Snow, Time, Scarves, and the Swedish Kronor

So it hasn't really been snowing much, and in fact it hasn't really seemed like an arctic climate at all.  It has been around 4˚ celsius most of the time, 39-41˚ fahrenheit.  Today and yesterday it finally cooled down and snowed both days.  There hasn't been too much snow, but it has been really cold.  I was out taking pictures today and I had to come home because I got too cold.  I even had a thermal shirt on, my jacket, gloves, wool socks, and a beanie.  After taking a 20 minute break inside of Urban Outfitters, yes the same as in the US, I was still cold and decided to go home. 

I see it in 6˚ F in Pullman right now, so we are nowhere near that, but at least it seems to be sunny over there.  There have been a few sunny days this past week, in fact it has been sunny in the mornings, but becomes overcast by about noon or 13:00.  It is funny to me when people say they will be done at 16:40, or 18:45.  They think it is funny when Tom and I talk about 4:40 or 6:45 pm though.  SO, we have started playing along and refer to times in the 24-hour clock reference.

I always thought it was weird for guys to wear scarves, and thought it was more of a girl thing.  Over here that is not the case, and there are actually some pretty cool "male scarves."  I don't know if I will get one, but when that cold wind goes shooting down the back of my coat I envy every guy who has one.

The US dollar is going up in value compared to the Swedish Kronor.  When I moved here it was 1:6.54.  5 days ago it was at 1:6.3.  This morning it was up to 1:6.6, but fell back to 1:6.57.  Hopefully it goes up to 1:8, and I will take out loads of cash just incase it drops back down again.  I do not foresee this happening though, so it is just wishful thinking.  The Swedish crowns (literal translation of kronor) are very colorful though, much cooler than our green bills.  However, our bills are getting more creative, AND they are all the same size.  Whoever thought of bills having different sizes is crazy.  Half of the bills I get don't even fit into my wallet, and I have to fold them in half so they will fit.  

The coin system is also kind of annoying, I don't like carrying around a bunch of coins, and I especially don't like counting out 56 SEK in 1 kr coins.  It takes way to long.  But luckily, (I think it is unluckily), everything is so expensive that you can't really get anything for just coins anyway.