A Little Fall Poem

Shadow

I walk in crispness, 

In everything from the smart and snapping rhythm of heels on concrete 

To the razor straight lines of my collar pulled up against the chill,

Quasi covering my ears as I shrug to tuck them further inside the wool of my coat.

My shadow, in which the crispness of the collar

And the snapping shoes cut an abstract outline

--A silhouette, a Bond girl--

My shadow does not follow, but leads,

Pulling me towards my shape unrecognized 

True in some future 

Or some past

An old soul, a vintage shadow,

Walking the midnight streets of a postcard Provence.

Fall Break: Sweden!

My school here in Aix had a week off for fall break and my friend Abbie is studying in Sweden, so I hopped across the Baltic Sea to the land of the tall, blond, and be-knitted. The air was cold but the fika (obligatory and often thrice-daily coffee break) was hot, and the two of us spent a lovely week admiring architecture, baking cookies, and laughing at funny Swedish words.

Stockholm 

Changing of the guards outside the Royal Palace

Old Stockholm

Tiny wooden horses everywhere!

Abbie in Old Stockholm

Skating rink

Cathedral in Linköping, the city where Abbie lives

My first pro sports experience- a Swedish hockey match

Historic farm next to the university

Old Linköping

Halloween horse cookies!

IKEA food- not bad for a furniture store

Norköping, a smaller city near Linköping