The Stockholm Syndrome

From The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about how the USA may turn into Sweden:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Note: There is no IKEA furniture called "Flurven" (can't even type that 'u'-letter, doesn't exist!) or "Gimmelböp", it's not even Swedish words that mean anything! Also, Social Democratic politician Leif Pagrotsky's beard used to be much bigger!

Reunion

This Saturday I had a reunion with my former senior level school class, since it was 10 years ago we finished school. I've got good contact with around half a dozen of my former class mates, but still quite a couple I haven't seen in some years, and also fun to see everyone since most people live other where now.
I met up with Joel, Johan, Isak and Aron to start off the night a bit at Joel's place. As always, very cool to see the guys again and be all together. Then we headed off to the place where we were going to have dinner with the rest of the people that had signed up for the reunion. It was really enjoyable from the start and there were lots of things to talk about without feeling like it was forced. After the dinner and desert we went down to the ground floor where there was a nightclub for everyone (not just us at the reunion), and some more old class mates joined in. All in all I think we were around 15 of us, and I think everyone had a really great time!

Football fest!

In England I used to have Arsenal as my favourite football team. Mostly I think because they had a some Swedish players during the 90s. But more or less just had it as my team if someone asked who I supported, didn't really knew that much about them. However, now I think I found a team that I really like. After the amazing Champions League-game on Tuesday between Chelsea and Liverpool I consider myself more and more of a Liverpool-fan. Can never count them out, The Kings of Comebacks! Very likely I will be even more of a fan after I visited the city in June.
Still, not a team in the world can compete with my home town team Örebro SK. After have lost two games with 1-0 we really needed to win last night. I went down to a sports bar, which was packed, with Per, Tomas and Jakob to see the game and down a few pints. Of course the boys on the field finally won their first game and played quite well too, and I think we have Sweden's finest between the posts! Went to another bar after the game for some more beer and chat with my mates, and that always cheers me up when there's too much other things passing through my head, with the revision and everything.

Tjuvlyssnat

Idag på eftermiddagen satt jag någon timme på Örebro universitets biblioteket och fick äntligen lite studier gjorda. Har ju tidigare uttryckt vad jag tycker om universitetet, och blev inte mer imponerad idag. Visst, en öppen, ljus och vacker byggnad, men (utan att låta elitistisk eller så) det var verkligen ingen ordning på folk som satt där. Folk satt och hade högljudda diskussioner inte långt ifrån läsbåsen, och flera pratade högt i mobiltelefon utan att gå därifrån, väldigt störande. Det sistnämnda gjorde dock att jag fick ett litet skratt mitt i det tunga läsandet. En tjej svarade i sin telefon och sa bland annat detta:

- Vet du vad jag gjorde imorrse då? Cyklade till skolan, och blev då stoppad av en polis, för att jag cyklade mot rött. Fick böter på 1500 kronor ... Visste inte ens att man fick böter om man gjorde det! Och då fick jag ändå 500 kronor i rabatt för att jag var så snäll.

Får man inte cykla mot

Ayo technology

After having been without a camera since Manchester and without a mobile since I came back from Uppsala I killed two birds with one stone and ordered two new ones at the same time. Don't know much about technical stuff, especially not mobiles, but got some help from my brother and a friend. I settled eventually for a Nikon Coolpix s560 Blue and a Sony Ericsson w890i Mocca. Even though functionality and that they are convenient to have in the pocket play a big part, I must say the design do too, and I really like colourful things (like my laptop). I think it gives the extra touch to normally boring looking things. So in time for the weekend I will probably be able to take a lot more photos again (and put on here), both with my new camera and phone! Yey!!

Study hard, party hard

Now I'm back home from home (hard to say where I feel most at home right now, kind of got three homes at the moment, which is mostly a good thing) in Örebro after a few days visit to Uppsala. Since my brother, who now lives there, needed to get some things I could take mom's car, and drove the 175 km over there Sunday evening. After some difficulties to find where he lives (not as far outside the city centre as I thought) I arrived and then got a ride to Tobias where I would spend the night. I left my bags in his room and then me, him and David went downtown to GH's pub for a couple pints since Cathy, who I know from Durham, would be over from Stockholm and keep her working friend company behind the bar. The place was empty except two other people, who left not long after we arrived, and none of us really expected anything else than a few beers, a nice chat, and then home. However, since the girls had nothing to do other than serving us beers they joined in and we got to try out the large selection of beers in the pub, like 8-10 % Belgian Trappist beers. Soon it was after midnight and closing time, but then we got the offer to head along to an afterparty, which we did. It was a group of people from the student nation who enjoyed some cold beers and a hot sauna, so we quite quickly joined in since I really like to sit in a steamy sauna. Me and Toby headed back to his place at 2am. Who could ever know a Sunday could be so much fun! Even though I woke up a quite much later than I had planned Monday morning I still got some work done at uni. Maybe not as much as I would need, but still better than nothing and compared to what I've done before in Örebro. After a couple hours there I met up with my sister and her boyfriend coming from Stockholm to have dinner at my brother's place with his girlfriend. It was very nice to meet all together and cook and eat together, especially since I had to rush away the night before. Also went for a walk around the neighbourhood, which ended up as a funny photoshot.

Tuesday morning I went downtown to have a bit of look in the shops in Uppsala. Had some friendly company and fashion advices (although we don't share likes that often) from my tenant Karoline. Found a cheap, just ordinary but still cool, white piqué shirt with a blue lines on the collar and on the end of the sleeves at H&M, and a pair of black classic sunglasses from Cheap Monday that together with my outfit for the day, black tshirt and black jeans, made me look a bit like Glasvegas-singer James Allan. Studied a bit in the afternoon, before I got ready to head over to Daniel's place for a party, where I found out I apparently and surprisingly, and much appreciated, was the guest of honour since I made a bit of homecoming, before going out to more than packed Snerikes for the night. Left the city late afternoon yesterday. It was gread to be back, and had a couple of great days in good company of old (and new) friends. Kind of look forward to be back in Uppsala for autumn, but now I look forward to head back to Durham again.

Get Busy

Haven't been much study time lately, just looked through some books. Haven't really done much at all. But Friday night I got my ass out of the sofa and met up with Tom and Jake to go out and grab some pints. Drank two, one Örebro Bitter and one Newcastle Brown Ale, paid £10. Not exactly college prices. The two pubs we went to were both really busy, and saw some old familiar faces, but after we had sit down for a while we decided to head back to Tom's. The night wasn't really anything special, but doesn't have to be when you're seeing your mates again after a bit more than two months, still cool.
Last night I just stayed home and relaxed with a film. Saw Woody Allen's latest one, "Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona". Really great acting from everyone in it, and it made you wanna go to Barcelona to see all the cool architecture, art and stuff in the city (and find some good looking American tourists too), but I don't think the film itself was anything special, worth seeing though.
So now it's time to get busy, and as I did during the last term break I'm gonna pack my bag and head over to Uppsala. Leave you with a great song from Primal Scream's latest album:

Primal Scream - "Uptown"

Lovely day

Haven't done much this week, gets a bit boring. Sleeps till almost noon, read quite a lot (although not the academic literature that I should), and take walks with my four-legged friend Lenny. Today I woke up pretty early by the sun shining through my curtains, had a long big breakfast, and then went out for a long walk with Lenny (so happy it wasn't his time to go), and who can complain then?! The sun was shining from a clear blue sky, the snow went away as quick as it came, and with great music in my ears things couldn't feel better and I probably could have walked around for a lot more than the 75 min I did. The plans for the nearest future is to get started with the revision for the exams in May, take a trip to Uppsala, and maybe get away on some spontaneous adventure. Just keep my fingers and toes crossed that the fantastic spring weather will stay now.