What I Have Learned About Myself

Traveling is a time for personal growth. Here's what I have learned about myself:

-I am more inclined to make a salad if I have chunks of pig around. Bacon bits, ham slices, cadav.
-I don't know most of the words to "Mamma Mia."
-I can't NOT dance to "Mamma Mia."
-Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar. (I admit, this is what I learned about Freddie Mercury, not me.)
-You know that problem where I wake up in the middle of the night, think it's morning, change into teacher clothes, make breakfast, and then realize it's 2:31 AM, not 6:31 AM? I have that issue on at least two continents.
-You know that problem where I don't drink water for a while and do things that make me sweat, like walk up steep hills or dance feverishly, and then I get thirsty? I have that issue on at least two continents, too.

Well, there we go.

ABBA

A few of you loyal readers (and "friends" who I don't think actually read this blog) have asked me, "Good-Looking, I know you're in Norway, not Sweden, but all of Scandinavia loves Abba, right? Tell me more about this 70's and 80's pop sensation!"

Well, poopsie, I'll tell you one thing: I rung in 2009 singing "Happy new year! Happy new year! May we all have a vision now and then / of a world where every neighbor is a friend." My Norwegian celebrators played it enough times that I was able to memorize the chorus and thus absorb the message into my formerly cold, cold heart.

I think Abba's success stems largely from five things.
1. Their commitment to sing a New Year's song,
2. The frequency of which their tunes are blasted around a skating rink in Trondheim's town square.
3. Their music's delicate balance of sing-alongableness and booty shakability.
4. In junior high, this boy named Kevin gave me a toy that danced to "Dancing Queen" because he said it reminded him of me.
And little known #5. Bjorn doesn't know geography. This greatly appeals to Americans.