sfo aug 31 2007

If you want to see and smell people smoking in America, try the curb outside international arrivals right after a 10,5 hour flight has landed.
In Sweden duct tape= silver tape.

amsterdam airport schiphol aug 31 2007

go see this movie

Los Angeles Times says: "I hope it's not damning the movie with the wrong kind of praise to say that for a film so deliriously smutty, Superbad is supercute."

it's like with the eskimos and the snow, but the other way round

It seems to me cultures have their own individual default colors. In the US things are often a burgundy kind of red. In Korea I saw a lot of green a shade I didn't understand until I saw rice fields for the first time.

In Sweden things are blue.

(I should add that those photos are from three different cities too.)

to the right there was the hotel where I broke coffee cups by the dozen, straight out of the dishwasher. waitressing was not for me.

Göteborg was laid out and built by the Dutch. And they do like those canals.

not my best work, but it's heartfelt

Grattis Pelle!

I suggest a light birthday dinner

My nephew and I made a marängsvisstårta for his brother's birthday. He had asked for marängsviss but we figured you should have cake for your birthday so we made it into one. It was very good. Even the grown ups had seconds.

For this very special treat you make meringues and a meringue cake base, and then you layer the meringues, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, bits of banana, and chocolate sauce on top of the base. Ice cream and bananas are optional, but the birthday boy likes them. His big brother put extra optional bits of banana around the edge (and fewer inside, we can assume).

If you want hints on making meringues, just ask me. If you know how to use 6 extra egg yolks without ruining your low cholesterol diet, please tell my mother.

just one of the things that didn't fit into the suitcase

I got this at my parents' small local Konsum super market. It's an example of that 'ethnic' trend where you mix cultures, flavors, and traditions every which way you like. I really wanted to know what it tastes like. My mom really wanted to know how she was supposed to pronounce it. That is, she understood the idea was to make the Italian word English sounding but that made her confused.

And yes you may wonder why it has to be English at all.

But the reason is, obviously, that the Swedes are not offered anything Mexican here, they are offered something acutely American. So, next time someone asks that question 'what is American food anyway?', you have your answer: It's Mexican Lasagne, sold in Sweden, in a box. Add your own milk, beef, and cheese. The Mexican part is the spice packet.

I planted that little white flower today

She's been dead far longer than she lived.

at one point I lived up that hill. it was house #2(5)

I went on a trip

to Göteborg.

Where this used to be my house (my second to last, actually).

And this used to be my street.

(Yep, feet are still the same.)

we had none of those speed bumps and sissy cones either

When I was a kid this hill was super steep in the winter and deadly dangerous. There were snow and ice and skiis and I am just saying. We're all glad we're still here.

a swede loves a birch tree. like crazy a lot.

end of august, it's dark and rainy in bohuslän...

And it's crab season!

once in a while the people get to interact with the king's horses

People are blonde, horses are brown.

too cute for words

Smack in the middle of looking like a normal big city Stockholm turns into this.

And yeah there is a theme for female leg wear.

swedish people really really like to ride their bike to work

And this was in the middle of the financial district too.

seriously

My friend Åsa has the prettiest walk to work.

surf & surf

If you are very lucky, an old friend feeds you lobster and crab.

And you eat until it's all gone. Best dinner in a long while.

(I got home-grown raspberries too.)

I'll see you when you dive up

I've spent almost two weeks in Sweden now, and it's pretty much the first time in a year and a half that I have used my first language on a regular basis.

I don't have an accent I don't think. But I do the same thing that I do in the US, a subtle mixing of the languages that I don't think anyone but me can really hear.

If I intend to start a sentence with a "maybe", when I am in the US out will come a "kanske", which is the Swedish word. In Sweden, in the middle of my Swedish sentence there will be an "I don't think" or a "how" where there should have been "jag tror inte", or "hur". It's like my brain knows no difference, and all the words are happily swimming together.

Which reminds me of when my bilingual Mexican American friend heard himself say that he had to go help another friend move her ropes.

Her ropes? That made no sense to anyone.

What he meant was her ropas, which is Spanish for clothes. She was moving houses. His brain had mixed Spanish and English, all on its own. That's how I feel too.

I don't get it

I have spent a week and a day in my old country now, and for the past couple of days stories about Swedish unhelpfulness have been coming from everywhere. (If you read Swedish, here is a really good one.)

There was a one such story in the paper yesterday, and then a visting German person was telling me something along the same lines too. He said that Swedish people will answer direct questions, but no one will ask open ended or follow up questions. Which means that you may be left without useful help after all.

It's embarrassing and odd that people in this safe and pretty country should be afraid of getting themselves involved with others.

wild strawberry

more heather

heather

havskräftor. yum.

sfo o8.o8.o7

those little feet are sharp, let me tell you

This is a Swedish sheep. He thinks he is a dog. He jumped on me and demanded food. I didn't have any.

I like it better when there is a gate between us.

Or even further distance.

Actually, this is good.

on the trail again

this guy likes fennel, just like me

don't tell me it's a coincidence

When you see The Bourne Ultimatum, look for this.

oak hill park, san jose, calif.

Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose is huge. And it looks like it is still growing, eating up the yellow hillside inch by inch. As the link will tell you, it is the oldest secular cemetery in California.
People have come from all over the world: From Russia and Eastern Europe, China and Vietnam.
Nils Holmberg from Minnesota fought in the Spanish-American War (1898). He was a sergeant. He died in 1935. That's all we know about him.

Right now there are 237 men in Sweden over the age of 16 who share his name.

it's always a good idea to park in the shade

my boyfriend lifts iron