So we have another snow-day today. My office has been closed for a week now. While the weather was really bad on Friday and yesterday, the rest of the snow-days have been ordered due the lack of clear roads and public transport. Not sure what to say, but given that this is the capital of the number one military superpower of the world, of a country that is leading two wars, and of a country that puts people on the moon, I can’t say that I am impressed, or even understand this. But good internet communications makes it at least possible to work, even when stuck at home. And best of all, it is Casual Friday and Illy coffee during breaks all week!

The weather has been the main focus these past days here, with the Weather Channel on in bars instead of the usual sports events

I guess few have missed that we are experiencing some heavy snow here in Washington DC. Record heavy actually. Not that I am not used to white winters, growing up in Sweden. What I am not used to, however, is that the entire city shuts down because of winter weather. Government administrations and schools, as well as many private companies have been closed for days. I have had so called snow-days since Friday, meaning that the office is closed and that we are encouraged to work from home to the extent possible. Which I have, but I have to say that e-mail traffic has gone down, which has had significant impact on my workload. I don’t exactly mind – these days have been really nice. I find it quite amazing though that they still haven’t gotten the traffic running after the first snowfall on Friday night (which is the main reason to why so many workplaces are closed). It took them over a day to get my street free of snow, and it is the basically the address of the U.S. President. Not to talk about other streets and the metro, which are still not functioning properly. Which in turn has resulted in grocery stores, cafes and restaurants starting to run out of food. And this is the city that runs half the world…

Anyway, it has also been a lot of fun, at least for those of us with a roof over our heads and with functioning electricity. The city has been silent as there were virtually no cars in the streets for days, making the urban environment more accessible for pedestrians. Everything has been calm and pretty. And tonight we are having new, heavy snowfalls so tomorrow, I will enjoy another white, quiet day in DC.  

Saturday morning: DC declared snow emergency and 16th street was empty of cars

Spontaneous snowball fight broke out at Dupont Circle and went on for hours. Cars were buried in snow.  

Empty Georgetown. Sunday was beautiful and sunny!

It is snowing here in DC again. The world is white and beautiful outside my window. I am having breakfast inside my warm apartment, enjoying the view of snowy rooftop It is amazing how a change in weather can make you so at peace!

I just checked out the blog of Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, to see what he had written about his visit to Moldova little over a week ago. As I did so, I learned that he too is on an official visit in Washington with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. They seem to be in a different Washington though, as he writes in his blog post from yesterday that “Arrived in a sunny and beautiful Washington.” As far as I recall (and also wrote on the blog), the rain was hanging in the air here in DC and earlier today, I tried to recall when I last saw the sun! (And no, I don’t think this can be explained by local weather variations since the White House is only about 10 blocks from me.)

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the c-span video from the press conference, but here is the link. Though it is nice to see that they seem to be on first name basis, I have to say that Reinfeldt appears a bit dull next to Obama.

DN, SvD, Aftonbladet

I saw another political figure when walking to work this morning (though someone somewhat less exciting than Rahm Emanuel): John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN, who made the (in)famous statement that it would not make a difference if ten stories of the UN building in NY were removed. (See the youtube clip below on that and some of his other views on the UN and the US’s role in world politics.) Apparently, he works here in DC now and it looked as though he was on his way to work, so if we’re on the same schedule, I guess I’ll see him again. 

A wonderful place in DC is Kramer Books. It is a fairly small book store on Connecticut Avenue, just off Dupont Circle and only a few blocks from me. It is not really my favorite book store here in DC (although I normally find most books that I am looking for there), but it is a wonderful place in the sense that it is more of a public space than a book store. It has both a late-night open bar/cafe and a nice restaurant, and is kind of a meeting point for people. For those of you who are from Stockholm, it is kind of like Svampen. If I am to meet up with someone at Dupont Circle (which is also a metro stop), we normally decide to meet inside Kramer Books, even though we are not planning to look for a book or eat something there. It is thus always crowded inside but it gives it a lovely atmosphere.

     I know, it is not a very good photo. But if you click on the link,

     there is a short clip about the store and the restaurant.