Svensk flicka Dansk pige

New blog!!!

2011-04-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I have a new blog now - http://projectsanityinthefaceofacademics.blogspot.com
<3 Brita

This may not be my last post

2010-06-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

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!

May the fourth be with you

2010-05-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

Happy international star wars day (or something to that effect) and also, happy end of German occupation of Denmark day! Officially Denmark was free the 5th of May but the news came at 8 pm the 4th of May 1945 on illegal BBC radio. The first thing they did after the years of blackouts was to place candles in all the windows as a signal that they were free, and people still do this every 4th of May. Apparently they also burned their curtains. At first I thought they just accidentally lit the curtains on fire because they hadn't lit candles for so long, but actually no, they were intentionally burning the blackout curtains from wartime. I took a picture of the candles in the windows at the school here, but didn't get it loaded on the computer - sorry! Next post maybe.

This will not be a big post, but here is some other (subjectively) interesting news:

Daniel Clowes, the cartoonist who wrote the comic (later to be made into a movie Ghost World, has come out with a new comic called Wilson... Lincoln Public Libraries, you had better be on top of this because I am on my way.

Yesterday, as you may well be aware of, was the 40 year anniversary of the Kent State shootings... still horrifying, and horrifyingly relevant, and you can bet your biscuits I listened to some Neil Young.

There was sleet today in northern Denmark. Sleet! and its May! Where is the sunny spring weather? Where is it?!

Yesterday I made myself sick eating too many cinnamon rolls (or cinnamon snails, translated from danish), but today I ate too many fløderboller (similar but better than marshmellow filled chocolate balls) but did not feel sick.

The current US dollar to Danish kronor conversion rate is $1=5.724K Since I usually use 5 as the figure, this sounds pretty good, like maybe I should finally pay the bill for this semester maybe tomorrow.

Ok bedtime! More soon, and take care to enjoy the spring weather if you are having it.

April 17th, an ordinary saturday

2010-04-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

News:
Tomorrow morning I board a bus to Prague. I have never been to Prague; I think this will be exciting. What won't be exciting will be sitting on a bus for 16 hours. I don't know what we will be doing, probably going to some exhibitions, markets, antique stores, that sort of thing. I already have a ticket to see a jazz/funk band Wednesday night, something my friend Katja found online. One of the girls that went last semester told me about a cool store with clothes and notebooks and other things. Here's the link - Parazit Fashion Store.

Monday is my 21st birthday, and I am excited to be spending it in Prague, and not on a bus to Prague. I find myself wishing I could be with my friends for this birthday, and also thinking back to birthdays of the past. Last year I remember my birthday was on a sunday and it was room draw at Grinnell, but I didn't have to go because I was coming here. That was kind of like a gift to myself, not having to go or think about room draw. I may never have to think about room draw again, considering next year I'm living in an apartment. Saturday the 18th last year, I remember going to an Indian folk music concert featuring the poems of Kabir - an Indian mystic poet from the 16th century whose poetry is well known in song form all over India. I have rarely felt so relaxed and happy - the music and the words (translated at the beginning of each song) was easy to just float away in. There was hardly anyone at the concert because it was Saturday night and I suppose they were drinking. I know I had a proper birthday party in the student coffee shop in the little corner of couches with my family and the dog, I think on sunday evening. It must have been after 8pm because the coffee shop doesn't open until then. They had brought a cake all the way from Omaha that read "happy birthday" but in Swedish - I think, because I didn't know a lick of Swedish at the time and my thoughts were just filled with the idea of actually being in Sweden in a short amount of time.

Anyway, I'm wandering.

There have been a lot of jokes going around, probably you have heard them already, about Iceland. Something like "Iceland was going to send a bunch of cash down to England, but they haven't got any "c"s so they just sent ash instead". Thursday evening I went with to the coast to try to see the ashy sunset which was supposed to be some strange red color, but the sun just disappeared behind a cloud and the wind was so strong we went home before it got dark. There are three Icelandic students at the school, and they are used to this kind of volcanic eruption. It isn't dangerous, because the ash is so high in the air and it gets blown across the sky instead of raining down on us. It can be dangerous for animals, because the ash is poisonous so you should watch out and not let them lick the ground. I wondered if I should watch out and not lick the ground as well. In Iceland people are wearing masks and having the sun blocked out by ash - and of course what everyone is talking about is how the ash blowing across Western Europe has caused all of the flights to be canceled. I am starting to get irritated at everyone blaming Iceland and putting Iceland down all the time. Once I said to Johann, one of the Icelandic students, "You can't possibly know what its like to be American. Everywhere you go, somebody wants to start a fight with you about the government or consumer culture, and I'm just so sick of apologizing for the 300, 000, 000 people of the USA whom I don't know or control. I'm sick of being blamed." And he said, "Yes I do. An Icelandic man living in London was attacked for being Icelandic after the financial crisis. Its something that most people in Iceland had nothing to do with, but we get blamed for it anyway. Now when I go out, I just say I'm Scandinavian."

So my personal message to the world about this volcano is: Leave Iceland alone! They didn't erupt the volcano on purpose!

And here's a link to a video of the ash in Iceland.

This morning I got up around 10:45, scurried over to the dining hall and had some orange juice before they started putting things away at 11. After that I didn't have any ideas about what I would do today, so I went to the TV room and saw the end of a movie about a little boy in London in the 60s who was hoping England would lose to Germany and people would come to his Bar mitzvah instead of watching the final match. In the end, he finally realized that "being a man wasn't what I thought - it was realizing that my dad wasn't perfect, he was just a man, and I loved that man." or something, Helena Bonham Carter played his mother. Oooh! I just found it on IMDB, its called Sixty Six.

Which reminds me, I have seen a few good movies in the last couple of weeks. I highly recommend "The Wackness" - it was really fun, set in the 90s with a great old school hiphop soundtrack and Ben Kingsly plays a washed up hippie psychiatrist. April 9th was Occupation Day in Denmark, commemorating the day Nazi Germany invaded Denmark on the morning of April 9th, 1940. I went on a long walk on the beach and saw some old German concrete bunkers that have been exposed as the sand blows away and the shoreline recedes. We talked about the history of that day, and had a occupation themed party that night, which descended into drunken attempted knife fights and other crazy shinanigans which got five students expelled... but anyways, before all that, we watched a holocaust movie called "Fateless". It was a Hungarian movie that apparently got a lot of criticism for the light in which they presented life in the concentration/work camp, showing the "good" parts - the happiness he was able to find in the midst of the horrors, showing how this young boy was tortured and starved and many other awful things, but when he left, he had trouble adjusting to the real world, and even more trouble returning to Budapest and meeting former acquaintances whose lives just carried on almost normally since when he left. I thought it was a really good movie, and I thought the focus on what the holocaust did to people's identities, especially after they returned home, was really interesting. So I recommend it also. I can also recommend "Mary and Max" as an excellent claymation video - kind of strange, and sometimes sad, but funny too. And unique from other claymation I have seen. My last recommendation for the time being is "Waltz with Bashir" - an interestingly animated documentary about a former Israeli soldier, now film maker, trying to find his memories of the 1982 massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Probably the biggest moment of the movie is when at the end the footage switches from animation to real footage of the wailing women and corpses from this massacre. Really a good movie.

Other (sad) news: I droped my external hard drive on accident :( and after a look from the computer guy at the school, it was pronounced dead. Which means all of my music stored on it is gone... especially the stuff I got last summer and in Sweden because its not backed up on the computer I used at school the last two years. So I have been sad about that, and have tried not to be so sad, because I can probably find it again its just a lot of trouble that could have been avoided with a bit more care.

My lord I have a lot to say! I'd better stop soon, but just one more thing before I do: I had a "free sale" last week, made lemonade, and tried to get rid of some clothes, cosmetics, and junk I have collected. I just want to get rid of the unnecessary things in my life - things that weigh my down and make it difficult to travel. Or see the floor. Although I heard a new word for my clothes storage system : the floordrobe. "What's that mess? Why are your clothes all on the floor?" "What do you mean, mess? That's my floordrobe!"

Anyways, I haven't got any good pictures at the moment, something I'm embarrassed about because I know I will get home with nothing to show from this year but ticket stubs and strange second hand books in foreign languages. Oh yes, and my memories :)

So goodbye for now, hope to write more soon - perhaps from Prague. I have to take my computer anyways to preregister for fall semester at Grinnell.

Bright, Sunshiny Day!

2010-04-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hello! I may be missing out on some of my favorite Easter traditions, such as dying eggs, getting lots of chocolate shaped animal gifts, or listening to the Pines of Rome at First Plymouth, but its just about worth it to be here in Hamburg enjoying a couple of lovely sunny days. Hamburg until now has been a dreary, grey place, in my mind it's always raining, always cold and windy, but yesterday my opinion was completely changed. Erik and I rented bikes from the little do-it-yourself automated city bike rental station (positioned around the city so you can pick a bike up one place and leave it were you are going). We biked from his neighborhood to a lake somewhere more in the middle of the city where people were stretched out on long grassy lawns with crocuses jumping out of the ground everywhere. There were lots of happy dogs wandering around and happy guys braving the soft ground to play some muddy soccer. It was so sunny and nice, and SO NICE to be on a bicycle again. Today we walked to the botanical gardens, about 10 minutes from the apartment, and played frisbee until Erik's opera started. There were ducks everywhere, and flowers, and people smooching on benches. Must be spring! I even met a stranger today - which was one of my goals for this break, somebody from Freiburg who was sitting on the next bench over in the neighborhood park this afternoon, who recommended a place to go tonight to see a crappy punk show. "I don't know what bands are playing... but it doesn't really matter!"

....Aaaaand pictures.

Happy Easter!

Spring Arrives

2010-03-24T14:01:00.001-07:00

Hey! Look! Little things are popping out of the ground!
Today I spent four hours working on stacking wood into an orderly pile for 75 Kr. an hour meaning I made 60 dollars today. The weather has gotten much nicer and I feel nicer in nice weather. However, my everyday enthusiasm for sewing and my other work here is at a very low point. I like to imagine myself as a grumpy sleepy bear who would like nothing better than to settle down with a nice book and then fall asleep on it, or maybe a bear that is tired of being cold and isolated from other bears. That is the problem with going to Stockholm, when I come back I feel lonely and irritated. I am really looking forward to Easter next week, and to visiting Erik in Hamburg and getting away again for a bit. There are two main problems right now, one being that Vraa is about a 10 dollar train ride away from the next place were you can buy art supplies or paper, buy a used book, or go out for a coffee, etc etc etc. The other problem is the way people act towards one another - you would think that with only 70 students here it wouldn't be worth their effort to judge one another but what do I know.

I had a very strange experience while I was moving pieces of wood this afternoon, where I caught a whiff of some smell, from the wood or the ground or maybe the breeze, that reminded me of sometime when I felt really happy. I couldn't figure out the smell or even what it reminded me of, but I felt happy and optimistic for a short time just thinking about it.

To Stockholm to Stockholm to buy a fat pig. Home again home again jiggety-jig!

2010-03-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

And that's what i was doing last week. Here's a picture to prove it! This is me sitting in Stockholm trying to learn this tiny guitar.

More about that tomorrow! now i am back in Denmark, and everything is fine except for loosing one of my shoelaces this evening. It is twice as nice to see everyone here now that i've been away for almost a week, and the weather is definitely perking up. So tally ho! as they like to say or something like that.

Unfortunately this is my bed time. but i will leave you with today's danish phrases of the day :

Er du vågen? Er du klar? Er du sulten?
Are you awake? Are you ready? Are you hungry?

Goodnight!

2010-03-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

I hate to make a post with no pictures and no news really, but it was just a pretty pleasant day here today. Here are the things I liked about today in list format:

1. I went for a jogging, at seven! Seeing the morning sun coming through the trees was actually enough to distract me from how much I hate sports that don't take place underwater.

2. I had a REAL coffee, made with freshly ground locally roasted beans, courtesy of my Hungarian next door neighbor Andrew.

3. Our textiles teacher Lene decided that we should take a walk to enjoy the strong sunshine and so us textiles people spent the morning (up until the coffee break) walking through down and then sledding down a hill on little plastic discs.

4. I ate an avocado.

5. I washed my hair!!!

6. We have afternoons free every Wednesday, so I went with a couple people to the church thrift store in town which is only open from 2 to 5 on Wed. Thurs. and Fri. and I finally found on old bed sheet the right color and weight to finish my first project with. I also bought a vintage looking bright red day dress in a soft kind of fuzzy but not as fuzzy as swede fabric.

7. One of the towns people who was eating dinner with us as a part of our community meal thing on wednesday nights complimented me on my hat with bear ears.

8. I watched the movie "Seven Pounds" starring Will Smith, and it was kind of sad, and then listened to some music, including a silly techno song version of a traditional Finnish polka, and a band called the Panics that I liked, and then part of a live show of George Carlin. Also I ate part of a Toblerone bar.

9. On my way to my house I ran into the British student, Lee, who was preparing for a presentation on his hometown of Brighton. He showed me some pictures of the Starlings gathering in a big flock/swarm at dusk to spend the night under the pier, and also video of the annual Brighton pride parade and festival which they are famous for. Brighton was also apparently the site of one/several? huge clashes between Mods and Rockers back in the day. Which reminds me, Lee told me to watch a good movie about that which I can't remember the name of but it started with a Q.

10. and, tomorrow morning I will do some yoga with Marta and actually get up in time for breakfast again.

What a good day.

Goodbye February

2010-02-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

I wish, I wish I were a fish.

Sometimes you just have a day where you start to think about things, and you start to ask, "why is this skirt I'm making not working?" and "why do I always compare myself to other people?" and "why do I get so pessimistic about my future when I compare myself to other Grinnellians?"

And so on days like this I find myself saying "I wish I wish...."

Right now I wish I were staying at højskole another semester. Or I wish I could move to Sweden. Forever. I also find myself wishing for things that I don't even want, like wishing I had done a summer internship or wishing I were more ambitious, successful or clever. I know that partly responsible for this wishy outburst is the email I got from the Sociology department announcing the upcoming elections for members of the Soc. SEPC, a student-to-faculty liason group that organizes events for the students in the department. Not exactly knowing why, I decided to run for a spot. In my statement I basically wrote that I have been abroad for a while now and that has helped me to get the kind of wider perspective that I often lose at Grinnell when I get overwhelmed by the pressure or stress, and that I know I do sociology because I love it and think its important, which is why I want to serve on the SEPC - to keep an awareness of why we are here, and form a group with the students and staff of the sociology department where concerns and experiences are shared and ideas are supported.

This is what I want. But when I got the everyone's statements to read and then vote from, I realized I am actually the only one who cares about or thinks about or even questions why we are at Grinnell, studying sociology, and not off doing something completely different. And I was less disappointed by the realization that anyone reading all 10 statements would read mine and think I a failure for having no plans for graduate/law school than I was disappointed to realize that I am going back to a place (a society, a country, a school) where I am surrounded by people with a completely different attitude towards life. It's like I can see the gigantic tidal wave of culture shock gathering on the horizon but there is nothing I can do about it except wait for it to crush me...

So I wish I wish I were a fish.

We also were required to post our favorite youtube video as a part of our SEPC statement, so here's mine for your viewing pleasure. Hoppípolla means "hop in puddles" in Icelandic.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYb8ZyjzD0&feature=channel

In other news, last weekend I made chocolate covered bacon with some of my friends here. Their idea was this: What three things are delicious, no matter what they are with? Answer: Chocolate, bacon, and sour cream. So why not put them all together? The scary thing as that it actually was good. I think the key is to keep your bacon crispy and only eat them with sour cream when they are hot. But the chocolate and bacon combo was delicious. Here are some pictures.

Muffins and Grandaddy

2010-02-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

I was just sitting here looking for interesting things on the internet to kill an hour before dinner, when I thought, "I want to make some muffins!" I am out of money for this month, so I didn't even think about trying to buy the necessary things and make it happen, but I did you on google to took at pictures and recipes of muffins. One of the first pictures that came up was a cartoon from this website about a muffin (below). I like it.
I also saw this comic on the same website, which is probably only funny if you have heard music by Grandaddy - perhaps I can provide an example (Here is a link to "Jed the Humanoid by Grandaddy). But I liked this one too.

I don't know what its like to watch an overlysensitive robot get neglected to death, it sounds sad.

We had salmon today for lunch with potatoes and roasted vegetables and chocolate mousse for dessert. Yesterday I tried to dye a light pink tablecloth darker pink using beet-juice kindly donated to me by the kitchen ladies. The reason I needed to to this was because I made a visit to the fabric store yesterday and realized that it is hard to find anything that is cheap enough for my to be able to buy it. Also, I don't like wearing pink, so I thought if I'm going to have to use this tablecloth, I should try to do something to make it a little more interesting. Maybe tonight I will soak it in coffee and see if that does anything fun.

Usually on Wednesday nights we have a song evening where community members come and eat dinner with us and then sing with us out of the folkhighschool song book, but our music teacher was sick so it was canceled and instead I watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie, which is surprisingly funny and relevant to my life.

My biggest problem right now seems to be keeping a wide-angle lens on things, and remembering all of the things I need to do/wanted to do if I had a bit of free time. This includes corresponding with various people, studying Danish, organizing things, and actually a lot of things and I have trouble remembering them. I have plenty of free time, but its very very hard to remember what it was that I wanted to do with it.

Last thing before I go down to dinner:
I really really really appreciate emails or letters keeping me updated on how you are doing and what you are up to. I am sometimes feeling a little disconnected from things here - partly because its a small town (hard to absorb culture in a quiet, isolated place), partly because I don't have very good access to books in English or a place where I can do research, and partly because I get distracted by various things. But talking with people seems to help, and I want to talk about things that happen here with people that AREN'T here so that I can try to explain and define what's going on a little better. So tell me what you're up to! and also ask me things if you can think of any - help me lose this haze and become bright eyed and curious again :)

Monday, Week Six

2010-02-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

Now that its over, today seems like it has been a very productive day. And maybe when you compare it to other days, like the day there were three dogs in the classroom eating scraps of fabric and chasing each other, it was productive. For example, I watched all of the musical numbers from Hair again between lunch and afternoon classes, and went to two different grocery stores looking for cheese with my housemate Betina. I FINALLY started to hammer a ring I have been working on for probably four weeks, once a week. And soon it will begin to look like a whale I hope! I finished off my carton of Sødmælk ("sweet" milk, the best one, comes in a dark blue carton, 3.5% fat) and my box of Pepparkakor Hjärtan (the same heart shaped pepparkakor I was eating all the time last semester in Stockholm, usually at Anna's house dipped in healthy teas :) )

Next week or this week maybe in textile we are going to make two skirts, one correctly so we have more practice with the technique, and then another one that we will deliberately sew incorrectly to make something interesting. This is why I like my textile classes here, because we aren't just following some textbook, our teacher Lene is interested in doing things that will be fun or experimental, and unlike a lot of "crafts" classes (I think) we aren't just following instructions to get to a nice finished product we can take home with us; I think (this is my theory) that we are being forced to think a bit more. For example, in week nine (I think this is week six), Lene wants us to create some costumes/dresses, one by sewing on the machine, one sewing by hand, and one using glue, and using fabric, paper, plastic or something else, and we will have to design them with inspiration from some yet to be determined musical artist. So we will be listening to this artist the whole week/time we are working on the costume. So far, suggestions have been Michael Jackson, ABBA, Johny Cash, and Sun Ra, which I couldn't help suggesting even though I think everyone would hate me if we had to listen to experimental free jazz for an entire week BUT it would be really cool because the things they were wearing are already really interesting, and also Lene said she wanted us to get into the history of the people and their philosophies, and what little I know about Sun Ra (the guy) there is plenty of philosophy to get into. I am mostly just hoping we don't do Michael Jackson... sorry I mean, while I appreciate his style, I am a bit tired of hearing the same 10 or so songs of his, especially after this summer, when apparently that was the only thing people wanted to listen to. Actually it could be more interesting to do this project for a band that doesn't have a well established image already, or maybe just some completely unknown musicians playing folk music - then it would be all about what you hear and not about how the musician wanted to be seen.

SO, creative interesting people that you are, have you any suggestions? I'm really excited about this assignment!!!

SUN RA (guy in purple cape) So anyways, despite that glowing review, I think it would be really nice to get away this weekend to someplace a little more populated and maybe witness some live music experience. If only I could convince somebody to come with me! But I think the important thing right now is just the feeling that a change of scenery would be nice, walking around, wandering through someplace I've never been, learning something by watching, hopefully meeting interesting strangers would all be nice right now. It would actually be great to see Ditte and Lars too, but I haven't talked to them and don't know what their plans are for the weekend or if they would be home or anything.

OK, sorry if I'm boring you, just kind of thinking with my fingers on the keys. I need a haircut. I bought a SIM card this weekend so now I have a phone number! But I haven't turned on the phone yet. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I have Danish and then textile. Who knows what we'll be doing in Danish, I need to do WAY more work on my own or I'll never be able to say anything with confidence, in textile, I am still doing other things in lieu of finishing my skirt because I don't want to use the expensive stuff I bought on accident, and the tablecloth I got at the red cross second hand shop today is really too pink for me.

So that was today, and tomorrow, and hello! and sorry, I will buy batteries for my digi camera and take some pictures and put them here <3

Pas på Hinanden

2010-02-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of tragedy here at Vrå højskole. Around twelve thirty as we were all eating lunch, someone noticed that smoke was pouring out of the upstairs windows of our headmistress and headmaster's house, Søren and Pia's house for those of you who know them. We tried our best all of us to find fire extinguishers and some students even tried to fight the fire that had by that time erupted out of the side of the house with an emergency hose. However, it had already taken a strong hold and all most of us could do was wait for the fire trucks to come over icy roads from the next town over. Their dog, a big part of everyday højskole life, had been sleeping upstairs in the bedroom and died in the fire.

When they finally put the fire out, when it was all over, everyone came together in the school living room, all feeling shocked and sad, and some with problems from inhaling smoke. Søren and Pia came in to speak to all of the assembled students and teachers and staff, and they told us that the most important thing to do right now was to pas på hinanden, or take care of each other and be there for each other. So that's basically what was did for the rest of the day, talking and hugging and crying sometimes, and despite being a very very sad time, it was a good feeling of everyone being close to each other.

I feel so sad for Pia and Søren. Their dog Severin was really a part of their family, and every night when Søren would make his evening rounds of the school he would be close behind. I know they loved him a lot and I can't imagine how awful it was to know he was inside without being able to do anything. They lost a lot of personal possessions like all their clothes, their computers, Søren's whole office, and many other things. Søren told me that all his pictures from the trip he took to the US with dad are gone.

I'm too tired to write any more right now, but I just wanted to say that this happened, and also that we are ok, we did a good job of watching out for each other today, and when Pia and Søren come back tomorrow from their summer house, we will be watching out for them too. It's a close community here, which in and of itself can feel a little claustrophobic at times, but it also means we can really come together and be there for each other when we need to.

Does "Joshua fit de battle ob Jericho" offend you too?

2010-02-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

I joined the hojskole choir today, which ended up being about nine people strong. I joined the choir today because I was getting tired of playing the piano by myself whenever I had any free time. So I thought, "be social, AND play music". So this was a good thing, and we did some warm up exercises and stretched and then tried singing a song or two that the choir had learned last semester. One of these songs was the American spiritual "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho", but it had obviously come out of a Danish songbook, which maybe was the reason that the whole song was spelled in a peculiar, old-fashioned "black" dialect. On the one hand, I thought, there were some activists that tried developing a written version of the dialect most african-americans were speaking at the time as a sort of means for solidarity, but on the other hand, listening to a bunch of Danish people imitating a really archaic sounding written interpretation of black speech is kind of offensive, like blackface routines are offensive, or this kind of asexual, big breasted black nanny character is offensive; mostly because it goes with an underlying ignorance or lack of respect or mockery of black people. What do you say? Are you with me on this one? Maybe I just get annoyed when we sing American spirituals in Denmark because they get lumped together - like we just "sing a little gospel" when we want to "cut loose", when really these songs are just as versatile as other songs, for example we could be singing it in a gospel way, or a New Orleans kind of way, or as a slow ballad or with a lot of harmony or whatever, but they're all just lumped into this one category and treated like some odd novelty.

I've been really tired lately; yesterday I took a really long nap, but I just seem to have less energy. I spent a lot of energy today trying to be furious with myself for spending about fifty dollars on fabric on accident for a skirt I designed, that I may or may not even end up bringing home with me because I already have too much stuff to put in my suit case.

Tomorrow I have Danish as a Second Language all morning and Staged Photography all afternoon, followed by probably me playing the piano, and then later working on a ring I'm making in jewelry class if the workshop is open.

So good night!

Long time no post!

2010-01-31T07:08:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry sorry sorry to everyone who has looked at this blog at all in the last two weeks or so and thought "oh fiddlesticks, nothing new here!" because I have gotten really behind not only on posting here but also in answering emails, giving out my new address and taking pictures of the new place as well. So I will try to take care of a few of these things right here right now!

My new address is this: Brita Higgins, Vrå Højskole, Højskolevej 1, 9760 Vrå, Denmark

Specific apologies to Caleb and Marianne for taking so long, especially Caleb who is used to me showing up late everywhere and is very patient and still friends with me despite this sort of thing happening all of the time - by the way, we never went on a bike ride to your house from downtown we should do that sometime.

This is a picture of the windup toy booth at one of the christmas markets in Hamburg that I took simply because this woman's job was just to stand there and wind up the toys so that people would get excited and buy them and I think I would be extremely good at this job.

Erik just left today from visiting, and I think Søren tried to convince him to come to school here... maybe it will happen, who knows, right? and he got to meet the people I have met and see the school again which was hopefully fun.

JON GARREY! I heard from Erik that I got a postcard from you THANK YOU!!!! But I haven't seen it yet, Erik needs to send it to me, but I'll just say that please you are welcome to visit anytime, you can sleep on my floor or probably get your own room and eat with us all for free! So do it! Weekends are completely free so we could go iceskating or watch movies or have a party but weekdays are free after 4pm and basically all I do all day is listen to music and play with fabric so you're welcome there too. Just let me know before hand so I don't run away to Stockholm on a whim at that particular time.

Speaking of which. Stockholm, I miss you lots and lots and I am going to come visit as soon as possible. We will have många många fikas!!!! and dance about and drink öl!

Grandma - thank you for sending a letter, I'm looking forward to it and I will send you one back!

Anna Smith - thank you for facebook stalking me and calling me a pretty lady!

Anna Cassel - I miss you! Come visit! I need to send you some music which I will do soon.

Tim - thanks for dropping a line and basically its really nice to be remembered.

Randy - damn you and your moving! but its ok because we'll hang out this summer.

Meemo, Jim, Mom and Dad - thanks for all of your picture captions. Erik thought "your base are belong to us" should win, but I haven't really picked a winner because they all made me laugh and that was really the whole point :)

Seth - hello! ha ha I know you read this now I can mind control you with hidden messages!!!

J.A. - hejsan! Har du glömpt mig nu? Jag hoppas inte! Jag behöver din hjälp att kommer ihåg hur man talar Svensk! Dansk är svart att lära.

Here are some more random pictures from the last two months or so:
Jonas in his new shirt for Christmas!
New Year's Eve in Hamburg
Downtown Hamburg in winter
Marzipan sculpture in Herr Max, the awesome cake shop by Erik's apartment.
Singer songwriter with tiny guitar who was playing at Haus 73, a "cultural house" in Hamburg with a coffeeshop/bar that was fun to hang out in.
Um... and for my staged photography class I had to dress up like a big baby
Unfortunately, that's about the extent of my pictures right now. But visit the school's website and look up "Billeder" for a few more pictures from the school.

Yes, so look forward to more news, on the classes, how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, useful phrases in Danish, what's for dinner, how many cups of coffee I can drink in one day without feeling gross, and what its like to be here.

Lars Winnerbäck, don't make me cry! OR Jag längta efter Sverige

2010-01-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

I am having a unexpected wave of nostalgia for/ längtar efter Sverige. Which is not to say that I don't like Denmark or don't feel already like I belong here because I feel very warmly towards all things Danish and I always have. I actually don't know what it is. I felt like a stranger in Sweden for a lot of the time, and it wasn't until we read "The Emmigrants" by Wilhelm Moberg that I felt significance in my family connection - reading that book about people just like my relatives (Moberg spent a lot of time researching and interviewing emmigrants in America and their diaries of the trip) was like some kind of solidifying agent that made it possible either A) for me to feel overly emotional or B) like my connection to the Swedish-American identity we practiced at home was real and something that really belonged to me.

Today we had a "song night" after dinner where the two music teachers at the school introduced the hojskole song book, talked about its history, its use historically in framing the hojskole movement as it evolved, and its continued use today in many settings as a way to frame meetings, become focused and so on. We also talked about our purpose in singing from it every day at morning assembly and in the afternoon and usually at night too. Its about togetherness, and remembering the past melodies and the past history through these songs, and also to help us non Danish speakers with inflection. There have been many editions of this book, but the effort to compile old Danish folk melodies was started quite late (I guess?) and so many were lost or almost lost, BUT luckily, said the teachers, in Sweden there is a strong long tradition of keeping and recording and singing folk melodies, at schnapps drinking parties probably ;) and so there are Swedish and Norweigan and some German songs in our books too.

Today we sang one such song, which I can't recall the name of right now, except that I was written in the cold war era and the first line was something like "If you have a song to sing, sing it now" (implication being "there might not be a tomorrow") - it was kind of sweet and sad. I actually understood most of what I was singing, and singing in Swedish while the Danes stumbled on the pronunciation of a couple words, like göra with a "g" sound instead of a "y" sound, I was very excited to be seeing Swedish again and understanding it and well, its not even like I have great pronunciation in Swedish either, but for some reason I was feeling really emotional about it.

And then I came home and listened to Lars Winnerbäck, and the song "Innan Mörkret Faller" especially was making me miss Sweden - again, who knows why! I suppose because of all the Swedes I met that were great, and who accepted me as one of their own, even though I'm about as Swedish as blond hair (It's not like people AREN'T blond in Sweden, its just not unique, you know).

Youtube the song, maybe it will make you längta efter Sverige as well!

OMG I'm EXHAUSTED

2010-01-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

TODAY was my first real day at the Vraa hojskole (folk high school) and despite drinking maybe five cups of coffee I am completely totally worn out. I will try to explain. First, I got up at 8:20 this morning, about four hours earlier than I have been getting up for the past, um... three or four weeks? Then I had breakfast with Soren and Pia (for those of ya'lls who ain't in the know: Soren= my dad's friend, teacher at the school, married to... Pia= headmistress of the school, both of them played a big part in convincing me to come here) so right - breakfast. Also at breakfast were two former students spending the holidays with Soren and Pia, one named Tina and one who I spent a lot of time with named Sofia from Hungary. I like Sofia a lot - she is learning to play the tin whistle and just got back from visiting her boyfriend in Iceland (some Islander she met at the hojskole) with a really nice Icelandic sweater, and we watched The Notebook and Enchanted together. Oh yeah, and then we shoveled some snow. Most of the students were arriving today and to pick the one guy who flew in to Alborg today up from the airport, the school borrowed a limo from a wealthy benefactor, which apparently has a low bottom, so we were 1) shoveling snow off the roof of the art building 2) attacking a lump of ice in the main entry gate so that the limo count make it in. After this I rode the limo to the airport and met/got to talk to some five of the other students returning from last semester. When more people started arriving, we had what I will call a fika, (coffee and cookies) in the "living room" in the main building of the school. This is when I drank all the coffee that is now making my mouth dry and legs twitch... and met more students. Considering the most socializing I have done in weeks consisted of one or two people that I already knew or wandering around in an unfamiliar neighborhood in Germany asking where I could buy hair dye, this was eventually quite exhausting. So luckily, Sofia wanted to watch a movie, so I went back to Soren and Pia's house with her and began to knit a hat - BECAUSE ITS REALLY REALLY COLD and I can't believe I forgot to bring a hat to Europe. At six it was dinner time, and we arrived in the dinning hall to see the most delicious looking, lets say "feast", laid out in the middle on a table. There was roast pork, baked potatoes with herbs, and then probably twenty or some bowls of things to make salad with - olives, bean sprouts, corn, nuts and seeds, tomatoes, greens DELICIOUS. And there was desert too, some kind of berries with whipped cream on top. Then we had the whole evening of 1) everyone meeting in the living room and introductions of teachers 2) singing songs out of the special folk high school song book (looks like a hymnal) we sang "It's a Wonderful World" and then a Danish song, and then that song that goes "winter spring summer or fall, all ya gotta do is call, and I'll be there yes I will... you've got a friend" 3) introduction to the five or six different main subject lines 4) and probably most importantly, a BIG DANCE to some CRAZY SCANDINAVIAN FOLK MUSIC! They were calling it the "porn polka" because you line up in two lines, and then run out and link arms with your partner and spin and then, well its hard to explain, but you spin once with everyone else in succession and between each one you swing back with your partner, so its a bit like an infidelity dance - that's what they told us at least. But it was really really good fun. Apparently Soren has been telling the other students about me, that I was coming and, unfortunately, that I was really crazy/fun/interesting. This means that people already have a positive opinion of me (Yay!) but it also means I have something to live up to. And I'm the sort of person that takes a bit to warm up to people and really be myself - so I hope they can wait for the crazy. Now I'm in bed - its been a wonderful day, there is wireless internets at the school so I checked my email/facebook for the first time since I've been here, I have a nice dorm, and a nice roommate incidentally with an AMAZING singing voice - her name is Line (pronounced "Lean-eh") Tomorrow morning I get up at 7 (!!!!!!!) so now I must must must go to bed. But wow this will most likely be a great semester.

IKEA: Stylish and affordible Swedish design, OR time-sucking hell-hole?

2010-01-06T10:19:00.001-08:00

So, Erik and I went to IKEA today to pick out a wardrobe, rug, bathroom light, and additional chair so that when there are three people in his apartment, Erik doesn't have to sit on the trashcan.
As much as I love IKEA, four to five hours of even a potentially good thing (they have a cafeteria! and all of the furniture have cute little names!) becomes not such a good thing. I was excited to see these familiarly Swedish items: princess cake (green marzipan covered cake with jam? and cream DELICIOUS), köttbullar (meatballs a la Sweden), and kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls but these didn't have very much cardamom). I tried to take a picture of the princess cake - partly because I have so many good memories of eating it with Matthew Chance at Sture Katten - but then the cafeteria lady yelled at me in German, because apparently you aren't allowed to take pictures of the food. I was downcast, and I don't understand, because when I think of places where you aren't allowed to take pictures its places like meat packing plants or Walmart where they have some evil violation of health codes or human rights lurking around the corner, but IKEA, what do they have to hide? Anyway, so we had a fika (refills are FREE on coffee) and then spent a very long time looking at wardrobes. For part of this time I occupied myself with filling my virtual house with as many virtual chairs as possible, and then taking a picture of it BECAUSE HOW WILL THEY STOP ME! mwaa ha ha ha ha ha....
Finally we left IKEA having bought a wardrobe and a chair but no light and no rug... Also, Erik bought me a mouse because I liked it, and it was only 99 cents, and I had a hard day and he understands me and my needs. My needs for mice. So there we are, that was pretty much today. Ha! and wouldn't YOU like to know if I'm talking about a real mouse or not!

(... but if you're smart you probably know what kind of mice they sell at IKEA....... and I bet you're smart)

Here's the lady getting ready to yell at me...

....And chairs.

Learning Danish!

2010-01-05T17:50:00.000-08:00

I wondered how much I have learned in Sweden that will help me in Denmark language-wise, especially because all the Swedes I talked to said these (mean?) things about the Danish language: 1) that it was like Swedish but with porridge in your mouth, 2) that Danes can understand Swedish but if I learn Danish my Swedes (and yes I mean to make that possessive- I met them, their mine now) won't understand me, 3) and also they told me that I will think I know what word to use and then all of a sudden it will be a completely different word or mean something different - till example: in Swedish "frukost" means breakfast, but in Danish it means lunch HOW CRAZY IS THAT? Not actually sooo crazy but okay.

But here's what I've got so far:

New things:

"riot" på Svensk is "upplopp", but in Danish it's uh, something else, sorry I forgot.
"konstig" in Swedish means "weird", but in Danish "weird" is "underlig"
"maybe" in Swedish is "kanske", but in Danish it's "måske"

Old things:

I'm REALLY GLAD that "duktig" exists in both languages, although I think it's spelled differently, because it just means you've done a good job at something.
Of course "tack" is the same, although it's spelled "tak" in Denmark.
And it appears that if you change "t" to "d" in many words, they are the same, like "food" in Swedish was "mat" but in Danish it's "mad" - I swear I'm not overgeneralizing here, but I will have to add more examples later when I can think of them.

And sadly, things I have to leave behind:

Fika, does not exist in Danish.
Bra! or Jätte bra! do not exist in Danish as nice general expressions for "good".
And I haven't seen that many Kanelbullar or Lussekatter, my delicious friends.

But after a couple weeks of what I will call "down time" (more accurately: Sweden withdrawal pains, sleeping, Christmas! and culture shock in Germany) between last semester and this one, I'm ready to go at this learning a new language thing again, this time with full intention, not just sincere hopes that I will learn to speak it.

blink, and you'll miss it

2010-01-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Hello. Please post a caption for this picture. The writer of the best caption will win something silly sometime in the future.

The news from my head

2009-12-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

I just found the change font color function, so, don't mind if I do!
It has been a couple of very uneventful days here lately. In case I haven't complained to you personally about it, I have been awfully sick with a cold that I hope is going to be over soon but is lingering in my ear making me deaf and kind of dizzy if I tilt my head to one side. Soon I will have consumed an entire jar of honey, a little lemon shaped bottle of lemon juice, and who knows, maybe 20-30 bags of tea. Taking into account that each bag is reused once or twice, that's a lot of tea. I have watched a lot of TV, including a cheerful little old film today featuring the Swedish armed forces in training camp, which as far as I could tell involved a lot of practical jokes and chasing down cute nurses to ask them out for dinner. There were subtitles (in Swedish) which gave me at least a chance at understanding what was going on. I have slept a lot. I have patted a lot of kitties. Well, the same two kitties, but lots of times. I have not, however, done any thinking about what is coming up in the next semester, or how I'm feeling now besides congested, or what I want to accomplish before its really all over and I fly back to the US again. I am having trouble thinking, generally speaking, partly because I am asleep all of the time and therefore don't have any conception of what date or day of the week it is. Also, I haven't left the house except once since I got here, so I don't know very well what the weather is like. And most of my social interactions have been extremely cute and pleasing conversations in Danish with a three year old that go like this: JONAS "bim baum pffffftt!!" ME "bim baum pfffft!" JONAS " Bim! Baum! PFFFFFFFFTTTT!" ME "Bim Baum PFFFFFFTTT!!!"..., or this conversation we had a few days ago: JONAS "Now I am going to sit...HERE." ME "Now I am going to sit... HERE." JONAS "Now I am going to sit... HERE!" ME "Now I am going to sit... on YOU." JONAS "Noooooo!!!" Like I said, this is something I enjoy a lot, but when you don't know what day of the week it is, or what its like outside, or what people are saying most of the time, its hard to feel in control and clear and ready to do some good thinking. Also, I am a bit distracted by two things. Firstly, I keep thinking something is scraping on the outside of the house, like the time squirrels got inside the porch roof at home, when in fact it is the cat eating out of its food dish. Secondly, the fact that my ear is full of junk or something means that I can hear what sounds like approaching footsteps but what actually is my heartbeat pounding in my ear.

The problem is I feel like it would be really good to do some thinking. Before Christmas in the week after I left Stockholm, I was feeling really weird, every night I was having anxious dreams where I would be in a situation that I had worried about but had gone fine in real life but in my dream the things I worried would happen came true. It wasn't really dramatic, just stuff like I took the last piece of cake and in my anxious dream everyone was mad at me - JUST AS I'D FEARED! I still feel kind of unsettled, even though I haven't had these dreams since I've been here in Denmark. I was kind of fixating on all of the sad, awkward or upsetting things that have happened or could have happened, and it would just be really nice to have something else to fill my head with. Did I mention I am also compulsively checking my email and facebook? Yeah, I need something to think about. Wow that sentence just brought these two songs to mind. #1 That part in the Buffy musical where Buffy is singing that song about the apathy resulting from being pulled out of heaven by her friends to the dancing demon "Please, just give me something to sing about!" (replace sing with think) #2 the song in the musical South Pacific song called Happy Talk where bloody Mary gives relationship advice to the young Lieutenant who is in love with her daughter "Talk about the moon, floating in the sky..." (replace talk with think).

Actually, I see no reason why I shouldn't continue this exercise for the rest of the song. Maybe it will give me some good advice.

"Happy think, keep thinkin' happy think Think about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream, How you gonna have a dream come true?
Think about the moon floatin' in the sky Lookin' at a lily on the lake; Think about a bird learnin' how to fly. Makin' all the music he can make. Think about a star lookin' like a toy Peekin' through the branches of a tree; Think about the girl, think about the boy Countin' all the ripples on the sea. Happy think, keep thinkin' happy think, Think about things you'd like to do. You got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream How you gonna have a dream come true? If you don't think happy, and you never have a dream, Then you'll never have a dream come true!

Aus Hamburg; or This isn't Kansas, Dorothy

2009-12-20T05:52:00.000-08:00

Is it strange that the first thing I noticed about being in Germany was the group of excited teenagers playing Foosball/table soccer in the corner of the coffeeshop/bar/club I ended up in? I think I have finally given up being jealous of people who are really good at Foosball; it doesn't interest me at all anymore.

It's hard to tell how I am feeling right now. I left Stockholm without really thinking about what that means. And right now what that means is I can't eat pepperkakor non-stop or go out and buy a kanelbulle for breakfast at noon, or go to Hötorget to get yelled at by the vegetable market people, or eavesdrop on people and understand some of what they are saying. German sounds like complete nonsense to me, and I didn't really realize that Swedish doesn't sound like a bunch of random sounds anymore - it sounds like Swedish which i sometimes somewhat understand.

Actually, I left Stockholm in a mess, perhaps epitomized by this picture. Ryanair's weight limits inspired me to wear as much of my clothes as possible, which as it turns out included 4 pairs of pants, with 3 skirts on top, three dresses, 3 shirts, 2 sweaters, 1 sweater vest and 2 coats. Oh yeah, and 3 scarves. Take that, Ryanair! Also I almost missed my flight, as in I was running towards the plane on the runways at 2:20 and the flight was supposed to leave at 2:30. Completely my fault, but still it had the feeling of "why is this ALWAYS HAPPENING TO ME at the end of the semester?"

I miss knowing where to go, at least sort of, even if I got lost walking Pepe in Gamla Stan and ended up in Slussen after walking to Statshuset, and I miss all of my Swedish friends. I don't have any German friends, although I thought about asking Erik's neighbors to play games with me, they might think I am a creep or mildly retarded or maybe they don't speak English; either way I'm afraid to knock on doors of complete strangers just because I'm lonely.

my last Friday in Stockholm, and what am I doing?

2009-12-18T05:36:00.000-08:00

I thought I lost this post, but blogger is smarter than i am and autosaves everything that i do. So here is what I was thinking about last Friday.

I really can't believe this is the last day! Tomorrow morning around noon I will leave for Hamburg, where I will meet up with Erik and then together we are going to spend Christmas in Denmark with Ditte and Lars and the whole family I suppose.

Tonight I think I will be having my last earthenware glass of mjöd with Alexandra (from Belgium) and Linnea (from Sweden!) and then sledding with my housemates on garbage sacks down the avenues of Gamla Stan (yippie!)

OH, I learned a new word yesterday, no WEDnesday. It was one of Siri's favorite words: upplopp. It means "riot"

Today around noon I saw a jul konsert I think it was called at Norra Real, the school that Linnea goes to. It was like an end of the year talent show/concert for the last day of school before break. There was a group of dancers who did a routine to Michael Jackson songs, and then maybe 30 kids got up and sang something about giving your heart away for Christmas only to have it broken the next day... and then came the 3 or 4 teenage girls who thought they were hot shit singing Christmas classics with as sexy of an inflection as they could muster (some were pretty good, the sexy version of White Christmas kind of threw me off though). BUT THE BEST was the very last guy who was just a guy who could play the bagpipes and then stomped/marched around the stage playing the bagpipes for like 10 minutes, ending with a bagpipe rendition of the Swedish national anthem. Oh, and they also distributed the prize for the winner of the gingerbread house competition. Fun!

Its really pretty here now with snow everywhere. Last night at the apartment we had a "pyssel kväll" which actually just means "crafts evening" but its something people do around Christmas time - you drink glögg and then take oranges and make patterns by sticking cloves in them so that you can tie a ribbon around them and hang them in your window to smell good. We ate goat cheese on pepperkakor, and I made spinach artichoke dip and we also had some wine so it was pretty successful.

Its three o'clock now and I'm watching the sunlight disappear behind the building next door. I still have a lot to do this afternoon - pack and weight my bags, mail the stuff that doesn't fit within the weight limit, oi, I don't know what else. It doesn't feel very dramatic because I'm not REALLY leaving, I'm just going to Denmark, but at the same time I won't be living in Stockholm any more and that is actually a big change. I can always visit, but this is the end of a four month long romance with the city and now I have to say adieu and I don't really know how to feel.

What???

2009-12-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

totally random guy sitting behind me.. asks in swedish if I know much about computers as I sit here typing and checking my email. Then, oh you're american. He wanted to scan something. Told him to go to a place where they have scanners. He could tell I was being sarcastic. Said, "America. That's not a country anyone would want to be from." I said, "Last time I checked, you can't choose what country you're born into."
He says, "who knows? We're just little ants in a huge universe. We think we know so much but we know so little."
"you know," he says, I thought you were a lot older, with your grey hair. Why would a person choose to look so much older when they are young?"
WEll, I responded, I didn't realize that i looked older. I was bored. That's why, and so I died it blue and that was fun and I don't care how old I look.

"oh its blue is it."

Yes""

We continued to chat like this (why are you here, where are you staying, oh punk was coming out in my time, the revival is not the same as the original...) I asked him about the small oriental looking doll pinned to his bright red women's coat with fuzzy black lapels. He said, "oh this. I borrowed this. tomorrow I'm playing music on a train platform. It's traditional you know, they give out bread. I didn't want to wear a hood (santa cap) like all the others. So I borrowed this and I will wear a sparkly hat. I'm conducting. I play so much music.

you know, he said, I can tell that you are heavy in yourself.
What? I said. What exactly do you mean?

"I don't believe this," he said, "but some people, who have lived several lives before this one, they're like that." "I don't know how else to say it. When i was younger, i thought I was so adult and mature, and I acted so grown up. But everyone's racist. I think its better If we just get it out and struggle with our own demons. just struggle with it. But 80 percent of the population shouldn't be allowed to vote. That's not just Sweden or America or Belgium. But the whole world. Most people are just interested in drinking and partying on and sex and don't give a shit about anything else. I'm not saying that you don't like drinking and partying on and all that stuff, but it just seems like you have it figured out."

"I have to go smoke now" he said and put on his fitted red jacket.

I'll watch your plastic cups, I said.

Thanks

I'm in Love!

2009-12-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

With the National Library of Sweden!

I've been here all day and all afternoon yesterday and probably all day tomorrow! Its everything a girl could ever want from a library. Huge rooms with lofted ceilings and dark green furniture filled with old looking books of every kind. I have been sitting here reading to my heart's content about the development of the Swedish fashion industry which is fascinating! If you ever need a break, there is a restaurant/cafe in the basement, and you can buy cool (?, i think so) gifts at the information desk, like metal bookends in the likeness of Selma Lagerloff, or August Strindberg, or Statshuset. Also, to the rear of the library lies Humlegården, a classy park that contains the sculpture of Carl Linnaeus that was made by a sculptor that I am supposedly related too.

Why is it that you spend a long time somewhere (I think 4 months is a long time) and don't meet your one true love until the very last week? I want to come here every day for the rest of my life; its true love!!!

It kind of reminds me of entering a temple when you come inside. You aren't allowed to bring any coats or outside bags inside the library because they house all the important documents of Sweden or something of the sort, so you have to go through this brief transformation into a worthy visitor in the coat room before you are allowed to enter. And its just such a beautiful building. I will have to look up who the architect is.

But also I have to keep reading because I only have 2 more days left to finish a 10 page paper on masculinity in fashion in Sweden, or at least that's what I hope its about, and I hope to work at the student pub for the second to last time tomorrow night and probably consume a fair amount of alcoholic beverages, so I really need to book it today before the library closes at 8. I just get overcome with this GIANT LOVE whenever I come here!

rando info

2009-11-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I listen to songs that used to make me sad (or at least emotional), just to test if they still make me sad. Strange? Bad idea? Yes, yes. But its an interesting way to stay awake when its 3am and a half finished paper is staring you in the face and all your good ideas puttered out half an hour ago.
Here's the list, in no particular order:

SONG (ARTIST) ---> MADE ME SAD?

1. I'm Sorry (Feist) ---> No. Ha! Not a chance, Feist. You're spent girl.
2. Float On (Modest Mouse) ---> Yes, kind of.
3. King of Carrot Flowers Part 1 (Neutral Milk Hotel) ---> Yes.
4. Fresh Feeling (Eels) ---> Emotional yes, but more hopeful than sad. So I guess the answer is No.
5. Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig (Jens Lekman) ---> Yes...

...I am realizing as I do this that the entertainment I'm getting from writing this down prevents me from really being sad... so the data is no longer accurate, but I would love to add to this list in the future. One last one!

6. Coupla Easy Things (Bishop Allen) ---> "I need someone to sing me to sleep" Uh, yes? But I'm not really playing anymore.

Actually number 5 and 6 were kind of cheating because they have been making me sad this last week. You should pick songs that epitomized your sadness months or years ago and see if those suckers still make you sad.

Short Story

2009-11-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

"Bad day, this day" remarked the young man with the newspaper under his arm, as he slowly surveyed the cakes and sandwiches under their glass covers
"Yes, I know. I spotted a limpet this morning. Actually just around the corner here," replied the man behind the counter.
"Yes, yes of course. Just coffee please," said the young man, now concentrating completely on a sign reading "caution: alcohol consumption during pregnancy may cause birth defects". Limpets can cause any number of things, thought the young man.

Of all days, he thought. He poured the cream carefully, not too much not too little. This coffee would not be good, it never was, but that is not the most important of all things. He must drink it while he reads the paper. He must read the paper as well, for how could a man like himself walk around in a dream like a poet or one who is in love? No, it is best to know what is going on, even if the news is always depressing and the writing shoddy or superficial.

Abruptly, the young man let the newspaper drop to the table, got up, and walked back over to the counter. "I've forgot," he began quietly, "is the refill included?"

"First one is free, after that fifty cents will do. There are people who would come here in the morning and take up space all day without buying anything else after that first cup. Not you of course," finished the shop owner with a wink entirely becoming to his friendly, bearded face and simple red plaid shirt.

"Hmmph." Santa Claus, thought the young man. Looks just like Santa Claus, but hair's not white. He was not an unfriendly person, this young man. Not in the least. The shop keeper seems to understand this, and continues his business completely nonplussed by the young man's response.

Picking up the newspaper again, he opened it to some page in the middle and began reading. "Abortion Issue Plagues Health Care Bill. Passions heat up as the Senate begins to discuss language limiting women's access to abortion in the proposed health care bill..." Yes, and senators beating each other with canes! exclaimed the young man excitably, but also with somber darkness. No one heard him, as he mostly thought and spoke within the privacy of his own mind. This issue, like many others to the young man, was frustrating to the point of hilarity, which is precisely what made reading the newspaper so difficult, even on a good day.

He set the paper down for the second time, somewhat hesitantly. It just wouldn't do to go on reading this paper today. Maybe tomorrow. There's always tomorrow, new news, new paper, new cup of coffee. New me? "Ha!" chuckled the young man, this time out loud but attracting no attention from the other cafe patrons. Compared to the bitter dark feeling evoked by the newspaper article, this laughter was simple and spontaneous. "Hmmm," thought the young man, "Me change? No, not really. I am me, aren't I? I'm can't become you, for example," he continued, glancing over to the back corner where another, slightly younger man sat engrossed in a book, reaching up to adjust his think black lenses from time to time, and tapping his converse clad left foot unceasingly. "Nor could I become you," this time looking in the opposite direction towards two people looking so deeply into each others' eyes they apparently could see nothing else. "Especially not you, for how could I be two people at once? That's ridiculous!" This thought continued to amuse him, and so he smiled and said it again quietly under his breath, "ridiculous."

Well, this has been a bad day. Broken hearts and all that. He directed his thoughts towards the scraggly plant growing beside his right arm on the window sill, but not because he thought the plant could hear him exactly. He was not insane, this young man. It was difficult to tell what kind of plant it was. Of course one could with an average knowledge of flowering plants, but this plant was not in flower, and what fun is it to recognize a petunia from a daisy or a rose when you just might be wrong and it's really a thistle? You never know with flowers. But of course no one plants thistles in flower pots, and they are quite recognizable without blossoms in any case.

"She.... hmm. She just doesn't love me," came the thought, haltingly, cautiously. The young man picked up his spoon and began dumping spoon fulls of lukewarm coffee onto his napkin. "She doesn't love me at all," the thought continued, this time with more conviction.
"I must go home," thought the man anxiously. "The coffee has become cold."

And with that, he pushed back his chair, put on his coat and scarf, and walked purposefully out the door. No one looked up as he left, but several minutes later the shopkeeper came by and picked up the half full glass and the forgotten newspaper. Returning to the counter, the man began to read, and continued until he had read the horiscope, the comics, and the weather, thinking only that perhaps tomorrow he would need to salt the sidewalk in front of the shop, "with all these damn false-alarm predictions for snow," he mused. But it would be bad for the limpet either way.

The Story of Brita and Her Ineffectual New Deodorant

2009-11-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

One gray fall day in Stockholm, Brita went to her dresser only to discover that the waterlily and freshmint scent Dove deodorant purchased at Target almost four months ago was on its last legs. Which is to say, it wouldn't be long before its time in this world was over. Naturally, it would have to be replaced, but with what? Everyone knows the old adage, Never Step in the Same River Twice, but only slightly less well known is Never Purchase the Same Flavor of Deodorant Twice. Life is too short. And the river keeps moving so its impossible. So Brita did what any well-meaning but somewhat clueless young lady in her position would have done and headed straight down to T-Centralen and the Åhléns department store to purchase some deodorant/anti-perspirant. What she should have realized is that department stores may be easy to locate but do not care so many health products and the ones they do carry are expensive, but that story is for another time. Instantly a deodorant claiming Cloudberry Jasmine Scent caught her attention. Delicious! she thought, and made her way to the cashier. "That will be 10 dollars in your home currancy" was the cashier's reply. Ouch! thought Brita, But there's no turning back now. She brought the Cloudberry Jasmine 24h Anti-Perspirant with no alcohol made with Eco-Cert. Cotton Oil back home and gave it a whirl. Wow what a fantastic smelling little deoderant! was her response. It was only later, about 1 hour to be exact, that she realized what kind of a friend she had in her new deodorant. Yes, in only a matter of an hour, this fickle little Cloudberry Jasmine 24h Anti-Perspirant had completely ceased to work or nay, even exist.

Alas! Betrayed! Deoderant, when you said to me that you were 100% Natural Fragrance of Sweden, I thought that I could trust you. I thought we would be a team, you and I. And now? Now I don't know what to think. I still put you on every day, hoping that this day will be different. But how long do you expect me to wait around like this? I have things I want to accomplish in my life, and for me to be able to do this, I need to be secure in knowing I can do them without my armpits getting damp.

So that was the story of Brita and Her New Deodorant. It's really kind of a little bit sad. But most true stories are.

Where have all the slugs gone?

2009-11-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I have seen one of these around. It's not something you miss at first, but then later you realize how disappointed you are when you eye a stick suspiciously, carefully stepping around it only to realize that it was not a slug. So yes, I do miss avoiding slugs on the sidewalk. I had a good weekend, thanks for asking. But I ate way too much after attending both an all-you-can-eat jazz brunch at the club called Mosebacke and a dinner party at Anna Cassel's host family's house. That was one of the best dinner parties I have EVER been to. The only thing better than being invited into somebody's home to share food with them and all of their friends is being requested to do so in costume. So I still think the March 16th Halloween party of 2007 hosted by myself, Anna Smith and Toni Yost was an excellent party, because there were costumes involved. But I really had a lovely cozy time Saturday night, and after stuffing myself with food and wine and coffee and cookies, I danced my pants off to Johnny Cash and that Jitterbug song and who knows what else.

Despite having such a good time over this weekend, I am approaching this week with a certain amount of foreboding. I feel unprepared and disorganized, and also tired from all of the excitement of Friday and Saturday. (Friday I went back to the medieval bar in the old town with Anna Cassel and her visiting friend to drink Mead)

This week I need to start writing or at least researching for my final paper for "Women in Swedish Society and Culture", I need to really study some Swedish so that I know my verbs and all that stuff we covered before the midterm, and I need to make a list of the things I still would like to do while I'm in Stockholm. I can't believe it's getting that late in the semester, but we only have 3 or 4 more weekends left. Also, I need to figure out WHEN Thanksgiving is so I can make some cornbread. I made curried squash soup for dinner Friday, but I could make that again too. What else is an absolute Thanksgiving essential, excluding turkey? I would like to make that caramelized onion, apple, and sausage dish that we usually make at home. Pumpkin filling is hard to come by, otherwise I would make some pumpkin cupcakes in my new heart-shaped cupcake pan (!!!! fun!!!!!!). I guess pecan pie is good too.

What are all of you who read this blog of mine doing for Thanksgiving? What are you thinking about eating?

I suppose its time for bed. I have to get up in 5 hours :( Goodnight!

...and finally, Uppsala (for a short time)

2009-11-10T12:45:00.001-08:00

Mora (Anders Zorn's house)

2009-11-10T12:26:00.001-08:00

Sundborn!

2009-11-10T12:10:00.001-08:00

Bananafish are not real - but I forget this from time to time

2009-11-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Before I write about my short foray into another part of Sweden, I will just rant for a minute or two about the things that are irritating me at the moment. Perhaps in list form?
1. Darkness. It's dark at 4pm, and then I feel like going home. I never noticed how much beauty light adds to any situation until now.
2. The "how do you like it here" question. Absolutely everyone I meet wants a Sweden-USA comparison/analysis, which is fun to talk about the first 50 times, but now, not so much.
3. The "aren't you going home for break?!" question. One of the other study abroad students today told me very seriously that I should really consider going home, because I will be getting lonely by that time. I told her that if I could I would, but she seemed to think I was just being stubborn, trying to hold out in Europe to show how tough I am :D This ties into my earlier and ongoing frustration at people who treat you like a spoil-sport if you can't spend money as freely as they do. Its not that I don't enjoy doing spontaneous, impractical things, and its not that I don't like sharing, and its definitely not that I want to hoard my money. I wish that people would be a little more sensitive about this, but they just sort of don't understand.

Ooookey. I think that is enough ranting for the moment.

I really enjoyed my trip to Falun, Sundborn, Mora and Uppsala. It was nice to just go with just a basic idea of where I would stay and what I would do, because it gave me the opportunity to realize that I can improvise and survive all by myself in a strange place. Also, I had 4 balls of yarn and an idea for a scarf, which is just such a good way to venture out into the world. "Here I come world! And I've got for balls of yarn!" This is really the only way to travel.

I think the best part of the trip was by far on Wednesday night and Thursday during the day when I was in Falun and Sundborn, where Carl Larsson's house is. I love Carl Larsson's house. I would definitely live there, and the walls are covered with Karin Larsson's weavings, Carl's paintings, and cute little sayings here and there like "Tell you what: Be good and happy!". The only other person on the tour was an economic anthropologist from New Mexico who at first alarmed me by the size of the fur poofs on her gloves (never trust a lady with fur poofs! I thought) but she was very funny and interesting and we had a fika together back in Falun. The "Central Cafe" in Falun was another great part of the trip. I really liked the guy that ran the shop; he was dressed in red plaid, and whistled along to the radio all afternoon, and in general was just incredibly good humored and friendly. We talked about Swedish music, and he invited me to come listen to a folk music festival in Falun on Saturday, but unfortunately I had a ticket back to Stockholm. Wednesday night when I first arrived in Falun I went to a local pub and met two guys there and had a good time talking to them for a long time. Then I went back to my hostel which was an old jail, and went to sleep behind iron-barred windows. Ha ha! Funny! I almost forgot it was a prison until I read the cleaning instructions, which referred to the room as a "cell".

The biggest crisis of the trip was probably my first night in Mora (Thursday night) where I met a really nice cat outside my hostel. We played for a long time, and then I went inside to presumably go to sleep but the cat came around to my window and meowed and beat on the window with its little kitty paws and generally made itself seem totally desperate and sad!!! I can't stand that sort of thing!!! Plus it was snowing. I REALLY wanted to let the cat inside but I felt like I would be betraying the trust of the nice lady who own the hostel who was giving me access to a nice kitchen, laundry room and sauna. It was a big dilemma, and the thought of the cat out in the cold made me so anxious I couldn't sleep. Also I had had 5 cups of coffee that day.

Also in Mora I decided to give myself a nice warm lunch rather than continue to eat my fruit and hard bread. It was good, but they did something to the potatoes, like put them through a grinder, that made them look like rice which confused me for a long while. I ordered curry with banana fish, and was surprised to find a plate full of bananas and fish and not a banana fish. At this point I realized that banana fish is the very sad fish in a J.D. Salinger story called "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
"Miss Carpenter. Please. I know my business," the young man said. "You just keep your eyes open for any bananafish. This is a perfect day for bananafish."

"I don't see any," Sybil said.

"That's understandable. Their habits are very peculiar." He kept pushing the float. The water was not quite up to his chest. "They lead a very tragic life," he said. "You know what they do, Sybil?"

She shook her head.

"Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon. "Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door."

"Not too far out," Sybil said. "What happens to them?"

"What happens to who?"

"The bananafish."

"Oh, you mean after they eat so many bananas they can't get out of the banana hole?"

"Yes," said Sybil.

"Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die."

"Why?" asked Sybil.

"Well, they get banana fever. It's a terrible disease."

Here are pictures from Wednesday night and Thursday morning in Falun.
I will post a new post in like 5 minutes with the rest of the pictures :)

Dalarna, my darling

2009-11-03T15:51:00.001-08:00

I have officially made travel plans (bought tickets, made pasta, packed clothes) for tomorrow to go to the Dalarna region to go to these two places: Sundborn (via Falun) where Carl Larsson's house is, and Mora where artist Anders Zorn has a museum and house as well. Wish me luck! This trip is so much more expensive than I wish it was :( but I guess that's what you get for traveling alone. And sleeping indoors. But I will maybe save some money by eating only coffee and bread :) :) :) This is my hope at least. I know my host dad thinks its funny that I am bringing all my food with me, but food is really expensive!!! I think tomorrow morning before I leave I will bake the squash I bought a few weeks ago :S and salt and butter it and eat it for dinner on Thursday... or lunch Friday? I don't know. It's kind of heavy.

Anyways, bon voyage to me, and see you again Saturday if all goes well.

P.S. Mom told me not to eat squash for three days in a row for the reason that it will make me unhappy- I think she's right! Also I just realized that eating out in Stockholm is probably a lot more expensive than in Dalarna, so I just might be eating real lunch after all.

P.P.S. WHERE IS JON GARREY WHEN I NEED HIM!? Dear Jon, your travel planning skills are excellent. I just wanted to tell you so. You would have had this trip figured out WEEKS ago. Instead, tomorrow morning I am calling the place I hope to sleep tomorrow to see if they have any rooms :P

The Slow and Painful Death of McAfee

2009-11-03T09:47:00.001-08:00

My anti virus software must be running out? or something. Because it has been jumping up every two minutes all up in arms about how it can't run a virus scan. I'm kind of irritated but also worried because I don't really know what it is doing. Do I need McAfee? Can I get something for free that does the same thing that won't start freaking out when its at the end of its prescription? Ugh.

Fall Break Number 2

2009-11-02T15:58:00.001-08:00

Ok. Here's the deal. I have decided to write more posts more often instead of not writing for a whole week and disappointing everyone who actually reads this. But the trade-off is this: my posts will be less interesting. Do you think I just sit around here doing interesting things all day? Most days I do some homework and check my email and eat dinner and take the subway. But some days, for example, I take a boat to Latvia. Or see an old man dressed in 3 different kinds of plaid on the subway (shirt, pants, socks - sorry I forgot to write about this) or I make soup or plan how to take over the world.

So in this boring post, I will speculate on what I might do tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.
I feel kind of inflexible, so tomorrow morning if I manage to wake up I should go to the pool and swim. It's good to swim before lunch, because then you are hungry enough to know what you want to eat for lunch. I hate not knowing what to eat, so this is a good idea.

Also tomorrow, perhaps I will buy some pants. The pants I own now are as follows: one pair baggy brown plaid pants, one pair new jeans that are a little too short :(, one pair nice black dress pants, one pair gray corduroy pants meant to be rolled up to knees, one pair dress brown pants, one pair black jeans with repaired rip but every time I wear them they fall down, and one pair of really old jeans that ripped when I tried to protect Tonton from an incoming attacking large dog. Actually this sounds like a lot of pants. But the ripped pants and the saggy pants and short pants are my only jeans. And everybody knows that jeans and pants are not quite the same thing. I am not sure if I can buy pants in Sweden, because ALL Swedish people have skinnier legs than I do, and why would they make pants for a population of large-legged people that doesn't exist?

Tomorrow I may also buy a train, bus or plane ticket to Malmö. It is difficult for me to make up my mind.

Oh! That reminds me; if I do buy a train, bus or plane ticket I must also buy some yarn and borrow some needles and call Mom to ask for the lace pattern I used to make her black scarf, because what else would be as much fun as knitting when I'm on a train for 5 hours? The answer is ping pong, but that is not an option as far as I know. Not when you buy tickets on standby.

So the day after tomorrow is still undecided. I may be wandering around Malmö completely lost, or I may be sleeping my break away right here in Stockholm.

WE SHALL SEE...

Farewell J.A. !!!

2009-11-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

I am dedicating a post to J.A. because last night's Halloween party at Gula Villan was the last I will see of him before he leaves Stockholm to go back to his folkhighschool, and I will miss him! I like J.A. because he is a very cool guy, and because he taught me this song:

"whoah, whoah, vi har sluta nian!"

This is probably spelled wrong, but it the song means: "whoah, whoah we have quit the ninth grade!" J.A. explained that this is the song that 9th grades sing when they graduate from that part of their schooling, but its fun to sing it now because everyone in the room has finished the 9th grade a long time ago.

J.A. also taught me to say calm hockey pucks in Swedish, but I forgot how :( Too bad he's leaving!
You can use it to mean "Hey, what's up?" "I'm chill." or "CALM HOCKEY PUCKS!"

More about J.A. He used to have a lot of hair, and then he cut it off.

Actually I like all three of the people in this picture. But J.A. is the one that's leaving, so I am writing about him.

(soggy) Autumn Leaves

2009-10-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

This isn't so interesting, but in the course of an evening spent reflecting on random things instead of writing this stupid essay (anger! chomp chomp! gnashing teeth!) I was thinking about fall, and what it is like at home. I realized that a prime adjective for autumn-time at home is "crisp", as in "the crisp autumn air" or "the crisp smell of leaves" or "crisp fall apples". But in Sweden, so far, autumn has been rather damp. There's a lot of rain. So you wouldn't really say "crisp" then, would you? This has huge ramifications! Can you really make "apple crisp" in a place where the fall isn't genuinely crispy?! I don't know! We must go to a higher authority on crispiness:

Kia Shine, crispy (*krispy) expert. or, perhaps the Urban Dictionary, source of infinite wisdom has an aswer?

Reader comments always welcome!!!

Have can, will soup

2009-10-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just made some black bean soup which should have been awful, but I love it!
I started out with only a can of black beans. I was hungry. What can you do with a can of beans?
I thought about just warming them up (that's still food, right?), but instead I ended up with this:

1 can black beans, in beanie-water
1 clove garlic, chopped up into bits
generous portion of oregano
2 spoonfuls of the olive oil left over from the stuffed olives I've been eating since sometime before I went to Latvia
cayenne pepper
salt
another spice that smelled good at the time
creme fraiche

And I like it! Or maybe I just like black beans, and you can't really mess them up. I wouldn't serve it to company, but I sure would make it again if I find myself alone with a can of beans!

Another post? Oh my!

2009-10-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

Just one more thing. Sweden is getting dark. Next week is midsems week, and Erik is coming for some quality brother-sister bonding time. Then I have a week off, to do what? Hopefully take a train around Sweden, but also to get my act together! I feel like the time is slipping away from me, and I have been spending too much time staying up half the night working at pubs with crazy Swedes. Let me qualify that - crazy Swedes who I love! but still - it makes me feel kind of lost to spend at least part of every week sleeping until 1 or 2pm.

I think I would feel less melancholic right now if I could just complete some piece of work, like a paper, or start knitting a scarf for winter, or do a thorough analysis of my finances. It's strange, but even though I feel more accepted and well-liked as a whole by the group of friends I have met working at Gula Villan (student pub) than I do with my study abroad group, it feels sad not to be spending time with the people on my program. I don't understand, but I guess we have a common experience being exchange students that I don't have with the Swedish students. There's actually a big difference in how it feels to go wandering around the city with another American college student compared to going out with a student who grew up in Stockholm. And its not just that you know where you are going when you go out with a native Stockholmer. Its a difference of perspective. I don't know if I can explain it. But lately I have been feeling strangely ungrounded. I just REALLY need to make muffins with/for someone! It's not like I don't get this feeling back home when I'm at school too. I'm never baking enough with people :(

Here is my proposed travel plans for the winter break:

1. Take a plane or train down to the southern tip of Sweden to Malmö, where I will see one of the largest immigrant communities in Sweden.
2. Take a train North to the university town of Lund.
3. Continue North up the West coast to Göteborg.
4. Somewhere in this area (?) visit the home of Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author
5. Continue North to Mora to visit the museum/home of Swedish painter Anders Zorn
6. Somewhere in this area, visit Carl Larsson's home

the rest not in coherent order yet:

- visit the town where they make Orrefors crystal
- visit a town in Dalarna region where someone told me there is a cool copper mine
- visit a town in the South where someone told me they make good candy
- visit Uppsala
- make a trip to Okelbo!
- I don't think I can make it on this tour, but I would love to go to Northern Sweden, maybe to Abisko.

We shall see - I haven't bought any tickets yet, and I think financial and time restraints will limit this itinerary a little bit.

Hoppsudderudeeruderrullanlej!

2009-10-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY for the crappy correspondence! I haven't written much lately, and I apologize. Thank you Grandma for the letter! I received it last week, and I am in the process of writing back :)

TWO WEEKS AGO: I saw the most amazing of all concerts featuring Steve Gadd on the drums. I was standing approximately 10 feet from his drumset - AMAZING. I couldn't manage to get any signature for me, or Randy :( but while waiting for the band after the show I met a man who writes for a Nordic jazz magazine who was doing an interview with the guitar player after the show. He recommended some Swedish (and some not) jazz musicians for me to listen to:

1. Lars Gullin
2. Jan Johansson
3. EST (Esbjörn Svensson Trio)
4. Bobo Stenson
5. Steve Swallow
6. Carla Bley

Two things struck me about Steve Gadd's playing. First was his ability to play super fast double strokes between his hands and feet, and second was how powerful his sound was. It wasn't just that he was loud - because it wasn't always just loud - but it was always very powerful and leaning ahead.

I was a little surprised at Steve Gadd himself because I think I imagined his appearance from the videos Randy has shown me, which in my head became a little like George Clooney, and in person only his eyes looked lively and healthy and the rest of his face looked at little haggard.

GEORGE CLOONEY VS. STEVE GADD

ALSO IN BREAKING NEWS:

I learned a new song in Swedish class. It is called "Tycker Du Om Mig", meaning "Do you like me"

Here's how it goes!

Tycker du om mig? Ja, det gör jag!
Är det riktigt säkert? Ja, det är det!
Får jag hålla om dig? Ja, det får du!
Hoppsudderudderudderullanlej.

Köper du ringen? Ja, det gör jag.
Sätter den på fingret? Ja, det gör jag.
Är det riktigt säkert? Ja, det är det.
Hoppsudderudderudderullanlej.

Reser vi till prästen? Ja, det gör vi.
Gifter oss förresten? Ja, det gör vi.
Är det riktigt säkert? Ja, det är det.
Hoppsudderudderudderullanlej.

Quick and dirty translation:

Do you like me? Yes, I do!
Is it really true? Yes it is!
Can I hold you? Yes you can!
Wheeeeee!

Will you buy the ring? Yes I'll do that!
Put it on the finger? Yes I'll do that!
Is it really true? Yes it is!
Wheee!!!

Go we to the priest? Yes we do that!
...and get married? Yes, we do that!
Is it really true? YES IT IS
Wheeeee!!!!!

I'M ON A BOAT - don't you NEVER forget!

2009-10-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

I was on a boat this weekend... TO LATVIA!!!
In case you were wondering what it was like, please view this video.
Just kidding! It was an experience too bizarre to be described by simply a video.
How about a string of adjectives (and nouns)? gaudy, disco, karaoke, drunk, tax-free, sketchy, luxurious, cramped, Slavic-sounding radio announcements, beds that fold out of the wall, water in all directions forever, 9ish floors, choreographed dance shows at 8 'o clock, fruit for dinner cut up with a Swiss army knife...

OK sorry for the indirectness: the boat trip was very strange, but Latvia was lovely. We arrived in Riga, the capital city, around 10am on Sunday. Here are some pictures!

Tired Tamale

2009-10-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

First of all, Congratulations to Jon Garrey for the cutest letter ever! I will attempt to reciprocate. I keep writing postcards to people and then not sending them for weeks because buying stamps is such a challenge. In reality it is very easy to find and purchase stamps, but its something I struggle with personally.

Next, my lunch.
Today I bought some things that I will eat for lunch all week. I bought knäcka bröd, some kind of soft mild cheese, and a whole mess of olives. I am very pleased with this food, even though the olives cost almost 50 kroner, which is a lot for lunch groceries. I also saw a butternut squash and bought it on the spot, I was so happy to see it! I could bake it and eat it with butter, I could make curried squash soup, or who knows? The possibilities are almost endless.

Mental health: I have a desperate need for control in some areas of my life. This is not new information, but I was reminded of it today when I learned the the "Hippie" themed party at my favorite Gulla Vilan (humanities house on campus with loads of lovely people) was on Thursday and not Friday and it almost ruined my evening. I had planned out in my mind what the week was going to look like, and everything fit perfectly from going to the Opera on Wednesday, to Steve Gadd (famous drummer) on Thursday, to hippie party (I thought) on Friday, and Dave Weckl (another famous drummer) on Saturday. Now I have to think how I will make it to both the hippie party and the jazz club and whether I should change or go downtown with flowers in my hair and a peasant skirt. I guess the reason I am upset besides having control issues is that I enjoy the hippie persona, and I consider myself fairly qualified to do a good job representing it. Besides, in such a modern and style-conscious city as Stockholm, its a rare opportunity to feel in my clothing element, so to speak. What can I say? I can't wear a pair of stylish black jeans meant for a very thin/fit population of swedes the same way I can wear a nice long hippie skirt. It's just the way that I'm shaped.

Lastly, I have a cold - from not sleeping .... from drinking coffee late at night. Clearly, this is my fault. So let me say this now, in public: No more coffee after 6pm for me. Either that, or I might have to (gasp!) start drink decaf. "But decaf is for chumps, Brita!" you say. And I can't say that I didn't hold this viewpoint at one point. I used to secretly laugh at customers who ordered decaf cappuccinos from me. "Why even drink coffee if you're going to drink it like that?" I used to sneer, in my head, because if I so much as sneezed at them Terri Jo (my boss, notoriously scary lady) would have bit my head off in so many words in one of her famous passive-aggressive mailbox notes. But everything has changed now. Now I can see the world from the bleary eyes of one who put the end of a banana on their nose tonight at dinner - the eyes of one who has spent a night without sleep because of coffee.

Rant

2009-10-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I still hate computers. I thought I was over it - but it doesn't matter that they allow me access to the whole world wherever I am, I still hate them! I hate waiting for them, I hate spending time with them, I hate listening to music on them, and I don't even really like looking at them. They're bad friends - they demand that you handle them well and provide them with energy, and then they isolate you from your surroundings and give you a headache. Sure, it may make it easier to communicate and thus connect with other people, but maybe the ease of it encourages you to do a shoddy job, just like digital cameras encourage you to take worse pictures. Just take this post for example. If I had to write this with pen and paper, do you think I would have done such a bad job? No!

Rememberances of the homeland...

2009-10-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

I just remembered something. In the library at Grinnell, there are these really wide, dome shaped lamps, with just this dome around a light bulb that is screwed into the center. I can't remember if they're all over the library or just inside the study cubby. But anyways, they are always covered with little graffiti underneath the dome, and when you are sitting there you only have to tilt your head a little to read all of the graffitis. Damn those lamps! I wasted so much time reading graffiti in the library. It's not just the study cubby either. The bathroom is full of interesting graffiti, including a discussion about the ethics of leaving your pee in the toilet to preserve water (is it sterile, is it rude, etc.), a (long) list of countries that Grinnellians have been to, and an Obama v. Hilary discussion. In the basement girls bathroom, there is even more to look at, including the famous naked body prints in paint on the wall, discussions of body image, lists of cute boys, girls and professors, and random gossip, warnings about sketchy guys, poetry, and drawings.

The bathroom and lamp graffiti is not new news by any means, but I just realized that looking under those dome lamps occupied a significant amount of my time at Grinnell, and I can recognize its absence. Which is just a dumb way of saying I don't exactly miss it, well kind of, but I notice its gone now just like Cheez-Its are gone, or just like warm cheap gross things (usually with cheese) from 24 hour restaurants are gone.

But yeah, maybe some corned beef hash and faux-Mexican breakfast platter at 4 in the morning DOES sound a little good right now.

Tonight, tonight

2009-10-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

By totally random happenstance, I ended up working at a pub this evening on the university campus. I actually got to tend bar! The pub is in an old yellow house on campus, and it has a nice kitchen as well as a bar and places to sit, dance, etc. We made oven pancakes for dinner, with jam and whipped cream. I corrected several more people about the Nebraska and Alaska not being the same thing issue, and made my Nebraska democrats proud; one Swedish lady asked me what party I was for and then told me that she would have been really disappointed if I was a republican. She told me she watched the documentary "Jesus Camp" and was scared that all Americans are crazy evangelicals. I think I made good friends with this Swedish lady, because later we danced to the Smashing Pumpkins, and she invited me to come karaoke with her on Friday. We shall see... I really like taking naps, sometimes I like them even more than karaoke. Especially since I've never done karaoke, and I don't have any idea what song I could sing. All I know is Scarlett Johansson looks really cool when she sings karaoke in Lost in Translation. Okee... I'm up way past my bedtime! The tunnelbana has long since stopped running and that's a sign that I should go to bed. So goodnight!

Hamburger

2009-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Somedays, one feels like a very big idiot. On those days, it is best to come home after school and take a shower and then a long nap.

My dad drew this picture; isn't it nice? I think wine was involved. Unfortunately, Tonton is not such a large dog. Perhaps I have a small prejudice against small dogs? But at the same time, Serena's chiwawa Max is really adorable.

Question: Does anyone have a really good Mulligatawny soup recipe they could send me? I am thinking of the Oven's soup, which is meatless and really yellow, and kind of thick. I remember Amy (Green) said once that it has a lot of flour.

Also, does anyone have any interesting ideas about seasoning carrots? Today, I made pasta for this week's lunch using the vegetables I had left over from last week- which meant carrots, pine nuts, garlic and a potato in pasta with a tomato pesto sauce (delicious, comes in a jar pre-made).
I was tempted to cook them with curry powder, because carrots are really good in curry, but since that seems like it would clash with tomato pesto, I just sauteed them with a little cayenne pepper. The result was just that the carrots were a little spicy. I was hoping for something more spectacular!

WORD OF THE DAY: Witchy

I love this word. I don't use it nearly enough, but this should be a word we use even when its not approaching Halloween time. It rhymes with twitchy, and witches really aren't so bad anymore these days. They just want some female-female bonding! Sorry, this does tie remotely to life, to my readings for my Women in Swedish culture and society but I don't care to explain.

I spent Tuesday to Sunday of last week in Hamburg - this is a picture of part of the botanical gardens. Lovely! Also, I saw my first opera, the Magic Flute, which was completely bizarre. I celebrated Erik's birthday with Erik and Malene. I ate cheese cake for breakfast. On the street, I watched a dixieland style trio play and sing "Down by the riverside" and then "happy birthday" for the woman who's party it was. The first verse was in English, and the second one was in German. I got a hair cut. I wrote two postcards, and bought three more. I had many cups of coffee. I went on a boat tour of the harbor. I read a little from the binder of collected stories that tells about how our family left Sweden and came to Nebraska. I cried a little, because it is a very sad story, and because they thought they might return someday, but never had the chance. And because the US didn't really hold the prosperity they hoped it did.
I think about my position in this story all of the time, even though it has ceased to be an interesting topic for conversation with others people. I am aware that there is a house in Sweden where these people in these stories lived, and that with a small amount of effort I can find this house in Okelbo. Maybe I am too sentimental, easily impressed by ordinary things because they belonged to someone long ago or someone on another part of the world. I like the thought that there is a tangible connection between people and the things that are a part of their everyday lives - their hairbrush, their stool, their coffee cups - even after the people are long gone. It excites me to think that the ground I am walking or the water I am drinking was used by people who came before me. So there are a couple reasons why it is important that I go to Okelbo. I want to see the place, because I feel like places can have a kind of lingering impression or spirit of their past inhabitants, and I want to go there to hopefully understand better why I came to Sweden and what exactly I am searching for.

Epic weekend!

2009-09-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

I wanted to just document for your entertainment and information this particularly interesting weekend:

Friday night, I went to "humanities house" at the university, where they were holding a Slavic student disco.
I drank several beers, and ended up in a very intense conversation with an Italian guy named "Alfredo". He tried to teach me how to say "mozzarella" for like 10 minutes, which was very funny at the time. I told him I am a drummer (not really for any relevant reason) and he told me that was great, because their metal band is looking for a drummer. There band is called Porn Chemical Rocking. Porn because they like "the ladies", chemical because they are chemists, and rocking, obviously because they are rocking.
I also met a 33 year old bike mechanic from the Basque part of Spain who -would not- stop giggling. He showed me his bike through the window.
When I was waiting for the bathroom, the Russians kept saying "You are Russian? No? What are you?", but that was to everyone, not just to me.
I met the Spanish guy's friend Hannah who is a literature major so I asked her who her favorite author was. She said she didn't have one, so I got really excited and wrote down the names of all of the J. D. Salinger books I like and told her to read them. She asked me if they were translated into Swedish, but I'm not so sure.
Spanish guy was standing there, and apparently he was sad because I didn't recommend him a book, so he asked me to recommend a song. So I think I told him to listen to Doctor Worm by They Might Be Giants, and also to Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies. Strange combination maybe? I wonder if he did...
Anyways, I also met a Swedish guy who learned to speak English in Missouri. He was really dissappointed that I have never been to the south. He kept saying "Ya gotta learn your history! We got Elvis, the king 'o rock. Ya ever been to Memphis? We got the ocean" but, as I pointed out repeatedly, I'm from Nebraska. We have our own history, like the Oregon trail, and people dying of cholera and oxen, which is what I ended up shouting at him about.
Hannah dragged me on to the dance floor where they were playing strange Slavic dance/pop music.
I met Erik and Sara, who run the pub. I can't remember why I met Erik, but then we talked about his braided beard, and how he wanted to look like ZZ top and how my dad likes ZZ top and how my mom won't let him braid his beard, and how Erik's beard used to have three braids, and how now it only has one. He also showed me his tattoo of a red skull with green hair and TWO braids in its skeleton beard.
Erik introduced me to Sara and the other people working at the pub. They let me use the employee bathroom and invited me to come work with them, especially for their halloween pub which will be a big event, with costume competition and all. Also, Erik promised to teach me guitar if I worked at the pub.
I left around 3am with my friend Nareg, who I had come with earlier. We had to wait for half an hour for the next train. In the station, we met a Swedish student named Daniel and a Dutch student named Mark who showed us a secret door to a long flight of stairs, where, (they informed us) hobos like to sleep. We climbed up to the top of the stairs and went outside, where Daniel and Mark sparred over the last piece of gum tobacco they had (called Slusch or something) Daniel had put it in his mouth but Mark had just quit smoking and he said he needed it. So they basically chased each other around and tried to kick each other in the butt.
On the subway, I got confused, or fell asleep or something, and I rode two stops past the station where I change trains, so I had to turn around and try again. The tram that takes me right home stops running at 1am, so I walked from the metro, which took me about 40 minutes. I went to bed at 5am.
Today, saturday, I left the house to go to the blues jam at Stampen, still a little bit out of it from last night's adventures. As I was walking to the tram stop, an acorn hit me squarely on the head, and I thought "divine retribution! ouch!"
And last but not least, at the blues jam, I bumped into a musician in the musician's corner who had a nyckelharpa with him (Swedish folk instrument, looks kind of like a violin but with lots of pegs on the sides and a tiny ineffectual looking bow). I asked him if he was going to play it in the blues jam, and he either said no, he wouldn't because there was a girl who was on her period and very whinny and annoying who was preventing him, OR he was comparing the nyckelharpa as an instrument to such a girl. I'm still not sure what he was getting at. But he did not play the nyckelharpa. (Steve, now i know if you still read my blog. I did not ask the guy where he got his nyckelharpa.)

THE END.

2009-09-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

I believe I hit a new low this evening, when I was curled up on the floor in the shower reading my Dr. Bronner's Magical soap label for fun- it was the only thing that I could really DO at the time. I was in the middle of thinking about brushing my teeth but I was tired and sad and therefore needed to lay on the floor.

I feel like I went all day without talking to anybody. I didn't see any of the other students, and of course I didn't talk to any Swedes while I was out today. It's so SAD to be by yourself all of the time. Some of the time, yes its fabulous. Actually, I learned this the hard way last weekend when I was stuck on an island being with people all day for three days. But all of the time its not. Like you're walking down the street and you see a nice cafe on the other side, so you wait at the cross walk. And then you think to yourself, "Why am I waiting for this crosswalk? So that I can go buy a tiny coffee that is kind of expensive and drink it by myself?" And then you say, "No, I am waiting here because next to the cafe, there is a store full of cool looking light fixtures," to which you reply "What, so I can go over there and look at lamps? You'll just have to cross the street again to get back to the subway." Which is true. So I didn't cross the street.

On better days, my peppy alter-ego will pipe up and say "Poop on the subway! Let's cross that street! And let's LOOK at some light fixtures!" But sometimes I don't have that, and in those times, it would be good to have a friend around.

At the same time, I think I would prefer to be alone ALL of the time than to be stuck with people who I have nothing at all in common with. I really had no idea how annoying it can be until I went to see a documentary about Vogue ("The September Issue" ), which was actually really interesting. Anna Wintour, the current editor in chief I think, basically said that if you shop at Kmart, its because you just don't care about being fashionable, and so people shouldn't go around hating the fashion industry, because its just a matter of taste that Anna Wintour can afford to wear whatever she wants. Yes. So, if you ever want to know how much in common you have with another college-aged girl, just go see a documentary about fashion, and if they immediately start talking about how the movie gave them a huge appetite for shopping, and which designer brands their mom's bought them last year for Christmas, then you know. (Wow, was that TOO cynical? Did I cross my own "toocynicaldon'tcrossthisline line?)

Candy #3 and Gotland

2009-09-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

The 3rd and last candy in Candy: part 1

Name: Japp (wtf?)
Quantity: two pieces, one package
Description: Mjölkchoklad fylld med mjuk chokladmaräng och kola
"Milk chocolate filled with soft chocolate meringue and caramel"
Evaluation: Now I know what the Swedes eat when they are craving a milky way because that's exactly what it tastes like. Maybe someone can check a milky way for me- this one has the chocolate meringue on the bottom and the caramel on the top.
Made my Marabou, the other big chocolate company besides Coletta
Grade: 5 out of 10. I would eat one of these if I found it lying around, but not really spectacular, lacks that special something I need in a candy bar.

GOTLAND: I went on a trip with some of my classmates to Gotland last weekend. It is an island, technically a part of Sweden, but they consider themselves a separate culture. They had a lot of sheep, a lot of ancient artifacts from vikings etc., and hedgehogs are their national/regional animal.

Ingelkott! I saw one of these Saturday night, (not this one). Best moment ever! So cute!

There were a lot of old kyrkan (churches). Apparently the Danes burned the roofs off of some of them, which was actually really beautiful.

Hobbit house! I forgot what this was. I think it was a rebuilt medieval settlement.

Today's Candy

2009-09-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

Name: Plopp
Quantity: 1 bar divided into 6 portions
Description: Mjölkchoklad med ringlande toffeefyllning OR milk chocolate with soft toffee filling

Evaluation: I really wish I knew why this was called plopp. But even after eating it I have no ideas. This candy IS made by a Swedish company, Cloetta, and fortunately they have a website. So this is what else they have to say about Plopp on the website http://www.plopp.se/sv/Hem.aspx
"Plopp is joy and nostalgia. Plopp is successful party with fish pond, rustling bags lie and expectant eyes. Here is a småbusig, Swedish favorite classics with a twinkle in his eye, which faithfully followed us since we were small. The taste and texture of the toffeefyllda milk chocolate is unlike anything else. Was little spontaneous it is time for Plopp. For it is your host."

Okay, that wasn't so helpful.

Grade: 6 out of ten, because the toffee/caramel filling was interesting- it was not solid or chewy like a Risen, but it wasn't runny either like the caramel filling in say, an easter egg. It was good, but again, it didn't knock my socks off.

Lat night I ran from my friend Sara's host family's house to the subway stop by my house which was about 4 stops away so that Anna could try to catch it to HER house... anyway long boring story point is, my hair was really crazy and sweaty last night and I put it up in some kind of twist before bed, and when I woke up, it was really really curly! I love it! So I took a picture.

Here is a picture of my host family's living room. This is mostly for you, mom, because you said you wanted some regular pictures of what things look like, instead of close ups of bugs... :)

Candy Critique: part 1

2009-09-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

I think an important part of every culture is what kind of candy they eat, and what they call it. That is why I have endeavored to do a thorough review of the Swedish candy available in my local grocery store. For Part one, we have three candy bars: Daim, Plopp, and Japp. I picked these because I have either seen them before or because their names were entertaining or potentially inflammatory.

TODAY'S CANDY:

Name: Daim
Quantity: two pieces, one package
Description: "Milk chocolate (42%) with a crunchy almond caramel centre"
Evaluation: Daim lives up to your expectations for crunchiness informed by the crunchy looking pictures on the wrapper. I would say that "almond caramel" is a little of an overstatement for something that was actually just toffee. However, maybe in my America-centric worldview, I have overlooked the potential complexity of the toffee flavor.
I don't know if this candy is actually made in Sweden, because it belongs to Kraft foods, but it seems to be popular.

Grade: I give this candy bar a 5 out of 10 for living up to my expectations, but no higher. It's hard to be the first candy bar- everyone judges you so harshly!

In other news, here is a picture of the back porch at my house.

Today on my walk with Tonton (the dog I am payed to walk), I was throwing sticks for him in the park when suddenly, he ran across the park to this family, sniffed around, and then peed on one of their bike helmets. Why!!!? I apologized, but the lady was really irritated: "This was brand new!" ...

I get paranoid about how much hair I leave everywhere, especially on the subway. I just keep thinking, "My DNA is in this hair. People could get my DNA from this hair."
I don't know what they would want it for, but it still sounds really sinister.

good day, bad day

2009-09-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Bad day: I got a job walking this lady's dog three times a week for 1000 kroner a month. Unfortunately, the dog is a complete asshole. When I tried to turn around to go back home, he just sat down and stared at me. When I tried to tug his leash, he just dug in his heels. And when I tried to pick him up, he growled at me. This is a jack russell terrier, not a big deal right? wrong. Plus, this is Sweden. It's illegal to beat your kids, so its probably illegal to yell at your dogs too. I bet the other dog owners thought I was a bad mom.

Good day: I bought a pool pass that gets me into any "state" (public) pool for 10 visits. While I was swimming, I was thinking about why it was so much more strenuous to swim between islands in the Stockholm archipelago than it is to swim laps, and I decided its like the difference between being chased by Tigers and going for a jog. Much more interesting to be chased by Tigers!

Bad day: I lost my house key, probably while I was pleading with that stupid dog, Tonton.

Good day: My host mom found a bunch of children's books to read to improve my Swedish. And she told me not to worry about the house key. They will get a new one.

Bad day: I went to see the Teddy Bears at a club named Berns that looks kind of like a big boat from the outside, but since it was a free concert, it was completely packed, and they wouldn't let anyone else in.

Good day: Instead of going inside to see the show, we (me and Anna from the program)got to watch it on a big screen outside the club. It was exactly like watching the Stop Making Sense DVD, except in REAL TIME!!!

Bad day: It was raining, and we got really wet.

Good day: After the screen concert was over, we bought ice cream at the nearby seven-eleven, and looked at a men's fashion magazine.

This is what drives people to kill...

2009-09-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

I seriously just spent the last HALF AN HOUR catching bugs in a paper cup and shaking them out my window. Not because I was bored, but because I made the mistake of opening my window for ventilation, and I really don't have the heart to squish bugs. They are the big, harmless looking (maybe) male mosquitoes (?)- they don't bite, they don't let eggs, and they don't make noise but when you look at them closely, ALL of their legs jiggle when they are flying, and they look like spiders, or worse, witches. That's really the thought that crossed my mind when I was trying to co-exist with one in the bathroom. Frankie, pictured at right, was especially hard to catch, and towards the end of our game of wits I considered using my superior size and power to squish Frankie. I was very frustrated. There were more interesting things that happened today, but I can't write about them NOW, now that I spent the last half hour catching bugs.

2009-08-28T15:52:00.001-07:00

I went to this festival and saw Lykke Li and MGMT. Also, before either of those bands played, a synchronized swimming group did a little something in the pool between the two stages. On the whole, it was fun, but we got rained on and I kept feeling paranoid about how many lit cigarettes were being waived around the area of my head. Oh yeah, and the Lykke Li portion of the festival was attended by a mass of screaming 13 year old girls wearing very much perfume. So between that and the cigarette smoke, it was a little hard to breathe.

I actually have homework for the weekend (arrrrg vacation over) so I had to turn down a crayfish party in order to feel more secure about life and my schedule etc etc etc.

Plans for tomorrow may include a visit to a jazz club or swimming hall, don't know how that will pan out yet.

see previous post

2009-08-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hot dog: does not have feelers, therefore, does not have feelings.
Clearly, the hot dog is a lower life form.

"How undignified!"
"Yes, I quite agree."
"I would never have gotten into this mess if I had just listened to my mother!"
"Too bad. I had plans. I was going to see the world!"

good (crayfish) times.

2009-08-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

I went to a crayfish festival this evening, but was shocked at how much they looked like something I would have for a pet. They were almost cute. How can I possibly eat something with arms and legs and feelers! If it has feelers, then I probably has feelings as well! Vernie (co-student, fellow crayfish festival attendee) was very supportive, and cracked them for me.

The Best!

2009-08-23T14:38:00.002-07:00

I found out today that

1. I am tidier than the last student to stay here.
2. I am much worse at Boggle than the last student.

This is IMPORTANT information because I want to be more memorable than the last student.
I can't think of what kinds of things I could be memorable for... but in the mean time, here is a pic of a spider I met today. More updates when I find out/someone tells me what kind it is. The watch was in case he wanted to know what time it was, but I guess he didn't because he ran away behind the trash can shortly afterward.

No park is complete without its creep(s).

2009-08-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was approached in a park called Kungstradgarden while I was trying to read by a man who looked normal until he told me I was the most beautiful girl in the world. He offered to buy me a beer, which I politely (I think) declined, and then he offered to teach me Swedish on the condition that I would teach him English. He was youngish and he said he had been in Sweden for two years, working at Burger King, and had forgotten his English. I said OK, and we spent 15 minutes pointing at things and writing them in English, Swedish, and Arabic. That's when he wrote "I love you"in my notebook and tried to put his arm around me. The bad part is he looked entirely sane compared to the guy who was stumbling around the fountain, peeking under park benches and mumbling to himself. Plus the little drink gazebo was all out of iced coffee and iced tea, and I had to drink orange juice. NOTE TO SELF: Do not come here alone/at all/when dressed as a woman/until you are also crazy/unless it is absolutely necessary.

2009-08-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

So far, Stockholm has been great. Take for example the sea. It is exciting. And it smells good. the second day I was here, we (all of the program students) took a three hour boat trip to the island Finnhamn. We had our first fika (coffee break). We swam in really cold water, and they all got to see me strip down to my underwear, because when they said "bring beachwear" I thought that meant sandals. FUN!

Here we go...

2009-08-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

With prompting from at least a few people, I have temporarily overcome my fear and dislike of computers to set up this blog so that I might better keep in touch with y'alls. I don't really know how this is supposed to work, but I guess I'll figure it out, right?

Learning Danish!

2009-01-05T15:13:00.000-08:00