ok, lucy, fine. you win!

[llcoolvad]

Wow, in the last few days I've watched about 8 hours of Netflix stuff set in the old country (my peeps are from Sweden, yo) and damn, it's beautiful there. It's odd to watch a movie set there, though. The sun just never sets, and everyone looks more and more tired and nighttime things happen and still there is this infernal sun! I understand the concept of the midnight sun, and I've watched Insomnia, but it's interesting when you see a lot of it all at once. I've finished watching "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," and the first season of "Wallander". Wallander was much more visually arresting; so scenic it hurts. The ocean, farms miles wide, twisty little roads, blue blue blue sky, every shot arranged to be as slap-you-in-the-face gorgeous as possible. Super saturated, too, so the colors were just wow. Nice contrast to Kenneth Branagh's tired face.

And the interiors were all awesome, too.

Perhaps some day I'll have to visit. Do a little research first. And probably stick to the south. I think my people are from the north, but again I'd have to do some research. Swanson isn't exactly a unique name.

Definitely on the life list!

Comments

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

"Mother American" is really specific, huh? Native American? African American? Thanks for the details, social worker. Jeez.

I really should do some research. People in my family have, I know. Not so much on Dad's side (the Swedish side); more on the French and Irish sides. I'm thinking of doing one of those DNA Ancestry Project (http://www.dnaancestryproject.com/)-type things, since our family genealogy research only goes back a few generations (except on the French side, that goes way way back). It might be cool, and it's not too expensive. Obviously if you did something like that you'd want the kind that just bases the results on your cells, not family members, but it might be interesting. I believe it gives you a genetic breakdown of your ethnic background, but I have no idea how specific it gets. Probably say "European" and you'd be all, gee, thanks, really. But who knows!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know more than that. My mother was 19, Jewish, from New York and got pregnant by a 25-year-old Catholic who was working in the States with a wife and kids back home in Ireland. He offered to adopt me. My birth mother wisely told the social worker she didn't want that for me. There's plenty more, it goes on for a few pages, but no medical history and no identification that would allow me to do actual genealogical research. Adoptions in California were closed, end of story, in the 50s.

I think if you had questions about your background it might be fun to be part of the DNA project.