Last night I had a difficult time sleeping. Hard to fall asleep and stay asleep (nothing new) and then I had a bad dream about my situation and woke up angry. I calmed myself and finally went back to sleep but I woke up feeling hungover with construction noise which is on three sides of me. I had such plans for today, and so I will do a happy dance, thanks LaRena, and see if I can make it a great day! After all, I am going to visit my hometown and my oldest friend (not literally).

Yesterday I learned a bit about banking, recycling, garbage, and grocery shopping. I have been procrastinating going down to see how much I need to sort the garbage but it turned out not to be too bad. I had separated out the food scraps, paper, plastic, and then all the rest. This room is directly behind me and is a grass-roofed building that is probably the size of my apartment. The garbage people come into the room and wheel out the garbage cans (on the right) and then put them back in. There are 3 of these regular garbage bins and the rest are all bins to sort the recycling.

Bottles, plastic containers and food wraps, newspapers and flyers, food scraps, paper packaging are sorted separately. Then there were also several battery boxes as you entered. It is quite incredible. The Swedes are pretty great at doing this and following the rules but there is always someone who is not, hence the box in front of the cans who left it for someone else to sort. Also yesterday someone left 3 bags of garbage outside the building on the side which the birds got to and made a mess but I was pleasantly surprised someone went and picked it all up. I know what would have happened in America, it would have been left to scatter to the wind. No, it wasn’t me but I should have as soon as I saw it.

The grocery store is so much fun because I can find things I really love so easily. Today Lusse Kattor (saffron rolls) were on display, which I always had to make myself. I am thrilled to just pick up a couple and go. I did have to remind myself I can come back later for more. I did not need to buy 4 just 2. One for today and one yesterday!

I also had to remind myself to shop only for what I needed for the week, usually, I would stock up because I don’t like to go to the store. This grocery store is not very big but has the basics. Just enough for my needs. I also don’t have so much time left in my apartment and do not want to have to move it.

I intended to get a bank account yesterday but the bank closed at 1 pm for business. What? Crazy right? No cash and now short hours too and it was a bit of a walk into town. It had started to rain and the wind was pretty strong, so I decided it could wait until this morning but today I am running late. Time to get showered and ready so I can catch the bus for Hyllie station to catch the train for Växjö at 11:30. I have a couple hours on the train and plan to do some sightseeing in town before my friend gets off work. More on that next time.