"This is what midnight looks like..."

At the 100 km finish line...

Adak, Sweden
Saturday, June 29, 2013

Earlier this afternoon, Frank completed the Lappland Ultra Marathon 100K in Adak, Sweden. A and I stayed in southern Sweden while Frank was up north running all night amidst the mosquitoes and reindeer--by the light of the midnight sun. He reports a very memorable (and beautiful) time. The race started at 10pm on Friday night and went all night (sunset at 12:06am and sunrise at 1:23am). A short video is posted in case you ARE wondering what midnight looks like in northern Sweden...and some flower and reindeer pictures, too.

Two reindeer out grazing...

Bosnian burgers (the new Swedish cuisine)

Malmö, Sweden

Saturday, June 29, 2013

One of the great things about visiting Malmö is the great variety of "foreign" food to be found here. Not only is this "foreign food" tasty, it's much more reasonably priced than local fare.

Try the Bosnian ćevapi--it's delicious!

Green, blue, red

Malmö, Sweden
Friday, June 28, 2013

Long time readers of this blog may remember my delighted surprise at a certain water heater at a certain remote travel lodge in Mongolia. I was reminded again today of the importance of travel--that is, the value of being exposed to new and interesting ideas--and gadgets, of course.

Or, maybe, as some of you suspect, I just live under a rock.

At any rate, today I discovered that shower heads can change colors as the water heats up. My students would probably argue that if I had a television I would know more about such things. But I am beginning to suspect that I will just forever be a bit out of touch.

Is that a bad thing?
 

Brown and white and really hungry

Appelbeck, Germany
Monday, June 17, 2013

Yesterday we visited a "Vildpark" where feeding the animals was allowed (and even encouraged), but it was the deer that we met today that were the real hits. A pulled weeds for over an hour to feed these guys. Endless fun, really.

Green with a dash of yellow

Moisburg, Germany
Sunday, June 16, 2013

Northern Germany in the early summer: green, green, green--and flowers, too. A balm for the eyes after the hot, brown (already) plains of Jordan.

Strawberry red

Moisburg, Germany
Friday, June 14, 2013

It seems that we arrived in Northern Germany just in time for a late-starting strawberry season. We were greeted at our friends' house with a lovely strawberry cake...and coffee in the garden...

Spicy red

Sunday, June 1, 2013
Madaba, Jordan

It's been almost one year now of delicious Jordanian food: mansaf, tabouleh, hummous, baba ganoush, and much more. Recently, however, I found myself dreaming of kimchi. There are a number of good Korean restaurants in Amman, but Amman is kind of far and the weather is hot...so, it looked like no kimchi for me. And then one of my Korean students showed up with a package in hand: a box of home-made kimchi from his mother. Ah, bliss...