bonden.och.kråkan

2009-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

Last day in Uppsala/Stockholm/Naturreservat

2009-01-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Sundry around town

2009-01-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

More nature reserve.

Dragon fruit.

2009-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

Uppsala/Gamla Uppsala/Naturreservat

2009-01-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

spain 1
Toro

Madrid

2009-01-05T00:36:00.000-08:00

Spain 2

Outside of Isabel's University, the superior technical school of architecture.

En El Retiro - we took a nice walk through the Retiro, Madrid's significantly prettier Central Park, even when under a grey winter sky.

I had remembered this statue from four years ago and had wanted to revisit it - we were lucky to run into it again out of the blue.

VIPS! All this rambling in the Retiro was really an excuse to go the the greatest (/worst) restaurant on the planet, VIPS! This was an old haunt of mine, which Caity, Kristin and I had inhabited on several delicious, pancake related missions.

Plaza de España, Don Quixote Statue

The Madrid lights

Cibeles lit

Metropolis Building

Alcalá

New Years Dinner with the family

The Spaniards eat twelve grapes at midnight, one for each sounding of the midnight bells.

Tonterías

Papá and Luis!!

2008-12-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Considerably better pictures from the Ranarim concert:

Daniel Ek, Ulrika Bodén, Sofia Sandén, Niklas Roswall

Olle Linder and Ulrika Bodén

Niklas Roswall on the moraharpa

And now on the nyckelharpa

2008-12-17T01:28:00.000-08:00

The end of Mum and Emma's visit:
Manon was kind enough to take us on a drive, after another delicious lunch at Öfre Slotts! So out we went under another grey sky, heading toward Viks Slott for an unexpected second visit.
My future home:

The two greatest people on the planet:

Later that night, while the present 2/5 Sando went to a (late) Luciadag concert, I went with Manon and Kyle to a goodbye party that the Japanese girls (L-R, Hiroka, Kino, Mari) were hosting. It was really sweet, an enormous amount of home-made Japanese food and desert.

Öfre Slotts Cafe, fika place of my idolatry.

So, the next day Mother and Emma decided to stay in Uppsala and we went to Naturreservat (Erik's Barrow). There was so much frost that day and it covered everything up to the trees. Very beautiful. I was glad that the sun finally decided to make it's token weekly appearance so that my family got to see Sweden in the sun.

On Erik's Barrow, we met a small old man pacing the top of the barrow in a circle. As soon as we hit the top, he steered right for us and began to ramble in Swedish about the history of the tomb. Apparently, it was built in the bronze age, roughly 1000-1500 years before the Gamla Uppsala mounds, and there was an excavation done on the mound in 1902 (? maybe...) and they found a lot of bronze objects and a sword. So, below, mother Olsen and Emma with Erikshög in the background: (I believe you can even see the old man on the top!)

2008-12-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

Kiruna
Kiruna is a town of about 25000 in Swedish Lapland that lies well within the arctic circle. It's a mining town but attracts a lot of attention from outsiders as well. The impression that it leaves can't easily be put into words, but undeniably it's one of the most visually extreme places in the world. We arrived at one in the afternoon as evening was rolling in, closing off their two hours of daylight (this itself a pale evening). Immediately impressive was the sheer amount of snow, impossible to imagine, that encases everything there. The branches of tree carry mounds of snow and a fan-like, broad-crystalled frost that runs the entire length of the trunk. The place felt like something that shouldn't possibly exist in reality - there was an aspect of it that felt, for an outsider at least, purely imaginative.
The mountains from the plane:

At Kiruna airport:

We arrived under a full moon and an utterly clear sky. During the night, the combination of moon and snow made for a lovely, pale world, especially when we were in the forest.

The forest from a distance:

That night, we went out dogsledding, in roughly 25 below, celsius, -13 fahrenheit. Our guide was a pleasantly gruff Swedish man generally disinclined to speak but, when asked about sledding, was perfectly willing to offer anecdotes about the various races he'd ranked in. I really liked him. As for the dogsledding itself, I'd been apprehensive but it proved a pretty tight operation and certainly a new experience. The guide seemed used to slinging tourists about and treated us sort of like baggage, in a nice and blunt way.

Day two:
A cloudy day. It snowed for the next twenty four hours and the cloud cover darkened the day further. A ski tour, sweet but far from strenuous. Below, pine branches.

Forest on the hill.

On the ski trail.

Mamasita and Emmalinda.

Inside the warming hut.

More forest...

The third day we headed out on a snowshoe trip and were lucky to be the first on the trail, broke downhill past a quarry in the half-light and bent around a stubby, bald hill, then through some pine woods and further up hill until we lost the trail and then headed back. Walking around in the woods, one feels complete immersion in the surroundings. My sister spotted a large bird land on a hillside and when it passed over us again, we could see it was a raven. The actual sight of the black bird passing across a numb, grey-white sky makes one understand, on a purely impressionistic level, why it appears in the pantheon of almost every arctic indigenous culture. Anything that disturbs the stillness and whiteness registers so strongly.

So, home we went that afternoon. Upon landing alongside the damp, snowless Uppland forest, I felt a pang of familiarity. I don't know if I could live a functional life here, but this is definitely my home in a way outside of society. Particularly as I've begun to think about folklore and the oral/narrative history of the area, I've become close to it in a highly imaginative and very personal way. Although the notion of simply returning to the states has now shifted from unpleasant to frightening, I'm far more frightened of loosing the many inspirations I've taken from this place, whether it be specific ideas of the general sense of indepence, control and happiness that I've felt in being here. Although I'll give myself time to bitch and moan, I don't want my desire to be back in Sweden to turn into something that hinders from me remembering the things I'm taking from the experience.
In any event, more frivolous airplane photography:

2008-12-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

Four days ago, Mother and Emma Sando bravely crossed the Atlantic for the sake of visiting their estranged kin in Uppsala. After meeting them the day before, we briefly toured Uppsala and then headed for Stockholm.
On the hill by the castle:

Some nice buildings in Stortorget on Gamla Stan:

Mother and Emma in G:la Stan.

We spent until night in Stockholm, "doing" very little, mostly absorbing the city. Then in the evening we went to a concert given by the greatest folk band in history, Ranarim, who had just released a new album. I was astonished and pleased to hear how much of their speaking I understood. Below, my future husband:

2008-12-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

Stockholm
As our collective time here winds down in Sweden, Kyle, Manon and I have sought adventures closer to home, including a recent overnight trip to Stockholm. We slept on a boat!! And fortunately, this boat (permanently docked) was on Södermalm, which allowed us the chance to explore another part of the city we had previously only seen across the bay.
Below, from Skansen. I had heard many great things about Skansen, and ultimately these reports tempted me out of my touristically misanthropic hole and we went there, but I found it claustrophobic and uninteresting (beyond being a tourist trap). The attraction consists of recreated or directly transported Swedish homes from across the country, some three hundred years old. These themselves were beautiful, but pretty odd detached from their original context. One had the feeling of being in a mildly more mossy story-land. In any event, I really like this house and am going to live in one like it one day:

The square between Riksdag and the palace (neither in this shot).

Buildings on the side of Gamla Stan that faces Södermalm.

A view of Södermalm from G:la Stan.

Gamla Stan from Södermalm

The morning view from our porthole in the cabin:

Stockholm by night - one of my favorite things to see so far. The water that separates the sections of the city allows one to see it from a distance and be in it at once, a wonderful sense of perspective and immersion. This is up to Kungsholmen, where Stadhuset stands, and the mainland of Stockholm.

Stockholm lights. Certainly all shopping streets (and more) are hung with varying kinds of lights and the blue buildings on the right are actually lit and shift color over time.

Although this Christmas tree is huge, we wouldn't have found it if, walking along the south eastern rim of Gamla Stan, I hadn't caught sight of its reflection in the window. And, although enormous Christimas trees generally don't interest me, the reflection of the lights in the windows of the building (the tree itself out of sight) was really lovely - at first there was no guessing what made the lights there and it looked like gems in the windows. Anyways, for the christmas trees out there, this tree is the tallest christmas tree in the world.

Gamla Stan at night seen from Södermalm.

Our evening view when we arrived the first day.

Strömsborg

Prästgatan in Gamla Stan.

The boat is sighted from across the water! (Kyle gestures!)

Sundry Uppsala:
Domkyrkan in the fog.

Julmarknad at Halusalen

Domkyrkan during the Julmarknad

The christmas tree in the square below my window.

2008-12-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Third trip to Eriksberg,
after a full snowfall. I took the bus this time, and once I arrived at the naturreservet, set out on some small vehicle tracks into the woods.

Chotsky shopping in Stockholm.
Parliament building/continuation of Drottninggatan through to Gamla Stan.

The good old bike, sitting by the train station.

The hundreds of bikes parked outside of the train station.

Thanksgiving! So this happened a while ago, the Saturday before thanksgiving to be precise. Kyle, Aaron and I made the food. Realistically, they covered the majority of it and I contributed two pies and stuffing. We, a complete table of twelve, ended up consuming all the food (including a technically undercooked turkey...), but the shortage of dinner ended up being ok seeing as we had heroic amounts of desert. There was a fabulous, steady snowfall all evening long, which eventually provoked massive romping and delight.
Below, roughly half the table. Aaron, Vuokko of Finland, Mari, Hiroka and Kino of Japan, and Eva of Belgium. Not shown are Manon and her friend, Eva's two friends from Stockholm, Kyle and myself.

The deserts, along with julmust (christmas soda), wine and glögg.

The table before dinner.

The obsessive and hilarious process of trying to fit twelve people in and the table to seat them into a tiny five person kitchen. But oh, success ensued.

The second solo trip to Eriksberg and Hågaby. The snow was fresh but not deep and, against Swedish weather odds, the sun was shining. I took a low trail along the river, keeping off the main track. Then, when that train disappeared, I returned to the trail and headed back across the bro to the barrow. The snow on either side of the path had been spun in the wind and left a beautiful pattern there. On this trip I also discovered a convenient bus that stops right at the park, allows me more time in the woods and spares the hazardous bike ride through the snow and ice.

Troll rocks!! I've decided that, if trolls lived in these woods, they would definitely camouflage against these rocks and slurp water from the icicles.

The entrance to the nature preserve.

The view of the cathedral and the castle from the nature preserve - perhaps a distance of 2 or 3 kilometers...

The road by my old fiddling haunt - alas, it's a little too cold for that now. Recently, after the first few little snows, I took a walk out in that direction. The water was high from earlier melts.

A sunrise

Knäckerbröd rounds

2008-11-20T01:06:00.000-08:00

Gripsholm, Eriksberg woods, first trip to Eriksberg

A sunny late fall day.

I took a nice walk in the woods near Flogsta. After the first sticking snow.

The long 3 pm shadows...

First trip to the Flogsta woods

2008-11-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

Uppsala Lights

This is one example of the lighting schemes on one of these buildings (university building again). You can see how it changes. Also,me pretending to understand the question that a random Swedish man asked me and then backtracking, explaining that I hadn't understood in the first place, and continuing what can only be termed a "smile and nod" conversations about the lights around Uppsala.

2008-11-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

Frolicking in the first snow!

Gamla Uppsala

Today also Mikael and I took another long walk, as it was beautiful weather and, the days being so short now, one really feels pressure to soak up the sun whenever it decides to rear its head. This time we walked to Gamla Uppsala - the first snow here was still on the ground in patches, resting on top of the grass. Went inside the church for the first time. Things got chilly on the way home, roughly a distance of five kilometers, but we stopped at Luthagens because Mika had to get some food and we ended up buying some low-alcohol Glogg, went home and savored the heated glogg with a bit of vodka, raisins and peperkakor.

Halloween Party

2008-11-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Alla Helgon Dag (all saints day) and Manon and I took a walk through the graveyard to see the lit candles- like a sea of lights or, as she said it, a little sleeping city. It was bitterly cold, an utterly clear sky, almost pure darkness aside from the candles and the stars. There were so many candles lit that even walking around, generally at some distance from them you could still smell the wax burning.

In correlation with the holiday and the time of year, a series of lights have been put up around Uppsala, on certain monuments and buildings. Here's one example.

This is the main University Building - the light colors change constantly. Quite a surprise to see at first.

2008-10-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

Paris.

Wahhh. Three days of joy. I left Paris with a nameless sense of direction after spending three days with a wonderful friend in a truly impressive city staring at art. Let me begin with the Wreck of the Medusa.

This painting attracted me from when I first saw it three years ago and a genius analysis of it in an article read in class clinched the deal. Basicallyyyy this is the volatile human condition. Uh huh. All of that. Riotous, dignified, undignified.

And now the rest:

Tympanum at Notre Dame.

View from my friend's window.

In front of the Louvre.

Across the Seine

Notre Dame

Exiting the Louvre late that night.

Mantegna, a sketch for St. Sebastian. Illegal photograph master strikes again.

2008-10-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Netherlands

After returning from Paris the night before, finishing an essay, giving a presentation of it in class the next day and then heading right away for the airport again, I got on the plane to the Netherlands feeling a little bit too tired for travel, but fortunately the feeling quickly dissolved. I managed to continue a conversation in Swedish for half an hour with my neighbors on the plane and felt pretty damn proud about that. At the tail end of the flight, we could see the night-lit Amsterdam on the right and Utrecht on the left - quite a view.

Bodegraven:
I was picked up and went that night to stay with Manon at her family's house in Bodegraven, to the south and longitudinally between Utrecht and Bodegraven.
There's a dutch word, gezellig (pronounced: hhheezellihhh), which is a combination of coziness, solidarity, togetherness, comfort, etc. There's no literal translation into English but this family I was staying with was very gezellig. They had a very funny, good way of interacting with each other. They had two little dogs as well that were stupid, cute and somehow cuter because of their stupidity. I had purchased a packet of hard-to-find Korean noodles when I happened upon them in Utrecht, but unfortunately one of the little dogs tore through two layers of plastic wrapping and consumed one package, strewing my high-quality ramen (whatever that means) across the room.

On the first morning we drove out to a little bit of woods and took the dogs for a walk. The Netherlands is utterly flat, cut through with frequent canals of varying sizes. The farmlands were so green, the kind leaf-green, alive green. Cows and sheep everywhere. The hobbit side of me was delighted.
In this section of woods, we walked over many of these small canals/irrigation systems and, when in the open, they became a nesting locus for birds.

Utrecht:
So, later that day we headed to Utrecht, about 20 minutes away by car. Manon has an apartment there. I loved the city - it was a saturday and all of these splendid Dutch people were out on the streets, the buildings were very odd, small, scrunched together, eclectic. What I know of the Dutch, I ADORE. They are extremely open,honest, frank people. I think that some might call them, in some cases, rude, but I would say rude in a good way. Irreverant toward the right things. But this is only from small experience in the country.

A bridge over one of the canals/rivers through Utrecht.

The streets above the canals.

Public boat transportation (more prominant in Amsterdam).

Amsterdam:

The next day I headed on a solo expedition to Amsterdam. I really, really loved this city. It was eccentric, not a pretty place but an exciting place, a kind of busy, energetic city. Even with the rain there were a lot of people on the streets. Went to the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum. I noticed something about Rembrandt's women, which is that they always seem pleasantly unaware of how ugly they are.

Canals in Amsterdam:

On a whim I enterred this church because it's facade reminded me of St. Etienne, gorgeous building, and I stumbled into the middle of a service. Although my original inclination was to cut and run, I stayed. Maybe it's a vestige of my religious upbringing, now rationally crushed, but I'm always affected inside churches. I've detached the social and politial symbolism from my private experience of the place itself - religion, dogma are not things I even think about inside. It's a feeling, not a thought.

The birthday party
Manon turned twenty one last week and this trip to the Netherlands was to celebrate her birthday! They had closed down the rail station in her town and converted it into a restaurant where you make your own food and then the chef, while you sit and drink wine, fixes all the horrendous mistakes you made and cooks it for you.

Dutch countryside:

Clouds. This is a true story: whenever flying next to clouds I want to go running on them. Childish, fanciful, whatever it may be, so it is.

Sweden from the air:
Flying over the woods and rivers. Wanted to be on the ground in the woods. Also saw Stockholm from above, got a much better idea of the fourteen islands/archipelago.

2008-10-15T16:51:00.001-07:00

Why so many posts?! It must be the joy!

I've been wanting to try and make mulled wine for just under a year now and today got the chance. Half an apple, three quarters of an orange, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ginger and allspice each, 6 cinnamon sticks and 10 cloves. Also added a 1/4 cup sugar. The wine would have been more 'commercial,' so to speak, with more. What we wound up with had a stronger taste, which ultimately we decided that we liked better. Later we were joined briefly by Ludvig, swedish co-inhabitant number three.

Manon preparing for the mulled wine feast. In Sweden, a similar type is quite famous, called glögg.

Earlier I went out to class in the morning, but arrived to find it canceled. So Kyle and I went for an epic three hour fika at Cafe Őfre Slotts. This was very interesting and our conversation was extensive. Among other things we talked about our general understanding and experiences of study abroad so far. And this was very interesting - almost two months have passed, which may or may not be the half-way point of my time in Sweden, depending on if I return in January or not. We both understand that the trick is to use the time in some way, that is, to be open to the possibilities it presents, without fitting it to some preconceived notion of study abroad. There's a line in this genius poem by gorgeous-amazing-woman-number-two (Alix Olson, co-awesome with Chris Pureka, god-dess), where she says, "these lifetimes choose the ones who will educate us and I guess that's how it always it." And although she's talking about something quite different the idea is the same - whatever one takes from time away from home, particularly in a different country, will not be a clear-cut thing. That is to say, it can't be looked for or anticipated because it will reveal itself both during and after the experience. I do not know what I'll think I will have accomplished here - the notion of generalizing the experience from my superficial understanding is pointless. Right now, I only know little things - I will miss this incredible fall, the closest of these friends, places like Gamla Uppsala, days like yesterday. Besides, bound to a home/academic situation in America that is inevitably about something (or many things), why make this time about something before I even run into it?

So these are the thoughts running through my head. Interestingly, I find myself thinking a lot about America as a country and myself as an American. Although I don't think I fit a European's stereotype of an American and although don't see myself as a typical American either, I understand myself a little more as a product of a certain country with a certain social tenor. With a left-versus-not-so-left-but-kind-of-still-yeah-left government, roughly homogeneous society and (compared to the United States) moderate to low class distinction, Sweden is a country of significantly less social conflict than America. Needless to say, the kind of environment that this creates feels like, and most likely is, an extreme contrast to volatile American society. There's a lot more nervousness, aggression (whether it's emotional, intellectual), fierceness (none of these necessarily bad things), contradiction, in America. In many ways I've come to see America as an enormous identity crisis, a thing struggling with itself and hindering itself. To a certain extent it must be like this in any country - but for some reason - size, diversity, character - America seems to make conflict stand out. Who knows.

After fika, trip to systembolaget to get the wine. Then I wound up wandering around Uppsala on various errands. In a resebyrå the clerk mistook me for dutch - yes! Victory! Manon was very, very proud of me. Just over a week until I head to the Netherlands! UUhhh soooo exciitteedd.

Goodnight!

2008-10-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Ok. What a day. Admittedly, it started slowly with a lazy morning, frustratingly aimless but I finally made the decision to bike to Gamla Uppsala - my second visit there. Gamla Uppsala is a series of burial mounds constructed from 400-600 AD - there are seemingly five mounds but three of them (the most prominent three physically) are the only certain burial mounds. Another is believed to be the place of the Thing, a dark ages type of administrative meeting (of sorts - more of a loose counsel). I had visited this place once before with a group of Germans in my first week here, but the rushed visit and emphasis on social interaction didn't allow time to really explore the place.

So I started with the regular bike down Kyrkogårdsgatan, but took a turn before the overpass and headed, now on bike-paths, toward Gamla Uppsala. The weather was splendid, I'll let pictures speak for themselves.

Instead of returning home, I took the bike path to the centrum, found myself dumped on some outlying street of Uppsala (Swedish signage = poop) but navigated fairly well into the center of town. Went to go check out Systembolaget in the hopes of picking up some wine for mulled wine, but stupidly forgot my passport. So, headed home but promptly went back out to Cafe Őfre Slotts for tea and (for once) school reading. I did not at all want to move by the time seven o'clock rolled around and the cafe closed. Most of my feelings of being at home have definitely been in that Cafe - it's amazing!
Went home, met Mariella in the kitchen, and - was then seized by an outlandish idea! I've learned that if I've got the instinct or inspiration to do something I had better do it then. So I headed out to jog back to Gamla Uppsala on the same bike path (7:50 pm). The whole project was a two kilometer walk followed by a three kilometer jog, so it wasn't too hefty. But it was the devil cold outside and not at all light. Anyways. Off I went, fortunately received a text from Manon, informed her of my foolish behavior - but then she had the brilliant idea to meet me there when I arrived.
The jog was much, much shorter and easier than anticipated and was lit well until the last half mile or so. I arrived at the mounds after maybe half an hour. And although on a superficial level I'm sorry I haven't got pictures, the place at that time, the whole experience, could never be photographed. I don't mean in a literal way. With the wind and cold, and the night sky, you feel a very immediate sense of being in your own time, but then the size, the weight of the barrows seem to anchor everything in stillness. It's very grounding because you feel filled with something or absorbed into something. It's a place that demands respect and distance but cannot help but be personal as well. So when I arrived on the southern end, I felt at first great joy and then - no less energetic - great quiet. After a paced stroll to the opposite end (jumpstarted by RIDICULOUS frolicking), I met Manon and we sat on the first mound, alleged location of the Thing, talked, watched, etc. I severely depleted her licorice supply because I was freeeezing and hungrig! We took a walk around the first barrow, rounded the back just in time to see someone scramble to the top of it and, on the return trip, could see them kneeling on top with a lit candle. Presumed pagan ritual occurring.
Then came home. Hot shower (well needed!). Then Manon came over for tea and the Daily Show. And so one hell of a great day ended.

2008-10-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

So. Here are the fields at evening. I've just come back a couple of hours ago from my fourth trip out to the same place. There is, as you can see, a herd of cows that travel up and down the side of the river here and tonight they happened to be stationed at the bridge. Here sunset begins already at around 5:30 and by 6:30 the sun is almost down.

Making Dutch-American apple pie with Manon!

2008-10-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

A sunny day in Stockholm with Manon.

Sunset over the water, the stadhuset.

Manon and the lovely Stockholm streets.

A shot of the bay through the a street in Gamla Stan.

Sitting on the southern edge of Gamla Stan.

Saluhallen - the fresh market area.

Stockholm streets.

Casual party with some friends.

Höstmarknad at Vaksalatorget in Uppsala.

2008-10-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

Uppsala in the fall! An uneventful week to counter last time's post. That is, technically uneventful. Fall arrived quickly here - the leaves changed in the last ten days and are already falling heavily.

Here below is Vaksalatorget, covered in booths from what may be the largest flea market in Europe. Went with friends Eva of Belgium and Kyle of America.

A few nights ago, Manon (wonderful girl from the Netherlands) and I went out on an adventure that is equally rare for both of us - shopping. The aim was to find clothes fitting for a disco party that a friend was hosting but everything here is so expensive that we just ended up goofing off (see exhibit 1 below....). Not feeling too keen on either disco or partying, I opted to stay home. So, after purchasing absolutely nothing, we split for the evening and I went to buy some delicious korean noodles from one of the surprisingly common asian food stores in town.

Yours truly scandalizing the ridiculously reserved Swedish population.

The weather has been outstanding here - sunny and chill. Many hours have been spent out doors, walking with friends, taking fika, sitting.

Recently friends Hiroka, Kino and Mari hosted Japanese Food Night, an international, gastronomical epic. It was de-li-cious.

Manon and Aaron.

The one and only Kino, lookin good! Along with Lisa, foraying into the delights and obstacles of eating self-rolled sushi.

What follows below is a series of shots of the outstanding foliage. The urge to frollick is, at times, almost uncontainable.

The graveyard here (above), about an 1/8th of a mile from my dorm, is one of the most gorgeous places in Uppsala. There are seemingly more trees than stones so that you feel like you're in a kind of sparse woods, almost fantastically beautiful on sunny days.

These are pictures from the Linne garden, which I revisited in better weather and with a freer schedule.

Personal cooking adventure number one! Persian jeweled rice. After stumbling into a well-hidden oriental food shop, I became determined to cook some adventurous foods. Back in high-school I found a Persian recipe book with a photograph of jeweled rice on the cover and it thoroughly enticed me, so now, given the time that I have free, I took on the task! This involved locating an extravagant list of ingredients (I failed at obtaining dried rosebuds), cooking for 2.5 hours, eating for .5 and cleaning for 1.

Below: pomegranate seeds.

The rice and garnish cooking on the corridor stove.

The final product!

Now I'm left with about 16 metric tons of jeweled rice in the refrigerator. It was good, all and all. An unnumbered mix of flavors.

So. Life here continues apace! I've been exploring alternate drawing methods, being brave and using charcoals and pastels, making -gasp!- unerasable lines.

2008-09-20T07:18:00.001-07:00

A busy week and a half in Uppsala, on a relative scale. Started with Kulturnatt, or the town-wide culture night, where different cultural groups and organizations across Uppsala showcase their activities or host events. The event is huge and brings the masses out to the streets. It began with a fika in cafe barista, progressed to perusing the stands lining the street and halted momentarily at the cathedral where we explored the treasury museum (hidden in the walls of the cathedral). Here are Manon, Kyle and Aaron feasting on the delicious cultural treats we found. Below is a picture of the candles lit in the cathedral.

After a trip to the Carl Linneaus museum/garden, I headed home for dinner and later returned to hit the streets on a solo expedition. The view across the river from the bridge on S:t Olofsgatan (one of the main streets through town) was beautiful. All the windows were lit, people milling in the street, the lights of a packed restaurant.

After some more time of rambling in the crowds, I headed for the cathedral and luckily hit the middle of the choral performance. The entire cathedral was packed, hushed. And the singing! Lovely. Returned home full of energy and settled into pancakes with one of my splendid hallmates.

Next excursion! Manon, Kyle, Eva and I took a spontaneous trip to Enköping, a western town of, as we discovered, pretty little note. BUT. The drive was beautiful, through farmlands and forests. At first, we stopped at Viks Slottet (or Viks castle), a tall, impressive building on a knoll overlooking a lake. Also along the way we stumbled into several of the many, many viking runestones common in the province where Uppsala lies (Upland).

Most of the runestones commemorate dead relatives, developmental events (the building of bridges) and the conquests/conversions of different rulers.

Viks slottet.

A pathway at Skokloster, the palace where the day ended. There was also a beautiful old church there, unfortunately closed. Although we couldn't get into the palace due to the late hour, the grounds were gorgeous and we managed to sneak some apples out of the church orchard.

Manon, Kyle and Eva inside an impressive tree of the palace grounds.

The lake at Viks Slottet.

Manon being f'ing awesome. After we all went home, she came over for a delightful evening of tea, chocolate and whisky.

Third and last adventure of the last week! Stockholm. Feeling that I hadn't explored quite enough of my surroundings over the past week, I took an impromptu trip to Stockholm, my first time there. It was, unfortunately, a grey day after a string of very long grey days. Below are views of Stockholm from the tower in the Stadhuset (City Hall), where I started my morning with a quite a climb to the top. Then I had the upper half of the tower entirely to myself for some time and was able to look out 360 degrees around the city. Stockholm is built on 14 islands in an archipelago, so numerous bridges connect the various sections of the city.

After stadhuset, I went to Gamla Stad (old city) and rambled in the streets, went to the palace briefly and walked through an interesting, archaeological/historical museum. Afterward, I walked to the National Museum, and spent a few hours looking at the paintings, etc. housed there.

This squirrel is p-iisssedd.

The palace from across the channel.

The streets in Gamla Stad.

An open air market above the central metro station. PAELLA. If only the line hadn't been so long and I wasn't trying to limit my spendings because oh my god paella.

Dinner: chokladbulla.

I believe this is the east asian museum on one of the small islands.

In Stockholm, if you are wealthy enough you can take a tour of the city...in hot air balloon! The tickets cost about 1000-2000 kronor, so 200-400 dollars, so, to summarize...that's not me in one of those balloons.

Well, over a month of my time has already gone by. Already I'm feeling that it will be too short. I've met some wonderful people and the thought of having only three-four months left with them is worrisome to me. More so, with ridiculous amounts of free time and unlimited sources of adventure, I've felt, at times, overwhelming amounts of energy. This has been a good and a bad thing. On the positive, greater end of things, I'm doing and thinking more than in earlier times but on the low-down, I'm not sleeping too much...But it's a good way to live for now, always more to see, do, say, etc. Right now the key is to let time pass using it well and let the possibilities of being here develop a little more without getting at all caught up thinking too far ahead.

End thoughts:

2008-09-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

Back indoors after two beautiful days of rare sunlight! The first was spent biking outside of the city again, this time further than I'd previously gone.

A few days earlier, I had gone outside of the city with my fiddle, which allowed me to play without disturbing certain studious corridor-mates. Besides which, the act of biking out into the fields (a distance of 3-5 kilometers) is completely energizing, to say nothing of being out in the sun (or under the clouds) and fiddling almost utterly alone. I think twice a car came through, but in general the place tends to be very isolated. This is very good. The first time I went out, it was evening. Perfect. Windy, chill, quiet. I returned back just after dark. This second time going out with the fiddle was in the late morning to early afternoon.

This below is a picture of what the streets look like. Yesterday saw another trip to the open air market - really good cheap vegetables and fruit, as well as kurdish and arabic foods.

Cooking! A good deal of time revolves around cooking. There is no dining service here on campus so every student cooks for him/herself. For me, this generally entails throwing a lot of vegetables in a pan and cooking them. Alternatively, my schmarren has been approved by my lovely hallmates. This was, unfortunately, not the case with the falafel that I attempted the other day. (Even if I thought it was a riotous success).

Systembolaget, the government run alcohol shop. The government here essentially holds a monopoly on all alcohol sales, so this is the only shop that is really allowed to sell liquor. I've been dancing around purchasing some amaretto but the price has kept me away for now. Maybe in a couple of weeks/...days I'll get around to it.

Well, this has all been very rambling. I wish I could say that I've done enormous, concrete things, but in essence life here has been quiet in a wonderful way. My corridor-mates and I spend a long time talking, drinking tea. They're all from Sweden, one girl and three boys. Marian and I went back to the woods and went walking again - lloovely. This involved the precarious operation of fitting two people on one bike with a backpack full of pears picked from a local tree. Bah, it worked out very well I think! This time it was very late at night and unfortunately we ran out of woods too fast, got briefly lost coming back but made it out eventually.
My friends and I went to the Gustavium, a museum of the university that's free for students. The picture in the previous post of the anatomical theater is from there - it's the room where the first scientific autopsies were performed in all of Sweden. I think it may be upwards of 300 years old, although certainly remodeled recently... The museum houses some very neat artifacts - the first celsius thermometer, drawings from Carl Linneaus's sketch books, the notes of a student from the 15th century. Sundry swedeny things.

I want to be this chick.

End thoughts:

2008-09-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to start doing picture posts between longer written ones, so you can briefly see what I've been up to and the things that I've seen. Anything that isn't explained here will be in the longer posts...allegedly.

The cathedral (domkyrkan)

Inside the cathedral, at the front, one of the many tombs.

The anatomical theater in the Gustavium.

The Fyrisån, which runs straight through town.

Out between two wheat fields.

Down the vault of the cathedral.

Hiroka and Manon thefting a snack from one of the many apple trees in town.

The castle (slottet).

The Fyrisån again.

The high lookout near the castle. From l-r, Kino, Mari, Hiroka, Voukko, Erik, Eva.

2008-09-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Sweden, which oscillates between the wonderful and the ridiculous, on the 21st and pretty much settled in right away. The plane touched down at just past 8 in the morning, giving me the whole day to fix small matters of business that I had to take care of. Frolicking commenced immediately on the train from Arlanda airport but ended abruptly when a gaggle of Swedish highschoolers entered the previously empty car and pressed me into a subdued although no less mirthful silence.

Sweden at last! This has, for a long time, been the light at the end of many dark tunnels and although I don't actually intend to hold to it any improbable idealistic visions I was still extremely, extremely happy to arrive. The train pulled past farm fields for about fifteen minutes and then finally stopped in the Centralstation. Anyways, it wasn't long before I got to my room on the third floor of a student housing building near the center of town.

Uppsala is very small. But I'm glad to be in a smaller area. I think this will alleviate any pressure to be a tourist and allow me to patiently go about exploring and getting to know the city. In any event, to get to the real point: it's gorgeous.

One of my plans is to explore the area surrounding the city on bike, but I've got to move fast because the summer weather has already peaced out as far as I can tell. About a week ago, I headed out into the farmlands and spent an hour or so sitting, reading, drawing, what have you under a tree between some wheat fields. A nice break from the orientation activities.

I got here in the middle of orientation week, which, as far as I can tell, involves offering international kids free entrance to student pubs in the hopes that they get wasted and...make...meaningful friendships. Hmm. No matter. The week and some of the activities have been effective. Many have also been avoided. A friend from Austria and I were planning a trip to a lake in the south of Uppsala, but unfortunately the trip was thwarted because of some untimely food poisoning on my part. This may have been off set by my decision to smoke a hookah with my hallmates while fully conscious of the fact that I was feeling a wee bit queasy.

One final note on Sweden: I am in the only country in the world that demands higher security measures to buy groceries than American airports do for customs. Today I had to get food and as I was paying with my visa the man at the register asked for my passport. Uhh. Qua? Good thing I had my drivers license instead - he grudgingly accepted this as second best. So I handed this to him and he then examined it for a very substantial amount of time (upwards of 30 seconds). And then let me sign and go. It is also true that in Sweden you have to have your passport with you...to pay your bills.

Anyways, to sum up quickly, I've visited Gamla Uppsala, the old viking graves (beautiful!), met a butt-ton of Spaniards, enjoyed sampling some local beers, explored the woods around Uppsala with a friend (many deer and mushrooms were found!), drunk home made plum schnapps from the Serbian village where his grandparents live annndd oh, yeah: started classes. Thhbt.

All right, that's it for now.

End thoughts:

2008-08-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Bonden han gångar åt dalande skog.
Hej torej åt dalande skog!
Där fick han höra en kråka som gol.
Hej torej en kråka som gol!