tackså mycket för min ordboken, Jonas!!
Showing posts with label sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweden. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Umeå > Echo Park
i got best package no. 2 from Norrland the other day
tackså mycket för min ordboken, Jonas!!
tackså mycket för min ordboken, Jonas!!
Monday, July 28, 2008
the plumes of pine trees
here are a few high-res scans of artifacts from my travels which i've been slowly archiving. it seems every time i open another bag/box/envelope/notebook (still too full of feeling for me to do very very often yet) i find another dozen things to scan...anyway, i'm putting these and the rest all together in something i'd someday like to call a book.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
drottningsgatan
so i've settled in Los Angeles pretty well again, working at the bookstore of a big art museum here. i like working there since i get to be around so many international people (visitors, visiting scholars, curators, etc.), but today, my day of days was made when this evening in the bookstore i was greeted by the sight of the entourage belonging to Queen Silvia of Sweden.
oh yes. oh yes. anyone who's talked to me since i've returned from my travels knows of my extremely nerdy love for all things Scandinavian, specifically Swedish.
unfortunately, i didn't get say anything to her because in my excitement:
1.) i couldn't decide on the appropriate way to address a royal person, i.e. "your highness" (?)
2.)i couldn't decide if that would be too crass/nerdy/embarrassing of me
friends, when i saw H.M. Drottning Silvia standing about 6 feet from me in a perfectly tailored white skirt and jacket, i got kind of teary eyed.
because the Queen of Sweden was at my job and it was awesome. YES!
oh yes. oh yes. anyone who's talked to me since i've returned from my travels knows of my extremely nerdy love for all things Scandinavian, specifically Swedish.
unfortunately, i didn't get say anything to her because in my excitement:
1.) i couldn't decide on the appropriate way to address a royal person, i.e. "your highness" (?)
2.)i couldn't decide if that would be too crass/nerdy/embarrassing of me
friends, when i saw H.M. Drottning Silvia standing about 6 feet from me in a perfectly tailored white skirt and jacket, i got kind of teary eyed.
because the Queen of Sweden was at my job and it was awesome. YES!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
godt nytt år
well, i thought it was about time to write a little post here, mainly as a reminder to myself to keep this blog going through the stages of the project that are taking place now that i am back home in Los Angeles.
time has gone by very quickly since i returned to the US, i can hardly believe that the end of January 2008 is around the corner. next week, January 29th will be the date that exactly one year ago i departed on my journey with a one-way ticket to Sweden.
for sure i'll be marking the occasion by enjoying a bottle of glögg, the Swedish mulled holiday wine, that i received recently in the mail from my pal Jonas in Norbotten (see image below). this could possibly be followed up with some "Black Death" Brennivín from Iceland, since it's my day off the next day...
in other news, i submitted my review of the Demonstration for Culture in Nuuk, Greenland in September to the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and will provide a link to the issue when it is available (the deadline for submissions was pushed back to (January 10th '08).
there were negotiations this month and last month for an event/lecture on my travels at the Velaslavasay Panorama, but the booking schedule and my schedule have not been compatible so far - but i have not abandoned hope! the Panorama is just an incredible place, where one may see lectures, puppet shows (many with an Arctic theme), and most excitingly, the 360-degree North pole panoramic painting, The Efflugence of the North.
so! i'll be posting developments as they happen - i feel content that things are settling down now with the turning of the New Year and look forward to getting lots of work done.
meanwhile, feast your eyes on these amazing Swedish treats!!
time has gone by very quickly since i returned to the US, i can hardly believe that the end of January 2008 is around the corner. next week, January 29th will be the date that exactly one year ago i departed on my journey with a one-way ticket to Sweden.
for sure i'll be marking the occasion by enjoying a bottle of glögg, the Swedish mulled holiday wine, that i received recently in the mail from my pal Jonas in Norbotten (see image below). this could possibly be followed up with some "Black Death" Brennivín from Iceland, since it's my day off the next day...
in other news, i submitted my review of the Demonstration for Culture in Nuuk, Greenland in September to the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and will provide a link to the issue when it is available (the deadline for submissions was pushed back to (January 10th '08).
there were negotiations this month and last month for an event/lecture on my travels at the Velaslavasay Panorama, but the booking schedule and my schedule have not been compatible so far - but i have not abandoned hope! the Panorama is just an incredible place, where one may see lectures, puppet shows (many with an Arctic theme), and most excitingly, the 360-degree North pole panoramic painting, The Efflugence of the North.
so! i'll be posting developments as they happen - i feel content that things are settling down now with the turning of the New Year and look forward to getting lots of work done.
meanwhile, feast your eyes on these amazing Swedish treats!!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
golden days
yesterday i arrived in Mo I Rana, Norway, after an 8 hour north-western horizontal bus ride across the entirety of Sweden. i was in a semi expensive guesthouse (but still the cheapest option in this town) last night, but i had no choice, as this once-daily bus to Norway got in too late to catch all the ferries and stuff i needed. at least breakfast was included.
on the other hand, i went to the supermarket and for 73 NOK / $12 approx, i got lots of food and veggies and fruits and juice: avocado tomato and smøreost (butter-cheese), bread, beet salad, some nectarines and greentea and lime juice. oh and pretzlesticks for tomorrow. i am heartened to know it's possible to eat well from the supermarkets at least here, although maybe i have been away from the US for so long that spending $12 for what i bought today seems normal now....
from now on i will try not to put off updating this blog like i have in the past weeks: too much to describe. but honestly i was just too busy living and doing things, and it's not always so easy to set myself up with my laptop in the kinds of places i end up in.
now i shall recount my adventures, illustrated in shyly taken but well-meaning snapshots, starting from after the Midsummer holidays.
Joustijärvi, Finland
as i mentioned, my last destination in Finland was to be the family home and farm of the Kanabro brothers, some 60km north of the Arctic Circle.
Matti lives in Rovaniemi, but Ville currently lives and works on the farm alongside his parents, tending to, among other things: Highland cattle, a cow, sheep, chopping trees and moving logs in the forest for various uses, fixing up the other farm and house they own. the working week was monday-saturday.
the big house. the wood details on the windows and porches are traditional to Karelia
the barn and the cow pen in the distance
fields where the sheep hang out and the river in the distance
their mom, Kaija, grows lots of geraniums aka my favorite flower of all time
she also grows cucumbers, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, and, this year, wine grapes
Kaija Kanabro with Huotko the cat (camera shy)
Aslak, father of Huotko and cat about town
the first full day, the task was to move a giant pile of wood about 20 meters (?) to a shed. it took a few hours between me, Ville and a wheelbarrow.
the woodpile in it's new home
cow that lives next to the woodpile.
next, i accompanied Ville while he went to feed the crazy Highland cows that live on the other farm.
the usual schedule of the day around the farm, though flexible, was this: wake up between 6-10, eat breakfast around 10 in the morning, coffee and sweet breads for lunch around 2, supper at around 8 or 9, and then more miscellaneous work till 11 or midnight, then bed.
one afternoon, Ville showed me a really awesome thing. this was the artefacts of a game he and his brother had dedicately played for about 10 years as children, consisting of elaborate and evolving characters and situations and locations with various toy animals. there was even a serial comic book (in color) based on the adventures of these little guys, the longest of which i believe was over 100 pages long. oh there is also a feature length soap-opera/war movie in the works too.
we set up a little scene to get the full effect, heres a sneak peek
fighting the law, but the law won
more money more problems
the little guys even had home made clothing, including this hat embroidered with "SAN JOSE SHARKS" on it. yes!
in the middle of the week we went to Rovaniemi for a night to check out Orkestar Business Class playing at the Jutajaiset Folklore Festival.
mural by Samuli Kontio
classy
some of the drunken older ladies were going positively nuts and blowing kisses
then it was back to the farm
tunturri in the distance - a type of hill/mountain i don't think we have in the US?
earning my keep
and feeding the cows buns !!
farm boy Ville
inevitably, my time there was all too short, and it was soon time to go. i'm already missing everyone. what a special family - so kind and close, just so postitive altogether. äiti (mother) gifted me with some salmon for my trip and i was off. thank you Matti, Ville, and their äiti and isä (father)!
in Tornio, Finland - the last town before Sweden - i stopped to check out the tiny Eastern Orthodox church i had read about. lovely!
crossing the border to Sweden
a giant cheese slicer sculpture on the road to Umeå - why is Sweden so cool?
Umeå, Sweden
arrived in Umeå around 11:30pm, with way too much stuff. i was to CouchSurf with an awesome guy named Jonas for one night, but ended up staying for two since i had never been to Umeå (beautiful), the migration service business took about 5 minutes, and the weather was amazing
Jonas
i have concluded that Sweden must be the most idyllic country on earth. i don't know what it was, but walking through this park towards the river, through the shady trees and sunny sun, i felt very content
Jonas took me to a little outdoor historical museum about energy/hydroelectricity he used to visit as a child.
this diorama illustrated the water cycle. the mechanized cloud moves around
something about socks?
underground
afterwards, we went swimming at the lake. my first swim of the season
thanks Jonas!
Nordland, Norway
here are some images taken from the bus to Mo I Rana. please excuse the dark blob in some of them, apparently my lens has acquired some sort of fiber which i can't figure out how to get rid of, and i don't have photoshop on this computer yet
Norway is heart-stopping beautiful, and i haven't even made it to the coast yet. Mo I Rana, though a juxtaposition of the epic steel mill (uses more power than the municipality of Oslo ) and quaint small town, is a pretty nice place and the people are seriously friendly. as i was crossing the street yesterday, i gave a flick-of-the-wrist "thanks" to the Mercedes waiting for me to cross. they responded by honking and waving and smiling energetically...i must admit that after being in Finland for 2.5 months, this caught me off guard - public niceness!
well i am off to take a shower and then stuff my things back into my already overstuffed bag before checking out and killing time at the bus station. as i've mentioned before, the place i'll be staying with for the next few weeks doesn't have the internet, and i don't know yet of anywhere on the island to use it. here is the post address where i will be staying:
Elisa Lopez
c/o K. & M. Randecker, Hestmonvågen
N-8197 Storselsøy, NORWAY
i haven't asked the people if i can receive mail here, & i'll only be there for about 3 weeks, so don't send anything unless it's totally crucial. i guess that it's for now. see you when i see you...
on the other hand, i went to the supermarket and for 73 NOK / $12 approx, i got lots of food and veggies and fruits and juice: avocado tomato and smøreost (butter-cheese), bread, beet salad, some nectarines and greentea and lime juice. oh and pretzlesticks for tomorrow. i am heartened to know it's possible to eat well from the supermarkets at least here, although maybe i have been away from the US for so long that spending $12 for what i bought today seems normal now....
from now on i will try not to put off updating this blog like i have in the past weeks: too much to describe. but honestly i was just too busy living and doing things, and it's not always so easy to set myself up with my laptop in the kinds of places i end up in.
now i shall recount my adventures, illustrated in shyly taken but well-meaning snapshots, starting from after the Midsummer holidays.
Joustijärvi, Finland
as i mentioned, my last destination in Finland was to be the family home and farm of the Kanabro brothers, some 60km north of the Arctic Circle.
Matti lives in Rovaniemi, but Ville currently lives and works on the farm alongside his parents, tending to, among other things: Highland cattle, a cow, sheep, chopping trees and moving logs in the forest for various uses, fixing up the other farm and house they own. the working week was monday-saturday.
the big house. the wood details on the windows and porches are traditional to Karelia
the barn and the cow pen in the distance
fields where the sheep hang out and the river in the distance
their mom, Kaija, grows lots of geraniums aka my favorite flower of all time
she also grows cucumbers, tomatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, and, this year, wine grapes
Kaija Kanabro with Huotko the cat (camera shy)
Aslak, father of Huotko and cat about town
the first full day, the task was to move a giant pile of wood about 20 meters (?) to a shed. it took a few hours between me, Ville and a wheelbarrow.
the woodpile in it's new home
cow that lives next to the woodpile.
next, i accompanied Ville while he went to feed the crazy Highland cows that live on the other farm.
the usual schedule of the day around the farm, though flexible, was this: wake up between 6-10, eat breakfast around 10 in the morning, coffee and sweet breads for lunch around 2, supper at around 8 or 9, and then more miscellaneous work till 11 or midnight, then bed.
one afternoon, Ville showed me a really awesome thing. this was the artefacts of a game he and his brother had dedicately played for about 10 years as children, consisting of elaborate and evolving characters and situations and locations with various toy animals. there was even a serial comic book (in color) based on the adventures of these little guys, the longest of which i believe was over 100 pages long. oh there is also a feature length soap-opera/war movie in the works too.
we set up a little scene to get the full effect, heres a sneak peek
fighting the law, but the law won
more money more problems
the little guys even had home made clothing, including this hat embroidered with "SAN JOSE SHARKS" on it. yes!
in the middle of the week we went to Rovaniemi for a night to check out Orkestar Business Class playing at the Jutajaiset Folklore Festival.
mural by Samuli Kontio
classy
some of the drunken older ladies were going positively nuts and blowing kisses
then it was back to the farm
tunturri in the distance - a type of hill/mountain i don't think we have in the US?
earning my keep
and feeding the cows buns !!
farm boy Ville
inevitably, my time there was all too short, and it was soon time to go. i'm already missing everyone. what a special family - so kind and close, just so postitive altogether. äiti (mother) gifted me with some salmon for my trip and i was off. thank you Matti, Ville, and their äiti and isä (father)!
in Tornio, Finland - the last town before Sweden - i stopped to check out the tiny Eastern Orthodox church i had read about. lovely!
crossing the border to Sweden
a giant cheese slicer sculpture on the road to Umeå - why is Sweden so cool?
Umeå, Sweden
arrived in Umeå around 11:30pm, with way too much stuff. i was to CouchSurf with an awesome guy named Jonas for one night, but ended up staying for two since i had never been to Umeå (beautiful), the migration service business took about 5 minutes, and the weather was amazing
Jonas
i have concluded that Sweden must be the most idyllic country on earth. i don't know what it was, but walking through this park towards the river, through the shady trees and sunny sun, i felt very content
Jonas took me to a little outdoor historical museum about energy/hydroelectricity he used to visit as a child.
this diorama illustrated the water cycle. the mechanized cloud moves around
something about socks?
underground
afterwards, we went swimming at the lake. my first swim of the season
thanks Jonas!
Nordland, Norway
here are some images taken from the bus to Mo I Rana. please excuse the dark blob in some of them, apparently my lens has acquired some sort of fiber which i can't figure out how to get rid of, and i don't have photoshop on this computer yet
Norway is heart-stopping beautiful, and i haven't even made it to the coast yet. Mo I Rana, though a juxtaposition of the epic steel mill (uses more power than the municipality of Oslo ) and quaint small town, is a pretty nice place and the people are seriously friendly. as i was crossing the street yesterday, i gave a flick-of-the-wrist "thanks" to the Mercedes waiting for me to cross. they responded by honking and waving and smiling energetically...i must admit that after being in Finland for 2.5 months, this caught me off guard - public niceness!
well i am off to take a shower and then stuff my things back into my already overstuffed bag before checking out and killing time at the bus station. as i've mentioned before, the place i'll be staying with for the next few weeks doesn't have the internet, and i don't know yet of anywhere on the island to use it. here is the post address where i will be staying:
Elisa Lopez
c/o K. & M. Randecker, Hestmonvågen
N-8197 Storselsøy, NORWAY
i haven't asked the people if i can receive mail here, & i'll only be there for about 3 weeks, so don't send anything unless it's totally crucial. i guess that it's for now. see you when i see you...
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