aroundeuro2

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Home

Strange being back.


My last few days in Swede land were the kind that feel really long when you're there, but when you look back, seemed to fly by. We went to the North to go skiing for a few days. For various reasons including the rain, I didn't ski. I hiked.

Strapped on my used combat boots bought in Stockholm for only three hundred crowns, pulled on three pairs of pants, turned up the music. And walked. For what seemed like ever. Up what they call a hill, which to this Red River Valley girl, feels like some kind of mountain. And thought. About what has happened and what is to come, those pesky New Year's resolutions.

I know it sounds like questions the MAXSA (Maximizing Study Abroad) class we all hated would ask, but what I've learned from this experience. I guess my lessons have been in culture, history, office situations, what it's like living with girls from Harlem, Boston, and Egypt in one small space, the Swedish Yule, travel. That cab drivers in Athens will assuredly swindle young Americans. That jumping off a cliff into the sea will probably be one of the bigger thrills of my life. That for better or worse, I will be a girl from the midwest at heart.


Classes start Tuesday. The nerd in me is way excited to take classes of her choice:

Self as Healer
Intro to Editing
Sign Language
Social Justice Core
History as Memoir, Memoir as History
Performance as Social Change

Am also in the interview stages for an editorial assistant position at the U of M's alumni magazine. Cross your fingers! Moving to the new apartment with the new improved friendly clean roommates on Sunday. Good change ahead.

Thank you so much for your cyber support. Honestly, whenever I saw a comment or Mom told me about someone reading the page, my heart warmed. It has been such a useful tool for processing the experience and as a way to remember stories. I have enjoyed it so much that I think I will continue, writing about this student life. So thanks -- it was a good trip and I'm happy you were there by way of blog.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year!

Coming to cold comfy Sweden where the days are short and the laze time long, feels much like stepping off a Tilt-a-Whirl ride at the fair. Spinning round round, watching life whiz by, laughing breathlessly. And just before you know it, the red circle twists to a halt. Take that first shaky step, blink twice to set your world upright. There you stand. In a place with a slower pace but is altogether foreign and stoic and...

not London. Not home. Not anything you have ever experienced.

At the dinner table understanding five words of what was said. Walking everywhere cause gas costs ten crowns a litre. Being 'The American'. This American conundrum has caused a mini upheaval in my belief system. I am all at once patriotic defender and liberal protester. The criticized and the glorified. I hear all sides of the story,

Americans are all fat and use too much oil. Do you drive a car?
You are from America! That is soooo cool! Have you been to L.A.?
I can't understand why your country voted such an evil man into power. Can you explain why?
Where is Minnesota?
What is with all the guns in the US?

You name it, the under 20's of Avesta have asked about it. I am okay with the asking, but am made uncomfortable with hate America accusations above and beyond me. To these I want to say,

Hey! Take a step back assumption maker and mind your karma and hold your thoughts. Let's talk. Realize that not one person or event or government makes an entire culture. I did not ask to be born into the USofA, the giant violent powerhouse you hate. Still, we have have given good to the world and still, not everyone is a Bush loving cowboy and still, there are those who realize that change is possible. So lay off. And have a nice day.


These people have taught me to hold judgement when thinking of culture, people, events, anything really. To wait for all sides of the story. To take a step back, to see things from another one's reality. But okay. I hope you had a good new year night.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2007!