In India!

Ok, things are moving much faster than my blog. We've been in India four days now. The first three were in delhi, which was so crazy and fast paced, each day we came back to the guest house exhausted! But it was amazing and beautiful, the only "sights" we did were the red fort and a very old mosque, but for us of course, everything was a spectacle. Just accomplishing everyday tasks requires so much energy, luckily there are in New Delhi a few chains of cafes which sort of emulate starbucks where we could unwind. So there's something I learned about myself, in the states I always figured chains were to be avoided if possible, but I really would rather buy antimalarials at a walgreens than a dirty roadside kiosk. So I guess I'm a bourgeous capitalist and I like western marketing strategies, go figure. I'll check back on that in a three months.
We've been getting around mostly by auto-rickshaw, these little yellow and green sort of three wheeled covered motorcyles, which is really fun. Traffic here is a mess, lines and lanes and speed limits dont mean anything, there really arent any rules whatsoever, yet somehow it manages, its a level of chaos that works as long as everyone agrees to it.
We arrived by train today in Agra, which is a pretty awful place in a lot of ways, but which has some of the most dazzling archetectural gems in the country. Tomorrow we'll go see the Taj Mahal, but today we went to Agra Fort. The fort is now a palace, having been transformed into such by Shah Jahn (Same ruler who built the taj), and is really astounding Mughal archetechture.
After this we'll be in Varanasi for Dewali, India's biggest holiday, there will be lanterns floating in the Ganges and fireworks absolutly everywhere! So this first week is a busy, chaotic one. It's been absolutly amazing, but I'm also looking forward to getting into quieter, smaller cities.
And once again, I reccomend you look at Sanya's blog, because thats where the pictures are!

fixin te mosey

Scandanavia's been swell, but swellin's gone down. Tomorrow we leave for London, where we'll have a 1-day layover before flying off to India. I expect updates may become harder to make after that point, but I will when I can.
Sanya and I just spent the weekend with her mom visiting Gothenburg, which was a really cute city. We caght one good show at the Hasselblad Center, but both of the Kunsthalles were between shows, damn! We happened to be there for a bunch of openings, but we weren't really impressed much by anything. We still had a good time going though, wine is good! love to all!

Stockholm!

I've been in Sweden a couple of weeks now, mostly relaxing in Lidköping with Sanya and her family, which has been really nice (a little more like visiting Bosnia than Sweden:) However, Sanya and I made a four day excursion to Stockholm from Fri-Mon, staying with my friend Nadja, who I met when I was studying in Lipzig. We had an absolutly amazing time, Stockholm is now absolutly one of both of our favorite cities. Be sure to look at sanya's blog for our pictures of the trip (and a more lively narrative I have to admit). We caught a concert on friday night, Lasse Lindh, formerly the voice of Tribecca. It was a fun concert, but I guess he's remaking his style, including his voice, since he went solo, and he was better with Tribecca. The one thing I thouht was an improvement was that he sang all in Swedish rather than English. The next night Nadja threw a party and we had an absolutely amazing time with her and her friends, danced all night! Nadja is a raw food vegan, and eating with her was a welcome break from the meat and potatoes we've been subjected to in Lidköping (I like it, but enough is really enough). We also learned so much about nutrition from her, including our doshas (aruvedic body type, helps determine what foods do most good or harm). We spend a lot of time just cruising around the beautiful beautiful city, drinking coffee in cozy, adorable cafes and eating in cozy, delicious restaurants. We went to the Moderne Museet, the main modern+contemporary museum. They were having a big exhibion of Max Ernst, it was interesting to see his whole life in one place, as his work changed so much. My favorites were his collages and his more overtly political paintings (a highlight was 'The Ble

times UP!! more soon!

the hike

okay, time is moving much faster than this blog so i have to play catch-up. The hike: day one was beautiful weather, very warm, sunny and nice. Day 2 was cooler with some clouds, by day 3 it was cold and windy. Day 4 we climbed some serious elevation, we were up among glaciers and the weather got really bad, hard hard wind, and rain that just pelted us, and sooo cold. There were no rocks to hide behind or anything, so we just plowed forward hoping to get to the cabin at the end. We had been tent camping but there was no way we could have done that, we would have absolutely frozen or blown away or something. But when we finally got there, there was not only a cabin, but people! and a fire! AND HOT COFFEE! (not having a stove this was our first hot food in days) The women, Anne and Linn, turned out to be nurses, as if we werent lucky enough. So we dried off and stayed up talking with them and got to be friends. The next day the weather cleared and we all hiked the last day together to Kinsarvik. From there they gave us a ride to Bergen, where they live and where we were planning to go next. We checked into a hostel and passed out.
The next day we did boring but necesary stuff like laundry and internet, but later met up with A&L for dinner at a really cute, nice place called Pengvin, and then to a wine bar. We had such a great time with them!
The next day we left the Hostel and met up with Tone, a friend of a friend, who was doing her PhD work in Bergen. We stayed with her and her 2 housemates for 2 nights and had a really wonderful time! She was so thoughtful and friendly, thanks Tone!
So that mostly catches up with where I am now in Sweden, but I reccomend you read Sanya's blog, its a much more interesting account than mine. Oh, we saw a few shows in Bergen, at a gallery called Lydgalleriet (i think thats right...) we cought the last day of an exhibition by the owl project, which I had read about before on We Make Money Not Art. It was really a cool show, they made an old fashioned lathe and the wood that is turned on it is also the waveform of the sound that is produced, as well as the rythm from the foot pedal by which it is powered. At the Kunsthalle there was a really good exhibition called "If you destroy the image you destroy the thing itself", Sanya and I both really enjoyed the work of Jan Freuchen, especially the video, which was a really funny kind of bbc looking story about a man who is remade by science and given a new life as an artist. See it if you can!

Norway part 1

Its been about a week since the last news I think, and a whole lot has happened. Sanya and I are in Bergen, Norway. We arrived yesterday after a five day trek through the Hardanger Plateau, beginning in Halne and ending in Kinsarvik. We flew out of Amsterdam and spent the night in the airport, which was also the train station, and in the morning took the train to Haugastol (the closest stop to Halne). We met a really friendly guy on the train, a photographer, and had fun taking pictures with him out the window as we passed by incredible landscapes early in the morning. Haugastol is really just a village (my apologies to any residents reading this) and we weren't able to find propane that fit our stove at the camping store. We hitch-hiked with an awesome guy who managed to cram all our stuff in with all his stuff (this could be elaborated but time is running out), anyway, it was incredibly lucky that we managed to get a ride at all, we really had no backup plan. The first day of hiking was beautiful, the sun was out, but the air was cool, absolutely perfect waether, ..... times up more soon!

Amsterdam, day whatever

We rented some bikes for the week, and have been cruising all over the city. Sought out some galleries yesterday, one was an old building that used to house the elderly, orphans, and such, and is now a museum to its own past. There were a number of installations, video and audio, some architectural, all with a very contemporary flavor that contrasted really nicely with the old-dutch building they were set in. I finished the chapter in The Botany of Desire on marijuana, and am now working on tulips, both talk a lot about Amsterdam. I've been very impressed with the freedom of information regarding drugs here. Sanya and I went for a nice walk this morning, we found a bunch of galleries that were all closed, but had a good time peering in windows. Oh, we also ate "Bitterbals" per our host recommendation, but still have no idea what it was. Thanksgiving deep fried in a ball?

Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam a couple of days ago. The first was pretty much lost to jet lag and wandering with huge packs in the wrong direction, took a nap, though I tried hard not to, and the next day we accidentally all slept until 3pm! But today I woke up at 9am, an hour before the alarm, so I guess I'm back on schedule. Kerri brought the Botony of Desire, so I'm trying to quick get though the chapters on tulips and cannabis while in Amsterdam. I brought Deleuze's Bergsonism, but that'll have to wait. Everything in this city is beautiful, the buildings and the canals and the population of tall, well dressed, fit people. We went to one gallery today (others were closed for lunch), and saw a few things I really liked, pretty different flavor than Chicago's scene, reminds me more of Leipzig and Neo Rauch, and a little of my friend Timur's work. I've been taking lots of pictures, lots of touristy touristy pictures! love and peace