Swede: Francais?
Guy: No, he’s American.
Swede: Oh shit.
*laughter*
Me: I was waiting for that.

The nations at Uppsala are all basically centered around drinking. That’s not as bad as it sounds in itself since there are plenty of people who drink with moderation and the pub scene is the primary way to meet people. I just met a bunch of Swedes who were into the more American style of drink ‘til you drop, don’t remember anything and can’t taste the difference between water and vodka kinda partiers. In addition to that, they were listening to all of the weird stuff on the Internet like Gunther or Numa Numa, which I thought was strange since that’s over the web because of people making fun of Europeans. One guy was particularly interested in the goings-on of American dorm life, which he had created an image of based on collegehumor.com and Girls Gone Wild. The concept of spring break was one he was also curious about, from what I gather there’s no equivalent in Sweden. I guess the moral of that story is that Americans and Swedes are more in common than I previously thought, or hoped, really.

I have also been amazing all sorts of people with my ability to eat spicy food with reckless abandon. Truly, as my brother said, this is the land of bland. The international students are caught off guard too; my Iranian hallmate was surprised to see me eat one of his very spicy peppers without reaching for my drink. So thanks Tucson for toughening me up enough to eat stuff that’s considered hot even in Iran.