You’ve probably seen them in movies: people having a near death experience and realising “life is too short” and that they have been throwing away their precious years in their grey cube looking at a computer screen until their eyes watered (yes I know very American, I blame Netflix). Or you actually know someone who had an eureka moment like this, that’s also cool. I did not have an eureka moment but being in bed for six days and finally FINALLY feeling better, I felt a renewed thankfullness for the good things. Like music. And dancing. And being able to breath through my mouth without sounding like a guiro (the wooden instrument that is also found in the shape of a frog).
Because this was my view for the last week.
Not very exciting right? As of today I have been in Sweden for eleven days. Six of those days, which, as I would like to emphasize, is more than half, I spent sick (throat infection) in my room. Mostly watching Netflix to distract myself, suppressing the urge to swallow which, if I did not succeed, felt like someone tickled my throat with numerous tiny knifes. And I feel like the word tickling implies a nice, cozy situation but that was not this. I woke up every night around 4 or 5am because lying down, the air would get stuck in my throat and the only way to sleep a bit was putting as much blankets underneath the pillow so that my head was almost laying vertically. In short, I slept until 4 or 5am and after that only some dozing occurred.
So, did I do anything else besides watching Netflix and sleeping and feeling like a zombie? Crying my eyes out, being melancholic…. No joking, it was okay. I started a puzzle of ‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa’ (the famous Japanese painting with waves that look like the hands of Cruella Deville when she saw those cute puppies), read about Scandinavians in the book Scandinavians by Robert Ferguson, combed my hair (I call this an activity because it takes at least fifteen minutes and I have to mentally prepare for it), scoured Uppsala’s facebook marketplace for a mountainbike and found several hiking trails in Sweden that I would like to do someday. The most famous one is called the ‘Kungsleden’ (King of trails) and is supposed to pass some of the most beautiful scenery of the world. Poah. Well, it is a 14 hour drive or 16 hours by train so first getting there is one hell of a journey.
I still have to get used to the enormous distances existing in the same country. Driving from the most southern point of Sweden to the most northern town (which is accessible by car! You can go even further north) takes 24 hours. In the same amount of time, you can cross the Netherlands 6 times.
I am drifting off topic, but to conclude: I did not have an eureka moment and I am not 100% better but I am whistling again and I learned a new dance so I am pretty satisfied.