new arrival

07.24.2010

visingsö, sweden

today is the definition of lackadaisical. when we were eating breakfast i noticed that the kitchen clock has started running slower than both my watch and my computer, which i should have taken as a forewarning of the odd way that time would pass today. forget consistency or structure. downing my still scalding coffee, i made the walk to the other house. i talked to tina about the possibility of bjorn and rachel coming to visit the island and she proposed an even better idea - she offered to drive katie and i to jönköping on monday during our day off. so, as long as they can get to the city as well, it should be a better way to get together - hopefully cheaper for both concerned parties and a bit more convenient. we don't have a car to drive around on the island and the few things to see and do aren't necessarily the most riveting or easy to get to. the prospect of this working out is really exciting! i know i won't be able to see mathilde, but hopefully i can see some familiar (and much loved) faces. there is something so surreal about seeing a person you know when you are out of the country - it finally stirs you have this strange experience of traveling and reminds you that things are in fact not quite normal, you really are in a strange, foreign country. once i was at the house, tom and gisela weren't downstairs yet, so katie and i sat around for a little while waiting for them to get ready and finish doing laundry. we drove out to the pea field (all four of us went together while tina went to pick up hans from jönköping) and as soon as we got our equipment out, it started raining. gisela needed to talk to a landowner to get permission to work on their property, but she didn't feel like it, so we sat in the car for about twenty minutes waiting for the rain to let up. it never did, so she finally realized that she would have to stop putting it off. we waited in the car while she talked to the man (who happened to live on the other side of the island) and tom, katie, and i just talked for a little while. all of the sitting around and listening to katie's loud, repetitive storytelling was giving me a headache. i just keep telling myself that she is from new york, not the slow, mildly spoken south. drove back to the pea field because the rain was letting up, got out of the car and it started raining again. drove to the forest where we would hopefully have some canopy cover and then it was only an hour until lunch. took an hour and fifteen minute lunch even though they said they would be back in thirty, and of course as soon as they drove to pick us up, it started raining again. they sent us back inside and said they would pick us up if the rain let up. well, two hours later they came back, drove us to the forest where it started raining, surprise surprise. it was like the weather was consciously taunting us. came back around five and i've been scattered ever since - starting things but not finishing. i don't like starting and stopping or being unproductive, so it really left me feeling in a funk. the wind is still roaring outside and it sounds like tornado sirens, which puts me a bit ill at ease. i was putting photos in with my entries and nadia messaged me on facebook. i admire that girl so much, there aren't words. we talked about albania, sweden, jordan, and made a date before she leaves. she is one of the few people i have met who is like me - the traveling, the independence, the disenchantment with 'normal' social interactions (to a certain extent). it is refreshing to actually have someone who understands what traveling is for me, what these long summers are like. it is an awful mixture of excitement and regret all mingled together. i think the internet complicates things as much as it simplifies them - it allows me to peer into what it is like on the other side - what it would be like to have a normal summer, to have friends i'm never separated from, to stay in one place, to relish the simplicity of those long summer weeks. hell, it sounds enticing to be among the masses, but at the same time i know that it just isn't me. all that to say, nadia kind of made my day. skyped with my sister and parents - my dad just got back from detroit so it was nice to hear from him. he called me yesterday but i don't even bother carrying my phone on me anymore so i didn't see his missed call for four hours. we talked for under two minutes with a promise of skyping today, so i'm glad it worked out. after those frantic, exciting conversations, i told katie how discombobulated i was, just as she pointed out that tina and hans were walked up the porch steps. so much for regaining my composure. even in sweden (as in bulgaria), i still can't escape the hipsters it seems. hans is a bit shy, but maybe reserved is the better word for it. we talked about typical niceties and the project, tattoos and travel. things didn't revolve around the university of buffalo for a change, which was nice. i hope he doesn't act all reclusive because he seems pretty fucking cool - i just want to pick his brain. we were supposed to have the veggie version of pea soup at the other house for dinner, but the store was sold out, so leftover pasta with fresh veggies and one ballerina cookie with the last of our coffee rounded off my night, or so i thought. right as i got dressed for bed, hans came back over and gave me some movies and the first season of true blood to watch. we talked about films and tv shows for a while which was nice. katie is really disconnected from pop culture so it was nice to have someone to talk with about normal conversational topics i carry on about at home. as i was closing the window to the howling wind, i saw a double rainbow outside the window and hans, without skipping a beat was double rainbow, what does it mean?!' went and took some photos and then called it a night. not too shabby, but still a fairly slow going day. oh! i also found out that janelle monae and of montreal are playing the lyric in oxford in november! i'm going to have billy order tickets once he gets back from phoenix so that we can make sure we have them before they sell out. i would order them, but i'm afraid i would be subjected to those pesky international service surcharges. i wish billy had time between sessions to set my nerves at ease, but maybe more sleep and a fresh start tomorrow will be enough to do the trick. it's the same ol' drag.