Volcano!

I stepped out the house this morning and smelt the distinct odor of bad eggs on the wind. It was, no doubt, caused by sulphur from the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, over in Iceland.

The eruption has caused plenty of chaos over here. Swedish airspace was closed at 1800 last night. The latest news suggests that the earliest that southern Sweden's (including the country's largest airport, Arlanda near Stockholm) airspace would be open is tomorrow. Airports to the north of Gävle, i.e. Norrlands are open for emergency traffic only. I take this to mean air ambulances etc. It apparently all depends on the wind direction and if a new eruption occurs. According to our local press, it should reach us tonight, with ash particles in the air, the authorities are advising people who have respiratory problems (well known for being out and about of Friday nights...) to stay indoors.

Every Friday morning in class we're expected to have read and produced a short summary on a news article that interested us. This morning I chose this article. I was surprised how easily I understood it and didn't have to look any words up. I think I summarized the article poorly (it was only the second time I've done this exercise), as once we'd discussed each other's stories, we worked together on how to create an easy and comprehensible example. The key point was to try to explain the key points of the story with words suitable to your vocabulary.

Reading a newspaper is a great way of developing your vocabulary. I normally read the local free commuter paper on my bus journey home but it doesn't have the greatest range of stories and seems to concentrate on local crime stories. It's a useful exercise, but after a while you get a bit bored of stories about assault or speeding. Occasionally Malmö gets a shooting, there's a lot of organised crime in the city apparently. I find this a bit bizzare, as size wise it's just a bit larger than the town where my mother lives near, Swindon. Despite it's celebrated status as one of Britain's crapest towns, I'm pretty sure it doesn't have many gangland slayings or bombings (Malmö has had a spate of bombs targetting nightclubs and restaurants recently). I may have to make some sort of comparitive study at some stage to satisfy my curiosity.

Once I've read a story, I underline any words I don't understand and look them up on the dictionary on my iphone. When I get home I add them to my weekly vocabulary flashcards.

In local Bunkeflostrand news, it seems our neighbourhood nazi is still being hounded by his anti-fascist detractors. Once again they've spray-painted his house near our local supermarket with graffiti accusing the occupants of being racists / nazis. Previously the message was fairly comical, and read: "Welcome home nazi swines". What amused me was imagining the anti-fascists as slightly conflicted once they'd finished the message, realizing they'd expressed a warm sentiment which could be misinterpreted as having genuinely missed him or her whilst they'd been away on vacation. This time the anti-fascists have opted for a safer and less confused message in which they name and shame the resident. Disappointingly, the person's name didn't throw up any hits on google.