Sprung

Never did I think that Spring could come so suddenly. Spring in California is a continuation, a rainy transition from mostly light to always light, from beautiful but occasionally disagreeable days to beautiful and always beautiful days. Spring goes unnoticed, shuffled off as an awkward middle child, just another season in the perpetual cycle of sunny days.

Here, it as if as soon as the calender changed to March 20, the weather changed it’s mind. The sky today is even bluer I think, after months of cloud cover.  I had forgotten what it was like to wake up with the sun already fully shining or to watch light slowly fade into darkness at the end of the day. In winter, black fades to grey, and at “sunset,” grey fades to black. At the late hour of 6 PM, I can now watch the color of the sky fade from deep orange to dark, clear blue. Spring..våren…det är vår i luften! And just a month ago one could ride cross country skis in the city park. Smiling people are beginning to appear on every park bench, and big jackets are slowly but surely starting to go out of style. I suppose this unexpected, immediate change is the reason the is called “spring.” I never really understood that until today.

I wanted to be the first one in Lund to go running in only shorts. Unfortunately an old man with a handlebar mustache beat me to it.

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But, the countdown has begun. In t-minus (does anyone know what that actually means?) 22 hours I will be on my first bike ride. CK Lundei, the local cycling club has the first introduktionsrundan ( intro-go-round) ride tomorrow. I just pumped up my tires. Dug out my shoes. Haven’t decided on the wardrobe yet (armwarmers? legwarmers? jacket?). This is a very important decision depending on the weather. Let’s just say I’ve ridden on much colder days than this in Berkeley- I’m thinking of testing out my thickened blood and ditching the armwarmers. But then again I remember my little trip down Redwood without gloves that one October morning and think…maybe I shouldn’t be so bold!

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Added 20 minutes later: Nevermind! no way I can wait 22 hours. I am going now. No question about it. Screw the armwarmers. I’m riding my bike in Sweden today. Like now. YEA!!!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Today, I went running. Yes, you heard me. Running. Outside. Like out of doors. Like not in the gym. Yeah.

I am coming off a period of final exams, illness, and being in Berlin. And also a short period when a precariously ice-skating around the city park while listening to the Lord of the Rings sound track as old ladies and toddlers frolicked around me counted as a day’s exercise. No longer! I’ve been spinning and yoga-ing a lot since I’ve been home.

Leaving Berlin, I was excited to get back to Sweden, where the snow was still snow rather than disgusting slush. Where winter was still white and the stinking remains of New Years festivities weren’t materializing on every street corner as the ice melted. When I stepped of the Train in Lund, I noticed something peculiar: it was raining. För fan! Damn! There’s the end of my ice-skating dreams. Now I’ll never make the Olympics.

I forgot that my part of Sweden is, after all, Skåne. And Skåne is, after all, wet. But rain also means that the snow is slowly but surely disappearing. Some days it still snows, as if the weather can’t make up it’s mind. And then the next day it rains. And then the next day it’s beautiful, and the sun shines.

Today, we here in Skåne reached a temperature high of a boiling 3 degrees. I had to take advantage, and so I ran. I ran for a long, long time (for me)…almost 2 hours. I ran to the outskirts of town and marveled at the low-laying, patchwork of agricultural land that is Southern Sweden opened up before me. I was serenaded by cooing doves. I even saw some grass. That’s right, grass. And it was green. Fancy that!

I can sense that the day is coming when the sweet blue Specialized Allez (in layman’s terms: my bike) sitting next to me collecting dust will get to come out and see what Sweden looks like. I know for sure that day will come when I stop seeing the hard-core old man who wears bib-shorts to spinning class at the gym. He looks like he knows what he’s doing, and when he’s out and riding in the real world, then I’ll know it’s time. Hopefully that time is soon.

Våren kommer snart! Spring is on the way!