Lucia Over Soon?

One week into December and I have seen 4 Lucia-trains. The Swedish crowd over here really love their traditions.

After Thanksgiving we shopped for pretty much all weekend. Sunday after was 1st of advent, but I don´t need to tell all of you Swedes that. This past week was busy. Tuesday I went to After Work with SACC YP (Young Professionals), to this place called Dirty Martini. I had Dirty Martini and Dirty Sliders (Sliders are tiny burgers). I met some new and some old faces. I did forget my business cards as always but I found around half of them in the member directory later on. Too of them worked as mormon missionaries in Stockholm, and I met them in church this sunday again. They seem nice, so probably I will get to meet them again.

Thursday SACC DC and Ericson had a christmas party, inviting almost 200 of their members to the House of Sweden, and treating their guests to Julbord, Glögg, Champagne and short lectures from the Federal Commission of Communication, Ericson PR department and their campaign The Networked Society. I met a nice woman called Leslie and found out she lives just next door to me. She has worked at Merill Lynch and Lehman for almost 10 years and recently decided to become a diplomat. Fresh out of school, she has learned arabic and turned finance into politics, and she is waiting to be posted at any U.S. embassy in the world. I think its impressing, and I would love to get to know her better before she leaves. I also met some Swedes and German there and got to talk more with the swedish wife club; Swedish girls, including Linda, the receptionist at the embassy, that are married to Americans. I was 2 numbers, out of 200, from winning VIP tickets to Red Skins. But who am I kidding. Winning would be very out of character. Me and Leslie walked home afterwards and For proof, check out Swedishscene.com

Friday Johans friends arrived and we had a party at his house. First we went to a lebanese (non-alcoholic) restaurant and ate Saj and smoked Hookah. Then we went home to Johan and what started out with a football night ended with a full blown party. All of the guys in the house invited their friends and we had a lot of fun.

Saturday I went up early to work for SWEA and sell christmas trolls at their annual Bazar. You can read about it at Swedishscene as well. Susanne, a friend of mine who is writing the blog, is much better at updating the blog than I am. I put on my santa hat and me and Therese managed to sell santas for $5000. I saw two Lucia processions. At 6 I was pretty beat. I went straight home to Joakim, Nils and Rikard, changed my socks, and we had Martinias and made Trivias for eachother. Later we went to BlackFinns where my friend Melissa had a Christmas party. There was a rumor that the Caps (Washington Capitols), including Nicklas Bäckström, would show up, but no luck there. Maybe next time.

Sunday me and Therese went to Scandinavian Church for Advent-Högmässa (eller nåt). It was beautiful anyway. I planned on walking there because it was a beautiful day and 45 min before the mass started I realized it would take longer to walk there. So I ran, 5 km. And along the way I ran past the manager of House of Sweden. She is Swedish and married to an American. I caught up with her car at church, all sweaty and stressed, and she just laughed at me. I saw my 4th Lucia train for the weekend and I was only a little disappointed that they didn't ask me once, to be in one. After church me and Therese went for pizza and Margaritas at Cafe Luna on P and 14th. My lever just hadn't had enough.

Today is wednesday, so that makes for another 3 days not accounted for.

Monday - Back at work with a lot to do. Christmas is here before you know it and many projects have deadlines. I am head of the directory, database communication task force, eCurrents special and christmas edition, regional chamber mapping, Cleantech coordination, website content restructuring, and most importantly, member recruiting. Cash is king. After work me and Therese went for a long run around the bridges.

Tuesday - I tricked the office, Linda in the reception, and Johan and his friends, to go the the free show at Millenium Stage i Kennedy Arts Center. The restaurant was shit, the wine was expensive and the show, Chapel Ringers, a handbell choir from Ohio, was comically boring. We sat through three bell-christmas-songs, and then we left.

Today is my me-day. I have thoroughly enjoyed it!

Hope you are all alright!

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving Day, thursday, hostess Emmy Melander invited the swedish elite to her courts in Rosslyn, for a grand feast. The menu, and working process, is captured below.

Cranberry sauce. Cooked to perfection and served cold.
Johan Lewton chillin on the balcony.

The initial cranberry sauce success did make us quite confident. But before we go any further, eggnog for the guests!

Can you smell it?

Rikard Jungbäck. A slave to gourmet food. Here pealing a ginger for the jams.
The product of Rikards work. The Sweet Potato Marshmallow Jams. In the oven they go!

Starters! Bacon wrapped dates and asparagus. I could eat hundreds of these little suckers.
Johan didnt like them though. He only had 3.
Finally. Dinner time! On the table you see the turkey. Unbelievable perfect and oven roasted by the hostess. You also have the jams, the mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the banana bread and the gravy. Vegetables are for suckers.
I had seconds! So did Jessica.
Dessert! First up is Chocolate Pecan Pie.
Then comes the pumpkin pie
And finally apple pie
And with that, an irish coffee. Do I have something on my face?


After dinner we watched football, I arranged for a quiz, we saw a movie and we sat up talking to four at night.

I think we outdid the americans for this Thanksgiving.

Black Friday was spent shopping. Having dinner at Uno i Georgetown and then going out to 3rd Edition.

Saturday we shopped some more and went out to Madhatter in Dupont Circle. Right after closing, this happened while we were literally next door. They sealed of the entire neighborhood and had us go out the back door.

Today we went to the Woodbury Zoo downtown. We found this wonderful crayfish restaurant in Adams Morgan. Letting you choose crayfish sorts, spice, and level of spicing and then mxing everything in a plastic bag that is served to you on a paper table cloth and with lots of napkins. Messy, juicy and delicisious. Hot n Juicy Crayfish Bar for yall peeps!

I just came home from the movies. Me, Joakim and Johan saw My week with Marilyn. It was ok.

I hope you had a great week. My grandfather turned 75. Grattis morfar!

Let me know whats going on!

Watching the GOP debate on national security on CNN

Currents Online

The Editor in Chief would like to recommend Currents Online;

The brief reporting online magazine on Swedish and American relations published by Swedish American Chambers of Commerce, and managed by me.

For example, What the Heck is a Super Committee?

Link!

Snapshots!

I draged the gang to H street country club. It is kind of a dodgy area in eastern DC but apparently it is upcoming and cool. And it was. I would love to go back. Here is Joakim playing mini-golf inside the club. They had a course, flipper games, xbox corners aso. Later that night we went to Rock Hotel, a huge three stories club with live bands and djs.

Here are my boys at the National Gallery of Art in DC. We went to visit an Andy Warhol concert last weekends but the line was too long. Instead we saw his Headlines exhibit and went around the museum.

More pictures from the museum...
This is a cool one. The picture as a part of a bigger portrait, from floor to sealing. And it is painted with thumprints. Anyone want to see the whole picture? You will have to comment and ask for it.

Here we go! Snapshots keep coming. Since I have been getting complaints, I will try really hard to remember every little adventure.

Day after Halloween me, Joakim, and his two friends from home went out to eat at Ping Pong again. They have delicious meat char sui buns. http://pingpongdimsum.us/#eat-and-drink

The day after the three invited me to a walk in Alexandria Old Town. We went to an antique store and we they walked around for what felt like hours. I like books, but not that much! After giving in and buying a book myself we went to get warm pie and vanilla ice cream in the cold. I got blueberry and Joakim got apple. I won!

This is my way to work!
This is House of Sweden, where I work. You can almost see the water down by the pier. Check out House of Sweden for the events. http://houseofsweden.com/
On Nov. 2nd I went over to Key Bridge to watch Obama speak about the Jobs Act, specifically tied to necessary infrastructure investments. Read more here and here. Not that I wrote the second article, and keep checking out our website currents online, where I am the Editor in Chief.

After the speech, which we did not see, we went down to the water front in Washington Harbor and chilled for a while. Here is Johan, Jessica, Therese and her visiting boyfriend Johan. In the background you wee Key Bridge. You cant bath in the water.
Wednesday ended with a much needed glass of wine at the office. This is my arm, and my desk.
Thursday morning I flew to Boston to attend Boston Cleantech Venture Days with our New England Chamber SACC New England. I was there as our representative from the SACC-USA office and as a member of our Cleantech committee, to get input for our project plan. Read more about the event here. I did learn alot in a room full of Cleantech startups and major energy investment dragons such as BP Ventures and GE Energy Finance Services.
The sounds, a swedish rockband and the best liveband I have ever seen, played in Black Cat on U-street. I did enjoy the electro pre-bands more though. I finally realized, I hate concerts. You listen to the same band, and similar songs. You don´t talk to anyone, and you dance really stiff. You hardly see anything. No more torture, I am only attending White sensation, dance band and bar concerts from now on. It is simply not worth it, unless it is free.
This is Lake Michigan from Chicago harbor. Me, Johan and Joakim went to the Windy City over this weekend. It was windy and cold. But I really recommend it!
Windy!
Cold
Recommend it!
Chicago Skyline. The tall building is the John Hancook Building. One tall building. We agreed that 18 dollars was too much to pay to watch the view though.




So we went to an even higher building. The Sky Deck in the Willis Tower (earlier Sears tower) is the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Here we are in a glass tube on top of the city.
On to more art. The crown fountain has a live face. And it blinks its eyes. You should check it out on Youtube, they look real, and are beautiful.
Chicago Institute of Art, is the biggest art museum in the U.S. Here is The Old Guitarist by Picasso.
Here we are in Millenium Park, under the Bean. I dont know if that is its real name.
We finished the weekend off at Sheed Aquarium. Here are some sea horses. How did they survive in the game of survival of the fittest? What purpose do they surve? I dont know. I would like to take the opportunity to recommend the weekend eats, Gemini, Sunda, and Corner Bakery. And while you are in Chicago, don´t forget the Chicago Hot Dog and the Deep Dish Pizza.

Back at work I have a lot to do this week. A lot (as my old spanish friend Vicente would have said). due to Thanksgiving we only work three days this week. I have loads of fun stuff to do, but I have also invited people over tomorrow, wednesday, thursday and friday, so I have duties, and mostly shopping to do. And I need to buy food ;).

I have invited the DC swedes home for a true American Thanksgiving weekend.

Wish me luck!

Pippi Longstocking

Hey peeps. Last night I went home directly from work and got into my Pippi outfit. Me Jess and Jessica then went to Therese to get ready. I colored my hair bright oranged. It turned out pretty good. People even took pictures of me in the metro. One girl laughed at me a lot. Good or Bad? We all went to Jordan to the Halloween party in his house. They are 10 guys living in their own house and everyone had brought their friends. There were a lot of people and great variation in costume creativity.

Today I am going to dinner with Joakim and his two friends from Sweden. I dont know where the night will take us but its going to be nice to get away from everything and meet some new people.

Jessicas aunt just called and said she was getting rid of a chair.

2 minutes later I have a pink chair in my room.

Its perfect, I love it! See

One more thing. I have to find some way to create a undisturbed information pipeline to all republicans. Their is so much that they need to learn and I am sure if they just heard the arguments in the right forum, they would be convinced that things need to change. Please end my misery and help me talk some sense into the republicans. To be continued…

And oh… today is snowed! Big white flakes but it didn´t stick.

Fall

On my way home from work. Watching the georgetown students row under the bridge. (downloaded blogger to my iphone so now i can blog on the go)

Later im going to u-street to buy tickets to the sounds. They are playing next saturday.

Ps. Today i bought flight tickets to boston to attend the New England Chamber cleantech conference next week. Business trip! Im Representing sacc-USA. How about that!