This is a very hectic weekend for me, for no other reason than that I want to squeeze in as many fun things as possible while managing two work deadlines and still not let my home turn into a mess. Today includes ballet, weekly grocery shopping, laundry, booking a flight to Chisinau, skyping with someone, work, and dinner + a hockey game at 5 pm. And tomorrow is almost the same. It is now little after noon and I am still on schedule. Thanks to a good schedule, I would say! Whenever I have a lot to do, I list everything and the number of days that I have available, and then I estimate the time each task will take and distribute accordingly over available days. It gives a more realistic overview of what is actually feasible in the given amount of time. Fortunately, not all days are like this. My goal is for weekends to be filled with endless chilling, like last weekend. That’s the way I think a good life should be!

In an effort to live more according to my ideas of alternavelopment, I went to a concert at the House of Sweden in mid-January. It was an indie-jazz concert with Sarah Riedel, Viktor Skokic, and a string quartet from New York, and I had not idea what to expect, but I have to say that it was the best concert I have been to in years. Probably one of the top five ever! The music was a mix between other’s songs (including some old Swedish songs) and Riedel’s own music, all arranged in interesting settings either with just a cello or with the cello and the other string instruments. Above all, Sarah Riedel’s voice was amazing. Some thing out of this world! If you ever have a chance to the see them perform, I can really recommend it! Here is a clip from a concert on a Stockholm archipelago boat, though with other musicians. The sound isn’t very good and the setting doesn’t allow her to use the full range of her voice, but it gives you an idea at least.

I’ve probably written this before, but one of the things that surprised me a little after moving around for a few years is how many people that move with me. Or not really with me, of course, but that move to more or less the same places. As you know, both Elisa and Jenny, who have been up in New York during my years here in DC, are friends of mine from when I lived in Rome. At Jenny’s New Year’s dinner two weeks ago, I recognized one of the guests from a training in Sweden in 2006. And people come and go in Washington from and to countries that I travel to. When I was in Kyrgyzstan this summer, fir example, I had dinner with one of my dearest friends from my first months here in DC, who now lives there since a few years. And next month, my Macedonian colleague whom I’ve worked closely with for over four years and who has become more of a friend, is coming to work here for two months. So even though we move around, it seems like our paths still cross.

This weekend I was invited for dinner to a Swedish-Brittish couple that I knew when I lived in Moldova and they lived in Kiev. Our connection was work and our Swedish background, and every time I was in Kiev, they invited me over for dinner at their place. And now, after a three-year stay in another country, they moved to Washington and had me over for dinner again. It was very nice! When you move around a lot, it’s nice to know people who shares your experience in the places you lived earlier. Seeing them also triggered my FSU nostalgia. Fortunately, I picked up this page turner right before Christmas!