mama’. The other kids are all above 5 years old.

We initially thought that this is an opportunity for Linn to learn and speak Mandarin with the kids in the school. But the kids speak only Swedish during breaks! We were really hoping that it would be a fun experience like a playgroup with music, dancing, singing and learning Mandarin at the same time. But it is really a classroom environment.

I will have to try harder to keep her interest in the chinese language until she is ready to go for class in 2 years time.

See if you can spot my little girl in this picture.

Maybe, I should send Nicke to attend this class.

For those wondering how i am doing in the kitchen…i don’t claim to be fantastic but i guess we are eating ok. I must admit that it is not so simple cooking in a service apartment kitchen. For example, i have always used a rice cooker to cook rice and never from a pot. Well, there is always a first time for everything.

Thanks to my mother in law who is a ‘kitchen goddess’, she taught me a few easy dishes to feed my kids. We have been eating quite a bit of meatballs, sausages, thai curry, lemon chicken, pork fillet and pasta.

And do i crave for my favourite chai tow kway, laksa, yong tow foo etc..Not all the time but definitely when we are out and the good options we have are only pizza or kebab!

So the next time you tuck into that nice hot steamy bowl of laksa, think of me and really enjoy it!

Jonathan said this as he hugged and kissed me one day. Unprompted.

How wonderful…specially coming from Jonathan.

Nicke is adamant that Linn continues to learn mandarin and we found a chinese school for her. Classes are scheduled every Saturday between 9.30 to 12 pm. We enrolled her in the most basic class for kids.

We tried it out last Saturday thinking that it is a playgroup for kids conducted in Mandarin but turned out it is for kids to learn Hanyu Pinyin. It is taught by a mainland chinese girl and I must say that the class is excellent for those who want to learn Mandarin via the Hanyu Pinyin route. The kids attending are all Chinese above 5 years old and most of them are from mainland China speaking perfect Mandarin (they obviously speak Mandarin at home). Linn is the youngest at 3 years old and amuse herself by repeating the a, e, i, o, u in the different tones. She participated but being the smallest, you can hardly see her sitting behind the table. The teacher thinks she will soon get the hang of it. I can tell that it is difficult for her as she does not know her ABCs and cannot even write. So i guess, we will try to find another more suitable ‘playgroup’ class for her next week.

It is really interesting to see the Chinese community. Whilst the children are having class, parents are invited to participate in the tai ji class. I was more interested in the canteen and there were groups feasting on da pau and dumplings. Maybe we will meet some interesting friends here. I overheard the parents telling the kids that they must pay attention in class as it is very important that they speak Chinese well. China’s economy is their future.

I will be contended if my kids can converse with me and my family in Chinese one day.

The kids started school / childcare on Monday. Actually, we registered them in the school when we first arrived to Stockholm thinking the registration will take some time. We just picked one of the many schools in Taby and thought that we may change it if we find that it is too far from our new house. So I guess we are fortunate that it is only 10 mins away from our new home.

The kids were excited and even Jonathan seemed eager to go to school. We are quite impressed with the school as we only met the school principal on Monday and spoke to her about Jon’s special needs. Today, we met Sabrina, a shadow teacher who will be attached to Jonathan and will spend 100% of her time in the class with him, looking after his needs and ensuring that he is fully engaged in class.

Linn, on the other hand, is just getting to know her classmates and she claims that she can speak swedish already. 🙂

As for me, now that we have confirmed a home in Taby, i can start going to ‘Swedish for Immigrants’. It is starting to be a problem as everything in the swedish…on the roads, in the shops, on your phone, atms, parking ticket booth, application forms. In many ways, I feel both useless and frustrated. I don’t bother to open any letters as i cannot read them. More importantly, the kids cannot go to school and enjoy free childcare unless i am attending a course or working.

So, stay tune..or should I say ‘Hej da’.

After months of searching online and viewing houses, we finally confirmed our new home. It was actually our back-up plan after the earlier 4 options became either unaffordable or not available by 1 Oct. In our opinion, we paid too much for the house but I guess we were worn out by the bidding process and also, very tired from househunting every Sunday.

Our little ‘cottage’ is in Skarpeng, Taby (approximately half an hour away from the city central). We chose Taby because it is known to be a child friendly municipality and more importantly, it has 2 special schools we have identified for Jonathan.

We will move into the new house on 1 Oct. Here is the only picture that we took of the house.

Jonathan likes to climb trees and pick apples. Whilst the adults were not looking, he and his cousins climbed the tree and threw all the apples on the ground.

We like the improvements in Jonathan’s confidence and motor skills.

I really never thought that Househunting can be so stressful.

Nicke and I have been seriously looking for a new home. It has been a month since we arrived at Stockholm and our search for our new home has been only stressful.

It is not difficult to find nice looking houses but it is the bidding that is really difficult. Nice looking houses usually have loads of bidders and the bids can be up to Swedish kroner 1 million more than the seller’s asking price.

The last time, we managed to afford the highest bid for a house we really like but the seller turned us down and went with the second highest because they cannot release their house in October to us. So, we thought we will change our strategy by bidding for a house that has ugly interior, requires 100% makeover but the house is in a great location (next to a lake) and is available immediately. But the bidders went crazy in the last 2 days, we saw the price jumped from 3.495m to 4.25m. We love the house but this would mean we would have no money to hire a contractor to renovate the house. Actually, it was a bad strategy as Swedes love to renovate their houses themselves. The house is a gem to the typical handy swede and with such an excellent location, they will jump at this opportunity.

No wonder my sister in law, Sofia told us that buying a house is such a pain.

Nicke’s mum live in the countryside 2 hours away from Stockholm. The town is called Koping (pronounce Shopping) but there is really not much shopping to do there. 🙂

The kids were having so much fun in Grandma’s camp and really seemed to enjoy the outdoors. They picked and ate wildberries. They looked for various mushrooms in the forest, and played at the playground the entire day. Farmor (Swedish for Grandma) has a rule in her house. Kids are not allowed to be indoors all day. They must go out to play and are only allowed to come indoors for their meals.

It’s great for the kids to experience the country living. Guess who we found in Farmor’s backyard one morning.

With the kids at my mother-in-law’s camp, Nicke suggested that it is a good time to explore the city and know my way around.

So, this is my observation so far.

1) Everything here is in Swedish. (streetsigns, directions, atms, menu…etc).

Everything in the supermarket is in swedish. Just the other day, i bought 2 different fabric softeners when I am supposed to buy washing detergent and fabric softener.

2) All immigrants must sign up for a ‘Learn swedish’ course. But everything (including enrolment brochures, instructions) in the ‘Swedish for Immigrants’ Office is in Swedish! If I know how to read Swedish, I wouldn’t need to take up a course.

3) They have awfully long road names…Kommendorsgatan, Vahalllavagen, Torpangsbacken, Lansenvagen, TeniskaHogskolan..

4) ‘Herr’ refers to Men..

5) Why do Asian supermarkets smell so bad? Honestly,the supermarkets in Singapore do not smell of rotting bamboo shoots.

6) The MRT train ticket comes in a row of 16 stamps. Why does the minimum cost per trip start at 2 stamps?

7) Eating out is expensive. Be prepared to pay Swedish kroner 100 for a simple meal. Pizza is inexpensive and maybe the cheapest. You can get a nice decent pizza or kebab at Swedish Kroner 80+ ( but the coke will cost at least Swedish Kroner 25+) Exchange rate SGD1 = 5 Swedish Kroner

8) The most popular Asian food is Thai and Japanese. You see one in almost every corner in the city.

9) There are no attendants at petrol stations. Everything is DIY.

10) Driving on the ‘right’ side of the road is interesting. But parallel parking is not!

11) Usage of the toilet is not free. It cost 5 Kr (SGD 1) per entry!

12) Everyone (above 10 years old) speaks English! They all learn it in school. They have English programmes on TV all the time!

13) The city is very child friendly! School and childcare is free! If you push a baby pram, you get on the bus free of charge!

14) Swedes are big on recycling. You need to pay for all shopping bags in supermarkets. If you return an empty drink bottle, you get some money back. I was told, rubbish collection is done only once a week!

15) The city sits on 14 islands connected by bridges and there is water everywhere which makes the city very pretty.

16) Swedes love candy. I have never seen so much candy in my life! I think dentistry is a good career option!

It has been good so far learning new things everyday. I even found a boat named Singapore…

Bless my kind mother-in-law. She offered to take the 2 kids for a week in her home in Koping so that I can focus on looking for the house and check out the city. Essentially, get some ‘ME’ time.

It is really sweet of her and I really really appreciate it. I think it is also good because she lives in a house with great child friendly environment and the kids are given more space.

So far, she reported that the kids are doing great at her camp. They are very obedient and listen to whatever she says. They eat only 3 meals a day, eat their food without pushing, don’t give her a hard time when requests for candies and ice cream are turned down, and sleep promptly by themselves at 8.30 pm.

Gotta ask her to pass me some of those magic spells.

Jon has been kissing me alot lately..and i mean the long loving kisses. He will smile and plant many many kisses on my lips. He is so sweet about it that I find it hard to stop him.

Linn gets really jealous and decides that she cannot let her brother do this. She will wipe off the kisses from my lips forcefully and make the same loving kisses. Sometimes, they will fight to see who gets to kiss me.

I feel so loved.

Or have they been watching too much tele?

We found a new candy store near our service apartment. It has 300 different kind of candies and the kids (and us) went alittle crazy when we went there to pick up the candies to fill the goodie bags for Linn’s birthday party last week.

We were passing the store just this week and I promised them a treat if they behave. However, I really don’t want them to go into the store. So I told them to stand like statues and ‘not move’ at the store entrance. If I saw a slight bit of movement, I will not buy the lollipops they had been requesting for. Those we know my kids will know that this is an almost impossible task.

But I underestimated the power of candy. They stood still together at the entrance and even told me the type, description and the location of the candy they want!

It has been one tiring week. I am physically exhausted from running after the children and trying to bid for the house. Just realised that we have been here for 3 weeks!

The kids are alright but starting to hate the service apartment we are in. It is small and cosy for now but i guess they miss the space and their toys. It is not easy to be coop out in a one bedroom and they make so much noise that the neighbours have started complaining and giving me the dagger looks when we see them in the hallway. From this experience, we confirmed that we cannot live in Sweden’s apartments because it is hard for kids to be quiet and tip toe on wooden flooring. When Jon and Linn screams, the entire building can hear it.

So, we spend quite a bit of time at the playground where the kids can jump around. I can see Linn is desperate for new friends. The other day when she spotted a girl her age at the slide, she asked me if the girl can be her new friend. She also told me to sit with the girl’s mother at the bench so that she can mingle and try to get the girl to be her friend!!!

Jon, being the opposite, told a little boy to ‘Go Away!’ at the playground.

One day, as I watch Jon play, an old Swedish lady approached me, after observing us for a while. She smiled and told me that I can only watch him play for a few years as kids grow up very quickly.

So as tired and frustrated as I am, I will try to cherish this time with them.

After many months of searching for a house online, we finally get to view the houses.

But buying a property in Sweden is rather stressful. First, you shortlist the house online, turn up at the viewing (usually on a sunday, for 45 mins) together with many (and i mean many) other families to inspect the property while the agent hands out brochures and takes down the telephone numbers. After the viewing, you get a call from the agent inviting you to make a bid for the house and then the bidding starts. For the next few days, you will be subjected to endless smses updating you on the bids and if you want to increase your bids. Of course, if you don’t, you will be out of the game and definitely, ‘houseless’ (which is basically where we are).

We have made a couple of bids and have seen others overtake our bids. It’s sad because we have a limited budget and need a house like early next month.

Definitely will keep trying … as I think the kids are getting cranky from being stuck in a one-bedroom apartment. Whenever, we tell them that we are heading back to the apartment, they will protest.

“This is one of the houses we have been eyeing.

http://www.hemnet.se/beskrivning/794698?r=3

check out ‘Alla bilder’ to see the pictures. Unfortunately we were ‘outbid’.

We are settling in quite nicely in our little one-bedroom service apartment. It is small but cosy for us.

However, there is only one washing machine and dryer to be shared between all households (i think 20) in the basement. As a result, we have to ‘book’ our timeslots in advance. With only 3 timeslots available in one day, needless to say, the weekday afternoon slots are more available. This is how it looks like – each guest will have one key and they have to book only ONE time slot each time and lock it to the date and time slot.

So far, we have only managed to do laundry twice each week. Each time, it takes 4 hours. Specially when i can’t leave the 2 kids at home and rush down to the basement. I will have to take them with me.

The process is kind of old and can you imagine the bloke upstairs will have to turn down appointments because it is ‘laundry day’ and if he misses it, he will have re-schedule his washing.

How sexy is that?

This warrior princess said the F word today. She heard one of us saying it and repeatedly said ‘F**k**g Hell’ three times.

I demanded that she stopped. As expected, she asked me ‘why?’ (she asked ‘why’ for everything these days). So i have to tell her that only adults can say it and she ‘underaged’ to say it. Kids at her age will be taken away by the police if they hear kids saying it.

Well, keeping my fingers cross that she will not repeat it again.

We celebrated Linn’s birthday at Sofia’s house and Aunt Sofia and Grandma Irene organised an intimate but wonderful party for Linn. She was a happy girl receiving lots of nice presents from her relatives and also a very sweet goody bag (we think she has exceeded her candy quota for the year).

I can’t believe she will be 3 tomorrow. Just the other day, she was telling me that she wants to grow longer and not taller. Today when i went through all her photos of her 1 and 2 year old parties, she told me that she wants to go to school soon to meet new friends. They really grow so fast.

I must say that summertime in Sweden is absolutely beautiful. Specially when the sun is shining. The Swedes are so happy to be out in the sun and they just sit around the parks, take their boats out and go for long walks. I can totally understand their need to be out in the sun when the country is in darkness for most of the year. Most Swedes take 5 weeks off work during summertime just so they can go to their summer cottages or have fun in the sun. Those who work for Scandinavian companies know that nothing gets done in July.

BTW, I was told that if the parent has taken leave, they cannot put the child in childcare. (But what if they want to take a break from their children!!!).

However, the newbies to Sweden are not quite used to adoring the sun. My mother-in-law, Irene actually asked me why I am not out sitting in the sun but sitting under the shade. Linn complained that it is too hot with the sun shining down on her face. She started to take off her clothes in the park. Apparently, kids are outdoors on sunny days and they are encouraged to stay outdoor. Quite different from Singaporeans where we shun the sun, refuse to go out when it is too hot and the aircon is our best friend.

Maybe we will be sun worshipers next year.

Have been focusing on the kids for the past 3 days, making sure that they have their meals, go to the washroom, have decent showers and cleaning the service apartment.

Yes, the definition of service apartment is different in Sweden. Service Apartment does not come with any housekeeping service. ‘Guests’ must do their own cleaning and laundry. The only service is that they provide you with cable, water and heat.

The weather has not been too good and it has been rainy most of the past few days. Only managed to bring the kids to the playground yesterday morning.

I must say that it will take a while for me to get used to this. Right now, i am trying to stay zen from the kids’ shouting, screaming and jumping around the furniture. I pity the other guests in the building.

Can I be naughty and leave them in their naughty corner all day?