SPRING

The countdown is on...
-In three and a half weeks I'll be home. With Cate. In Seward.
-This is the last real week of class. Next week we have one class day and an overnight cabin retreat. It has been a fantastic and fulfilling semester, and I am ready for it to be over.
-It is full-on Spring here: leaves are out, flowers are blooming, the tourists and beggars have arrived, folks are wearing T-shirts, and I'm skating all the time. It is so beautiful!
-People have come and gone. Hana is gone. Weibtke and Isi visited and are gone. We had a great party! I was definitely sad to see them all leave again. I really did have a great time with them last fall, and I will miss them.
-May Day was rad but I was hungover and the weather sucked. I was disappointed at missing the rally on Youngstorget due to party and hungover-ness. Still, Veebs and I saw thousands of people marching down Karl Johans Gate in support of unions and causes.


My mom and sister are in Scandinavia! Right now they are in Stockholm, but over the weekend I welcomed them in Copenhagen. We had a great three days there together. It was my fifth visit to the city, and it ended up being almost like a 'best of' trip. The weather was just gorgeous for two of the days, a rarity in my visits. The weekend was fairly busy, and here are some highlights:
-Arriving early enough in the morning before my family to take a trip to Christiania. I had only slept a few hours on a bumpy bus and the fresh-air of the leafy-green community restored my soul. Coffee also helped.
-Surviving cold and wet weather through a walk of the main sites of the city and taking the fam to Riz Raz.
-Going to Christiania with the fam (and them loving it). It was a beautiful Saturday with kids and pups everywhere. We also had a delicious meal at Morgenstedet, one of my favorite restaurants in the world.
-A magical evening at Tivoli. In addition to its regular visual goodness we also saw a ballet of Thumbelina and a lightshow over the pond. That goof Cynthia liked feeding the fish.
-That goof Cynthia and I went out for a few beers in Vesterbro. I was aggressively hit on. When Søren finally realized I wasn't interested he exasperatedly said, "So you're not a pirate? Why do you have a beard if you're not a pirate?" Then he told Cynthia she was beautiful, kissed her on the cheek, and left. Jokes were definitely made about stealing booty.
-We took a walk along the lakes surrounding the inner city and through Nørrebro. We lounged in the charmingly overgrown neighborhood cemetery, then ate yummy sandwiches at Picnic and drank yummy Caffe Mochas.

Like I said they are in Stockholm now. They come to Oslo Thursday night, but we leave early the next morning for a weekend in Bergen.