Sowing seeds already?

In Gothenburg, you have to take the bull by the horns when it is still snowy and cold outside, because it seems like it takes a looong time to warm up here. 

According to this article from Blomsterlandet, now is already the time to start sowing seeds, and sowing can continue all the way into May.  blomsterlandet's article 

Last year I was too late in starting to sow seeds and get things going on our tiny little apartment balcony.  

It seems like things had just gotten started when it was getting cold and dark again!

 So, unlike all the places I have lived in in America, this little cement corner is what I have to work with in terms of enjoying plants and the great outdoors from my apartment.  You take what you got, right?

Here are a few more websites about when to sow seeds here in Southern Sweden: 

http://www.icakuriren.se/Hem-Tradgard/Plantera-Odla/dags-att-sa/

http://www.coop.se/Recept--mat/Vardagstips/Tradgard/Sa-fron---att-frosa-plantor/

Let girls be girls and boys be boys

Sweden is all about taking away the diversity of gender between boys and girls.

Some kids toy catalogs have been changed to show girls with boys toys, and boys playing barbie (or something like that).



They are considering introducing a new word, HEN.  It means neither He nor She but rather a gender neutral way to speak about a person.

And here is a recent article I read that responds to all this gender-neutral focus.

I usually don't like Aftonbladet, but this Psychologist said it pretty well.

Aftonbladets article

Have I gotten there yet?

When do you know that you are "at home" in a culture?

Is there a certain time period,

a certain amount of involvement,

or maybe that you are not afraid that each step or word will cause a culture clash or be a big mistake?

We'll just have to see as we go.