Before I start, let me correct a previous post. It's Östgöta nation, not Ostgota. 'Öst' is east, 'ost' is cheese. Though I've taken to calling them that now ever since I went to their sucky club. I didn't know they had emo kids in Europe, I figured they'd be sophisticated beatniks or something like that.

It's really an odd experience going to an international student corridor party. There are people from everywhere and they all speak the same language. English rocks! Anyway, I have barely met any Americans at all here, which I thought was a little odd. There are tons of Australians here though, and Germans. All the different accents floating around makes for an interesting, diverse experience. The Finns and Swedes take it upon themselves to teach all of us useful phrases such as 'bakfull' (hung over)and memorize drinking songs.

A Finnish girl said that a big difference she saw between American and Swedish culture was dating. In America, she explained, guys will actually be interested in taking a girl out on a date and getting to know her. In Sweden the guys just want to have sex. At first I thought she just had a very good experience in the US (after all how many American girls would ever agree with a statement like that?) but when a Swedish guy imparted dating advice to me later on I realized that Americans must look like the most sensitive bunch of guys in the world. One thing I thought was odd was that the rules that matched American dating rules matched for totally different reasons. For example, in the US after you get a girl's phone number you don't call her right away because you don't want to come off as clingy or needy. In Sweden you don't call right away because you don't want to call her when she's hung over.

Lastly, why can't the Swedes use spaces between words? At first it seems like you don't need them, 'fyrarumslagenhet' for example is "fyra rum lagenhet" (four room apartment). Once you know the language you can see where one word ends and the other begins; they put in an 's' to make it easier. The problem arises later when words that they stick together are difficult to pull apart. "Kungsängsgatan" is a street (gatan=street), now looking at that, it's either "Kungs äng" (king's meadow) or "Kung säng" (king bed). Another one that came up today was "Balderskolan" that's apparantly a daycare center. I didn't have that context when I translated it to "Balders kolan" (Balder's toffee) when it's actually "Balder skolan" (Balder school). Damn Swedes. I'm so gonna set up a candy store right next to that place and call it Balderskolan just to mess with them.