A year (or five) in Gothenburg

Sunrise

2011-07-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

Watched the sun rise as I was preparing for take off.

London Aquarium

2011-06-02T05:10:00.001-07:00

Strömstad

2011-05-01T12:01:00.001-07:00

Easter

2011-04-29T09:45:00.001-07:00

Småland is a lot of spruce and pine, but there are other plants as well. It was very beautiful during Easter weekend.

March archipelago

2011-04-08T04:03:00.000-07:00

Went to Orust for a work-related thing. Found some time to sneak out and snap a couple of pictures. Cloudy and windy...

Blogging resumed

2011-02-19T11:09:00.000-08:00

So, what was supposed to be one year (and hence the title of this blog) has turned into five, of which almost four remains (based on the end-date of my contract). The transition from post doc to assistant professor has been somewhat stressful, and combined with a few things I would have been better off without, the camera's been quite low on the priority list. But now, blogging will be resumed. My goal is to post at least once a week (and the pics will be from all over the place, not limited to the city and its surroundings).

One of the reasons I've been busy: It's been unusally hard to generate those three spots of light lately..

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Spring, at last...

2010-05-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Long time no blogging... Sorry about that. Anyway, spring finally came. First to Småland:

The bumblebees were out...

And a little later, spring arrived in Göteborg as well:

The Botanic Garden as of today. (There were enormous amounts of Anemone Nemorosa both in Slottsskogen and the Botanic Garden - there were also loads of people in both places...)

Änggårdsbergen wasn't that crowded however, although there certainly must have been a human being thinking that this sign needed a hat...

No signs of spring

2010-02-07T00:06:00.000-08:00

I went out yesterday, with the hope of finding some (or at least one) signs of spring*. After all, this is southern Sweden, and the days are getting longer, and it's not incredibly cold** anymore. However, I found nothing but a (very beautiful indeed) winter:

At this point in time, the sign seems somewhat meaningless.

A bunch of pretty cool snow formations hanging on the tree branches... This is probably the closest you'll ever come to tree-living snakes in Sweden.

A broken tree.

And some pretty amazing skies at dusk.

*It was suggested that it could be taken as a sign of spring that soccer season has started. I don't quite know how I feel about that...

** I have found my warm mittens that were gone for quite some time.

Winter-time archipelago

2010-01-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

Some friends from out-of-town (but who used to be in-towners) were here today, and we went for a little excursion to the very, very frozen archipelago, more exactly Hönö. As with many of the islands outside this city you have to get on the car ferry to get there.

Did I mention it was quite cold? And very, very slippery at some places. I almost dropped my camera at a few occasions.

This young lady has already learnt a few of the very important things in life, like that cameras are much more interesting than crazy grown-ups making strange noises...

On the way back, we stopped at Masthuggskyrkan, to look at the view of the city. It was nice but very cold and windy up there so it was a short stop...

A January walk in the "park"

2010-01-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

The original plan for yesterday was indoor work out and apartment cleaning. However, I needed some bread-baking therapy and it seemed stupid to clean the kitchen before that event, and once I was done, I spotted blue skies and decided that a 2+hour outdoor walk probably was better for me. (Apartment cleaning and indoor work out happened today.)

It's still winter here, and quite beautiful at times.

Cross country tracks on a frozen lake.

"Ice falls".

Another frozen lake.

But the best ice for skating was not on any of the frozen lakes but actually on the road between the parking lot and the lake.

Long time no blogging...

2010-01-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

More is to come soon, but here is at least a few snaps from the past weekend (apparently, everyone else was inside watching alpine/cross country/biathlon) because I was all alone outside...

It was sort of dark and grey which might be another explanation to why I was all alone out doors...

We still have snow here....

A different take on bike-lights...

And a very random sign for a "Van Gogh-studio" that I happened to pass by during my (almost) random walk...

A great weekend

2009-11-15T11:48:00.001-08:00

James was visiting this weekend. Renee couldn't be here since she, for unclear reasons, preferred Orlando, Florida to Göteborg... (Quite a bit odd, I know...)

Unfortunately neither the gosling, nor Ragnar the ram could come either, but instead we had company by the Mitten during our exploratory walks in the city. The Mitten was very happy, since the weather matched his own colors fairly well...

The Mitten was sort of surprised to see that someone had left their beer glass outside all night, and wanted James to drink it, or if maybe James wanted the Mitten to drink it.

The walk took us up a very long stairway. The Mitten got tired in the middle of it all. At least that is how James and I recall it.

Once we got up there, James wanted to try to be a statue. The Mitten admired the view.

We found a store that sells smoked tabasco, and all sorts of other good stuff. The Mitten was very, very happy! (Not to mention how happy I was...)

The Mitten (or maybe James) thought it could be useful with some more furniture in my still sort-of-empty apartment so they went looking and found me a money-chair... Too expensive unfortunately.

James also found a new friend. Maybe he saved all the chilis for his new friend... Or maybe he's not used to hot food anymore. Getting Swedish-y maybe? Anyway, I can now check of finding a good thai restaurant from the list.

And the city had one of its really beautiful moments.

Saturday and Sunday walks

2009-11-08T09:30:00.001-08:00

Redbergsparken

View from Redbergsparken

Birds at Östra Kyrkogården

Sunset, Redbergsparken

And another view from Redbergsparken.

Redbergsparken and Östra kyrkogården (East Cemetery) are both located in my new neighborhood.

Last weekend: Cops

2009-11-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

There was a soccer game in this town last Sunday. I was on a little excursion and came back at ca 6.30 pm, and this is what the square just outside the train station looked like:

Cops, cops and cops...

A Saturday walk

2009-10-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

So, the cold/(seasonal or swine) flu is still giving me a bad cough, a runny nose and bad headache, but today I was so bored that I decided to challenge it just a little and go for a walk. Whether that was a good idea or not will probably be obvious tomorrow.

I found, among other things, a random stairway... And a lot of autumn leaves (think "Autumn leaves" with Nat King Cole and you'll understand the feeling...)

And a little river with some cool fall color reflections...

And the famous SKF-logo...

...and, interestingly enough, a random phone booth in a residential area. (Readers with area knowledge are encouraged to take a guess as to where it was found.) This is a very uncommon sight in Sweden these days, since everyone is expected to have a cell phone...

Fall colors

2009-10-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'm having a bad cold right now so my Göteborg-excursions are not very exciting at the moment. (Actually they are sort of non-existing.) More frequent and (hopefully exciting) blogging will resume as soon as I feel better. Especially since I am now reunited with my tripod.

Anyway, we do have fall colors here in suburbs. And some very pale sunflowers...

Means of transportation

2009-10-04T12:50:00.001-07:00

Trams are part of the public transportation system here and are quite convenient.* Although also kind of scary.

I have a new bike as well, so I can bike from my place to work. Roughly a 30 minute bike-ride, one-way. (So far, one person out of ca 20 agrees with me that 30 minutes one-way is a bike-able distance.)

*However, the ticketing system is not exactly to be described as convenient...

Welcome!

2009-10-04T12:27:00.001-07:00

Right now, only two things are certain about my life: I miss the US very much, and I have a job, for one year, in this Swedish city, Göteborg.

This will be my photo-diary during this year. Photographed and written mainly so that all my far-away friends and family members (at this point essentially all of them are far away) can see and explore this city the way I see it, and follow my journey through the lenses while I try to figure out whether this is a place that I eventually can call home, or if my urge to move back to the United States will grow stronger and stronger as time goes by. Welcome. Please comment on my photos if you wish.

Welcome!