Åsas sida (Åsa's Page)

No, I haven’t watch too much Martha Stewart. Or TV Shop, where one little tool lets you prepare “healthy and delicious dishes” in a matter of seconds! I just thought I’d make an attempt to cut down on processed food. Mainly out of concern for the environment but also to increase the quality of what I eat. My mom used to make apple sauce and and blue berry and strawberry jams from home-picked fruits and berries when I was a kid, and so I wrote to her to ask for advice. From a more recent apple-sauce cooking session, I vaguely recalled that we actually didn’t peel the apples before cooking them, but my mom explained to me that that was the charm of having a kitchen aid. Which I don’t of course! So I had to peel the apples myself, but it was really worth it! The sauce (which was super easy to make though it never got truly saucy) tastes great and will be great to my kefir tomorrow morning. I can add that my apples were not home picked. I go them at Whole Food (an organic supermarket chain), but I guess that’s urban life… And one has to start somewhere!

Peeling apples… And the not so saucy but oh so delicious apple sauce!

I just checked out the blog of Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, to see what he had written about his visit to Moldova little over a week ago. As I did so, I learned that he too is on an official visit in Washington with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. They seem to be in a different Washington though, as he writes in his blog post from yesterday that “Arrived in a sunny and beautiful Washington.” As far as I recall (and also wrote on the blog), the rain was hanging in the air here in DC and earlier today, I tried to recall when I last saw the sun! (And no, I don’t think this can be explained by local weather variations since the White House is only about 10 blocks from me.)

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the c-span video from the press conference, but here is the link. Though it is nice to see that they seem to be on first name basis, I have to say that Reinfeldt appears a bit dull next to Obama.

DN, SvD, Aftonbladet

After three weeks as unemployed, I finally signed my new contract with the World Bank today. And after a full day of mainly trying to get my e-mail and computer account reactivated, but also some work, I am exhausted and ready to go to sleep. Which would be ok if it wasn’t for the fact that it is not even seven o’clock yet. Will try to stay awake through Gossip Girl, which starts at nine… Or, I mean of course that I will watch some serious documentary about climate change, as would be expected of someone with my job. Especially now when the Swedish Prime Minister seem to spend a lot of time these days in the white building down the street, discussing (or rather compromising) an agreement on climate change.

And if anyone has forgotten what the meeting in Copenhagen is about, here is a reminder:

I found this on a Swedish blog a while ago and I think it is quite funny. Not sure if i-phone has the same commercial in other countries but it is based one of their commercials where they show all the applications for the i-phone. And though the U.S. seem to have its fair share of loony opinion makers, I am not trying to spread leftist propaganda here. I am sure one could do an equally funny commercial about Democrats, or the red-green cooperation in Sweden. But it is funny, so just watch and laugh!

A few years ago, there was a Swedish comedy show that in every program had “the high-income country problem of the week”. It would include problems such as the ATM being out of 100 SEK bills and only giving out 500 SEK bills (the equivalence of approximately EUR 50), or that the post-it notes wouldn’t stick properly. When Mikael and I were in Alexandria the other weekend, I found myself being truly happy about the fact that Starbucks had introduced what they called a “Short Latte”. Even the smallest Caffe Latte here in the U.S. normally contains about half a liter of milk (not really but almost) and is like a whole meal, so I was really happy to have found a smaller alternative. I guess that just like the weekly high-income country problem, this does say something about the shift in focus areas in my life after almost a years here in the U.S.. But I hear the warning bells ringing, so hopefully, I will be able to do something about it before all my attention is absorbed by non-problems!

“Short Latte” next to a “Tall Latte”

Yesterday was fun though I was a bit tired and not in the best party mood. My Holly Golightly outfit was alright, though the U.S. Halloween costumes are at a totally different level than at Swedish costume parties (which I have tried to avoid since I was in elementary school since costume parties aren’t really my thing), so I think I will have to make more of an effort next year. The costume of the year here in DC was of course Michael Jackson.

Today it is raining and so I am having a lazy afternoon in my apartment this All Saints Day. My insurance expired yesterday which means that I am uncovered for the day until my new contract starts tomorrow, and I am thus trying to avoid accidents. Eating Halloween candy and reading fiction seems like a safe enough activity – think I will do that for the rest of the day!

Note the NY poster in the background!

Halloween is finally here and Washington is getting dressed up for the evening. But even on an evening like this, politics is still present here in the U.S. capital; last year, there were apparently a lot of Sarah Palins walking to and from parties around the city. Not sure who this years political figure will be. And though my own glasses look a lot like Palin’s and Martin teases me for my Sarah Palin look on Sunday mornings before my contacts are in, I am putting politics aside for the evening and fulfilling a teenage dream of being Holly Golightly.

I am just back from a few days with Martin in Las Vegas. My friend Patrick called me when I was there, and after talking for a few minutes, he asked hesitantly: “You’re not eloping, are you?” And no, we weren’t. We were there for a wedding though, as the sister of Martin’s childhood friend got married. It was a small but very nice wedding, with the wedding couple’s immediate family and a few friends. Or as small as it gets when the bride and the groom are Irish. Anyway, we had 3 lovely days during which we ate well and saw most of the casinos, while not gambling a single penny. (For some reason, neither of us were at all tempted and though I thought I’d spend a few coins on the machines at least, there was so much to do that I kind of forgot about it.) I had actually already been to Las Vegas, almost exactly 15 years ago, but whereas I then thought it tacky and didn’t see the charm with it at all, I found it kind of fascinating this time. First of all, the Strip is just so immensely bizarre, with copies of famous monuments from all over the world. Who comes up with the idea of making replicas of pyramids, sphinxes, Parisian buildings, and an entire block in Venice?? The crowd there also seems to be much more representative of the U.S. population than those that live and work in DC, so I spent a lot of time just people watching. I guess the audience has changed a bit too over the past years because it seemed to be mainly families with children and retirees there. Some of the shows have not really kept up with this fact, and one of our most surreal experiences were our first evening when we were in an audience full of excited children in front of a pirate ship outside the Treasure Island Hotel, and the ship fills up with 15 half naked female dancers that try to seduce a male pirate.

While in Vegas, we also managed to see the exhibition Bodies, hich has been on tour here in the U.S. for a while. It explains the functions of the body by displaying body parts from what I think was Chinese prisoners, sometimes as upstanding bodies. It was very interesting and I learned quite a bit (surprisingly enough after having watched ER for about ten seasons), but after having seen 100s of body parts from dead persons, I have to admit that I felt a bit uncomfortable and nauseous.

Paris and New York, Las Vegas

Ancient Rome and Fontana di Trevi, Las Vegas

Venice, Las Vegas

The pirate ship outside the Treasure Island Hotel (before the dancing started)

Dolphin and white baby tiger at the Mirage Zoo

Read in Time Magazine a while ago that 90% of the US $1 bills bare trace amounts of cocaine. While most of it can probably be explained by contamination from other bills, it is still quite amazing. Apparently, bills from DC carry the most and those from Salt Lake city the least. I wonder what the percentage is for $100 bills and if the geographical distribution would change?

One of the best books that I have read so far this year was a book that Martin gave me for my birthday: The Most Beatuiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (available on Google Books here). The story is set here around Dupont Circle in DC (or rather Logan Circle which is a few blocks from here) and is about three men who all came from different parts of Africa when their were young and settled here in Washington. One of them, the narrator, develops a friendship with an American women who moves into his neighborhood with her little daughter. It is a beautiful story about a few people whose lives come to cross here in this city, but it is also about the class differences in Washington and about the gentrification of my neighborhood a few years ago (which is constantly on-going in different parts of this city). The story telling reminds me a little of that in Cannery Road, the only Steinbeck book I’ve ever read. I don’t know if Mengestu has written anything else, but he is a few years younger than I am so hopefully this is only the first of many books by him. Here is a passage that I found beautiful:

“I put my coat on quickly. How were we supposed to say goodbye now? With a hug or handshake or a quick wave like casual acquaintances? Judith settled the question by sticking her hand out. I took it, and in doing so learned what it meant to feel your heart break.”