Stockholm is Awesome

Why? Well, I did meet a really great girl there...and how are we going to make a relationship work between Warsaw and DC? Earning a lot of airline miles and talking across the 6 hour time zone difference...

From Kasia :)

Slacker.

yeah, that's me. a slacker.

but when work ramps up to about 60 hours a week, and weekends are full of people visiting town, or me going places (like the belmont stakes, which was a sunburn festival essentially...oh, and never drive places with tenley, she just sleeps and can't handle a stick!), and playing ultimate (I joined a summer rec league team and decided that I may as well try and captain it since it is just rec league)....things get busy and posting gets forgotten.

Recently:
new project at work with verisign naming services. (do you need a .name domain? what's the interest level really? that's what I need to figure out.
bob, michelle, becky, blythe, tanzawa all rocked out DC like it was their jobs a couple weekends ago, good times for all (except me hungover at ultimate, that kind of sucked)
less intense week at work on tap as we settle into the project (as opposed to the hectic baselining, project plan writing, etc... portion).
a weekend of sports on the horizon with a rugby tourney saturday and yet another ultimate doubleheader sunday
three day week next week as verisign has been given off july 3rd, yay 4 day weekend and the smiths annual 4th of july party (on the 5th).

3 Weeks of Work, Memorial Day Weekend

So I've completed my first week on my new project at work after two weeks of waiting around and doing orientation and pre-project research. There's one really good thing about the project, there's a huge portion of it related to the mobile internet, advertising, search, and mobile content. thankfully...a lot of what I worked on with Motricity from June through December. The rest of the project is waaaay over my head (for now) and I'm really happy that I have something that I can contribute to right away. The other three guys on the project team have all been in telecom for 15 or 20 years and well, yeah. They know a lot...but I've got a chance to prove myself.

Memorial Day weekend has been pretty good thus far (still all afternoon to do stuff if I feel like it :P ). Chili cook-off, Chrissy's birthday bash, ballin', and everything else...all very fun. ok, not all of it. but I'm over it...mostly. hooray for being the last one to know.

Work work work

Ok, so, I'm officially employed...and staffed on a project...and working from home today because driving an hour each way to Dulles sucks. But I'm getting work done. I promise.

DC!

I'm awake. Moving to DC today. Whee!

Finally caught up...

I realize that I'm three weeks behind here...but damn, I've been doing a lot since I got back. Most things fun, some things involving a little work.

I'm 2 days from moving to DC. that's heavy. I've got a new place all lined up and everything! I'm pretty excited and am ready to start working (with the slight exception that I need some suits cleaned, tailored, or just plain purchased). I need to pack up my kitchen things, but I'm waiting on a load of dishes to finish before I start so I can have everything ready to rock from the start.

Last Weekend in Stockholm

So, like I said, it felt really nice to get back to Stockholm...and it may be no surprise when I tell you, it felt horrible leaving :(

Saturday dawned bright and sunny...instantly putting me in a fantastic mood. Saturday was fun-filled to the max! Our first thoughts were bent towards brunch, which I throughly enjoyed, but Ariel was somewhat sad about because her belgian waffle came with syrup on it already...so she got to eat around the edges. Following that, we made our way to Skansen, the combo historical look at old Sweden and zoo! I had been putting this off my entire time in Stockholm until more things opened as the weather got better...well worth the wait. We didn't spend TOO much time in the historical reflections portion, opting instead for checking out the wolves, lynxes, moose and reindeer...oh, and of course the seals and bears. From here, we were well positioned to hit up the most ridiculously touristy thing in Stockholm, yes, the Vasamuseet again! huzzah! I was really impressed my first time there back in January and hope that Ariel enjoyed it as well...I was rapidly re-impressed by the sheer magnitude of the boat. From here we moved on to dinner, opting for a pasta/pizza place that I had been to once before. Ariel loved it because of her cute bartender, I loved it because their food is just plain good!

The event of the evening was Kasia's birthday party, for which she brought back two bottles of Polish herbed vodka. good stuff! Much fun was had, Kasia got mad at me because I hadn't emailed her on her birthday (no internet in Munich or on the road to Prague, I forget which...). We decided to head out after a couple hours of hanging out, drinking and laughing (and playing with balloons). Unfortunately, places were clamping down on age limits (25 at the Soap Bar, 24 somewhere else), so I just suggested we go over to the Söder and get into one of the many clubs there...I kind of like Debaser, so I led us there...the music wasn't their best, but was still pretty good I thought.

Sunday...Sunday was the first day I regretted Ariel coming along :) She was a relentless taskmistress, forcing me to get up and get moving to take her to the Modern Art Museum (it had an Andy Warhol exhibit...pretty cool). Ok, I had suggested it anyhow...but it was still fun. We then walked around the downtown areas of Stockholm, looking for some souvenirs for both of us...I messed up and should have pulled the trigger on a few things, thinking that "oh, I'll have plenty of time on Monday morning". BRRRRNT, not right. So, no Swedish hockey jersey for me...but I'll work on that, and something for Svea...surprise!

Ariel had to leave really early on Monday morning (7am flight out of Arlanda), so she wanted to stay up all night and take the night bus to T-Centralen so she could catch the first Arlanda express train...it was a looooong night. We played cards, debated playing Monopoly (in Swedish!) but never did...oh, and I made her watch Leon, because she had never seen Natalie Portman's breakout role! Odd for a person who is often told that she bears a striking resemblance to...

My monday was less fun than I had hoped. I became paranoid about sleeping much after staying up til 4am. So I napped a little and then got my ass moving to get back up to my bags at Lappis where Kasia was nice enough to store them since Saturday. After breakfast we hurried down to T-Centralen and saw me off for my flight...(I had mixed up times between my ORIGINAL flight back to Baltimore and my changed flight to Boston, left at 2 instead of 5, so no last lunch with people from Stockholm, sad). Kasia was nice enough to help me and my luggage all the way to the train, which was nice. Almost a tearful goodbye on my part...I had such a good time in Stockholm and Kasia was likely the best friend I made over there.

Leaving sucks.

(oh, and Boston's Logan Airport sucks too. bastards almost cost my dad a bottle of Akvavit because their terminals aren't linked together and you have to exit the international terminal and then go through security again. freakin' inefficient if you ask me)

Berlin!

So after Melnik we kept on heading northwest towards Berlin, only to be rewarded with one of the most hilarious moments of the trip...Prostitute Pagodas! or, Hooker Huts...depending which bit of alliteration you prefer. What are they you ask? little mountainside cabins with hookers...how could I tell? well...mostly because of the one who was standing on her porch in her underwear in the freakin' freezing cold (it was snowing).

Anyhow, Berlin. It was much more a Big City than anywhere I had been recently (Rome is big, but doesn't feel city-ish the way Berlin does, I guess Berlin is a little more american seeming is what I'm trying to say). Berlin does benefit from the fact that so much of it is new or reclaimed/renovated since WWII. The way into the city was an entertaining drive, and we found th hotel without any problems (except that they had my reservation under "Albee Tullberg" instead of Tullberg. wtf mate?
We then got to adventure about to return the car...which sucked, because even though we found the address I had in my reservation, there wasn't a National Car Rental office there any longer. Soooo, we placed a phone call and found the right place quickly enough. We decided from there to head over to the Checkpoint Charlie museum (very fun, informative, and pretty shocking). After this, we were downright starving and walked up to a vegetarian thai place. Fantastic food, decent prices and not too far from a Metro to get back to the hotel and crash in preparation for a huge day to follow.

We started off by taking the metro across town (after ditching our bags at the reception) and going to a one mile stretch of the Berlin wall that is still standing. It was painted a while ago and has since been graffiti-ed quite a bit (predominantly over the crappy paintings!) since then. Impressive. We decided that we would take in some more of the less traveled Berlin by walking back towards the city center, went up the TV tower to take in as much of Berlin as possible from a high vantage point and then proceeded to walk through the historic downtown past Basilicas, museums, a really shocking/touching holocaust monument, and all the way to the Brandenburg Gate. This put us by the new Rathaus (I think...the place with the gigantic glass dome that you can walk up) and left us with a decision, to walk up the glass dome (pretty cool) or walk through the Tiergarten back towards out hotel...thankfully, for scheduling's sake, we chose to walk through the Tiergarten and let Ariel do some shopping at Europe's biggest mall (a couple blocks from our hotel). We picked up some dinner, and good european chocolate to give as gifts, picked up our bags and hopped back on the S-Bahn to get to the airport...

We should have checked how long the train ride to the airport was going to take...because upon arrival we had to speedwalk to the terminal...but made it ok :) The flight to Sweden and bus ride into Stockholm were relatively uneventful, but I got really happy getting back to the city I had left three weeks before. have we covered how much I like Stockholm yet? I really miss it too...sigh. maybe I can move back in a couple years...

Prague

The drive up to Prague was slower than I hoped it would be...sigh. Stupid rental car we had to trade in for was slower than the Peugeot (Opel Astra, 1.2 liters of FURY!)

Regensburg was rather idyllic, fancy old buildings on a nice town square overlooking the Danube. Ariel and I walked out onto an island in the middle of the Danube to find a good place for our packed lunch. I think it was a lot more symbolic for her, for me, it was nice to just hear water moving again. We moved on from Regensburg, Ariel napped in the car again, I caffeinated and we made it to Prague in the early evening. We parked the car close to the hostel we were staying at...only after I broke a lot of usual driving laws from the US, which...well, was required for survival in Prague I feel. drivers are crazy, and you need to match them or get nowhere.

The hostel was pretty nice, but we had to go find a place to park the car for free...so we drove to the outskirts of Prague, trying to find a free parking spot near a metro stop. it worked out eventually, and we got back in to the city and went to dinner at an Afghan place a couple blocks from the hostel. Pretty good, and relatively cheap compared to Stockholm still :)

The next morning, we tried to get up and out as quickly as possible to make it over to the Castle...we walked over, across the Charles Bridge, complete with fancy statues, incomplete without the overabundance of people hawking cheap tourist stuff...not that I lament their absence, definitely made it nicer! Prague Castle was pretty impressive, the cathedral is huge, the tower gives you quite a view over all of Prague (good photo op). St. George's Chapel is much smaller, but pretty cool in its own right. it had one of the coolest crucifixes ever, if they can be described so...some artist carved one out of a straight length of tree (so, arms not out, up instead). alas, no pics allowed.

We saw where Franz Kafka lived for a while, went into the dungeon tower, and then ran down the castle steps...people thought we were a little crazy. We decided to walk around the Mala Strana, taking in the sights and wandering towards a lunch destination. The place had a decent lunch special...quarter chicken, potatoes and some sort of bacon pie w/ drink for $6. sweeeet. and yes, I said bacon pie.

It was threatening rain, so we curtailed the afternoon walk and cruised back towards the hostel, pausing for shopping and such along the way. Heading out, we decided to cruise Wencelas Square to find a place for dinner...I really enjoyed my venison and Ariel was slightly disappointed by the fried cheese that once got an "ooh" out of her while reading the lonely planet guide...oh, the beer was supercheap. yay! $1.50 for a half liter of urquell.

We found a place that was rumored to have a pretty good Wednesday night scene, theoretically a lot of college kids, got there around 11. but it was dead and a half...so we had a drink and moved on. I really wanted to go out and find someplace fun in Prague so I convinced Ariel to go out again, walked to a huge club that was definitely alive. We didn't stay too late...I had to drive to Berlin the following day and Ariel was already tired, I thought it was pretty cool though. We did make one more stop in the Czech Republic though. We went to Melnik and went to the chateau there of some formerly powerful, still ridiculously wealthy, czech family. Very fancy, quite impressive and a perfect "off the beaten path" experience that I love to look for.

The Ariel Invasion

So I met up with Ariel in Munich after a fantastically gorgeous train ride through the Alps. There were a couple mix-ups at the airport (like me waking up early in Venice and forgetting to check what city she was coming in from...I thought she had a connection in germany). I thought I knew what time she was getting in...but got Google-Calendared...she entered 4:50 on the joint schedule...Central time...google adjusted it for me, so I presumed she was getting in at 5:50 and well...yeah. oops. it would have worked out eventually somehow, but we ran into each other at the internet station. Sweeeeet.

We did dinner at a pretty fantastic vegetarian restaurant, wandered around the downtown portion of munich and crashed pretty early to get ready for the morning drive to Neuschwanstein! Neuschwanstein was downright amazing...so fantastic a time, ridiculously picturesque. Mad King Ludwig II was a little extravagant and probably got killed for spending so much money on castles...but they were definitely amazing. Words really don't do it justice...look at my pictures :)

That afternoon we got back into Munich for more walking around and sightseeing, we stuck to downtown for the most part, went into one of the cathedrals, saw Marienplatz and the associated Rathauses and such. Dinner was at the Hofbräuhaus because we're tourists and I wanted beer! Deliciousness.

We woke up nice and early again on Tuesday, off to do one last bit of sightseeing before driving to Regensburg for lunch on the Danube, however, our car had different plans and refused to lock. fucker. It treated me so well on the Autobahn (up to 195 kph, 122mph) but didn't want to lock. Boo! So we had to trade in the car and miss a little bit of sightseeing. Thankfully the airport was in the right direction for the rest of our plans...

Venice

Catching up on my adventures...Venice was a lot of fun. The hostel was relatively expensive compared to others, but the crowd was cool, the price included dinner, and we had one hell of a Friday night out. I walked around with people from the hostel on Friday afternoon after my train arrived from Rome. Saw the Doge's Palace, the Basilica, etc...a few of us took a few turns off the beaten path to just walk around Venice itself for a while. Fun times...I like doing that in every city for a little while.

Thoughts? Venice is like nothing I've ever seen. I could compare other cities I'd been to on this trip with cities I had previously visited...but not Venice. Two sad things: only 60k people live there and it's sinking. So it's a tourist trap and it will eventually disappear. nuts.

On Saturday we did the typical walking around thing (once I got up and recovered with some water). I actually ran into three people from Friday night just walking around a corner...(a guy from the hostel (cool) and two girls who were staying at a hotel nearby (not cool)). Eventually I could tell the girls didn't really want me around so I took a left when they took a right and wandered some more. I went back to the hostel and resisted the urge to take a nap...looked up where the Palazzo Balbi was and walked there. Saturday night was far more tame, a bunch of people had to get out of town early (myself included)...so just hanging out talking and listening to music with a couple new arrivals (Aussie guys).

First Night Out...

yeah, it was pretty much a bust...
that's sad.

I mean, I saw a bunch of people I hadn't in quite a while, which was very cool. the problem was, Lucy's (which is no longer actually Lucy's) was DEAD. there were some people at top of the hill, which...well...sucks.

Anyway, neither place was full, neither place was really conducive to hanging out and catching up. I'll just wait for next week I guess...why not this weekend you ask? because I can't go out becuase I have to play rugby all weekend. duh. get with the program!

I don't want to leave!

So I'm at the airport...of course it went ridiculously fast, because that's how things work here (I left T-Centralen at 12:05 and was through security by 12:45 (and there's a 20 minute train ride in there). Sigh...anyhow, I bought some Akvavit at the duty free shop and debated getting a ridiculously good sandwich (that I will triumphantly make in the US from now on)...but decided that Iceland Air feeds me anyway, so why worry. Oh, and my bags were definitely overweight, by about 5 kilos, but the guy at the desk didn't charge me. yay! I think he figured it was just too much work to do...

I want to come back already, and I haven't left...guess I'll need to start saving vacation time ASAP and see if I can transfer to the Stockholm office in a couple years (which means I'm going to need to practice my Swedish).

tomorrow...

I head back to the states finally...sad. so very sad.

a string of updates will happen soon regarding Venice, Munich, Prague and Berlin...and the last weekend in Stockholm!

Rome 4

Ok, finally...I'm Vaticanized.

I got up and waited for 2 hours in the Vatican line...rough...but well. really? worth it. The Vatican museums are fantabulous, so much stuff (a lot of general periodic trash, but some very fine pieces). However, a lot of beautiful sculptures (which are my favorite), and well, once you realize what the Sistine Chapel really entails...magnitude and the work that it must have taken...wow.

Post-Vatican, Vivian (aussie girl I met the night before) and I went down to middle Rome to get some lunch (delicious carbonara and veal), and headed down to the one island in the Tiber, over to the Trastavere and walked back by the Aventine Hill, to the Pyramid (which she hadn't seen and is by a metro). We grabbed the metro, got me a ticket to Venice, some groceries and then chilled back at the rooms. Dinner was amazing, I decided to try Lasagne and Roast Lamb. oh god good. Rome is nice. veeeeery nice.

Rome 3

Oh man. Talk about sore feet, day three tried me the hardest. The idea was to hit up in this order:

St. Peter in Chains (the chains and a Michaelangelo sculpture of Moses)
Pyramid (yes, in Rome, a ridiculously rich man decided he wanted one for his tomb)
Via Appia and the Catacombs
National Museum of Rome

It went as planned for the first two steps, taking the metro out to successive monumental awesomeness. However, after the Pyramid I went the wrong direction on a street with a shockingly similar name to the right direction :) In short, I decided not so much that I was lost that I was about to turn around and head back when I saw San Paolo's Basilica. Sweet. So I went in had picture time and then caught the metro back up to the pyramid and then went the proper direction (on foot of course)...about half an hour later I decided I should be about "there" and got off of the highway (and sidewalk) to check out where I was (this was all off of the free map of central rome). Let's just say that the Via Appia is no longer pedestrian friendly...no sidewalk. at all. the catacombs were about a mile and a half south of where I joined the deathroad.

The catacombs were fantastic, no bones to handle though. oh...and I definitely took the bus back. reduced the suckage immensely. I accidentally found another huge basilica (at the san giovanni metro stop), very cool. Then off to the museum as planned, except well, the branch I wanted to go to at the Diocletian baths is only open from 9-2. wtf mate!?

I then went back to the hostel and had to just relax. Three days of hard hoofing around Rome can take it out of you so I just crashed and talked with an Aussie girl for a while, had dinner in and just chilled...and wished I had an ice bath for my feet.

Rome Day 2

Ok wow. Observation one: my feet hurt.
Observation two: always visit Rome the week after easter, it's culture week and the museums/monuments are all free

Day 2: I started out heading straight for the coliseum at 8:30 to hop in line. Apparently the metal detectors were broken, so nobody got in until 9:30, but I was in within 10 minutes since a bunch of tour groups gave up in the 10 minutes before things started working again. Impressive...certainly not what I expect to be a place that seats 50,000. I mean, it's huge, but not in comparison to the stadiums of today. Next up, the Palatino and Forum, both fabulous...I think I saw the whole thing through my camera (I took 332 pictures yesterday). Now it was about 12:30, and I wanted to hit up the Pantheon before the lunch crowd got back out. I felt a little gypped. I had no idea that it had been turned into a basilica for christian martyrs. But, you could still see the eight sided nature of the interior and know it was at one point pagantastic. Following that it was definitely lunch time...wait. I lied...it was time to go see the Trevi Fountain...and yes, it was ridiculously beautiful. ok, by now I was starving and looking for a place to eat, so I headed back towards my hotel, snapped a photo of Triton, rolled on, found a corner of the Diocletian baths that had been turned into yet another huge and impressive church, took more photos and then finally found a place for lunch :) I decided to go for the Spaghetti alla Carbonara because I love making it and I wanted to see what changes I might want to make to my recipe...less cream, more egg, fresher parmesan cheese...and they use black pepper, but I'm going to stick with white pepper 'cause you can't see it. Anyhow, next up, a walk on the tiber and visiting a castle! The tiber is dirty, the castle Sant' Angelo was fabulous...I got a lot of good pics from the top. After this, I walked up into the Vatican main square, looked around, and then decided since the lockout at the hostel was over, it was time to go chill. All in all I had walked around Rome for about 8 hours and was tired. met some people at the hostel, chilled, had some wine, walked out to grab a quick dinner, managed my pics and then retired.

Barcelona, Rome v.1

The night out in Barcelona was pretty cool. I was hanging out watching basketball and having a couple beers in the hostel when a couple youngish looking girls asked me what I was up to later, so I decided to go clubbing, you know...why not. Over the next couple hours, we learned exactly how old each other were...yeah. I don't look 27, but they didn't look 18 either.

*awkward silence*

It was still fun, but we had to cut the night short when my hip broke.

Sunday in Barcelona was cooler than anticipated. I got up at noon and started the "I hate bus tours walking tour", I walked up the big hill south of the city, took photos...Then walked to the beach and stuck my hand in the Mediterranean. From there I decided to walk back towards the hostel, stopped to photograph some breakdancers. I like the entire category of "stupid human tricks". Knowing I was looking at a ridiculously early morning I decided that I would try and take it easy...I debated going to the Maritime museum, or perhaps the Barcelona FC game, but back at the hostel I got the news that both Messi and Ronaldinho weren't playing...and while Henri and the rest are definitely stars in their own right...they were playing a crap team. So after a brief siesta (which was in the plan either way, I didn't skip the game to sleep...) I ended up taking another walk hunting for dinner...I did get distracted by the Arsenal vs. Chelsea match at an Irish pub. But ended up with a pretty good and relatively cheap paella. I figured I should have it once at least...

The evening consisted of hanging out, watching more basketball and chatting with people back at the hostel. good stuff, fun times and I accidentally stayed up til 2 talking. Got up at 5 this morning, on a plane by 7:20, in Rome proper at 11:15. Booyah. I dropped my bag off at the hostel (locked and such, it was the lock-out hours from 11-4), I'm ok with that...I plan on doing nearly everything anyhow. So yeah, today I took the metro to the coliseum, and walked from there around the forum (I didn't feel like lines) and up to the piazza de popolo. I'm planning on a early morning tomorrow to go into the coliseum and forum, also St. Peter in Chains, then over to the Pantheon as well. That should last most of the lockout and such...I need to check out the existence of a Da Vinci museum here.

yeah. so. having a blast! oh, and Vatican on Thursday I expect. Wednesday would be cool to see the pope, but I presume that everyone else thinks that too.

Picasso, Wandering, Barcelona by Train

So here's the short of it: Every museum is TINY after the Louvre. I mean, I love Picasso and all, but his museum in paris seemed like it was about 2 rooms with 3 paintings each after cruising the Louvre for 5 hours.

I then wandered around Paris for...a while. I walked from Picasso to the Bastille circle and then over to the Arc d'Ican'tspellfrenchthingsTrioooomph again. Got better pics, saw a lot more of the city than in the rain before and really enjoyed the walk. I had Indian for dinner, again, and well, why? I just really like Indian food more than anything else...

The train was a little painful. 3 people in my room snored...hell, I may have too, but I don't think I slept enough in a row to get to snore-depth sleep. fuckers. Barcelona has been great though. That is, if you like reconstructive work on monuments. Cathedral? refurbishing. Crazy neo-baroque church? refurbishing. but I got to walk around a lot today, but a sweet puma eurojacket for southern europe (I felt like a d-bag walking around in a full jacket all evening). I've eaten my meals substantially later than usual and am now ready to head out on the town!

Cataclosed!

yep. Catacombs were closed today. terrible. Especially because I thought it would be interesting to walk there...sigh. instead I took the metro close to Bastille and am going to go to the Picasso museum as soon as I finish my tea.

Paris!

So, I finally got into town yesterday (they delayed my flight in the morning too!), I promptly got a new SIM card so I could call my hostel and find out where they were (and also to call an old friend from Hopkins who lives in Paris now). They gave my room away, even though I emailed them asking them to save the room and just charge me for the night I was missing anyhow. Turns out there was no charging at all but they just gave it to someone else. poops.

So I found another hostel about 2 blocks from where I got off the metro (to go to the first one). Nice enough. So I dropped most of my stuff and decided to go to Notre Dame, up the towers first of course, then inside for a peek around. I liked the towers :) I then started wandering with the intention of ending up at the bigass arch, but weather hates me and it started raining (even though it had been wonderfully sunny all day thus far). So I wussed out and hopped on the metro instead, called Meredith, and met her at the Arch and then we decided to have dinner. Ridiculously good french food as it turned out, she said she like the sound of the side of beef with pepper sauce for two...and who was I to argue!

Then I headed back up to Montmartre to cruise around my hostel's area. Stopped in for a beer at a place with a soccer match on. Marseilles vs. Some Punk Team. Why SPT? Marseilles plays in the 1st league, the SPT in the 4th or 5th league in France. SPT won. Looked at the Moulin Rouge, the Sacre Coeur, and some other interesting streets and buildings. Then, time for bed so I could be as Louvre-ish as I wanted today. Made it in by 10 and left well after 2. Then I wandered around the left bank and such just taking it all in. Found a hotel in the Sarbonne area, and well, that's up to date now!

BRRRRNT

No going to Paris for me on Tuesday night. My flight got canceled and I was shuffled off to the Radisson SAS Arlanda...sigh. 8:45am tomorrow to paris though!

Oh, and fun times at the airport version 43. I think the button on my jeans made the metal detector beep, so the lady at the gate had to pat me down...she totally copped a feel!

áthas Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

Theoretically that means Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've got my UCD (Dublin's business school) Rugby Jersey on...rocking the 1/4 Irish for all it is worth today!

I had an absolutely thrilling Sunday, I studied all day for my exam today. whee. it's at 2, may last 3 hours, but I somehow doubt it. This afternoon I will begin packing everything as I fly to Paris tomorrow...

Tonight I celebrate finishing my MBA as well as being Irish!

Chinese Challenge Seminar, Halmstad

So the Chinese Challenge seminar was a big hit. 13 students came in from Bergen's economics program who had been taking the same class to give presentations as well. The deal here is that there's a management program in europe called CEMS (community of euro. mgmt. schools) and because I worked with one of them I got to participate in a cooler seminar than the regular students...woot.

Very fun, the papers were all pretty interesting (I don't really like Banking, there were four papers on it). Emrick (my partner for the Luxury Goods Market paper) said some people had complimented him on our presentation. Also, we rocked out an Oxford Debate on the issue of "will Chinese involvement in Africa lead to sustainable economic development". I think the four of us who spoke for the Stockholm School of Economics dominated...Emrick took a 30 second clip of me trashing China's "aid" programs to Africa. I started a little slow but started hammering home the issues pretty well. Ratana was a machine until the last 30 seconds, and Tanzawa was a 5 minute political commercial (FACT! followed by unhappy chinese involvement stories).

As soon as I could (after Emrick and I delivered our critique on a paper regarding the Three Gorges Dam) I left to drive to Halmstad. It was pretty fun driving through Sweden...we'll see if the rumor of speed cameras was as horrible as I may have been led to believe (I followed other speeders and slowed down when they did). I met Jan-Åke, my uncle who lives between Slöinge and Getinge (both north of Halmstad) talked a lot, looked at pictures. On Saturday we visited Halmstad, walked around some and I got to see some of the places where my dad used to live/work. Very fun....and pictures! I also got to meet my cousin Susan (my dad's little sister's daughter) and her kids. All in all a very fun end to last week and start to the weekend. Time to study for my last final! Ever.

København, Finally...

Ok, so here goes...my last post was the day that I left, which was as I said then, frantic.

I finished my laundry, packed my bag, made it to the metro as fast as possible, 3 minutes to spare. Got to T-Centralen and booked over to the Arlanda Express, thinking it left at 6 (this is at 5:50), thankfully, it departed at 6:05, I had 8 minutes to spare. Got to the airport and to check-in with 10 minutes to spare, through security to the gate with the same 10 minutes left before boarding. Stressful...I usually like to be places early. Flight was good, I napped. Upon arrival in Copenhagen, I hopped on the train to town, wandered a little in downtown (I think people take down all of the street signs around the train station so they can watch tourists go in circles), found a tourist information place that was closed...with no maps outside. jerks. I broke down and asked eventually then almost ran to the hotel 'cause Brian and John were waiting to have dinner until I got there (it's now about 10pm). We headed out shortly thereafter, taking a cab up to a recommended neighborhood (they wanted to check out a place called Rust), nothing was really open for dinner, but we found a Kebab shop (not the usual definition of kebab really, comes in a pita or similar things) but turns out it was the best Kebab I've seen so far in Europe. Rust was ok...maybe we were there early, but 11:30-12:30 seemed like things should liven up in there somewhere. it wasn't too crowded inside and the line outside when we left was huge. I hate the weak dollar.

We then hopped in a cab and went to Christiania. Went to a bar, fun music, not really the crowd that Brian and John were looking for I think...I was cool with it. We saw the remnants of the drug market, it's now more of a regular market...mostly. We decided to move on after walking around a bunch, getting a good a feel as possible for the place, might've been fun to come back in the daytime. So we jetted back to downtown, wandered around for a while and decided that a late night snack was in order. Ask me about the BK incident. it was funny.

Saturday: Up bright and early and out the door by 10:30...this is where my photo album starts, walking through nearly all of Copenhagen's main city section until nearly 4pm when we headed back to the hotel. Shopping district, cool church, some govt. buildings, a really cool stone dragon, the little mermaid and the opera house. It looks better in the album. really. After a nap, 'cause we're old, it was time to pregame and find dinner. We found a highly recommended Indian restaurant, did take-away because it was reservation only...delicious...and so was the pregaming. We decided to head out to yet another party area of the town, to a club called Vega. very nice place, very cool...and we were there before they started charging a cover and stayed until things started picking up quite a bit. We left to hit up the red light district...which was cool. I guess. it's where I got the pic of the needle depository!

Sunday: we slept in, decided since it was lunch time that we may as well have lunch. Indian buffet...not the best idea. that meal fought back for hours. We wandered the town some more, everything was closed closed closed. boooo. got more pictures, said goodbye to Brian as he went to catch a train, wandered more into Fredriksberg, and eventually stopped at a bar/cafe called Obelix for a beer and to just rest our feet. Then it was finally time for me to start the long trip home...

Thoughts: great city, low buildings, old buildings, wide streets, a lot of parks and plazas, clean, fun, nice people. Copenhagen gets an A- (minus for everything being closed on sunday!)

Delayed København Update

Sorry blognation, I'm writing a paper for Cross-cultural Management on the Ivory trade in southern Africa...the Cope-Town report will be made in full ASAP. Also, pictures!

Frantic Friday

Wheeeeee....8:30-12, class and a presentation on our paper (done by me of our 6. gooo native english speaking power!), lunch at japanese restaurant, then class 1:15-3, with another presentation (all three of us did that one, and the girls from singapore both speak english fluently). next?
laundry 'cause the machines here shut off at 10pm. wtf?!
hurry to the airport and fly to København (Copenhagen).

woo!

Papers

Applied Industrial Organization....check.
Cross-Cultural Management...check.
No class until friday...check.
wednesday night at allhuset...soon.

I've only got 2 weeks left in stockholm, but 5 in europe...so yeah, almost done with phase one, vacation phase is getting set.

Lapptastic!

Ok, so this is going to be another massive post much like the London trip.

Friday: 4pm I arrived at T-Centralen, decided that some quick Thai food would do for dinner and then met up with the gang and waited around for the train at 5:13. I started out the trip superlame, editing a paper for Applied Industrial Organization. Eventually, I got a little bored and decided that I'd join in on the party that was happening...oh yeah, Stockholm to Kiruna = 17 hours on the train. All evening, overnight, and then arrival at 11...should have been 10, but we had to stop the train for a while later in the evening. However, by this point, I was well into a sharing of a bottle of Explorer Vodka with a cabin full of people (I found it funny to buy Explorer as I was taking my first trip to Lappland). So yeah, we got tipsy on a train, the french started smoking inside and we almost got booted...

Saturday: Noonish we arrive at the Ice Hotel near Kiruna, we did a tour and then had a while to walk around the hotel and take pictures of the Art/Design Rooms and the entire structure in general. We also got to watch a guy slip and fall on his ass...and then watch his friend do the exact same thing while trying to help him up. Tragic, but funny. Drinks at the icebar were a cool 105 crowns (exchange rate is currently the worst it has ever been for the ol' US of A...6.2 crowns per dollar...you do the math and figure out why I didn't have anything there but some more pictures). Kasia and I tried to visit as many rooms as possible and get a bunch of silly pictures, and we were pretty successful.

Next was lunch, not very thrilling but certainly filling. Thankfully I was able to buy a new bottle opener, with the opening portion a smiling moose head and the handle made of reindeer antler. Very silly, but I don't own a bottle opener, so not too frivolous. After lunch we headed over to the worst place ever for claustrophobic people...the LKAB Iron Mine. We ended up going to 540m below ground (about 1k beneath the peak of the mountain) to tour around, learn how they mine iron, look at the huge machines they do it with, and learn about the history of the world's purest iron deposit.

Afterwards, we had to bus it down to Tärendö. There, we had a delicious dinner, a few drinks, and ended up hanging out in the woodfired sauna for a couple hours. Afterwards, I established my dominance at darts while others played pool, werewolf, or just hung out.

Sunday: Oh man Sunday...Sunday was a good day. First off, wonderful Swedish style breakfast. 2nd, Dog Sledding for an hour. Those little guys are powerful...and they love to work. I mean, it was like they only live to drag around that sled, every other moment they were just wanting to go go go go go. I shared the sled with Eva Maria (yeah, only one actual person who knew what they were doing there with 10 n00bs on the 5 other sleds). She called me Steve, I cried a little. But at least the dogs liked me :) I got a lot of really good sled perspective pictures of dogs' butts. Good times. After that I had a little break, anxiously awaiting my 2 hours of snowmobiling. Now, I didn't know exactly what to expect, of course I've jet skied a number of times, and have comfortably hit about 60mph on those...but that's on water, without those DeathSticks all around you (trees). However, we had to share the ride w/ another person, so I only ended up driving for an hour. I was a passenger at the start, ended up getting tossed off the snowmobile when he tried to corner a little too hard w/out enough weight redistribution. My turn came eventually and it was amazing. short learning curve I felt, and pretty soon I was breaking the speed limit (60kph) by hanging back from the group and getting up space to make some good runs. The snowmobile was pretty big, and rather heavy, but I'm confident that I managed to get it airborne a couple times with no death or injury involved (or falling off at all, again). The best part was when we got back to the long straightaway on the river and we could really open it up. We peaked at 95kph (about 60, just a touch under) and I really wanted to go faster but didn't leave myself enough room to be completely safe.

Sunday dinner was salmon, salmon and more salmon. Sweeeeet. Sunday after dinner was getting into a 44 degree Celsius hot tub, jumping in the snow, jumping in the sauna, jumping in the snow...and eventually just being too hot and heading back inside to shower and start the party. I had a previously made darts challenge, defended my title once, then lost later...Gergely and I were up until 4 finishing that last game and getting ridiculously hammered. He ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs, I actually found my bed.

Monday: last day :( it would have been fun to have a breathalyzer at breakfast...then I napped again before suiting up to be the Snice Sculpture photographer. Then some snow soccer, more picture taking, reuniting with the Reindeer farm gang (they didn't rave about how fantastic it was, so maybe it wasn't?), and taking lunch and looking at souvenirs. I ended up getting a knife (I hope it makes it to the states), the most practical one they had, ideally I'll actually use it as a fishing knife or something...it was the only one with a good, medium sized blade. We then had to pile on the bus at 3:30 and drive down to Luleå, stop at Max for dinner (whee. hamburgers, but far better than McDonald's), and get to the airport to catch a plane home to Stockholm's Arlanda airport. I slept despite two crying babies...then we made a triumphant return to Stora Lappkärsberget (Lappis, my dorm complex) in a van packed with 10 exhausted Arctic Circle Veterans.

Next...Copenhagen.

To Lappland!

Off to a couple classes, then I leave for Lappland this afternoon! we're taking the train up, so 17 hours of sweden, sweden and more sweden. I think it is supposed to be part of the experience (since we're likely flying back).

Compy is coming with so maybe I'll post more while I'm up there!

Ok, Something that Annoys Me...

So, every Tuesday at 10pm, a bunch of people open their windows and scream out them. It's intended to be some sort of cathartic unleashing of pent up anger, rage and stress. I don't buy into it. The vast majority of people here are undergrads or exchange students, with some grad students mixed in...you want stress and anger? go work 9-5 for a while and see how you feel after that. "oh, but I have papers and exams" BOO FUCKING WOO! so does everyone else, and you know what else you have? tons of free time that you procrastinated, wednesday night drinking, and no real responsibility besides learning (for the most part, of course some college kids work too). Of course everyone's problems seem biggest to themselves, but me, I revel in being in school. college is awesome. maybe next tuesday I'll cheer "I love college!" once they all quit being so emo.

workity work...then...um, playity play?

Ok, that doesn't sound quite right. but it is what's going on.

Saturday night was fun though, got to see a couple exchange students from UNC this fall who came to Stockholm from Finland and Germany. Good stuff, sunday was restful until I started cranking out research around 7pm until 1am. Monday was classish and meetings. I've been a working machine all day today though, finished off the Chinese Challenge paper besides revisions earlier today, doing reading/research for cross cultural management, and eventually getting back to work on industrial organization.

now, the fun part: Playing. This weekend I'm going to Lappland. Friday-Monday in the frozen north...some of you will complain that it is actually just as cold in the Midwest right now, with more snow, but you don't have reindeer do you?! DO YOU?! hehe. So, silly as they are, they're going to let me on a snowmobile...which should be a blast. we'll go to the ice palace, the Kiruna copper mine (biggest in the world)...etc...I can't wait. it should be awesome.

Next fun part: I just booked a ticket to Copenhagen. or...um, Köpenhaen. something like that (in Swedish, not Danish, then it gets crazy, with slashy Os.) Tanzawa, Brian and I are getting the band back together in Cop. for a weekend. I predict it will be amazing and can't wait!

After that...I need to go visit my uncle in Slöinge.

PS I have a plane ticket to paris on the 18th of march.

City Hall, Frantically Working, Exam #1

So, City Hall is impressive...well, it is imposing even from the outside, it is truly impressive and thoroughly gigantic on the inside. Fairly fancy, the upstairs ballroom thingy might even be best described as opulent...fun times. Even more fun afterwards going to watch the Barcelona vs. Celtic match, and then just plain "I don't really remember too much"-times at the Yellow House bar on the Stockholm University campus.

Thursday I woke up late, had to conduct and interview with another couple people at the office of VeriSign/inCode here in Stockholm. Weird right? yeah. weird. even weirder is that it is for my cross cultural management course, my group in that class is 6 people...myself the American, a Polish girl, and 4 Swedes (though 1 has only been here for about 5 years, he's Albanian). So the project requires that we do this interview...someone suggests "what about working as a consultant in multicultural teams" a bunch of people nod, I say "I just got hired by a consulting company...they even have an office in Stockholm...and I already met with the guy once". funny how the american has the connection in town. :P it went well, was fun, and actually very educational.

This morning was my first exam here in Stockholm, for The Chinese Challenge...which is a really interesting course. We had multiple choice for the first time in forever, I think I ended up getting 4/5 (maybe 5/5 depending on an interpretation matter, we'll see)...then 4 essays, of which I nailed two, did ok on another, and probably bombed the third one. Nothing I could do because I guess I missed the answer in all of the readings I did...which was all of them. People got bit in the ass apparently by the two essays I nailed because they were in relatively obscure readings and not even discussed in class at all. the professor was a little jerky about that it seems. anyhow...tonight is the Japan Lounge party, with Guitar Hero. I can't wait, I miss GH and rock band.

Ugh...and Yum!

Caught up on a lot of reading today...so, even though I didn't have any official classes, I was at school for meetings/reading/last swedish lesson from 9-7. However, afterwards, I went to dinner with Tanzawa at the Pelikan in downtown Stockholm. Somewhat nicer swedish restaurant, serving only 8 or so traditional dishes. We split the herring/cheese/bread plate so John could get a taste of herring in a few different forms. Then we both went with the meatballs, though I would try the pork knuckle if I went back...however, the köttbullar tasted a lot like what my dad makes in terms of spices, I think they must have been using some really delicious cuts of meat to grind up, because man were they tender and almost melty good.

Tomorrow, dinner reception at the City Hall where they also present the Nobel Prizes!

Whoa

That was officially my drunkest night in Stockholm. I went to dinner with my Uncle Ralph's cousin Märit, her daughter Katarina, and Katarina's boyfriend Andres. Dinner was excellent, the wine I brought turned out to be pretty good, and Andres had a bottle of some homebrewed (by relatives in Greece) super-Ouzo (130 proof!). Both Katarina and Andres kept refilling my respective glasses, and by the time we got out to try and meet up with the people on my hallway...I was a tad loaded. Nobody really wanted to leave the Karaoke event they were at, but Andres knows a guy with a club and the bartenders, so we went there, talked, hung out, and such. very fun, good people, fun people! (oh, and yes, so very drunk...even fell over at one point while standing up from a really low couch).

Normalcy?

I think I've reached a stage of relative normalcy here. Classes, reading, going out Wednesday night, etc... things have settled into a pretty tame rhythm. This evening I will be having dinner with my uncle ralph's cousin Märit and her daughter, apparently they're superclose here in Stockholm. Family (sort of) nearby is pretty cool. I need to bother my mom via email to bother my dad for Jan-Ake's phone number (I don't know how to put a circle over the A) so I can call my uncle in Halmstad.

London, aka Where did all the blonde girls go? aka OMG look at that car! no, look at that car!

Thursday: Thursday was packing, faxing and travel day. The travel adventure started around 5pm or so when I met up with Tanzawa and we decided we should try and find some spicy food (Thai or Indian usually). Our chosen path wasn't restaurant laden so we found a quick thai dinner place and we ended up catching the 6:20 Flygbuss to Skavsta airport and arriving at 7:40 for a 9:50 flight. A little early...but as the evening progressed I felt successively crappier, so I was happy to find a place to just be at rest. Once we boarded the plane (after I finally got a swedish stamp in my passport!) I went into "omg I have a huge fever and the most sore throat ever coma" mode.

After arriving in London's Stanstead airport we had to hop on the train...except the bus people there are wily and put their stand under the train signs. fuckers. anyhow, it was cheaper than the train and ended up putting us at the corner of Hyde park, only a 1k walk to the hotel. which I didn't get lost on...there we collapsed.

Friday: John and I made it to the tail end of the breakfast at the hotel, and decided to walk around town for a while, we couldn't really do anything 'cause Brian was arriving around 2pm that afternoon and probably wouldn't have been too happy with us if we were in the middle of touring Westminster Abbey or something when he showed up to a locked hotel room. So Tanzawa and I walked through Hyde Park, along the Serpentine and eventually across to St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. I have to say I expected it to be bigger. But hey, still impressive! We then headed a little more northward into Soho and the West End. I found a shop with rugby jerseys and got an All Blacks jersey, trendy I know...but they really do have the best jerseys...and pre-game "I'm going to kick your ass" dance. After this we headed back to the hotel, I went out and found an Indian place that did carry out then met Tanzawa on the corner, waiting for Brian to show up. He did, we rejoiced, ate, and then headed out to walk the town some more. We popped into the tube, resurfaced near St. Paul's Cathedral, walked to the Bank of London, then to the Tower of London and then decided to go to Notting Hill, find a place to eat, and then get back to the hotel for pre-party, showers and head out to meet Brian's girlfriend's friend Liz out on the town. Nice people, beers, and hanging out. This is when I saw the car of my dreams, the Nissan Skyline GT-R34. It was in the back of a pack of some other Japanese cars...I theorized it was in the back so it didn't leave everyone behind while racking up 30 speeding tickets. We then found another pub once everyone else had to leave for fear of being hungover at work the next day then I went home as Brian and Tanzawa snuck into a club with a 40 pound cover. yipes.

Saturday: English Breakfast (of sorts) from a place close to our hotel, not 100% authentic but certainly good and mild enough on our stomachs :) From there we headed back through Hyde Park and by Buckingham Palace for Brian, then on to Westminster Abbey...I wasn't going to be happy if we missed it. So! Inside we went, saw the kings and queens, said "what's up?" to chaucer...then I wandered until I found Darwin and Newton. I stood on Darwin and waved to my main man Isaac. Then I was ok to leave. No photography in Westminster...boo! After this we walked by Parliament and Big Ben, across the Thames and along the south side until we reached the Tate Modern. Impressive collection, also no photography, but I didn't know that until after I managed to snap a photo of a Picasso. whoops. It was getting on in the evening so we decided to hop back on the tube to get back for dinner (Indian at a place around the corner, very good stuff), pre-party (Stellaaaaaaaaa), showers, and mixology (cheaper to pack a rum and coke to sip on the tube than to attempt to make it up at the bars). Saturday night out was fun, met up with Liz again, in South Kensington near the hospital works at...she has an evil sense of humor and walked us past a house owned by one "Hugh Grant". Disreputable fellow I hear. After meeting up at a pub near the Tube we rocked out at Chateau 6 until closing time...tried to get in somewhere else, to no avail (three more dudes?! no thanks!).

Sunday: Even more tired/hungover than Saturday. We almost stayed in the room until checkout, Brian had to take off early to make it to his flight, so John and I decided to walk the other direction through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace, then south to the Natural History Museum (I demanded a photo of the Diplodocus) and then we spent a while in the Victoria and Albert Museum, including lunch. We walked past Harrod's...it has a Maserati dealership in it. that's just ridiculous. Past a place called High and Mighty (the better british name for Big and Tall). We were getting a little tired from walking and decided to hoof it back to where we were going to catch our bus back to the airport...caught up on some reading with the Economist and chilled for a bit. Then it was time to end the adventure...except John left his passport on the airplane and didn't notice until they were already boarding again, but he thinks it has been found in London now. yay!

PS The cars in London are insane. I saw no fewer than 20 Aston Martins, 10 Ferraris, 10 Lambo's, that Skyline, a ton of bentley's, a bunch of Rolls....it was nuts. crazy go nuts.

Payback

So, my all-nighter ended up taking retribution on me yesterday and today. I have fallen ill and am trying to recuperate before I fly to London tomorrow evening. Today was quite painful, a couple classes, learning how to use the printing system here, faxing in my signed job offer...all that good stuff. :P that's right. I'm employed! huzzah!

Yesterday I didn't do anything exciting...I was cooking in the common kitchen while Beck (aussie, from my hall) and her friends Judith (Dutch) and Eva (belgian) were making dinner, also Andres (canadian of spanish descent I believe, lives on my hall). The girls were eying my pasta, but I let them try it and now they love me. Tonight was almost the same, I was cooking chicken quesadillas, and I made a 2nd one for Beck and Judith to split. I've offered to share many times, and really don't mind. Cooking for people is fun.

Tomorrow, a flight to London. Maybe I should look into where to go...

Superbowl XLII

So as planned, I went to O'Leary's for the Superbowl. I left home around 9:30pm and ended up getting to a different O'Leary's than planned (some American entrepreneur has 20 or so restaurants across Sweden and a couple in Denmark). Kickoff wasn't until 12:30, and the game, the fantastic game, didn't end until after 4am. Sean and I had no idea how to get home from where we were (I had planned a night bus route from the other bar) so we waited for the first metro of the morning at 5:10. Unfortunately, I had class yesterday at 8:30 in the morning and decided that I would just stay awake for the entire night rather than risk passing out and missing class completely. I was exhausted all day, did my reading for class today and then couldn't fall asleep. I was very bitter about that...(finally crashed out after 1am). Anyhow, good work Giants and hahahahaha, take that Patriots.

Baby got back

Last night was the Exchange Student Dinner, fantastic food (wonderful shrimp salad, baked herb/citrus chicken on risotto, tiramisu), good drink (schnapps at every seat when we walked in, that got a few laughs) and people making asses of themselves :) Each well represented country was asked to get up and perform something from their home country. Judging by the title, you know what the 7 USA students chose to do :) Only one verse, but I feel it was plenty...better than the two french guys making out after a lesson in how to give a proper french kiss :P (hehe).

We had reduced entry fees at a club, where I finished the process of drunkification started by my neighbors not really liking the schnapps...and the constant flow of wine. ended up staying there til nearly 3, catching the last metro home and stayed up til 6am drinking a bottle of wine with paul and kasia. great times in a now snowy stockholm!

Swedish History

Thursday I went to the Swedish History Museum. Why so many museums? Why this one?! Vikings baby, Vikings. Pretty large exhibit...the highlights you ask? Swords, piles of plunder, and bones. pretty morbid really. Very fun though! A lot of pictures, now added (just clicky on the one pic that rotates, it'll take you to the full album). Oh, the lowlight? a tie between the textile room and the Iceman exhibit. why? icemen are cool right? no, not really...not when there isn't anything actually from the iceman and it is just an educational room with nothing real to the exhibit. such a tease.

Allhuset Appreciation Society

Wednesdays are the official start of the weekend around here for some reason, and I've found that I'm ok with that. Especially because the student pub at Stockholm University has an awesomely cheap event for everyone who lives up here. 30SEK to get in, half liter beers for 30SEK. (compared to 100-150 at most clubs to get in, and 50-70 for a beer).

Anyhow, more appropriately Wednesday started off with cooking with people from my hall and some of their friends, very fun. I made Spaghetti Carbonara. deeeeelicious as usual. Though, I made the other people jealous as they chowed down on their meatballs, veggie mix and potatoes. However, I did offer to share before they even started cooking, so...not my fault. though they're now demanding I cook for them sometime soon...

Back to the bar. so, things were fun until I saw a bunch of people rush off all concerned like around my friend Emrick, apparently someone shoved their way past him on the dance floor and he gave a shove back with something like "hey, watch where you're going" and then he had a bottle broken on his head...and seriously, the escalation was that fast. no exaggerations. weird. he's pretty cut up, but ok.

Sunday Through Tuesday

Soooo yeah, nothing too exciting happening the past couple days. I was going to do work on Sunday, but only had a little reading to do because my professors are even lazier than I am and won't post any reading for the 2 classes I currently have. Weird. aaaaand, I really feel it is too early to select paper topics :)

So I've been pretty lazy. I've read a whole bunch of an online scanned copy of the Berserk manga recently. good stuff. for the many fans I know, I'd suggest reading it if you want to know what happens after the series ends. aaaand as a disclaimer, if you thought it bloody or anything before...it is way more so in the paper format.

Oh, I missed a swedish lesson today, but for a good cause. I meant to go watch a rugby match with the irish fellow paul earlier today at 3:30, leave a little early to make the swedish lesson at 5:15, but apparently they had the game on 2.5 hours late so we watched soccer, another match, and had a few beers while just hanging out. fun times watching irregular sports (for an american I feel.)

Birthday Celebrations

So I'm not too terribly hungover :)

Just a little headache from dehydration, but that is easily cared for. People came over from the surrounding dorms (the guys from downtown didn't make it up here, but, shit happens and it is quite far away, thier loss :P )... Drinks, music (what little partyish music I have), and eventually we went out on the town to another club, the name of which I completely forget and couldn't find again if I tried. The aqvavit and herring did a number on me. hehe.
dancing, drinking and such followed by going with the exchange students for drunk food at mcdonald's. ew. and, no, I didn't have anything. I've only been up for an hour and a half now, but I think I may need a nap :)

27th on the 25th!

It's my birthday!

I woke up late, went and had indian food for lunch...had class, then went and got some tasty looking salmon, which I just tossed in the oven. the festival portion starts later :)

Chuck

So if you watch chuck....you know they're nerds and they discuss fantastic sandwiches from time to time....well, here in Sweden I have met a fantastic sandwich. On a nice roll, roast beef, lettuce, crispy onions (like you use to make green bean casserole), and potato salad. so f-in' good!

I hate the person who lived in my apartment before me.

He obviously spent all of his time ripping his ethernet cable out of the wall instead of unplugging it...or maybe just kicking his cable repeatedly. Either way...my internet stopped working completely and I have to get someone to replace the damned socket. However, the...RA/building caretaker/enforcer just called and he's going to go fix it today. huzzah!

Football!

So football was very cool, the bar is good and does cheaper beers for people on football days (since there wasn't a seat free at all). However, the best part is that someone recognized our table as americans (perhaps that we were speaking english) and came over and invited us out to watch the green bay vs. giants game. pretty sweet, so I was the only one who went...they logged into a friend's slingbox in chicago and projected the game onto the wall...around 3:15 I had to go (giants 20, green bay 17) and missed the end of the game. I also missed my bus because I waited at the wrong stop on the wrong side of the street, I had felt pretty cool 'cause I found the stop in the first place...too bad I was completely turned around and tried to go south instead of north!

walking and more night buses got me home though, and only 30 minutes later than my original route would have.

Rugby

In addition to finding an american bar that will show football games, I've found an irish bar that plays all of the soccer and rugby matches. Paul (from Ireland) and I went down and watched two games this afternoon. His team lost unfortunately, but Munster put a solid whipping on the London Wasps. hehe, wasps.

Can't wait to watch a whole lot of six nations games there.

O'Leary's

I found the american bar! I know they have at least the pats game tomorrow, ideally I can make friends with the owner and hang around to watch green bay vs. the giants. go pack! why? 'cause brett favre is amazing. of course, I will be watching the superbowl there too.

Sad Museum, Happy London!

No classes scheduled for today either, so I slept in and eventually wandered downtown to go to the Mediterranean and Near East Antiquities Museum. I should have read a review I guess...It was small, didn't have too much...but chances are I still would have gone (what with the Ancient Near East courses I took at Hopkins and such, the interest was definitely there)!

I also wandered by the outdoor market, vegetables and fruit for far cheaper than the markets around here. bonus!

Upon arriving home, Tanzawa and I planned out a trip to London, we'll meet my US roommate Brian there. We'll be flying in pretty late on a Thursday evening and coming back Sunday (7-10th of Feb). So, if anyone knows the coolest stuff to do in London, let me know!

I'm currently trying to get people excited about a little bit of pre-partying up here at Lappis before going out later...which I can only presume will happen. Tomorrow I want to go to the Natural History Museum, apparently very good. Hopefully it turns me back on to museums in Stockholm!

Neglect

I've been neglecting the site already...but I blame my internet at my dorm. it has been working/not working on and off since I got here, but yesterday decided that it was just plain done. the company suggested it may be because of my cable...since they could detect that it should be working at the socket. sigh. I've got a new cable now, but I really doubt that was the problem, but I sure hope it is.

I went to the Vasamuseet with Tanzawa (too many John's at UNC) today, it was fantastic...everything I hoped and more actually. I had no conception for how staggeringly large the boat is. it looks like it would be able to float even now if you put it in the water it is so well preserved and the best thing of all was the random poster of AAAAHHnold in his Conan the Barbarian in the mythology section. someone obviously has a sense of humor.

I took a ton of pictures around stockholm in the past few days, I know you anxiously await their debut on my picasa page. they'll be there as soon as I get online. (I'm at a PC lab now).

PS swedish girls are hot.

21:00 13-1-2008

So much to tell, so much I want to go to sleep…I’ve been overpaying for text messages on my US phone for a couple days now. Last night I decided that unfortunately enough, the only way I was going to get to do anything is if I walked down to school where the other UNC guy has his room (john tanzawa). Unfortunately is was raining a little and the map I had only had half of the route on it (the 2nd half), and while I had checked out the route to school online before, I had to do it from a 5 day old memory. Didn’t get lost and got in touch w/ Mikael, my friend and unofficial exchange buddy who was at UNC this fall. So I went and checked email for important stuffs, then hung out with a gaggle of exchange students. We played a very convoluted version of Kings with screwdrivers…I was as lucky as always and drew the 4th king out of the last four cards. Everyone was pretty cool, there were even a few of the exchange buddies around who helped us get to the Soder, a place with a bunch more bars and clubs than downtown proper (where HHS is located). We stayed out ‘til closing time (3am) and people’s drunk-hunger made us miss the last train home at the metro but we piled into cabs and made it home just fine.

I crawled out of bed around noon today and immediately got a text from Tanzawa letting me know when he was going cell phone hunting. I needed a charger and to buy some credit for the prepaid card that was given to us in our welcome packet so I decided to hop the metro down. I had to find the stop first, easier said than done since I had the aforementioned useless map. I bought my month long pass (620 Kronor, just under $100) which, as usual, is a pretty good deal since each ride is about $5. So we ventured out, actually ran into another couple exchange students at the Phone House, walked down to the Gallerian (relatively nice mall), got what we needed and decided to wander around some just looking at Stockholm. We walked a couple miles, saw the Nordika Museet and the Vasa Museet which I will have to get back to for picture taking soon. Then we got lazy and hopped on the metro back towards school. Tanzawa and I feasted on some delicious Indian food, we both requested spicy and were well rewarded with runny noses and sweating.

Now I’m just biding my time ‘til tomorrow for orientation. Still no internet. Poop.

17:45, 12-1-2008 Stockholm

I had my first embarrassed moment here in Stockholm a few hours after arrival. I was at the relatively well stocked mini-grocery store in my complex of dorms, paying with my credit card…the little machine was asking me to do something, there were no cognates there to let me fake my way through it. I could have faked the “show ID to clerk” one, but the accept transaction one was impenetrable.

I like my room, pictures to follow, and rearranged it to my tastes…unpacking and setting up is quick when you’re only dealing with two suitcases and a backpack. I’ve set up the mini-ironing board that someone left here because I’m going to have to iron nearly everything I wear for the next couple weeks until it is all ready (or maybe tomorrow ‘cause I have no idea how to connect to the internet or anything).

Alright…I’m going to walk down to the school now. Maybe I’ll spot an ATM on the way, I need a day or so worth of cash to get by on ‘til I can swing by the post office Monday or Tuesday. Bank of America tried to sell at 5.97 Kronor, even the ForEx here in Stockholm is at 6.2…30 or 40 dollars difference if you toss a thousand at it.

Leaving Iceland

I hate airports. I mean, this airport is really nice. Easy traffic flow, the short-term parking is the size of a football field…yet they still tell you to get here two hours early. I did. Unwise…maybe I thought that international travel would somehow be different and require me to jump through more hoops or something. Nope. Now I’m bitter. I’m in a decently comfortable chair, surrounded by very nice hardwood flooring, and decent architecture too doesn’t seem cheap or old/dirty at all. I’m typing away in word, prepping this entry for when I have a chance to load it (current time is 6:14, my flight leaves in 91 minutes…), because I’m not going to pay for the wireless. So I get to waste a bunch of time and might be out the $10 or so “rental car refill” charge. Because at 5:43 when I was 5 minutes from the airport I thought I might NEED my 2 hours. Boooo! I say might in reference to this charge because the needle never really got below the F since I didn’t really drive it that far…

PS I love my suitcases. Four wheely rolly dealies. Snazzy, so while everyone else is tugging two suitcases behind them I’m kind of just guiding mine along upright in front of me. Ah technology (eons old technology!)

No squirrels...just Rabbits

Stockholm does not have squirrels...but it does have rabbits. I walked the three miles to school the other day (I had no Kronor for the fare) and saw 4 rabbits. very weird.

Total Pwnage

My site got a rotating photo album before WeCrow.

Total pwnage.

MMm. fish.

Creamy awesomeness. that's all you need to know about icelandic cuisine. I ordered Lobster Soup and "Pan Seared, Bacon Wrapped Monkfish"...holy crap. the soup was a cream sauce with huge chunks of lobster hidden under the surface with a blob of butter melting in the middle. I gained a pound looking at it...good thing I lost a pound walking everywhere today in 0 degree Celsius weather.

Regarding the main course, well, fish I hadn't had (somewhat tasty, very firm fish) wrapped in bacon (and that makes everything better)...on top of a bed of half tasty potato wedges (but not deep fried or anything) and half mixed vegetables (traditional red cabbage meets snow pea pods, red pepper and minicorn thingies)....with a side of another delicious cream sauce.

Iceland is expensive, obviously, they've got fish...and lava rocks...I would definitely come back here and only once I've been working for a few years.

Oh, side note on my supershady car rental...I asked if I could drop it off at the airport at 6am, the guy gave me a sad look...and said "just go to short term parking, leave the ticket and key under the floor mat". however, this guy did cost 70% as much as any other car rental. booyah.

Iceland

Blue Lagoon

It feels like a different day entirely than before my midday nap...and I feel so much better after lounging around in warm steamy geothermal goodness. the deal is...blue lagoon is actually man-made. accidentally man-made. they put in a geothermal powerplant and the residual water started forming pools, that they figured would just drain into the lava rocks...didn't. sealed all the holes with silica and formed the supersweet spa.

ok. time to get someplace to put my pictures online so I can get them loaded up here.

Iceland

I'm in Keflavik. it's cold. I landed around 7 in the pitch black. it's 10:23 now and finally things are a little grey out there. with what looks like a potential sunrise on one horizon. Something glitched online, I need to sort out my blue lagooning now. I don't want to miss the geothermal spas. if I do, I shouldn't have stopped here.

Well, now Iceland sucks a little. there's no record of my reservation to go to the Blue Lagoon. Also, when I was talking with the Iceland Air person in Reykjavik, she said I could get a shuttle from the hotel desk....the receptionist now thinks I'm an idiot because there is no such shuttle. BOOOOO! rent a car for an afternoon? taxi? hike? hmmm.....

Anxious!

So, I woke up this morning, got dressed and now...I have 11 hours til I leave from BWI, 8 hours til I get to BWI, and 6 hour until I leave for BWI. holy crap holy crap holy crap. I'm all packed up, suitcases weighing in under 50 pounds each and the carry on backpack that I got at REI on tuesday is all set with my Iceland adventure pack.

I hunted around for hours yesterday trying to find the best deal on hotels in the Keflavik area, as I had decided that a trip to Reykjavik would just be too complicated (it's about 45 minutes from the airport, and I leave early as crap on Saturday). So, turns out, that Iceland Air must be in cahoots with everyone around there...or just keeps an eye on prices closely. Their rooms were cheaper than almost everyone at their Flughotel that is 5 minutes from the airport, their package to take you over to the blue lagoon is cheaper than independently hopping a bus there and back...etc...

So yeah, I get in at 7am, then have to pretend that I don't feel like it is 2 or 3 am and be useful enough to do stuff and not just sleep all day in Iceland.

Getting Ready

I leave tomorrow....time for last minute laundry and organizing everything that has to come with me to Stockholm. I spent yesterday bopping around picking up things, a backpack of the proper dimensions for use on cheap euro airlines, sweet convertible pants for when I'm backpacking, and some basics. Today was "omg, I don't have headphones" day...and a power converter for John Tanzawa (the other guy from UNC Kenan-Flagler who is already in Stockholm).

I still haven't really figured out what I'm going to do in Iceland for a day yet. My flight out to Stockholm is at 7:45...too early to make getting back to the airport easy from Reykjavik (the airport is a half hour or so away in Keflavik). Soooo yeah. I guess that's something else I have to do today. whee.