just a few more pictures

first is a photo of me knitting in the cafe I love, which is the last photo...
I see my town name everywhere
Photo of me waiting for the bus
Lindenberries at the market!

I love Gothenburg!

Now I know where to go if I need creative influence, comfort and the best vegetarian food in Sweden...Gothenburg!
I felt so comfortable and happy there is was amazing, I proclaimed my love for the city 30 minutes after I arrived at the train station and made me way with Elin to one of her favorite cafes...it was pouring rain but the atmosphere of the city was so welcoming , I had the same feelings I get from Montreal, so many wonderful boutiques , cafes , and galleries soul food to the aspiring entrepreneur!

Elin and I had a fika, then she showed me a great second hand shop! Just looking at those places fills me with joy...and I found circle knitting needles....here comes a knitted skirt!
We then met up with her boyfriend Ragnar and some other Icelandic people at a bar where I experienced my first "afterwork" many bars and restaurants have this on Friday evenings, you buy a beverage (in our case it was 2 for 1 draught) and you get a plate for a buffet table...they you just eat and drink .... Swedish people loves them some buffet styles....restaurants are saving on servers wages! smart!
So I ended up getting a little tipsy on account of the 2 for 1 beer and up until the evening I could count the drinks I've had in Sweden on one hand!...anyhoo I did a good job of being drunk , Elin and Ragnar and i giggled to the train station to meet her Dad who was arriving on a business trip , he bought us all a drink at the hotel bar....then the three of us giggled our way to Ragnar's to eat dried fish with butter and have shots of a mysterious Icelandic liquor!Elin and Ragnar used to live together in Gotenburg but she now takes graphic design in the engineering building next to mine in Jönköping, she said she really really misses the city anf Ragnar, but she is happy she moved to Jönköping cause she got to meet Karin and I! She is sooo sweet we have so much in common eventhough we grew up worlds apart from each other.
Ragnar, Elin and Karin on Elin's birthday!

~So Saturday in Gothenburg , I awoke ....early....with a bit of a hangover but a manageable one...had a great breakie with Ragnar and Elin and she circled streets for me to explore ....we went downtown to meet up with her dad and then I went off on my own to EXPLORE!



The shops were so neat, I spent 2 hours in a vinyl shop listening to swedish girl folk bands on the customer turntables...I think the guys that worked there may have thought that I was in the music business, or so I like to imagine ....they were really helpful and goofy! I was sooo hungry after looking at records , hungry and forgetful...I left my camera in the shop ...Ragnar is going to pick it up for me with instructions to act as though I am in the music business!! hehehehe.....I made my way to the vegetarian restaurant that Elin, the record shop guys and second hand store owner all recommended...and for good reason.....It was the BEST EXPERIENCE of MY LIFE!.......
Solrosa...step 1: order 1 of 4 entrees all vegetarin one vegan ...all sounding delicious, I picked a smaller entree of Leek and potato soup...step 2: go to the best salad bar you have ever seen , it's actually just a table with big bowls with the most beautiful and tasty assorted salads and salad fixings...couscous and olive salad, potato and cucumber salad, chickpea, ghnocci, things i didn't know....all sooo good! And bread baked with cumin seeds and homemade salad dressings....step 3: EAT! I sat on a stool by the window dancing my fork around in the air and waging my tail!! I had two nice salad helpings.....the best part is that all this plus a coffee cost me $7.50...the most expensive entre was 10.50...these are not the kinda prices I have been seeing for food!
Anyway not only did I want to stay in Gothenburg another day just to go to the restaurant, and I planned my birthday consisting of going there, someday I WILL open this restaurant in Canada!
I decided not to stay another night but to go to Gotenburg when I feel low, I walked around for a long time (walking off all the food I ate) I was sad I didn't have my camera it is stunning there, I missed my first train cause I thought 6 minutes would be enough time to get some of the chocolate balls I had when I first arrived in Sweden....ooops, had to wait 3 hours for the next rain so I sat by the canal and wrote Laura a letter !
Okay this post is way too long just such a great experience I could write forever!
Love everyone xoxoxox

Scones the international bringing together people treat

Last week was full of scones my wonderful friend Karin baked the goodies and had people over on thursday and friday , I brought strawberry jam to show my support ...delicious!
Food brought me to Karin and Elin's place on Wednesday as well, that night I made eggplant rolls with ricotta cheese and tomato sauce yumm.. oh dear all my social activities revolve around food ... Thursday afternoon Elin (from Iceland) and I met for our very first knitting fika (I made sandwhiches with roasted red pepper/red onion/dried apricots and ricotta!) it was great we talked about movies and food! oh dear ...I swear I'm not fat yet, but my tummy does this cute little fullness bulge in my highwaisted skirts that I actually enjoy!
I have successfully become a regular customer at the cafe, the owner always asks if I want "the usual" ... this means a lot to me for some odd reason.... on Saturday I went to the market to get my veggies and fruit and stopped by the cafe afterwards...a British man came up and asked if he could sit down and speak English with me .... he had lived in Jönköping for 2 years but hadn't tried learning Swedish , I brought up how some British people are fed up with their immigration policies partly because of the lack of integration effort of certain immigrants...he agreed fully ....but didn't get the irony...
I went home Saturday made some chili, finished reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity ....do you ever find yourself thinking in the same voice as the narrative of the current book you are reading ... I do so much .... now I have to be even more selective on what I read because some narritives are just annoying to think in..... Now I am reading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray ....so good I spent most of yesterday reading it ... oh sundays
I got some great flannel fabric at the thrift store this weekend so tomorrow I am going to Karin's to learn how to use her serger and finish a dress I've started...
School is good
Ciao
Natalie

Today is a good day

Oh joy !
Oh bliss!

I finally found a cafe that makes americanos, now I can sit in the cute cafe and really enjoy myself!
The owner is a very nice lady as well, I think it will become the meeting spot for knitting fika that some friends and I are planning...fika is a swedish word for coffee meeting!
I have been knitting away on the bus everyday making a scarf that is black and white! Oh Grandma Jean will be proud when I write her to say that I can knit multi colors!
Tomorrow is thrift store day , on my list is a curling iron and circular knitting needles, I am going to be taught by a friend , Elin from Iceland, how to make legwarmers and maybe even a skirt like the one she was wearing when I met her...so neat! I will also be looking for more fabric and buttons. Currently I am working on a vest with short sleeves, I am amazing myself with my free form sewing!
Last night I went to a meeting with the university Student TV group, they put together 4 shows a year that are broadcated on the local televison station, we started making plans for a halloween show, I am excited to shoot video and edit again I crave editing so badly ...it's really worrisome!
I have been writing lots of songs and today I met with a professor at the music department to see if there is a way I can record them, in a couple of weeks a recording station will be put together and I will able to use it! I want to record a handful of songs to make a little disc. My friend Karin works at a cool vintage shop on thursdays I am going to start to bring Daisy, the guitar, with me to incorporate music into my visits! Exciting stuff! I'm trying to do and then say but this made my day so I had to indulge!
I don't have class today so that is nice , I have been busy with school passed in a group paper yesterday and have another project due next week , classes meetings and readings ...busy! But enjoyable as well!
Okay I am going to go to the museum now because starting today it is free admission for the winter, I am going to absorb some Johanna Billing wondernous again and maybe venture around the rest of the museum as well!
Ciao
Natalie

My Views of Sweden...so far...

How did I get so lucky?

This week in Sweden has been great, ever since I moved into my place I feel at home, relaxed, happy, motivated!
I met two amazing girls on Wednesday, Karin Öst and I had a thrift store shopping extravaganza! I met her on myspace, I heart the internet! She is the sweetest girl ever with the best style I have seen in Sweden, she is a clothing designer who makes amazing clothes www.lilyofthevalley.se inspired by the '50's styles she sports and made with vintage fabrics! We went to 5 shops around town, I was so happy to find cheap prices and spend time with such a wonderful girl I bought buttons,a school bag, knitting needles and yarn, an iron, a cute bird needlepoint, and a hot dress for my imaginary band everything was so cheap!
We are going to try to meet often , she is going to show me how to use her serger and bake me cupcakes!!! I am the luckiest girl!
After Karin and I parted I met with the awe inspiring Johanna Billing , a director who was in Jönköping to install a video exhibition for the Film Festival that is taking place here. http://www.makeithappen.org/johannabilling.html
I had found her via myspace last year when I was doing Swedish music research, she has a mini record label that makes vinyls and CDs for talented musician friends, so I was amazed when she replied to my e-mail about meeting while she was in town. We met at the Konstmuseum (art museum) where she was installing her show and we went searching for a bar that wasn't too stuffy...hard to find around here so we settled at our third scouting location, she bought me a beer and enlightened me!
We talked about music and how it inspires our lives, most of her videos started from having a particular song in her head, they are about transitions people and cities go through, cyclical life experiences (which is something I always look at) ...I couldn't believe I was sitting there with such a talented artist...I feel like that so much in my life I am so fortunate to have so many amazingly artistic friends that brighten my existence! I was worried I wouldn't have that in Sweden, but I have been unworried!
My talk with Johanna left me excited about the possibilities I have in life, with the videos and the music and art I want to make.
THEN ...on Thursday I went to see her opening and was completely taken aback....I had to hold back tears, it was so beautiful and meaningful...my eyes, ears, heart and soul were treated to pure bliss. She was showing 4 videos, two blown up large on wooden platforms in a big empty room and two others on televisions in other hiding spots in the magnificent museum and there was a table of dvds and mini dvd players showing an art project that she started in 2002 that entailed 20 Swedish musicians singing covers of You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erickson, the project was then carried on in like 16 other countries....
Her videos make so much sense to me, they don't have a set beginning or end , they loop and you can get into them wherever you start watching from, she does a lot of her videos without a word spoken just background sound and the camera does the narration.
I could go on for days about her , and she said she was glad to meet me! What did I do to become so lucky, she gave me two vinyl records of the soundtracks.
I am so grateful for meeting her and am forever indebted to her for sharing her time, knowledge and kindness with me, I am so looking forward to visiting her in Stockholm. Her boyfriend is an amazing musician Blood Music who is releasing a new EP in November and his best friend is my favorite new Swedish musician Racket&Ball!

Oh My happy days....I am in a dark computer room at the moment so I will end here and continue soon....
Ciao Natalie

Hem, ljuva hem

08/26/2007

Tonight I will be spending my first night in my new apartment! It's amazing how your outlook can change when your expectations don't muddle your view. When we first went to see the little room apartment last week the overall feeling was of apprehension, it was so small the kitchen and bathroom leave just enough elbow room to turn around on the stop. The stove/oven looked like a toy, a rusty old toy. We tried to appear cool as we walked from my top floor room to the basement where I will be showering, oh dear. I knew Sigrid, my host for the past week and a half, was worried about me living in another town a 25 minute bus ride from school in a place she would never think twice about living in , but that quaint little room set off and imaginative spark in me and I knew I would soon calling it home. We went back yesterday to move my new little bed in (used for $50) and the place looked so so magically different , it looked so happy to see us again instead of like a lone little orphan waiting to be loved. It was golden hour in the beautiful town of Huskvarna, the yellow stucco house lies between foresty hills with an apple tree property, tomato plants grown by my landlord's 13 year old son (this holds huge personal symbolism for me) and a well-trained German shepherd named Cisco, my own cats' name is Frisco ...the landlord enjoyed that! The girls I have been staying with are so kind and generous , they are supplying my with a lot of home accessories, including a comforter and amazing decorations from India, and they are even lending me their Huskvarna sewing machine. That is the most solid example of my living fate, Huskvarna is where the sewing machine was invented! No better place for a seamstress! My inner artist is beaming with the knowledge that it will be put to good use in this little getaway, my walls will be decorated with my loved ones art, letters, and photos that I brought to Sweden and those I will be getting in the mail. My address is Ståhlgatan 10 56144 HUSKVARNA Sweden I am so happy !!

hola

I'm going to Sweden in August
In August gehe nach Schweden
En Augosto yo voy a Suecia
En aout je vais en Suede

My how time flys

Wow, how easy it is to forget what we set out to do. I had planned on posting about my bag making and life living everyday but alas four months have gone by and I didn't make it past the initial post, ah well no time like the present!
The Holely Sheet Bags earned me a B+ in my Structuring the Start-Up class, I still have a lot of work to do though ...damn my lack of self-motivation! Now that I am not having to work towards a good mark I haven't been doing any work on them at all, I gave myself May off from sewing and am determined to get back in the groove in June.
This is my first summer staying in Halifax as opposed to going back to PEI, I have a nice little job at my favorite sushi restaurant Dharma Sushi where I have made fast friends with my co-workers. I still need to find another job though, I'm hoping to do some marketing work this summer and I'm planning to write a few articles for www.gkfa.com a great online womens magazine.
I was in a sour mood this morning (the po-po finally caught me biking sans helmet) so to cheer myself up I visited some of my favorite blogs. www.camillaengman.com is always the first site I check and Camilla's crafts and links are always inspiring and her dog is so flipping cute!
Now I am off to finish the last chapter of Maya Angelou's "Gather Together In My Name" I forced myself to put it down last night so I could save the end for the sunny balcony chair today.

me llamo Natalia

This year I am back at university finishing my degree once and for all!
I'm a 3rd year marketing and entrepreneurship double major and I love taking languages too, I took Japanese first year and this year I'm in Spanish.
For my Structuring the Start Up course I have $10 to start a mini venture where I have to provide a service or product.
Finally, not only do I have the perfect opportunity to get some use out of all the fabric and craft supplies that I have been accumulating , but my university courses are actually interesting!
My goal for my mini venture is to create handmade accessories and sell them to stores in the area and hopefully online in the near future. My goal for now is to finish writing so I can go to bed.