So here we are in Sweden. In July, we moved to the little university town of Härnösand, in the north of the country. Technically, it’s in the middle of the country, but culturally it counts as the north. It’s about five hours north of Stockholm (by car–it’s four on the train) and about eight hours south of the Arctic Circle. So it’s not exactly what you would call centrally located. But on the plus side, it’s very beautiful here. I’m going to put up lots of pictures so you don’t have to take my word for it. (By the way, the photo that’s currently in the blog banner above was taken here on the island.)
We are here because we like our surströmming as fresh as possible–OK, not really. We are here because Annelie was offered a tenured position at the university here, Mittuniversitetet, or Mid Sweden University. (No, they don’t realize that you need a hyphen there, alas.) So she teaches English Linguistics there, mostly to undergraduates. I am going to be teaching there too, albeit part-time. More on that when it starts. In the meantime, I’m trying to get that pesky dissertation written and continuing with my software projects.
So while Annelie works in her office, I work in my home office, or hang about the library, or the various cafes here in town, trying to bring the Bozo wig back into fashion. We’re still getting settled in and meeting people. Hmm, maybe a Bozo wig would actually help with that…
At any rate, we have a lovely apartment in an eighteenth-century building in the oldest part of town. It’s right in the middle of the town, which means that virtually everything we need is within three blocks–either that or it’s four hundred kilometers away. Half of Härnösand, including our neighborhood and the university, is on an island, called Härnön, which is about half the size of Manhattan and in no way similar. For example, there is actually a downhill ski area on the island, as well as a number of nature preserves and beaches. It’s a lovely place, especially if you like a more placid and outdoorsy lifestyle.
Härnösand is also at the southern edge of the High Coast area (Högakusten), which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to its geological uniqueness and striking beauty. If you’ve ever been to Acadia in Maine, that should give you a rough idea of what it looks like. So that’s all the more reason to have an outdoorsy lifestyle.
So far, things are going fine here in Sweden. I will add a great deal of nuance to that statement in my upcoming blog entries, so stay tuned. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing about life here; if there’s something in particular you’d like to hear about, let me know. I take requests, and can even do bar mitzvahs, provided they’re outdoorsy bar mitzvahs.