Thursday, September 30, 2010

Whooo, haven't posted here in a while...

The last week has been really hectic. For once, I've got too much to share than I can really blog...

After the seminar last week, our program launched into a full week--I repeat, a full week, including two weekends--where we had no class. The professors provided us this time to work on our first major take-home exam, which entailed reading a 250-page ethnographic analysis in its entirety, and then writing up our personal review. As you can expect, this clearly did not take a week to do, and thus my habits started to lean in other directions...

Tuesday started awesome enough. Upon seeing their neon-colored posters on the walls of a local bar, I learned that Phosphorescent was coming to Göteborg on their European tour. After some crafty inquiries by a former co-worker, I managed to get on the band's guest list, saw a transcendent set, and met a new friend. Still can't believe it. When I figure out how to compress video files, I will so be putting up the video I took of "Reasons to Quit"...but for now:



And so started a week of owling. Wednesday, I played football and goofed/studied until 3am. Thursday, there was a birthday party; out until 3am. Friday, my roommate threw a small party at our flat, which ended with a late-night run to a waterfront dance club, out 'till 2am. Saturday, went to a CD release party (band was decent), danced until 4am. Sunday, turned in my paper, went out for dinner, pretty much happily stayed up all night. Monday: class at 9am.

I'm beginning to notice a serious trend in Sweden in terms of social life. Going out is very expensive. There is no such thing here as 'going out for a beer'---if you drink, you drink to forget. And that's only if you have the cash. Often, a beer (3.5%, mind you) that tastes like Corona Lite is about $8-10 if you don't find a cheap deal. Mixed drinks are about the same, though the shots are smaller. Vodka is popular, as is whiskey, and an assortment of other hard liquors I have yet to taste (aquavit, for example)...

You also have to pay for where you drink. Half the time, if you want to see a concert, or if you want to go dancing (which seems to be far more popular than pubs or bar-crawling), you have to pay an entrance fee between $9-20. Yes, the dancing goes until 4am or maybe even earlier, but still, that's a hefty price when beer is so dilute and so expensive.

So, all in all, the message is: drink at home, and as far as I've observed, that's the general trend. It's much cheaper and often in far better company than lots of drunk, drunk, drunk Swedes.

Not to say that there aren't cheap parties. The underground scene here is famously active. All the good parties that are worth going to and are cheap or free are spread word-of-mouth by Facebook. Yes, seriously fun parties like the night-time ragers in Swedish parks and the poetry slams and the underground art festivals are all spread via Facebook group. If you're not in the group, you're not in the know. And your night continues to revolve around 2002 American club music (and the occasional Michael Jackson). Now isn't that interesting?

Anyway. That's that for social life, at the moment. Soon, I'll report back on the lighter side of my social life that revolves around school: museum outings, innovative exhibits, and opening night parties.

Fun. :)

1 comment:

  1. Still waitin' on some pix of that show girly, that and I believe there were promises of some sort of card that gets posted. I kid I kid, I'm glad to hear you're having fun, I hope the $$ you saved on that concert ticket got you like 25 shots, since apparently beer there should be called Pisswasser.

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