I can't tell if this Swedish course is more for kicks or if it's actually helpful.
On another note, I looked up some stuff on the Swedish language on Wikipedia and found that they evidently have a sound that does not exist in other languages. The 'sj' sound is closest to "phew!" in English but is essentially like blowing out a candle. The Norrlanders have an easier time, they just pronounce it like 'sh' but sometimes I don't think it sounds as good then. I have gotten the pronunciation pretty much figured out after 9 months though.
One thing I will never get used to or use myself is the Swedish equivalent sound for "mmhmm". They inhale quickly either through the mouth or the nose and it sometimes sounds like they just stopped themselves from burping. It the most annoying thing in the world. I think someone mentioned it to me once last semester but I forgot it and it came as a surprise to me at the beginning of this semester. Originally I thought only female Swedish teachers did it since they were the only ones I ever observed doing it. One teacher at my department made that affirmative sound literally after every single sentence. I honestly thought she had a respiratory problem, but apparently she's just the Swedish Mr. Mackey.

Also, I've been here nine months and I have yet to see an actual, dedicated Swedish restaurant. At first I was just a little frustrated that I couldn't find one, but figured that it was natural to not find ethnic food restaurants in the same region that the ethnicity hails from. But it occurred to me in Poland and Lithuania that I could find plenty of ethnic restaurants there. One can find Spanish food in Spain and British food in Britain, but no Swedish food in Sweden. It's not that Swedish food sucks, for some reason, though, the Swedes just don't like it. One Swede told me that it's because when people go out to a restaurant they don't want to eat the same stuff they have at home. Theoretically true, but I know for a fact that Swedes don't eat pickled herring at home every day, they have pasta and stuff like that. He then said Swedish restaurants would mainly cater to tourists (evidently the million immigrants in Sweden aren't a big enough market) and Sweden isn't a big tourist country. Compared to England and Spain, yes definitely, but I think there are more tourists that would rather go to Stockholm than downtown Warsaw. I think the Swedes just don't like their cultural food, for whatever reason. I don't think they could have gotten tired of it; you can only get it on holidays. It does tend to be the same thing no matter what the holiday is, though.

Also, a couple new Flickr pics.

Thankfully classes are coming to a close, it won't be long before I'm totally free and can enjoy Sweden without having that nagging feeling of being a slacker. Not that that has stopped me in the past, but still. My paper on Lundellska skolan will be done by the end of the week and hopefully it will say everything I want it to say, though given the sorry state of the weather lately I doubt I will be able to observe the Swedish spring fashions, namely the supposed Muslim girls with spaghetti strap tops and headscarves. That would be anthropological gold.
I had the chance to watch the Eurovision Song Contest last night; Feifei was quite determined that I see it, as it is such an important pan-European cultural event. For those that don't know, imagine American Idol but bigger and, though everyone can sing and perform nicely, the songs and performances themselves are so cheesy and dumb. The best word to describe it is simply "European." The Europeans take it so seriously too, while the real entertainment for me is in making fun of these people. The front pages of all the newspapers have the voting results and how terrible it was the Sweden lost to Finland, totally displacing actual important news. The real reason they won was cuz they were so different from all the other acts and they just stood out the most. My favorite, on account of just how cheeky their act was, was Lithuania: "We Are the Winners of Eurovision". Still wish Zlad had been able to perform, though. I don't think he should be disqualified on account of his country not existing. I mean, Molvania is still fictionally in Europe, yet Israel can perform and they're on the wrong continent! I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but if you have the chance to watch Eurovision, do so by all means. If not for the cultural experience then just for the sake of comedy.

Alien vs. Predator, with Sanaa Lathan and Lance Hendriksen. This movie wasn't as bad as all the critics had led me to believe. Granted, I wouldn't have wanted to go see it in a theater but it's not something unwatchable. That said, it could have been done better, but that comment hardly makes a movie bad these days. I think it should have taken place in the Aliens time period and not on modern day Earth, but maybe that's just me. They could have gotten rid of a lot of dumb little nits that way. I think if anything will bug you it's the accumulation of little dumb things, like how the girl is running around in Antarctica at night after taking her parka off and doesn't freeze to death. But then again, there aren't many scenes where you can see their breath anyway. Pretty much, if you don't mind the inconsistencies and don't pay too close attention to detail it's an enjoyable film, but nowhere near the level of either the "Aliens" or "Predator" movies.

Sex is Zero, with Ji-won Ha and Chang Jung Lim. My brother got an email from Amazon saying that since he bought Eurotrip, he might be interested in this movie too. Since he got me Eurotrip as a birthday gift I thought I'd check it out. The reviews said it was 5 times funnier than American Pie and equated it with Porky's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Evidently this person has either never seen this film or has never seen those films, because it's totally beyond me how any rational person could make that claim. The movie definitely tries to follow that format, but goes overboard in some places, crossing the line from funny/gross to just wrong. Like a supposedly funny scene where the main character eats rat poison. The more serious elements of the movie are really dark and not appropriate for a comedy at all. I may have missed the point or am just of the wrong culture, but damn this movie sucks.

Finally done with one of my least favorite courses ever. No more People, Power and Food ever again! I should be thankful that the course involved so little work that I could (and did) do all the work at the last minute.
In other news the weather is bright and sunny and beautiful here in Uppsala. Why just the other day it reached 68F (20C). Lovely day for a stroll in the park. It's amazing seeing how the entire city changes from winter to spring. Visibly it looks like the population of Uppsala doubled since people all want to be outside now. Plus, all the trees and bushes are sprouting leaves again. The parks are filled with pretty flowers that are causing so many allergies to so many people. So I suppose I have to thank desert broom for making me resistant to Swedish pollen, who knew that plant was useful? The Swedes are now all sunbathing in the parks, on their balconies and actually outside my very window. I wore shorts for the first time in eight months today, a nice refreshing change but it's still not hot enough where I would actually need them. Contrast with the Swedes who are fanning themselves and running for ice cream to cool themselves down. Remember, 68F is hot to them. I had worried that my time in Sweden had robbed me of my ability to tolerate heat, but thankfully not. When I was in Vilnius, the kitchen was maybe 80F (26C) and everyone was fanning themselves and rolling up their sleeves and saying how horribly hot it was. And then there's me and a girl from Israel who were totally fine.

Also, Feifei and I are evidently part of an unprecedented legal case involving a screw up with online airline tickets. It's going to take a long time, naturally, but if we win we get a partial refund. Plus unprecedented legal cases look nice on a law major's resume, I'd think, so hurray for Feifei.

Valborg was on Sunday, this big holiday celebrated all over Sweden by lighting bonfires and singing songs. Except in Uppsala, where the student town goes completely nuts and everyone roams the streets from dawn till dawn drinking and partying away. I've never seen anything like this in my life; so much alcohol, so many bottles littering the streets, such hedonistic indulgence, and all of it totally sanctioned by the municipality. To give you an idea on just how much alcohol is involved here let me quote a statistic: 25% of Systembolaget's (the Swedish government run liquor monopoly) annual sales happen the week before Valborg. 25% consumed on a single day. I did not drink nearly as much as all the Swedes claimed I inevitably would, which is good cuz I really like being able to remember all the things that happened and also not ending up in one of the ambulances we heard running through town all that day.

So here's a quick rundown of how this day plays out if you really want to enjoy it all: First you wake up nice and early and head on down to the Fyrisån so you can get a good spot for the forsränningen, an event where University students construct floats/rafts out of Styrofoam and balsa wood and float them down the river and try to survive the two waterfalls, the 2nd of which is bigger and more difficult than the first. Unfortunately we didn't see the 2nd one, but we did have a rather nice view at the 1st where we saw the weaker floats get obliterated. Also, during this time, one traditionally has champagne and strawberries for breakfast, known as the champagnefrukost, but time and space restrictions made us opt out of that one.
After the float race we headed back to Feifei's place so she and her friends could change for this semiformal lunch thing where all the Swedes have to wear their high school graduation caps. These little white caps btw are the cutest things in the world; damn stylish too, if our graduation caps looked like that I'd probably wear mine more often. The lunch was all Swedish food, which was great because aside from holidays the Swedes never eat the stuff. The Swedes don't seem fond of their traditional food, which is strange cuz I like it, but I'll save that analysis for another day. The main reason for having those little caps is that the Dean of Uppsala University gives a speech at the top of the hill at the main library, the Carolina Rediviva, where immediately after the speech the students fling their hats in the air (collecting them afterwards, presumably) then running down the hill in great haste to get to a nation for the champagnegalopp.
After the lunch we went back and changed clothes again to something we didn't mind getting drenched in champagne, then proceeded to a nation, Göteborg. And just as expected there was a lot of champagne going around with people shaking it up and spraying it on one another. There were champagne puddles on the ground and the air was so humidified with it you might get tipsy just breathing there. Aside from the obvious consequence of being really sticky afterwards, being sprayed was rather refreshing since it was so hot inside the building.

We went home to change once more, and afterwards we went to a barbeque and a corridor party, as is tradition. That was really fun, and people complimented me on my Swedish, specifically my lack of an American accent. That really made my day. There was one really obnoxiously drunk Swede who didn't seem to understand any English and was a total jackass. After that we went to an after party at one of the nations, but that sucked so we ended up going home. On the way back we surveyed the damage wrought by the day. A grassy field on the way back home was totally covered in garbage, it literally looked like a landfill. Amazingly though, I biked by there late the next day and it was almost cleaned up, though it was less miraculous when I saw the small army of garbage men cleaning it all, or the fact that just beyond where the garbage men stood was still a solid field of garbage.

All said, a wonderful time was had by all and it was a great introduction to Valborg. I've got to come back some time. Hot damn.