Hej hej Danmark, Hej från Sverige!

My last full day in Aalborg was attending to business, closing my Danish bank account, trying to return my yellow card (my Danish ID as a part of my student visa), going to the post office, etc. Afterward, we had a big - and very cheap - dinner for 13 or so people which Dop helped me make. Unfortunately, I haven't taken any pictures since Løkken because I got sand in my lense... oof. It was definitely a night to document! It was just supposed to be dinner with friends, hearing stories of Yasin's trip to Spain, and a celebration for Elisa, who turned in her thesis that night (Brava, Elisa!!!). It became a "Dani's going away, so let's get drunk and do karaoke" party, and Yasin brought a bottle of green anise poison from Mallorca. Oh goodness! Dance party and beer fight ensued. We tore it up until the early hours of the morning, and then woke up at 10 to make sure I packed and caught my (somewhat) early flight at noon. Bastien, Yasin, Laure, and Séverin took me to the airport, all of us in Séverin's tiny car with my giant suitcase. It was a really lovely goodbye, one of the best I've ever had, and I feel so connected to all of my friends, old and new, and my sweet "hyggelig" Danish home.
Unfortunately, the flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm was excruciating because the high-elevation pressure didn't mix well with my sinus infection, and I was partially deaf out of my left ear for the rest of the day. All is well now, and Michael and Jennie are renting a really cute flat in student housing one or two blocks from the Natural Museum. We found out that on Sunday, the day before I leave, Jane Goodall will be giving a talk for only 90 krowns!! Michael was making fun of me because seeing the Natural Museum is one of my top priorities here. Me? A nerd? Not at all. I have a full transportation card for the time that I spend here, and I plan on seeing a lot of the city, which is very clean and organized (and very Scandinavian). Last night and this morning have been completely relaxed and calm, but tomorrow we're setting out early to take a trip and have a picnic in an archipelago. We're also going to the Absolut Ice Bar, which is a bar made entirely out of Lapland ice. Pretty cool... pun intended!
There's a Swedish royal wedding between the Crown Princess Victoria and her "frog kissed and transformed into a prince" boyfriend Prince Daniel, who was a fitness instructor turned into royalty. It's supposed to be the biggest European royal wedding since Prince Charles and Lady Di, so the city is in celebration mode. I've been invited to join the "celebration of love," a.k.a. Love Stockholm 2010. This is really sweet and cheesy and strangely appropriate, given my third-wheel status with the happily reunited couple I'm staying with. I believe this will be a nice time to visit Stockholm.

http://www.nordicseahotel.se/en/The-hotel/Food-and-drink/Absolut-Icebar-Stockholm/
http://www.examiner.com/x-/x-5821-International-Travel-Insights-Examiner~y2009m12d2-Celebrate-Swedens-royal-wedding-during-Love-Stockholm-2010-June-6th-to-20thwere-talkintravel

a family drive-by

Well, I got to see my brother (half brother), his daughter, and his mother this weekend. There were here late Friday and gone Sunday midday, in and out like that. Yet somehow, since my brother's divorce, it felt like the longest, most intimate visit I've had with him in years. Hard times aren't necessarily bad times. Kyle's a new person with his old habits of enjoying the little things and speaking freely, but now he has a daughter with whom he can share his joyful attitude in life. I guess I have a lot of worries about a messy divorce scarring his daughter, and my parents have some concern for Lily (my niece), but right now I'm just really happy that Kyle is living again.
It was totally family weekend. My parents' little house had me, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, my parents and my mother's mother. Yesterday I spent the whole day recovering in seclusion. Cleaning before, during, and after family arrived, nieces hanging all over me, drinking and playing pool with my brother and brother-in-law until the wee hours of the morning, photography explosion, too much birthday cake... it was long, blissful, and very necessary.
I still haven't gone out of my way to see people since I've arrived home, even though the thought to call people has been at the back of my head for some time. It's curious, but I guess I feel like I've been inefficient with getting important things done and maintaining some of the better habits I had in Denmark. It takes me longer to write a letter than it did in unfamiliar terrain, and it's much rarer for me to make a meal from scratch. Maybe it's because I feel like I have more distractions here, or maybe it's because I feel like I should be doing certain things and going against my nature. I don't know. I still feel a little weird, and a part of that is because my progress in getting things done has come to a temporary halt. I'm on the schedule at Intermezzo again, but I have no shifts. I've found a room that I'm going to rent downtown, but I don't know exactly when I'm going to move in. I haven't really started class yet, and I think I may be anxious to start working. I thought things were going to work out with Ryan and me, but they aren't. I want to see old friends and enjoy the old social life I had, but I've grown out of a lot of old habits I had. I thought I'd already have my bike up and running, but maintenance has been delayed several times. Just be patient, Dani. It all comes together in its own time.
It's really amazing how much a culture can influence your concept of time-keeping. When I'm in Atlanta, I usually go crazy if I have a lot of free time, so I try to fill it up as much as possible until I'm exhausted from doing too much. In Denmark, I could spend hours each day writing letters and in my journal, reading, cooking a meal for an hour, taking a walk or a bike ride, whatever I wanted that would relax me. How do you take a mentality and style of living from one city to another?