An international day

I am in Sweden! This morning I was in Germany, and tonight we had dinner at an Irish pub (I had grilled Irish sausage, french fries, and hard cider--oh, and chocolate cake with berries and whipped cream). It's been a little of everything today.

Our hotel in Stockholm is beautiful. The lobby has dark brown stone floors and interesting red Scandinavian chairs--very spare and clean, but surprisingly comfortable--and my hotel room looks like an Ikea ad, in a good way. Everything is white, from the bedding to the walls, except that I have one turquoise wall with an orange and white square on it, and an orange lamp, and a turquoise cushion on a gray chair. It sounds a little bright, but really it feels very peaceful and calm.

I sat for a while after we arrived and watched a movie. Apparently the Swedes prefer subtitles to dubbing, or at least on the channels we get here, because the American movie was in English for once! I learned how to say "thank you" in Swedish from the subtitles (tach), and also some interesting profanity, although I don't know how to pronounce all of it.

Germany was nice, but we only had two complete days in Heidelberg, and we managed to fit in a tour of the Old Town, a couple of churches, the university library, the students' prison, a castle for dinner and an operetta (The Student Prince, which is American but set in Heidelberg--the songs were all in English but the dialogue was in German, so our friends had to help translate); and then a three-hour boat trip, lunch on the river, a tour of the large manor house in the next town with beautiful gardens, and a very nice dinner.

Needless to say, we are all completely exhausted. I have reached the point in traveling where I am ready to go home. Not that I don't want to see Sweden, of course, but I grow weary of having to make several trips to my suitcase for things I forgot for my shower, and wearing clothes that have been rolled and sealed into plastic bags for transit.

We did a great quantity of laundry in Heidelberg, in a combination washer/dryer that is a great mystery to me but managed to get everything clean. Between the three of us, I think we did about six loads over two days. Our hostess was very gracious about it, though, and even managed to get some stains out and hung things to dry. She was wonderful.

Tomorrow we will go explore Stockholm. There is a very old ship to see in a museum, and an open-air folk museum displaying ways of life from different parts of Sweden, and many other things to choose from. I am also interested in eating at a Chinese restaurant. We have seen them in every country so far, and I am curious about Chinese food in other countries.

Today I watched part of the Olympics opening ceremonies on television. It made me a little homesick for China, since every holiday and festival and any occasion is marked by pageantry of the sort they put on for the Olympics, although this was on a much, much grander scale. Lots of swirling skirts and ceremonial swords and dancing and singing, all topped off by enough fireworks to cancel the clean-air initiative entirely.

I think I forgot to write before that I met some Chinese men in Rome. We stopped at a sidewalk stand where my sister had metal card stands made for someone--they're wire with the person's name and decorations twisted into them. Hard to describe, but I have pictures. Anyhow, next to that was a man painting scrolls with elaborately decorated names on them. I decided to have one made. I wrote my name down for the man, and he turned it into a multicolored festival of colors and flowers and animals. It's really beautiful. But partway through his drawing, I realized that he did not look Italian. So I asked him, in Chinese, if he was a Chinese person. He looked up in shock. Yes! Chinese! he said, and rattled off with an accent I couldn't quite follow. I explained in very basic Chinese that I was an English teacher at a university. We both smiled at each other, knowing that this was a special moment despite the language barrier. When we left, I thanked him in Chinese and then used an informal way of saying goodbye. The man from the wire stand next door looked over in surprise and repeated it. We all laughed, and I waved as we walked away. I felt very international.

There is a very comfortable-looking feather bed calling my name. We have free internet at this hotel, although they're down to one computer while the business center is being remodeled, so I should be able to write again from Stockholm. I don't know what will be available once we head into the hills with our car. Oh, and our taxi today was a Volvo station wagon! Ah, Sweden.