Monday, December 1, 2008
International Week/Trip to Lappland
The last few weeks have been very eventful ones, and I will try my best to recap.
So two weeks ago, the university had its "International Week", which involved tons of great lectures, concerts, films, and food from all over the world served in the various cafes and restaurants around campus. Some of the coolest things that I did were watched a West African group perform, went to a screening of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" which was absolutely packed with international students, went to a lecture about a Swedish doctor's experiences in Sudan, and went to one of the local clubs on campus to see a DJ from Stockholm play all sorts of amazing international music and danced it up with all the friends I've met here. It was a really great week and being as it was the first year that the university has organized a set of events like this, I think that they did a pretty good job.
Last week, I went on a trip to Swedish Lappland to work with the Sami and assist them in their reindeer herding. The Sami are the indigenous people of Scandinavia. The whole trip was organized for a course I am taking as of the moment, Sami History. The department of Philosophical, Religious, and Historical Studies here at the University paid for me and the other students (5 French, 2 Germans, and one Austrian) to travel 4 hours up north to a small Swedish town called Sorsele to stay in a youth hostel for three nights and experience the area. We originally were only supposed to spend a night there, but the Sami who we were going to be working with kept calling our professor and saying that she was forced to delay the actual reindeer separation process, which is when all of the reindeer which are being moved down to the winter grazing areas closer to the coastal area of Sweden, near the Gulf of Bothnia, and have to be split up according to their respective owners. The behavior of the reindeer themselves determine when the separation will take place, as well as the weather so we had to wait a few extra days. But it was totally worth it. When we arrived in Sorsele we had no idea where the hostel was, so I had to call the owner of the hostel and ask for directions. So we were all walking in the snow and cold with our bags and ended up stopping a few Swedes leaving a cafe for directions again. It was then that the owner of the hostel pulled into the parking lot with his car and gave us a ride. He apparently had just left his house to look for us and take us to the hostel himself. And some of the other Swedes gave the rest of the students who couldn't fit into his car rides to the hostel. It was pretty ridiculous how kind they were. I can only help but think that Americans would never do that. At least most wouldn't.
So we arrived at the hostel, and it was way different than we expected. It was an actual house, with a kitchen, bathrooms with showers, a laundry room, multiple bedrooms with lofted (and nice) beds, and a cozy living room/dining room area. We couldn't have been more comfortable. One of the French students brought his guitar, another brought an Irish pan flute, and another brought a bongo drum and we all played music together and it was absolutely amazing. We cooked food together, explored the town, took walks through the woods, had snow fights and overall took it easy. And the best part is that we didn't pay for any of it!! Well, the food of course but that's it.
After staying for two days, we drove 10 km further north to help with the actual reindeer separation. We drove into a forested area expecting to see maybe a few cars. Instead we found dozens of cars, trucks with signs labelled "reindeer transport", in Swedish of course so "rentransport", and an extremely elaborate enclosure system for separating the reindeer. We helped lay hay for the reindeer to eat and then help with the actual separation. There is a central enclosure area where they filter the reindeer in to be separated by the individual Sami owners. They different owners each have their own marks to signify ownership, which they cut into the ears of the reindeer. Each Sami can recognize their own ear marks, even when the reindeer are running around like crazy. It is absolutely crazy, like finding a needle in a haystack. When they have spotted a reindeer that belongs to them, they grab the reindeer by the horns and pull it over to a door to let it into that Sami's respective enclosure area. This doesn't really harm the reindeer, it's probably more of an annoyance to them. They then gave them innoculations against worms and parasites and released them into the separate enclosures. They are really stubborn animals and pretty tough. It took usually three people to separate each individual reindeer.
Oh yeah, and there were about 4,000 reindeer. I have never seen so many animals together in one area.
After we helped with the separation, it was time for the drive home. We were all a bit tired and cold, but felt privileged to have been able to take part in such a cool experience.
One thing that is interesting about the Sami is that they have been legally administered, pushed around, socially and politically discriminated against, and yet even with all of that, the Swedish majority barely knows anything about them. And I'm not talking about the government, but the average person. It's pretty damn embarassing and pathetic. The only comments one of my roommates gave to me were about how a lot of people hate the Sami because the reindeer are all over the roads and cause car accidents. But then of course it was the Swedish government which passed legislation stating that the only economic pursuit that can be pursued by Sami is reindeer herding, otherwise their 'immemorial' rights to land not to mention their identity would not be recognized. It's complete ignorance and really makes me upset. As much as Swedes champion the progressiveness of their society and the Swedish 'welfare-state', they can be just as apathetic and discriminatory as Americans at times.
But all politics aside, it was a very rewarding trip and I am very glad to have done it.
This week will be pretty busy for me. I have just finished writing a final paper for my course on Education and Post-Colonial Societies and have to do two assignments for my Sami History course.
Despite that, I have begun planning my winter break plans. I will be flying to Madrid, Spain on December 13th to visit a friend from the UW for about 4 days. Then I'll be flying to Marseille, France on the 17th to visit the city and enjoy the hopefully (relatively) warm weather of the Mediterrenean. Then I'll be taking a train to Freiburg, Germany to visit another friend from the UW. I'll be staying with her for the Christmas holiday and we'll probably do some day trips around Germany, to see the medieval castles and visit some of the famous Christmas markets. If I have time and money! I may go to Amsterdam to see two other friends from the UW who are doing some European traveling in early January.
We are entering the worst period of the year here in terms of lack of sunlight. The sun sets now at about 2:30 PM and it's only going to get earlier and earlier until the solstice on December 21st. Up in Lappland, the sun was setting at 12:30 PM!! Crazy I know! I've been going to the gym regularly to offset the depression and lack of motivation that can onset during this time, and it's been helping quite well. It's also really cold here, I can't wait to get to Spain and southern France and get some sun and warmth!! At least comparatively speaking.
So two weeks ago, the university had its "International Week", which involved tons of great lectures, concerts, films, and food from all over the world served in the various cafes and restaurants around campus. Some of the coolest things that I did were watched a West African group perform, went to a screening of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" which was absolutely packed with international students, went to a lecture about a Swedish doctor's experiences in Sudan, and went to one of the local clubs on campus to see a DJ from Stockholm play all sorts of amazing international music and danced it up with all the friends I've met here. It was a really great week and being as it was the first year that the university has organized a set of events like this, I think that they did a pretty good job.
Last week, I went on a trip to Swedish Lappland to work with the Sami and assist them in their reindeer herding. The Sami are the indigenous people of Scandinavia. The whole trip was organized for a course I am taking as of the moment, Sami History. The department of Philosophical, Religious, and Historical Studies here at the University paid for me and the other students (5 French, 2 Germans, and one Austrian) to travel 4 hours up north to a small Swedish town called Sorsele to stay in a youth hostel for three nights and experience the area. We originally were only supposed to spend a night there, but the Sami who we were going to be working with kept calling our professor and saying that she was forced to delay the actual reindeer separation process, which is when all of the reindeer which are being moved down to the winter grazing areas closer to the coastal area of Sweden, near the Gulf of Bothnia, and have to be split up according to their respective owners. The behavior of the reindeer themselves determine when the separation will take place, as well as the weather so we had to wait a few extra days. But it was totally worth it. When we arrived in Sorsele we had no idea where the hostel was, so I had to call the owner of the hostel and ask for directions. So we were all walking in the snow and cold with our bags and ended up stopping a few Swedes leaving a cafe for directions again. It was then that the owner of the hostel pulled into the parking lot with his car and gave us a ride. He apparently had just left his house to look for us and take us to the hostel himself. And some of the other Swedes gave the rest of the students who couldn't fit into his car rides to the hostel. It was pretty ridiculous how kind they were. I can only help but think that Americans would never do that. At least most wouldn't.
So we arrived at the hostel, and it was way different than we expected. It was an actual house, with a kitchen, bathrooms with showers, a laundry room, multiple bedrooms with lofted (and nice) beds, and a cozy living room/dining room area. We couldn't have been more comfortable. One of the French students brought his guitar, another brought an Irish pan flute, and another brought a bongo drum and we all played music together and it was absolutely amazing. We cooked food together, explored the town, took walks through the woods, had snow fights and overall took it easy. And the best part is that we didn't pay for any of it!! Well, the food of course but that's it.
After staying for two days, we drove 10 km further north to help with the actual reindeer separation. We drove into a forested area expecting to see maybe a few cars. Instead we found dozens of cars, trucks with signs labelled "reindeer transport", in Swedish of course so "rentransport", and an extremely elaborate enclosure system for separating the reindeer. We helped lay hay for the reindeer to eat and then help with the actual separation. There is a central enclosure area where they filter the reindeer in to be separated by the individual Sami owners. They different owners each have their own marks to signify ownership, which they cut into the ears of the reindeer. Each Sami can recognize their own ear marks, even when the reindeer are running around like crazy. It is absolutely crazy, like finding a needle in a haystack. When they have spotted a reindeer that belongs to them, they grab the reindeer by the horns and pull it over to a door to let it into that Sami's respective enclosure area. This doesn't really harm the reindeer, it's probably more of an annoyance to them. They then gave them innoculations against worms and parasites and released them into the separate enclosures. They are really stubborn animals and pretty tough. It took usually three people to separate each individual reindeer.
Oh yeah, and there were about 4,000 reindeer. I have never seen so many animals together in one area.
After we helped with the separation, it was time for the drive home. We were all a bit tired and cold, but felt privileged to have been able to take part in such a cool experience.
One thing that is interesting about the Sami is that they have been legally administered, pushed around, socially and politically discriminated against, and yet even with all of that, the Swedish majority barely knows anything about them. And I'm not talking about the government, but the average person. It's pretty damn embarassing and pathetic. The only comments one of my roommates gave to me were about how a lot of people hate the Sami because the reindeer are all over the roads and cause car accidents. But then of course it was the Swedish government which passed legislation stating that the only economic pursuit that can be pursued by Sami is reindeer herding, otherwise their 'immemorial' rights to land not to mention their identity would not be recognized. It's complete ignorance and really makes me upset. As much as Swedes champion the progressiveness of their society and the Swedish 'welfare-state', they can be just as apathetic and discriminatory as Americans at times.
But all politics aside, it was a very rewarding trip and I am very glad to have done it.
This week will be pretty busy for me. I have just finished writing a final paper for my course on Education and Post-Colonial Societies and have to do two assignments for my Sami History course.
Despite that, I have begun planning my winter break plans. I will be flying to Madrid, Spain on December 13th to visit a friend from the UW for about 4 days. Then I'll be flying to Marseille, France on the 17th to visit the city and enjoy the hopefully (relatively) warm weather of the Mediterrenean. Then I'll be taking a train to Freiburg, Germany to visit another friend from the UW. I'll be staying with her for the Christmas holiday and we'll probably do some day trips around Germany, to see the medieval castles and visit some of the famous Christmas markets. If I have time and money! I may go to Amsterdam to see two other friends from the UW who are doing some European traveling in early January.
We are entering the worst period of the year here in terms of lack of sunlight. The sun sets now at about 2:30 PM and it's only going to get earlier and earlier until the solstice on December 21st. Up in Lappland, the sun was setting at 12:30 PM!! Crazy I know! I've been going to the gym regularly to offset the depression and lack of motivation that can onset during this time, and it's been helping quite well. It's also really cold here, I can't wait to get to Spain and southern France and get some sun and warmth!! At least comparatively speaking.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Captain's Log; Stardate 110808.804
Hello everyone!
It has been a few weeks since I last posted something here, and I think it's due time I did so.
Life in Sweden goes on for me. The seasons are changing, the friendships which I have found here are continuing to develop, and I am still exploring this new country in which I find myself. I can't say that it isn't new to me anymore, because it still is. I feel very much in a state of liminality here, in between languages, cultures, and in a more important sense, senses of my own identity. I don't have the familiar frienships, settings, and experiences to fall back upon. In many ways, being here, away from the U.S., has forced me to remake myself, or least to reflect upon who I have made myself out to be these last 21 years of my life, and how the people I've met have done so as well.
After spending more than two months here, I've been fortunate to meet plenty of really cool people. I am one of only a few Americans here studying at the university here in Umeå, and that is both extremely refreshing and sometimes lonely. It is great because I have to go out and meet students from many different countries and become friends with them rather than just use the comfort blanket of hanging out with other American students. Plus, where would the fun be in that anyways? Humans are very much creatures of habit, no matter how much we might argue otherwise. I see it all the time here. The French students tend to group together with other French students to speak French, the German students like to find other Germans to speak German with, Spanish find other Spanish, and so on. I really can't do that here, as like I said, there are barely any Americans here. And the Americans I do know here I can't relate with. They are often shallow and just want to drink and party and are extremely pessimistic about being here. It drives me nuts because they are just reinforcing the negative stereotypes of Americans in the eyes of people from the rest of the world.
This brings me to my next observation. Being a fluent speaker of English has put me in a very privileged position here. Since everyone is from everywhere and speaks everything in terms of languages, we have to speak a 'universal' language that we will all understand. That is definitely English, and one Polish student that I've met here pointed out something that I keep thinking about. She said something along the lines of "Yeah, you might not have other Americans to talk with but everyone here speaks English, at least a little, and so you can talk to anyone. Often we Europeans can only talk and still feel totally comfortable with people from our own country, since we aren't fluent speakers of English. And when we do speak English with other people, we're often put in the position of making sure we're saying the right things, using the right grammar, etc. So sometimes the effort of the conversation goes less into getting to know someone and rather into making sure we find the right words." It makes me realize that even though I don't have the comfort blanket of other Americans here in Sweden, I have been subconsciously relying on the comfort blanket of English. I may be out of bounds by saying this, but I really believe that English is becoming 'the' international language. I know of no other language that is spoken as commonly in so many different parts of the world. That kind of realization forces me to wonder; why English? Is it because of the influence of popular American culture, for better or for worse, upon the world? Is it because of the era of British colonialism? And are we just transmitting English as a language all over the world, or are we, through it, also imposing Western cultural values, economic systems, and political ideologies? I'm very strongly inclined to believe so.
Well, on to climate! It's something that's very noticeable here. First off, it's getting quite cold, definitely earlier than WI back in the U.S. I've noticed that the shift from autumn to winter has started about a month earlier than it usually does back home, as we had our first snow on Halloween. I know that this can happen in WI and certainly has before, but it's still quite colder here in my opinion. Oh, and the sunlight. It's quite crazy to see the sun hanging halfway in the sky at 12 PM and then see it start to set at 2:30 PM. It's already completely dark by 4 PM. With such a lack of knowing when the day starts and ends concretely, the days begin to run together and sometimes I feel like I'm drifting out of time, as strange as that sounds. It's a very surreal feeling, almost like I am living on another planet. The lack of daylight makes you feel like sleeping all the time but exercise helps to keep the blood flowing and the endorphins pumping. The local sports facility, called IKSU, which is actually the largest gym in Europe (supposedly), has special UV rooms where you can get as much light and wonderful Vitamin D as you need. Wonderful, wonderful light. I don't know how the Swedes who live this far up north deal with it year after year after year. haha It must the be the summers of perpetual light!
I haven't done any significant traveling since I went to London, but I do enjoy biking around the city and exploring. Everything is so pristine here. The streets in Umeå are lined with birch trees and all of the houses are very uniform, often yellow or red, with white trim on the windows and the roofs. The roads and sidewalks are in great shape, not lined with potholes and cracks like in the U.S., probably because people actually pay the taxes to make sure that the infrastructure is kept well, well-kept.
Swedes may not be as individualistic as Americans, but they have a much, much better grasp of all of the positive nuances that the word "socialism" connotates. No one is allowed to get rich here. If someone does earn more money than another person, the State just takes that much more of it to help pay for schools, hospitals, nursing care for the elderly, to repair the physical infrastructure of towns and cities, and so on. The wealthiest are taxed the most, and even they understand why. It is for the betterment of society. For Swedes, society means solidarity, unity, and they view a progressive, strong 'society' as one where social achievement is made at the expense of the individual, not one where individual achievement is made at the expense of the society. This is the underlying ideology of what is called the Swedish 'model', in any case. Since Sweden is a Western, 'developed' nation, it of course has a free market economy, and thus elements of privitization in the fields of healthcare and education. But they don't believe in privitization of damn near everything like American society does. Americans are all about freedom of choice, even if it cripples them financially, physically, and emotionally. I am not saying I agree entirely with either the 'liberal' American system which is far from liberal, or the more socialist leanings of Sweden. I see negative aspects in both. Capitalism can and very often is heartless, and socialism is very often mindless, but Swedes seemed to have mixed the two together into a relatively humane, healthy system. At least for now. It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.
Political discussions aside however, I've done some pretty fun stuff recently. Last weekend in the city there was this music festival called PopUp. Basically, it was 8 bands on 2 stages showcasing the best of Swedish indie pop music right now. IT WAS AMAZING!! There was this one band, Detektivbyrån, which sounded a bit like Of Montreal, but without vocals. They used accordions, xylophones, vocal harmonies, synthesizers, moogs, and everything else in the musical spectrum that you can imagine. It sounded like something out of a Wes Anderson film, and I mean that in the best way possible. This one other artist, Markus Krunegård, was really awesome. It was catchy, guitar heavy indie pop with lots of crowd interaction and I absolutely loved it. It's hard for me to describe what 'indie pop' sounds like because it's a pretty diverse genre in the sense that one can really do anything within it, as long as it has a bubbly edge that will catch your ear and make you smile, no matter what your mood. It was really cool to be able to see some real Swedish bands play.
So, lastly, I did something rather fun today. I went to a moose farm!! Haha it sounds a bit ridiculous I know, but this farm actually does exist, about 60 km west of Umeå, so more into the mainland of northern Sweden. I went with a bunch of international students on several buses, and the countryside where the farm is located was actually quite beautiful. There were rolling hills of forest and little patches of farmland with cute little yellow and red houses and cottages. We were able to touch and pet the mooses and take pictures of them. They are really docile creatures, calm and noble in their appearance and movements, but powerful. There was one little infant moose, running around pushing everyone with his head and trying to play. But he could nearly knock us over, he was so strong. It made everyone laugh and scream because sometimes people wouldn't be looking and unexpectedly he'd run up from behind and bump them in the butt. It was a really cool day. So, here are some separately posted pictures of that!
It has been a few weeks since I last posted something here, and I think it's due time I did so.
Life in Sweden goes on for me. The seasons are changing, the friendships which I have found here are continuing to develop, and I am still exploring this new country in which I find myself. I can't say that it isn't new to me anymore, because it still is. I feel very much in a state of liminality here, in between languages, cultures, and in a more important sense, senses of my own identity. I don't have the familiar frienships, settings, and experiences to fall back upon. In many ways, being here, away from the U.S., has forced me to remake myself, or least to reflect upon who I have made myself out to be these last 21 years of my life, and how the people I've met have done so as well.
After spending more than two months here, I've been fortunate to meet plenty of really cool people. I am one of only a few Americans here studying at the university here in Umeå, and that is both extremely refreshing and sometimes lonely. It is great because I have to go out and meet students from many different countries and become friends with them rather than just use the comfort blanket of hanging out with other American students. Plus, where would the fun be in that anyways? Humans are very much creatures of habit, no matter how much we might argue otherwise. I see it all the time here. The French students tend to group together with other French students to speak French, the German students like to find other Germans to speak German with, Spanish find other Spanish, and so on. I really can't do that here, as like I said, there are barely any Americans here. And the Americans I do know here I can't relate with. They are often shallow and just want to drink and party and are extremely pessimistic about being here. It drives me nuts because they are just reinforcing the negative stereotypes of Americans in the eyes of people from the rest of the world.
This brings me to my next observation. Being a fluent speaker of English has put me in a very privileged position here. Since everyone is from everywhere and speaks everything in terms of languages, we have to speak a 'universal' language that we will all understand. That is definitely English, and one Polish student that I've met here pointed out something that I keep thinking about. She said something along the lines of "Yeah, you might not have other Americans to talk with but everyone here speaks English, at least a little, and so you can talk to anyone. Often we Europeans can only talk and still feel totally comfortable with people from our own country, since we aren't fluent speakers of English. And when we do speak English with other people, we're often put in the position of making sure we're saying the right things, using the right grammar, etc. So sometimes the effort of the conversation goes less into getting to know someone and rather into making sure we find the right words." It makes me realize that even though I don't have the comfort blanket of other Americans here in Sweden, I have been subconsciously relying on the comfort blanket of English. I may be out of bounds by saying this, but I really believe that English is becoming 'the' international language. I know of no other language that is spoken as commonly in so many different parts of the world. That kind of realization forces me to wonder; why English? Is it because of the influence of popular American culture, for better or for worse, upon the world? Is it because of the era of British colonialism? And are we just transmitting English as a language all over the world, or are we, through it, also imposing Western cultural values, economic systems, and political ideologies? I'm very strongly inclined to believe so.
Well, on to climate! It's something that's very noticeable here. First off, it's getting quite cold, definitely earlier than WI back in the U.S. I've noticed that the shift from autumn to winter has started about a month earlier than it usually does back home, as we had our first snow on Halloween. I know that this can happen in WI and certainly has before, but it's still quite colder here in my opinion. Oh, and the sunlight. It's quite crazy to see the sun hanging halfway in the sky at 12 PM and then see it start to set at 2:30 PM. It's already completely dark by 4 PM. With such a lack of knowing when the day starts and ends concretely, the days begin to run together and sometimes I feel like I'm drifting out of time, as strange as that sounds. It's a very surreal feeling, almost like I am living on another planet. The lack of daylight makes you feel like sleeping all the time but exercise helps to keep the blood flowing and the endorphins pumping. The local sports facility, called IKSU, which is actually the largest gym in Europe (supposedly), has special UV rooms where you can get as much light and wonderful Vitamin D as you need. Wonderful, wonderful light. I don't know how the Swedes who live this far up north deal with it year after year after year. haha It must the be the summers of perpetual light!
I haven't done any significant traveling since I went to London, but I do enjoy biking around the city and exploring. Everything is so pristine here. The streets in Umeå are lined with birch trees and all of the houses are very uniform, often yellow or red, with white trim on the windows and the roofs. The roads and sidewalks are in great shape, not lined with potholes and cracks like in the U.S., probably because people actually pay the taxes to make sure that the infrastructure is kept well, well-kept.
Swedes may not be as individualistic as Americans, but they have a much, much better grasp of all of the positive nuances that the word "socialism" connotates. No one is allowed to get rich here. If someone does earn more money than another person, the State just takes that much more of it to help pay for schools, hospitals, nursing care for the elderly, to repair the physical infrastructure of towns and cities, and so on. The wealthiest are taxed the most, and even they understand why. It is for the betterment of society. For Swedes, society means solidarity, unity, and they view a progressive, strong 'society' as one where social achievement is made at the expense of the individual, not one where individual achievement is made at the expense of the society. This is the underlying ideology of what is called the Swedish 'model', in any case. Since Sweden is a Western, 'developed' nation, it of course has a free market economy, and thus elements of privitization in the fields of healthcare and education. But they don't believe in privitization of damn near everything like American society does. Americans are all about freedom of choice, even if it cripples them financially, physically, and emotionally. I am not saying I agree entirely with either the 'liberal' American system which is far from liberal, or the more socialist leanings of Sweden. I see negative aspects in both. Capitalism can and very often is heartless, and socialism is very often mindless, but Swedes seemed to have mixed the two together into a relatively humane, healthy system. At least for now. It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.
Political discussions aside however, I've done some pretty fun stuff recently. Last weekend in the city there was this music festival called PopUp. Basically, it was 8 bands on 2 stages showcasing the best of Swedish indie pop music right now. IT WAS AMAZING!! There was this one band, Detektivbyrån, which sounded a bit like Of Montreal, but without vocals. They used accordions, xylophones, vocal harmonies, synthesizers, moogs, and everything else in the musical spectrum that you can imagine. It sounded like something out of a Wes Anderson film, and I mean that in the best way possible. This one other artist, Markus Krunegård, was really awesome. It was catchy, guitar heavy indie pop with lots of crowd interaction and I absolutely loved it. It's hard for me to describe what 'indie pop' sounds like because it's a pretty diverse genre in the sense that one can really do anything within it, as long as it has a bubbly edge that will catch your ear and make you smile, no matter what your mood. It was really cool to be able to see some real Swedish bands play.
So, lastly, I did something rather fun today. I went to a moose farm!! Haha it sounds a bit ridiculous I know, but this farm actually does exist, about 60 km west of Umeå, so more into the mainland of northern Sweden. I went with a bunch of international students on several buses, and the countryside where the farm is located was actually quite beautiful. There were rolling hills of forest and little patches of farmland with cute little yellow and red houses and cottages. We were able to touch and pet the mooses and take pictures of them. They are really docile creatures, calm and noble in their appearance and movements, but powerful. There was one little infant moose, running around pushing everyone with his head and trying to play. But he could nearly knock us over, he was so strong. It made everyone laugh and scream because sometimes people wouldn't be looking and unexpectedly he'd run up from behind and bump them in the butt. It was a really cool day. So, here are some separately posted pictures of that!
Monday, October 20, 2008
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