Welcome to my 2015-16 blog!  (reverse chronological order)

Here I've written about some of what happened at the unique folk school I attended, and a little bit about my stay in Stockholm, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tue Aug 16 (Day of departure)

Sat Aug 13

Part of August

Hung out with Gedeón (from Geijerskolan) and went to Trädgården.

Saw Rasta Daniel when he was canvassing with Green Peace! Evening aikido seminar with Iragashi (sp?) Sensei.

Dinner at Chutney. Ran into Justus (from Geijerskolan) and his dad by Medbörgarplatsen.

Skärgårds tur - a boat tour through the archipelago. Magnificent. Finally went to Gröna Lund to ride a few coasters.

Shopped for a kravatt at Åhlen's to go with the suit I would borrow from Stefan for the upcoming event; watched the pilot episode of "Bron," recommended by Astrid.

Went for a nice walk. Mailed key back to Rodi which he had loaned me to use his storage locker at school. Later began packing.

July

Someone recommended Ugglan (a bar), but it was "sommarstängt" (closed for the summer) until mid August. So I went a few doors down and found Nytorget 6, another bar with a friendly crowd outside.

Visited the ABBA museum. Benny and Björn arranged quite a few hits that I was previously unaware of, SOS my favorite and Dancing Queen my least favorite. Great band - what a ride they all had!

Met another group of people outside PSB (Pet Sounds Bar) and then joined a few of them at Patricia, a club venue on a ship across town.

Late workout at the outdoor gym - met a gregarious neighbor from Bosnia, a tall man with a positive attitude. We conversed like brothers.

Trained as a guest at Iyasaka Aikidoklubb and ran into Maria who I had met in Boston at Tekkojuku! I had no idea she was from Sweden. After class, I was walking around and saw two girls both looking at their phones, but also looking around as if they were lost...it turned out they were hooked on Pokemon Go!

Explored night spots such as Trädgården, Kvarnen, and Thai Boat and got to talk with many locals.

Tuned into the DNC (convention) to see Bernie's speech. (What a shame we couldn't get our act together to elect this guy when we needed him most.)

Hung out with my buddy Robert who visited Stockholm (and who I met at Geijerskolan). We went to a grill party that I girl I met on metro invited me to. I felt bad that we had to leave early to see Lionel Richie perform at Gröna Lund (the theme park). Place was packed! Well worth it. We arrived late but in time for 5 or 6 solid hits, including Dancing on the Ceiling, Running with the Night, and Endless Love (sans Diana Ross).

Trained it back to Karlstad and then took the 600 to Geijerskolan for musikveckan (music week). Met several nice people from Germany. There was a concert in the church. Also saw Gunnel, my language teacher, and my friend Alex. Back to "Sthlm" the following day.

June continued

Met up with Roberta and her daughter Danielle, friends from Beverly, MA for lunch at Hermans, one of my favorite restaurants. We checked out the Nobel museum afterward.

Cut my long hair (!) short again at my go-to barbershop, Salong Pierre, run by a friendly guy named Bafil, originally from Iraq.

Beginning of June

I no longer had access to a gym, as I did at Geijerskolan, but luckily there was the utegym (outdoor workout space) which offered wooden structures for presses, lifts, dips and sit-ups, along with a set of pull-up bars, monkey bars and an auxiliary training platform. There I could use the wooden "machines" to do bench and shoulder presses, squats and deadlifts, and exercise the bis, tris, and abs too. Even though the weight was not adjustable, the heaviest options were good enough for a decent workout, especially with the chest press where I added small pieces of concrete to the plank in order to raise the challenge. There are many of these outdoor gyms around the city, and in others cities in Sweden. This is something we should have in the states, but we prefer to make it difficult for people to maintain their health are behind the times.

Grocery shopping also happened regularly, but I first had to find and test the local Coop and ICA stores, et al. Some people think of buying food as a chore, but I'm usually curious about what new item I might try or what haven't I had in a while that I might revisit or what tasty meal I might make when I get home with the right ingredients. My main store was the Bea ICA Kvantum at Svedmyraplan in Enskede. Go-to meals:
• Oatmeal and yoghurt with creme fraiche and whey powder plus either thawed blueberries or raspberries and a sprinkle of vanilla bean (yes powdered vanilla bean, very flavorful!)...
• Sandwiches with Jarlsberg cheese and "Rene Voltaire" vegan mayo (was quite good but may have been discontinued) with tomato and alfalfa sprouts (and sometimes avocado or cucumber) on Swedish sunflower seed multigrain sourdough bread...
• Red lentil or Swedish yellow pea soup with carrot and onion.
• Also, knäckebröd (cracker bread) with unsalted butter, or hardboiled eggs with S&P were common snacks, as was banana with almond butter...
• Green kale steam-sautéed with red onion, sprinkled with ginger and garlic, was another one.
• Oh and I can't forget grapefruit!
These remain oft-eaten foods for me today, with the exception of the loaded sandwiches. I can't get good bread because the wheat in the U.S. is tainted and the gluten-free bread is full of highly processed starches/sugars. However, I can get Norwegian cracker bread from TJ's, virtually identical to the kind I would sometimes get at Hemköp in Karlstad, full of seeds and great with butter and cheese.

Then there was getting around town. What was most economical? I think it was the monthly SJ pass. Close to 900 kronor I think it cost (a little over a hundred bucks). This allowed me unlimited bus and metro rides within the 2 central most zones. I did a fair amount of walking though. Everything was different and interesting.

Sat / Sun / Mon

~ Bye-bye Geijerskolan (for now) ~

Nu har jag kommit
Plötsligt blåser tiden snabbt
Igen jag åker

The journey continues...

Fri 3 Jun

I'm not fond of big changes, especially those leading to unknowns. After 2 semesters at Geijerskolan, I had become accustomed to my routines and to the relative simplicity of living in a rural area. But just as we must turn the pages of a book to find out what happens next, so must we push ourselves into new situations to discover the further details of our own story.

Thurs 2 Jun

Wednesday 1st of June

Tue 31 May

Mon 30 May

Sat & Sun 28-29 May

I thanked Leo and continued hiking, displaying my sign with a modest smile to every car I could catch. Traffic had become slightly more dense, making it difficult for someone to stop. Eventually I decided to stay put at the second bus pull-over lane, in or around Kil. It began to drizzle, but I decided not to take out my small umbrella, as I thought it might hinder my appeal. Before too long, and just as the rain stepped it up a notch, a smaller silver sedan halted in the bus lane and honked. I moved quickly and hopped in, saying Hej to Eric, who was on his way to pick up his wife (originally from China by the way). A guy probably in his 50s, Eric had a more stern character; he told me he spent a summer as a young man at the Wolf Point reservation in Montana and visited his brother on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska. Eric now works as a machine engineer. He said he travels on business rather often and explained one such project where a company had needed a machine to assemble the "bar" around which the chain revolves on a chain saw—a part that appears very simple but which contains bearings, washers, etc.—in only 5 seconds! I was amazed by the thought of this. I thanked Eric for the ride as he dropped me by the bus station. I had arrived in Karlstad at 09.35 with the help of 2 open and generous Swedes. With time to spare, I boarded my train to Oslo at 10.41.

I got to capital of Norway at around 13.30 and took my time walking over to Anker hostel, as the check-in time was not until 15.00. But I arrived early anyway and it didn't seem to matter. They gave me the key card to my room plus linens and I headed up 2 short flights of stairs to the 2nd floor. Yes, the ground floor is zero, which also makes sense. I dumped my rucksack and made my bed. After finding a cafe on Yelp, I took a stroll down Torggata, passing a small food festival on the right, and soon found Fragrance of the Heart, which was next to a department store and overpriced indeed. However, the staff were friendly and helpful. I thought Agnes particularly cute after chatting for a few minutes as they were closing up shop, and she had such a lovely British accent when speaking in English that I swore she was from the UK. The girls sent me home with a piece of blueberry pie which I saved for the returning train ride. On the way back, I surveyed the various food vendors and heard about a couple of other vegetarian options for later. Lunch on Sunday was at Funky Fresh, a cafe inside the DogA building, coincidentally very close to the hostel. The guy who took my order was a tall half Norwegian - half American guy who grew up in Philly. When I asked him whether he preferred Norway to the U.S. he responded "I love it here."

I barely scratched the surface of the city, but it was nice to walk around in an environment different from the one I saw every day. At the hostel by the way, in the 8-bed room in which I stayed (4 bunk beds), I met a guy from Ireland, a girl from New York named Georgia (or was she from Georgia and named...nah), and 2 brothers from France on their way to the Arctic Circle. I turned in rather early Sunday night so I could make my departure at 06.02. The train ride back to Karlstad was interesting. Vagn (car) number 4 was full of Japanese tourists plus a group of 4 from Malaysia who sat on the other side of the aisle from me. Lau, Chan and Ng taught English while Foong's subject was math. They were so friendly. Lau and Chan were incredibly talkative, offering all kinds of tips for my trip to Malaysia. "You live like king," Chan kept saying, while Lau touched on the exchange rate to Norwegian kronor. "10 Malaysian ringet is a whole meal for me," she said, "but in Norway it's 1 pee in the toilet." Behind me sat an older but very kind Japanese woman named Youko, who generously gave me a momento, a set of little happy dolls connected together by strings, which I attached to my rucksack. I felt a bit sad when I had to step off the train as everyone else went on to Stockholm, but was very thankful for the company, conversation, and souvenir. By 11.20 or so, I was back to Geijerskolan, in time for the last 20 minutes of litteratur.

Fri 27 May

Thurs 26 May

Wed 25 May

Tue 24 May

Unfortunately there were many unfamiliar words (and/or sounds) so I didn't understand much of anything. But the last number was a piece of music that one of the music students had composed "to" one of Tova's poems—a musical interpretation utilizing piano, clarinet, flute and violin—and that I did understand, and really enjoyed. It could have been a track to a film score. I am told it will be performed again next week. I hope so.

Sun 22 May

I had returned from the gym and was eating my yogurt and oatmeal with raspberries when someone walked into the kitchen. I looked up and—lo and behold—it was Rodi! He'd come back! Great to finally see him again. :-)

Sat 21 May

Yolanda kindly shared her home-made vegan lasagne and hummus sandwiches with us. :)

Wed 18 May

Tue 17 May

Mon 16 May

On the way back we stopped at Lovisa's house which is really cozy. The wood stove was cranking! She had made apple crisp, 3 different versions in fact (including GF & LF) for us with vanilla cream (best I've tasted yet). Lovisa is amazing. She has 3 young boys and works multiple jobs, and still had time to prepare a fika treat for 20+ plus people. Stor tack!

This weeks concert came right away, well 8pm, and featured various rejects—I mean very talented folks (haha). A pleasant assortment of tunes in the theater, such as "Act of War" (Elton John?) sung by Josef and Agnes, a Rachael Berry (?) song performed by Sindy, Stevie Wonder's "Lonely" by Kip, "You're the One" sung by Josef (solo IIRC), "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" sung by Nils and Sindy and accompanied by Johan, and Agnes and Sara gave us "Flatlands" which I believe was voice and bass. Nils also performed another piece of his own (this time in Swedish) and Henrik voiced a Swedish song as well. Ella sang another opera piece too, accompanied by Johan. The last 3 were "Blue" (Da dada dee dada dum da dada dee dada) covered by Emily, Agnes and Malin with Alex, John and Ole on instruments, an "anthem" sung by Lukas with Ingela, and finally "Seasons of Love" (525,600 minutes).
:-)

Sun 15 May

Fri 13 May

Later, as we had been invited earlier in the week, Jerico Daniel and myself went to our language teacher's house for supper that we all helped to prepare. Another student, Isa (a young guy from Afghanistan who always says "hej" at school), joined us too. I took care of the greek salad and baked eggplant slices. Others prepared roasted root veggies (potato, sweet potato, carrot, red beet, onion) and some chicken and burgers. We heated some halloumi cheese in the oven as well. Daniel made a really tasty pepper cream sauce * which went well with everything.

* Sautéed red bell pepper and yellow onion, feta cheese, a little milk, and 1 hot chili pepper were the ingredients I noted (pureed in food processor).

Thurs 12 May

Wed 11 May

Tue 10 May

Mon 9 May

Later the fotog class went over to a small river in Munkfors for a walk. Some took a dip in the cool water too. No sense in wading in, just gotta dunk your whole person. Easy for me to say; I kept ashore.

Sun 8 May

Fotografi workshop at Staffan's studio in Munkfors. Was introduced to the pin-holed coffee canister (camera)...insert the photosensitive paper (in the darkroom of course!), then reveal the pin-hole (covered with black tape) to take your picture...actually not quite. This first step produced negatives. We made a few outside since there was a good amount of sunshine. For the positives, we employed the light projector (again in the darkroom) with a fresh piece of the photo paper placed underneath the negative. Both the negatives and positives had to developed - yup, the old-fashioned way: 1 minute in the basic solution, 30 sec in the acidic solution, and about 5 minutes in the fixer solution (removes unused photocrystals), then into water to rinse.

Fri 6 May

Tue 3 May

Monday 2nd of May

Good though, was that Rasta Daniel moved upstairs to our kitchen (area). Much better than the previous resident (sorry Evelinda). Daniel likes to cook healthy food and stay informed about national and global issues. Glad to be neighbors. Wish the switch had occurred sooner!

Apr-May

Sat 30 Apr

Wed 27 Apr

25 Apr

Mon eve - Sun 24 Apr

Mon 18 Apr

Sun 17 Apr

Thurs 14 Apr

Tue 12 Apr

Mon 11 Apr

Sat 9 Apr

Fri 8 Apr

A enjoyable night out...followed by a silly ride home as Johannes and I did our best Southern hillbillies accent. It all began at Bull Bar when he rattled off the first couple of lines of "Devil Went Down to Georgia." Thanks to Clara as chauffeur.

Thurs 7 Apr

I believe the reason is this. There is an additional security measure in the form of a handheld device that takes a short string of numbers and spits out an encrypted code which then must be entered at the time of purchase online to complete the transaction. But this only seems to apply to Swedish accounts, so without a local account, there's no way to utilize this security feature and therefore one cannot finalize payment.

Thankfully, my friend Tova came through and helped me place an order, so shout out to Tova!

Mon 4 Apr

28 March - 3 April (Påsklov)

Sat 26 March

Wed 23 March

Later that evening...Tribute concert to Bowie! RIP you masterful rocker!

Tunes played were:
Ziggy Stardust (John - voice, Johannes - guitar, Alex, Jonathan and )
Ashes to Ashes (Henrik - voice, Nils - piano)
Space Oddity (Philip, Anton, Henke, Josef)
Life on Mars (Lukas - voice and piano, Anton, et al.)

Some inconsistencies compared to the recordings—for example, no piano at the very end of Life on Mars—and some hiccups in the live sound, but nonetheless fun to sing along.

Tue 22 March

Thurs 17 March

Thurs 10 March

Tuesday 8 March

Mon 29 Feb (It's a LEAP /\ YEAR!) — Sun 6 Mar

Got a tip about Örtagubben from a little shop at T-Centralen. Then made it to A&S's place. Astrid was home so we hung out for a little while. When Stefan returned we had supper. Then I met up with Gede from skolan and we checked out Fotografiska (ett museum). The name of the featured utställning (exhibit) was Imagine: Created Reality by Swedish artist Erik Johansson who layers photographs digitally to give us photo-realistic representations of fantastic situations.

Went shopping (searching) for some things. Struck out at first, but then found Örtagubben. Cool little store with hälsoprodukter (foods, vitamins, essential oils, etc). Smelled nice too...it just "made scents" to be there. I met a psychic too. Not as in predicting the future, but rather special sensory perception. Right when we met, he said he could tell that I'm very sensitive...could be a cold read, but then he told me sketching was something I'd be doing. Interesting because I like to design logos. Well we exchanged contact info and met for coffee on Sunday and we talked for quite a while. He had told me to write down questions to bring. Then he was surprised I actually did. I wondered about what on earth to do about a job/career and about the mysteries of love. In sharing his perspectives and a couple of tips, I felt much clearer. He also mentioned things about friends I had as a lad, and about my parents. Whether or not you believe in extra senses doesn't really matter. I had made an awesome new friend.

...

Sun 28 Feb

Also, happy b-day, Jiasie. ;)

Sat 27 Feb

Wed 24 Feb

Tue 23 Feb

Mon 22 Feb

Sun 21 Feb

Wed 17 Feb

Tue 16 Feb

Mon 15 Feb

In Soviet Russia, cars drive you.
or
In Soviet Russia, vodka drinks you.

In Soviet Sweden, snus snusar you.

Sat 13 Feb

Thurs 11 Feb

Wed 10 Feb

Fri 5 Feb

Then later, coming back from Karlstad, I got off the bus and as I went to cross the street, stepped on a smooth patch of ice hidden underneath a thin layer of freshly fallen snow, the fluffy kind, and fell flat on my back, eyes to the sky, like I had just been taken out by a sniper.

So I slipped and fell twice today! Whoohoo! For anyone who fell only once, I got ya beat! haha

Thurs 4 Feb

Wed 3 Feb

Tue 2 Feb

Sat 30 Jan

Then we took the bus back to centrum and switched to another one which brought us to Bergvik so we could complete our food shopping. Are you sensing a theme here? Oink oink oink. :P

Fri 22 Jan

Thurs 21 Jan

Mon 18 Jan

Sat 16 Jan

Friday 15 Jan

Haha, check out the statue of Erik Geijer just outside the main building. It looks as though 1) He's receiving a hug from the side by a snow spirit...OR...2) He's dressed up as a diva, wearing a large, puffy, white shawl.

Wed 6 Jan

Some pics from our "promenade" here, here, and here.

Mon 4 Jan

Friday the 1st of January 2016

Thurs 31 Dec

Also here's a cool piece of art I found in Karlstad yesterday. See the title too, which is shockingly original!

Saw this in Skövde at a tea/coffee shop. Collaboration?

Wed 30 Dec

Wed 23 Dec - Tue 29 Dec

The next day was julafton, or xmas eve. Here's a view of their decorated spruce. The 24th is the day on which an early supper or lunch is served. This is the day of celebration. Later in the evening, dinner in more like a snack. However, we ate much more than we needed to every single day. Breakfast, fika, lunch with dessert, fika, and dinner also with dessert. I was never hungry. It's amazing that folks don't balloon out of control like we do in the U.S. I suppose people here are a little more active, and the food not as unhealthy...not sure.

On Saturday, Linnea's pojkvän Per arrived, and we began getting into the table top games (Splendor, Avalon, and Settlers), but eating no less. Nils, Karin's father, paid us a visit Sunday, along with Elsa, so we had the pleasure of their company. At 88 and 92, respectively, they seem quite healthy. Here's one with just the three of us.

Then on Monday, Lennart took me to see Almnäs Bruk, which unfortunately was closed. I managed to get a shot of this old yellow house though, and some pics of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern. Afterward we caught up with the others at Berit & Alf's in Mofalla for fika (killer mandelmasskaka!) and supper. By the way, here's an example of some outdoor lights. At their house, I was introduced to two of their (adult) kids, Thomas and Susanne. Susanne has a little girl, Jasmine. I also met the other Karin (Karin, Berit and Astrid's sister in law) and her two boys, Erik and Oskar.

The train ride home seemed very fast. Once back in Karlstad, I stopped by a local shop and met a few new folks. Coincidentally, a draft was planned for the next morning. As I made my way over to the bus station, I discovered that it's (either is or was) more cost-effective to get a 1-day ticket (to/from Karlstad or around Värmland) than it is for one single ride to Karlstad or back. So I purchased a 1-day ticket and used it to return to Ransäter. Then I used the same ticket to go to Karlstad and back the next day for the draft and Modern events. So "George got a deal." I didn't do that well in either of the tournaments, but still had a lot of fun.

Sat 19 Dec

After the speedy purchase there, we went over to Coop for a few groceries. We didn't have enough time to return to the bus station to catch our 19:25 bus back home so we decided to catch the 21:25 bus and take our time. We then schlepped our office chairs (2 boxes of parts to assemble of course) along with our bags of mat (food) out of the shopping center, through the giant parking lot and over to the bus stop. We got back to the bus station with time to spare. There was only one little set back...there was no 21:25 bus. OOPS! The next one wasn't until almost half midnight. So we hung out, snacked, cracked jokes, and chatted with a young man from Afghanistan who was only 16 but appeared to be in his early twenties. He had only just arrived in the country 5 weeks ago and hardly spoke any Swedish. He had to wait until the morning to catch his bus to Filipstad so we offered him an apelsin and some root vegetable chips.

We got home and Rodi invited "Tiger" to come over to get the items Rodi had bought for him. They chatted for a while and when Tiger left, we began trading charades about the idiosyncratic mannerisms of some of the other students. Rodi I found out is very observant and totally nailed the mimicking of the behaviors of some of the characters here at Geijerskolan. I was laughing so hard my abs began to hurt! So hilarious!! Such an awesome day!

Oh yeah, and here's a bar in Karlstad that welcomes East Coast sports fans! Hey nowwwww!

Fri 18 Dec

Later that evening we had one last movie night, or "film tajm," with our buddy Christian. The movie, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," was one of Casey's Picks and it was a hit...well, I liked it haha. I think Christian, Rodi, and Jerrico Daniel did too.

Thurs 17 Dec

julbord = xmas supper
risgrynsgröt = unsweetened rice pudding
pepparkakshus = ginger bread house

There were several songs performed during and after supper and as we were enjoying our sweets. Sofia played a new age piano piece; Nellie sang a popular xmas song accompanied by Inga, the name of which I've forgotten; Tim and Carolina sang a duet; Sabina sang a pretty Swedish tune, backed by Hanna, Emilia, Henke, and Josef; Tobias sang 2 opera style songs with excellence; and the Geijer choir provided us with Chestnuts Roasting, a pretty Norwegian song, and a few other numbers.

For dessert we had risgrynsgröt to which I added honey and cinnamon, cookies (gingerbread as well as thin "fried dough" style cookies molded into a hollow and very detailed star shape), and rocky road with peanuts. Som vanlig (as usual) of course, I gorged myself. Oh, also they announced the winners of the pepparkakshus contest. The green kitchen took first place with their wonderfully adorned 2-story building including yards, signs and characters. Well done.

Once everyone finished up singing there was a 10 minute break and then the dancing began. Håkan led the "train" through the halls and into the theater room. There we formed two circles (we tried one large one but we were too many to spread out while still holding hands). With one ring inside the other, we rotated our "wheels" in opposite directions, skipping-stopping- skipping-stopping, making silly movements, turning ourselves around while clapping, as a band played and Magdalena and Rebekka sang and directed the each dance.

There was a 15 minute break and then we (many of us) went over to "mysig" Bachsalen for singing of folk songs and hymns upstairs. Fruit was offered from a long bowl. Elinor opened the music with a song on guitar, then Karinna(?) played piano and sang, and the masterful Raghild accompanied the rest of us. There was a great fire going to keep us toasty and the priest/chaplain conducted a short holiday service, what a nice guy.

Finally Rodi, Gedeon and myself ended up hanging out with Jerrico Daniel in his room for a little while, listening to some Latin America music before we called it a night.

Tues 15 Dec

Thurs 10 Dec

Mon 7 Dec

Thurs 3 Dec

Tisdag 1 December

Sunday 29 Nov

Saturday 28 Nov

Monday 23 Nov

For some neat close-ups of naturally forming ice crystals on the ground, look here and here.

Thursday 19 Nov

Tuesday 17 Nov

Saturday 14 Nov

Also figured out the answer to the "12 Pills" logic puzzle (below) with a little encouragement from dorm neighbor Tova, who's super smart and also figured this one out. Thanks to Jesper for sharing it with us.

Tuesday 10 Nov

Fall vacation break 26 Oct - 1 Nov

Monday 19 Oct

1. A woman fires her rifle...seconds later she realizes she's made a terrible mistake...minutes later she's dead. What happened?

2. A man is taking a train home. If smoking would have been forbidden (impossible), he would be dead. Why?

3. Two people are buried in a coffin, but only one name is on the tombstone. What happened?

4. You have 8 pills. All are poisonous, except for one, which is slightly heavier than the rest. You can detect this only with your mechanical balance. How can you determine which pill is safe with just 2 comparisons.

5. You have 12 pills. All are poisonous, except for one, which has a slightly different weight, but identical of course in all other respects —size, shape, color, smell, etc. With only 3 weighings on the balance, how can you determine the safe pill?

5. Also see the Monty Hall problem (aka a car and 2 goats).

Take another look at the picture of allévägen from September and then check out allévägen in October so you can get an idea of the transition through the seasons.

Wednesday 14 Oct

Two of the bands will go on tour next week to play in Göteborg, Uppsala, and also Motala I think. May they have a good one!

Monday 12 Oct

Friday 9 Oct

Wednesday 7 Oct

Monday 5 Oct

Saturday 3 Oct

födelsedag = birthday

Evelinda often makes large scones which taste quite good.

Friday 2 October

Wednesday 30 Sept

Tuesday 29 Sept

Thursday 24 Sept

Wednesday 23 Sept

Monday 21 Sept

Friday 18 Sept

The debris catcher
Puff ball unknown
Stump shells
Golden pancake - Paxillus involutus?
Amanita muscaria - poisonous, except to plumbers.

Wednesday 16 Sept

bastu = sauna

Today I had my first exam, which was tough, but I got through it! Thanks to Sara for going over it with me and answering my many questions.

Later in the evening, after we went for a walk around the "block" adjacent to Geijerskolan, I went with Rodi to basta. The sauna was quite varm, 68 C to be exact (154 F). Come to think of it that temp might be average, however, it did get pretty intense each time Rodi poured water over one of the furnaces (there are 2); then there would be a blast of heat, especially as it rose to the top bench where I was seated. For a moment there were 8 of us in the sauna, but only 4 of them (Rodi, "Jerico" Daniel, Anton, and Karin) are the hardcore "cult steamers."

I am told it is not uncommon i Sverige for folks to go back and forth between extremes, i.e. the sauna and, say, lying down in the grass, or better yet, dunking oneself in an ice cold lake!

Monday 14 Sept

Tres amigos

Thursday 10 Sept

Monday 7 Sept

Jag sitter i fred (fem vokaler)
lyss på härlig musiken (sju)
den ord fly från mig (fem)

Det padda, svart och vit
Vilar under en hängande blad
Var han kommer gå från hit
Eller hur mycket tid har passerat
Vi vet inte, men hans ögon
Avslöjar en stillhet som
Lyser hans mörka miljö

Later on, at 8pm, one of the music teachers (the same woman who played organ on the first night here) performed in solo on piano. The stageroom is adjacent to the light hall. Here are the pieces she played.

Friday 4 September

allé = tree-lined road

Played piano in one of the practice rooms after breakfast; then cleaned/ organized my room. After having lunch, I took a walk around Geijerskolan, snapped a few fotos, then continued studying Swedish. At 21:30 I went downstairs to play “table tennis” with some other folks. After that, we went to another house where many students were gathered to unwind. I came back to the "blue kitchen" to “hang out”, eat a midnight snack, and listen to comrades play guitar, before collapsing into bed.

Here are some photos of the campus:
Outside main building
Beautiful sky through "sunglass" filter
Central lawn and some of the houses
View of the allé which connects the campus to the public road

"It's always sunny at Geijerskolan!" haha

Free-day 28 August

schack = chess

Went for a hike efter frukost: across the road, over the decomposing branches and needles (logging had taken place), through the forest, and up to the look-out tower, then continued on until we reached a road. We walked along the road and then met up with the path on which we trekked initially. After lunch, I took the bus to Munkfors to pick up my Ikea box at the Coop Konsum; also got EVOO, butter and milk. I ran into Rebekka (nice surprise!) who was headed back to Geijerskolan so she offered me a ride.

I returned to my room, unpacked the boxed items and made up my bed with the sheet, comforter and pillow (see pics below). I studied for a little while then went to supper. After the meal, we (about 12 of us) played “21” on a short, bent basketball hoop. Eventually we gave up because there were so many people playing and none of us was making a lot of shots. Then went to hang out at another dorm with some of the others and found Gedeon there. We played a long game of schack (pr. huack) as folks chilled out, listened to music and played other games in the kitchen. Ours was really a draw, but I won the endgame after he traded queens (RvB).

The weekend was pretty easygoing. We baked homemade pizza Saturday evening. Then Sunday evening I went for a run up the road and almost died from the strong fumes of manure! I sprinted of course on the way back.

Here are a few photos if you want to see what my room looks like:
Through doorway from kitchen
Bed from inside room
The desk
Sink and part of storage cabinet

Thursday 27 August

gift = married / poison (hahaha)

This night's activity was a sort of "quiz" involving music trivia, physical ability, and cooperative nonverbal problem solving. We were divided into groups of approx. 9 studenter and "competed" against each other, but with lots of applause and support for one another. While it may simply be the folk school environment, my impression is that everyone here is respected and encouraged as human beings, as opposed to the USofA where people are too often stepped on or disposed of. I told Rebekka how I appreciated her staying late to help run the activities.

Wednesday 26 August

fika = snack break

After breakfast, I began using Rosetta Stone Swedish, knowing I need to work quickly so I can start to understand the professors and communicate with my peers. Following lunch we had some fire safety training which consisted of a long lecture (again all in Swedish spoken at a fast pace) with slides, outside demonstrations (see example video below), and opportunities to extinguish real fires! After each student put out a fire, the lead fireman would say "bra!" Sounded strange but what kind, professional guy!

Here's what happens to an aerosol can when you have it near (or in) the fire?
Thanks to my classmate Moumen Almasri for posting this.

Then we took a tour of nearby Erlandergården (childhood home and museum of Tage Erlander, social democrat and prime minister of Sweden from 1946-1969), and then visited the home of Erik Geijer (an artist, philosopher, and "influential advocate of liberalism" from the late 18th century). I could understand practically nothing but that's alright.

When we returned it was time for supper and then later there was yet another concert, this time comprised of student performances, all cover songs I think. The Swedes are like machines, very talented! Everyone was excellent and the they sang in English brilliantly. They had practiced the last semester or two, but still. Great song picks too — classic rock, recent alternative, contemporary pop, and even a Swedish "barbershop" tune (a cappella trio) as well as an instrumental on bagpipes. Afterward, fika as usual, with really tasty - but probably unhealthy - mocha cake.

Tuesday 25 August

Later on at half 7, after we had returned and had dinner, a group of professors gave another concert in the "lighthall," adjacent to the cafeteria, this time with guitar, fiddle, drums, bass, piano and singing, plus poetry. Blues, jazz, very nice!

There are many musicians here, in fact most of the students either play an instrument or sing. The SAS (Svenska som andra språk) class has only about ten students, including myself.

Moon-day 24 August

Sun-day 23 August

(Fl 634 Boston to Reykjavik...Fl 384 Reykjavik to Goteborg)