Tagged: americanabroad

19
Nov
2006

THERE’S SO MUCH THAT WE SHARE, THAT IT’S TIME WE’RE AWARE

On Friday, Anders and Karin accompanied me to dinner with the AWC at a Thai restaurant in Malmö (Martin was at a birthday party). There were 13 people signed up for the dinner, but after 20 minutes only 7 had showed up so one of the other girls and I proceeded to make a few phone calls to the missing people to make sure they hadn’t forgotten the event. I called Katie and when she answered the phone, said brightly, “Hey! Did you forget it was Thai Night?” only to hear her catch her breath and try to stop a...

24
Oct
2006

IT’S LIKE A PING-PONG GAME IN MY BRAIN

Back and forth and back and forth I left work early this afternoon and picked up the kids and took them to a big playplace in Lund that was holding an English-speaking afternoon. Turns out the playplace is owned by an American guy and he was looking for a way to meet other English-speaking people so he planned a 2-hour get-together and put the word out everywhere he could think of. One of my first reactions after hearing this, was well, why haven’t you joined one of the 2 expat organizations that are right here in the area? But of...

23
Oct
2006

AMERICAN DERRING-DO

I think I need a Pandora intervention. I listen to pandora.com in the evenings when I’m on the computer, working on web stuff, or editing or reading blogs or writing journal entries. It’s gotten so that the majority of the songs they play are ones that I give a thumbs up to. Pandora has a feature, however, whereby you can bookmark songs you especially like for future reference and I only bookmark songs I’ve never heard before or that are by artists that are new to me. I suppose the idea is that I should eventually go back and BUY...

14
Oct
2006

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Newsflash! Manic fireflies swarm Eiffel Tower at night! Sitting outside a café on the corner of the Boulevard de Grenelle at a tiny table with drinks in front of us, as the endless streams of Parisians eddied and swirled past, it made me smile to see how many people in Paris actually DO walk home from work with a baguette clutched tight in one hand as they pull pieces from it to nibble on with the other. It made me smile to see the flower shops open until 9 at night, their wares overflowing from inside the shop to cover...

08
Oct
2006

HELP ME, INTERNETS-KENOBI, YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE

Tomorrow I am working half a day and then taking a flight to Charles de Gaulle airport for an off-site meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris. We arrive around 6 p.m. in the evening on Monday and will also hopefully have some time Tuesday evening to do some sightseeing or enjoy the city. I’ve been to Paris, once, with my family when I was 15. We didn’t have the best experience while traveling there because someone tried to steal my mom’s purse as we were boarding the Metro with all our suitcases, and also because on the train (and I...

24
Jul
2006

WE DO NOT REMEMBER DAYS, WE REMEMBER MOMENTS

Every trip leaves tracks in the mind, memories that slowly fray around the edges. I was surprised that the people of Scotland were, on the whole, so short. I was amused that every time I heard a mother call or reprimand a child, his name was inevitably Alastair or Conor. I was more apprehensive about riding in vehicles on the “wrong” side of the road than I thought I would be; using my own neck muscles and mindpower to keep the buses from tipping off the edges of cliffs and from whamming into oncoming traffic that was on the wrong...

21
Jul
2006

MARVELOUS MULL

No one has said “Top of the mornin’ to ye” but Karin’s been called a wee lassie at least twice. We’re in Tobermory and tomorrow is our last day in Scotland. We took the bus from Inverness on Tuesday all the way to the west coast and the lovely little seaside town of Oban, where I have officially left my heart. Hot and sunshiney, with the glare off the water rolling in swirly psychedelics, we dumped our suitcases at the hostel and got immediately on a boat. Out to the seal colony we went, and saw seals, which, if you...

17
Jul
2006

INVERNESS IDYLL

The purple of the heather on the moors as we passed through the Highland mountains was breathtaking. It wasn’t a soft, muted lavender at all; on the contrary, the purples of Scotland are royal and insistent. The heather, the thistles, the big pom-poms of clover, foxglove and the invasive purple marshflowers I’ve seen everywhere near water. The hills are all rolly here, green and purple and plump. I could be quite content, happy to listen all day long to the Scots talk around me in their plummy rolly accents (just like their hills). I have no idea if the mountains...

12
Jul
2006

BONNY DAYS IN EDINBURGH

The evening sun is shining over Arthur’s Seat and Anders and the kids have set out to climb it while the sun is still up, so I’m grabbing the opportunity to post an entry at the internet café around the corner from our lodgings. We’re staying in a sterile dormitory apartment that is quite roomy for the 4 of us as it has a long corridor with 4 separate dorm rooms opening off it, a kitchen, and a bathroom. No other amenities, really, it’s barebones for students here. The hostel we stayed at the first night in Glasgow was much...

09
Jul
2006

BEANNACHD LEAT

May the best ye hae ivver seen be the warst ye’ll ivver see. May the moose* ne’er lea’ yer girnal wi a tear-drap in its ee. May ye aye keep hail an hertie till ye’r auld eneuch tae dee. May ye aye juist be sae happie as A wuss ye aye tae be. May the best you have ever seen be the worst you will ever see. May the moose* never leave your grain store with a tear drop in its eye. May you always stay hale and hearty until you are old enough to die. May you still be...