Holy-Jesus-Sonofabitch-Bastard.

I'm of course referring to the numbing temperatures of the great Swedish North. Hells bells! Way below freezing, and frickin' snow. In November. I'll get back to that last sentence in a while.

So the time came for my air traffic controller buddy to move. To Arvidsjaur. So me and another friend decided to go with him, since we hadn't really been that far up in Sweden before. Off we went. We first took the train from Lund to a town called Halmstad, where we picked the movee up. Then onto Gothenburg and the night train that would take us up north proper. 20 hours later, we arrived in Jörn. What's Jörn, you ask? I honestly couldn't tell you, apart from the fact that they have an evangelical church there.

Anywho, we then got on the bus. And an hour later we had arrived. The entire journey took 24 freaking hours. Arvidsjaur is a small town by my standards, pretty large by local ones. 4000 inhabitants, it's also where the Germans come to flip cars in the snow. And there was snow. I'd been told that the snow wouldn't come until much later in the year. Apparently, anything below two feet is not proper snow. Last year they had a total of 20 feet of snow fall during the winter. I wasn't impressed until I realized that in contrast to my neck of the woods, the snow doesn't melt within a couple of day. Luckily I'd brought my big coat, so I didn't freeze. Had to buy new footwear though. Hiking-boot-like-very-grippy sort of thing.

And yeah. The Holy-Jesus-sonofabitch-bastard thing. It was so fricking cold! My beard froze. I actually had ice in my beard! And the locals would laugh to themselves at the southerners who didn't wear long-johns. One man looked at us and said that we looked as if we were going on a polar expedition. I wanted to smack him and point out that we were already on said expedition, but I kept my mouth shut. They're all hunters, you see. They have guns.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad, I had a good time and learned many a new thing about this long country. For example everyone has floodlights on their cars. And there are plug-ins at every parking space so you can heat up the engine. And mailboxes are all mounted on wooden stands that can be placed on top of all the snow. And of course the guns. And the snowmobiles. It was all very different.

Anywho, I came back home last week, longing for the damp, windy, and chilly fall of Skåne. And I was not dissapointed. Upon leaving the trainstation, it started raining.

Here's the kicker. We'd been going on about how the north was weird, with snow in November. Last Friday, it started snowing like hell down here. I slipped outside my building and ripped a pair of pants beyond repair. It sucks. The normal order has been restored now though.

Which brings me back to school. I'm gonna play the sonofabitch-bastard card again. They're working my ass of here. Right after arriving back in the land of the living, I decided to head to school instead of going home to get some sleeping. And yay, what followed in school was one of the most taxing assignments yet.

You see, we had what they call a "crisis-exercise" in which we were handed over to a team of people from various branches of government. They told us that Belarus had invaded Latvia, and that NATO and Sweden were going over there to help them. Our job was to act like a newsroom and write and edit articles on the subject, all while new "news" emerged on a regular basis. We had six hours, and the stories kept coming up until the very end of the exercise. Very stressful.

Then on monday this week it was time for the next assignment. The teachers assigned each of us 25 articles to write in four days. And I'm just now getting finished. I'm tired as hell. They do work us really hard, but you know what? I don't really mind. Sure, sometimes I'd like nothing better than to hear that the teachers had accidentally all impaled themselves on pitchforks, but on the whole, I'm pretty comfortable here.

And I haven't even considered that I might be in the wrong place, which is usually my natural reaction to stress... So I guess I'm actually in the right place, for once...

Following are some photos I took while in Arvidsjaur:


Origin and destination of the journey marked by arrows, and the route.


Me at around 2:30 PM. Snow. Lots of snow...

Be sure to check out

My boys' new songs on his MySpace page. They are really great, and give a taste of the self-produced cd that will be done soon, and available for anyone who's interested. I'm even singing back up on a few of them, although I'm not on any on the ones on MySpace.

Score!

You all know what I'm talking about. Congrats to all of the American readers (or readers residing in the U.S.). To all of us really. Ok, he's no Messiah, he's a normal guy. But still. I'm happy.

Election election election

So, life goes on. I'm working at the university and I am happy with it. It's a good job, pays pretty OK, the people here are great ... at my other jobs I've had to deal with racist, homofobic comments (not directed at me, but bothering me), and there is nothing like that here.

I'm watching "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart a lot. He is my new God. He's very funny and good at pinpointing exactly where the absurdity in American politics lies, or politics in general I should say. Although right now it's mostly about the American of course. I've heard something about there being some sort of election soon ...? If you don't have Comedy Central, you can watch the episodes for free on their website.

When it comes to the election, I must say I've been extra interested this year. Maybe it's because it feels like the good guy actually has a chance this time. I may have thought that Kerry had a chance four years ago, which he hadn't, so maybe it's just me kidding myself. On election night (which is actually night here, not evening) I'll be glued to the TV, watching our Swedish channels' coverage (two different Swedish channels are covering it, which they don't do with any other foreign elections to my knowledge) and BBC World, which is a channel I'm happy is included in our basic cable. Me and the mother are planning to sit through as much as we can, even if the results probably won't be clear until 8 a.m. our time. If it doesn't flip out like in 2000. The plan is to have an American theme, so I'll be going to this store that imports American brands which are not that common in the common food stores here. Maybe some mac and cheese? I dunno, but I'll say this: I'm happy that I get to decide my working hours myself, so that I can get at least some sleep after the whole thing.

Hope you're all going to vote - it's annoying as hell that I can't, haha.

Peace out.

Two intense days

So I'm back from my little trip to Stockholm. As you may have read below, I went with a friend to Stockholm to see Coldplay. We took the bus from Malmö at about 10 p.m., and then slept through almost all of the eight hours it takes to get there. I had been kind of worried about being able to sleep, especially since we had a LONG day ahead of us after arriving in the big city, but it was quite ok. I mean, it wasn't like sleeping in a king size with high thread count-sheets, but it was ok. The only time I woke up was when the bus left the high way to pick up and drop off passengers, which happened three times in the cities Helsingborg, Jönköping and Linköping.

We woke up just as we started coming into Stockholm. There's about one million people living there, and it's spread out a fair bit. What struck me was all the new-looing malls and shopping cnetres everywhere. Car dealerships and H&M:s and everything you can think of, many times over before we got to the central station in Stockholm (train and bus that is). I wonder what's gonna happen with all that if the economy keeps acting like it has been.

Anyway, after arriving in the middle of Stockholm, bright and early in the morning (about 6:30 a.m.), I opted to pay for the cab to our hotel since we don't really know the area and were not jumping up and down at the thought of walking for half an hour with our bags (yes, we did of course have quite a bit of lugage even though the trip was only two days long). Plus, it was my friend's (Hanna for those of you who know her) 25th birthday. I had secretly changed out reservations from the half-crappy hostel we were supposed to live in, to a nicer hotel with a balcony and real bathroom and a nice breakfast buffe. So when the taxi arrived at the hotel Hanna started saying that this can't be the right place, and my plan to tell her about the surprise was a bit cut off. For some reason, I hadn't thought she'd say much, since I was the one in charge of all the arrangements anyway, haha. But she was very happy and thanked me much.

Since we couldn't check in that early (apparently, check in nowadays in Sweden is at 2 p.m. at the earliest!), we just left our bags and freshened up a bit, and then strolled down towards the central parts of the city again. It was still quite early, but there was still people out. Sometimes I think Swedes have some perverse thing with getting up early. But it served us well since we needed to get some breakfast. I actually had coffee, which is not common for me, I usually don't like it at all. But I thought I was gonna need it. It felt like when you've been on a plane over the Atlantic for eight hours and you have to stay up a while longer to avoid jet lag - only this time we had about 18 hours to go until bedtime.

After spotting at least one celebrity (they are fairly concentrated to Stockholm) and doing some shopping (the birthday girl did more than me, I'm kinda broke this month, waiting for my first pay check from the university that will arrive in the end of the month). I realized I'm not the biggest fan of snooty shop-people, who seem to be a lot more common in this city than in Malmö. I don't know if I'm being paranoid, or maybe they reacted to my accent, which is a southern one, and even if it isn't ridiculed as much as the southern US-accent, it still gets a fair bit of grief for not being pretty enought. We ate som lunch, but I had trouble sustaining my apetite, since my nerves were reminding me that I was going to get to see my favourite band soon. It's weird, I get kind of teenagy when it comes to Coldplay. More about that later.

After buying some bubbly and other alcoholic beverages we went back to the hotel and checked in. By then my feet were getting sore from all the walking, and I realized it had been stupid to not bring two pairs of shoes. Thank god I did that. We got to chill for a while, showered, made ourselves pretty and then left again, this time on the subway. Arriving at the Globe Arena, which is about 15 minutes on the tube from where we were, we realized that our planning to be there early to get a good spot was not all that thought through. A lot of people had thought the same thing, only arrived even earlier. The supporting act (Albert Hammond Jr. from the U.S. and the band The Strokes) was to begin at 7.30 p.m. and it was now about 5 p.m., and there was already a huge line in front of the doors. So we stood there, a bit cold, eating some chips and drinking some soda mixed with some of the above mentioned beverage, but not really getting the result we had planned on. It was kind of cold and people in line didn't seem to be in a party mood. And, they all seemed younger than us. Almost anyway.

There was the usual British (why always British) guys selling bootlegs, t-shirts and ear-plugs (which we actually got some, but late ron realized we really didn't need. It didn't feel as disturbingly loud as it sometimes does at these things). When they started letting us in, we took a few more quick sipps of our drink and put it with all the other trash that had accumulated by then (McDonalds-rappers and bits of food, cups, newspapers etc.). Getting into the arena, we realized that we still had a good chance to get fairly close to the stage, which we we're doubting when we saw the long line outside. And after what felt like hours and hours of waiting, we finally got to see the best band in the world. Two glorious hours, which contained beautiful music, screaming fans (including me of course), sweating, more screaming, confetti in the form of butterflies all over the part of the audience that was right in front of stage (including me) and much much more. I again felt kind of old standing there. Even if I could see people that were my age or older, almost everyone seemed to be about 18 or so, or younger. I wonder if I'm liking a band whose fans see them more as the Backstreet Boys or something. Not that I listened to them when I was 18. But still, it feels strange. One of the explanations is that at the concert, you can either get seats (all around the arena, up high) or standing ticket, which means you pay a bit more and don't get to sit down, but you get to see the band a bit more up close and dance and scream without feeling like you're disturbing the people around you. It seemed as if most of the adults where choosing to get to sit down in real seats, even if a lot of them stood a lot. But I like being down there in the sweat and the screaming. Just in the case of Coldplay and maybe a few other music acts. Not with every concert I go to.

So, after Chris Martin (singer) seemed chocked by the loud singing from the auidence on the very popular song "Fix You" from 2005, and more confetti, and extra acts and all of this other great amazing stuff that I'm beginning to forget already, we bought our t-shirts, got our coats, went on the tube again, ate some McDonalds (again my apetite wasn't really there, this time for different but related reasons), we arrived back at our hotel at 1 a.m. It was a long time since I slept that well, being sooo tired by then.

And one great hotel breakfast, shower and one last tube trip back to the central station later, Hanna and me were back on the bus, this time at 11 a.m. It was full, and we were bored almost the entire time, even though we got to see some parts of Sweden I haven't seen before and I got to read trashy paparazzi-picture-filled magazines and read a nice review of the concert in that days paper. Trying to stay happy, happy for the wonderful experience that was the night before, I - whilst listening almost exlusively to different Coldplay albums in my mp3-player - started to become more and more sad. It's stupid, but just as the las time when Hanna and I saw them perform in Copenhagen three years ago, I get this anti-climactic feeling, where it's like - "Ok, so this was so fantastic, but now you don't get to experience it again for at least a couple of years". And it's so short. We spent all this time travelling, spending all this money on the trip and the hotel (althought that was a fun gift I guess), for a bit less than two hours of bliss. And it's not like I regret it at all. I loved it. But I'm still kind of sad.

Sorry for a very long rant, and the half-depressing ending. I must say, I love the fact that there are about 20 clips on YouTube already, with videos from that night. And not all of them such when it comes to quality. It makes it all a bit easier, to be able to watch it again. And again.

So, how old am I exactly? 16? or 25?

Backstage at Lund university

So, here I am, on the "other side" of the university. I've been in Lund for almost six years total, and being on the working rather than the studying side of it is different. It's fun, it's interesting, it's making me panic some times (it usually goes "I'm not smart enought for this, what are they thinking?" They being the people who hired me). But it's like seeing everything behind the scenes for the first times. What do the teatchers and professors actually do all day? What do they say about the students? Are they hard workers? Etc.

What's great is that it doesn't seem to be your run of the mill academics here. We're a small departement, one of the smallest in the university actually (and there are a few), so we're kind of in an underdog position, which seems to make people nicer and more down to earth generally. They're not all know-it-alls who only want to make tenure and rise to the top, even if some of them have done those things, of course.

If I could get rid of the panic-thing, I'd be very satisfied with the job so far. And I guess I just have to dive right into it and believe in the fact that I'll learn everything I need to know along the way. Right?

Other than having a new job that takes up most of my time and thinking power, I'll try to report on other stuff going on here too. Me and my BFF from first grade, Hanna, are going to our nations capitol Stockholm next week, to see our favorite band Coldplay. It's no where near as far away as the northern town where Mats is going, but since we're cheap/poor we've decided to take the bus, which makes the trip nine hous long. By train I think it's about five hours. The plan is to take the bus on Wednesday the 17th, at ten p.m. Then we're supposed to sleep, or try to sleep, on the bus. First I was kind of bummed that I wouldn't get to see very much of our beautiful countryside since we'll be travelling in the dark, but then I realized that it's mostly just pine woods anyway, which all looks the same and gets a bit boring after a while.

We'll arrive in the very center of the city at 6.30 a.m., and then, since the hostel doesn't allow check-in until 3 p.m. (what's that all about? It seems to be like that all over the hostels and hotels in Sweden nowadays), we're gonna have to do some sightseen or shopping of whatever until we can go and rest for a few seconds, grab a shower and then head out to where the consert is, which is a bit outside of the real city center. The Globe arena is where they're playing, and I've actually only been outside of it before, so it'll be cool to see the inside too. I guess one could call it a duller, less cool and smaller version of the Madison Square Garden, although the architechture is kinda cool, and kind of the opposite of the American arena. Anyway, the thing is, we really have to leave the hostel quite early to get a decent spot in line for the concert. Since most European arenas and venues, including the Swedish ones, don't have seating in the same way as the American ones, you have to get there early and wait in line to get a good spot in front of the stage. Last time me and Hanna saw Coldplay, in Copenhagen (the Danish capitol which is a bit closer, actuelly a train-ride of about 30 minutes away), we got a real good spot in line. Just a few people in front of us. Problem was, we drank some beers and some wine and really had too pee about two hours before they we're letting people into the arena. There was no place around there to go. No restaurants or anything. Not even a good bush. So we stood quietly (which is very uncommon for us) in line, suffering, while all the other fans we're happy and anticipating greatness. We had to run straight to the bathroom after finally being let into the arena, and thus we missed our spots and had to stand 20 yards from the stage instead of 5 as we had planned. The worst thing about that is the fact that the people who stand that par back (which is still very close of course) are usually not as enthusiastic as you are, making you feel stuping for screaming a lot or dancing or whatever. Squares, that's what they are. This time the concert sold out so fast, they set one more date in Stockholm, the night before, and that's good, since there's a bigger chance that we'll be with a big, more appreciative crowd in stead. And hopefully there is some kind of pizza place or whatever outside, so we can pee.

I'll report back after, and you can hear all about the peein-possibilities of the area around the Globe arena in Stockholm.

Until then, lots'a'luve!

PS: Excuse my bad spelling and language, I'm intellectually beat nowadays.

Reboot

School is back on, and all is well.

I'm a week and a half into the semester, and I'm adjusting to the whole daily regimen that comes with univeristy pseudo studies. "Pseudo studies", there's a good term for the last 30 months here. And it still applies in a way, only now it has a more positive meaning. Gone are the days of studying just enough to pass tests, learning stuff that stopped being interesting last semester. Gone are the days of using academic language and long words in order to get top marks on a paper for which I hardly opened the books. Well, not entirely gone, I guess, but the level of motivation is higher than before, and the information is actually useful, despite the fact that it gets pretty theoretical at times.

We haven't really gotten to the actual writing yet, the teachers are sticking to theoretical parts for next few months, and right now we're slogging through the various legal and ethical aspects of journalism. And I have to say, it's really interesting. Alot of my classmates seem to dislike the legal stuff, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, etc, but for me it's just dandy. When it comes to law, my experience is mainly in international law, human rights law and humanitarian law. And it couldn't be more different. In international law, alot of what is written down is done with only a loose basis of common law, and no precedent or established juris prudence, which basically means that no one knows how the law should be put into practice, or how to apply it when it actually does. And when circumstances change, for example the downfall of nation-to-nation warfare, everything pretty much falls apart, because the Geneva Conventions, for example, were written 60 years ago.

Not the case with national laws. Now we have precedent, jurisprudence, and clear definitions, and thus everything works as it's supposed to. Mostly. Anyway, it doesn't make you lose all hope in humanity, which makes all the difference when trying to learn it. And there are generally less headaches involved as well.

Anywho, things are going good so far. This is going to be an interesting semester. Not only in school, I also have a couple of trips planned. Granted, both are to the same place, but they're still two separate events. My buddy Christian is in the process of moving to Arvidsjaur, which lies a bit to the north of here. 10 miles south of the Arctic Circle, to be exakt. Now, this is the place where the German car companies take their new cars for cold weather testing, which says something about the climate. The average temperature for the entire year is 0 degrees Centigrade, which is the freezing point. So one could argue that it's freezing all year round, but that's not true. It's freezing for nine months out of the year. And I'm going up there in mid November. And yes, it'll be freezing. And I'll be there over New Year's as well. It'll be colder than... well, anything I've ever experienced before. But it'll be fun. We're taking the train, which'll be an adventure in itself, all 20 hours of it.

That's what I had for now. Out.