Sugar and spice and everything nice

I wish the candle that is burning cheerfully in my room this evening was a baked good. Its scent is "pumpkin spice" and I occasionally look up to see if it has magically turned into a plate of pumpkin muffins or scones because it smells that good. Yummy. Reasons why I want to eat pumpkin scones at this very moment:

1) All of my friends have been talking about taking their children to pumpkin patches. This is charming and very autumnal, so I have pumpkins on the brain.
2) It is rainy and cheerless and treeless in my current corner of the world and I am dying for something sweet and earthy
3) I am mildly depressed and mild depression always calls for a baked good. It has been slowly dawning on me this weekend (even though I should have been fully aware) that moving to a new city means starting over - new friends, new parks, new grocery store, new yoga studio, new rhythm of life (all of which I have failed to find thus far). Carmen, your extrovert-extrodinaire, is feeling a little sorry for herself this evening.

Philadelphia is called the "City of Brotherly Love," but so far, I haven't seen much lovin'. This isn't a particularly friendly town. In fact, my friend J.C. reminded me recently that Philadelphia famously booed and threw garbage at Santa Claus at an Eagle's game a few years ago (football, for my Euro friends that could care less about silly American sports). Booed Santa Claus!!

Living downtown Philadelphia is nothing like living downtown Manhattan. The chain stores and gritty concrete are the same, but where is a Central Park when you need one? I had planned on going to a movie tonight, but it is frigid and rainy and I don't know the Philly transit system well enough to get to the other side of the city. Sigh. It will get better. Just a bummer today. I don't have any interesting photos yet. My friend Peg suggested I take pics of the new digs, but this mission failed because it was just too fetching cold. I'll get on it eventually. Here's wishing you a delicious fall moment or two in the coming weeks!

The life of a holy roller

I like the title of this post, even if I am full of c-r-a-p. I am no holy roller, but you'd think I would be since I am a pastor.

Life in Philadelphia: I am sitting on a bed (the only clean, comfy, organized thing in my life right now), surrounded by boxes, overwhelmed by a very full inbox, swimming in WORK, curious about the strange new city I live in, and thrilled about the potential of this church. I already like the people I work with-- creative, smart, authentic-types that are all about service, compassion, and learning.

After 4 nights at here, I have decided the house where I live is not haunted. She is crumbling and falling apart in myriad charming ways, but she is ghost-less. Don't worry, I will make sure she is not lifeless!

This pic gives you a picture of where I live and work. Hopefully it will be the place that soon feels like home.

On a Plane Bound for Philly

Finally spent some time with the family. It's been a nice four days. I have been wrestling with the nephews and cuddling with my new baby niece in Canby, Oregon. Yesterday was a glorious fall day and we spent most of it chopping down trees on my sister’s mini-farm. I am not kidding. Chopping. My dad taught me how to use a chainsaw and we brought down a couple of diseased trees. Fun! Saturday afternoon was perfectly, fantastically antithetical to my urban life in Philadelphia.

I love my sister’s house.

They have a small orchard out front and yesterday my nephew Tate and I filled a bucket with rotting pears and apples to bring to the goats and cows across the road. I always love being with my sister. Just standing next to her wearing a pair of work boots and dirty old jeans soothes me. Strange. I wonder if most sisters feel this way?

I missed my cousin Jenny’s wedding, but I got to spend one evening with my Sam and Angie (and briefly reacquaint myself with their darling wee people—3 kids under the age of 3— true bravery). When I arrived Angie promptly came out on the porch holding one of the twins (Glory?) and for a second I was reminded of the Folgers coffee commercials that used to make me cry. Remember that TV commercial where the older brother comes home for Christmas, sneaks in early in the morning, and joyfully wakes up the family over a mug of instant coffee? Yes, I felt like that. I happen to love the Lai family.

I can be such a bratty cynic about the world at times and yet it is full of wonderful people. I chatted with Rochelle for over an hour and I was reminded of the luxury of laying around with a sleeping baby on a comfy couch (my niece is a rather angelic infant). As I boarded the plane this morning, I was charmed by a woman wearing a fleece covered in neatly labeled lighthouses, an old silver-haired woman who methodically prayed a bright green rosary throughout the take-off and landing, and the cheerful strangers that welcomed their aisle-mates as if they had been waiting to meet this person all their life. This is one more thing to add to the "Great Things About America" list: unabashed friendliness. Yes, there will always be exceptions to the rule, but I love that strangers are often quite cheerful with one another in this country.

This post is long, so I will stop. One of these days I will tell you about my new job and the haunted manse where I live. But I hardly feel like a Philadelphia resident yet, so give me a few days. I am sure something newsworthy and interesting will come up.

News from Scandinavia

Did you know....

- Until 1986 the prime minister of Sweden walked around Stockholm without security, like he was a perfectly ordinary citizen (and then there was the assassination debacle)
- There is a "vodka belt" in Sweden. They also have a "Bible belt" but it is much, much smaller
- When you have a baby here you automatically get a year paid leave. Awesome.
- You can legally have sexual relations with animals in Sweden (OMG)
- The Finns created our version of the sauna (after the Turks) and it is GOOD!!!! Yesterday I traipsed around in a towel in multiple steamy rooms and felt like a new woman!
- Norway was very poor, a developing country, until they discovered oil in the 1960's (70's?) and now it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world
- Want to rile up some Scandinavians? Get one Norwegian, Dane, or Swede in a room that supports the monarchy and one that feels it is absolutely undemocratic and casually bring up the king or queen. Sparks, people. Sparks.
- Immigration is the hot topic in Scandinavia. Everyone is trying to figure out Scandinavian identity right now. Fascinating for me, one from the nation of immigrants

Bye bye vacation. I will miss you.

Pretty, Pretty Stockholm

I saw a man smoking a corncob pipe today. Didn’t Frosty the Snowman smoke a corncob pipe? The man looked quite content in his wool cap, vest, and pipe as he walked along Katarinavagen toward the old city here in Stockholm. I am visiting my friend Micke, a friend I met in Zambia, who has a lovely apartment in a rather sheik part of the city. He is an artist, so it is full of interesting things. It is the kind of apartment that has new details to observe in every nook and cranny. I like it.

Micke was rather blasé about the Gamla Stans, the old part of the city, but there is good reason to be impressed by the charming cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, and old homes. Last night we went to a church service in a quaint wooden church, architecturally known as “Norse romantic.” I felt quite at home in the service despite the fact that I do not speak Swedish. The service began at sunset and the church was packed with people, surprising here in Sweden where so few people consider themselves religious. The warm candlelight and simple piano music created a meditative space, but the mild-mannered priest who wore jeans and red tennis shoes under his alb and collar was especially charming.

Fall is an exquisite time of year. The leaves, all yellow and red and green, cling to their branches as they bask in the golden light of September. I am such a romantic, but I suppose it is especially easy to be romantic this time of year.

Here are a couple of observations I have made in the last week here in beautiful Scandinavia: One, tights are in right now. Green tights, black tights, brown tights. Tights are all the rage. Tights and boots. I am doing my best to fit in with my little gray, wool jacket and navy scarf, but I don’t have the sexy Scandinavian look mastered. I think I need to drop 20 pounds and pick up a smoking habit. Two, I do not feel like a freakshow here as a 31 year-old single woman. In the U.S. approximately 90% of my friends are married and while this is delightful, sometimes I feel quite abnormal. Here most people are single at 31, so I feel young and fun and very, very normal. This is refreshing.

Tonight we will go for dinner in a little cottage belonging to Micke’s girlfriend. As I write this Micke is sitting next to me writing an email while mindlessly humming a tune that is quite cheerful. We human beings are so quirky. Wishing you well, wherever this note finds you!

Norway in a Nutshell

Today I rose early to catch a train from Bergen on the Western coast of Norway to a little town called Myrdal where I began a bus/train/boat tour of one of the dramatic fjords in the area. A fjord is an exceptionally long inlet from the ocean that winds its way inland (check out a map of Norway and you’ll get it). The mountains were carved up long ago and tower alongside the fjords where seals and porpoises and other sea creatures live. The boat ride was stunning—literally impossible to capture in words or in pictures just how magnificent. On the train we climbed about 3000 feet and were surrounded by desolate stone and ice and endless waterfalls. I was surprised to see homes in this land where trees cannot survive. More and more homes cluster in growing villages as you make your way toward Oslo. Eventually ski slopes (without snow now in late September) dot the hillsides while bright yellow and burnt red leaves add to the drama.

About 5 million people live in Norway, nearly the same as the population of Denmark, but Norway is a massive country in comparison to tiny Denmark. Today I traveled with a nice Swede, a teacher from a small city in the South. He and I had a long conversation about my love life, shared our mutual disdain for poorly written popular novels (we bonded in our mutual snobbery), and he told me all about life as a Jew in Sweden. These are the kinds of intimate conversations you can find yourself in with fellow travelers. A dumb Australian said to my MARRIED traveling companion, “If you play your cards right, mate, you may find yourself another wife in this girl.” What? Weird. That guy was weird.

In Bergen I stayed with the family of my friend Kristin, a woman I met in Zambia last year. For the next few days I will be in Oslo and will spend time with 5 different Norwegians I met while living in Zambia. I have been shown wonderful hospitality thus far and every day has been restorative to my soul in its own way. There is something so nourishing about knowing new people and cultures, new lands and sights and smells.

Clearly, vacation is going well.

One last thing: you can buy troll figurines and little gnomes in tourist shops all over Norway. I never really understood this before. Why the obsession with stories of goblins and trolls, Norway? Well, after traveling through the dramatic stone mountains today it makes more sense to me. If you are surrounded by all of these massive granite mountains, it seems fitting that magical creatures should live among them.

I’ll let you know if I spot one.

On the Road Again...

It is a windy, rainy night here in Bergen on the western coast of Norway. I am crawling into bed late after a long, leisurely dinner with a lovely Norwegian family who was eager to talk politics, culture, and food (as to be expected when new friends come to town). When I was living in Zambia I met a collection of Norwegian friends (pics and stories can be found in my "Ramblings from Zambia" archive) and the family of my friend Kristin is hosting me for the next couple of days.

For the last five days I have been traipsing around Copenhagen and Southern Sweden with my cousins and we have packed in as much sight-seeing as possible. My cousin Katherine is a secondary-school teacher in Denmark and I was invited to come and lecture in 4 classes, introducing the students to "Religion in America." At first I thought I was going to be a zoo animal on display (U.S. religion is bewildering to our Danish friends), but we quickly found lots to talk and laugh about as we shared our cultures with one another. I love teaching and teaching high school students is especially fantastic. I love that freshly picked apples are set out on the dining table of the teacher's lounge. I love that students call their teachers by their first name. I am fascinated by the fact that most of these students know next to nothing about religion. I love the rolling hills of rural Denmark, the canals around Copenhagen, the fresh bread and cheese and tea... but I am saying nothing unique here. Everyone loves these things about Europe.

There is lots more to share, but I am weary, so a few pictures will have to do for now.