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January 12, 2005
Small Town Pleasures
It's amazing what sensory stimulation will do for a gray existence. Once again, the weather has turned foul in Sweden, with temperatures hovering just above freezing, overcast skies, and mist that just escapes being classified as a drizzle. But there are flowerpots in my window (two bunches of fuchsia-white-marigold pansies, a pot of primroses that range from he mildest butter to raging coral, and another pot that I don't know the name of—but they are beautiful deep pink), a lemongrass candle burning on the desk, and the mingling smells of papaya, mango, peach, and lime from my shower. It's so luxurious; I almost don't mind the horrid weather that promises to ruin the remainder of the week.
I have been awake since 4 a.m., and have caught up on long-overdue email. I have been thinking about my thesis, which will be based on the paper I just finished last night (well, I finished my part, and then passed it along to my group members for their additions). At some point, I will really need to get serious about it, but for the time being, I'm just avoiding the inevitable.
I was planning on biking to town, revisiting the ATM (for the additional $$ I need to pay rent and my student union fees), and getting some exercise, but I feel thwarted by the weather. Although it's not bitterly cold outside, once you get wet (and the mist just seems to seep into your bones) you are past hope. So I think I'll hang around the apartment for awhile, listening to my newest audiobook (His Dark Materials: Book 1) and making sure I am properly moisturized (I refuse to repeat the dry, itchy skin problem of early December). Then I'll probably take a bus downtown.
Incidentally, I got an email from our program leader a few days ago (maybe a week), that I just re-read with some alarm. He indicates that we will have a long weekend on January 22-24, after our final presentations are concluded. Now, I was under the impression that once the presentations were done (thus finishing the second term), we didn't have any classes scheduled for the rest of the year. Instead, we were supposed to be working full-time on our thesis, which included some group work, but nothing involving the whole class. If this assumption is correct, then why does he need to specify that there is a long weekend? Puzzling. I hope this doesn't wreck my plans to do lots of traveling during the next six months.
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One of the things I love about Karlskrona is its small town mentality. Even though I can't communicate with the majority of the locals, I feel quite at home here. The guys at Wayne's Coffee know that I like soy hazelnut lattes, and the receptionist at Karlskronahem definitely recognizes me every time I go in to complain. And biking downtown and back (14 km altogether—the weather turned sunny, although I still had to contend with gale force winds), I met four people from my program. It's so fun to know that every time you go out, you'll probably run into someone you know.
