Stadsbiblioteket

"Stad" = "city", genitive "s", "bibliotek" = "library", "et" = definite form ==> "The City Library"

I went to the library last week looking for a place to work outside of the apartment. Usually it's not a problem but because dancing is on a light schedule I've not been going out in the evenings as much. Because I've been sick I've been watching too much TV. There's more American shows to watch here than when I was in Santa Fe!

While I was there I looked through the different floors, to see what was there. I looked through the science fiction section in the thoughts of rereading some of my favorites in Swedish. Because just about everyone reads English and the population is small there are relatively few books translated into Swedish. One that I do want to read is Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel." That was my favorite book for a while growing up.

Today I went by the library again and tried working there. I went downstairs, where I hadn't looked before. I found the chess players. Somewhat surprising given that this is Sweden, they were all men. They again, they also looked non-Swedish. I don't get the impression that chess is a big thing in this culture.

I headed over to the newspaper section. They have an amazing number of Swedish newspapers. I didn't realize that Mölndal has its own paper. It even looks like Luleå (or was it Umeå?) has two small papers. The have an even more impressive of foreign newspapers. Most European countries, some in Arabic, some even using languages I didn't even recognize. The only US paper was the International Herald Tribune, which is a cross (literally) between the New York Times and ... no, I was about to spread a falsehood. The Washington Post sold its share 30 December 2002, says Wikipedia.

Another falsehood - the library also had, I think, Wall Street Journal's European edition. I didn't really count that though. In any case, the it didn't have any US newspapers like you would find on the rack in the US.

One thing I miss about the US is free public toilets. It costs 5:- (about 85 cents) to use their toilet.

Finally, finally, finally, after almost a month I feel good enough to go out dancing and enjoy myself. It was salsa night and I had a lot of fun.