Better, fitter, happier, more productive

Dear L,

Tomorrow I have a final interview with National Instruments here in Stockholm.

Crosswording is huge at NI.  Also note taking advantage of his 25% ethnic to rock that maroon dress shirt.

They're a joint software-hardware firm and in 2009 were #14 on Business Week's "The Best Places to Launch a Career" and #77 on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For."

Love,
D

Girls Night

Dear D,

A nice evening at our hangout on the beach.







Love,
L

Have Wetsuit, Will Travel

Dear L,



Stamp Love from Leise Hook on Vimeo.


I spent the afternoon perusing the interwebs for airplane flights. Here are my favorite ones:

$1058: Leaves Arlanda at 4:15pm on October 11th, arrives in Phuket at 10:25pm on October 12th. Leaves Phuket at 5:00pm on October 30th, arrives at Arlanda at 12:45pm on October 31st. CheapTickets. Pros: Cheapest ticket.

$1449 (CHANGEABLE, WITH FEE): Leaves Arlanda at 8:35pm on October 10th, arrives in Phuket at 7:40pm on October 11th. Leaves Phuket at 8:50pm on November 1st, arrives at Arlanda at 9:20am on November 2nd. SAS. Pros: Can rebook return ticket and still come even if a new job's start date interrupts the end of the trip.

$1632 (CHANGEABLE, WITH FEE): Leaves Arlanda at 8:35pm on October 10th, arrives in Phuket at 7:40pm on October 11th. Leaves Phuket at 8:50pm on October 30th, arrives at Arlanda at 9:20am on October 31st. SAS. Pros: Can rebook return ticket, and original return date would let me start working on Monday, November 1st, without having to rebook and pay the rebooking fee.

Love,
D

The Most Adorable Kid in all of Thailand

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Dear D,

The family that owns the bungalows managed to produce the cutest creature on the planet. Her family totally knows that the she’s too cute to handle, so they put her in these outfits that are so freaking heart-melting that you could die. She's got a bear suit and a cow hat and little flower halter dresses. Here’s my favorite, her Doraemon outfit:

Here she is with M. So much cute in such a tiny person!

We all want to take her back home.

Love,

L

Thai Critters

Dear D,

Thailand offers a wide variety of animal life for my enjoyment and sometimes horror. In my bungalow alone there are so many types of bugs including tiny ants and then teeny tiny ants that I can distinguish from the floor only because of the way the light reflects off of their legs. They all bite, especially when they’re crawling in your shorts and then you put your shorts on. The saying didn’t come from nowhere. There are also cute little geckos that will bite if you try to touch them, AND their jaws lock once they bite. Besides leaving little gecko turds on my pillow, they eat bugs and mosquitoes, so we’re ok. Then there’s the big lizard that prowls the bungalows and turns up to scare the crap out of you at night.



I’ve been told that the big lizard eats geckos.

I’ve also been finding these tiny frogs conferencing on my front steps for a couple nights now.




One turned up in my shower and I mistook it for a clump of mold until I started spraying it with water and it began to scrabble madly against the tiled wall.

There are all sorts of hermit crabs and crabs scuttering around the beach as well.


And plenty of adorable dogs…many are street dogs of varying degrees of mangy-ness.
Here’s one gnawing at something itchy.


And a fluff ball puppy named “ocean water with low visibility” (in Thai).


Plenty of kitties too, like this one at the bike repair shop. Note the oil-tipped nose.



(She was inspecting my camera.)

Love,
L

Phang-Nga Town

Dear D,

First illness and then our school got hit by lightning and a bunch of the computers got fried. I haven't had internet in a while to be able to update and all that.

Last month K, M and I rode our motorbikes the hour and a half to Phang-Nga town to visit S and C. The drive itself was gorgeous and by the time we arrived we were famished and headed to Stefan’s, a bar/pizzeria run by Stefan the often intoxicated German pizza wiz. The place was technically closed but he happened to drive by and saw us sitting outside the restaurant looking dejected, so he made an exception and whipped up some margerita pizza and cheese fries.

He discounted our beer and pretty soon the party got wildddd. So wild in fact that I made a public declaration of my love for you on the wall of the loo:

And then I took some portraits of myself. ^_^

Love,

L

Parading meat and raw beef

Dear L,

Last Saturday was the Stockholm Pride parade.  I had a hot dog and nuts on the subway on the way over to get into the spirit.  Here are some of my favorite groups of marchers:

F! (the Feminist Party)

Gay priests.

Da bears.

The event was very moving.  "Proud parents" and "Gays marching for those who can't", who wore tape over their mouths and carried signs with hate crime statistics and stories, caused a lump in my throat and almost brought me to tears.  I had to leave early because my shoulder started aching from standing still in a cramped space for so long, but luckily this was not the only meat I would see for a while.

For dinner last night we enjoyed the Swedish specialty råbiff.  A plate with a mound of raw beef was placed in front of me at the dinner table. I watched as everyone flattened her beef and dressed it with chopped red onions, diced beets, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper.  I imitated.  At this point I'm wondering why this is okay here but not at home - is it a different quality of meat?  Our tendency to sue anyone for anything?  Or just a stronger aversion to even the slightest risk of food-borne illness? - when the final dressing is brought out: raw eggs.  I mix mine in and enjoy.  Mmmmm!

Love,
D

breeezy

Dear D,
I like those photos of us on the sidebar there! Is that from when we went to see Avatar and rocked out in our 3D glasses?

My favorite part of my bungalow by far is my window. It's huge and it's really three long, rectangular windows next to each other. They let in the sun during the day...



and moonlight and a cool breeze at night.


Love,
L

Woe

Dear D,

Being sick blows. Hard. I went to an island off the shores of Phuket to participate at an English camp (more on that later, plus photos!), where I seem to have acquired a second, new intestinal infection. I feel a bit like I’m wasting away. Today I went to see the doctor again. His clinic would never fly in the US: he and his receptionist walk around barefoot and the sheets on the patient’s check-up bed are bright magenta, which totally clashes with the Western notion of white=sterile, clean.

Now I’m back home with more pills and antibiotics, wondering if I’m destined to be chained to a toilet for the rest of my life. I certainly hope not.

One important difference this time around is that I have season 1 of Glee on DVD, so being stuck in my bungalow isn’t quite so boring. What is boring is my diet: yogurt, bread and rice porridge.

M has something going on with her skin. We thought it might be ring worm, but in any case it seems to be some kind of fungus.

…we’re dropping like flies. When will this long night come to an end??!

Dramatically,

L