Still Cold

Quick rundown of Day 3:

After deciding that the subway was the better way to get to school, we hop on like true Swedes and get to school at 10:00. We are picked up in front of school by a tour bus that will take us all around the actual city of Stockholm. The city of Stockholm is an archipelago in and of itself. It is harder to tell that this time a year as snow covers the whole city. However, we cross many bridges in our bus while touring Stockholm's biggest islands. All in all, Sweden has about 24,000 islands....kind of insane. I continue to fight the battle between taking pictures and trying not to look like a tourist. This tour allowed me to take some though, and I will post those after this. We see some pretty neat sites on our tour. They drive us through the area with all the diplomats homes, which are all ridiculous. We also get to see the US Embassy for what is hopefully the only time. We get to see where I will pick up my Nobel Prize for Economics in about 30 years. We also leard that Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was apparently a "pacifist" This from the same tour guide that called the Vikings travels "expeditions" as opposed to "rapings and pillagings" We also learn that every Swede that has ever been in a history book is named Gustav. I venture to say that this made history exams pretty easy in grade school. (although they get no grades until 9th grade.) We also see a line of about 10 three year olds that are all attached by a chain with helmets on. Cutest thing I have ever seen. Although, if one falls, I am pretty sure that they all go down.

We learn of a market underground that apparently sells some pretty good kabob. You might remember from my Turkey travels that I happen to love kabobs. Lunch is set. Joe, Sergei, Tomas, and I head to the underground kabob place as soon as we get off the bus. Luckily, we have two and half hours for lunch....so we should be set. Sergei is from a German town near Frankfurt, and Tomas is from Helsinki, Finland. Finnish accents are pretty awesome, and apparently their language is similar to absolutely nothing anybody has ever heard before. I go into a store to purchase a beanie as my head and ears are freezing. I have my first episode where I hold out the Swedish money in my hand while the lady checking me out pulls the correct amount from my hand. I will soon learn all these coins. We also stop for an expresso on the way home. The guys behind the counter ask where we are from. We tell them Atlanta, and the guy responds "ahh, so you know Jermaine Dupree" Glad to know that is what Atlanta is famous for. The other guy then says "Hotlanta" this makes more sense as when we had the Olympics is was over 40 degrees pretty much the whole time.

Our last couple sessions of the day include a lesson in Swedish. Our teacher is pretty awesome. She has the best accent I have ever heard. The end of our class involves a three paragraph article on the Swedish language. She randomly asks Joe to read it aloud.....this is what Joe does best. His deep, melodic voices puts everybody at ease.

On the way home, I stop and grab McDonald's (that's right, i needed a big mac). The portions are much smaller here as I suppose this is part of Operation "Keep Swedish People Hot" I applaud it. Coke is so good btw. We hop on the bus and head home. Tomorrow is gonna be a super long day and so much fun. We end with a cocktail hour from 5-6. I then have a pre-dinner party at my group leaders house. Then, dinner....then, prepreparty, then a preparty, then out to clubs. Very customary in Sweden for people to go to many parties before going to the club, as drinks are expensive once you are out. Also, the clubs are open til 5 am, so no rush to get out. I bought hair gel....so I am ready

Things Gustav has told me that I am pumped about

- Booze Cruise - Mentioned this briefly before. Apparently it is about 100 SEK ($15) to get one of these boats. They then float around the Baltic Sea for about 15 hours as they take their time getting to Finland. While on the boat, you drink duty free booze, which takes off about 40% of the price. You then land in Finland/Estonia and get to buy free cheap booze to bring back. You then float back, again drinking duty free booze. This is very popular amongst the 20 somethings.

- Once classes start at SSE, it will be filled with sweet people of all genders

- I get to see reindeer in Lapland

- He has ESPN

Overall, I am having an absolute blast. The people here have been very nice to us, and the whole town is covered in snow and just so beautiful. It really isn't that cold, you just have bundle up a bit. Not that much colder than it was in Chapel Hill when I left, but I get snow as a bonus. Can't wait to make homemade pizzas with my group tomorrow and get to know everybody a bit better. First experience in a Swedish club should be interesting. If you had told me I would find my way into one of those back when I was a youngin studying EE at Georgia Tech, I wouldnt have believed it. Gonna try and not stick out too much....

PS - For those of you that went to GT with me. A guy sat next to me on the train today that was a Swedish Michael Leonard. It was unbelievable how much this guy looked like Leonard had he been born an Aryan. I couldnt get over it. Shockingly, he wasn't with a female, but he made sure to tell me that he had been last night.

For those of you that go to UNC with me. The first day, I saw one of the guys from Darden and he struck me as oddly familiar. About an hour in, I realize what it is......he looks exactly like David Shields, but he is from Ghana (descendant of India). I will do my best to get a picture with this man. It is so weird how much he looks like an Indian version of David Shields. Unfortunately, that means he is fighting an uphill battle since all I can think of when I talk with him is the great DS. Our Swedish teacher today said that SEB was the biggest bank in Stockholm, and he immediately raised his hand and called bullshit and then made out with Chinese Beau.....made that last part up. but he really does look like DS. We also saw Yen Chiat Chew in 40 years at Dovans.....the things that amuse me are really amazing.

Drew In Sweden