I, Robot with Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan. A fairly entertaining movie, though not necessarily a powerful or award winning one. I was already familiar with Isaac Asimov's story so the plot twists weren't as effective as perhaps they should have been. I did find it odd that the main character is obsessed with vintage items and is supposed to come across as cool. I dunno, maybe since retro is more cool now it will be even more so in the future. Or maybe someone wearing shoes from 2005 will be cooler in 2035 than someone wearing shoes from 1975 would be today. Avoiding the obvious analysis of how 2035 will probably look nothing like how it's portrayed in the movie, I have to wonder about those robots. The obsolete models were pretty cool looking, the new ones were just plain creepy, what kind of product design idea is that? And it would have been nice to see how the military made use of robot technology; if the civilian models can be powerful killing machines what would an actual killing robot be like?

Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron and Marton Csokas. I suspected that the confusion I felt while watching this movie stemmed from the fact that I knew nothing about the animated series that it was based upon. But after a quick investigation I learned that in the series the main character dies in half the episodes so there probably isn't anything I would have learned from it that would have shed light on the movie. I guess it's a pretty good film, all things considered. They weren't pretentious enough to think that the plot was substantial enough to make it a long movie. They went in, told the story and ended it with not much fluff or filler to bog it down. There were a lot of futuristic items and weapons that were just...weird. It's almost refreshing to see sci-fi movies that don't even care whether the technology they depict is possible or not. One thing I have to point out, though, why is it that in dystopian societies the police are always outfitted with armor that appears to made of glass? Come to think of it, if they had stayed true to the animated series and had Flux die at the end it would have made the movie that much better. The sheer novelty of the main character dying in an action movie would have made it much more note worthy, but I guess there are some things Hollywood movies just can't do. Oh, and Charlize Theron looks infinitely better than the drawn version of Aeon Flux.

Finally, a good reason to know art history:
Cute Dutch Girl: "Hi, I'm Saskia."
me: "Saskia. Wasn't that the name of Rembrandt's wife?"
CDG: "Yes! Wow. You're the first person to know that."

I've been noticing a lot of phrases in English are often pointed out as odd or improper despite their frequent use. For example, when someone tells us about some misfortune that has befallen them we say, "I'm sorry." But we (presumably) are not responsible for this event. Why should we apologize for something we didn't do? In Swedish, the reaction to bad news is "Jag är ledsen" or "I'm sad"; which makes more sense because the news is sad, but it isn't your fault.
Also, in English you say you know someone, which might give rise to the rhetorical question "How well can anyone truly know another?" In Swedish, the verb for knowing a person is "känner" which also means to sense or feel. It has less of an objective connotation; less of an implication that if you know someone you know all about them. Whereas if you "känner" someone you perceive them through your own senses, so one person might be perceived in many different ways. Though I suppose if you've "known" the person long enough and have spent a lot of time together, you might eventually actually start to know them. So maybe with that in mind, people a long time ago, back when Swedish and English were more closely related, decided that they would "know" everyone to make it sound more loving and friendly than "sensing" them.

And when I was at a corridor party last week, I met an American from Minnesota. He's a bit more like what a typical American college student is like and it turns out I have a class with him, so I'll be able to make some more observations. But the thing that got me was that he always says he's from America Not the US, or the States, or simply which state he's from. I find this a bit strange because hardly anyone calls it America without a pejorative connotation here. On several occasions I've heard it used as a synonym for stupid. Even the Americans seem to have an aversion to the word "America". I myself have avoided saying it because that instantly triggers the attack mechanism I mentioned before. I don't know if I've developed this on my own or absorbed it though the mental vibes of Europeans, but I now consider saying "America" to be like saying "I'm better than you." So it always slightly irks me when he declares he's from America (he also has a habit of speaking loudly, which might also be why it comes across in an obnoxious way. Europeans claim speaking loudly is typical of Americans, though I find the dumber Swedes do it too). Though there is something to be said for this connotation, namely you can tell off snotty Europeans by simply stating you are American in such a way that says, "Yes, in fact, I am better than you."

Moving right along on that note, my Swedish Society and Everyday Life class has a large number of Americans, more so than in any of my previous classes. During my stay in Sweden I've found it easy to go up to people in class or in clubs and strike up a conversation, something that would be very difficult for me to do back home. I thought that this was part of me growing and becoming more confident and comfortable around others. But no, it's not me. It's them. Trying to strike up a conversation with this group of Americans was just like trying to talk to frat boys and sorority girls back at the U of A. I might be from the same country, but I'm not one of them. This realization also put their choice of nations into perspective, they joined Värmlands and Stockholms, meat markets with the latter also known for being rather elitist. Sound like any college institutions we know? But I'm sure this reverse culture shock will be beneficial to my observations since now I can directly compare and contrast Swedish and American college life.

And finally, Word of the Day: stymied-An obstacle or obstruction. Also a verb: stymie-To thwart; stump.

BloodRayne with Kristanna Loken and Matthew Davis. It's a movie based on a video game, what do you expect? They really tried hard to put all the elements of a good movie into it but they didn't have the focus to pick just one, so it ended up failing at all of them. Good plot? Not so much; evil vampire lord must be killed by a society of vampire hunters. Good fight scenes? Would be if they didn't zoom in in a panicky kind of way every time she killed someone, I understand that her trademark is pouncing on them and biting their neck but I was kinda hoping for a nice fight scene with those giant sword/tonfas she has. The dialog was equally uninspiring, not quite the worst I've heard, but close. Not surprisingly, the only thing the movie has going for it is Kristanna Loken herself (she shows a lot more skin in this movie but I still think she was hotter in Terminator 3) and consequently one of the few notable parts in the movie is the rather abrupt sex scene between the two main characters which served as the only way to tell that there was supposed to be a romance between them. The ending was kind of sudden too; had kind of a Chronicles of Riddick feel to it, which didn't really make much sense. I've never played the games, so maybe it makes sense in that context, but I somehow doubt it. About all I can say is that I'm sure the game is much more fun than the movie but, honestly, that doesn't seem hard to do.

Equilibrium with Christian Bale and Sean Bean. I remember seeing this movie a few years ago and finding it so stupid that I walked out of the room. Later it seemed that everyone who had seen the movie loved it, so I decided to sit down and watch the whole thing through to see what was so great about it. And I want that hour and 45 minutes of my life back. It's an unoriginal dystopian plot where people take drugs to suppress emotion and anyone who doesn't comply with the totalitarian dictates of the society are hunted down and executed. 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 are but a few of the stories that this movie is influenced by. But I shouldn't be too harsh on unoriginality since sometimes people can take an old story and make it better, but sadly this was not so. The inconsistencies were just too big, they suppress emotions, then why do the people panic and shout and deliver speeches full of emotion? These people should be the easiest to spot but the elite agents sent to hunt down those with emotion don't seem to notice. The martial arts in this movie would be good if it wasn't just Christian Bale hitting and shooting people who don't fight back. The thing that makes these agents so deadly are their proficiency in martial arts, including gun kata, where one can learn to shoot everyone in a dark room because they know the statistically probable location of where everyone in that room is. Now if you go into a dark room and you know there's someone in there that you're going to shoot isn't there about a 1 in 180 chance (assuming this is only 2 dimensional and you're standing in the doorway) you'll hit them? Isn't that why the term "a shot in the dark" has meaning? They also know the probable trajectory of bullets and can dodge them using the powerful but effective technique of standing in the exact same spot while muzzle flash reveals your location. But the true strength of these agents lies not in their own training but the incorrect training of those they fight. Bale can kill an entire room full of snipers because rather than shooting him from a distance, they try to snipe him from an arms length away. And when the regular soldiers are smart enough to team up on him they surround him and let themselves get pistol whipped for a good minute without so much as throwing a punch.
To conclude, what the hell is wrong with you people? This is a bad movie, why do you watch it?

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. From the title and cover illustration I thought this might be some autobiographical account of college life, I was quite mistaken and pleasantly so. I really like this guy's style, and his observations are quite astute, shame he isn't an anthropologist. Given the depth with which he analyzes things I feel almost obligated to watch David Lynch's movies just so Wallace didn't write about him in vain. Maybe the title essay about Wallace's ocean cruise actually was the best or maybe I identified with it since I've been on a cruise myself. Also props to him for describing a person's voice as post-coital, an adjective I've never heard anyone else use and have been too afraid of misinterpretation to use it myself. I'd say that is the best part about Wallace, he describes things in a way you wouldn't have thought of, and in doing so describes them perfectly. You don't even have to have any experience with what he's talking about to get exactly the right feeling from his writing, but a common point of reference improves the reading experience infinitely.

The day before I went to Kiruna I went to Stockholm with Feifei to see a Rembrandt exhibition at the museum. Pretty cool stuff, it was interesting picking out the different translations to certain paintings or slogans. i.e. Memento mori was translated in Swedish as "Remember that you are mortal" the English translation was "Don't forget you must die."
We also went to the American Food Store to get some root beer, but all they had was diet root beer. It was vastly inadequate and a poor introduction for someone who's never tasted it before. Afterwards we had homemade Chinese dumplings with garlic sauce. Apparently they cut down on the garlic for me since Swedes cannot stand garlic at all. I impressed them by eating garlic at their level and they were in actual disbelief that I could handle it. I would likely not do that again however as it took a full 24 hours to get rid of my garlic breath (morning breath+garlic breath=ew²) I also impressed them with the correct use of chopsticks, yet another remarkable trait that I owe to my family. Excellent.

Kiruna was pretty cool, though not as frigidly cold as I had been warned. It was above freezing most of the time and I actually regarded it as pleasantly brisk. I went on a Northern Lights tour out to the forest many kilometers outside of Kiruna. We went by dog sled, which was pretty interesting, though the guy in charge of getting us to the campsite was not exactly the cheerful type and often got upset at us for not doing what he didn't tell us to do. The guy who was in charge of the campsite was friendly as can be, though. He prepared some tasty dishes of reindeer meat seasoned with none other than garlic,apparently the Norrlanders can handle the stuff a lot more than the rest of the Swedes. We went into the sauna a few hours later, the old-fashioned wood fire kind with no safety limit on the temperature. That was intense. I also tried the common Swedish practice of running out of the sauna and into the snow. I thought the severe temperature difference would be quite painful, similar to running out of a spa and jumping into a swimming pool, but it was quite pleasant. I was so hot I was literally steaming, (picture the Terminator when he first arrives).
After few more hours the once cloudy sky became completely clear and far from city lights the sky was full of stars. Around midnight the Northern Light appeared, and I have to say that it is one of the most underwhelming things I've ever seen. I'll post pics of it on Flickr. I checked the "fore"casts for the Northern Light and they said it was a pretty quiet time with little solar activity. Of course, by the laws of the Universe now that I'm gone there will be a magnificent Northern Lights display the likes of which will be talked about for years. I guess it's not fair to judge the Northern Lights on the crappy specimens I saw, just like it would be wrong to judge root beer by only tasting the diet version.
The trip back to Kiruna was interesting, sledding in the dark as part of a convoy of inexperienced sledders is quite a feat. And it was there I learned the difference between feeling numb and feeling like an amputee.

I was unable to go to the other two cities I wanted to visit due to a couple of factors: one, I couldn't visit two cities in opposite directions from Kiruna in the time allotted and two, the Norwegian transportation system sucks. I had always thought that Zeno's Paradox was something cooked up by an idiot trying to sound profound and had no practical application, but as it turns out this is the principle behind Norwegian buses. In order to get to Hammerfest, Norway from Kiruna I need to take the train to Narvik. Fair enough. To get from Narvik to Hammerfest I need to take a bus which can only take me halfway, to Tromsø. From there I must take another bus which can only take me to Alta, halfway in between. Unfortunately, I cannot take that bus, I must take the bus to Storslett, which is (surprise!) halfway in between. Each one of these towns will take a day, since starting traveling before 4PM is just plain silly, so I realized I couldn't possibly make it to Hammerfest in time, stayed in Tromsø awhile then began my trip home. Shame too, I was really looking forward to getting a Hammerfest T shirt.

My last day in Kiruna I visited the Icehotel, which was pretty impressive, despite my very incorrect mental image of it being a multi-story glimmering spire adorned with icicles. The inside is reminiscent of the Fortress of Solitude, or if real life had the obligatory ice level in video games. The chairs were pretty comfortable, amazingly enough.

Some other observations I made: -as pretty as Sweden is, geographically Norway kicks the crap out of Sweden. One word: fjords.
-Either red hair dye is really popular up north or there are a hell of a lot of redheads living there, like maybe every 9th person.
-I'm either going to continuously be bugged by people's views on the US or will have to learn to accept incredibly backhanded compliments. I'm still trying to define the look that people give me when they find out I'm American; perhaps one of surprise that I'm not Yosemite Sam, perhaps one of dismay as if I told them I was an assassin, perhaps one of disgust since they're assholes. I dunno, maybe all of the above.

Words of the Day: sylph-A slim, graceful woman or girl.
sunroll-(word invented by me) the phenomenon observable above the Arctic Circle during winter where the sun does not rise in the sky as it does elsewhere in the world but rolls across the horizon for a few hours producing what appears to be an incredibly long lasting sunset.

**And a small addendum that I promised myself I would mention: in Kiruna I stayed in the most awesomely named hostel ever: the STF Youth Hostel.

I can't make this post too long since I'm heading to Kiruna soon but I wanted to report on Lund and Malmö before I forget. Lund is Uppsala's main university rival, how this is possible is beyond me because Lund sucks big time. Could be because I was there when everything was closed and in the middle of a blizzard which cut down on my sight-seeing fun, but the town was just dull. I stayed one night then went to Malmö, which despite the blizzard was much more fun than Lund. People had told me that Malmö and Copenhagen are much colder than Uppsala, I figured they were just being babies since it shouldn't be colder in southern Sweden. But hoo boy it was, that coastal air made the cold wet and the wind cuts through you like a knife. I caught a cold from that damn place. Grr.
I was sadly unable to find Gunther's nightclub, so my tra-la-la remained untouched. The real nightclubs won't let you in unless you're 24 so I doubt I would've gotten in anyway.
I did learn something interesting in my travels though: I can safely say I'm from Arizona and people are intrigued and will have a nice chat with me but as soon as the words "The States" "America" or "The US" exit my mouth it triggers an attack mechanism in Europeans. They become haughty little bitches and make snide remarks like "American huh? So you like hamburgers then?" WTF mate? Everyone loves hamburgers. The Swedes, and other Europeans as well, eat their hamburgers with a knife and fork though. Losers.
In other news I failed the listening and writing Swedish tests which sucks immensely. It's a pass/fail system so I don't know how I did, just that it wasn't good enough. I get a massive sense of inferiority from this cuz all the Swedes speak perfect English (except in Göteborg where their English is merely really good) and the Germans pick up Swedish easily. My only solace is that I can still speak reasonably good Spanish even after years without practice. Which gives me a realization that that damn Swedish final wants me to be nearly fluent in Swedish after 4 months, I don't think it can be done.

Anyway I'll be back in a week, cross your fingers and hope there are some huge solar flares to make the Northern Lights spectacular.

Merry Christmas! God Jul! Most of the population is raised Christian so there's none of that Happy Holidays crap. Just good ol' Christmas.

And while not exactly the most jolly Christmas post, I couldn't find a fitting spot on the last post, so here you go. The bus trip across Sweden gave me time to catch up on my Nietzsche. His argument that most friendships are simply means of using people seemed pretty bleak. He makes some obvious examples of someone you befriend in class because they take much better notes than you do. When the class ends the friendship ends as well. OK that's pretty clearly a friendship where people are used. Another example was someone you play sports with: you cannot play without an opponent so you befriend them so you can play a game you enjoy. That's arguable, befriending someone as a means to make you happy seems like a pretty normal thing to. The last example of a friendship of using one another is when people pick friends that are like them or complement/compliment them. The claim is that subconsciously we pick them to make ourselves feel better, and thus the friendship is another means of utility.
Nietzsche suggests that a better friendship is based on mutual enjoyment; that you must actually like the person you play sports with or like your friends. But, aren't people then just befriending one another so they can enjoy each other's company? Seems just as bad as playing sports with someone so you can enjoy the game. The best friendship is one from mutual inspiration, where one befriends people who you see as better than you and seek to emulate their virtues. Again, being friends with someone in order to improve yourself seems similar to the friendship with the person who takes good notes. Nietzsche looks like he wasn't so much describing what does and doesn't make a friend but the difference between friends/acquaintances and your bestest best friend in the whole wide world. Looks like the only way not to end up using someone is to never have friends of any sort, which would be one sucky life. Alternately you could just not say "using each other" and making it sound so base and manipulative, but call it symbiosis. If you get really cynical about it, you can suck the joy out of pretty much everything.
After all, Christmas is nothing but celebrating the birthday of the founder of a intolerant religion with a history of terrible violence and cruelty. But that isn't going to stop me from enjoying it. It's snowing! The first white Christmas I've ever seen, I finally can try out my new parka. Later everyone, spend some quality time with your friends (screw Nietzschean cynicism!) and family. Hejdå!

Back from my first trip, Göteborg was quite fun. The town was not at its most fun since it was so close to Christmas and everyone was going home and shops closed early. Still there were plenty of fun things to do; I went to the Liseberg amusement park where they put Christmas lights on pretty much everything. It was really beautiful. The camera doesn't work too well at night though, so there weren't many good pics.
There's a debate as to whether Stockholm or Göteborg is better, I don't know I only saw a small part of Stockholm, though it was awesome but I saw lots of Göteborg which was pretty cool, but also the slowest time of the year. There's an avenue with nightclubs and restaurants and I swear every place that was open had a bouncer. And since when does Hard Rock Cafe have bouncers? They're a restaurant!
As much as I enjoy traveling with a group of friends, just wandering around and doing things at my own pace and going off on a whim was really fun. I found these little mountains that offered a wonderful view of the whole city, and they were pristine, not what I would imagine one would find in the middle of a city at all.

I gotta say, some of the best parts about Göteborg are the street signs:

"Warning: Do not grab hands reaching out of the ice!" Nothing inherently funny about that sign, but it reminded me of the warnings on high voltage equipment that led one to believe that an evil electrical octopus would be released if you touched the machine.



For the safety of the pedestrians, trams must display the current emotion of the driver. In this case it is advisable to get the hell out of the way.






Beware of ass grabbers!
OR
Sweden is so supportive of same sex parents they have their own designated walkway.








I'm sure it means something like Baby Seal Street in Swedish.








heeheehee. Childish? Yes, but you laughed too.











And lastly, there's a traditional Christmas soda in Sweden called Julmust. Everyone loves it so much, and I like it too. Thing is, it tastes exactly like Dr. Pepper but they hate Dr. Pepper here. Silly Swedes. Now the question is, does diet Julmust taste just like regular Julmust?

OK, I'm going to largely be out of town for the next few weeks exploring Sweden. Here's the game plan: tomorrow I take the bus to Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden, see what there is to see and come back for Christmas (which is the 24th, cuz the Swedes don't know what day Christmas is supposed to be) and have a Swedish Christmas with the other exchange students at one of the nations. Then I go south to Malmö and Lund. I hope to see the twisting torso building and Günther's nightclub and Lund University, Uppsala's rival. If I get bored I might go to Copenhagen. Then I come back to Uppsala for New Year's. A one day trip to Stockholm after that and on January 3rd I'll fly to Kiruna, way the hell up north in the land Sweden forgot. I'll be up there until the 11th, hopefully I'll see the northern lights. I want to see what 24 hour darkness looks like but supposedly there's still a half hour of sun. Damn. Anyway, if you can't get in touch with me, that's probably why.

And before I go, another weirdness about Sweden: We were planning another movie night and the thing that people were all hung up on was the food. They were reluctant to have a movie night because they didn't want to cook something big. So the suggestion was that they just cook a 1 course dinner and then make a dessert. Incredulous, I suggested we just get a pizza instead of doing all that work. They looked at each other and said, "Hey, that's not a bad idea." The fact that they didn't even consider that baffles me. I suspect the Swedes don't like movie nights as much as Americans.

Finns are odd, here is a colloquial expression for "in the beginning of time": "First there was a swamp, a hoe and Jussi." Don't ask, I don't get it either.

I've been going out nearly every day to see if I can get a good pic of the sunset. Most of them have been utterly boring, the sun just goes below the horizon without any spectacular farewell. Today was different though, this one is worthy of being an Arizona sunset. Still, this is the best Sweden can offer and it's average by Tucson standards.

Incidentally I took this pic at exactly 3PM.

Swedes don't seem to enjoy enforcing or obeying rules, too stuffy for them I guess. The copyright protection warning on DVD's says that the office in charge of such things is in Stockholm, yet file sharing is a way of life here. There's a spot where I park my bike when I go to class that says no bicycle parking allowed yet it is surrounded by parked bikes and the sign post itself is used to secure bikes from theft. Driving with one's bike lights off at night it a ticketable offense, yet I'd say easily 90% of the people ride with no lights on. Refunds at grocery stores are not allowed (perhaps a wise policy considering the blatant abuse of that privilege at Sunflower Market) but I sure enough returned something. Why even bother having the rules if nothing happens when you break them?

Word of the Day: genuflect-To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship. To be servilely respectful or deferential; grovel.

It is unfortunate that Americans are so unbelievably stupid and totally ignorant about everything in the world. I was understandably reluctant to believe this, of course but after spending time outside the US I must arrive at the inevitable conclusion that, without exception, all Americans are morons. I was having a discussion with a Persian about Afghanistan and the topic moved into specific geographic details. My knowledge in this area was limited and he pointed out "Aha so it is true that Americans don't know anything about geography!" Sadly so, I mean this guy comes from a country that borders Afghanistan, he was stationed there in the military and his major is Middle Eastern studies and even he knows more about the geography of Afghanistan than I do! Surely I have a deficient education.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Americans don't even know basic facts about their own country. For example, most Americans don't know this but Arizona is very close to North Carolina and borders Louisiana. Also, the state is completely flat and is completely devoid of all plant life, resembling the Gobi desert. The myth that there are mountains or plentiful cacti is a testament to American ignorance. The 100 mile long state has only two cities, Phoenix and Tucson, which are on the northern and southernmost borders, respectively.
We are even totally oblivious as to how our government is set up, apparently (I did not know this until I was kindly enlightened by a European) the US has a parliamentary system where we elect people to elect the president. Contrast this with the false notion taught in our schools that the legislative and executive branches are elected by the people and independently of one another.
So thank you kind peoples of the world for showing me how truly backwards we really are. I will ride a giant condor back home to my clay hut in Tucson and, through a series of grunts and crude drawings in the sand, enlighten others in the ways of the world.

Maybe this post was over the top, maybe not. I'll let you decide.

Riddle me this: how is it even possible that no Swedish video store carries the original Star Wars trilogy? Not a one. And it wasn't like they were all checked out, they didn't have them in stock. And yet they have the Indiana Jones trilogy and movies I would never expect in Europe, like Eurotrip. Just let that swish around in your head a bit. What video store doesn't carry Star Wars? We ended up borrowing the DVD's from a Star Wars freak at our nation and they said that they haven't carried them in video stores in Sweden since 1995. Some Swede is in dire need of a swift kick in the ass for that one.
So we had a nice Star Wars movie marathon, complete with Swedish subtitles. They were interesting but also a bit of a let down. No backwards Swedish for Yoda, and "you must forget what you have learned" just doesn't sound as mystical as "unlearn." Nörf herder was pretty funny though. Beware the mörk side of Kraften!

OK this post is just random bits I'll forget if I don't post them.

Why girls are more fun at parties than guys-
Girl: "We were just discussing oral sex and would like your opinion..."
vs.
Guy: "You know what America's problem is?"

Why Blogger is great: Remembering I wrote an analytical book review on my blog, I then used that as a starting point on an essay on said book, saving me time and effort. It's like procrastinating in reverse.

Apparently in the Swedish military the Commander in Chief (or the Swedish equivalent) does not have the authority to order enlisted personnel to go anywhere. If they don't want to go to Afghanistan, they don't have to. Now, I suppose if your country hasn't been at war in 200 years you can pull that off, but good lord man! What good is a military if you can't order them around?

Also, in Sweden finals are never final. You can take infinite redo's until you pass. Supposedly law students can take up to a year to pass their final. Methinks the Swedes are too forgiving for their own good.

I have been told by people (girls) that the belief that Swedish women are so easy you can successfully proposition them in clubs is false. I was reluctant to believe it myself at first and I certainly never had the balls to try it, but I found out tonight it is true. The following is a dialog I heard first hand:
*guy whispers something in very Swedish looking girl's ear*
Girl: Of course I'll have sex with you!
(I think my impeccable sense of right and wrong might be getting in the way of me having fun.)

Miranda. A new IM program that is really small since there are no ads built in. But the best part is that it allows you to IM people on AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and more.

Words of the Day: Defenestration-the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
hurdy gurdy-a Swedish musical instrument of the 18th century that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs. (say it like the Swedish Chef)

I hate what the American education system has done with teaching languages, that is to say NOTHING! I hate the fact that for some reason actually learning language is not mandatory. The classes are required to graduate but there is no actual requirement to learn. Spanish is considered a dirty language so no intellectuals ever actually take the class, which means even in Spanish 4 there are still morons whom you can't ever practice Spanish with. French class is better, or at least every person I know who took French knows it remarkably well. And yet Americans are still rarely fluent in a language besides English. Everyone else in the world speaks more languages than we do.
The Germans obviously have an innate advantage over me when learning Swedish since the two languages are about as close as Spanish and Portuguese. Moreover, I hate that the Swedes are so patronizing to me cuz I can't speak Swedish. When I was at a gasque, they were playing some Jeopardy game and someone told them to speak in English since there was someone who didn't speak Swedish. I was the ONLY person that didn't, so they had to make everything harder for everyone in the room just cuz I was there. They say that's cuz it's rude to speak in a language that someone doesn't understand, I see it as when you're in PE and you step up to bat and everyone in the field moves in. Would it be rude of them not to accommodate for your lesser ability?
They also say it's easy for Swedes to learn English, so why doesn't it work the other way around? Because everything on the TV, radio or computer is in English, it's constantly forced down your throat and you learn it practically in utero. It's not easy, you just have a 10 year head start, which is evidenced by the fact that I am as good at Swedish as a 4 year old. Also, whatever they're teaching us it's not what people actually say. So if I'm expecting "Hello, how are you?" I'll likely get "Sup homie G?" then they'll wonder why I haven't learned anything.

This post brought to you by the panic of not understanding Swedish speech 24 hours before my final.

As I had mentioned previously, there are some striking differences between Swedish and American societies that seem really alien to me. The first one I encountered is the Swedish belief in absolute equality; no one is better than anyone else and no one should get preferential treatment. This is deeply ingrained in their society, for example they have paternity leave (which I am totally for, btw) and the question "How do you feel?" must be answered "I feel good." and not "I am good." The latter implies that you are prideful, that by being good you are better than others. Somewhat silly but the absolute equality idea is still a sweet one. The problem arises when you put this into the educational system. In Swedish high schools there are no (or at least extremely few) advanced classes for students. No GATE, no Honors, no AP. Now most of the people I know back home are veterans of those kind of classes, imagine having to be in the same classes with people who don't know how many sides a triangle has. I don't mean to sound arrogant (which is even worse in Sweden than it is in the US) but for most AP students being in all the same classes as everyone else is almost like being held back a grade. I understand everyone is created equal but it's what happens after creation that sets people apart. Some people are better at math than others, some at writing, languages, history you name it, this is an accepted fact of life in the US. If these people aren't challenged then their potential is squandered. What would the Swedes do? "Easy with those equations there Mr. Einstein, you're making the rest of us look bad." I guess that's also why their high schools aren't very cliquish, everyone is trained to think everyone is equal.

The other difference is in etiquette. When you are invited to a private dinner at someone's house you are expected to compensate the host. Among students it is customary to pay the host the amount of money spent on food and drink divided by the number of people. Among adults the guests commonly bring a gift, it is in fact very rude not to. Now, in the US asking your guests for money is really rude, after all being a good host is about generosity and hospitality. Guests can always bring gifts, but it's not mandatory to do so. These differences collided at Thanksgiving when, after dinner, my co-host wanted to know how much I spent on groceries so I could be adequately compensated. I stopped short of insisting that I didn't want his money, since I wasn't sure what that might imply in Swedish culture. He ended up giving me a relatively small 30kr, but my guests paying me for dinner, especially Thanksgiving, just seemed wrong. Apparently not paying me would have felt equally wrong to the Swedes, sort of like taking advantage of my hospitality. There's a potential for some real cultural misunderstandings there.
To contrast those two with a third culture's etiquette, in Morocco the host is incredibly generous to the guests; catering to their every need with lavish food, drink and entertainment. No gifts or money ever changes hands BUT the guests must later throw an equal or greater party sometime in the future. If they do not then the host, with his generosity, gains favor with Allah and sort of owns a part of his guests' souls in the afterlife.

Amazing how time flies, we're almost at the end of the semester. Good thing I decided to stay for a year, I'm just getting settled in. Only problem now is that now finals are looming and I'm sweating every one of them. I can BS my way through my Cultures and Armed Conflicts written final, but 10 pages of BS is still a challenge, I might have to throw facts in there just to be safe. My Peoples of the Baltic paper is unfortunately BS proof and I have to defend it against the entire class. The worst one of all is my Swedish final; I'm confident enough in my ability to read, write and speak Swedish but listening and answering questions from a recording is downright impossible. It's all Bork Bork Bork! to me. Combine that with the recent falling out I had with a good friend of mine and it's stress by the truckload.
In lighter news, it's started to snow. And I mean really snow (not that a Tucsonan has any concept of 'real' snow) my bike is now covered in several inches of it. It makes everything really pretty and I had my first snowball fight in I don't know how many years. I also went to the adventsfika on Sunday, which was very fun. Swedish pastries and sweets, traditional songs (as well as very American songs through the speakers) and glögg. It's so much better than the stuff back home, no wonder the Swedes like it.
I'm also investigating some odd differences between Swedish and American culture, I'll post my findings sometime soon. Hopefully I'll be in the clear with my studies by then.

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, and what a magical thing it was. My nation cancelled the Thanksgiving dinner and no one, American or otherwise, seemed to really give a damn so I took it upon myself to save it. At first it was going to be me and a Swedish friend of mine cooking the meal together. He had to buy a lot of stuff before he got to my place so the majority of the cooking was done by me alone. Now, cooking is supposed to involve experimentations and testing and all that good stuff, and the dinner turned out great in the end, but I still don't think an ambassadorial Thanksgiving is the best time for a trial by fire. No Americans were there except me and none of them had ever had a Thanksgiving before so I could have gotten away with a lot. None of them had ever seen a turkey and our assistant cook (who shall be known as the Swedish Chef) was making the cranberry sauce but had no idea how cranberries were supposed to taste. Again, it turned out fantastic, as did his pecan pie (which he also had no idea of how it was supposed to taste).
The concept of Thanksgiving seemed a little alien to them. Not surprising, considering that at the gasques they serve food in small quantities over a long period of time (the local solution to this is to eat an entire pizza before going to dinner). The abundance of food, the fact that you cannot eat it all, is what the holiday is all about. I also mentioned the side effect of turkey is sleepiness; they laughed at me and said if they got tired it would simply be from the wine or eating so much. Needless to say, hours later my guests were lethargically collapsed at the table, reminiscent of a Dali painting. This was indisputable proof that it was a good Thanksgiving!

and the best Thanksgiving quote: "Have fun decomposing!"

Swedish has some uncanny similarities to Spanish when you look at the words. All Spanish verbs end with 'ar', 'er' or 'ir'. Most Swedish verbs end with 'ar', 'er' or 'ir' as well, and the ones that don't still follow the vowel-r pattern. The present participle (aka the -ing form) in Spanish is "ando" or "iendo"in Swedish it's "ande" or "ende". Those are the only striking grammatical similarities I can think of at the moment, but I find that if you take some Swedish words "roligaste" for example, without any context, it looks like Spanish.
This makes me wonder if the similarities are analogous or homologous, after all Swedish is Germanic while Spanish is Romantic, but both Germanic and Latin originated from the same Indo-European precursor language. Suppose both civilizations just kept some vestiges of the original language? Or are they just coincidences?

So the other day I'm out at one of the nations dressed to impress. New shirt, new pants, cologne, the works. I'm having a good time, and as I'm standing by the bar about to order a drink I notice a cute girl walk up a few feet to my left. She looks at me, then slides up to my side and whispers in my ear...

"You have chewing gum on your butt."

Sure enough there was a nice bright white piece of gum smashed into my new black pants. I had considered leaving before then, but quickly departed after that, hands behind my back discreetly trying to cover my ass. Considering how long it had been since I sat down it must have been there for a good hour or so. At least she was nice enough to point it out...


Fun Swedish words: arg-angry
sicksackmönster-zigzag pattern

The 40 Year Old Virgin with Steve Carell and Catherine Keener. I really wanted to see this before I left for Sweden but I was unable to. Thankfully, the Swedes don't really care about the "alternative methods" of getting this film. Judging from the trailer there seem to be a lot of deleted scenes, perhaps this is good, perhaps not. I liked this movie quite a bit, I'm surprised the premise hasn't been done a long time ago, but I don't think it could've been done without the genius of Steve Carell. Considering it's an awkward sex comedy it's surprisingly not very crass, they could have made it really bad. Lately I've been analyzing movies on how realistically they portray aspects of American society, mostly because I keep getting asked about it. The main characters seem pretty realistic in that regard, oddly enough a 40 year old virgin doesn't seem that far fetched to me. Not a particularly profound movie but definitely an enjoyable one. Also, one thing about this film that definitely needs to be mentioned: Holy Christ! Kat Dennings is the hottest girl ever!

National anthems of all countries. Pretty cool, ours is the best.

In Sweden, and I gather most of Europe as well, patriotism is seen as a bad thing. They only play their national anthem on the king's birthday or on big holidays and the Swedish flag is hardly seen anywhere. Contrast with the US flag being flown at every public school, in some people's backyards, in front of McDonald's etc. We sing the national anthem at all major sporting events, in high school before assemblies and in the days before 24 hour television it was the 1st thing they played before regular broadcasts. Up until high school we recited the Pledge of Allegiance every day in the morning and in elementary school it was often followed by a random student's selection of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", "America The Beautiful" or "The Star Spangled Banner". This constant demonstration of loyalty seems scary to Europeans and Feifei said it was reminiscent of Red China. We just take it for granted, I mean do you even have to think about the words to the Pledge? I don't even think it's creepy that we have this in common with a communist dictatorship, more like "good for them."

Another funny thing, apparently American commercials are very effective against those who have not been exposed to them before. They said it was like subliminal mind control and they found it difficult to turn the program off. The closest I've ever been to being compelled by a commercial is my strong desire to eat a tender crisp bacon cheddar ranch. Mmmm...

Mean Girls with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. I had planned on watching this for quite some time now, it's been highly recommended by pretty much everyone that's seen it, but finally decided to watch it now since the Swedes base their knowledge of American high schools on this movie. I have to say it's accurate in many respects; being easily ignored and a good listener I was privy to many instances evil gossip. The seating arrangements at lunch is spot on, only at Sabino the layout was very linear when it came to social castes. The most popular people were in the cafeteria building itself and people became less popular the further south you went from the cafeteria.
Any analysis of this movie is going to require some spoilers, so be warned. Not that teen movies are known for their shocking plot twists, but still...
Anyway, watching the movie I felt numerous parallels to Revenge of the Sith, only this time Darth Vader gets back together with Padme (now there's an image). I was a little bugged by the fact that they kept making a big deal about how no one really likes the Plastics and how it's all in their heads, only to have everyone love Lohan's character at the end. I guess it can't be helped, but still just once I'd like to see a movie like this play out like a Greek tragedy. Or maybe I'd just like to see that happen to the people in real life. Wait 10 years I suppose.
For all their effort towards realism -the movie is based on a guide to high school- how the hell did they make all the popular girls assimilate into other cliques? Maybe that's how things work in Sweden, but not in the US, no way. All that back-stabbing, elitism and superficiality, I almost miss high school, almost. Supposedly the Swedish teen movies are all dark and angsty. I'll have to get around to seeing those, should be one hell of a comparison. One big thing I have to mention, I haven't seen Swedish high schools, so I don't know if they have dress codes or not, but the girls in this movie would've been yanked out of class in a second. Girls in the US do dress like that, just not in school, despite their best efforts.
Overall, I'd say the Swedes are getting a pretty good look at US high school life, minus the obvious movie fluff. I had been asked what prom was really like, the locals assumed that was hyped up for the movies and they weren't really that glamorous. Strangely enough they are, but is that because the movies base them on real proms or do high schools base their proms off movies? Hmmm...