riding on the bus with my sister(s)

what happens when mass transit breaks down in a city where the majority of the population doesn't drive? absolute chaos.

on saturday fire raged through the fridhemsplan station. the city was forced to close both this station and the stop at t-centralen, the city's central station, to protect the populate from the toxic fumes and smoke that clouded the tunnels beneath the city. my roommate shae, her visiting sister kaleigh, and i had decided to spend the day exploring the area down by the waterfront in slussen. we were on our way to fridhemsplan when they shut down the trains. the passengers began to stir and the conductor's voice crackled over the intercom. what we gathered from the behavior around us (obviously not from our grasp of swedish language), we had to get off. the transit system was going to send buses to västra skogen, the station we were now stranded at.


the first bus pulled in. hundreds of people rushed to all its doors. crammed full, the bus pulled away, and we were left to wait for the next one. i guess we weren't aggressive enough. the next bus pulled in. i got on, but shae and kaleigh couldn't. "ursäkta," i said to the men around me, "i have to get off." i squeezed out the side door and the bus pulled away.

we finally made it onto the third bus. just barely though. shae was the second to last person on. the bus smelled terrible and it was half and hour and another bus ride before we could breathe again. disgusting.

better than that time kirsten dunst was marie antoinette

"they have the most attractive royal family."

that was ben somogyi's immediate response when i told him my intention of studying in sweden. ben knows my weakness: attractive people. with this in mind, i had to visit the palace in which the royal family resides (not to be confused with the palace in the old town in which they work).

the family lives on the island of drottningholm. to get to the island you can take a boat for 40 krona, or you can take the metro and then a bus, which for us (with our program-purchased unlimited ride passes), is free. we went with option two. this longer and less glamorous commute was worth it though. not for the money we saved, but because of the amazing thai tourists we ran into. they all had matching sanrio bags, bombhead haircuts, soft drinks from mcdonalds, and dragon print sweatshirts. the two girls, although wearing kind of scary-bondage-y heels were still such midgets. i'd say 4'5" at best. they as we pulled into our stop outside the palace gate with our new friends (i wish), it became very clear to me that this was going to be a 'money rules' kind of day.

my favorite room was definitely the stateroom in the main building. in order to prove his legitimacy as a ruler, one of the kings commissioned lifesize portraits of all the major monarchs of europe during his reign. all of these portraits now hang in the stateroom. it was really amazing to see all of these figures in one place. hey isabella, hey franz joseph. since the palace is old and precious they were all "no photo." sorry.

then we headed up to the chinese pavilion. i felt like i 'got' it because i'm like so in touch my azn roots. nbd. then we had waffles and coffee in the pavilion cafe made-to-order by a girl dressed like a milkmaid.

the worst food to have ever touched my lips

this is a somewhat belated post, but don't blame me, blame my terrible internet situation. last week there was a festival in my teeeown to celebrate two summertime favorites, kräftor and surströmming. kräftor are crayfish, a swedish culinary darling of late august. as my last experience with them was at new orleans night in burton dining hall (wlcm2thewetlands) was overall quite negative, i was eager to give them another shot. for 50 krona you get a plate with 4 kräftor, a slice of mild white cheese, and an inch and half of crusty bread. the kräftor were delicious. the sundbyberg lyons had steamed them in a a salted water bath laced with lemon and dill. v. simple & v. good.

the same cannot be said for surströmming, the other food whose cartoon representation graced the banners and newspaper advertisements for the festival. surströmming is fermented herring. this rotten fish is not so much a favorite among swedes, but rather something that continues to find a place in contemporary swedish gastronomy as a point of tradition. my swedish teacher told us that no one eats it any more, with the exception of some men of older generations who enjoy the sense of nostalgia it inspires. it has a "rat smell, a disgusting rotten rat smell," she said. i had to try it.

the surströmming booth was located on the edge of the festival premises. the fish's defining quality, its stench, ensures that the surströmming is placed down-wind of all else, especially the talent show. the tweens don't take very kindly to this tradition. of the five of us attending the festival, only bobby, scott, and myself were bold (read: dumb) enough to want to try surströmming. fortunately, we were too cheap to order individual portions, so we split one three ways.

the fish is served in the skin with minced purple onion, boiled potatoes, and a rye-based flat bread called tunnbröd. all in all, the smell was worse than the taste, but i think maybe the texture of the skin was the worst part of all: slimy, sticky, cold, the fish was much better without it. i would be lying if i told you that i enjoyed the surströmming, but i can say that i count it as a valuable life experience.

dance dance dance

last friday i attempted to re-live my p4k '09 experience at the swedish pop music festival, popaganda. notable acts this year included musicians from both here and abroad. many of my program friends were especially excited to see jenny wilson, whom we had (understandably) confused with jenny lewis. whatever j.lew, jenny wilson was just as capable of being our silver lining.


imagine my horror and disbelief when i arrived to find that popaganda was not as sugary-sweet as the posters around campus had led me to believe, but rather a coven of witches co-led by the arch-goblin-meets-jesus-heir to the benihana fortune, steve aoki, and of course the grand-master witch herself, lykke li. i mean, i knew steve aoki was moderately terrifying, but i had absolutely no idea lykke li was such a dark personality. the sky actually opened up when she took the stage. she continued on a percussive rampage, pounding on tribal drums, the floor, and her own body. thunder clapped. rain began to pour (let it fall). i was crushed between swedish megas, a grinding azn girl and her bf from the states, and a particularly drunk demon in a fedora who passionately butchered all of the lyrics to "breaking it up."

still, i had a great time. i also successfully managed to order a beer in swedish (en öl, tack) without being asked to repeat myself. my friend and program-mate scott and i also made a swedish friend. she called herself "j" and had traveled with her friend "ginger" all the way from gothenburg to see mgmt. scott wanted to hang out with j again on saturday night, but as i was still bruised from friday, it just wasn't in the cards. sorry j, maybe we'll hit you up next time we're in gothenburg.

stkhomies

i'm here! actually, i've been here for a while, but my access to internet has been somewhat limited. anyway, i've wi(red) again, and ready to keep you posted on my life in stockholm.

things that have happened since i arrived:
ONE. i've moved into my apartment in sundbyberg. as sundbyberg is nearly impossible to pronouce (sun-bee-by), we've started to refer to it as sumpan, its local nickname. sundbyberg is a suburb of stockholm. it's about 20-30 minutes from the city center by metro.

TWO. orientation trip to the island of finnhamn. rustic luxury. cabins + swimming + new friends.

THREE. we visited a bar called BAR filled with swedish goblins. we drank a couple pints of åbro and grooved to "hungry heart" before they closed at one. good night out.

that's just a small taste of what's been happening up here since my arrival. THERE WILL BE MOAR. don't want to share to much right meow. keep 'em guessin', m i rite?

i'm on my oui

in less than forty-eight hours i will be on an airplane en route to stockholm. i'd better finish packing. wish me luck.