Blue Monday

Can it really be the last day of January already?

People have said that January is the most depressing month of the year. Scientists have actually calculated ‘blue Monday’, January 18, which is the most depressing day of the year due to a complex mathematical equation which factors in the distance from Christmas past, Christmas bills coming due, broken New Year’s resolutions, and the length and breadth of the winter still to remain.

But I’d have to say that here in Sweden, blue Monday doesn’t exist.

(or maybe it still does exist but it lasts the entire month of November).

January, however, was a fantastic month- solely for the fact that already it felt as though we were no longer living in the dark. About a week into the month, the days were already noticeably longer… which in turn makes me noticeably happier! We are now gaining over 6 minutes of sun each day, which, if my math is correct, is about 42 minutes each week. Winter has been great so far. We’ve had a ton of snow here, without it being very cold. The perfect winter!

Of course even with all this snow, most people (not me though) are still riding their bikes everywhere. It is so funny to me to see people biking through the snow and carrying a set of cross country skiis under one arm.

My first adventure with cross country skiing took place last weekend. I went out with a co-worker and we skied out on the frozen lake, Nydalasjon. How did I like it? …well…it was *OK*. I wouldn’t call it ‘fun’ any more than going for a walk is ‘fun’. I kept wanting to go faster…I guess I still have a bit of downhill skiing in me. I think I will try it again though. And if anything at least I have gained much more respect for the skiers in the Olympics this year. (Go Canada! I can’t wait for the Olympics to start!)

What else is new, you ask?

Our time in Barcelona was great. I guess I didn’t post much about it, but it was pretty awesome. Barcelona is a great place to go just to wander. We saw so many strange and wonderful little things that we will always remember. Like this one tiny bar which was basically only as wide as the door to get inside it, which was crammed with so many people that not a single other person could fit inside. (In the picture, the bar is only as wide as the door on the left. The one on the right is an entrance to an apartment).

Or like how every night we would invariably end up getting lost in El Raval, only to end up at the same sketchy back alley EVERY SINGLE TIME. Or the naked man at the beach that we saw not once, but twice. Or the cat that hated tourists.

After a week of wandering the city, we were still finding cute shops and restaurants that were tucked away in the strangest places. It was great to get away, but after a week in hectic Barcelona we were definitely ready to come back to face a quiet winter in Umeå.

Good Luck/Bad Luck?

Imagine: getting shat on by a pigeon (in Barcelona) at exactly the stroke of midnight, at the turn of the decade-- a comment on the quality of the past year? or a premonition of the quality of the year to come?

Either way, it does nothing to help my fear of birds which has escalated rapidly since 1) being pecked in the head (twice in rapid succession) by a particularly aggressive seagull this past summer and 2) seeing the movie “The Birds”.

Apparently in Romania it is considered good luck to get pooped on by birds, so I think I will stop worrying about the symbolism and just go buy a lottery ticket :)