MATT: Pounds and Crowns

I find myself short on time, but, as always, I have so much to say. It has been 2 weeks since I left Texas. It only seems like two minutes. Please pardon my brevity ... and the very small number of photos on my blog. Tomorrow, Courtney and I plan on making some big changes (be excited, I think we're going to officially make this a joint blog). For now, you'll have to be satisfied with tales from Europe.

London.
A few days before I left home, I watched the movie, Twilight, with my mom. I had no idea it was about vampires, but, needless to say, I was entranced from the start. Few people (maybe just my older brother and Danielle) understand my passion for all things bat and vampire (it all started with Bartok the bat when I was a kid ... and then it bloomed into a bat dance that became very popular with my friends in high school). I know you're wondering what all of this has to do with London. Well, Twilight engulfed almost my entire London experience. I read half of the first book in the series by Stephenie Meyer on the flight from Dallas. When I landed in London, I hauled it to the bookstore and bought the second and third books in the series. Imagine a huge American dude sitting in an array of quirky, British coffee shops and libraries, messily munching on almond croissants and downing countless cups of Earl Grey tea with honey and milk, blaring a mix of country, jazz and classical music through his all-too-big-for-casual-listening Bose headphones, ripping through a teenage vampire romance novel. Now you have a sense for how I spent about 95% of my 3 days in London’s fog. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

The remaining 5% of my time was spent catching up with some of my old friends. I LUCKED OUT and caught up with two of my favorite people, Colby Hanks and Farren Keenan, the night before they were headed out for Santorini for a quick dinner at a wonderful English Brasserie in north London. Words can barely express how much it meant for me to get to see them, if only for a few minutes before they were off for yet another adventure. Few people in this world are so outstanding. Here’s a picture of us with Farren on the right, then Colby, Callie (Colby’s awesome younger sister) and myself.

I was also fortunate to catch up with my friend and former colleague, Susan Lynch. We worked together on a study at McKinsey and found we had two things in common that instantly made us friends: Jesus and a thick southern drawl. Susan’s is the South Carolina type; almost chewy and “rill rill” twangy. It's always nice to catch up with people you admire.

I departed for Stockholm anxiously. Mostly because it’s the only place in the world that even begins to rival Austin, TX for the title of best city in the world. (Alright maybe that’s going a little to far)

Stockholm.
In addition to general coolness (no pun intended), I was so excited to get to Stockholm to see my downright awesome cousins that live there: Alex, Frederic and Perjonas.

I could really write for days about how perfect it was. The weather was 65 degrees, sunny and so crisp I can’t really even explain it. It was even more beautiful than I had remembered. I stayed with Alex in a suburb called Lidingö. I could go on for days about the natural beauty that fills this place. It’s an area so rich with the aromas of a million summer blooms, the sounds of sing-songy Swedes chatting and whistling, and the colors of nature so vivid that you’d swear you were in a storybook.

It was such a blessing to have time to spend with my treasured Swedish family talking politics, literature and music, meeting their eclectic (but terrific) friends, visiting fjord-side cafés and soaking in every ounce of Sweden possible. When everyone was working or sleeping, I, of course, was sneaking in chapters of Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series.

Here’s a picture from the last time I was in Stockholm with the whole crew outside one of my family’s favorite spots, Zum’s (sorry I didn’t get around to taking any pictures on this leg of the trip).


The only complaint I really have is that my Swedish has continued to mutate. I can’t really blame myself as I haven’t had much time to practice while at the busiest consulting firm on earth (not to mention the shortage of Swedish-speaking Dallasonians). However, it quickly became irritating that literally every Swede I spoke to accused me of being Norwegian. In Swedish, you might say I have a “norsk klang”. Not really what I was going for … but I guess a “klang” is better than outright sounding American any day.

I left Sweden feeling the same as I do when I leave Austin. Sad … and missing it before I had even left.

More to come ... soon.
Tomorrow, Courtney and I will bring you up to speed on life in east Africa. It has been an extraordinary experience and promises to be nothing short of astounding for another two months to come.

Don’t be afraid to comment or ask question.

En stor kram och vi ses! PV,

M