FaSciNaTiOn FiElDtRiP

I was momentarily transformed into a kid again. After three hours of sleep I arrived in Stockholm, collected my luggage and was quickly initiated into wedding prep pandemonium. We grabbed a bite at McDonalds (funny that I NEVER eat it whilst IN the U.S.), picking up rings and a trip to the liquor store... my friend Angelica and I made a trip that left me in awe. The only way I can describe it is that I must have resembled one of the thousands of young kids I see at the National Air & Space Museum on field trips.

Whenever I'm in a different country I LOVE wandering through a grocery store. I think it's one place you can get a great feel for the country. We first pulled up to the store and unloaded the contents of her trunk into various recycling slots. It was amazing! One thing I have a hard time with in America is the lack of recycling--even if a bin is provided. But in Sweden people load up their cars and do it themselves. After dropping most of the recycling we went into the store and I got to feed plastic bottles into this cool (to me) machine that sucked them in, weighed and crushed them. When you're all done you get a receipt towards your grocery purchase. Fantastic!

Next, I began wandering the isles *with a scanner in hand* and found such interesting things, such as 20 different types of mayonnaise for hot dogs, kebabs and pasta, horse lunch meat, fresh made breads in shapes and colors I've never seen, little cookies that taste like cookie dough, bins of marshmallows and licorice, sour milk used on cereal (actually really good, I'll start hunting for it in the states), and the ULTIMATE find (and since purchased)--ice cream toppings (both sprinkle and syrup) in... LICORICE FLAVOR! Yummmm!

ps. I did have a nice laugh when, on multiple occasions I walked into a store and "Dancing Queen" or another ABBA song was playing. Priceless.