perspective: i äm currently in the village where leena grew up, a small village named karstu at a lattitude of about 60 and a longitude of roughly 24. Los Angeles is at 34, -118. i say this because if you were to travel down the world at the same distance i traveled here you'd land somewhere close to cairo, egypt or off the coast of crete (depending on calculations). if you were to travel straight up from l.a. to the same latitude as karstu you'd end up in the very similar climate of the northwest territories of canada (where there is less than 0.1% person per sq mile. interesting huh.

factoids: somehow, listening to 'abba' just seems right around here, and sauerkraut can be very tasty if sauteed with honey (i just had some at a bee farmer's house, amazing)