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October 31, 2004

Kayaking

It's nearly midnight and I'm back safe and sound from my kayaking trip. Actually, I've been back for hours, but have just now found time to sit down and catch up on my email and Internet.

The kayaking trip was great. We met at the school around 11:30 a.m., and unloaded all of our stuff in the common room. Kevin has his own kayak, so he paddled over to the Karlskrona Kayak Club (Karlskrona Eskimåklubb) while Mitch and I rode our bikes over to Langö.

The kayak club is a fun little house with a dock and a row of storage facilities. The guy at the club outfitted us with kayaks, spray skirts, life vests, paddles, and kayaks, and sent us off. Kevin and Mitch both have significant kayaking experience, so I was in good hands. We had managed to borrow tents from Amity and Scotty, so along with Kevin's tent, we each had a roomy place to sleep. I borrowed David's sleeping bag, which was rated to -5°C, but still left my feet cold. It was, however, the roomiest sleeping bag I've ever used, allowing me to do a full 360° roll without getting tangled up.

After a detailed inventory of gear, everything was stored away in the kayaks and we set off. We paddled for a little over an hour and found our way to Skärva, a little village past Nattraby. One of the small group presentations on Friday was about Skärva and the Wachtmeister family who lives there and runs an "ecobutik" of natural foods. None of us had been there yet, so we pulled our kayaks up on the shore and did a little hiking. We weren't exactly sure which way we were going, so hiking through the soggy forest was both beautiful and mysterious. After a while, we ran into a fence that declared we were entering the Skärva nature reserve, which we knew was close to the ecobutik. More wandering (this time more purposefully) eventually led us to the correct location. We met up with Henrik Wachtmeister (who had been at the group presentation) and purchased a few snacks. He graciously allowed us to camp in the nature reserve (which he runs) and even provided us with firewood for a campfire.

We hiked back to the campsite with armfuls of firewood (I was about ready to give up and throw down the wood on the side of the path when we finally reached the site), and paddled our kayaks around to the new location. By then, it was getting dark, and we scrambled to put up the tents and unload the gear before darkness fell. It's interesting to note that everyone claims their tent is "really easy" to put together, and yet when the sun is rapidly fading, it never seems very intuitive. In the end, both Kevin and Mitch had to help me with my tent. As they put it—it doesn't matter if it's put together correctly as long as it stands up. And they were right!

After the tents were up, the next big adventure was getting the fire started. (Thankfully, Kevin had brought a tiny gas stove, so we knew that even if we couldn't get the fire started, we still had a warm meal to eat.) We had two main problems: 1) we didn't have any kindling and 2) the wood was damp. What followed was an extremely comical episode of karate-chopping the wood, sawing at the wood with Swiss army knives, and gently coaxing a precariously balanced sculpture of paper, twigs, and wood shavings. After several failed attempts, the guys finally got it working (they really are quite a talented pair!) and we had a merry fire for the rest of the night.

Dinner (which Kevin and Mitch cooked—I really did not contribute much to this weekend) consisted of Tex-Mex pasta, crayfish, bread, beans, clementines, cashews, almonds, and various other goodies. Dessert, of course, was chocolate. All of which was complemented with red wine.

We stayed up around the campfire for a couple hours, marveling at how nice the weather was. The day had been completely gray, with the occasional sprinkle—but nothing serious. I got more wet from my inefficient paddling than from the rain. The main concern for me was the wind, which made paddling harder and me colder. Once we pulled into the campsite, however, the wind died down and we could see a beautiful glassy sea all the way across the water to Karlskrona.

After chatting about conspiracy theories, male/female interaction among Swedes, and the dangers of microchip implants, we headed off to bed. Aside from freezing feet, I was quite comfortable. I bravely killed several spiders that had crawled in my tent and went to sleep.

We were up the next morning bright and early (well, the boys were up brighter and earlier than me…). Kevin had made tea, so I warmed up with a hot drink and contemplated the day ahead. We managed to break camp relatively quickly, repacked the kayaks, and shoved off.

We spent the rest of the morning paddling around past Dragsö and through Karlskrona. During this time the clouds blew away, revealing a startlingly blue sky. We stopped off at the school to unload our gear, then paddled back to the kayak club to turn in our kayaks. After the necessary drying and storing of the kayaks, and the replacement of the spray skirts and life vests, we reorganized our remaining gear and parted ways. Kevin paddled back to the school in his kayak, which Mitch and I rode our bikes.

At the school, we indulged in a little post-kayaking feast, eating most of the remaining food. Then we resorted our gear, making sure everyone had their proper belongings. Then Mitch and I rode our bikes back to Kungsmarksvägen. I was exhausted, and barely made it up the last hill. But as Mitch pointed out, people who climb Mount Everest but don't make it back down (i.e. they DIE on the mountain) don't have their names entered in the book. It was therefore postulated that if I didn't make it back to Kungsmarksvägen that afternoon, I would not get credit for the kayaking trip at all.

Once I was home, I stripped off the 15 layers of clothing and hopping in the bath. Roya and Jess had cleaned the apartment while I had been gone, and it was lovely to walk in and find a spotless bathroom. I had a long soak, nearly drowning several times as I dropped off to sleep. Eventually, I pulled myself up and finished off with a hot shower. Still in my robe with my hair in a towel, I crawled into my unmade bed (laundry from Friday night—including my sheets—hadn't been fully dried when I left) and promptly fell asleep under my bare duvet.

I had the best intentions to get up and dressed. Tomomi was singing in a concert at the old church tonight, and I wanted to go hear her. But once I lay down there was no hope. I slept solidly for a couple hours, then woke up at 7 p.m. and spent a couple hours unpacking and cleaning up, and going over final edits for our group paper.

At some point, Roya came home from the concert with Heather, Laura, and Mitch in tow. They prepared a lovely meal while Birte (who had also arrived) and I made the edits to the document. We ate and engaged in a post-dinner massage chain, which was pure bliss. My arms and shoulders had been getting increasingly sore since I turned in my kayak, and 30 minutes of back massage was the perfect antidote.

So now I'm in my room, with the sheets finally on the bed, and edits to the paper done (for now—we're still meeting with the whole group tomorrow at lunch to make the final, FINAL edits). I have class at 9 a.m. tomorrow, when we'll begin the second term of our program. We're expecting a guest lecturer, but I can't remember who it is, nor have I read the assigned article. Hopefully I'll have enough time tomorrow morning to quickly skim over it before class begins.

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