A summer day's dream

I woke up by myself at 8 am. I looked out the window and realized that the weather was cloudy for the first time in about 2 weeks. Admittingly a bit bitter, my only day off couldn't be sunny after all this??, I went for my morning walk dressed in shorts and my first Michigan shirt. Wearing that shirt always makes me feel a bit nostalgic. I remember buying it before going to the football game in Ann Arbor with my friend Amy. It was a Saturday when UofM took on Indiana at the Michigan stadium. Ann Arbor was crowded with football fans having tail gate parties everywhere. Finding parking was impossible, but I was amazingly happy, and felt very American.

I started walking. Without music in my ears for a change. When I go for walks here in the country, I like just listening to the silence instead of listening to music. As I'd gotten about half way I heard something that first sounded like somebody running through the bushes, then it sounded like a car coming from the bushes. But it was neither it turned out. It was the rain. The rain that had been held back for two weeks and now decided it was time to get back at people in this area by drowning them. Including me. It took me two minutes to realize I was wet all through and that I might as well just keep on walking - the damage was done.

Had a swim in the rain once I got back. I love swimming in the rain. The water feels so warm if you jump into it when you're already wet. Then breakfast; yoghurt, fresh rasberries, strawberries and wild small strawberries that I picked on my walk. There's nothing like wild small strawberries that you pick in the ditches here. I tried to read the newspaper that I'd also picked up from our mailbox but it was a bit too wet and kind of fell apart when I tried to open it.

After breakfast, the weather changed. Bright sunshine, clear blue sky and no wind. Perfect.

I took on the boat. Washed it clean from all the dirt it had collected over the winter. Then I swam out and pulled all of the grass out from the cracks in out little raft that my sister and I jumped down in the water from when we were kids. Well, to be honest, I've jumped from it some today too. It took forever to get it done. But in the heat, working in the water is the best thing you can do.

I had lunch in a deck chair. Salad made from lettuce and spinach leaves, avocado, melon, red pepper, cucumber, feta cheese and just some balcamic vinegar and olive oil. I listened to the radio show "Sommar"; today it was presented by an actor who talked about her life, and I realized I agreed a lot with her view of our existance.

I put on an old CD with "Swedish summer favorites". May sound corny, but I love it. I made apple crumbler and vanilla sauce for my dad, had some myself and then fell asleep in the sun until he got back.

Sometimes summer can't be beat by anything in the world.

Spanish vs Swedish vs Arabic

I love learning languages. I love listening to new languages, hearing the different sounds, that melodies, the intonation. And I'm fascinated by people's abilities to master 4 or 5 different languages, and switch between them just like that.

But. There's always a but. WHY on earth do people at my job, and I mean co-workers, speak Spanish to each other when they know I don't understand? It's like in kindergarden when people talked behind each others backs although it wasn't behind each others' backs because the art of whispering wasn't fully mastered. I mean come on! And I'm being serious here. Today I worked with two ladies. One in her fifties and one in her early thirties. They're both really good Swedish speakers although it's not their native language. And still, when the three of us were in a room together, sometimes they'd just skip to Spanish - mid sentence. Like I didn't hear. Like I wouldn't understand that the rest of the sentence probably wasn't meant for my ears. I think it's incredibly rude. I don't care if they speak Spanish to each other in the staff room or wherever, but when we're in charge of 10 people together, and I know that speaking Swedish isn't at all a problem, it pisses me off. Am I unreasonable or should it annoy you too?