Florida is part of the South, and growing up in Miami, along with college in Tallahassee, I learned to say "you all" for second-person plural. I'm curious as to if/when my parents started using it. I'm pretty sure my Dad (born in Canada) does, but I can't recall if Mom (born in Michigan) does. I myself have a vague memory of starting to use it around 10 or 12 years old. That may just be when I noticed it as its own word.
English in general does not (any longer) have the second-person plural, though dialects have "you all"/"y'all", "youse" and a few others. (details). Other languages do have the distinction, and Swedish is one such. "du" means "you (singular)" while "ni" is "you (plural)", as well as "you (singular, formal)". The latter, formal use is considered old-fashioned and mostly disappeared from the language in the 1960s. Though there was a text in ony of my Swedish lessons about being embarassed because "he said 'du' to the king."
If I meet the king and talk with him in Swedish, what are the political and social ramifications if I (a republican American) use "ni"? Hmm. (BTW, "republican" in this context means "advocate of a republic", just like "he has catholic tastes" means "free from provincial prejudices".)
Therefore it's pretty easy for me to use "ni" - it's whenever I would say "you all". A few months ago I was shopping with Laura and asked if it was okay to ask a shop clerk "har ni något ...?" meaning "do you all have any ...?" It's because I'm asking "the people at the store" rather than "the person I'm talking to." She didn't think it was right to use the plural form there, but she's from Canada, where they definitely don't use "you all." So we asked Jacob, and he said it was fine. It's not wrong to use one or the other, it's just that ni form isn't wrong.
Last Saturday after the milonga at Språkkaféet, a few of us went to a nearby pub to drink and chat for a bit. I left a bit early and one of the women there apparently left soon after. When I saw Per yesterday he made some comment about how "you must have had some plans." I didn't understand that. I personally did have some plan: Laura was making dinner and I didn't want to be late. But he, correctly, used the second person plural form there to mean "you all must have had some plans", meaning me and that woman. Which I didn't get because I was really thinking "singular you there."
The same happened today in an email from Emily, an English woman. We (including Laura and Jacob) were going to her place for games this evening. After I told her that Laura and Jacob were both coming, she replied "I look forward to seeing you later." That didn't make sense because I again read singular instead of plural there.
It's my oddball dialect, I know.
In high school Spanish class, our teacher came from Virginia. When we did exercises we were supposed to use "you all" as the translation for "Ustedes". Apparently that's not uncommon. I've heard about others who had to do the same, though again from the South. The teacher wants to make sure the students know the difference between the two "you" forms.
Middle English, so some time back, had a second-person singular form, "thou", with "thee" and "thine" as object and possessive forms. To make life even more fun, they were written with the thorn character, þu, þe, and þin. The plural forms were "ye", "you" and "your". All be the last two have disappeared.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Från biblioteket
I got an email reminder from my local library here in Göteborg saying that some books were two in two days. It's not hard technology, but my old library in Santa Fe didn't do that. Then again, my old library didn't charge overdue fees.
Monday, September 24, 2007
school suxs
Today was a depressing day. I went to school. I didn't like it. I left. And I've had a big headache.
The school was an adult education class run by the city, "Svenska som andrat språk" - "Swedish as a second language". There were 32 people in the class, including me. But let me back up a bit. Last week was orientation for the new people. I didn't remember until late so I got there about 15 minutes after it was supposed to have started. I went to the room I was told to go to, and it was another class. I was very confused, as I often am when I'm doing things in Swedish, but eventually figured out that the teacher who was supposed to be doing the orientation for us was sick that day. It didn't matter that I was late.
I got a copy of the class assignments. The class itself started about 2 months ago so it's 1/2 way through. I then didn't know where to get the book, but the orientation staff (it was orientation for other classes) helped me out there. I got it, and over the last couple of days read through the text for today's lesson.
I showed up today. A bit late because I again had the wrong room, but that's okay as the teacher was also late. There were 32 people in the class, which is 90 minutes long. You can do that math yourself - about 3 minutes individual time per person. It's not worth my time to go to such thing. The Folkuniversitet classes aren't free, but the intensive courses meet every day for 3 hours and there's about 10 people in the class. Much more teacher time, much easier to ask questions.
It also seems that people are in the class in order to get the equivalent of a high school degree. There's worry about the number of points possible in the class - the points are needed for grade advancement, perhaps? Compare to the Folkuniversitetet course where 4 or 5 of the students were trained as doctors and wanted the knowledge to be able to do work in this country.
Once of the differences in pedagogy is that there are actual tests in the course I went to today. That, and the class environment, brought back some horrible memories of high school. I had forgotten just how much I did not like my English classes, and this felt like that. The Folkuniversitet course had at times worksheets to practice on, but that was all self-evaluated. So when I didn't like the problem set at least I could end it with "I didn't like it" and move on.
In ninth grade English class we learned about "diagramming sentences". I remember to this day, and continue to complain, about an assignment that started "have you every seen a pilot fish?". (another time I complained). I thought it was about pilots who fished, and I diagrammed it that way. Of course the other sentences were about "pilot fish" and sharks, but I thought they were just a bunch of random sentences and couldn't figure it out very well. I didn't do well with that assignment.
A few weeks ago in my Folkuniversitetet course we worked on an exercise to convert between passive and active. The text started with some sentences about how the Aztecs used cocoa and how it came to Europe. Swedish recipes are written in the passive voice so I interpreted the first few sentences to translate as a recipe. Which made the last three lines rather harder to interpret.
In class, on a different exercise we had to use "nog", "väl", and a few other words. Those are "probably", "well", and so on. In some cases it was hard to figure out which word to use, and indeed the teacher used a different word than the answer book used. With only 8 of us we could ask about different variations, and get feedback. With 32? No way.
Why the headache? I'm trying again to wean myself off of the juice of the Coke. Now I've caffeine withdrawl headache. Usually it only hits me about 24 hours after I stop, but this one came on a few days later. I tried earlier last year to stop drinking it and managed for a few months. But when I started teaching in South Africa I picked it up again. It's a sort of security blanket - more of a psychological addiction than the physical one. I started drinking Pepsi when I was in elementary school and it's pretty well associated with, say, late night hacking sessions. Though "energy drinks" appear to be taking over that niche.
The school was an adult education class run by the city, "Svenska som andrat språk" - "Swedish as a second language". There were 32 people in the class, including me. But let me back up a bit. Last week was orientation for the new people. I didn't remember until late so I got there about 15 minutes after it was supposed to have started. I went to the room I was told to go to, and it was another class. I was very confused, as I often am when I'm doing things in Swedish, but eventually figured out that the teacher who was supposed to be doing the orientation for us was sick that day. It didn't matter that I was late.
I got a copy of the class assignments. The class itself started about 2 months ago so it's 1/2 way through. I then didn't know where to get the book, but the orientation staff (it was orientation for other classes) helped me out there. I got it, and over the last couple of days read through the text for today's lesson.
I showed up today. A bit late because I again had the wrong room, but that's okay as the teacher was also late. There were 32 people in the class, which is 90 minutes long. You can do that math yourself - about 3 minutes individual time per person. It's not worth my time to go to such thing. The Folkuniversitet classes aren't free, but the intensive courses meet every day for 3 hours and there's about 10 people in the class. Much more teacher time, much easier to ask questions.
It also seems that people are in the class in order to get the equivalent of a high school degree. There's worry about the number of points possible in the class - the points are needed for grade advancement, perhaps? Compare to the Folkuniversitetet course where 4 or 5 of the students were trained as doctors and wanted the knowledge to be able to do work in this country.
Once of the differences in pedagogy is that there are actual tests in the course I went to today. That, and the class environment, brought back some horrible memories of high school. I had forgotten just how much I did not like my English classes, and this felt like that. The Folkuniversitet course had at times worksheets to practice on, but that was all self-evaluated. So when I didn't like the problem set at least I could end it with "I didn't like it" and move on.
In ninth grade English class we learned about "diagramming sentences". I remember to this day, and continue to complain, about an assignment that started "have you every seen a pilot fish?". (another time I complained). I thought it was about pilots who fished, and I diagrammed it that way. Of course the other sentences were about "pilot fish" and sharks, but I thought they were just a bunch of random sentences and couldn't figure it out very well. I didn't do well with that assignment.
A few weeks ago in my Folkuniversitetet course we worked on an exercise to convert between passive and active. The text started with some sentences about how the Aztecs used cocoa and how it came to Europe. Swedish recipes are written in the passive voice so I interpreted the first few sentences to translate as a recipe. Which made the last three lines rather harder to interpret.
In class, on a different exercise we had to use "nog", "väl", and a few other words. Those are "probably", "well", and so on. In some cases it was hard to figure out which word to use, and indeed the teacher used a different word than the answer book used. With only 8 of us we could ask about different variations, and get feedback. With 32? No way.
Why the headache? I'm trying again to wean myself off of the juice of the Coke. Now I've caffeine withdrawl headache. Usually it only hits me about 24 hours after I stop, but this one came on a few days later. I tried earlier last year to stop drinking it and managed for a few months. But when I started teaching in South Africa I picked it up again. It's a sort of security blanket - more of a psychological addiction than the physical one. I started drinking Pepsi when I was in elementary school and it's pretty well associated with, say, late night hacking sessions. Though "energy drinks" appear to be taking over that niche.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
apartments, Swedish and pies
The party turned out well. About 20 people (including me) were there. And the pies? I don't see what all the hullabaloo is about making pie crusts. They turned out well. Yes, I've made flakier, and I've got ideas on what to do for next time, but that's at best a minor niggle. Helene looked at it and said "it's an American apple pie." I think because of the top crust. Swedes tend not to do that.
Good news. (And in Swedish you can say "good new" - "news" can be singular). I've found a short-term apartment. It's a 2 room-and-kitchen ('r.o.k'). In reading more about Swedish history, they weren't broken up as "bedroom" and "living room" because they weren't that distinguishable. For example, the entire family might live in a 1 rok, so the 1 room was for living and sleeping. And the bathroom was in the courtyard.
But this is a 2 rok, at about 44 sq. meters, or about 480 sq. feet. My house in Santa Fe was about 1,100 sq. ft. or 102 sq. m. And Sara and I managed pretty easily there. After all, it was meant as a post-war home for young families so should handle parents + 2 or 3 kids. By the way, Sara's back home! Her unit's out of Iraq and she's in Santa Fe again. Though obviously not in my old house.
Anyway, I don't need that much space. It comes furnished, and the price includes the water, power, internet, and heat, as well as access to the laundry room. Unlike US ones where the machines are all coin-op, use of these is included in the rent.
I started with my Swedish course at Folkuniversitetet. It's been annoying and frustrating, for reasons I haven't figured out yet. Still, I am learning. Now that I have a Swedish id I went to the library and got a card for there. I've checked out Swedish versions of Calvin and Hobbes, and of Heinlein's "Have Space Suit, Will Travel." Heinlein is one of my favorite authors and that book, along with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" are at the top of my list of favorite books.
This means I'm learning how to say "transmogrify" in Swedish, and "spacesuit" and many other essential words. Calvin and Hobbes has been pretty slow reading, and I figured that perhaps I wouldn't read the Heinlein because it's a novel rather than a cartoon. But I took it out and started reading it. And it was good. I've read the story so many times in English I nearly have it memorized, even now after I don't know how long. So I can figure out what's going on from the context, and that helps a lot. Plus, I don't have to worry that I'm missing something subtle. I know the subtle parts. I'm wanting to learn the obvious ones.
So I'm very excited about that too. One things to note though is that the book was written in the late 50s, and translated within a decade afterwords, I'm assuming. That means it has some older vocabulary. As one example, it used "gebit", which isn't in my otherwise extremely good 'Prisma's Abridged English-Swedish and Swedish-English Dictionary.' It's in the online one as 'domain'. The context was "top man in a specialized domain" and I've been looking for a good word to say that I work in a "specialized field".
I was wary because it wasn't in Prisma. At salsa I asked someone there (a Swede) if she had seen that word. I even had the book with me, so I showed it in context. Nope, had never seen it. Later I asked Jacob. It's a German loan-word, with the original meaning of 'career', that in Swedish became more specialized. It's not common these days because English has taken over a lot of the "lets's be cool and use foreign word" parts in Swedish.
I know a Swedish word that a good number of Swedes don't know! (perhaps. a sample size of 2 isn't much).
Good news. (And in Swedish you can say "good new" - "news" can be singular). I've found a short-term apartment. It's a 2 room-and-kitchen ('r.o.k'). In reading more about Swedish history, they weren't broken up as "bedroom" and "living room" because they weren't that distinguishable. For example, the entire family might live in a 1 rok, so the 1 room was for living and sleeping. And the bathroom was in the courtyard.
But this is a 2 rok, at about 44 sq. meters, or about 480 sq. feet. My house in Santa Fe was about 1,100 sq. ft. or 102 sq. m. And Sara and I managed pretty easily there. After all, it was meant as a post-war home for young families so should handle parents + 2 or 3 kids. By the way, Sara's back home! Her unit's out of Iraq and she's in Santa Fe again. Though obviously not in my old house.
Anyway, I don't need that much space. It comes furnished, and the price includes the water, power, internet, and heat, as well as access to the laundry room. Unlike US ones where the machines are all coin-op, use of these is included in the rent.
I started with my Swedish course at Folkuniversitetet. It's been annoying and frustrating, for reasons I haven't figured out yet. Still, I am learning. Now that I have a Swedish id I went to the library and got a card for there. I've checked out Swedish versions of Calvin and Hobbes, and of Heinlein's "Have Space Suit, Will Travel." Heinlein is one of my favorite authors and that book, along with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" are at the top of my list of favorite books.
This means I'm learning how to say "transmogrify" in Swedish, and "spacesuit" and many other essential words. Calvin and Hobbes has been pretty slow reading, and I figured that perhaps I wouldn't read the Heinlein because it's a novel rather than a cartoon. But I took it out and started reading it. And it was good. I've read the story so many times in English I nearly have it memorized, even now after I don't know how long. So I can figure out what's going on from the context, and that helps a lot. Plus, I don't have to worry that I'm missing something subtle. I know the subtle parts. I'm wanting to learn the obvious ones.
So I'm very excited about that too. One things to note though is that the book was written in the late 50s, and translated within a decade afterwords, I'm assuming. That means it has some older vocabulary. As one example, it used "gebit", which isn't in my otherwise extremely good 'Prisma's Abridged English-Swedish and Swedish-English Dictionary.' It's in the online one as 'domain'. The context was "top man in a specialized domain" and I've been looking for a good word to say that I work in a "specialized field".
I was wary because it wasn't in Prisma. At salsa I asked someone there (a Swede) if she had seen that word. I even had the book with me, so I showed it in context. Nope, had never seen it. Later I asked Jacob. It's a German loan-word, with the original meaning of 'career', that in Swedish became more specialized. It's not common these days because English has taken over a lot of the "lets's be cool and use foreign word" parts in Swedish.
I know a Swedish word that a good number of Swedes don't know! (perhaps. a sample size of 2 isn't much).
Thursday, August 23, 2007
food processor
"Oh my Stars and Stripes!" That was one of my grandmother's strongest expressions, and one that I like to use to express astonishment. "Oh my Blue and Gold" in Swedish? Hmmm..
I'm getting things ready for the party tomorrow. I decided to make apple pies. Doing the crust is traditionally annoying. I think it was Christy, my sister, who pointed out that pastry cutters exist. I had been using two knives. Blah. Well Clarie has a food processor, and I used that to cut the flour and margarine together. Wow! Oh my Stars and Stripes! That was easy.
I also used it a bit to cut in the water but I think next time I do this I'll start with colder margarine and cut in the water by hand. I don't think the result's going to be that flaky for this batch. Maybe I'll make one and see what happens, then make the other.
Why margarine and not shortening? I couldn't find shortening here. Closest was "bakmargarin". I called Emily, a Brit. In the UK she uses suet (rendered beef fat). The US equivalent is lard (rendered pig fat). Both are good for pie crusts. I've never used it though. Emily uses butter instead. Hmm, when I head over to the store in a bit I'll buy some extra butter too, in case the test pie comes out poorly.
Looking on the web, it looks like pie crust making gives the heebie jeebies to a lot of people. Ignorantly sailing into treacherous baking waters, that's me! And treacherous is a hard word to spell.
I'm getting things ready for the party tomorrow. I decided to make apple pies. Doing the crust is traditionally annoying. I think it was Christy, my sister, who pointed out that pastry cutters exist. I had been using two knives. Blah. Well Clarie has a food processor, and I used that to cut the flour and margarine together. Wow! Oh my Stars and Stripes! That was easy.
I also used it a bit to cut in the water but I think next time I do this I'll start with colder margarine and cut in the water by hand. I don't think the result's going to be that flaky for this batch. Maybe I'll make one and see what happens, then make the other.
Why margarine and not shortening? I couldn't find shortening here. Closest was "bakmargarin". I called Emily, a Brit. In the UK she uses suet (rendered beef fat). The US equivalent is lard (rendered pig fat). Both are good for pie crusts. I've never used it though. Emily uses butter instead. Hmm, when I head over to the store in a bit I'll buy some extra butter too, in case the test pie comes out poorly.
Looking on the web, it looks like pie crust making gives the heebie jeebies to a lot of people. Ignorantly sailing into treacherous baking waters, that's me! And treacherous is a hard word to spell.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
birthday
Today I turned 37. One year ago I was in South Africa, as well as two years ago.
Living in foreign lands. I remember my 11th grade English teacher talking about Faulkner, and how we are tied to the land. I didn't believe her. But I had never really moved from the land.
It is easy to take a man from his land, but it's hard to take his land from the man. I understand that more now. About a month ago I flew back from Lithuania via Oslo. I did that route in part to scout out the city for the next time. As I walked around I came across the US embassy, with the Stars and Stripes flying high. It was a thrilling moment for me. I am American.
Earlier today I was walking to the bus stop. There was some flattened grass leading to the thicket. My first thought was "oh, that's a path made by the alligators." I am Floridian. A Michigander's first thought would likely be deer. Even after living in Illinois for a few years, my first thought on seeing snow on the ground, in the corner of my eye, was to think "beach sand." My New Jersey friends didn't think sand could be white.
I went to SFI (translates to "Swedish For Foreigners") today to see about which courses I could take through them. I talked with the guy working there and mentioned that my dad and his parents lived in Cuba. He mentioned that there was a Cuban restaurant nearby. Line-of-sight even, and showed me it. So I went there for lunch. It was tremendously exciting to have ropa vieja con moros. I am Miamian.
My birthday party is on Friday. I'm making a roughly south-west themed set of dishes for friends, including chips, salsa and guacamole, chili con carne, tortillas, and margaritas. I am New Mexican by adoption.
Am I also becoming Swedish? Unlike the US, with "{Swedish,Cuban,Irish,German,Chinese}-American", it's only been recently that Sweden has had a large number of immigrants. Turkish-Swede? American-Swede? The only time I've come across terms like that is refering to Swedish Finns vs. Finnish Finns.
My Swedish, by the way, is decent. There are four levels of courses and I place in the 3rd. What I really need to do now I think is work on my vocabulary, probably through reading.
This is salsa night at Oceanen, so I'm off for that. Love to all my family and friends who read this blog.
Living in foreign lands. I remember my 11th grade English teacher talking about Faulkner, and how we are tied to the land. I didn't believe her. But I had never really moved from the land.
It is easy to take a man from his land, but it's hard to take his land from the man. I understand that more now. About a month ago I flew back from Lithuania via Oslo. I did that route in part to scout out the city for the next time. As I walked around I came across the US embassy, with the Stars and Stripes flying high. It was a thrilling moment for me. I am American.
Earlier today I was walking to the bus stop. There was some flattened grass leading to the thicket. My first thought was "oh, that's a path made by the alligators." I am Floridian. A Michigander's first thought would likely be deer. Even after living in Illinois for a few years, my first thought on seeing snow on the ground, in the corner of my eye, was to think "beach sand." My New Jersey friends didn't think sand could be white.
I went to SFI (translates to "Swedish For Foreigners") today to see about which courses I could take through them. I talked with the guy working there and mentioned that my dad and his parents lived in Cuba. He mentioned that there was a Cuban restaurant nearby. Line-of-sight even, and showed me it. So I went there for lunch. It was tremendously exciting to have ropa vieja con moros. I am Miamian.
My birthday party is on Friday. I'm making a roughly south-west themed set of dishes for friends, including chips, salsa and guacamole, chili con carne, tortillas, and margaritas. I am New Mexican by adoption.
Am I also becoming Swedish? Unlike the US, with "{Swedish,Cuban,Irish,German,Chinese}-American", it's only been recently that Sweden has had a large number of immigrants. Turkish-Swede? American-Swede? The only time I've come across terms like that is refering to Swedish Finns vs. Finnish Finns.
My Swedish, by the way, is decent. There are four levels of courses and I place in the 3rd. What I really need to do now I think is work on my vocabulary, probably through reading.
This is salsa night at Oceanen, so I'm off for that. Love to all my family and friends who read this blog.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
tango marathon at Lomma
On Friday early evening I met up with some of the tango gang to head down to Lomma for the "Tango Marathon." It wasn't one of the "dance until you drop ones" and nor was it "the music never stops." It was a lot of dancing in the evenings (10pm until 4am) and workshops during the day. It was near the beach (about 20 minutes walking) so on Saturday afternoon we went there, and danced some on the deck of some beach bar.
Ahh, the scene of the crime. Zoom out a bit and follow Habovägen south west. Actually, zoom out enough so you can also see the small boat harbor and the channel. Going a bit up the coast you'll see "Campingvägen" ("The Camping Road"). The beach bar was at the southwest corner of that rectangle.
It was cheap. SEK 500 (about $80) for food, a place to sleep, and the milongas. A bit more for the workshops. Why was it cheap? Because we also prepared the meals (I was Saturday morning breakfast crew) and "place to sleep" meant "the floor". Though those with a tent could pitch one, and some slept in their cars or got a place nearby. And those from Lund (nearby) slept at home.
I was still rather tired and travel-logged from coming back from Lithuania so I went to bed early on Saturday night, at about 2am. As the dance floor wasn't due to be converted into the sleeping floor for another couple of hours, the question was "where do I sleep?" Mind you, I also needed to be up at 9am to help with breakfast.
The answer? The sauna in the men's changing room. It was a great place to sleep. (It was off.) With the door closed it was quiet and dark. The bench was a bit hard, but the floor would have been as well, and colder. A couple of people checked out the sauna while I was sleeping, looking I assume for a place to sleep. There was room for another on the other bench, but I woke up alone. Spent the 2nd night there was well, though this time with two others.
One was a Finn. He's the one who earlier Saturday night asked if it was okay to use the sauna, and did. I and another joined him. I've been surprised at the Swedes. Very few of the apartments I've looked at have a sauna. The couple I've seen have had it as part of the housing association's common property, and not a personal sauna. I know parts of the northern midwest (US) have small saunas, for 1 or 2, and thought that Sweden would be the same. But no.
Too bad, so sad. I like saunas.
The dancing got me thinking existential questions. (It's a weak word play on Swedish, where you don't say "There is a house in New Orleans", instead saying "It exists a house in New Orleans"). If I took lessons I would become a better tango dancer faster than I would doing it on my own. But does there exist a tango teacher in Gbg that I want to learn from? And what's the reason for wanting to get better? It's in part because there were some really good dancers at the marathon, and I felt out of place. But suppose I were to work hard at it, take lessons, attend workshops .. to what end? Or should I do other dances instead? Hmmm....
Johanna called me a galning after we danced Saturday night, and a Swiss woman also said I was a crazy guy. Both in a good way. The Swiss woman was crazier than me. I'm energetic in tango, and like the expressive interpretation that can happen. It's more of a tango nuevo thing. Is there a nuevo teacher around here? Not that I know of.
It was pretty hard for me the first 24 hours or so. There were a lot of new people, and directly after a conference. Conferences tend to burn me out socially, meeting new people and being outgoing can take a toll. What makes it harder too is forcing myself to do it all in Swedish. Though there were Danes there too (and Swedes from Skåne, who have their own accent). I know that doing so is overall a good thing for my Swedish learning, but it can make me feel so dumb. *sigh*
Ahh, the scene of the crime. Zoom out a bit and follow Habovägen south west. Actually, zoom out enough so you can also see the small boat harbor and the channel. Going a bit up the coast you'll see "Campingvägen" ("The Camping Road"). The beach bar was at the southwest corner of that rectangle.
It was cheap. SEK 500 (about $80) for food, a place to sleep, and the milongas. A bit more for the workshops. Why was it cheap? Because we also prepared the meals (I was Saturday morning breakfast crew) and "place to sleep" meant "the floor". Though those with a tent could pitch one, and some slept in their cars or got a place nearby. And those from Lund (nearby) slept at home.
I was still rather tired and travel-logged from coming back from Lithuania so I went to bed early on Saturday night, at about 2am. As the dance floor wasn't due to be converted into the sleeping floor for another couple of hours, the question was "where do I sleep?" Mind you, I also needed to be up at 9am to help with breakfast.
The answer? The sauna in the men's changing room. It was a great place to sleep. (It was off.) With the door closed it was quiet and dark. The bench was a bit hard, but the floor would have been as well, and colder. A couple of people checked out the sauna while I was sleeping, looking I assume for a place to sleep. There was room for another on the other bench, but I woke up alone. Spent the 2nd night there was well, though this time with two others.
One was a Finn. He's the one who earlier Saturday night asked if it was okay to use the sauna, and did. I and another joined him. I've been surprised at the Swedes. Very few of the apartments I've looked at have a sauna. The couple I've seen have had it as part of the housing association's common property, and not a personal sauna. I know parts of the northern midwest (US) have small saunas, for 1 or 2, and thought that Sweden would be the same. But no.
Too bad, so sad. I like saunas.
The dancing got me thinking existential questions. (It's a weak word play on Swedish, where you don't say "There is a house in New Orleans", instead saying "It exists a house in New Orleans"). If I took lessons I would become a better tango dancer faster than I would doing it on my own. But does there exist a tango teacher in Gbg that I want to learn from? And what's the reason for wanting to get better? It's in part because there were some really good dancers at the marathon, and I felt out of place. But suppose I were to work hard at it, take lessons, attend workshops .. to what end? Or should I do other dances instead? Hmmm....
Johanna called me a galning after we danced Saturday night, and a Swiss woman also said I was a crazy guy. Both in a good way. The Swiss woman was crazier than me. I'm energetic in tango, and like the expressive interpretation that can happen. It's more of a tango nuevo thing. Is there a nuevo teacher around here? Not that I know of.
It was pretty hard for me the first 24 hours or so. There were a lot of new people, and directly after a conference. Conferences tend to burn me out socially, meeting new people and being outgoing can take a toll. What makes it harder too is forcing myself to do it all in Swedish. Though there were Danes there too (and Swedes from Skåne, who have their own accent). I know that doing so is overall a good thing for my Swedish learning, but it can make me feel so dumb. *sigh*
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