mondag

i haven't got the internet so much at my fingertips these days, thus the lack of updates. let's see: things have been pretty quiet this last week. my first whole week at living above the church has mostly consisted of drawing all day, drinking incredible amounts of coffee, and lots of reading - i got a library card! lost favorite t-shirt has been found in berghem. tuesday i went to dinner at Tom's house with his daughters and some German exchange students. what do i find when i sit down to dinner but... tofu! interesting story, turns out Tom's been a vegetarian since he was 17, when his whole family decided to stop eating meat on a long roadtrip from Uruguay to back to Kansas. awesome! on friday i went to Lulea, the capital of Norbotten, to get some new shoes. oh, and my stay with Katerina has been postponed until next week, as she's fallen ill. wednesday, i'm off to English camp with the 7th graders, which i'm kind of getting excited about. well, any excuse to do anything outdoors is a reason to be excited. more more more. it snowed all day yesterday and it was lovely, only -10 or so.

in other news, the kind folks at the Kunskapenhus gave me access to a great online course and a book to practice Swedish. from now on i'll be here way more often practicing...being in a country where most people speak english is great, but it isn't doing much as far as helping me learn any Swedish. it certainly isn't the most universal of languages, but i really like Sweden so far, and the language is similar to Norweigan and Danish in some ways, so it won't hurt to learn some basics.

here are some random photos of my existence here in Jokkmokk. a week from today i will have been in Sweden for one month.


view from kitchen window


the path i take to get to the internet at kunskapenhus


unfinished drawing of a sami woman from a 60s book i found at the church


jokkmokks kommunbibliotek library card


new shoes


things to do
-go look at the library collections the Ajtte museum
-pick up a roll of film i got developed, cost: $12 US dollars (!!!)
-PLAY INDOOR HOCKEY with Tom's daughter Meriam and her boyfriend Jonah at the school gymnasium