Beställningsbekräftelse (Order Confirmation)

I'm going to Europe next week.

Was sort of there once before . . . the year Epcot opened. Well, now I have a real opportunity and don't expect I'll see any evidence of Disney.

Going to Sweden, land of Sven the Normal (and architypal) Swede, lagom and jantelagen, where my daughter, Allie, has been (except for a visit home for the holidays and real day-long sun). In anticipation, I've obtained two of Berlitz's finest: the Swedish Phrase Book and Dictionary, and the Swedish-English Dictionary (a.k.a. Engelsk-Svensk Ordbok). I'm working through my home made flash cards and can say several mispronouced (no doubt) Swedish things, including "Hi," "My name is . . . ." "I don't speak Swedish," and "with ice." Clearly, I'm all set.

I should arrive in Stockholm via Frankfurt on April 23, at 12:35 p.m. CET. Once there, I plan to spend several hours wandering concentrically around the Stockholm Central Rail Station, findng mid-day sustenance while attempting to tala (speak) with Swedes. Imagining this, I keep picturing Archie Bunker's conversations with Meat Head the son in law. Lots of noise, little understanding, and great insult. My hopefulness remains buoyed as I know that the vast majority of Swedes speak very good English, so I can always stammer "Ha, ha - just kidding! I'm an American!" as I block their head and body blows. After several afternoon hours in Stockholm, I plan to board a train for Tranas, where Allie lives.

Well last night, I booked my train ticket on the Engelksa version of the www.sj.se website (Ah . . . Engelska - very accommodating of those Swedes). As promised (in English), I received a link via email, telling me where I could go to print my ticket. I entered the URL and found myself suddently very lost. I stared for several minutes at a website user interface coated (labeled) with a distinctly non-English alphabetic splat of charcters, polyglot syllables, and punctuation marks, Who'da thought Farenheit's best contribution to science would find its way on top of a lowly letter?.

Yikes! Jag talar inte Svenska! I grabbed the old Berlitz Engelsk-Svensk Ordbok and, over the course of 10 minutes, figured out (guessed, really) which boxes I should check and which buttons I should click to get my ticket to print. Several times I was certain I'd just cancelled my reservation. I believe the selections I made have communciated to the rail boss that I do, in fact, have luggage, want a window seat in the quiet section, and have no need for internet access (at 49 kronos additional).

What a hoot.

Long story short - I have the ticket. All ombord!