Update

Hello World ;)

Just a quick update on what's going on in K-Town ;)
Well, yesterday the booksale started - Books are quite expensive in Sweden, but on one day in February every bookstore has a huge sale and opens earlier than usual (some open even at midnight). I took this chance and bought some Swedish books (children's books - not that hard to read ;) ) and some English books.
What else is there to say...well, tomorrow I'm going to a Hockey game - Karlstad Färjestad [see Logo] against Mora. As far as I know, Färjestad are quite good, Mora is bad and second last in the League, anyway, I'm looking forward to the game. On Friday there MIGHT be a small "Pre-Birthday-Party" to celebrate into my Birthday - but nothing is fixed yet. In fact, Jonathan said he'd like to organize something and since I can't party on Saturday (->Kent concert) Friday is the only day a party makes sense.
Well, I'll write some (hopefully interesting) stuff on Sunday - after the Hockey Match, Kent and my birthday - many stories ;)

cu
manuel

Tjänare :) [Hi!, Servus!]

Once again, sorry for the lack of stories... It's really strange, because I always do something, but it's never exciting enough for a new entry.
The last 2 weeks were not boring at all but I have the feeling as if I didn't do much. I went out, went to the gym (which is why I had a terrible muscle ache on muscles I didn't even know I had), studied, went to University, read a lot, met friends,... I was (and still am) really motivated to improve my Swedish - I started buying and reading Swedish magazines (a gossip magazines, one movie magazine and a Swedish comic book). Although I don't know that much Swedish yet, I understand quite a lot. Even if it's just about Posh Spice being jealous of the other Spice Girls, or Hollywood's male bitches (see picture) ;)
I chose the gossip mag because I thought it's not that hard to understand, especially because of the catchy headlines which are - although they are really silly - full of useful words that are easy to remember. I also started watching more Swedish TV - with that I mean Swedish Productions (since all foreign productions are in the original language with subtitles...so e.g House M.D is in English, with Swedish subtitles). I started watching "Melodifestivalen", which is a huge competition to elect the Swedish participant in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. In contrast to Austria, where the competition isn't regarded as being serious, Swedes really take it seriously and have a quite complicated system to elect the participant: First, there are several shows (I think around 4) - in each show, 2 Singers or Bands will come to the final, 2 other participants will get another chance in a show called "Andra Chansen", which will be one week before the final. The winners of this show will come to the final...and eventually there will be just 1 winner, who will represent Sweden in Serbia. Learning Swedish is the perfect excuse to watch this show ;)

Well, on Sunday I went to see Tim Burton's new movie "Sweeney Todd" and I must say, that I enjoyed it. As always, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are amazing and Tim Burton did a really good job. The music is not that special, in my opinion. Especially compared to other musicals, but well, the acting and the pictures compensate for that. So, if you have the chance to see it - do it! Watch the Trailer.

Oh and here's a picture...another sunset, because it's been a while since I posted the last "oh so romantic" sunset picture. I took it yesterday, because the sky looked so amazing. I was in my room, that's why the detail isn't the best.
Talking of sunsets brings me to the next topic - traveling (you can figure out the complex and philosophical background of that [very weird] association yourself ;) )
The next big trip I will (certainly) do is in April - I'll see Rufus Wainwright in Stockholm (wohoo...again!), so I'll be in Stockholm for 3 days. I hope that the weather will be nice, because I really want to see Stockholm with sunlight - and I want to make a boat tour to the archipelago (gosh, that's a hard word to spell).
Other than that - Jonathan and I were thinking about going to Manchester in March, but it doesn't look like it will happen (it's a loooong story. Never trust an "English bloke" who wants to sell you football tickets.). But we'll go to Gothenburg and hopefully Malmö in the near future.
So, that's it for now...
cu
manuel

PS: I forgot...I'm heading to the big 30...in 1,5 weeks is my 22nd birthday, then I'm in my early late 20s (quote from Hedwig) and I will celebrate my birthday with a concert - I'll see KENT live - a Swedish group that's really successful here. Since they give a concert here in Karlstad, I thought I should take the chance and see them.
here's a video to one of their newer songs "Ingenting"...

Art, Football, Party and Bolibompa

Tjena!

Well, another week has passed - and it was a quite exciting one!
First of all, I had my first class in "The moving image in the expanded field of audivisuality" - and it was quite different from what I expected. The description said that it's about the history and development of cinema - but in fact it was just about the history of AVANT-GARDE Cinema. We watched some "movies" of artists and discussed the meaning of them. Although we didn't really "discuss" them, nobody understood the films better than before. One film, for example, just showed people opening and closing curtains - over and over again. Wow. Absolutely no idea what I shall learn from this, but who cares.
I hope the next lesson will be better. Don't get me wrong - I like art and I like art movies - but I want to watch them in a museum with additional information - or I want to discuss them afterwards - what we didn't do. The teacher explained nothing about the background or the meaning of the movies. Probably he didn't understand them himself ;)
However, on Wednesday the craziness went on - I watched (and I still can't believe it) my first football match on TV (this means -without making funny comments or switching the channel after a few seconds). Unbelievable, isn't it? (people who know me surely know that I am definitely not a football fan...) Jonathan, Hong and I went downtown to a billiard bar to watch the game. It was fun, but I have to admit, that I was more excited about the music that was playing in the bar then about the match. Oh yeah, by the way, it was Manchester United against Portsmouth. Manchester was the team that wore red dresses - at least something I know about them ;)

However, after this very exciting trip to the world of football I had a very calm and quiet evening in front of the TV on Friday. Sofia and I watched Flashdance, Let's Dance (swedish version of "Dancing Stars") and Billy Elliot - I know, very nerdy, but it was fun.
To compensate for the "nerdy-ness" I went to a Campus Party on Saturday - it was really cool, because this time there was a good DJ, a lot of nice Swedes and Exchange Students and everybody was in a good mood and dancing. The picture is Sofia's, so all the credits belong to her ;)
Sunday - well, was a boring day with boring weather. I met a swedish friend for a coffee and a walk; In the evening I watched some TV with Sofia and the others. There I found my new favourite word - "Bolibompa"!! Well, it's a name, but who cares ;) It's the name of a swedish kids program and I watched parts of it yesterday. It's a nice children's show, but I had so much fun just laughing about the name *lol* it sounds really funny (you pronounce it like "buli-bummpa").
Totally random, I know :D

Before I start listing all my favourite swedish words and bore you to death, I should better stop now.

So, that's it, that's what happened last week. Exciting, eh?
Feel free to comment or write to me (even if it's just something like "that last entry sucked" ;) ). Or if you have any facts about Manchester United that help me to show off and cover my lack-of-interest - write me!

See you soon,
Manuel