adventure to the US

Greg and I went back to the US over Christmas. It had been a year and a half since I was last there. I was wondering if things would seem really different, or if everything would just feel familiar. I think if I had driven a car, that would have felt really strange, but I didn't, so no need to even talk about it.

Here are some things I do feel the need to talk about.

On the flight over, as they were giving people beverages, I asked if they had ginger ale. The response I got was, "No, I'm sorry. But if you want… I can mix you up something." At this point my curiosity is peaked. Am I about to get a treasure chest?! He immediately continues, "Sometimes people like to mix Sprite and Coke, and the Coke sort of makes it taste like ginger ale." Is this guy being serious, because that sounds disgusting. So I decline, and opt for Sprite without any mix-ins, which actually turned out to be 7-Up. And now, fifteen days later, I'm still kicking my non-adventurous self for not just going for it. How could I have passed on an opportunity like that?

Here is another thing. How did I never notice how many people in NH have vanity license plates? They are hugely abundant. And watch out for the one that had 'poodl' in it, because they cut us off twice in one day.

I also had not had so many conversations with strangers in a long time. Previously, I would compare New Englanders to Mid-westerners and consider the New Englanders to be quite reserved. They are the kind of people who are friendly only after you know them. Although… no. That is totally wrong. Chatty chatty people.

Then on the flight back my luggage got lost. One of my biggest regrets was that all of the chocolate I purchased had gone in my checked bag and none in my carry-on. So I went home without my suitcase, with hopes that they would call me within 24 hours to say all was well. And they did! I was really happy about that, and also really happy that I know the Swedish word 'baggage,' while spelled the same, is actually pronounced sort of like the b'gosh of Oshkosh b'gosh.

Mom visits Sweden - Stockholm

We also went to Stockholm, where my mom got a free energy drink at the train station.











We found these guys out at Skansen, a place of many wonders.





Everyone loves Dala horses!











So there you have it! I hope to continue this trend of finally going through my many lists and finally posting the photos I always mean to post. We shall see if it actually happens :)

Mom visits Sweden - Uppsala

This is how my system works. Take photos. View photos on computer, and write down which photos I like best and would like to put on my blog. Never edit or upload photos. Have tons of post-it notes lying around the house.

So I decided I wanted to start tackling this problem of mine. I went to a stack of post-its, and chose one. And guess what I found! A list of photos from when my mom and Joel visited Sweden last summer! I was surprised to find I hadn't posted these yet (or maybe I had and am just really bad at searching my own blog).



We took a ride on the old steam train, Lennakatten. That was the conductor.



Greg's beard looks so wimpy these days compared to what it once was!







The above photo of the cathedral during dusk was made possible by the fact that I had been carrying my camera everywhere while we had visitors. And on this particular day I had to go to one of my first Swedish classes, and I also had a flat bike tire, so I was on foot and able to admire everything around me. (I didn't have such a positive outlook at the time, but I'm glad I stopped to take the photo.)



At one point we were just walking along and we heard a crash, which was a potted plant being dropped from an upper floor and breaking on the sidewalk. I took a photo (above) and these guys were all shocked about what was happening and maybe asked if I knew what was going on. Sorry gentlemen, I have no clue, I just like to take pictures.





I know I have tons and tons of photos from the Linneaus gardens in Uppsala. They have such a huge variety of plants and flowers, and somehow I managed to narrow down my photo choices to just these two. I'm tempted to go back and look through all the photos again, but I do always spend a lot of time cultivating these little post-its of photo numbers, so I just have to trust my choices and give you what I've got!

More Kiruna - Mostly Churches

We spent only a few days in the north of Sweden. Most of our time was spent working, but we did get to explore a bit. First is a photo of some wind turbines in the distance. I really love taking photos of wind turbines.





This is the dish at the EISCAT facility.



This old church is located in Jukkasjärvi, outside of Kiruna. The Swedish Wiki page says it was built in 1607-1608 and finished in 1785 (not really sure what the gap in time means). Also, apparently they were making some repairs in 1907 and found 87 graves under the floor of the church.





Finally we come to the Kiruna church. I was so impressed by this church. The outside looks pretty great, but once you get inside it is just spectacular. The construction with wooden beams is so beautiful and impressive to see. (Sweden at large agrees, naming it their most well-liked building in 2001.)











The craziest thing about this church is that they are getting ready to take it apart so that it can be moved, along with the rest of the city, two miles to the east and then be reconstructed. Kiruna is a mining town, and apparently the mine is gradually being dug under the current city, making it necessary to completely relocate. I'm just glad I got to visit while I could still visit this church!

Kiruna - The Ice Hotel

At the beginning of March Greg and I travelled to Kiruna. I took many photos, but never spent the time to go through them properly. But I have finally done so, and now I shall finally post a bit about our trip!



Most of the photos I have are from the Ice Hotel, which is located just outside of Kiruna. We went on a tour of the hotel, but did not actually spend the night there. It is really expensive to stay there, and I really don't like being cold, so that was not an option for us.









About the above photo. This was a hole in the ceiling. I am guessing it is to prevent hot air from gathering and melting the hotel prematurely.





Every year there is a competition among artists from all over the world to design rooms in the hotel out of ice or snow. The photo above (and the one of Greg & I at the top) was my most favorite room, called Solid Flow. Here is some info about the room from one of the artists.

Also, I found (thanks to #capture317) this video on the interwebs showing a time-lapse video of the construction of the room. Pretty neat.

7QT - no photos again, but a great birthday surprise!

- 1 -

I just read the greatest news ever! Blessed John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII are (mostly likely) going to be canonized on my birthday!!

- 2 -

We've been back from France for almost a week now. Hopefully I'll get some photos posted at some point, because Biarritz is really an incredibly beautiful place. Aside from getting sick (and getting the worst ear aches in the world on the plane home) it was a really nice trip.

- 3 -

Swedish. It is a language I do not know enough of, considering I live in Sweden. Especially considering there are free classes for immigrants offered. The problem is that most immigrants coming to Sweden and taking the free classes are (apparently?) the type of people who benefit from their language teacher shouting at them about how they need to not focus on the money and how without Swedish they can't get education or a job. Never before have I had such a strong urge to flaunt my phd to anyone.

(Don't worry, this Swedish teacher is not actually from Sweden, so my love of Swedes/Swedish culture/Swedish ways of treating people, all still remain intact.)

- 4 -

Our beer is fermented. We need to get on that whole bottling of the beer thing.

- 5 -

The water out of our kitchen sink can get incredibly hot. Honestly, I've used it for tea before (although, it isn't quite as hot as I'd normally prefer the starting temperature for my tea). For awhile, I had been having hot water with lemon right when I wake up in the morning. Somehow I forgot about that routine, even though it was so easy since I could just use water straight out of the tap, but this morning I returned to it, and I really enjoyed that.

- 6 -

I am also overdue on photos from when my mom and her husband visited me and Greg in Sweden. I think I took a lot of photos of our grand adventures, but I haven't yet had a chance to review the photos. But hopefully those will make their way here eventually.

- 7 -

There is a surprisingly detailed and useful Swedish grammar wikipedia page. This was found after trying to figure out what the 'supine' verb form is. My extensive online research has further confirmed that I need to no longer go to my current Swedish class.

- The End and The Linkup -

A few photos from Vienna

I have to say, I really like the travel opportunities that go along with this job of mine. That has always been a good bonus. Vienna was a new city for me, and I really enjoyed it. Some of the views from the train between the airport and the center of town were, well, not so beautiful. So at first I was thinking, why all the hype Vienna? And then as you get closer to town the train goes underground. And then I took a subway to a stop closer to my hotel, and I emerged from the underground to Stephansplatz. To the sight of this huge cathedral. Wow! Well done Vienna! This was probably the best possible introduction to the city of Vienna (and we'll just ignore those first train views).

One day I strolled through town a bit and managed to make my way to the hundertwasserhaus. It was really neat to see, but made me wish I had a lens with a wider angle. Hopefully one day soon:) And while we are talking photo-things, lately I haven't really been in a mood to do any photo editing, so you are getting these straight out of the camera. Partly I've been challenging myself to continually make adjustments while taking photos to make sure I am getting the best possible shot. Partly I'm just lazy.

Seven (really) quick takes

- 1 -

Just having an afternoon siesta, so I thought I'd do some quick takes. Today is the last day of the conference, so I went to the morning sessions, but took the afternoon off to walk around Vienna and my feet are SO happy for a rest.

- 2 -

Twelve weeks ago, I learned about Gustav Klimt, as evidenced by this pin I pinned twelve weeks ago. And he is Austrian, so I managed to just see that very painting I pinned, along with many others. I wouldn't say I'm really an art-person, and I really know very little about art, but sometimes there are just things that I like. I'm kind of the same way with wine.

- 3 -

And now I just learned about wikiPaintings! How fun! I saw this one as well, but I feel like this photo makes it look kind of not-as-good. When I was at the museum I'm pretty sure I liked it even more than that painting I pinned (see previous take).

- 4 -

I ate weiner schnitzel and sachertorte, so I think I can check off 'try quintessential vienna-foods' from the list. For some reason, in my mind I thought schnitzel was like this:

But it definitely is not a sausage coil, so good thing I came to Vienna so I could clear that up. In case you too are confused, it looks like this:

And it tasted like some sort of delicious chicken-fried-steak?

- 5 -

Food here has been cheap compared to Sweden (but not cheap like Prague). I've been getting pretty tasty sandwiches for lunch for under two euros from the little grocery store near the conference center.

- 6 -

I keep looking at that schnitzel photo, and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to order for dinner tonight.

- 7 -

OH I went contra dancing with the locals last night.


I guess they are technically city-folk, but still. Quite a fun time!

_________________________

Onward to Jen Grace with the other quick takers.

7 quick takes

- 1 - 

This is an example of my thought process in a grocery store in which I understand very little of the language on all of the packages.

Oh while I'm at this bigger store with a wider variety of items I should look for purple rice, because I haven't made purple sticky rice in so long.
Oh good the rice section!
Hmmm I don't know the word for purple. But here is rött ris, which is red rice, which might be similar?
Does uncooked rice of the 'sticky' variety somehow look different than regular rice?
Good thing no one else is trying to get access to this rice section. I better scan through all these rices one more time.
Oh the picture on this rice has cinnamon sprinkled on top!! That must be a dessert rice! Oh plus there is a recipe for sushi on the back!! Definitely found sticky rice!!!

And into the basket it went.

- 2 -

It is no secret that Sweden has one of the best (if not the best) maternity/paternity policies in the world. What was news to me was the equality bonus. That's right. Apparently, if the two parents split the time evenly to within a month, they get a bonus amount of money (something like $2,000). And if they split the time maybe like 1/3 and 2/3 then they get some fraction of the equality bonus.

- 3 -

I've been trying to tidy up my apartment a bit, because I have a visitor coming! My friend Julie (who was also a house-mate for several years and fully knows how not-tidy I actually am) had a job interview in the UK so she is coming to spend the weekend with me in Uppsala!

Luckily for me, I didn't come here with very many belongings, so it is just a matter of finding a place for the things I've acquired since coming here. It is probably time for my certificate for completing my six week Swedish course (from December) to no longer be sitting on the kitchen table. And the hair cutting kit we got to cut Greg's hair can go in the closet instead of hanging out on my side table.

- 4 -

And speaking of haircuts. I am also heading back to the states for a week very soon. I've been feeling kind of sick of my hair. And haircuts in Sweden can require taking out a loan. So I was thinking that maybe I'd schedule an appointment to get my haircut when I am back in NH. After a bit more thought, I realized that I don't particularly want super short hairs, I really just want some of my layering to go away. And really all that requires is chopping off the bottom.

- 5 -

So last night I gave myself a little bit of a haircut. I think it worked fine.

- 6 -

In April I go to a conference in Vienna and my hotel is next to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Swell!

- 7 -

A bit weird, but kind of awesome. A TED talk from the inventor of Dance your PhD.

___________

Over and out. Here is the link for more quick takes from others.

Shopping Duty Free!

On my way home from Prague I had my first experience with shopping duty free, and it made me feel awesome! I never really understood the 'why' of it all. Then I moved to Sweden, where the alcohol prices are unfathomably high, and now I get it.

I had planned to do some shopping at Wenceslas square to spend the last of my Czech monies before I left. Except that it was packed with people, and I had to get out of there. So on my way back to the hotel I formulated this brilliant plan to use the leftover money to buy duty-free alcohol.

Also, lucky for me, Becherovka is made in the Czech Republic, which I did not know before going there.

And even though I could not compare to the Swedish prices while I was making my purchases, I just knew the Czech prices were so good.

For example, a bottle of Becherovka was 300 Czech crowns. Oddly enough, in Sweden it would also be about 300 Swedish crowns. Except that 1 Swedish crown = 3 Czech crowns. In US dollars, I paid about $15 for the bottle, which would have been $45 in Sweden.

Not related, but kind of related:
Since I was travelling in the Schengen Area, I did not get a Czech stamp in my passport, and I did not get to show any nice customs person my fancy Swedish residency card that has my biometrics attached to it.

Prague in photos

I did manage to take a few photos last weekend while I was in Prague. Enjoy.

Above is the outside of the National Theatre, where I saw The Nutcracker. A really lovely building with really lovely scaffolding. And below is the inside of the theatre. In Prague, you can just take any pictures you want (although I guess no one was taking photos during the actual performance) and you can just bring all sorts of food in with you. I think the people next to me were feeding their small child salami? That is what it smelled like anyhow.

Here we have the night-time view of Wenceslas Square (which is really a long street). On a Saturday night it is total chaos, with lots of hot wine and people who are not walking straight (I think due to oblivion to their surroundings, but I'm sure the hot wine doesn't help). This street is quite central, so I spent a good portion of my time in Prague with the song Good King Wenceslas in my head, except that I don't know any words not given in the title. And that made me think of the scene in Love Actually when the prime minister is carolling and the three little girls dance up a storm.

Here is the famous Charles Bridge, presented to you in patchy panorama style, because I like it that way. The day was quite dreary with a lot of fog and freezing rain (and dangerously slippery sidewalks). If you look carefully the Prague castle is visible in the left frame.

And the last photo is this really cool memorial. I looked it up after I got home, and it is to honor Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc. Although I must admit that laziness won, and I couldn't get myself to be interested in reading their wikipedia pages.