Sittings have consequences...

Like big-ass hangovers. Damn. This was the mother of them all, I couldn't even eat anything until late this afternoon. And the after-carneval didn't turn out to be as much fun as it should have - bright lights and high volume.
Do you tend to crave any special hangover food? Care to share the recipe? I've never really needed it before, but I sure could've used it today.

Never before and never again, not like this. Thank god Annica was there, I wouldn't have made it home without her. She's going to have to fill in a few blanks for me on Monday... It's quite scary, really. I do wonder what the boys were actually serving at the after-party, I was doing alright until we got there.

Except for that, and the fact that I managed to leave my personally dedicated songbook at the union, the sitting itself was absolutely awesome. Entertainment by Bleckhornen and the Wermland's/Kalmar's choir, nice food and great people. People you knew quite well, people you knew a little, and people you didn't know at all. I ended up with a perfect mix at my table - Annica a few seats away from me, worked perfectly for signing to each other; Hannes, who I knew from the song-singing the other week; Erik, who was in charge of said singing and then made himself famous at the rounders picnic by smashing into a low branch when running his last stretch and proceeding to bleed all over the place, on one side; and never-met-before people for the rest.

Highlights of the night included Emil stripping down on request, being prepared for 'Tomtarna på loftet dansar jitterbugg' and the looks on the faces of the people who weren't, and my personal favourite, making fun of all the other union people.
G, for your sake I will refrain from quoting 'En Kalmarit'. ;)

Clothes make the woman?

I bought it, I bought it, I bought it!
I bought a new dress. It's blue and gorgeous and I love it and I want to wear it every single day. I know, I'm such a girl. It cost half my study allowances, but it's so pretty! I won't get the opportunity to actually wear it officially until my birthday in November though, which annoys.

I got a call earlier from one of my sponsors, and it seems like I'm going to be working in the kitchen at Wermland's on Wednesday. They probably don't know that I'm a disaster cooking, but it's going to be fun!

And yes, apparently I am on a mission to learn Welsh.

Oh-bla-di, Oh-bla-da

I'm going to the novisch picnic in a couple of hours. Excited and yet a tiny bit nervous seeing as it includes rounders. I still can't really believe that I actually volunteered to something to do with that horrible game which brings back the memories of jeering voices shouting 'Okay, everyone! Move forward!'
Rumour also has it that it's required to drink at beer at each stop. Now, that could be interesting.

It's the annual Culture Night tonight, and we're going to the Salsa/Samba show. Nothing to put some pressure on you like watching really good dancers do the things that you are supposed to be doing in a matter of weeks, right?

On a different note, I'm very disappointed that none of you guys actually gave me the solution to the Kinyambo problem. :P

...

Hallelujah! I'm one step closer to having defeated my fear of rounders! I wasn't 'burned' once, and I managed to hit the ball every time!
So tempted to go to the barbecue and club tonight as well... Means M will have to get a guest ID, though.

By the way, Kalmar Union are bloody cowards. Sorry, G. ;) But they wouldn't accept our invitation/challenge, depending on how you see it, to play with us. And we had way more fun than they did.

Linguistic geekery

We were studying Kinyambo (Logan, I swear, if you tell me that you speak Kinyambo, I will have to kick your clever ass), a Bantu language, today and since I love stuff like this I thought I thought I'd share.
So, we've got a bunch of phrases:

1. Nakajuna - I helped
2. Barakoma - They will tie
3. Nitukoma - We are tying
4. Narajuna - I will help
5. Nituchumba - We are cooking
6. Nimujuna - You (pl.) are helping
7. Orasoma - You (sg.) will read
8. Baratura - They will put down
9. Nimukichumba - You (pl.) are cooking it
10. Bakakinaga - They lost it
11. Arakinaga - She will lose it
12. Nibatura - They are putting down

With the help of these phrases, separate the affixes to figure out what akakisoma and ninachumba mean. Go on, it's fun! And piece of cake to some language nerds I know... ;) (G, how's this for a lesson?)

I now want to study Kinyambo. Way cool.

There was also a discussion about how English and Swedish both tend to use borrowed words (which in itself is an expression I have issues with, but that's for another time) in the plural, in the singular. We say one 'one panini' ('paninis' in the plural) and 'one paparazzi' ('paparazzis' in the plural) when in reality it's one panino - two panini, and one paparazzo - two paparazzi. Then, in Swedish, we have 'muffins' - most of us say 'muffins' to talk about the little cupcakes both in the singular and plural. Except for sometimes when just for the hell of it you can hear 'muffinsar'. Now that's properly försvenskat. And makes total sense, too - if 'muffins' was really a Swedish word 'muffinsar' would be the proper form in the plural!

Ve och elände

Så, det har blivit maktskifte i Sverige, och vi har nu en borgerlig regering.
Jäklar.
Jag vet egentligen inte ens vad jag ska säga, annat än att jag är väldigt besviken på svenska folket. Även om jag anade det redan innan hoppades jag ändå längst inne att vänsterblocket skulle komma igen. Nu är det bara att hoppas på att det blir byte igen om fyra år, innan moderaterna har hunnit ställa till med alltför stor skada... Framför allt är jag orolig för ekonomin - tidigare under de borgerliga regeringarna har det ofta blivit problem på den fronten.

Skolan? Mer läxor, ordningsbetyg? Tror alliansen att det är rätta sättet att förbättra saker och ting; att gå bakåt i tiden? Och vad innebär det att lärare ska ha större befogenhet att skapa ordning i klassrummet?

De lovar att alla brott ska utredas? Hur kan de lova det?

För att inte nämna att det nu styrande partiet är det enda som inte vill höja studiemedlet. Det här blir en underbar tid att vara student, kan jag säga. Och får man sen inget jobb efter utbildningen, eller om man mot förmodan skulle råka ut för något så att man inte kan arbeta, ja, då är det riktigt kört. Mindre bidrag, javisst! Min mamma är hemskt glad över detta. Nu blir hennes inkomst ännu mindre. Det tackar vi för.

Mest skrämmande av allt är dock Sverigedemokraternas framfärd. Det fjärde största partiet i Malmö, såg det ut som. Varför? Vilka är det som lockas av dem? Kan vanliga, hederliga människor verkligen attraheras av dem och inte se igenom deras glättiga yta var allting stammar ifrån?
Otäckt, är vad det är. Det är en sak jag ger de borgerliga partierna poäng för; att de tillsammans med vänsterblocket tar avstånd från SD.

Quotes, this time

Last time we had film/tv scenes, this time I'm doing quotes.
You figure out where they're from.

"I can read women. You've got to know their wants and their needs. And that can be anything from making sure she's got enough money to buy groceries each week to making sure she's gratified sexually after intercourse."

- What do we say to him?
- We say nothing. The guy's going to hell for seven years. What are we going to do, wish him luck?

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

- I think it's only fair to tell you, you just paid for the funeral for the person who killed your dog.
- Yeah, I know.
- You knew?
- Yeah. I always hated that dog.

"Just don't disappear again. I like to say goodbye to the people I love even if it's only to cry my eyes out, bitch."

"Sometimes I think people don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid, like you don't matter. So, I'm eight, and I have these toys, these dolls. My favorite is this ugly girl doll who I call Clementine, and I keep yelling at her, 'You can't be ugly! Be pretty!' It's weird, like if I can transform her, I would magically change, too."

- Well, you know what happens when you assume.
- What?
- I don't know. Something about a donkey. It is a stupid American phrase.

"I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage... But, does not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No! The world must be peopled!"

"And so they do die. One every three seconds. There they go... And another one."

"This famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words in all of history, that 'cellar door' is the most beautiful."

"Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together! Fuckin' real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis! So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that! That's all we got, boy, fuckin' all. So I hope you know that, even if you don't never know the rest! You count the damn few times we have been together in nearly twenty years and you measure the short fucking leash you keep me on - and then you ask me about Mexico and tell me you'll kill me for needing somethin' I don't hardly never get. You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you... I can't make it on a couple of high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me Ennis, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you."

"What happens if Jerry gets mad?"

- I dreamt a dream tonight.
- And so did I.
- And what was yours?
- That dreamers often lie.

- Very romantic.
- Says the man who yelled "Finally!" at the end of Love Story.

Uni venting

This Lund university lark is actually a tad more stressful than expected... I have a massive amount of pages to read, on which I'm already behind. I haven't paid my student union/corpus bill yet (well, to be perfectly honest, I havent even picked up my bill yet). I can get this feeling in class that I really have absolutely no idea what Merle is talking about, and wonder if I even belong there. But just after that, I decide that I do. I do belong there, because no matter how new, weird and hard everything is, right now I'm loving it.
With all that's going on I'm feeling like a bad /mg at the moment, though.

There is some of fun happening, too.

Samba classes started on Monday, and while I was forced to realise the sad truth that I have no capability whatsoever of coordinating arms, hips and feet and the same time, it was still awesomly fun. And an excellent workout.

Another one of my coursemates speaks sign language, which gives me an opportunity to catch up on that. She's already gotten me to practise by spelling out words to myself during the lectures. It's quite fun trying to spell labiodental as quickly as possible.

During our SI meeting today we discussed grammar, and at the end of the hour I was saying to Anna how much fun it was. I half expected the regular 'You're crazy' look, but instead got an 'I know, isn't it?' It's awesome being around people who are interested in the same things.

My coursemates got their first taste of my sometimes inappropriate sense of humour. There was a lady from the Students' Health talking to us, and when she told us that 'Vi har en grupp för barn till alkoholister, som brukar bli full varje termin' I had to stiffle a snort. I know, I'm horrible, but it was kinda funny! They thought so too when I explained it to them.

I'm going to sign up for my union tomorrow - still shilly-shallying back and forward between Lund's and Wermland's, but I'm leaning towards Wermland's at the moment - and buying my ticket for the novisch party next Friday.

Ran into Fredrik on my way home today, always nice to see one of the oldies. I do miss the Malmö crowd, even if I don't miss the school itself.

And there just might be a chance that I'm going to study Catalan. The teacher, Casanova - yes, apparently that is his real name - just emailed me and asked me to call to discuss the possibilities of starting up the course. Oh, please, please, let it happen.

I think this is going to be okay.

The unique tiger

I've just started reading Jonas Hassen Khemiri's second book, Montecore - en unik tiger, and it's sofa king awesome I can't even wait until I've finished to write about it.

Jonas is a writer who's recently gotten his first book Ett Öga Rött published, but he's not quite happy about how it's recieved despite the reviews being positive. Sound familar so far? One day he recieves an email from Kadir, an old friend of his father whom he no longer has any contact with. Kadir wants to collaborate and write an autobiography over Jonas' father and begins, despite lack of enthusiasm from the son, to tell the story of the man he decides to call Abbas ("Hur ska vi namnge din far? För att profetera hans framtida omlokalisering till Sverige proponerar jag det symboliska namnet 'Abbas'").
You soon come to realise that the story he tells has to be taken with a grain of salt, though, and especially the portrait of Abbas.

I love this book, and I've only read a few chapters into it. I'm leaving you with one of my favourite quotes so far, and you can expect more in the next couple of days.

"Skriv mig... Är din succé ekvivalent med din fars? Har ditt bokliga kontrakt transformerat dig till miljonär eller miljardär eller bara säkrat några års trygg ekonomi? Är litterära ekvilibrister som Stephen King och Dan Brown nära vänner eller bara formella författarkollegor? Hur mycket slida får man glida som snart publicerad författare? Erbjuds du dagligen parfymerade trosor i korrespondens? Respondera mig gärna när tiden är dig tillgänglig."

(As you can see, Kadir's Swedish is, well, interesting.)

Anger management

That stupid git. That completely empty-headed man of a football coach. He's created a scandal where there wasn't one.
Okay, anger out of the system.

Lars Lagerbäck has sent Zlatan, Chippen and Mellberg home from the EC qualifying rounds assembly, because they went out after 'curfew' to have a drink to celebrate Mellberg's birthday.

I can only go on what I've read, and if there's more to it than that I might have to change my mind, but if there isn't...
They left at some point between 11 pm and midnight, and were back at 1 am. They had a glass of champagne/a few drinks (depending on whom you choose to believe). They weren't drunk. They didn't misbehave. It didn't affect their participation the next day. They're not given the opportunity to explain or apologise followed by a warning, but are sent home immediately after the coach finds out.

As it seems now, all three players might refuse to come back to the team while Lagerbäck remains, and if what I've read is correct, I wouldn't blame them. It sucks for the rest of the team and for the EC, but I blame the coach, not the players. I do realise they broke the rules, but I feel that to be kicked out is too hard a punishment.

EVS.

Only the good

Steve Irwin is dead. Killed at 44 by a stingray while shooting a documentary up at Port Douglas.

I may be silly, but it's made me ridiculously sad. He was always a kind of mad, over-enthusiastic, rash, animal-loving hero to me, and I thought no animal alive could ever take him. But it finally did.
And I just think of his poor family. Children aged eight and three.

It's hard to believe that the Dr Dolittle of crocodiles is gone.

When you turn into a six year old

It's funny how some things always remain the same. First day at school is always just that, the first day at school, no matter how old you are or how many times you've been through it. Same trouble sleeping the night before, same waking up long before the alarm goes off, same butterflies in the stomach while on the bus. But, thankfully it's usually also the same relief once you've actually been to the introductory meeting.
Or to the first class. Whatever.

The introduction made me so frigging excited about starting my linguistics studies. The building is great, I've found basically all of the books we need, schedule looks good with one day off each week (I think), about 20 people in class, there's Supplemental Instruction once a week for those who wish to attend, we get to do laboratory experiments in Speech Communication, our lab is brand new and the most modern one in Scandinavia, teachers seem fun and very enthusiastic, there's going to be morphology, semantics, phonetics, syntax, pragmatics, language acquisition, socio- and psycho-linguistics...

Jag är på väg att bli språkvetare.

*giddy*

(Logan, I think I stole your font. Hope you don't mind. It's just perfect.)

...

I'm having an impulse to write a short story called 'Songs for Pamela'. I have absolutely no idea what it would be about, but the title got stuck in my head one evening and now won't leave me alone. We'll see if anything comes of it.