Standing still in Sweden

That feeling of being in the middle of nowhere: Sweden

Having spent most of my two years abroad here, I feel it safe to declare that Sweden was one of only a few countries I really feel comfortable in.  By this I mean that rare sense of security and self-assurance that comes from not fearing that danger lurks around the corner (except maybe if you were a cyclist in Toronto - then your just screwed) and not being leered at or bothered (well ok wearing a big mushroom cap hat and childish mittens assured I'd be kept off the radar).

Stockholm. Yep still cold.

Sweden is really much more than IKEA (I like the IKEA man), Swedish meatballs, blonde people, and knackebroed  -but Swedes don't really let you in on the secret until they get to know you a bit better (read: 3< years). No not even after downing a few bottles of local ol (beer) although it does go a long way. No Swedes are just...special...but also the most genuine and independent people I've met.  The country itself makes an example of values that we thought we had pegged like equality, appreciation for nature (thats right I had to google the Canadian national anthem to compare - there's no shame in that), walking in heels and tights in the dead of winter, and hell they even speak our own language pretty decently.

What I DON'T miss about Sweden:
1) The 7 months of darkness during the long winter season. And I still resent having to winter pant suit up just to go hiking in the woods.  But if anything, atleast the snow stays white and clean for much longer than it does on a typical Toronto street.

Uppsala (close to the Economikum)

Welcome here. Welcome home. Uppsala

2) I don't enjoy not fitting into any pants I buy there (bizarre freak mutation in Swedes - what's the advantage? getting further away from the warmth of the floor?).

Uppsala

Lining up for fika brunch

3) Pancake and pea soup Thursdays (serious? they've take a novelty cafeteria idea and unilaterally decided that institutionalising it was a good thing. I beg to differ. Cream on pancakes is not an afternoon meal).
4) I don't like how the supermarkets never have much more than root vegetables and pasta.
5) I don't like how the currency just doesn't make sense (why can't they be the same size?? and eliminate the 50 ore? really? makes it easier to count change).
6) I call it super equality. The Swedes call it Jantelagen. Does it hinder the learning process? Yes, I believe it does.
7) The word 'Lagom'. It has no meaning! Do you want more or less or not at all?
8) I don't like the vanity (cough cough Stockholmers cough cough. Men are not exempted).
9) Living in the middle of nowhere (serious did YOU know where Sweden was before I mentioned it? no not Switzerland)
10) Paying to use the toilets. Even in the malls.


What I DO miss about Sweden:
1) How I can wear a slouchy sweater, leggings and boots and call that an outfit without even trying.
2) Dinsko.
3) Daim chocolate (hurrah I've found that IKEA stores here sell it).
4) The coffee. 
5) Systembolaget is evil but such a necessary evil.
6) The lipbalm (the nice green bottle where you can just slide the balm up). 
7) The nice Swedish summer (when its usual that the entire day be sunny).
8) Nature.
9) The Swedish language. Listen to IKEA man. How can you not love it (this is just funny)? 
10) The individual washrooms. And the little indicators to say its occupied. Yah no more having to surreptitiously check for feet poking out.
11) Fika. No not the Italian meaning. I would not encourage you to use that word whilst in Italy. The Swedes have taken the coffee break to a higher level.
12) That no one begrudges the grocery bag fee. Why are we such stuck-up prisses and why not fork over the 5 cents?

That sinking feeling: Venice

Somethings missing: Bra bar

Last fall I had the remarkable opportunity to shindig with other like-minded professionals at a week long workshop on international environmental law in Venice, Italy.  The program was fantastically put together in a collaboration between the University of Padua and the International Centre for Climate Governance-Venice scheduling lectures by prominent practitioners in the field.  I still can't stop drooling over all the amazing people and topics covered - well despite the fact that International Environmental Law, atleast for now, is  less than helpful (thank you very much economic lust and political bigotry). But still its an amazing field and, with the fluidity of climate change and air borne pollutants, it seems to be a field with vast potential for change (mm this sounded more like a wish than a concrete statement).

Venice: Tight quarters

Watching 'The Tourist' is what set me off again into this little reverie of Venice. I mean just watching Angie pout in almost every scene while strutting along the streets of Venice makes me want to go back again - sit in a lovely cafe in St Marks square..and pay and arm and a leg for some real Italian coffee. I had the pleasure along the way to learn that saying things like ''why don't you have a Pizza Hut'' and ''super size that'' are blasphemous.  That wearing the right clothes with your hair properly done could probably pass as permissible for a tourist in  the city - except if your an Americano...there's no real cover for that. But maybe after a few glasses of Prosecco you'd do fine. And there are a whole lot of tourists in Venice - everywhere! Everyday and for every season - Venice literally is sinking with tourists. Quite literally. You people who are guilty. You know who you are.

After wave

Before wave

The island of Venice is just like the little pink logo suggests - fish shaped (I studied on an island just off the bottom tip of the fish tail).  I had taken the train from Bologna to Venice at a surprisingly cheaper ticket price than I had imagined (considering how much it costs to take the train from Toronto to Montreal with VIA).  It was just about the end of September and still it was such nice weather. Lucky me. Since I had misjudged and decided that a walk from the train station to St Marks Square was absolutely doable. This was indeed not the case - especially with my heavy backpack (mind you blazoned with little flags of all the countries Id been too - yah I'm that awesome) and a satchel which was by then also digging into my shoulders.  I had also made the unsavoury choice of entering into some boutiques along the way (but it turned out to be a good idea anyway-they don't have this stuff here).

Venice sunset

Venice by day

Venice is how I remember it the last time I visited (about 3 years ago?) - except for the obvious fact that there  were much more raised platforms then before. That and there were more dog owners ignoring the obvious fact that their dog just did number two in the middle of the sidewalk.  Ok. Besides being quite handy as an impromptu fashion runway in the middle of the night while your hollaring at the top of your lungs - its demonstrable of the fact that the tides are really turning against the city.  Well, to be factual, the tides never were working for Venice. Venice is built up in a lagoon-your living predicament can't be more precarious than that (making Venetians also quite vulnerable to a phenomenon called Aqua alta which is another way to say high tide). So imagine being knee deep in water (from the Adriatic Sea) and having your building's facade being washed out at it too. Enter the GATES OF SALVATION (just say it in that game show host voice too...getting the jitters too?). The project is called MOSE (thats just one 'S' short of a biblical reference...oh wait sorry it IS Moses in Italian). They are like mobile gates embedded into the sea just a short ways away from the island. But this video makes it look cooler than if I gave the point-by-point play.

Outside the train station: no trains are allowed on the Island

But ofcourse ''It is not just rising sea levels with which Venice has to contend. The city is sinking as a result of subsidence caused by decades of groundwater extraction for agriculture and industry on the mainland, and offshore drilling for methane gas. This combination means that Venice has effectively sunk 23cm in the last century.'' But what more is there to do but watch it all unfold marvellously as mother nature unravels the sea onto Venice like it has always done.  These and other effects of climate change are bound to catch up to us sooner or later.