I am endlessly fascinated by how far I’ve come over the course of a year. A year ago today I was away from my family and friends exploring a new city by myself. I came back to Uppsala to see a Swedish Christmas and biked through the falling snow to go to a Christmas dinner for those who didn’t go home for the holidays. I remember the Christmas carols were still there, the selection was different but the essence was the same. The stores had some Christmas decorations but nothing like we have here. In fact I was reminded of all this when I was running errands to the grocery store yesterday. I remembered the first time I saw it since I got back and how different yet familiar it seemed. I am glad I can see these things, and am glad even Safeway can bring a smile to my face just by being what it is. Most of all, I’m glad I can be back in the US and with my family once again for Christmas.
The 24th is Christmas Day for the Swedes, so God Jul to all and to all a God Natt!

My archaeology textbook had a brief article on the difficulty of respecting the sacred sites of different cultures. Their example was Devil’s Tower, a sacred place to many American Indian tribes, but also a popular destination for climbers. Even though it is on federal land, the tribes consider climbing it desecration and the textbook likened it to scaling a mosque or cathedral. It became clear to me that I am not the one who should be in charge of deciding if climbing should or shouldn’t be allowed because the first thing I thought of was how cool it would be to scale Domkyrkan. I always wanted a nice close-up picture of that angel, not to mention a view from one of those spires.

Beerfest with Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. I’m actually surprised by this movie. I had some small, cautious hopes for it and it exceeded them. There were the requisite and hilarious gross jokes, some of them that were really just unsettling. I praise its accurate depiction of various Europeans, or at least poking fun at the ones I know that actually are like that. I have to say, the Bavarians are not anything like the Germans portrayed in the movie, the East Germans, however, are. And with that in mind, the funniest German insult ever is now “umlaut”. I also have to give the movie props for its portrayal of the Swedes; the lovely hot blonde stereotype that I now know isn’t completely false. Plus major props to them for including the Swedish drinking song “Helan går.”

An interesting note from my Anthro GenEd classes: one of the links associated with domesticating animals to be more docile is a tendency for the animals to develop lighter skin and fur coloration. An example mentioned was the aurochs, the ancestor of modern cows, was black, but many cows today are tan or white. Someone then asked if lighter pigmentation is indicative of docility, what does that say about blondes?

Word of the Day: Propinquity-nearness in place, relation or time; affinity of nature; kinship.