Hamburger

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.