The Dark Time

It has been such a long time since my last post.

I blame it on ‘the dark time’ here. During the dark time, it is very hard for me to motivate myself to do much of anything. It is a time of quiet and darkness and candles, and to sit in front of a computer screen didn’t much appeal to me at all. In some way it is better just to embrace the darkness and spend your evening in a softly lit room with warm light of candles, rather than sitting under fluorescent lights and the cold blue glare of a computer screen.

As it is, today I am sitting at my kitchen window with the sun blazing in on me, almost directly in my eyes but I don’t care.

For the folks back in Edmonton, today our sun sets at the time yours did back on Jan 5, just to put things in perspective.

So during ‘the dark time’, we escaped the worst part for a month by going to Edmonton for Christmas, which was wonderful to see friends and family and eat turkey.

After our first winter here, we realized that during ‘the dark time’ you need to force yourself to keep busy. In the lead-up to Christmas I kept myself busy by doing a lot of crafting and sewing,

yoga and pilates classes at Iksu, belly dance classes downtown, playing piano on my digital piano, Swedish classes at work, socializing with friends and of course, working. Scott has done the same, although less crafting and dancing, and more going to Iksu to workout and playing a lot of guitar. I’m really impressed how much he has been able to teach himself, having never played a musical instrument before. Sometimes we even ‘jam’ together, but mostly this has been restricted to acoustic versions of ‘Bad Religion’ songs.

So what now? The sun is coming back, day by day, minute by minute. I am sitting here still enjoying the hot sun shining in, and I have realized that right now at 1:45pm, the sun would have already set on our shortest day.

Well, my two year contract here is almost over (technically it ends the end of March), and we have decided to stick around here a bit longer. So if you haven’t planned a visit to us yet, you still have time!

It is amazing how fast 2 years goes by, and I’ve learned that Umeå is the type of place that opens itself up to you very slowly. Even though it feels like such a small town here, I am still, two years later, finding cute shops or cafes that I have never seen before.

Like the tiny little Folkets Bio, tucked away in a yellow, windowless house in a residential area.

Or the second-hand sport shop, tucked away just off Kungsgatan, where we went today and each bought skates for 100Kr each.

Projects for the rest of winter…

start planning our garden for the summer.

recover this sofa with new, brighter fabric.

and maybe plan a trip above the arctic circle to visit the ice hotel at Jukkasjärvi

(this one is called the Frigid Dare Suite)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Hey Y’all.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

We had a nice one here! Although Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday here, or pretty much anywhere else in Europe from what I figure, we managed to still celebrate it. We were kindly extended an invitation for Thanksgiving dinner from the only other Canadian person I have met here! They had to special order a turkey from Germany three weeks in advance, but it was definitely worth the effort. (especially since it wasn’t any of MY effort :)

It was also a very special holiday because we shared it with a bunch of Swedish people who had never celebrated Thanksgiving before. They were very interested in our traditions. They had never eaten a turkey before, so they definitely didn’t know that turkey is good on its own, but the true purpose of a turkey is really that it is just a vehicle for making stuffing. And that stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving. And Christmas too for that matter. The Swedes we shared the evening with had never eaten stuffing before, or turkey, or even cranberry sauce for that matter, so it was neat to be able to share that with them.

As Canadians, we always think we don’t really have traditions or culture outside of Molson beer, Tim Hortons, and Hockey, but I’m slowly realizing we do. We have a lot more to offer. Like Maple syrup, lumberjacks, and Nanaimo bars.

These Canadian thoughts have been with me since celebrating Thanksgiving here, and also planning ahead for my work’s “international dinner” next month, where I am supposed to make a ‘Canadian dish’…anyone have any ideas? all I can think of is Nanaimo bars or Kraft Dinner!

And since it has been too long since I wrote, here is a little update on our garden adventure this summer:

We grew lotsa carrots, some small beets, lotsa radishes, a couple tiny onions (next time won’t start from seed), lettuce, coriander, dill, and a few peas. All the zucchini and pumpkin died. We enjoyed it so much we are already thinking about next summer!

We Visited Hoth

We visited Hoth…and didn’t even know it.

It is perhaps a little delayed, but I thought I would write a little bit about our holidays around Sweden and our trip to Norway with my ma and pa. I especially wanted to update you on an interesting li’l tidbit I only just found out today, but I’ll get to that later.

Summertime in Umeå is a pretty wonderful time. Now that I know to expect work and businesses to nearly shut up shop completely for two months, I am much more adapted to the slow pace of life here in the summer. It is very different from Edmonton, in the sense that Edmonton really comes to life in the summer, with so many activities and festivals going on (I miss you, Edmonton Fringe Festival).

The beauty of Umeå is that it is so quiet here, that summertime is really just a time for relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, and spending time outside. A typical Swedish summer day would be spent with a morning ‘kaffe och fika’ outside as a picnic, then maybe a cykel ride on one of the trails out to the Kolonilottet trädgård (or in your own garden if you have one), then probably a picnic dinner -grill style- at the side of Nydala lake, followed by an evening in the floating sauna on top of the lake. The especially lucky Swedes will spend all their days out at their red-painted sommarstuga (summer cabin) gardening, swimming, cycling, hiking, berry picking, kayaking etc.

We’ve begun to enjoy these types of activities ourselves, and we were very happy that my parents came to visit at such a time that the weather really allowed us to do a lot of these things. We spent time together around Umeå, and I even learned a few new historical things about the city that I never knew before.

We also spent a day out at an island south of Umea called Norrbyskär, which was once a working colony island for a wood mill. It was very interesting to see a ‘model society’ where the mill worked with the philosophy that if you treat your workers well and provide them with good living conditions, they will work hard and show loyalty to you. In some ways this reflects the socialist principles of modern Swedish society which still stands strong today.

From Umeå we ventured a bit further afield, and wanted to spend our holiday seeing a bit of Norway. We flew to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway (pop. 250,000). It is a city with an amazing history. It was the capital of Norway long before the creation of Oslo/Kristiania. Bergen’s roots reach back as long as 1070 AD, which for me is still very hard to comprehend things that old. It was an important city in the Hanseatic league in the 13^th century, and has a rich history of being a important trading centre. The old wharf, Bryggen, is now a protected UNESCO heritage site.

Bergen is also a former culture capital of Europe (Umeå is set to be a culture capital in 2014), and in it stands the home and final resting place of Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. Grieg is most famous for composing music inspired by Norwegian folk tunes and Norwegian scenery, but he is absolutely most famous for composing the incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Peer Gynt’. Still don’t know who I’m talking about? Check the link. You will know immediately.

After hearing the soaring melodies of Grieg were inspired in part, by Norwegian nature, we spent a day-trip outside of Bergen getting inspired by the beautiful scenery of the Bergen-Myrdal, Myrdal- Flåm railways, which are listed as two of the most scenic rail-lines in the world. The Flåm railway was especially stunning as the train switches back and forth along a very steep gradient as we made our way down from the plateau to the water level of the fjord. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon cruising a portion of the Sognefjord. The scenery is so spectacular I was a little disappointed, but not entirely surprised, to find that my camera failed to capture how truly beautiful it is. It must be seen to be believed. (hint hint: come visit us!!)

From Bergen, we caught the train from to Oslo, which also was an incredibly beautiful journey. We left from the fjords and inlets around Bergen and slowly crept up and over the Norwegian mountains, passing glaciers and mountain plateaus along the way.

The train paused in a place called Finse. It is the highest train station in the Norwegian train system, resting at 1,222m above sea level. It looked so beautiful there, I was really wishing we would have had time to get out and do some hiking there. As I sat down to write this post, I googled Finse to see what I could find out about it, and it turns out Finse is where the scenes for the ice planet ‘Hoth’ were filmed for the movie ‘Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back’. My favourite Star Wars geek can hardly believe that we were actually in Hoth, and didn’t have time to look for any banthas, wompas, tauntauns or AT-AT walkers. Oh well. Next time.

When we arrived in Oslo, we were dropped into a great, cosmopolitan city. We really enjoyed wandering around town and even shopping a little bit. We got to see some beautiful art at the National Gallery, including famous works by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch – such as ‘the scream’, ‘madonna’, and ‘puberty’. We also toured the Royal Palace in Oslo, which was very interesting. We got to go into Palace rooms which are still regularly used, like the bedroom where visiting Heads of State have stayed such as Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. I must mention though, the ticket system for touring the palace was the strangest I have ever encountered. I’m not sure I even understand it now, but it somehow involved the fact that you can only buy tickets at 7-11.

We also saw some beautiful historical folk buildings at the NorskFolkmuseum which showed the traditional way of life of the Norwegian people. The most impressive to see were the wooden Stave churches. Having just seen the movie "The Two Towers" on TV last night, you can certainly see the influence of the Norse culture on J.R.R. Tolkien.

We had a wonderful time visiting Norway, and were happy we got to experience so much in one short trip AND spend time with my parents at the same time. Beautiful nature, astounding history, and world class art and culture. Would I go back to Norway? Definitely! But future trips to Norway would include a visit to a really remote, natural place like Finse, or a trip WAY up north to the Lofoten Islands, Tromsø, or Nordkapp. Again, the more we travel, the more we see that there is so much in this world. I wonder if I will ever be able to see all the places I want to see.

New Music: A Belated Review of My Glastonbury Experience

Looking for some new music to listen to? In case anyone out there wondered which bands I actually managed to see at Glastonbury in amongst the hundreds of acts that performed that weekend… here is my minute by minute account.

I hope you find something new to listen to! or even just watch a video to see how enormous the crowds were. Enjoy!

Friday!

Detroit Social Club: Oasis meets the Verve… with more guitar.

De Staat: Netherlandish drum pounding and lotsa cowbell. and a lead singer often sounding like a barking dog.

Miike Snow: A Swedish tutorial in Awesome with synthesizers and Phantom of the Opera masks! Love love love them!

Tegan and Sara: my favourite Canadians enjoyed up close and personal under the shade of the John Peel tent.

Willie Nelson: 3pm at the Pyramid Stage. He played what seemed like a million songs while I stared into the blazing heat of the sun and thought I was going to die. Or at least melt away. Or become very badly burned.

Snoop Dogg: the heat immediately forgotten, from the first da da dada da of ‘the next episode’ to ‘what’s my name’ Snoop Dogg had many many thousand (mostly white) people shakin’ they booties, droppin’ it like its hot. including me. it was a surprise highlight of Glasto for me.

La Roux: Fought the crowds to get over to the Other Stage and caught the end of La Roux’s set. A bit anti-climactic after Snoop.

Florence + The Machine: Fantabulous, despite some sound troubles. I won’t try to describe it, just download Cosmic Love and listen to it so loud the drums pound in your chest. or watch the video.

Thom Yorke: Accidentally overheard his surprise set at the Park Stage while we were chilling at our tent. We couldn’t see him and the loudspeaker never actually announced him by name, but Karma Police pretty much gave it away.

Gorillaz: I just don’t get them. Luckily I suffered through enough of their set to see Lou Reed come out for one song. Wished he could have headlined instead.

Saturday!

Tinchy Stryder: he’s a very short person but fun music.

Sophie Hunger: jaw droppingly beautiful music from a relative unknown. Look her up.

Coheed and Cambria: one of the few metal bands, nice to hear some loud guitar solos. still hot hot hot today, but now I have a hat.

Imogen Heap: such a crazy talented creative lady. she played a keytar which sings her voice, beatboxed with Shlomo, and played a song on wineglasses and wears microphones on her wrists. and still sounds fantastic live.

Shakira: I passed on seeing my new fave Marina and the Diamonds for an old fave. Got to bust out some belly dance and afro dance moves.

Editors: dark creepy synth with pyro at the end. Highlight: Papillion.

Muse: note to Gorrilaz- this is what a headliner should be. over 100,000 people singing along to songs like ‘Uprising’, ‘Resistance’ and ‘Knights of Cydonia’ it felt like a revolutionary rally.

AND the Edge came out and played with them. I recognized him instantly, only from the silhouette of his handle bar mustache. The lacklustre of Gorillaz is now forgotten. I am a happy customer.

Sunday!

Dan Mangan: another Canadian. dressed up like a lumberjack, told horrible puns and wandered through the crowd leading a singalong to the refrain ‘Robots need love too’. a very magical glasto moment.

Norah Jones: a little boring. especially in the melting heat of the afternoon.

Slash: not at all boring. I felt like I was in 1988 in the video for ‘Paradise City’.

Ray Davies: not boring, but played FOR-EV-ER, I thought someone was going to have to use a cane to pull him off the stage. singing all kinds of songs that all the British knew all the words to. It was cool to hear ‘Lola’ and ‘All day and All of the night.’

Toots and the Maytals: In the interest of variety, we checked out these reggae legends at the West Holts Stage. ‘Pressure Drop’ is one of my favourite songs, but I have to say, after awhile, a lot of reggae songs start to sound the same.

Stevie Wonder: what a performer! his music is so uplifting, and the feeling in the crowd was one of such incredible pure joy and festivity, nothing like the anger and aggression of a rock concert. I’ll never forget the four dudes standing beside me, dancing their asses off, hands swaying in the air, and singing along to Stevie songs that I had never even heard before. An inspiring end to a magical weekend.

Glastonbury. Wow.

I should have written this post just after we got back, but alas other things get in the way… like planning for the parental units to make a stop in Scandinavia.

Glastonbury. Wow.

Almost all I can say.

In Edmonton we used to go to a lot of music shows. Be it a large rock show at Rexall, a sweaty punk show at Ed’s, a tiny indie band in the basement of the Starlite Room, or the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, we went to go see live music a lot. A LOT. And we never really appreciated it. We were always a little to quick to complain about the few bands that wouldn’t make it up to Edmonton. Now, having been in Umeå for a year, I can say my live music fix was well into withdrawal. WELL INTO WITHDRAWAL.

Then came Glastonbury. The biggest music festival in the world. We bought our tickets in October for the festival in June. Not knowing anyone on the lineup. We only knew we were in for 4 days of music and camping along with 177,000 other people on Michael Eavis’s farm in Somerset county England.

Part of me was scared when we first saw it from the bus window. The site was like an entire city unto itself, taking up all the space in a beautiful valley in the English countryside.

Having been to more than a few music festivals which suffered from a horrible lack of logistical planning (ie. not enough water, campsites, showers, toilet paper, price gauging for food and water etc), I was aware how nasty this 4 day stay could get.

and All I can say is WOW.

Glastonbury was so amazing. It was so well planned, organized, and executed for such a large festival. I can see why people have gone back to it year after year after year.

There was so much going on other than the music itself. There were art installations in Shangri-La and Arcadia, there were debates and poetry at the Left Field, there was a circus, a travelling band of gypsies, and an entire hippie village at the Green Fields which had the best food I ate the whole weekend along with Vegan cafes and organic soy smoothies. The site was so big it took us 50 minutes to walk from our campsite over to the John Peel tent on the other side of the festival site.

We could have spent 4 days just checking out all the non-music related stuff there, but of course, we didn’t.

We were there for the music.

And since I am writing this blogpost as I should be packing (we leave for Norway in an hour) I have decided to give a play by play of all the music and bands we saw in my next post after holidays.

so, to be continued…

She's Got The Look

Most of us Canadians, when we think of ‘The Queen’ we think of …

not…

But it is kind of funny to realize that there are a whole lotta other ‘Royals’ in the world. Did you know the country that is known as being the most progressive, modern, forward thinking country in the world is actually a monarchy? A constitutional monarchy.

Luckily, we Canadians can also relate to the inherent paradox of being a democratic unstratified society which is technically ruled by an undemocratic, hierarchical handful of people born with a divine birthright to rule.

Let me introduce you to the Swedish Royal Family. And when I say Swedish royalty, I don’t mean ABBA, or Dolph Lundgren.

There is mom and dad, King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia.

Then there is Crown Princess Victoria.

Her sister Princess Madeleine. (The Swedish royal family isn’t immune to scandal either. Princess Madeleine’s engagement recently ended after finding out her Fiance had a one night stand with a Norwegian handball star. Yes, apparently ‘handball’ can have stars.)

And last of the Royal children is Orlando Bloom. I mean, Prince Carl Philip.

In Sweden, the royal family has been in the spotlight lately because yesterday was the royal wedding of the Crown Princess Victoria, who was marrying a commoner, her former gym trainer, Daniel Westling.

Much of Sweden has been looking forward to the royal wedding for at least a year now with major preparations going into the wedding so that there were ‘official’ chocolates, candies, napkins, coffee beans of the royal wedding. The actual event was covered for about 4 days on the Swedish TV (SVT) channels.

A royal wedding is a very special thing.

Where else would you see Roxette reunite to perform “The Look” for a televised wedding rehersal dinner?

Since it was pouring rain all day long yesterday, we spent our afternoon flipping between one set of very happy royals celebrating, and a second set of royals with not too much to celebrate.