Uppsala in the fall! An uneventful week to counter last time's post. That is, technically uneventful. Fall arrived quickly here - the leaves changed in the last ten days and are already falling heavily.

Here below is Vaksalatorget, covered in booths from what may be the largest flea market in Europe. Went with friends Eva of Belgium and Kyle of America.

A few nights ago, Manon (wonderful girl from the Netherlands) and I went out on an adventure that is equally rare for both of us - shopping. The aim was to find clothes fitting for a disco party that a friend was hosting but everything here is so expensive that we just ended up goofing off (see exhibit 1 below....). Not feeling too keen on either disco or partying, I opted to stay home. So, after purchasing absolutely nothing, we split for the evening and I went to buy some delicious korean noodles from one of the surprisingly common asian food stores in town.

Yours truly scandalizing the ridiculously reserved Swedish population.

The weather has been outstanding here - sunny and chill. Many hours have been spent out doors, walking with friends, taking fika, sitting.



Recently friends Hiroka, Kino and Mari hosted Japanese Food Night, an international, gastronomical epic. It was de-li-cious.


Manon and Aaron.

The one and only Kino, lookin good! Along with Lisa, foraying into the delights and obstacles of eating self-rolled sushi.

What follows below is a series of shots of the outstanding foliage. The urge to frollick is, at times, almost uncontainable.







The graveyard here (above), about an 1/8th of a mile from my dorm, is one of the most gorgeous places in Uppsala. There are seemingly more trees than stones so that you feel like you're in a kind of sparse woods, almost fantastically beautiful on sunny days.


These are pictures from the Linne garden, which I revisited in better weather and with a freer schedule.



Personal cooking adventure number one! Persian jeweled rice. After stumbling into a well-hidden oriental food shop, I became determined to cook some adventurous foods. Back in high-school I found a Persian recipe book with a photograph of jeweled rice on the cover and it thoroughly enticed me, so now, given the time that I have free, I took on the task! This involved locating an extravagant list of ingredients (I failed at obtaining dried rosebuds), cooking for 2.5 hours, eating for .5 and cleaning for 1.

Below: pomegranate seeds.


The rice and garnish cooking on the corridor stove.


The final product!



Now I'm left with about 16 metric tons of jeweled rice in the refrigerator. It was good, all and all. An unnumbered mix of flavors.

So. Life here continues apace! I've been exploring alternate drawing methods, being brave and using charcoals and pastels, making -gasp!- unerasable lines.