Its been seven weeks since I got to Sweden to live and work. The first four went off in a blur of living well in perfect weather and travelling within Sweden and Denmark. Most times I felt I was inside a picture postcard!
R and A left in the fourth week. That weekend was the start of the Malmo festival. My friend from Texas stayed over for the weekend. So I eased into real life really slowly.
On Monday, people were back at work from a four week long summer vacation. I was introduced to a lot of them, almost all over 6 feet tall and named either Bo or Lars or Johan. It will take me a few more weeks to get names sorted. One way I have learnt to deal with my lack of height, is to stand away from a very tall person and not crane my neck to make eye contact. Having a loud voice helps overcome the physical space!
I have been getting physical evidence of being more settled here. This is in the form of junk mail in my mailbox. This is exactly like in the US, with heavy promotions from super markets and a whole catalog for tools!!
I finally did get a hair trim. I did come out without rainbow color hair. Almost all the salons have a "drop in welcome" board. (my street has 6 of them). Perhaps its lost in translation, but not one of them had an appointment for at least a week when I dropped in. I finally chose a salon that is part of a mall. The girl at the counter was really sweet and did a good job with my hair.
I also managed to get my eyebrows threaded. When we moved from Dubai to the US, my biggest worry was to find a place that does threading. Fourteen years in, there are threading services offered
from the homes of providers to the corridors in a shopping mall and everything in between!
I found Salong Sadaf on a street off the vegetable market. It was a rainy day and I had already eaten a fourth of the Iranian bread that I had picked up fresh from the oven. I walked in without an appointment and waited in the midst of Arab women who had shed their hijabs and abayas sine they were in the midst of only women. There was a constant stream of chatter in Arabic, interspersed with loud laughter. I wish I had managed to pick up at least a few more words. After I lived in Dubai for 7 years, I know how to say thank you, friend and the number five in Arabic. Gestures and a few common words like eyebrow and threading got my work done. The ladies who run the place there spoke some Swedish in addition to Arabic. If they immigrated to Sweden, where was the need to learn English other than to communicate with someone like me.
I am so enjoying cooking here. The kitchen is a fourth of my kitchen back home. I am making do with the pots and pans that came with the kitchen. This has forced me to take short cuts. I now use canned beans and tomato puree (all packed in tetra recart of course). I also don't make my own yoghurt. There is plenty of excellent quality yoghurt available in the stores. There is something about better ingredients that make you a better cook. I do miss my weekend routine of baking sourdough bread.
This brings me to my happiest place in Malmo so far. This is the farmers market I have been religiously visiting each Saturday. This farmers market is more a vegetable sellers market and is not catered towards Chardonnay sipping, lululemon clad yogis. It's for the regular person. The stalls are run by Arabs, Afghans and Turks who sell fruits and vegetables and leaves of all kinds and colors. It reminds me of how my parents bought produce in India, from a cart and not a refrigerator. There are native Swedes who sell the most delicious berries and beets and home grown tomatoes. Again, my laziness in learning at least a little Swedish is glaring when the sellers tell me what to pay in Swedish and I stare blankly back. It takes a Somali girl to translate into English.
The Iranian bakery sits at the edge of the vegetable square. It is most famous for its sesame bread that is packed hot off the oven and an amazing array of baklava and Iranian cookies! The clientele is all mixed, just like for the farmers market.
When food, produce and desserts they are that good, it doesn't matter who is selling them since the joy they bring is universal.
