Monday, August 16, 2010

Life as an Almost-11-Year-Old


I got a great opportunity to spend a weekend in Switzerland - with Annika. She's not a huge fan of Switzerland, but since I had to be there for our apartment meeting, I asked if she would like to go and - surprisingly - she agreed. We had a great weekend, despite terrible weather. We did no cooking, but enjoyed all sorts of restaurants. A few highlights...
  • After camp, Annika decided to become a vegetarian. But when faced with the possibility of a dinner at Le Thai (and chicken satay) she was forced to rethink her philosophy. We're still working on the details of a "sometime vegetarian"...
  • She was stunned that I had a song she likes on my iPhone... one that she doesn't have on her phone. She kept saying, "I can't believe you have it" - like I was incapable of being more cool than her - in this one tiny area.
  • We got to discuss many upcoming 5th grade issues - make-up (which she hopes to refuse to wear at all, despite what the others do), birthday parties (which she wants to have... but she's not sure she wants to be the first to admit that it is still fun...), smoking (stats say that the most common age for Swedish girls to start is 11 - but she cannot understand why - thank goodness), friends, etc.
  • She still managed to get a shopping bee in her bonnet... but we escaped with a purse and wallet (sunglasses were also on her list).
  • She charmed the waiters, getting a free raclette appetizer (which she loved)
In general, it was just plain nice to spend time with her.

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