the seasons are a changin’

I am happy to report that frost and snow have officially arrived in Borås!   This past Thursday after school, a mini snow storm graced the town.  While the flurries did not stick around, cool temperatures lingered to remind us of the fast-approaching winter.

After the delightful little snowfall, on Friday, the entire staff at school took a road trip across the country to attend a conference in Linköping.  At the conference, I had the opportunity to meet other math teachers working at other English schools around the country.  A large part of the day was spent discussing how to implement the Swedish grading scheme.  I found it reassuring to learn that I am not the only teacher struggling to understand how best to create and use the rubrics so students get valuable feedback about their progress.  While the conference was nice, I must admit that my favorite aspect of the day was being able to spend time with my colleagues.  There are some really awesome people at my school, so it was nice to have time to hang out with them.  

This upcoming week is Höstlov (fall break).  Because school is not in session, Julia invited me to come with her to visit her aunt and uncle in southern Sweden. We arrived last night, and were warmly welcomed into their cozy little home.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure what is planned for the week, but I think a visit to Copenhagen is in the mix as well as some lessons in cabbage-roll-making.  I am very much looking forward to the change of pace that this week will offer.

one down, one to go

And so my friends, it is true.  My knitting addiction is back, but not without reason.  I honestly have been doing my very best to intentionally stay out of all fabric stores and yarn shops since coming to Borås; but, this past week, when I was invited to attend the ladies sewing club at church, I caved.  Shortly after accepting the offer, I found myself wandering down the craft aisle of the local Eko department store fingering the balls of wool and sizing up the needles.  After examining the store’s selection, I picked out a plump ball of raspberry-violet wool and some size 7 needles.  It was not long after cycling home that I was casting on.  Knit two.  Pearl two.  Knit two.  Pearl two.  And that was the start of my mitten. 

Several days later, my mitten was half done and it was time to venture out to the ladies sewing club.  I was picked up at twenty past six, and after a short drive, warmly welcomed into a roomful of woman.  Each lady had brought her own project—some cross-stitching, some sewing, and some knitting.  What ensued was a delightful evening of chatter and crafting mixed with a good measure of tea and a healthy dose of Scandinavian treats.  By the end of the evening, I had met about a dozen new people, picked up a few new Swedish phrases, and my mitten was near completion.  One down, one to go.  

In other news, this past week was rather monumental in terms of my teaching career.  This week, I had the pleasure of conducting my first-ever parent-teacher conferences.  Overall, they went well, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to meet the parents and discuss my students’ goals.  I thought it was funny though that the most common question I got from parents was something to the effect of, “so you now know what a gaffel and kniv is, right?”  I typically responded with little smile, and held up my pen—“this is a gaffel, right?”  It’s funny the stories that kids decide to share at home. 

buttery crackers—a delicacy?

Over the past several weeks, I have started to take note of a rather odd phenomenon.  At school, we have something called “pedagogical lunches.”  Basically, all this means is that teachers can get free lunches at school if they eat with the students in the cafeteria.   It is not these lunches which I have found to be odd, but rather it is what happens near the end of lunch which I am adjusting to.  Towards the end of the meal, it has become tradition for students to get up from their seats and return to where the food is distributed.  They then proceed to take a cracker which is comparable in size to a graham cracker.  On this cracker, they smear almost an eighth of an inch of butter across the top painstakingly making sure that the cracker is covered from edge to edge.  Once they are satisfied with their buttery masterpieces, they return to the lunch tables and eat their crackers.  Honestly, I cannot say I have ever seen so many people eat butter-smeared crackers.  Additionally, I find it amusing the perfectionistic tendencies my students display when it comes to smearing butter on crackers. 

Long story short, having observed this phenomenon for several weeks now, this past Wednesday I thought it best for me to partake in this cultural experience.  Having cleared my plate, I got up from my seat, retrieved a cracker, smeared it with butter (making sure it was covered from edge to edge), returned to my seat and enjoyed.  Honestly, the butter-smeared cracker was a lot better than I thought.  I have to admit that I will likely be partaking in this end-of-lunch ritual more often in the coming months.    

autumn adventures

Well, it appears that autumn is now in full swing here in Borås.  The leaves are changing colors, temperatures are rapidly declining, and teachers are gearing up for parent-teacher conferences.  Life in this slightly-larger-than-tiny town continues to go well.  A majority of my time is spent at school—planning lessons, grading papers (or at least trying to figure out how the Swedish grading system works), calling parents, and laughing with colleagues.  However, every now and again, I do find time to venture out for little adventures. 

This past week, one adventure landed me at a small sushi restaurant in the center of town.  One of my student’s parents owns this restaurant and offered to treat me.  All in all, it was a delightful evening.  I had the opportunity to sample some delicious sushi while learning about my student and hearing how the Japanese education system compares to the Swedish system.

Another adventure brought me to a small classroom on the edge of town.  It is in this classroom that I will likely be studying Swedish for the next long while.  The school I am working at arranged for all the new international teachers to attend Swedish language lessons so we can better communicate with the students.  Lessons began this week.  So far, we have learned the alphabet and a few basic words. “Skriv” means “write” and “bil” means “car.”

This evening, Julia and I went on one final adventure to finish off the week.  She showed me around the woods nearby her apartment.  After a short but steep climb up a hill, we were rewarded with a lovely view of the town below.  I may need to return to this overlook come wintertime to see the snow-laden landscape. 

To wrap up with this post, I will leave you with a photo of my favorite sight from this week.  As I was making my way home from church this morning, a woman biked past me with the baskets on her bike overflowing with flowers.  I think I might need to outfit Lena (my bike) with similar decor.  How classy.