2002-03-12 Tuesday: Kommer du från Afghanistan?, Michael Haneke

A good day, good in its normalness. Or maybe I'm just feeling good from being well fed. I've been feeling very tired and weary lately. I got up around noon, still feeling tired, and having that lack-of-caffeine inability-to-concentrate pounding in my brain. Showered and, having missed the bus, set out on foot for Swedish class, feeling a bit light headed and slow. It was warm and I took off my jacket.

The weather upon arriving at Martinstorget was simply beautiful. The square was full of people buying plump and colorful vegetables from the market. Every bench spot was taken, by sun-absorbing swedes. It was already five after one but I bought a Chorizo from the Pølsemann and sat on a bike rack while I ate the hotdog. It was with some reluctance that I tore myself from the fine weather and walked up the stairs to Swedish class at the Folkuniversitetet. On the way I stopped to get a paron (pear) soda from the vending machine.

Class was unremarkable. (Aside: Remarking that something is unremarkable is a paradox, you know. Actually, not a paradox; it's just wrong.) The Germans were back but the Romanians remained borta. It's funny that attendance in that class is grouped by nationality.

After class I still felt a bit light-headed and absent-minded, so I went wandering, looking for a café in which I could get some coffee and study my particle physics text. After loitering briefly outside Café Brunius, I got the inspiration to go to the christian café up by the political science department that usually has good pies and cheap coffee. Café Sandgatan, I think it's called. But en route to that place, I got the nifty idea to go to Café Bokmalen instead, which is part of the Statsbibliotek [city library]. So I went there.

At Café Bokmalen they were advertising a meal ``toast och cola'' where `toast' meant a grilled cheese and chicken sandwhich with a vegetable salad on the side, a 33 cL drink of course. So I got that while I tried to read my physics book. I wasn't too successful with the studying. There was a lady there with two young kids, one hyperenergetic youngster, and one newborn. The former asked one of the ladies, who was black, working at the café: ``kommer du från Afghanistan?'' [Are you from Afghanistan?] The mother was quite embarrassed, but the café lady explained in a friendly way that she was from Somalia. The mother said something like, You must get so tired of people asking where you come from! The café lady said, no, not really; they seemed to have a short but friendly discussion about this, that I did not follow.

I gave up reading the physics book and went to reading a book about Romania that I came across in Universitetsbiblioteket HB yesterday and checked out. The book has a subtle paternalistic tone and quickly starts with statements like ``Romanians believe...'' and similar generalisations. I didn't get very far in the book about Romania before Stina appeared. She sat down and we talked briefly about what we've been doing lately. She recommended that I come to Smålands sometime, which is where she `hangs.'Apparently she's in a rent-$ dispute with Rebecca, the person from whom she rented her room here at Delphi BC2, and I'm instructed to try to find Rebecca's address in France (she's on exchange right now) for Stina. Ah, Stina.

I had some much-needed coffee, and then ran off to the Swedish music lecture sponsored by the International Office.

On the way to the Swedish music lecture I ran into Alice (german girl, friend of Anna, worked at Kalmar with us, appeared at SSKK party some weeks ago, astonishingly cute) who was also looking for the music lecture. She had a better idea of where it (Palaestra) was than I did and we found it pretty quickly. The lecture itself was kind of slow and superficial, but at least I was introduced to two interesting bands: Kent and The Hoola Baloola Band (or something like that!).

I had dinner at Kalmar Nation. I'd gotten there late, so they'd run out of the main dish, fish soup; the vegetarian alternative, however, potato soup, remained, and I had that. And a bottle of Åbro, and the strawberry tårta with vanillasås and coffee for desert. I saw Christina's friend there and asked about Christina (Christina the german girl who lives in room 213 and who disappeared a couple weeks ago) Apparently she's away in Germany, but just got back, and will be moving out of Delphi this month. Also I saw Ester from Swedish class who introduced me to her friend Erik from Uppsala who is one of the four pub managers at the nation. And Joe and Mark were there, as usual, but not Christina (Christina Dege, American) nor Anna.

After dinner I went over to FilmStudion to see whatever film they were playing. The film was Michael Haneke's Benny's Video. (warning: plot spoilage) Although it clearly shows Michael Haneke's stylistic signature (begins with a scene that gets incorporated later, incorporates many video segments such as from the television news, near total lack of exposition, tie in to war and violence) it is in many ways a more conventional film than the others of his that I have seen. Benny's Video is, needless to say, not a happy film. I don't mean to write a full review here, so I'll just say that it reminded me of a German (Swiss?) American Beauty, only much darker, and not beautiful. And there's the question inspired by the film: What if your kid went out of his/her mind and killed someone, and no one else knew, what would you do? Anmäla to the police, or work to cover up the crime even if it means getting your hands very dirty? (Chopping up the body of a little girl into little bits and putting them down the garbage disposal??) But who's to say that truth isn't stranger than fiction? In the newspaper today: ``A Fort Worth woman is charged with murder for allegedly hitting a man with her car and leaving him lodged in the vehicle's windshield to die.''

Walking home, I thought about my Estonia write-up a little bit. Right now it stands at 11,727 words (as measured by dumping the output of w3m through wc). (Incidentally this file comes in at 32,723 words just now. wow!) I have a few sections to add, and then it will be done. I need to check out The Soviet Colonization of Estonia again from the statsbibliotek for a paragraph or two of history, and I need to finish the bit about Kristinehamn. Then there's the matter of tone, and possibly adding a bunch of `rough details' that would certainly make it more interesting to read, although I might want to begränsa its distribution. But maybe it's just the watching of a rough film that makes me want to add rough details.

Oh yeah, I also got two tickets to see 101 Reykjavík at Kino tomorrow. It's the Swedish premiär of the film (simultaneous in Stockholm, Uppsala, and a few other cities) and the tickets were free, courtesy some ad in the Nöjeguide. I got two of the last three seats, which happen to be in the very front row. I expect a happy-ending entertaining pop film set in Iceland. I'll have to find someone to go with. Maybe I'll meet someone nice on the bus tomorrow.

Chorizo med Chicagobröd från Pølsemann, Martinstorget	SEK 30
Paronsoda	SEK 6
Coffee	SEK 5
`Toast och cola meny', café bokmalen	SEK 35
Carot cake and coffee	SEK 35
Dinner at Kalmar Nation	SEK 50