Sinful Swedes

The summer of 2014 was the hottest in Umeå since records began in 1858 with the thermometer reaching 32.2 degrees one day at the airport. Having just moved back from Korea, it was a strange and unexpected introduction to life in the High North. After working all day to get the new apartment in order, I remember how blissful it was to take the car down to Stöcksjö for an evening swim at Dragonudden. Given the strict puritanism of Korean society, skinny dipping in a secluded lake truly felt like being a world away from Seoul.

Today, it has been 28 degrees outside and even warmer inside in front of the green screen where I have been recording lectures on the classical world. Undeterred by how tired I was the morning after my Saturday evening run, I decided to lace up my New Balance 1080v10 for a 30k run across the river to that same lake as in 2014.

Passing by the dormant airport, I feel so fortunate to be “trapped” here and not in a Korean faculty dorm. Slowly, the countries of the world are opening up their borders but there is a lingering uncertainty and the knowledge how suddenly the freedom of movement can be revoked by political fiat. If there is a second wave of SARS-CoV-2, one can only hope that isolationism will not again be the default response.