So we're finally online in the apartment, which means the library is no longer my second place. Today I discovered a third place, called Element, in walking distance of home. Christopher took me to a flea market, which was an interesting experience... not sure I'll be going back there in a hurry.

culture shock
I'm sat in the library, as usual, and I just spotted a guy outside walk up to the edge of the kerb, pick up a handful of snow, put it in his mouth, then pick up another handful of snow and use it to wash his hands...

Well yesterday was LL Cool J, Common and Funkadelic. Today is At The Drive In and John Coltrane. We've ordered our broadband connection, so a week from now will mark the last day of this wonderful library as my office. If only I had such a good CD collection at home.

Tonight our housegroup has some visitors from Toronto, which should be fun.

I've been listening to a lot of music from the Stadsbibliotek (city library) and have noticed that they have a surprising amount of Welsh music. In the past few days I've found CDs from the likes of Dub War and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci...

No matter what colour, Vans slip-ons really aren't the attire for tackling 5 inch deep snow. Apparently neither are Clarks Wallabies. It's strange moving somewhere with a notably harsher climate and discovering that clothes you once thought warm are seriously inadequate.

The Snow it falls
The streets of Malmö are now covered with a thick blanket of fresh white snow. On the right are some photos I took on my way to the library. I was snow biking, so please forgive the poor compositions.

Strangely enough I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen - Matt would be proud!

It's funny how British art seems more interesting when enjoyed from other lands. I laugh harder at Ali G and Little Britain here than I ever would at home and even enjoy listening to Radiohead and Coldplay more.

There's this one sketch on The Ali G Show where he interviews something like the US Chief of Security and asks him "couldn't you arrange it so that those machines at airports for finding belts and watches and stuff could detect weapons?" (my paraphrase).

Anyhow I saw that episode, laughed, and thought nothing of it. Until Tim arrived. Somehow he made it past security at 3 airports, on his way to Malmö, without anyone noticing that he had a fishing knife in his coat pocket. He didn't realise himself until he arrived in Sweden!

It seems like every day some progress is made towards me being able to remain in Sweden. On Friday afternoon I was told that I am now eligable to receive a temporary residence permit.

Advice for anyone moving to Sweden: start at the tax office and avoid the migration board until they give you a personal number (unless you happen to be moving to Sweden because of a significant other who happens to be Swedish, in which case the door is wide open!)

In Sweden, opening a bank and joining a library are both equally as straight forward. You go in, you present your passport, you tell them your address. Voila, you have opened a bank account. Why is it so hard to open an account in the UK?

Okay, this announcement may be slightly premature, but I'm starting a web design company called Looks Can Kill. My new website can be found at lookscankill.org. If you have any work for me please leave a comment and I will email you.

Ugly black snow.
I think the worst thing about the weather being this cold is that the snow lingers for ever. The last time it snowed in Malmö was sometime around New Years' Day, so this is old snow, and it lost its shiny whiteness many days ago.

For those of you who were wondering, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've been away from broadband for a while and am re-emerging thanks to some new web design exploits. I'll post some more on this when I get the chance.

New Year was spent 'Snow Biking' with Mark in Malmö harbour, pulling skids and watching the fireworks (amateur and professional). It turns out that Swedes (at least those living here) have a strange fascination with all things fire (candles, firewords, whatever) and for one night the city was transformed into something resembling a war zone.

We're just back from watching the sun go down at Sotherndown. While travelling back and forth they played Madonna's Vogue twice on the radio. This is my last night in Cardiff. Tomorrow I head back to Malmö with Zoe and Mark in tow (or toe?) ready to celebrate the dawn of 2006.

The Switchbacks
This morning I rode a trail that I've ridden many times in the past, but haven't been near for maybe 3 or 4 months. It's known as 'The Switchbacks' because of the hairpin turns, which make it a really fun ride. It starts out steepish and fairly simple, and ends with a fast, near flat, fairly technical (weaving between trees etc.) piece of singletrack.

This morning I noticed that the trail has changed somewhat since my last ride. The loose rocks have gone and been replaced by small red stones, as have other more precarious parts of the trail. This makes it a much faster ride, but also a much safer ride and I'm not sure I like it.

The thing I enjoyed the most was just being outside and out of the city. I know it sounds like a cliché, but too little time in the outdoors makes me feel like a caged animal.

Thanks to John, James, Elinor and Elin I now have a CV in Swedish! Tack så mycket. Also thanks to those who have cared for me in different ways during my first month in Sweden. I've spent some time figuring out the mac keyboard shortcuts so will no longer be spelling Malmö without the dots.

God Jul en och allt (I'm sure you can't directly translate "one and all" like that but what do I know?)

Peace.

This is my third day in the UK. It's nice to be home, seeing friends and family and noticing all the differences between here and Sweden. One of the things I noticed first was that I was looking the wrong way when crossing the road. I've had to remind myself, when walking into a shop, "it's not 'hey' and 'tack,' but 'hi' and thankyou..."

I haven't needed my gloves or hat either...

Yesterday at 7.35am I awoke to the sound of words I didn't recognise and voices I did as Emma and Sofia sang me the Swedish equivalent of 'Happy Birthday' and entered the room with an icecream cake and candles. I blew out the candles and proceeded with my icecream breakfast...

At 7.40am Elinor and Sara showed up, sang, and presented me with manna (well, Ben and Jerry's).

During the day I hung out with Emma, went shopping and got ready for our guests in the evening. We had a great meal - a feta cheese pie, and people started arriving from 8ish. The apartment filled up and we had a lot of fun mingling with some new friends.

Pictures (hopefully) to follow (please: Emma, Pete, anyone else who brought their camera).

All in all a great birthday.

Well the winter here is much milder than I expected. That's not to say it isn't cold, but it's December 17th and I've been able to continue cycling wherever I need to go. I've only had one moment where I would say I was chilled to the bone and that actually had more to do with following someone who was cycling really slow. To top this off I think I've only been caught in rain twice this month and neither occasion was heavy enough to dampen my shoe-covered toes.

Today is the Malmo Vineyard Christmas party and I'll hopefully get to sample some more traditional Swedish Christmas food (if any of it is vegetarian!) I'm constantly blown away by the fact that you can move cities and find a community of like-minded individuals with whom you can share life and faith (not that the two are really that easy to separate!)

On Monday I celebrate my 23rd Birthday, which should be fun. This year I get to celebrate it twice - on Monday with friends in Malmo and then Tuesday when I fly home to my family for Christmas.

Now to make some Greek(ish) couscous salad with one of the bargains of Malmo - 20kr for 1/2Kg of feta cheese (from the Greek delicatessen in Mollevangen).

Tonight we celebrated Lucia at Malmo Stadsbibliotek (city library) with a midnight concert from a small band of choristers. It's so nice to be somewhere where advent festivities aren't completely overshadowed by the impulse to max out the collective credit card.

The last few days I've been full of cold and very aware that the clock is ticking in the run up for Christmas. I went to university with Elinor and printed out some notices offering proof reading for students whose first language is Swedish and are submitting coursework in English. It'll be interesting to see what comes.

These times of being slightly below par are kind of good for reflecting and evaluating progress I guess.

On Wednesday night I attended an interdenominational mass that seems to be run by students of a local theological college. It was the first service I've been to that was held entirely in Swedish (including all songs), and, because of the cold, my head was really not in gear, but it was very relaxed and I enjoyed its simplicity.

Well I'm still alive. Mark C went home on Saturday, so I'm now hanging with mostly Swedes. The Swedish isn't coming along as quickly as I would like, but I am learning, and I'm sure that when I fix myself a routine of practise and study I will improve much faster.

On Friday night Mark, Emma and I were at Crash, an indie night at The Deep. We met up with some of Emma's friends from back home (Varnamo), including Nicholas who goes out with their housemate (Bea). I think Emma found it amusing when Nicholas grabbed me and pulled me into a group of lads who were jumping up and down on the dancefloor singing along with some swedish band that I'd never heard. Not one to let the fact that I can't make out the lyrics hold me back I decided to sing along ("watermelon, watermelon, watermelon...").

I'm feeling very taken care of. God seems to have provided me with a network of supportive and encouraging friends far more quickly than I would ever have expected.