This may not be my last post

Hello, and good evening, and if you are wondering why I haven't posted since May 4th, well you will probably have to continue wondering. I guess I had better intentions but things get in the way. Since May fourth, a lot has happened. I went to Copenhagen twice, once on a once-in-a-year super cheap ticket to see the Foghorn Stringband play in Christania (occupied area of Copenhagen, to a large extent self governing, technically full of squatters, great place, government wants to get rid of it, I hope they don't...) and once with the school to protest a new economic bill that proposes to cut funds to schools like the folk high school I was at, and other social programs to deal with the financial crisis. What else? I moved rooms, from my shared room in one of the houses to a single room (number 7) in the East wing of the main courtyard. It was a move I should have made much earlier in the semester. It makes such a difference to have the option of privacy, and especially when your roommate is like this girl was, bless her, leaving the door open every time she leaves, and wet towels on the bathroom floor for days or weeks, and I don't know, just stuff like this, I was really happy to move. Besides, it was like a practice move for the real move that occurred last Saturday, a sort of frantic race from my room to the recycling to the trash to the classrooms and I still forgot some stuff.

Its hard to believe I have been gone not quite a whole year now - the only measurable indication I have is that about half my socks are gone (why is it always the socks that disappear?) and the rest have holes. I sometimes look at the yellow pair of ankle high ones with little red doodles that I got from Target last summer and remember putting on my shoes just past airport security on the way here, and the man next to me said, "well if it weren't for these new security measures I would have never known you were wearing such cute socks!" or something like that, and now they are a bit grey and worn and full of holes.

I wanted to use this blog both to keep in touch with folks back home and also as a kind of travelogue/online diary of events for myself to look back on. I should have known myself better, because I have recorded my thoughts and experiences but not all here, just kind of spread out in various notebooks, backs of receipts, letters to friends, letters to friends I forgot to post, and in conversations with other people.

There is actually a lot I would like to say here. Why am I always starting this at like one in the morning? I wanted to include my itinerary, but unfortunately, I only know I am getting home on July 7th, and I will have to revive my computer from its out-of-batteries beauty sleep to figure out the exact time and details (or I could just check my email... ack I'll do it later). But NOW I am currently in Hamburg. SOMETIME soon or at the beginning of next week I will make a brief return to Denmark to visit Gunnar and Birgit and Ditte's family again like I promised I would, and then I considered spending a day in Copenhagen, although that can be not as fun as hoped when you are alone, and then up to Stockholm sometime this next week, hopefully arriving before the weekend. I will probably just miss the princess's wedding (shucks) which is bringing gobs of tourists into Gamla Stan where I will be staying with friends.

I know I always write that I am going to continue writing about something and then like two weeks go by without a peep, but I was thinking about loss and goodbyes and endings and relationships and how this semester ended and what we said and how we all felt and how strange I felt - like not at all sad until the car pulled out of the driveway basically. Anyways maybe I can continue writing tomorrow.

I bought two new books this week to keep myself occupied with something other than rearranging the things in my suitcase - one is the new book by David Byrne called Bicycle Diaries which is like a travelogue of his time biking through various cities, and then a book called The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, which is a detective story about a group of jews in Alaska - huge over-simplification there but I am enjoying both and am glad to have bought them despite the poor timing for the acquisition of new goods. And I saw a film with Erik yesterday called Mammoth, which I enjoyed. It made me think a bit and it was nice to watch.

So very sorry for the long long delay, and I hope you are doing well!