Spring has sprung

Right. I didn't get stuck in Berlin. (Although I almost did get stuck in Düsseldorf... my direct flight to Berlin that morning was mysteriously cancelled and SAS decided to re-route me via Düsseldorf on a partner airline, and said partner airline almost didn't accept my ticket to Berlin once they had flown me to Düsseldorf. While trying to board the plane there, I was pulled aside and told my ticket didn't exist, but after about 10 minutes of tense discussion and threats to SAS on the phone (!), they let me fly to Berlin. Phew.)

Berlin was great. Freezing cold, yes, but great. :o) If I figure out a good way to post pictures here, I will put some up from the trip. And, while at the beginning I could understand German but not speak a word, by the end of the trip I was getting some of my words back, and even managed to hold a conversation or two w/out switching to English. (And Wendy taught me to count in Swiss German!) We had a good "Pomona moment" there as well--Lena invited a bunch of the new study abroad students from Pomona over to watch a new (and quite funny) German television program, and we ended up having very Pomona-like discussions on the state of various things in the world, and I felt generally like I was at some Oldenborg German section cultural event. lol We also went out to dinner with Prof Rindesbacher... Pomona is never far away, it seems.

Coming back from Berlin, things got superbusy--first MJ's shower broke (a few days before he was going to arrive--I was watching his apt for him, and one day visited to find that the bathroom smelled awful and the shower had mysteriously gotten all plugged up. So I ran about trying to find the Swedish equivalent of drain-x, which there isn't, but my random combination of cleaning agents did the trick), and then things just started piling on. A cool thing in there is that both my brother and my dad flew over for Easter. That was exciting. Lately, there have been some... complicated things... added on to all that. (Let's leave it at that. With the quick disclaimer that nothing is wrong with me or my personal life so you don't need to worry. It's just stuff that's keeping me busy.) But, with luck, even that will clear up soon.

Also in exciting news around here, Spring has come! One day, all of the snow melted away, and the temperature went way up, and it's been warm ever since. There are crocuses poking out of peoples lawns. There are birds chirping and flying about. There are ducks playing in the water, people fishing, people playing in the park, and people sitting out and sunning. The ski mountain is closed, I see blue in the sky, and I can now go out of my apartment sans scarf and gloves. Today I'm wearing a tshirt! It's great.

I have new travel news, as well! And people-visiting news. :o) First, Ray (a friend of my brothers, now a family friend) is stopping by for a few days during his travels around Europe. Then the day after he leaves, I'm heading to London with John (and hopefully to see Yuya, as well). That's the 21st eve-25th morn. After that, Abbey and Alain are coming up from France to visit on the 25th eve to the 1st of May. The next day, I'm flying to Switzerland to visit Wendy (Ab will be coming after a few days as well), and will be staying 'til the 7th. The sort of sad news is that after this month of busy-ness I'll only have a few weeks left before it's time for me to go home! :o( I'm quite enjoying Sweden at the moment. I'm just going to have to come back and do another year here sometime....

But now it's time to get back to what I've been supposed to be doing, and get some work done on Silo.

å plus.