The longer bus ride this morning was a relatively welcome opportunity to rest (and for Jessica to catch up on blogging and culling photos). We drove through wind and rain, sunshine and clouds, finally taking an afternoon stop in Kalmar at a castle on the Baltic Sea. Our allotted tour time was squeezed by a…

SUNDAY, July 16:I'm currently sitting in the corner of a courtyard of nude white people, hiding from the stimulants. Julie joined me minutes ago. We're a few moments shy of collapsing into shivering lumps of unresponsive body mass, cowering from the crowds. Maybe a bit dramatic. We’re just south of the land of the midnight…

I so enjoy listening to the Nordic languages. Though I didn't grow up with the opportunity to hear my great-grandparents speaking in their native tongue, it just feels like home: the way words are held in the mouth and gently rolled about, the sing-song prosodic rise and fall of speech lending itself to the clucking…