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.

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

CO

So, I have had all sorts of traveling delays, as you may or may not know. Here is my adventure from the latest delay. So due to a lot of unfortunate things, I ended up staying in a hotel on saturday night in Milwaukee so that I could fly out early sunday morning. There was probably going to be snow in the morning, but I was just going to go for it, and hope for the best.

So I'm hanging out in my hotel room. Getting caught up on sending emails. Watching some weird movies on the tv. Giving myself a haircut with my new scissors (not the sewing ones!). All sorts of highly important and entertaining things. I finally went to sleep, only to wake up at 1am with a horrible headache. Normally I don't get really horrible headaches, so I didn't know what to think of that. Also, I was feeling pretty horrible and did not even want to get up to rummage around for some ibuprofen. So I guess I was lying awake for over an hour. At some point in there I remembered this story I had just heard about a friend whose house had very high and very unsafe levels of carbon monoxide. So I got a little panicky and was sure I was going to die from CO poisoning in this hotel in Milwaukee. That was enough motivation to get me out of bed in order to open the window. I also got some ibuprofen. Two hours later I woke up, with my headache gone and my room absolutely freezing.