The Swedish stereotype

As with all stereotypes there are some things that are true, some that are just misunderstandings, some that are false and some that are wildly exaggerated and generalized. Sweden is a small country with a few neighboring countries (Denmark, Norway, Finland) that has a more complex picture but none the less stereotypes about the typical swede. In the rest of the world the information is generally weak and fact come from either popular culture, some personal interest or just guessing. And of course America’s leisure industry has been of great help forming the law about the Swedish way. These “facts” about Swedish people are a mere conclusion of all those factors together. The reason for me to say this is because a swede is always cautious and careful to not step on anybody’s toes or worst of all; their integrity. 

To keep that up we are diplomatic, and can argue for our sake at the same time we see both sides of the coin. Our society is based upon a individualistic, but at the same time tolerant, life stance. Therefor we are often seen as naïve when we assume that other people will naturally stand up to oral agreements, be punctual and follow social rules and standard even if they are not out spoken. People from other cultures think this makes us arrogant, and cold. To make it worse we have one of the largest personal spaces between each other, going inside of it is one of the easiest ways to make a swede uncomfortable. Cultures where you hug and kiss while greeting will remark that swedes (especially males) take offence in such manner. In Sweden a handshake is sign of warmth and friendship, which to other makes us polite but way to formal.  In shallow conversations we love to talk about the weather and some have a bad habit of turn everything to sarcasm or ironic since we are passive-aggressive.

When we go abroad the Swedish calm will turn into wild Viking berserk. The Swedish alcohol policy is a high taxes (and likewise on everything else) and monopoly of distribution (which is one of many monopolies), which makes most thirsty Norsemen to go haywire as soon as they see cheap and easy accessible alcohol. This makes a lot of locals in especially Greece and Spain to look down on how awfully the swedes behave (maybe only challenged by the brits) on vacation. Not that we can’t drink at home. Most ceremonial days revolves around a mishmash of ancient Norse hedonism, Christian twistery (although we are maybe the most secularized country in the world) and a never ending love for singing, drinking and making fools out of our self’s and then blame Bacchus. We feast at the crawfish party in august, and drink us self’s blind at midsummer, we never dance sober and if you didn’t know anything about Sweden, you probably knew our bastard child Absolut Vodka.

With all this craziness it’s a wonder we get anything done. But somehow we manage to prevail. Our political state is seen as one of the most boring, bureaucratic but most well-functioning ones in the world. The swedes have an extreme fixation for safety-thinking in every situation (can I hear you say Volvo?) and also a highly environmental conscious. Equality is also something we treasure and care for in to absurdity. With an Americans usual problem to separate communism from socialism, he would probably call the whole system for a commie-conspiracy. With such an law abiding population it’s ironic how millions of swedes commits crime every day, in file-sharing, which has become one of the greatest talkies the last couple of years, mainly because of the site The Pirate Bay.

And speaking of famous and infamous phenomena. Hollywood never miss a chance to make bof the complex structure of the yellow and blue flagship IKEA, funny remarks about construction errors spoken in a German accent (always that freakin German accent. Most people say that Swedish sounds like singing, so there is no logic in it). If they don’t confuse Sweden with Switzerland completely, you will get the blond, tall, blue eyed crazy Viking, or the just blond and stupid, Inga, Ulla or Greta.

But there are other sides that appear frequently as well. Apart from ABBA and Roxette, the Gothenburgian metal which became enormous world wide in the 1990s together with some other metal bands sets the standard anywhere. I’ve been called mr Ericson, while my finnish friend was called mr Nokia. People usually know that we are giving some kind of prize to famous people (like Obama they will say, which is funny since it is the Norwegian branch of the Nobel Prize who distributes it).

We have our elks, lingon and meatballs. Our smelly fish surströmming, Astrid Lindgren and Peter Forsberg. But all those things often become blurry for foreigners since we are such a damn small and cold country. At least we have Ingmar Bergman who earns respect and the Swedish sin, which was a stereotype from the 50s that Swedish film only was pornographically related and the country was morally beyond rescue. But in the end we are too insignificant to be payed any further notice about. The Germans finds our nature perversely interesting and our favourite motto is “lagom” which is roughly suffient or just right. The term to be unswedish is a positive remark, which may seem strange but is a way to say that we accept and cherish other cultures and traditions although we may not always be able to engulf them. No, we like to sit in our small red houses with white corners. With our dalecarlian horses, take a “fika” and one of our 1200 cups of coffee in a year and just be quiet. Maybe we finish it off with one bag of the Swedish tobacco snus under our lips, and a dream of the Swedish folkhem.

Bizarro bazar

Okay heyho! I'm starting to get a little accustomed to the life here in Mexico. At least a little bit. As I suspected the school is quite tough atleast if you're slacking,, if you keep up with your small little assignments you have almost every day ur fine. This Tuesday I had three hour long lesson about how to use the schools mixer table and an introduction to Pro Tools (on Mac). Oh and it was all in spanish =_= luckily I had a nice meximerican friend who helped me through, but it was a long time ago since I concentrated so much and understood so little. I drooled a bit because of the fine recording capabilities though, I will put my mittens on it soon :p. Oh and speaking of computers, I still haven't learned that @ is not at (:p) the tangent 2 but on the Q here, which annoys me everytime.. and of course that Mac OS is such an asshole to me :3

Last Thursday I got sick and was in a zombie-state til Monday which sadly ruined my planned trip to the town Puebla. Hopefully I'll get there someday. Anyways.. I got a little taste of the liberal medication system hear where you can go to practically any supermarket and get pretty heavy shit,, luckily I stayed to the lighter cough medicine since I of course drank something I only was supposed to gargle. My throat became awesome again, but my stomach took a hit later on :/ I'm good know though, just so you know :)

I've also traveled by bus two times now. The first time it went horribly wrong and I ended up somewhere in Xochimilco, luckily taxis are darn cheap (26 pesos for a rather long ride). And the other one was earlier today which went just fine. Apparently there is no real system to the bus traffic. There are numbers but no one knows where you can find what the different lines route are. 

Behind a black door, close to the school, I ate great Mexican food for a very cheap price. Apparently they escape some tax if they don't advertise that they serve food on the outside. Anyways. It was a three piece meal (lins soup, rice, enchiladas + meat) and a little candy as dessert. Great! But a comment on the candy which is usually tamarind and chili in some variation which is a chock of sweet/sour.. some combinations are great, others from the depths of hell. 

More food talk. I  can say that I disapprove of the frequent use of tomato juice, inte okej! The  Tomato/beer combination especially. I've also eaten some great burritos which are really massive, even the small once (20cm). The largest one you could order was 2m long!!!! Eating it by your self will get you in some kind hall of fame on u'll get free burritos for the rest of your life. If someone succed they certainly deserves it.

I've tried my first wrestling mask and I'm superpsyched to get one for myself and of course one for Hannes and watch a real Lucha Libre match. And on the merch topic, I've just come home from a huuge market where the piracy flows and every one lives in unity eh.. well actually I visited just before it closed so I only got a glimps of it.. but gosh there was a lot of cheap crap that I could have thrown sickly amounts of money on. A lot of music merch, records and lim edition packs, games for most consoles you can think of, chip cards, anime merch, plushies of mario, yoshi & company, plane models, shoes, freaky jewelry, solo cigarettes and aztec (?!) soul cleansing. And I only saw a little glimpse of it all. I should get a restraining order for that place. Sadly they have NTSC here and my search for a guitar is still going on ..

And I've finally tried the Mexican McDonalds which didn't let me down (it was of course cheeseburgers I ate ), except for the fact that they don't have any pepper for me to put in my ketchup >:( I wrote a little complaint note for that. Oh and you get the McFlurrys non flurried, well the candy thingies aren't mixed n mashed atleast.. And the cheeseburgers came in yellow paper.

I'll probably never cease to get amazed by the little things here, and that's awesome :) Stay tuned and true and away from the toughest street in town, Acoxpa. Now I'll listen to my newfound musical darlings Television while I anguish about Saturday when I might be forced to dance salsa. Ciao!

26 läppstift upp i luften

Mexico city is a city among the clouds. Bob Beamon was benefited by it in 1968, and I suffer from it in 2010. Walking gets me heavy breath and we shouldn't talk about walking the stairs. But is my goal to be able to walk the stairs up to the international office without being all dizzy.

In the weekend we went to Acapulco and experienced some real mexican heat. Apparently MC has got a little taste of what's happening in Europe since it's been really cold and apparently rained while I was gone (I feel so lucky :D). Anyways Acapulco was awesome and the first "real" beach I've been to. Great sunshine, great waves, great chillaxing spots. Atleast where we went out it was quite expensive but still worth it. I can't keep up with the Mexicans extreme stamina when it comes to dancing, but it's still nice to experience. Although I must say that they like buttersingers (smörsångare) a little to much for my taste :p The song for the trip must have been Pokerface, the food was definitely quesadillas and the drink must have been beer with lime, yumyum.

Oh and in the travels between Acapulco and MC I saw some of the Mexican countryside and nature and now I'm really psyched to go hiking in the mountains, it looks åsm. I've also been told that there is a Mexican version of Grand Canyon (that is even greater) that I would love to see as well.

Today I had my first classes and it was nice. I got thrown in to the spanish language directly with useful phrases (the ones about taxis being especially useful), counting and pronunciation (it's hard to differ between v and b since the Mexicans don't). I'm probably won't be able to understand the fast spoken language even after the course, but it's a good start. The others where two slightly different literature courses I think I actually will have a lot of fun with. I just have to get used to have a lot of homework. 

Last week we went to Xochimilco and took a boatride called trajineras in some canals which are the left overs I believe of the lake that once were where Mexico City is now. It's great fun, you should try it.

There is so much to say, but well that's all for now, I'll keep you posted.

The land of plenty

So here I am in my room in the house where I will be spending the next five months. It's quite large with old furniture and double bed, so I will have more than enough space to throw my things around. The lady who owns the house is nice but even though I said I don't speak Spanish she keeps blabbing at a high pace. Welcome to Mexico.

Most things that exist in Sweden exists here, but everything and every one is at least a little different. When I arrived at the Benito Juárez International Airport it was culture shock directly. I had absolutely no idea where to go and the language barrier was hitting me in the face with a sledge hammer. Fortunately there where a lot of helpful passengers that had visited Mexico before that helped me. And I needed that. A thing I've noticed here that they like to have a facade of formality that you have to be very careful and accurate with stuff, but when it finally gets down to business it's no biggie and can be solved later, with money or was not that important after all. So the lesson here is that you (I) shouldn't be worried about things so much, it will work out eventually. 

And Mexicans have a weird time perception, so you shouldn't count on any set time of event or that people will have any hurry executing your wishes. Somewhere in the chaos that is Mexico City people have found a way to deal with it really well. I'm still a little confused though :p Oh, and did I forgot to tell you? MEXICO CITY IS FRIGGIN HUUUGE. It's baffling and make my head spin every time I think about it. The skyline is amazing and never ends. People should come here just to witness that. 

As I've read a little about the Mexican history and witnessed it IRL I can tell you that the whole city is a large blend of cultures. I could talk about it for hours but I rather tell you about some observations I've done in my 4 days staying here. They will come in a pretty random order.

The Internet I'm writing this on is reeeeeeeeeally slow but apparently it's standard (2mb wifi shared on four people) =_= I hope the university have faster connection. But to my satisfaction Spotify works in Mexico even without premium. I know I gambled when I didn't bring my external hard drive but seems like the music is saved!

One of the first things I noticed was that the toilets in a mall I visited had boxes not adapted to my European height so I could precisely look in to the other boxes beside me (why I ever would want to do that :p) and the doors opened inwards which is a huuuge designer fail since even I had trouble getting out of there. I have also seen a whicked contraption in a bathroom where you had to push a lever that was stuck in the pipe where the water come from at the same time you tried to wash and rub your hands. What where they thinking?!?! 

Also duvet covers do not exist in Mexico and there is no salt or pepper in their Burger Kings But 3 different salsas (yea, ketchup is called salsa here). And speaking of salsa. There is nothing you can eat or drink that doesn't exist with chili or lime, they are crazy about it. In a Mexican home I counted to 18 different chilies and two bags full of lime. I haven't dared to try that many of them but I learned to like the standard green one and one red (good description aight :p) that is åsm using to vegetables like tomato and such. 

And buying stuff is another thing. There are stores everywhere, small shops, huge malls and people grilling chicken, tacos and selling pirated goods literally in the streets. A neat feat is that a lot of blocks have their own "house store" so if you need a cola or a snack you just have to walk around the corner. Or water for that matter because you can't under any circumstances drink the tap water so sadly you have to drink bottled water. The environment weeps.

Anyways, the malls are crazy. There is sooo much stuff everywhere and not organized in any reasonable order. In one me and my Finnish friend Lauri tried to buy bread but we couldn't find any normal and the ones we found we couldn't find any bags for. So we looked and looked and finally realized that you have to get a plate, put your bread there and then let a lady put in a bag for you :S And when you've paid for all your stuff there is a guy/girl putting all your stuff in free bags for you. That I'll probably miss when I get back home :/

Most stuff is really cheap, food and drinks are at least half price from sweden, but for some reasen shampoo and such is quite expensive and locked in special areas of the mall with really silly plastic walls. Pizzas are also the same price as in sweden (haven't tried them though).

Today we tried our first street taco and it was great! 10 pesos a piece, but we where also told that you shouldn't buy tacos cheaper than that (btw tacos is like a tortilla with some kind of meat, cheese, salsa and lime). And under any circumstances, do not eat vegetables from street kitchens, they can be deadly for untrained stomaches (you will get the wrath of Montezuma as it's called). I've also eaten a cactus like thing called Naupa

At new years eve we met some drunk buss drivers who said that I looked scary :D  And every tree in the city had lights all over them and many of the houses where decorated with blinking lights in forms of different stuff like snow men, rain deers, virgin mary or suns. There are also a lot of bushes and trees cut with faces in them, looks really funny.

Where I live (in Tlaplan) it's really calm and nice. Especially in the closed area where the house is. Yea, most blocks have guards watching them pulling a bar up and down allowing cars and pedestrians in and out. And about security. In Mexico City the police is everywhere. And most stores have guards and the mall guard even had a machine gun, so you shouldn't mess around. Although it's well known that the police is quite corrupt so a little money will solve most of your problems (like the first day we parked in a place we couldn't normally but gave 50 pesos to the police, sweet). Most houses are very colourful as well and I've found one totally in the colours of sweden.

The buses are quite scary and can be shaped how ever and drive how ever the want. There aren't any bus stops either and you don't know where they are going so I wouldn't try one in the first place. Crossing the street is probably the most dangerous task I've experienced yet at least the big ones. And there isn't a car here without scratches and bumps. Well when you can get a drivers license at 16 only by going to the office saying you can drive and don't use glasses it figures. The streets here are often quite uneven and can have sudden hight differences and holes so you have to watch your step. Well I think it is like that in Sweden too so no biggie. There are also a lot less stray dogs than I imagined and the first dozen dogs I saw had all jackets, which kind of freaked me out a little bit :p

I've gotten myself a Mexican telephone card and what I've learned is that they have craaaazy queuing system here, I have no idea how it works and that people don't exactly hurry completing their tasks. And of course not more than one out of ten knows any English.

In the mornings it's quite cold (yea you have to wear a jacket, oh nooes) but at noon it can get really hot which lasts til the evening (but inside it's always cool for some reason, you even need a couple of blankets when you sleep). And you can see the sky if the traffic is low. And finally one more thing, mom, if people are out in the sun here, they can use up to sun factor 70 :D

That's all for now.. hasta luego!

Popadelica - En fotoresa

Plåtade för Kårsordet.. blev ironisk nog fel i kommunikationen och jag fick bara med mig min egna knapphändiga digitalkamera, men blev en del okaj bilder iaf. Håll till godo!

Blev lite vaj i ordningen men jaja :p

När det blommar..

Lyssnar alldeles för lite på radio egentligen med tanke på mina ambitioner. Är ju riktigt kul bara man orkar slå på mediet. Winamp är på för länge och för ofta för dess eget bästa egentligen. De senaste dagarna har jag dock haft tillfälle att lyssna lite smått på radion och det genomgående temat har varit det otroligt milda väder vi har (inte bara på radion utan även på text-tv och nättidningarna har jag noterat denna "nyhet). Samtidigt har jag upplevt den värsta kylan på mycket, mycket länge. Det är nästan så man blir förbannad på radion när jag sitter i bilen och fryser arslet av mig och de förundras över mildheten i den ljumma bris osm tydligen sköljer över landet. Naturligtvis tog jag endast sommarjackan med mig ner till mina föräldrar.

I fredags hälsade jag på min gamla polare Hannes och den folkhögskola han går på. De har sportlov. Grymt fuskigt. Tyvärr blev det inte så mycket DS som besöket hade kunnat leda till, men jag kommer definitivt besöka honom igen. Var uppe hos någon där i närheten sedan på kvällen och hade hyss för oss. Råkade elda lite på min nya skjorta vilket gjorde mig ledsen, men än värre blev det när jag på något märkligt sätt lyckades backa sönder deras våg av glas (som stod precis vid ingånbgen, gnah!). Blev grymt deprimerad, svepte en massa saker och sedan bar de utför.

Väl hemma hos föräldrarna dagen efter väntade ett filmteam från grannfejden. Höll mig utanför bild för det mesta, men farsan ville spela lite som avslutning på söndagskvällen och man säger ju inte nej till ett jam. Så han ringer en polare och vi övar in lite låtar; Dylan, Stones och någon blues som teamet naturligtvis skulle filma. En speciell upplevelse minsann, fick göra några riktiga musikvideo-shots :D I alla fall så när allt var klart skulle de upp och lira också och så var rollerna ombytta. Så nu har vi Strix ljud-, kamera- och producentkille på video när de spelar lite, oväntat!

Efter en lång session av Phoenix Wright och Panel de Pon kom jag äntligen fram till ett kylslaget, men soligt Jönköping. Jag traska till skolan idag med mammas piroger och nyponsoppa i ryggsäcken och försökte sedan i lunchrummet envist få igång den nedrans micron. Efter några minuter fick jag hjälp av en händig kvinna och då slog det mig. Det är bara individer i lokalen av det kvinnliga (var påväg att skriva svagare men han säga FY högt till mig själv :p) könet. Överallt var det tjejor i alla åldrar som konverserade högljudt samtidigt som det förtärde dagens medhavda föda. Var massvis utanför, men räknade bara inuti själva rummet och där fann jag en stackars manlig representant tillsammans med tjugosju kvinnliga sådana och mig själv. Enligt mina kvicka empiriska studier verkar alltså männen på denna skola vara kraftigt underlägsna när det gäller att förbereda sig inför en lång arbetsam dag i skolan, alternativt betydligt slösaktigare eller helt enkelt anorektiker. Dagens skönhetsideal sätter kanske sina spår.

Just nu förbereder jag onsdagens radioshow genom att knåpa ihop en affisch och resultatet kan ni se här:



Lyssna gärna :)

I skogen i dimmornas land

Vissa band är lite bättre. Vissa människor sitter på pinnar några snäpp högre än dig. Queens of the stone age är en klurig konstellation av det bästa människan har att erbjuda. Josh Homme var den som fångade mig och tog mig till stonerns rymmningssäkra grotta. Det finns hårdare band, det finns flummigare band, men det är en äcklig precision i det Qotsa skapar. Det känns så klockrent, så enkelt, så genialiskt, så perfekt. Varje kant, varje krokig pusselbit känns existensberättigad. Inte förutsägbart, men ack så rätt. Jag försökte göra lite intrång på skivornas integritet och stycka upp de bästa bitarna och posta en slags lista som kanske inte är helt rättvis, men utav eliten.

Håll till godo:

Someone's in the wolf (Lullabies To Paralyze)
Skivans bästa spår är en oroande historia som bygger upp till ett maffigt crescendo och det är så bra att tårarna trillar på mitt tangentbord.


You can't quit me baby (Queens Of The Stone Age )
Jag gillar långa låtar. De har oftast mest att ge vilket återspeglas i denna lista. Denna ganska vackra låt har ett otroligt groove och Hommes kännsla fyller hela kroppen i en lätt obehaglig men tillfredställande reaktion.

Better Living through Chemistry (Rated R)
En av de bästa låtarna som någonsin gjorts. Detta är musiken som får döda att vilja resa sig ur gravarna och rangla i takt med de transliknande gitarrsmideri som försiggår genom hela låten. Psykedeliskt
Stämmningsfullt.

I think I lost my headache (Rated R)
Oroväckande toner fascinerar och attraherar. Jag. Kärlek. Göra.

Blås är fint

No one knows (songs for the deaf)
Första låten jag hörde och kanske den bästa låtuppbyggnaden av dem alla. Den är ju så catchy, herrejösses!

Sky is falling (songs for the deaf)
Mäktig, mäktigare, Sky is falling. Lika rädd som Asterix och Obelix var för denna katastrof, lika rädd är jag över hur bra denna låten är. Som att bli besatt av en riktigt ond ande.

Go with the flow (songs for the deaf)
Funderade på Songs for the dead eller Go with the flow, men de personliga minnena jag har av Go with the flow vinner. Faktum är att den vinner det mesta. Ytterligare ett tecken på Hommes geni. Så enkelt men så utomordentligt genialt.


In the Fade (Rated R)
Luta dig tillbaka, håll andan, se ljuset, se fåglarna, möta döden.

Avon (Queens Of The Stone Age )
Ibland behövs det bara ett litet trumfill för att kravla sig in på en lista. Jag bugar och bockar för en otrolig uppvissning i bäst-mästerskapen.

Everybody Knows That You're Insane (Lullabies To Paralyze)
Den drivigaste låten de gjort. Man vill vandra ut på fältet med sin lans och rustning och bara mosha järnet!

Run, Pig, Run (Era Vulgaris)
Känner mig lite skamsen när jag sitter här och hyllar ett band som har gjort en dålig skiva. Era Vulgaris funkade inte, inte alls. Detta var väl, förutom det självbetitlade bonusspåret, det enda som var något att ha. Tragiskt och jag bäver inför nästa skivsläpp. Även solen har sina fläckar.

The Bronze (Stone Age complication)
Bortglömd låt som förtjänar lite uppmärksamhet. Qotsa på toppen, där de hör hemma.

Det var det. Nu ska jag bränna mina ögonglober i Meteos.