A Recap of Days Past

Rain has finally come to Sweden! For the past few days Sweden has been one long and dreary rain cloud. It started on Sunday and just now broke. Rain coupled with the cold wind has created cool temperatures in the mid to lower 60s. I'm wearing a sweater as I type this! Very peculiar summer weather, in my opinion. Yet it tempts me - future summers spent in Sweden where the cool weather hides? Who knows. I DO know that if I ever return, it will be to an occupation! This lassitude wears me thin and if what they say is true, that you only live once, then I need a preoccupation. That problem, thankfully, is in the distant future.

The rain kind of threw a wrench into our plans for the weekend. On top of the precipitation, Carl had to spend significant time studying Chinese for a retest he has in a couple of weeks. Undaunted these days, I gladly spent Sunday studying with him (I was locked in a battle with Japanese, of course). ;) I spend a lot of time rereading all the texts in my book. I'm slowly relearning and sometimes learning all the kanji (the Chinese pictographs in Japanese writing). A distant dream of opening my Japanese copy of Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, and READING the thing leads me onward. It's a hard road but I have the time.

Monday started off cloudy and humid. The two of us went into Stockholm for two reasons: to visit the Vasa Museum and get Carl to a dentist appointment. Now, the Vasa Museum won points for Sweden in terms of awesome-ness. Zoo? DON'T do that. Go to see the Vasa, a Swedish battleship that sank on its maiden voyage to the bottom of the bay, resurrected some 333 years later and placed in a museum built for one. I personally found it ironic - Sweden capitalizing on a failure of the past - but that hunk of wood is 'wow'. It's monolithic and opulent, adorned with intricate carvings and sculptures. No wonder the thing sank! Read up on the history at the website; I found it interesting.

Yesterday, already Tuesday, it was rainy and cold again. We spent another four or so hours studying at home base in Flogsta. I helped Carl build some charts to help lead him through the world of Chinese words before returning to my own language battle a bit frustrated by my slow pace. We didn't really do much other than that. Mobility is a bit limited when you only have one bike and no raincoats. We had dinner and watched a few movies, listened to the wind and the rain. I was quite satisfied to stay indoors in the warmth. If I were an animal, what would I be? I can be quite active when it's sunny and I'm full of food or sugars. Throw me in a warm room and I turn to putty. Not a sloth... Not a squirrel... I guess I'm just a 'Katie.'

Tomorrow I depart from Sweden for the first time. I'll be heading over to Berlin and will be greeted by a Berlin friend and a Witt student of '09 studying abroad. I have nary a clue as to what I want to or will do. Missing the Olympics (don't they start very soon?) has me down but maybe I can mooch TV from somewhere. Mostly I'm just ecstatic about seeing the place and friends. I could very easily loose myself in the streets remembering good times. Gotta watch out for that.

My trip only lasts 6 days. Too much and too little. I'm almost finished here and already the days are folding up and filing themselves into memories faster than my internal secretary can process them. ALWAYS. Always, everything happens at the end of a trip. Is this the curse of a procrastinator? But how can one consciously procrastinate from TIME?

Carl is back at work again. I'm left alone to wait for tomorrow when my adventure starts as soon as I get on the train to the airport. Anxious and excited. I feel strange, delicate. Like the last leaf of fall, waiting alone on the tree branch as the wind picks up. It's good. This is good, I tell myself. Finally moving. I'm readying myself to blow away.

p.s. Check the album for new pictures!