Fired.

I should be fired from my blogging position.



Here are things that I've been doing that preclude me writing this damn thing:



--freaking out about leaving

--helping edit the English Audio Guide for the museum as the only native speaker that was in the building at the time, then being invited to a "little art opening" at the Moderna Museet, which is essentially the Museum of Modern Art. One of the people who works at the museum has been taking pictures on his way "till och från" work on his bike (well, I assume he gets off the bike when taking pictures?), and this was a little miniexhibit of his work. We ate pepparkakor (ginger cookies) that might have been left over from Christmas with blue cheese from a tube, which were DELICIOUS, and drank port...and then white wine, and more white wine, and more white wine, and before we knew it, we were taking stupid pictures with priceless pieces of Swedish Modern Art. See: my facebook picture, although most of you already have and HATE IT.

--finding new knäckebröd toppings, like butter, chevre, apricot jelly, and radishes. So much better than it sounds.

--Visiting Västervik. My perennial favorites, Tommy and Odd, plus SO MANY other Bergstöms, hosted me for a weekend a little while ago in their town of Västervik. It was amazing, obviously, for so many reasons. I got there late on Saturday, and they fed me müseli with 50% fruit and nuts, and then...bread with about just as much...apparently everything in Västervik is 50% nuts, HAH (Odd's joke, not mine)! We went out for a drink or three, and I got to sleep on the Vega! As I think I've talked about a little before, Sunday was an öppet skepp, an open ship, and we just sat around in the sunshine on the beautiful boat. I got a tour of Linnéa, helped Kerstin decorate cakes, and mainly just drank coffee on deck and pretended I was being helpful. Late in the afternoon I got to visit Odd and Annika's beautiful house, built in the...18th century I think? Maybe 19th. You'd think I could tell. I was chauffered on the back of a bike, which requires way more leg muscle than I would have thought. Their house is just so....there's not really a word. It's just exactly what I want when I own a house. We had a big barbeque with both families, and I got to listen to SO MUCH SWEDISH. I've made this really funny joke about 100 times already, but it's like I'm practicing to be 90 years old when no one remembers to speak loudly enough for Grandma to hear...I've gotten so much good daydreaming in. Monday, before I took the FOUR HOUR bus home to Stockholm, Egil, the patriarch, gave me a tour of their boatyard, which I loved. It's in Gamleby, which is about a 15 minute drive through beautiful, beautiful countryside from Västervik. It's so wonderful to know that they do almost everything themselves, and that all these techniques and all this knowledge is being preserved and passed down. Did I mention the FOUR HOUR BUS?

--I've tried three different kinds of fish, can you believe it? The first was at a nice company get-together. I had had a glass or two of champagne, followed by almost literally covering myself in alkoholfri champagne, which smells SO BAD, somehow worse than regular champagne, which I guess I haven't spilled on myself enough to make accurate stench comparisons, but ugh. I guess I reeked of...non-alcohol. But then there was dinner at the new Titanic Exhibit, which was delightful. I saw the salmon, passed over it, had another sip of my Pripps Blå 2.2% alcohol beer (almost alkoholfri....something about being at work, blah blah blah), and decided to go for it. I was told it was very good salmon, so it was a good fish to try if I was going to at all....and....I actually had four or five bites! Now that I've written that, I feel like an absolute child, but if I could get a little congratulations, that would be great. Then when I was at Odd's house for the barbeque, they grilled some fish...but sort of as a filler, to make sure we had enough food for everyone. I had made up my mind to try some of that as well, even though Annika told me NOT TO DO IT....and she was obviously right. No offense meant to her choice of frozen fish filets, but it was not something I would ever eat again, let's say.

The third was trying herring on Midsommarafton (Midsummer's Eve)!!! Herring! Luckily, Erik's preferred quick herring fix is senapsill, or herring in mustard, which actually SOUNDS delicious to me, even though I know I won't like it. We had svensk farskpotatis, which are essentially new potatoes. They are super cheap and super delicious. You have to wash a ton of dirt off them, which I think is wonderful, although most Swedes consider it this everyday danger because of the CRAZY BACTERIA that live in the dirt. Do we have different dirt? I don't disbelieve them, but that's from a girl who washes very few of the fruits and vegetables she gets from the store. Have I been lulled into bacterial complacency by the supermarkets of America? On the other hand, I never get sick, so....

anyways, HERRING. We had darling little farskpotatis cooked with dill, and I tried half a tiny herring filet with lots of delicious mustard. And....could eat it, but chose not to continue. What did help was flädersnaps, which, now that I look it up, is elderberry flavored schnapps. So good. Apparently considered on the "girly" side of the schnapps scale, but that was enough for me.

--Some of you might know/remember Cresa, my "RA" when I was a freshman and she was a senior. I randomly talked to her a few weeks ago, and she's in Thailand, obviously. Last I had spoken to her we were both Managers in Training at different Anthropologies, which sucked equally for both of us. I always called the Nashville store hoping to hear her voice, and she always crossed her fingers that when she called any Connecticut store I would pick up. She was in Boulder, I was in Boston. I think that really sums up our relationship. Also, I say "she's in Thailand" like it's a ridiculous thing, but here I am in Stockholm so....

She mentioned that she had a friend in Uppsala, and, thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I've been hanging out with him a few times over the past weeks. He is the one who actually convinced me to try the senapsill, and also gustavskorv, which is HORSE MEAT SAUSAGE. It took a little getting used to, but with a little butter and bread, it's really very good. But I thought of Mother when I tried the herring, since she always wanted me to, and Father when I tried the gustavskorv because of that time in Lugano when he chickened out and still is kicking himself.

--The rest of midsommarafton and that weekend were amazing. Midsommarafton was rainy and awful, which was disappointing. We also missed them putting up the midsommar poles around town, since breakfast ended up being at about 1100...whoops. We did wander around Uppsala trying to find festivities, since they do last through the afternoon...but by the time we got there they were pretty much closing down due to the weather. After that, sill, snaps, och röd vin! The weather turned sunny, and we had dinner on his darling porch, veal with horseradish butter, more wine. We then headed over to his friend's apartment where they were finishing their midsommar dinner, and we had drinks with them. More Swedish, Swedish, Swedish, but this was different, since even though I can't tell what they're saying, there is a huge difference (obviously?) between 40-something conversation and 20-something conversation. We had wine and wine and wine, and went out in the wilderness of Uppsala to find seven different wildflowers to put under our pillows in order to dream about the person we will marry. Mine never ended up under my pillow, so now I'LL NEVER KNOW. But that's as traditionally midsommar-y as we got, which was just fine with me. Next year, which is what I keep telling myself.

I'm sure I'll think of more things, but that will be it for now.

Oh! And this afternoon we celebrated Vasamuseet being nominated (one of?) the area's best tourist attraction! Hooray! Like we didn't know that already. We had delicious cake (tårta), of course.

Tonight we are going to dinner at Blå Porten (www.blaporten.com, if i haven't given you the link yet) before going to the M. Ward show at a well-known Stockholm klubb called Debaser (http://www.debaser.se/hyr/medis/) I don't know if I could ask for a more perfect evening.

See you all so freaking soon,
Arianna