The Days were dark,  dank  and short in Stockholm 

in the winter of 1974

We have now settled into life in Stockholm. Peter is working as Chef de Partie in the main restaurant of the Sheraton Hotel. He seems to like it quite a bit. There is a lot to learn. However being an American, he is pretty much looked down on as far as his culinary skills. Just give him a little time and they will change their early impression. They think Americans only know French Fries and Ketchup!

A dreary day downtown!

The first few weeks after we moved into the apartment, and Peter had started working full time was a very lonely time for me. The sun came up about 10:30 in the morning and was gone by 3:30. It was cold and snow less, just drab, gray and an unhappy place. I spent time wandering around the city trying to find my way to new places. But I wasn't very happy.

I started "Swedish" lessons on a full time basis. They offer free classes to invandrare or immigrants to the country. There were 18 of us in the class and we represented 15 countries. We started at 9 am with one instructor, broke for lunch at noon and then spent the afternoon with another instructor until 3. It was tons of fun. It's a rather interesting language with sounds that we don't have in
English. When I first started going to the class, an American woman sat beside me......I didn't move to Sweden to have an American friend, especially one that was a bit older than I was, and she bragged about all sorts of things. Yuck!! She told me she had dated James Garner, knew all sorts of celebrities, and was married to the Photographer of the King of Sweden. Yeah, right! oops, I was wrong. She was indeed married to Carl Gullers, Previous photographer of the Late King of Sweden, and was world renowned as he also had many of his photographs during WW2 in Life Magazine and had published many books of photography. It was rather easy to tell that he was really "Somebody" when we were invited to a party at the opening of his new offices in Stockholm. I had to go out and buy a formal gown to wear to the affair!

Barbara & Carl Gullers

By this time, I had learned enough Swedish and had received my work permit to start working, and was hired by the Sheraton Hotel as a Maid. A maid is a städerska in Swedish. So back to the party, where I had the pleasure of meeting and dancing with the President of Volvo. Making small talk in Swedish he asked me where I worked and what I did for a living. In my very best Swedish, I told him I was a maid at the Sheraton Hotel!!!! If I had known more Swedish,  I would probably have made up something much more glorious!!!

Perhaps before I finish my "living in Sweden" blogs I will add more about the Gullers, and the fun we had with them.

Tills nästa gång, lyckönskningar till alla! (until next time, best wishes to all!)