It’s glögg season again, and it’s time for another post!

Stockholm got its first “real” snow this past week!  Real snow is when it actually sticks to the ground and stays around, and boy was it needed.  It had been raining a lot and was dark and miserable, as it tends to be during this time of year.  But as soon as the snow came, everything brightened up.  Yes, it was still cold but I prefer cold and dry to cold and wet.  Even WordPress.com has snow on its front page!

(Side note: Californians, you have no idea how good you have it!)

Swedes typically start having their Christmas parties around now, and being a good Swedish convert, I’ve thrown my own glögg parties since 2008 when I bought my apartment.  (Read more here: http://wp.me/p1abdD-1O)

But one thing struck me.   Many of the people who’ve been to my glögg parties in the past weren’t here this year.  Many of the faces were entirely brand new, in fact, there was a whole gang of people who hadn’t ever been to my apartment before.  What happened?

Well, for one, a lot of people got sick and couldn’t make it.  But more importantly, I realized I’ve started to go outside of my traditional “standby” group, that is, colleagues from work.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the people I work with, and I actually invited a whole bunch of them to the party.  But I’m also starting to see that I’m not as dependent on that group of people as I was 5 years ago when I first moved here.

I’m also starting to understand why Swedes keep their private lives separate from their work lives.  When I first met them, they seemed to only spend time with people they already knew, and rarely with people from work.  I never really understood that – when I first moved here, the people from work were the only network I had, so it would have been very difficult to not spend time with them.  But now I don’t need to since I have a whole other network… I guess it’s a good sign that I’ve settled in quite well.

What an epiphany.