Lessons Learned in August

****If a mysteriously friendly Danish girl approaches you on her bike in Copenhagen and takes you through grassy fields and quiet lanes, you should surely follow. It's not a set up, and you don't have to hide your passport and credit card in your sweater in case you might be jumped...she just genuinely wants to show you a good time.

****You can never have too many meatballs. No, really.

****There is a Bill Murray movie I actually like and think is funny. I don't watch movies at home in California but here they will certainly be just the right cure for a long wet crazy day.

****There's a particular type of humor that comes from guys from the San Francisco Bay Area. When you unexpectedly encounter it on the other side of the world, it's disorienting and comforting at the same time.

****I cannot wear what Swedes wear at this point of the year. I get too hot. It's beyond me how they wear boots and leggings and sweaters and still bike for more than 5 minutes. I've been consistently wearing fewer clothes than most people I see, and getting strange looks sometimes because of it, because I can't walk from place to place, bike around, and then interact in these warm houses and buildings wearing what they wear and not dying of heat.

****So many Swedes are much warmer and even more physical than I really anticipated. In meeting new people I've gone in for handshakes when they've gone for the hug several times, and if they've been drinking, I've had more hugs and arms wrapped around me and and lyrics sung into my ear than I've ever had in my life. It's quite charming, really. Two girls I didn't know last night practically scooped me up when I left the club walking only a foot or two in front of my friends, and as I was locked between them I ducked their dangling cigarettes and lips close to my face as they insisted I come to their afterparty.

****My Swedish friends weren't kidding, the meat really is better here. My McDonald's Quarter Pounder was stunning. I think eggs from the grocery store are even noticeably tastier. Makes you forget that you can't go out to SuperCuca's for a proper burrito.

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