Trondheim, Bergen, and the Open Sea

Sorry that I’ve been off-line for a while, folks.  Odd that it’s been harder to get internet in Scandinavia than in Peru….  Anyway, here’s a recap on the last part of the Scandinavian portion of my trip.  Tomorrow I’ll post on the UK part.
TRONDHEIM:  Discovered a few key things of use there for my book.
(1) [...]

Goodbye to Landegode, Goodbye to Norway

Our last day in the far north of Norway, my cousin arranged for us to take a boat ride out to the island of Landegode. From every village on the coast for miles, this is THE major landmark, and even more importantly for fishermen trying to head back to shore, Landegode has been a [...]

Visiting the Birthplaces and Lost and Found Relatives

I stood on a small hill this afternoon surrounded by the ruins of a crumbling stone foundation, crying like a baby. A blue sky, puffy clouds, light breeze, mild temperature, and daisies waving in the wind.  A tree growing up crooked out of the stones. Oscar’s birthplace. 
My Swedish cousins had brought me to the place where [...]

Lagom: No Word in English for This…

Lagom.  I am told as I stand in my cousin’s kitchen that this is a Swedish word for which there is no English equivalent.  It means roughly not too much and not too little but just right.  I am told that in Sweden, this is the ideal for which they strive.
Ah.  That’s why there is no [...]

Sweden at last: Pigeons and Slut Soup

We made it to our destination yesterday after two ‘days’ travel (since there’s a time difference of six hours), lengthened by a pigeon incident at Newark airport. 
Apparently, while the good folks at Continental were getting our plane ready for boarding, two pigeons flew through an open door at the back of the plane. The captain [...]

Miscellaneous Meme

Praying to Darwin tagged me (well, anyone who was reading her, actually!) and I promised a response. Here goes:
What I Was Doing 10 Years Ago
June 1998: Living in Palouse, WA, a town of 1,000 people located about 17 miles from Pullman, WA, a city of 35,000 and the metropolis of the region. I was on [...]

Clinton Landed Here???

For a while now, I’ve been puzzled by a monument at the soccer field where my son practices. I (soccer mom that I am!) often pull into the parking spot right in front of this rock with a plate commemorating an auspicious occasion. Recently, however, I began to think more deeply about this monument….

So what [...]

Herding Turkeys, Poultry SpeedBump, and Foul Traffic

After dropping off my son and his classmate at school today, I suddenly came upon a traffic jam on a back road. Morning traffic in New England is notoriously bad, but this particular spot puzzled me. It was well before the IRS complex and nowhere near Raytheon. What was the hold-up?
Earlier, when I [...]

Great Book: Three Cups of Tea

Awesome book!! If you read no other book this year, read this one. Flat out, this is one of the best reads I’ve encountered in a while. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, is a fascinating, [...]

Hog in the Fog: A Huacuy Story of a Peruvian Pig

I was sorting through pixs from my trip to Peru today and came across this picture of a little pig:

We were in Huacuy Central that day, installing a vaccine fridge and replacing a broken radio in the medical clinic. It was very foggy up there at 7,000 feet, and I was a bit bummed [...]