Brrrrrrr. . . .

[Carrie]

After a very nice holiday in Skåne, we are back in the frozen tundra of Kiruna. If you don't hear from me, it's because my fingers have been claimed by frostbite! It's currently -30C out, which is no fun at all. It never got this cold last year.

I was really pleased with how this holiday turned out. I was totally miserable last year (first Christmas away from home, first Christmas in Sweden) and didn't expect this year to be much better. I think my low expectations made it better since things could only be better than I thought. If that makes any sense at all.

We didn't get to do everything in Stockholm that we planned to do, but it was ok. We ran into a couple of Mike's old college buddies at the airport in Angelholm, so spent quite a bit of time with them instead of exploring Stockholm. It was pretty neat, actually. I had been fretting about meeting his college buddies (he calls them his "real" friends) since his work buddies here in Kiruna have basically refused to acknowledge my existance even when I'm standing right in front of them. He kept telling me that his real friends would be friendly and such, but I just thought he was being optimistic. Turns out he was right. They were extremely friendly and nice and even spoke English to me. The funny thing was, I could understand everything the woman said (she was from north of Stockholm somewhere) so I didn't need her to speak English at all, but I couldn't understand a word out of the guy's mouth (he, like all of Mike's family, speaks Skånska).

Anyway, just wanted to report in. I think we need to move south. We had lovely weather down there all week until the last day. We took several long walks and enjoyed the lack of wind and the mild -2C weather.

Hope you all had happy holidays.

Carrie

[Sabeine]

Hi Carrie,

Have you and Micke considered moving away from Kiruna? Maybe someplace with more moderate climate closer to Stockholm, or maybe Skåne? Currently it is -8C here in Stockholm. They say with all the wind we are having right now, it really brings it to -14C, but that sure beats -30C. I've also been to Kiruna (twice), and Abisko and ran into the same thing with English speakers. They didn't want to speak English with me. Maybe it's cause they haven't had to use it so much, and haven't had much practice that they feel nervous to even try. Who knows?

[Carolyn]

I keep telling you, go south, young woman, go south! ;D

[Carrie]

We have considered moving south, and Mike has even applied for some jobs in various parts of the country. His industry is not doing well at all in Sweden at this time, so he hasn't had a single bite from his applications.

Our big plan is to move to the US so we can be closer to my family, esp if we start having kids. We started the paperwork in October, so we are hoping this will be the last winter in Kiruna. We already have several good job leads in the US, so that makes me happy. I didn't even know it, but I have a cousin who works for a company that does almost the exact same thing Mike does and they are always looking for people, so we are pretty confident we will be able to find something for him.

Honestly, I like my life up here in Kiruna. I'm much, much happier than I was before but it has been a bit of a shock. I just hope this cold front passes over quickly!

Carrie

[Bunny]

Due to the humidity, since Stockholm is so close to the water, it feels just as cold here at -8C as it does inland when it´s -20C. No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes! ;D

[Beverly]

I feel your pain, Carrie! It was -26 today (and we're on the coast, so we get the added cold feeling that Bunny mentioned!). I don' think I've been outside for longer than ten minutes at a time in weeks!

This is my first winter "up north" (I'm outside Skellefteå), and I'm not terribly enamored of the dark ... I've been meaning to ask you, how many hours of light do you have way up in Kiruna at the darkest time of the year (we have about 4½ here)?

[Carrie]

I'm very glad we aren't near a body of water. When we were down in Skåne and in Stockholm I really noticed the added chill that the high humidty caused.

The darkest part of the year yields about 2 hours of a dawn/dusk type of light. The sun never actually gets over the horizon, but we do have a beautiful sunrise/sunset combo for a couple of hours (from about 11 am-1 pm). It's pretty crazy. I've already noticed the light is starting to come back, so I'm happy.

Carrie