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October 12, 2004
Home at Last
Today was full of ups and downs. I had my first run in with asthma since arriving in Sweden during my morning routine. Of course, it was my own fault. When I have a cold I'm more succeptible to asthma attacks, and that is further exacerbated when I'm running around. So of course, I overslept this morning, and in the subsequent rush to get out the door, I started wheezing. Ugly. I ended up having to use my inhaler and take a 20 minute "slow, deep breathing" respite before resuming progress. As a result, I had to move even slower, and had to forgo the bike for the bus--and to make a long story short, I didn't make it to class until nearly 11 a.m. I will be more careful in the future. I think the sudden shift to cold weather is also having an impact--I can tell that my lungs have a harder time adjusting when I come in from being out in the cold (like any time I ride my bike). What a pain.
Class was more causal loop diagrams--I'll refrain from rehashing the gory details.
I took the bus home after class and managed a quick nap before setting off for our program's Thanksgiving celebration. I collected a set of dinnerware and a frying pan and hopped on my bike (figuring the asthma had plenty of time to subside since the morning). I stopped off at Frukt Huset, picked up some milk and turkey salami (the closest thing I could find to sausage), and headed down to Minnervavagen, the campus dormitories. There I met up with nearly 40 other students (some from our program, some other international students) where we celebrated a Canadian/American Thanksgiving. Considering that we were cooking a complete Thanksgiving spread for 40 people in a tiny common room, we did amazingly well. There were two turkeys, a chicken, gravy, wild rice, brussel sprouts, stuffing, ligonberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, beet salad, glazed carrots, rolls, 10-grain bread, hummus, apple and pear cider, white wine, red wine, a nut loaf, apple pie, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie, ice cream, cookies, and other things that I can't seem to remember.
My contribution was gravy, made from a combination of chicken drippings, turkey salami (in place of the sausage), flour, and milk. It was the first time I'd tried making it on my own, and it came out surprisingly well--everyone was quite complimentary.
The meal was great, and it was really amazing to see so many people turn up for an event that was announced at the last minute and held on a weeknight (and especially when you consider that class ran until 4 p.m. that day!). Laura (as the chief Canadian representative) gave a brief talk on things she was thankful for. I really appreciated how she framed things in terms of sustainability--when our family does the "things I'm thankful for" routine, we rarely discuss environmental issues like:
* being thankful for the farmers who work 14 hours a day, 363 days a year, to harvest the food we enjoy
* being thankful for the soil fertility that allows good things to be grown (interesting to note that soil fertility is rapidly decreasing in nearly every part of the world!)
* being thankful for time to spend with friends
Anyway, it was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now I'm back home and ready to get into bed. We have ANOTHER day of causal loop diagrams
