Northern cities

Reflections

Nothing makes me feel more like a whiny child than the end of the school year: impatience, intense boredom and anticipation, plenty of conflicting emotions. In the past, this period has been a real let-down, full of feeling like I didn't do enough, or didn't make strong enough connections with people, or missed opportunities to do something interesting or fun. 

This school year, I feel like I'm old enough to not take things too seriously. There are some new, engaging challenges as I prepare to take on the department head position next year. My approach to the last few days of school where there's not much going on was much more relaxed and less structured, giving me time to just have some conversations with students, and a little bit of fun with them. Spent appropriate time and effort on various social engagements without trying too hard to pack things in. 

Back in October of 2022, I went on my first professional trip since COVID to Addis Ababa. Joining me on that trip were a couple of guys that ended up forming my primary friend group for the past couple of years, Josh and Andy (cousin Ross joined us this year as well). Andy's moving on this year to another school, and I'll miss our long hot walks in the park at least as much as our drinking sessions. Carry on, Andy, carry on!

For the amount of time we spent together, I just couldn't find a picture with all four of us in it, so I had to put my photo editing skills to use.

Helsinki

Back in 2018 in Glasgow, we stumbled upon a parade that I'll remember forever. Our second day in Helsinki brought me back to that time with their incredible Samba parade. It was made up of different troupes singing, playing music, and dancing. The first troupe lasted maybe 40 minutes, could have been the whole parade on their own, and played the same song, continuously, all together. Like a mile of people stretched out all keeping in time together through clever use of speakers and microphones and wranglers. Really invigorating way to start our trip!

We had mostly beautiful, if slightly chilly, weather, and spent lots of time taking boat cruises and walking around this cute little city. It's a real archipelago, and it was interesting to see all of the little island communities and coastal houses, many of which had their own little sauna houses by the water.

Had a lovely sauna day at Loyly, where we alternated between the hot sauna and the very cold Baltic sea. More invigoration! I could get used to the sauna lifestyle, but I need the cold part or I would be sweating all day. 

Copenhagen

This was our second time in Copenhagen in a year, but this time Rani had both feet available! We came back to meet up with Matt and Sarah and a couple of their friends from Tacoma, with whom I went to see METALLICA! They are currently on the Scandinavian leg of their tour, and we'd been seeing a frankly ridiculous amount of Metallica t-shirts on the streets of Helsinki and Copenhagen, so now it was time to join in.

It's been a long time since I've been to a big show, probably since college, and it was intense! Lots of huge screens, which was good since we were pretty far away. The huge round stage was weird; at times, the members of the band were really far away from each other, although Metallica worked this much better than the opening acts, spending most of their time clumped together at various locations. They were also there long enough to have multiple drum setups in different locations. It was awesome!

Ate some delicious BBQ at Warpigs brewpub and had a crazy night out with the crew, which ended up at a speakeasy.

And once again enjoyed the outdoor food halls, this time with friends!

There are a series of lakes in the middle of Copenhagen which used to form a sort of moat, but are now a great place for a morning jog and to watch the swans doing yoga.

Gothenburg

When we do long trips like this, we often keep track of little milestones along the way. The taxi to the airport in Doha was our last for maybe two months (we tried to pack kind of light and are trying to use public transportation exclusively). Our flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen was the last time we have to fly for about a month. The concert in Copenhagen was the last time we will see anyone we know for about a month. 

Maybe just to complete the Scandinavian tetrafecta, but also to break up the train trip to Norway, we stopped in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg has...

A canal tour with LOW bridges, one of which has a sculpture of a cheese slicer right above your head!

Some unexpectedly weird architecture (like, not a place you'd expect skyscrapers), including some buildings which are sinking! Pictured are twisty Karlatornet (tallest building in the Nordic countries), red and white "lipstick" building (guarded by a giant old ship), sagging Merkurhuset, and the weirdly topheavy Draken hotel.

Some great street art (with beautiful ladies presenting it).

An impressive botanical garden, with a magical Japanese dell, riotous wildflower meadows, and one really pushy duck.

On to Norway

We had a nice train ride from Gothenburg, got a sneak peak of Oslo, picked up our car, and headed out into the wilds of Norway. I'm writing this from the sunny kitchen and deck of a little house on a sheep farm in Leveld, Norway, looking out at the magnificent green hills, most of which have a little snow left on top of them, and maybe just a hint of the Vargebreen glacier in the background, digging life. More later, love you all, Jon