Friday,
August 20, 1999

Well...it was definitely a lot of Swedish. However, I begged off the sürstromming party (Lyndon theorizes that it got started way back in olden times, when some Swedes had nothing else but the yucky, semi-rotten herring at the bottom of the herring bucket to eat at the end of winter. As a way of making it palatable, they turned it into a special party where everybody grins, drinks a lot of schnapps and partakes of the yeasty herring after their palates have been numbed by the anti-freeze. If only the Donner Party had worked out as well...), and we had some solid brainstorming sessions in English for coming up with a plan for an IT strategy, so that was productive. I also ate more hard candy than I have since I got too old for Halloween -- the hotel kept putting out pitchers of ice water and platters of these little clear fruit-flavored hard candies. If our IT plan winds up sounding a little hyper, they can blame the sugar rush.

I also think I may have made a wee boo-boo with my manager. See, TSB has cut a deal with two taxi firms in Stockholm so that TSB workers get a special rate. Since it can be expensive getting back from the airport, I usually try to get one of the two firms' taxis. However, there seemed to have been a dearth of Taxikurir and Taxi 020 cars this afternoon, and a whole bunch of people (including me and my manager, who was behind me) were waiting for more of these particular cars.

Finally, a Taxi 020 pulls up as I reach the head of the line, and I pop my bag in back. As the driver is preparing to pull out of the queue, I see Jan lean down and wave at me with this smile on his face. My first thought is, "Oh, how nice -- wave back, Melanie" which I do. My second thought, once we're clear of the airport and heading towards the highway, is, "Uh...did he want to share a taxi?" He lives in Sollentuna, which isn't far from here, so conceivably one taxi would have done the job for both of us. Ooer.

So as it looks like I'll be popping into the office briefly on Monday morning, I think I need to poke my head around his door, find out if that was indeed what he was trying to do, apologize if so and explain that you have to be a bit more forceful with Americans, as we can be dense at times. A smile and a wave is taken to mean, "Have a nice weekend," not "Oy, stupid, there aren't any more good taxis -- can I share yours?" Luckily, Jan is a peach, so he probably realizes this already.

I hope.