..::graffiti reality::..

For the birds

2011-12-10T09:49:00.001+01:00

First snow

2011-12-07T22:36:00.001+01:00

Flowers

2011-11-06T22:56:00.000+01:00

at Arlanda

Green and more green

2011-09-10T18:23:00.001+02:00

Currently all of my time is being spent all over the greater Stockholm area looking at plants, and learning their Latin names once I am home.All time for blogging is gone but I do manage to tweet now and again (see right) on the commute.

Lunch for two

2011-06-27T22:52:00.000+02:00

On my plate: Fried Louisiana shrimp, sweet potato fries and mashed cauliflower.

On the other plate: a medium steak, cheddar mashed potatoes and pureed spaghetti squash.

Mississippi Breakfast

2011-06-27T07:05:00.000+02:00

Grits with cheddar cheese and butter and organic plain yoghurt with freshly picked blueberries and quality musli.

Chicken Flake Casserole

2011-06-27T07:03:00.000+02:00

Chicken, corn and chickpea casserole with a topping made from garden chives and cornflakes (which was surprisingly good)

Dinner: part one

2011-06-25T07:24:00.000+02:00

Crab stuffed fried eggplant with a cream sauce and angel hair pasta.

Dinner: part two

2011-06-25T07:23:00.000+02:00

Macaroni and cheese. Catfish. Maque choux, a corn dish.

Walmart has Fairly Traded Coffee

2011-06-25T07:21:00.000+02:00

Their own brand. I suppose they support workers in developing countries being a part of a union but not their own employees in The United States.

Crab casserole

2011-06-23T01:14:00.000+02:00

Mashed potato and crab meat topped with cheddar cheese.

Snoballs!

2011-06-23T01:08:00.000+02:00

A yummy icy treat. This wasn't mine. I finished it too quickly. I had a stuffed groomsmen snoball which is shaved ice with chocolate and some ice cream inside.

Strawberry Smoothie

2011-06-22T02:05:00.000+02:00

Made with fruit and frozen yogurt. An airport meal during a delayed flight. Of course I forgot how big a medium really is in the States...

Dad's French Toast

2011-06-21T17:48:00.000+02:00

The best breakfast ever.

Mussels, of course

2011-06-21T06:50:00.000+02:00

Mussels in a garlic wine sauce, broccoli and rice. My last dinner in Rhode Island after a walk on the beach.

Lunch for Two

2011-06-20T21:46:00.000+02:00

A fish melt sandwich with fries, clam chowder and clam cakes.

Lobster for Father's Day

2011-06-20T06:04:00.002+02:00

The annual home-cooked lobster. A spicy stuffie in a quahog shell, potatoes and a salad from the garden. Completed with melted butter and lemon and a cold mint iced tea.

Dell's Lemonade

2011-06-20T05:48:00.001+02:00

Today, on Pentecostal Sunday, the Jesus Savior Church had their annual Holy Ghost Feast. It was a lovely family event and we brought our sandwiches to the beach. Mmmm.

Chorice and Pepper Grinder

2011-06-20T05:46:00.001+02:00

Today, on Pentecostal Sunday, the Jesus Savior Church had their annual Holy Ghost Feast. It was a lovely family event and we brought our sandwiches to the beach. Mmmm.

Trappist... Jam?

2011-06-20T05:41:00.001+02:00

Krister loves Trappist Ale, but today I found Trappist jam!! These were the two different ones we chose.

Anna's Swedish gingerbread cookies

2011-06-20T05:38:00.001+02:00

Imagine my surprise when I found Anna's. But not in the usual red pack. Nope, in true American style there were about 6 flavors to choose from. We bought the chocolate mint flavor. Yum!

Grill

2011-06-19T07:09:00.001+02:00

Of course the big portobello mushroom had my name on it. After hours of marinating it was delicious.

Danish

2011-06-18T16:08:00.001+02:00

I came all the way to Sweden to have a Danish

Spring

2011-04-01T16:14:00.001+02:00

In Stockholm, Spring requires sheer determination. Like the white snow drops which sprout up through the snow. Sheer determination I tell you.

I Will stop wearing my winter shoes. Sure maybe there is still snow, but really, it Is April soon. Boots with fur at the tops get so very old.

I Will believe it is Spring. I will let those small eagerly chirping birds signal Spring's coming through the music playing in my headphones while standing at the bus stop, despite it being the greyest of days.

So, I accept that Spring has come. And along with our move to a new part of town and a new kollektiv tommorrow, I welcome it.

Books books and more books

2011-03-21T13:52:00.000+01:00

Books are our weakness. I did get most of then into 8 banana boxes sorted into: political, teaching, literature/classics, fiction/children's/fantasy, dictionaries/anthologies and environmental.

TaD Day 28: Granny Square Scarf from reclaimed angora

2011-02-28T17:07:00.000+01:00

Very warm and soft. So thick it only needs to be wrapped around once.

TaD Day 27: Foursquare

2011-02-28T00:02:00.000+01:00

Today I finished four squares. Now I have 13, so one more and then I can learn how to put them together. The scarf should be done soon!

TaD Day 26: Just Two Squares

2011-02-27T12:41:00.000+01:00

I was at a conference for Christian communities and collectives all day Saturday so there was only time for a couple of squares from the same reclaimed yarn.

TaD Day 25: Books All Around Photo

2011-02-25T23:40:00.000+01:00

Stockholm City Library
the Norwegian & Icelandic sections

TaD Day 24: Chemistry Chart

2011-02-24T23:29:00.000+01:00

Not my preferred type of creativity but today a couple of hours were spent on a chart summarizing chemical bonds.

TaD Day 23: Beginnings of a Collage

2011-02-24T00:17:00.000+01:00

TaD Day 22: more Granny Squares

2011-02-23T12:29:00.000+01:00

More from the reclaimed yarn. It is so soft and there is still so much snow that I think I'll make a scarf from a row of them. The swuares are crocheted with two strands on a 4 mm bamboo needle. I have 7 completed, so about halfway there.

TaD Day 21: Butternut Squash Lasagne

2011-02-21T23:07:00.000+01:00

A lunch box from tonights lovely meal I made for dear friends.

TaD Day 20: Granny Squares & A Crumble

2011-02-21T01:54:00.000+01:00

Using the wool from yesterday's thrift store swearer, I worked on a few granny squares. My granny would be so proud :)

There was also a blueberry rhubarb crumble, but it was gone before I could take a photo.

TaD Day 19: Reclaimed Yarn To Crochet Wirh

2011-02-20T01:30:00.000+01:00

Today I ripped up a thrift store sweater. I learned a lot, mainly what not to do in the future! I recommend googling a good tutorial with pictures before trying it yourself. :)

I also made a few beginnings of granny squares from the really short pieces of yarn for another project, a blanket of entirely recycled secondhand shop yarn, to be completed Winter 2011/2012.

TaD Day 18: Lazy Bread

2011-02-18T23:36:00.000+01:00

A couple of golden loaves of easy bread. No kneading, rising or even preheating the oven.

Yum. Few things taste as nice as freshly baked bread.

TaD Day 17: Learning Crochet Stitches

2011-02-17T23:48:00.000+01:00

I just fiddled a bit with some new stitches. Nothing I'll keep but it was fun learning.

TaD Day 16: Frost

2011-02-16T20:15:00.000+01:00

TaD Day 15: Well, It Was A Cake

2011-02-16T20:13:00.000+01:00

TaD Day 14: Crocheted Heart Bookmark

2011-02-14T22:58:00.000+01:00

In honor of Valentines Day I learned how to crochet a heart. It was harder than it looked but after trying a couple of patterns I got it. It serves as a bookmark.

TaD Day 13: Apricot & Goji Berry Muffins

2011-02-14T13:24:00.000+01:00

Healthy and still very delicious! The needed to rise overnight in the fridge, so I am posting them today.

TaD Day 12: Pearls & Crochet necklace

2011-02-12T20:39:00.001+01:00

Todays creation is a pendant for a necklace. The pearls are lovely irregular freshwater ones. The yarn is a wool/alpalca blend from Iceland.

TaD Day 11: Granny Square Slippers

2011-02-12T00:04:00.000+01:00

TaD Day 10: Crocheting Granny Squares

2011-02-10T22:35:00.000+01:00

I was inspired by someone else on TaD to make a pair of Granny Square Slippers. Here are my 12 squares. I'll finish them off tomorrow.

TaD Day 9: Cutting & Interiors

2011-02-09T23:18:00.000+01:00

Since we're moving, I am planning our new bedroom which will have several planters behind the bed. These are some of the cuttings which will be growing up a trellis. Not really creating a 'thing' per se, but it is the start of a creation. :) Plus they will look nice in our current bedroom while they root in water.

TaD Day 8: A Poem

2011-02-08T22:43:00.000+01:00

A little poem written in Poetik on my iPhone.

TaD Day 7: Crochet Loop Baby Toy

2011-02-07T23:33:00.000+01:00

Crocheted in nice colorful washable merino wool.

TaD Day 6: A Crochet Ring

2011-02-06T23:30:00.000+01:00

Part of an ongoing project and all I got done today as I was sick in bed.

TaD Day 5: Crochet

2011-02-06T00:47:00.000+01:00

After the cake marathon of the last two days, today's creativity is a bit more chilled out. I started a crochet project.

I love working with my new bamboo crochet needle and this brightly colored merino wool.

TaD Day 4: Let Them Eat Cake

2011-02-05T15:58:00.002+01:00

(this post is a little the due to a party we had last night)

For two days I baked and iced and baked and frosted. Here is the fruits of my labour. A cake buffet including a blueberry lemon cheesecake, a cheesecake with gingerbread bottom, an almond bundt cake, a chocolate walnut sheet cake, a cardamom chocolate cake and a cinnamon cake with pudding topping.

We had maybe 50 people at the party and they were most pleased with the cake table.

TaD Day 3: Cakes

2011-02-03T22:21:00.002+01:00

Today I baked four cakes! Two cheesecakes, a chocolate sheet cake and an almond bunt cake. Tomorrow we are having a big party (and loving to bake of course I went a little crazy!) so I plan to glaze and frost and top them tomorrow, which should make for a more interesting photo :)

Today was a good day.

2011-02-03T01:52:00.001+01:00

I finished a crochet project, plowed through some trig, went shopping for ingredients for all the cake making that commences tomorrow for Fridays last ever fest in Sollentunakollektiv, made a risotto, had dinner with our future housemates and hung out with some cool couchsurfers. All in all a thoroughly satisfying day.

TaD Day 2: Crocheted Cowl, with a twist

2011-02-02T23:16:00.001+01:00

was inspired by seeing a Möbius strip and have wanted to crochet a cowl (worn around the neck, like a scarf without the hanging bits). So I tried my hand at it and am quite pleased with the result. It is a gift for a friend.

I made the pattern from reading two others. It is actually crocheted from the middle and is not two pieces sewn together. The project took a few days but I finished it off today.

Thing-a-day Day 1: recycled soaps

2011-02-01T21:05:00.001+01:00

Today's start for this month of encouraging creativity was making soaps. I had a bag of small soap pieces I had been saving. I melted these with a little water in the microwave and stirred until they were a paste. I added a little vitamin E oil, olive oil and lavender essential oil. Then I spooned the mixture into silicone muffin tins and chilled them until they were hard. I'm pleased with how they turned out.

2011...

2011-01-01T19:15:00.002+01:00

... will be a good year. Full of hope and freedom and joy. Indeed.

New Years Fireworks

2011-01-01T19:13:00.002+01:00

were nice even through all the snow falling!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-29T17:04:00.002+01:00

Parties & visits

2010-11-21T16:55:00.001+01:00

Our housemate Marie had a big 20th birthday bash which the Mumin mug toting Laura could even attend. Good times!

Elk meatballs

2010-11-21T13:16:00.002+01:00

Wanting to give visiting friends Claire and George a special treat, I made almost endless elk meatballs. To use the word yum feels so very small. Delicious doesn't cut it either, so I guess you'll need to use your imagination.

No snow, just frost

2010-11-17T14:46:00.002+01:00

A frosty frosty day. Nice to have friends from England in town... now of it would only snow for them while they're here.

Untitled

2010-11-06T16:59:00.004+01:00

"Naturen kan vara en skön terapisoffa. Ett gratis spa. Ett vackert andaktsrum." -Naturkraft av Åsa o Mats Ottosson

The Cat and the Rat

2010-10-29T00:28:00.002+02:00

We were planning on going to bed early tonight. Tomorrow is Krister's college graduation and after a lovely day of doing a huge monthly food shop and having a farewell dinner for David & Elin, plus welcoming a Couchsurfer, we could use the rest.

The cat was still out so I went out on the front steps and called her in. I didn't look at her too carefully. She ran straight inside, down the hall and into our room.... with a rat in her mouth. A live rat. I called Krister and we chased it as it ran into the bathroom and into the living room, hiding out behind shelves and under the sofa as we chased it around with a broom and a mop. I opened the back door and out it ran, thankfully.

A hunter and its prey... thats how it is supposed to go, right? Completely natural. But I don't want to look into its little black pleading eyes before my cat kills it next time. I guess I'm quite ambivalent about Sanuk's hunting activities, unlike Krister who insisted she not go back out tonight. I have seen our cat with mice before (or now I suspect they were baby rats...). I'm ambivalent, that is, as long she doesn't bring her trophies into the house! Least of all my bed... thank goodness I saw her before she hopped up to her usual spot.

We had shut Sanuk in our room during the whole 'chase the rat' ordeal. Now that she is out I have to listen to the cat crying the most pitiful cries as we took away her plaything ? her dinner ? her fun? What was she thinking, that she'd chase it 'round the house before snuggling into her blanket, a before bed game? She seriously wants back out where the rat went. Not too impressed with the cat tonight.

After the snow was gone

2010-10-23T13:15:00.002+02:00

First snow of the year. Was lovely as we had Sam from London visiting and the last thing we expected was a white blanket covering everything when we woke up! Then the sun came and the snow was gone, at least here in front of Central Station.

Sanuk

2010-10-19T12:15:00.003+02:00

This is the object of my daytime affection.

Stumbled upon this while researching:

2010-08-11T20:31:00.002+02:00

One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings without trying to turn it into a healthy private pattern of one's own and I suppose that is the difference between travel and tourism. -Freya Stark

a little blog holiday

2010-07-07T15:12:00.008+02:00

summer 2010 will be a little holiday for the blog. i need some time to enjoy the swedish summer.
i'll rethink what i want it to be and do a needed redesign in the fall. in the mean time, i'll stick to paper journaling. i will however be adding some photos to flickr now that we have a new camera to take photos with. my twitter updates and pictures can be seen here in the mean time:

http://flavors.me/resa

if you know me and/or krister and have read this post, please leave your name in the comments. (nice to know who reads it still)

parachuting

2010-06-14T21:13:00.004+02:00

i went parachuting a few weeks ago.
it rocked.
60 seconds - free fall.
will probably do it again.
people getting married are good excuses to do strange and wonderful things.

bp and oil in the gulf

2010-06-09T01:13:00.002+02:00

when i think about the oil spill and the fact that all that oil is destroying people's livelihoods and the wetlands and the seafood not to mention the beach in florida, i get sick to my stomach. apparently the oil spill is even more toxic than we thought too. it was the cover and two pages of the swedish newspaper today.

You Ess Ey

2010-05-12T19:00:00.003+02:00

The land of the brave and whatnot. That is where we are. Resa stayed up all night faffing, while I slept a wonderful 2 hours before jetting off the ocean to visit the trans-atlantic family members. We arrived 2 days ago and are now in Rhode Island, where we yesterday had a great day periwinkling (Littorina littorea), which is a fantastic way to verbify a noun. We also have had the most amazing, and I mean amazing, seafood. My tastebuds did all kinds of immoral acts in my mouth. Fantastic.
We spend a few more days here in Rhode Island before throughing ourselves into the tropical and conservative heat of the American south. We are hoping to spend a few lovely days with Resa's mom in Mississippi, but will hopefully be able to sepnd a day or two in New Orleans, which despite Katrina, is one of my favorite places in the States. So far I've been really tired, realizing that the last two weeks have been so busy that I haven't really recuperated from. And typically enough, once I've started to slow down I've gotten a tad sick, so sniffles galore! "Begone!" I command, but the sniffles with the shifty eyes merely winks, laughs, and makes me sneeze once more. Oh sigh...

its all in the journey??

2010-05-08T19:50:00.004+02:00

today i needed to get to uppsala, which door to door takes about an hour and a half, sometimes an hour and 45 minutes. needing to be there at 10, i left at 8. today i was giving my final presentation on the chemical bisphenol a.

my journey consists of several steps, which sound confusing, but really, it isn't that bad: a 5 minute bus ride, a 12 minute wait and then a 12 minute train ride going about 4 stops, 20 minute son the train and a 20 minute walk. i've done it loads of times before and it only costs 10 bucks over my usual monthly card, so its my preferred method of getting there.

today there was an electrical problem on the train, so it stopped, and went just a bit before stopping again. mostly we just sat there. in frustration, i pulled out the ipod and listened to some old manchester music. it wasn't working. then i tried some i'm from barcelona. still not smiling. the train made it to upplands väsby in the record time of 70+ minutes, not 12.

once we got to upplands väsby, i was supposed catch another train run by another company, but no, it was cancelled. then the next one was late. when a one finally showed up, i met a classmate on the train who had also been having the same experience. when we finally arrived in uppsala (and took 5 minutes to buy chocolate!) we go to the buses. the bus we need pulls right up. we make a joke about how this 'just worked' and how it was a welcome change. well, we spoke too soon. apparently today there was a huge bike race in uppsala, so the streets (yes, the ones we needed to travel on) were closed and the bus took us somewhere else. we got off after 15 minutes and then needed to take the bus back to uppsala station and walk the 20 minutes from there to school. it was such a nightmare. we didn't get there until 11:45.

we arrived and our teacher was quite understanding., letting us give our presentations after lunch. people say its all about the journey. maybe. sometimes. but sometimes the journey just gets in the way. there's a lot to be said for reaching the goal, as long as you got there the best you can.

generation a and prayer

2010-04-23T11:52:00.009+02:00

i just finished reading generation a from douglas coupland, authour of life after god and of course generation x. the book is set in the near future and tells the stories of five peope around the world who are stung by then-extinct bees. it isn't really your average fiction. you always read coupland with an ear for what he has to say about pop culture, because he usually says it so well. there are also quite a few moments where you laugh out loud. while generation a wasn't as spectacular as a few of coupland's other books, it is still very much worth a read.

there was a quote on prayer i was fond of:

Praying is funny. When you pray you leave the day-to-day time stream and enter a quiter place that uses different clocks and values things that can't be seen.

it would be really interesting to fika together with douglas coupland and michael pollan. together they would really have some terribly funny and surely enlightening thigs to say on food, culture and food science.

seeing is highly under-rated

2010-04-21T15:39:00.003+02:00

one week ago i had laser eye surgery. and now after wearing glasses for 6 years and contacts for 16 years, i don't need them any more.

the day of the surgery (which was freaky and somewhat cool) i went home and had my eye closed all afternoon/evening. the next day I woke up uncharacteristicly early. i opened my eyes and could just see. krister wasn't awake yet so i spent about 20 minutes just looking around the room. just looking at the details in my jeans on the hook or the things on the bench and reading the small handwritten labels on the boxes above the wardrobes.

i was telling someone that after jesus and krister it is one of the best decisions i've made. sure, it cost a small fortune (i went with a more expensive method), but its just what i would have had to spend over the next several years anyway. it was so very worth it. and while it will take months for my eyes to completely adjust, i can see just fine to type this and i'm so very pleased with how it turned out.

i am officially a swede!

2010-04-14T08:04:00.004+02:00

i found out a couple of days ago that my swedish citizenship went through. i had worked on the application for months and months... i needed to list all my travels in the last 5 years with countries visited, dates i left and entered sweden and the reason for travel. that is difficult enough for an average person but with all the trips Krister and I take it was a hassle to say the least. i filled it out in an excel spreadsheet as the four lines they gave weren't enough! still, it was worth it as now i'm a swede and i can live and work anywhere in the EU. plus i get cheaper visas to most countries.

i'll probably go and apply for my swedish passport on thursday!

mysig

2010-03-28T16:05:00.006+02:00

updating the blog: i know, i know, i'm so bad at it these days! still it is mostly for me, so o think i'll keep it. i'll try and blog more this week in small bursts.

for earth hour we celebrated with candles all around, a fire in the fireplace, organic wine and chocolate truffles, some good friends and a lot of nice conversation. it was so very "mysig" the swedish word for nice, cozy and snug (www.ord.se). mysig indeed.

electric lighting is overrated. i think we'll have our own earth hour at least monthly...

glasses on life

2010-03-16T11:24:00.003+01:00

two days in glasses. after years in contacts i feel handicapped. they fog up after coming in from the cold. my distance perception is off. they get dirty and need adjusting so quickly. constantly pushing them up into place. i have no desire to go the gym and need to shower blindly around other people.

funny how you just get used to some parts of every day life, forgetting all the reasons you didn't like something in the first place.

housemates and more housemates

2010-03-13T16:04:00.004+01:00

this week we've met three different girls, at different times this week, and all of them are interested in moving in. it's ironic of course that we've had an empty room since august but hadn't found the right person, so instead we had more places for our guests to sleep.

krister gave his usual shpiel on our values, which is important but now we've heard him give it so many times that i think any one of us could give all the values we have using kristers little anecdotes. we asked the three girls the usual and of course the important questions, like

do you like to play board games like settlers?
do you mind having random strangers (through couchsurfing) staying over?
are you going to love our cat just a little more than david (who is not a fan)?

it's hard to know after meeting someone for a night or even a weekend how they would fit in with us.

yes, twice in one day!

2010-03-11T02:16:00.003+01:00

i woke up on tuesday after a nice sleep in. both krister and henrik, another of our housemates were home and so i decided to try and copy the delicious blueberry pancakes, made with oat flour, that dad made when he came to visit.

yum. there is nothing like the joy of american pancakes in sweden, where i hardly ever make them. we had some blueberries henrik had picked in the freezer and there was even real maple syrup in the fridge. it was a fantastic brunch.

that evening i went to visit an american friend in sweden. we take turns cooing for each other and so i was looking forward to going to her house and eating good food (and there is always good unhealthy american dessert too!) well i guess she had been thinking similar thoughts that day because dinner was blueberry pancakes! she manages to make them with wheat flour anf wheat germ without them tasting healthy. i ate them again happily. life is good when you can eat american style blueberry pancakes twice in one day.

a day alone in the kollektiv

2010-02-27T22:47:00.003+01:00

i'm home alone this weekend. it may not seem strange to you but in a house with 5 adults and countless guests, it's never happened before. as krister walked out of the door to do some 24-7 networking/inspiring this weekend he exclaimed, "it's warm today!" and while plus 1 degrees C doesn't exactly paint a picture of 'warm' in my head, it is a significant 1mprovement over the -20 we have had of late.

i'm feeling much better, but since my cold is still hanging on i thought it best to spend another day at home. this has included loads of cooking, which i do love but haven't felt up to doing in the past weeks. i cooked a huge pot of dried chickpeas. one third made it to the freezer, one third is now yummy hummus and the rest went into my chickpea gumbo. i used the turkey broth from thanksgiving from the freezer, so it had a really nice flavour. yum! now i'm off to make some granola bars from this recipe and continue my 24 marathon. i think i like being home alone!

life at home

2010-02-23T02:26:00.001+01:00

its -20 degrees out and i've got a nasty cold again, so i've been at home non-stop...

we had the indiana jones marathon (i only made it through the first two films) and i've had my own personal 24 marathon while being sick in bed. we've had a load of different guests. we currently have five people sleeping upstairs, two couchsurfers i haven't yet met, david's brother from skåne (the south of sweden) and a couple of guys we met while doing some praying in copenhagen in december during COP15. they provided me with some fun conversation about our aquarium fish and i was congratulated on the superbowl win of the new orleans saints.

i even had a dane say "who dat" to me! thats blog-worthy if anything is!

i ♥ snow + sun

2010-02-11T14:33:00.001+01:00

watching movies

2010-02-09T15:05:00.006+01:00

this is what it's like when sollentunakollektivet needs to choose a film. around midningt, 6 people choose 11 films, rate them 1-5, total them (as seen here left being lowest and right being highest). then the top 5 is chosen and each person uses the numbers 1-5 one time to rank them. the film was magnolia.

choosing the film can be more fun than watching it.

dear blog,

2010-01-22T23:23:00.002+01:00

i haven't forgotten you!
i am finally well (and i do stress the FINALLY!) and hope to return to our usual relationship early next week. i'll be starting school tommorrow in uppsala so i'm sure there will be lots to tell, not to mention the entire nepal and india trip which i could write a book about. i guess anyone who wants that story will have to sit down and drink tea with me...

nepal, glorious nepal

2009-12-30T15:48:00.003+01:00

so many impressions, where do I start?

kathmandu: nice to walk around on strike days when there are no cars, guaranteed good food,all you can eat rice with good curry. loads of veggie food. the roosters start at 4.30am and the dogs bark all night to keep the evil spirits away and bells ring to wake the good spirits up. friendly people, pretty much everywhere. harrowing taxi rides and air that's hard to breathe, amazing handmade paper everything, a great place to need to wrap a Christmas present. cows walking around randomly, soaking fruit in iodine first, a lovely bustle of a capital without the stress feel. sun in the mornings and cold at night. endless board games and card games with the family. having jeans fixed for two dollars and going shopping for the clothes they wear here. 15 shops later the perfect material was found and purchased. off to a tailor and i pick it up on the 2nd. amazing fair trade shops and good prices. loads of fake north face gear in the touristy thamel so i replaced my dying backpack, after a meal the new orleans cafe (started by yet another soul to venture into new orleans and fall in love with the place).

there was also a christmas program at umn's office, a visit to a small orphanage, and a visit to the peace and rehabilitation center which helps girls in risk of or coming out of trafficking to india. each of these could be the subject of multiple blog posts if i had the time and a good enough internet connection!

pokhara: alone for a few days while the others trek. have a cold and need to get some hard core studying done! lovely guesthouse by the lake. had fresh pasta for lunch and stared at the reflection of the gorgeous mountains you can see from here in the lake. theres a street festival on this week and the people have a game where you're blindfolded and spun while holding a stick and you need to use it to smash a small clay pot. can hear they shouting out cheers and directions to the blindfolded person as i go to sleep.

off to have nepali masala tea (which i scored for free today!) in my room and read a bit before bed. this is indeed the life.

pray now for climate justice

2009-12-16T02:42:00.005+01:00

here's an article krister wrote on our time in copenhagen during the COP15 demonstration and in the 24-7 prayer room there.

the writing on the wall

2009-12-09T23:41:00.008+01:00

the COP15 climate meetings are going on now in copenhagen. in just a few hours we'll be taking the train there. we'll be praying in a 24-7 prayer room and joining others in demonstrating so that the world leaders there can see how much people really do care.

one of the big issues is the US targets for emissions. one of the smartest ways to reduce american CO2 and create jobs is to invest in clean energy. not clean coal, as there really isn't a such thing, but wind and solar energy. repower american is a campaign which i've followed for a while and their wall is something to see. normal people, together with celebrities and companies have written their thought on the climate and repowering america. check it out.

i love the 80s

2009-12-04T00:20:00.003+01:00

sweden came up with some crazy children's programs back in the 80's. i think the entire svt studio must have been constantly experimenting with strange combinations of opium and washing detergent to conjure up these images. if you consider me somewhat strange, the explanation lies below. this is the tv i grew up with folks, making me simultaneously scared and nostalgic...

14 hours, that's not a lot

2009-11-30T15:13:00.002+01:00

we have had just 14 hours of sunlight this month. it's pretty bad. i'm not getting anything done and just wanna lay in bed all day. theres really too much to handle with 3 study visits, 2 huge papers and 5 small ones and 2 tests for school and vaccines and visas both for the nepal trip, india and my swedish citizenship. christmas planning, decorating and present buying, all to be done by dec. 15 when we leave. and yet the most productive thing i've done today is make myself lunch. gray is hard.

november has been slightly brightened by short visits from claire and aamie and a thanksgiving celebration to rival any other this past saturday, complete with 18 people, 4 of which were american. there is still turkey, (which i can't believe it turned out so well!) stuffing, sweet potato pie and a host of other leftovers in the fridge to enjoy. that's what feasting is, after all, enjoying and appreciating all of our abundance.

twitter, hmmm

2009-11-29T17:40:00.003+01:00

i've been using twitter a bit. i'm not sure i need another thing to update, but i have it set up in my gmail window and when i update twitter ti updates facebook for me, so it is quite easy. not sure though. i think i like my blog better, but wish i could really express what is oing on in my head here a bit better.
here's my cloud from the last 3 months of my twitter:

thanksgiving is here...

2009-11-28T01:02:00.002+01:00

of course thanksgiving is over, but not here. 18 of us will celebrate thanksgiving on saturday instead. after all, no one gets a holiday here and someone needs to cook the turkey!

aamie arrived late last night and it is wonderful to have her here, as now we'll be 4 americans! the pecan pie is made, the cajun cake is done, david has begun the sweet potatoes and the swedish free range turkey is brining in the fridge next to the organic cooked ham. life is good. we have much to be thankful for.

bilbo speaks

2009-11-27T14:44:00.008+01:00

"i am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am
arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."
"i should think so — in these parts! we are plain quiet folk and have no use for aventures. nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! make you late for dinner!"

bilbo baggins - the hobbit

time to out crazy the crazy

2009-11-24T15:01:00.009+01:00

al gore was on saturday night live for nbc's "green week" and had some great sugestions for getting the message to politicians...

"i'm going to start acting crazy. i think it's crazy that our politicians aren't worried about the climate crisis. so it's time to outcrazy the crazy."

his plans included: planting trees in politicians' front yards in the middle of the night with toy guns taped to them — pointed at the door, "so that when they wake up and walk out of their houses in the morning, they'll think it's the forest coming to get their revenge."

wise words from far away friends

2009-11-21T15:02:00.003+01:00

my friend, in between long rants of nonsense, sometimes says wise things:

no, I am not in a hurry ’cause I don’t know what time it is!

wise words bob, wise words indeed... read more from this strange but wonderful man here.

let me see your trash

2009-11-18T13:00:00.003+01:00

who knew it could be so hard to arrange a study visit to a water treatment plant or to see where our trash goes? good thing i live in the capital city, as at least there is more than one place to ask! all i'm getting is no's. how exactly do they expect to have any new engineers to run the place when they retire if they refuse to help train them?

so we joined a gym

2009-11-18T00:44:00.004+01:00

okay, so everyone who knows me knows that this is not my favourite time of year in sweden. it is grey and cold and i don't exactly want to get outside and move. so, yesterday krister and i joined a gym, sats, the biggest gym-chain in sweden. they're building a new sats in the centrum near our house. until our gym opens, we can work out at three others in town. as we wanted to actually use the membership we wetre paying for, we figured location was everything and the closer and easier to get to the better.

yesterday we went to check out one of the other locations we could use temporarily. we got there at about three and there wasn't a whole lot of people there. the guy behind the desk was friendly and let us borrow a lock as we didn't have one with us. we walked around, checking out the strength training machines, the rock climbing wall (sadly, you need your own equiptment to use it), the weights (and the huge guys using them), the treadmills and other machines, the locker room and the rooms where they have classes. i was impressed by how average most of the people looked. very few were how i pictured the people to be, as sats is on the expensive end of the gym spectrum. there was a sign on the wall saying 'the most important thing about your clothes is that you feel comfortable in them'.

one of the perks of membership, along with newer machines that work, a sauna and a clean locker room/showers, is that you get a personal trainer to work out a work out plan with you. she showed us a lot of the machines and how to adjust them for short people like me. after we were done, krister and i decided to do the workout we had set up and it was surprisingly fun even though i was pretty sire today. so yeah, we did it. its a huge cost for us but it felt like a good thing to invest in taking care of our bodies a bit. so, wish us luck!

reasons to celebrate and other assorted nonlinear thoughts

2009-11-08T13:11:00.007+01:00

today i have been married for five years and two days. strange how time flies. 18 years from now i will have been married for as many years as i have been single. it seems distant but at the same time inevitable. it is only a matter of time before i will completely forget what it was like to not be married. which, by the way, is more difficult by the day.

i often meet this man by the allotments that i enjoy chatting to. he knows many things about 18th century gardening techniques, thai cooking and the swedish history of executions. he once startled me by revealing that his girlfriend had ruined his life. the confused frown on my face made him go on to explain all his former plans of traveling, writing and living life to the full (at least his definition of it). then the woman he now lives with, and who is the mother of his child, came along and changed the course his life. to his joy and distress.

it was strange because i could and couldn't relate. commitment scares me. to not be committed scares me. in some ways i can't do whatever i wish because of resa, as i have to consider her in the choices i make. yet, i can't imagine not being married to her. to my surprise i found myself thinking this even in the middle of our most vicious fights.

for our anniversary i was planning to take resa to an art exhibition of Caspar David Friedrich (i'm very fond of the romantics, i confess), but managed to befuddle the times, so we went straight to the movies and watched UP 3D. i'm not usually a big fan of cartoons, but i really enjoyed this one. especially, there were scenes that depicted that the adventure the main character was looking for already had happened, hidden in the clutter and mundaneness of everyday life.
i'm not sure...
perhaps.
what do you think?

happy halloween

2009-10-31T02:42:00.003+01:00

both sunny and gray (and cold)

2009-10-29T14:20:00.001+01:00

the weather has been gray. finally, almost a week later i saw the sun, only for a few minutes but it was there and that makes me smile.

the usage of the word 'both' in swedish drives me crazy. it grates on me like the language equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard. 'both' is the word 'både' and instead of saying, 'the weather today was both gray and sunny', the way to use it in swedish is something like this. 'today i went to h&m and i bought both the grey sweater, the hat and the scarf.'
nope, thats three. not two. both is two.
drives me crazy everytime.

bono's preach

2009-10-24T19:57:00.000+02:00

let me just say one thing

2009-10-21T18:37:00.001+02:00

i live in an amazingly gorgeous country. just taking the train 6 hours north was fantastic, with views along a lake and forests. God did well with Sweden.

global warning!

2009-10-15T23:31:00.009+02:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itzafineday/ / CC BY 2.0

blog action day: today i'm joining 10,000 other bloggers all over the world in blogging about climate change, bringing it up in a big online conversation.

food for thought
there's now a wikipedia entry entitled climate refugee. the term was coined in '85 but i don't think we've even seen the beginning of its usage. there is a lot of environmental news in the media. we know we should change our light bulbs and insulate our homes, but rarely are we urged to make less of an impact on behalf of the rest of the world.

the UN estimates that some 50 million people worldwide could be on the move by 2010.

unlike many of the statistics we see in the media, that's in a just few months time. there aren't too many ways to look at it. most of those people had to leave their homes because of the (comfortable) way we've live our lives. until recently, the average person could say they had no idea that the way they live would affect someone around the world. now we don't have the luxury of ignorance.

living it
i try and practice what i preach when it comes to making my impact on the environment as small as possible. next week i have to travel to östersund for a course i'm taking. it is 550 kilometers, which is a 55 minute flight or a 6+ hour train ride. i really only have to be there from 8-5 on one day. i have always said i refuse to fly in sweden, (even if it is a very long country and going up north can take some time!) but to need to be in östersund for only a day, it was quite tempting to take the flight! i wanted to. it was cheaper and faster. in the end, i booked the train tickets, and on the way home i'm taking a night train, where i board the train at nine at night and wake up in stockholm at 7am. i'm also staying an extra day and a half - i figure if i'm travelling all the way up there i way as well enjoy myself! just one tiny decision in the scheme of things, but it was a decision i had the power and responsibility to make. and i am convinced that all the little things add up.