A giant in my hometown

"Have a merry Christmas or I'll chop your fucking head off."

So my hometown has a 30 foot tall fiberglass Paul Bunyan statue with very shiny pants. Oh and a Santa hat. 'That's like wicked festive guy,' you can almost hear the townies say.

And I can hear myself starting to change the way I talk, and not for the better.

I never thought I would längtar efter going back to Sverige so mycket. Hey, if my English is going to get messed up it's better that it's with Swedish than with Maineish. At least I find my språkblandning funny.

Travelling is great, but home is better, they say. A couple weeks ago I think I would have had a different answer as to which is which, but now I realize Sweden feels most like home. But I never wholly bought into the idea of home. Everything shifts so much, is always so temporary, so arbitrary. Iallafall, I walked through town today and felt like a tourist.

I also discovered that Rumford, Maine is within 100 miles of every country in the world.

I really wonder what some of these people were thinking when they named their towns. 'Hey, we've gotten 364 people in this town! That's almost a whole country! Let's call our town Sweden!' That is the actual population of Sweden, Maine, by the way.

But, in the spirit of holiday cheer, I shall cease whining and leave you with a list of the Top Ten Redeeming Aspects of Jason's Trip To Maine Thus Far.

1. Spending time with family and old friends

2. Being reminded of the reality of America

3. Two Swedish pen-pals

4. Experiencing winter in the foothills again

5. Driving my old car

6. Picking up my new computer which is bara jävla skönt

7. Not having to cook or clean for 3 weeks

8. Dunkin Donuts and American pizza joints

9. Watching Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett play together

10. Really seeing for the first time that my hometown is kind of beautiful

Damn, what was I complaining about . . .