Lagom Om Stockholm

[lagomomstockholm]

midsommar bilder

1. Swedish midsummer tradition is to put seven different sorts of flowers under your pillow on midsummer’s eve and you will dream of who you’re to marry.

2. Sollefteå kommune raising their giant midsommarstång. (phallus-inspired object used to represent fertility)

3. My mamma and systrar while doing the små grodorna (small frogs) dance

4. Our smaller (and more intricate) midsommarstång that was handmade by my family and I 

5. My sister Alva and I in folkdräkt (traditional Swedish dress)

6. Swedish folk dancers in their folkdräkt

[lagomomstockholm]

tisdag 12 juli

My time in Sweden is drawing to a close and I have been taking more photos of my home/daily life which I had been neglecting with my camera because it was a routine that seemed like it would always be. However, time has proved otherwise and I now hold small things like my sisters making breakfast or looking at my dresses on the clothesline much more closely now. I now hold every moment of each day so tightly, I’m sure they would have claw-marks if I could see them in a tangible sense.The last time I crossed the Pacific Ocean I had one sister and now I have three, I’ve gained another set of intelligent, funny, sweet parents, I have a whole group of friends, another language, and another entirely separate, but equally amazing life. Foreign exchange has brought me so much love, friendship, and understanding. It has made the world smaller and made me appreciate the true privilege I experience everyday. 

On the other hand, preparing to leave Sweden feels like shattering my lungs into a million pieces... like leaving a ligament behind. I want to cry when I look at the people I love here and each time I visit one of my favorite places, I have to acknowledge it may be my last time for awhile. Sweden will will always be here for me to return to though, and I have an equally stimulating life in Arizona, it is just much different. This culture has been such a good fit for me... with its shy, ironic people and the beautiful nature, the pursuit of true equality and the City of Water. I’ve never felt as much like a part of something as I have felt in Sweden. The sense of belonging I have experienced here is something I will hold dearly for the rest of my life. 

Ja, jag vill leva jag vill dö i Norden

[lagomomstockholm]

onsdag 29 juni

Time is going by (as it tends to do) and the Stockholm summer is in full bloom. School ended two weeks ago, the summer solstice came and went, and I celebrated midsommar in Sollefteå (post to come). I’ve been taking full advantage of Stockholm’s beautiful parks with endless picnics and walking everywhere. There is no summer like the Swedish summer and the whole city smells like jasmine!

The house in the first pictures is a lovely cottage on the archipelago with a garden the impressionists probably would have liked to paint. The next one is my best friend, Astrid, in the park across from her apartment with a delicious dinner we made to celebrate school ending. The fountain in the next one is at Mariatorget where I love to eat milk-less ice cream! And the last photo is the beautiful trädgård (garden) behind my yellow house.

[lagomomstockholm]

torsdag 9 juni

Now that the Swedish summer is arrived, the Stockholmaren are almost constantly outdoors: bathing in the Baltic, biking in the city, picnic-ing, wandering, jogging. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the whole city smells like jasmine. 

A few weeks ago, I accompanied my beloved host family to Gröna Lund, Stockholms retro amusement park which is pictured above. It is situated on an island called Djurgården (animal garden) in close proximity to the main islands and I’ve been passing by and admiring the whole time I’ve lived here, so it was lovely to go inside. My favorite ride was the tall, swinging ride in the first picture. From the top, you can see the most picturesque view Stockholm has to offer. I could see my school, north of the city’s center and all the way down to my neighborhood in the southern suburbs. Much of the park hasn’t been changed since the 60′s and I had a delicious licorice (soy) milkshake! (Even amusement parks in Sweden have vegan options). O Sverige ♥ 

[lagomomstockholm]

13 maj

This recently became favorite place in my neighborhood. I went for a walk a few weeks ago and discovered it, hidden in plain sight for months and months. There are a few benches, brought by neighborhood patrons to make it enjoyable for everyone. 

I live in a really residential area, but far in the distance is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site graveyard which is incomparably beautiful and almost totally dominated by the forest. A little closer by is the Vietnam Embassy of Sweden and my little sisters’ elementary school. 

It’s strange that I’ve lived here for 9 months and I’m still discovering new places, making new friends, and trying new things. I think I could live here my whole life and still be amazed by new lovely people and the incredible new experiences. 

[lagomomstockholm]

tisdag 26 april

A few weeks ago, I hung out with a new friend who lives in Upplands Väsby which is north of Stockholm by way of commuter train. We walked around in the forest for a few hours until we got to a lake where we took a rest in the beach grass. The water was so still it looked like a mirror and the colors of the forest were soft and calm. My friend (as a joke) asked me if I was going to take a swim and even though it was a particularly cold April day, I ended up jumping in the near-freezing lake! I was surprised at how I didn’t feel cold at all when I got out because my body temperature rose so quickly. However, ten minutes later, my lips got a bit purple and I felt the aftermath of my little swim. 

[lagomomstockholm]

torsdag 14 april

Cold with Katie at Moderna, January 2016

[lagomomstockholm]

fridag 8 april

The Wabi-Sabi (侘寂) of Kyoto

About a month ago, I went on a trip to Japan, a country that I have deeply admired and loved for most of my life. It was an utterly life-changing experience and I am so so grateful that I was blessed with the opportunity to go. I have been debating posting pictures of my experience on this blog because the original aim was to describe my time in Sweden, but I am infatuated with the serenity of the Japanese landscape so I felt inclined to share my photos with my followers here.   

While in Japan, learned of the ancient Japanese aesthetic originating in Kyoto called wabi sabi. Wabi Sabi (侘寂) praises the imperfect, the impermanent, the fleeting and the melancholy. It’s asymmetrical, natural, and rustic; it reveres authenticity above all. The aesthetic value lays in intimacy, asperity, and incompletion. This appears as a central teaching of Zen Buddhism, accepting the transience of self and everything around the self. It allows one to come to peace as we surrender to the life-cycle and slowly turn to our original form of dust. Wabi sabi is seeing flaws as enhancements to a person or an object, like a chipped tea cup or slightly crooked teeth.

I experienced wabi sabi first hand in Kyoto as I destroyed an entire roll of film, I had so carefully filled with precious memories. Those pictures are lost forever, but their ephemerality makes them all the more beautiful and precious as they are preserved in my memory. Above are the pictures that remain. 

[lagomomstockholm]

6 april

The golden days of spring have arrived and the world has been bathed in light. As a life-long desert-dweller, this year has been my first experience with seasons. Flowers have just begun to peak from the soil, the ice melted from the Baltic, and I never imagined I would appreciate the sun like this. 

These photos are from Easter break and the lovely adventures I had with my Swedish family. We went to Sigtuna (the old capital of Sweden) and saw remnants of Viking churches and ruins, then we saw more recent history in an amazing graffiti site. The last photos are from a walk around a lake near our house on the first day the sun really shone this year. I feel almost naked without a coat. 

[lagomomstockholm]

17 februari

This is my youngest host-sister Alva, who is eleven. She and my other host-sister Agnes are around the age where they is absolutely fascinated by makeup and cosmetics and I love teaching them about the best lipstick shades for their skin tones and which brands test on animals. It is so strange yet so exciting suddenly coming into the role of the older sister. A lot of that which I talk about with  mina småsystrar give me the strangest feeling of déjà vu, like I’ve had the same conversations but while playing a different role. I spent my entire childhood worshipping everything my sister did and actively trying to be just like her so if my sisters look up to me even a fraction of the amount I did to my sister, I am so honored. 

[lagomomstockholm]

20 januari

Stockholm in the winter

1. A rainy morning on Vaxholm

2. Katie

3. Airplanes

4. The giants of Dandryd

5. Gustav Vasa has my heart

6. My cool modernist neighbor

7. Forest trees on Christmas Eve

[lagomomstockholm]

onsdag 2 december

Kompisar i Sverige

Friends in Sweden

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söndag 22 november

A while back, in a music hall lit by pink lightbulbs, I took these photos. The first one is my friend Carmen from Alaska. She is also on exchange here, and although we live six hours by train from each other, we managed to meet up to see this concert.

The second photo is a random couple that I don’t know at all and when I asked if I could take their picture, they seemed really uncomfortable and confused but ultimately obliged. I later found out it was their first date which explained the lack of physical contact and awkwardness but I think it broke the ice and made their night somewhat less stiff because they began to laugh and he actually put his arm around her a few moments after this photo. I wonder what they’re doing now and its interesting to me that in the unlikely event they stay together, I alone will have their first photo as a couple.

[lagomomstockholm]

måndag 16 november

The Trees of Auschwitz Birkenau

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söndag 8 november

Giant Bubbles in Krakòw, Poland

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söndag 8 november

A few weeks ago I returned from my fall break (höstlov) trip to Poland with my host family. One of the reasons we chose to stay in Krakòw was the incredible architecture and ancient charm of the old capital. We rented an apartment in the town center which had only antique Polish furniture inside. The first picture is the courtyard that our balcony over looked. We were in Poland shortly before Halloween (hence the pumpkins). 

The second photo is a building with beautiful fresco paintings near the roof that was a few minutes walk away from our apartment. Krakòw is very small so nothing in the city ever seemed out of reach. Near that building was the Royal Palace where I saw the painting Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci. It is one of Poland’s greatest national treasures and was stolen by the Nazi’s in WWII so its recovery and display is a point of national pride.

The third photo is from the Wielickza Salt Mine, a mine reaching 1,073 ft deep and spanning 178 miles long that supplied much of Eastern Europe with salt a few hundred years ago. What fascinated me most were the 3 giant chapels where everything, including the statues, chandeliers and even the floors were made of salt. Polish people are very religious so I found it very beautiful that even while underground, the miners had a place of worship within reach.

[lagomomstockholm]

onsdag 4 november

I saw this man on the street and I thought he looked so kind and interesting. I asked him in (my heavily accented and probably grammatically incorrect) Swedish if I could take his photo and his face lit up like I made his whole day. I kept having to move him around to get the best lighting but he was so patient and seemed so genuinely pleased to have someone take interest in him.