Sunday, September 7, 2008

lördag i östersund




röd svampar by lake storsjön

saturday was wonderful. i took a long bike ride at 9 am, then our class went into town for polska and schottis lessons before the folk dance. i was the example for one of the dances, which involves turning and high fiving the the couple to your right and left, but when i went the dance instructor kissed me on the cheek. everyone laughed, i am pretty sure i turned bright red. for lunch, i had the wackest salad i have ever received at a restaurant, but i am sure it was better than the tex-mex taco place that kristoffer went to across the street.


pripps blue (pbr relation?) light beer


julia och jenny, les francaises


at least they had blankets for sitting outside



wackest "avocado" salad (sandwhich meat rolls, black olives, a pile of bermida onion, cottage cheese, pasta, 5 slivers of unripe avocado)


news, bar och kök (never again)

we went to the dance around 6, a lot of people from birka came and we all learned the steps together. later, we played two polskas and two waltzes, not our best, but people danced. its an amazing thing to look up and see people dancing well to the sounds you are making! i achieved, if not surpassed my goal of wearing my designated swedish folk dance dress and dancing with old swedish men. i danced all night.



polska example

fiddler duo



my favorite was a schottis norwegian style, which i danced with a short old man wearing a striped shirt and glasses (he plays accordion as well). i took lots of stereo photos, hopefully they will turn out. i plan on going every thursday so i can master the different polskas. my teacher rickard and his wife astrid played as well. after i went to a dark, wooden candlelit bar called the brun callon (sp?) with per, calle and others. there was a rowdy group of drunken men who were falling all over and singing loudly with all the 90s hits coming from the speakers. i shared a bacon cheeseburger and swedish beer, and attempted to speak as much swedish as possible. östersund is hardly the culinary capital of sweden, but any sort of bacon cheeseburger is good in my book. sleep at 2am, woke up to sun and knit to satie and npr. i went out to skip stones and met a slovakian girl who had a mushroom dictionary.




lunch!

tomorow i start at ås trädgård, the organic farm on the main road.
very excited.


store at
ås trädgård

i miss everyone.




1 comment:

-a said...

that's crazy. we were totally in ostersund. ashley's dad's house is in bracke, sort of (i think it's actually svenstavik) which, i'm sure you know, is right nearby. his homestead or whatever is called enbo. you should ask around. maybe someone's heard of it. anyway, it's plum beautiful there, ain't it? i wonder what lake he lives on...