2002-03-29 Fredag

So. I gathered up my courage and went over to the K building to visit the Austrian girl. But then some guy answered the door with a ``who the hell are you'' sort of tone; apparently her long-time boyfriend is here for a 2½ month visit. Hmm, details, details. In any case the Austrian girl and I had a very nice conversation over tea (while the previously mentioned boyfriend disappeared for awhile; perhaps he doesn't speak English?) and she invited me back `whenever'.

After that I came back the < 100 meters to the C building and sat down in front of the TV to watch Top Gun (yeah, SVT was having a Tom Cruise marathon. Really, what were they thinking?) and drink some more tea. This place is so quiet right now there's little else to do.

But then someone buzzed my room. It was Luca, from the third floor, inviting me to dinner! I think this is because we met again in the Laundry yesterday he remembered me or something; apparently I was one of the first people he met when he got here in August, but other than that I've seen him on the bus or in town a few times and at one or two parties. Anyway he had four spanish and italian friends over for dinner and they invited me up to join them. Of course I accepted.

Luca is one of those Southern Europeans who is so outgoing and friendly that it makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes... You know, like, suddenly I feel like I should be that sincere and interested in other people and etc etc. In other words, he's something like the most amiable guy imaginable, really great. He's Italian. Many of the people I've met from the Latin countries are this way... they won't mention that they're doing something without adding emphatically, ``And you're very welcome to come!'' etc. In some ways the antithesis of the Scandinavians.

They made some kind of pasta dish that involves pouring a mixture of egg and parmesan cheese over the cooking noodles; and also pollo latte — fried chicken in some kind of milk and flour sauce. Yummy and fun. Luca was very funny in my opinion: ``Sometimes I try to think of which kind of pasta is my favorite... but I can never choose.. it's impossible, they're all so good!''

Luca invited me to come with some friends of his on a trip to Helsingør in the morning and then said goodnight and went to bed; the non-english-speaking couple disappeared to the balcony; and I stayed to watch Moulin Rouge! (imdb) with the two remaining girls.

I was really impressed by Moulin Rouge. It's a visual spectacle and musical odyssey, very entertaining. The way popular music from the last couple decades (soundtrack) is blended in to the dialog and libretto is highly amusing, as the performers in the film are entirely unlike the original artists; yet it's spectacularly effective, from the incorporation of John Lennon's ``all you need is love'' to the apt use of Queen's ``The Show Must Go On''. Just great. And all the talk of bohemian ``children of the revolution'' brought me back to Gothenburg and Nico and thinking about how that's exactly what's missing in this city. The use of a not-always-so-metaphorical meta-drama, so often done poorly, is striking successful in this film. For feel-good visual/auditory/emotional candy, this film is great. (And speaking of metadrama: I really miss the energy and dedication of the theatre and I'm really tempted to get involved in that again; of course I won't, but it is tempting. And, what ever happened to my drama journal from eleventh grade? I can't find it anywhere.)

I went shopping today for the first time in a long time and bought a huge amount of food, somewhat in preparation for Chris's arrival and also just because I am completely out of food. My freezer space was stolen, so I've just claimed Christina's old freezer shelf (since she moved out last week). Now I have space to keep frozen food again. At Matex I bought as much food as I could carry, which did include two kilograms of jasmine rice, and a few kilograms of sugar (strösocker) and flour (rågsikt), 600g margarine, a liter of saft, some onions, potatoes, bell peppers, corn. I bought some fil (sour milk) to use in place of buttermilk in waffles. Spices (kardemumma, kummin, bikarbonat), cheese, chocolate. But the big excitement at Matex was a sale on sill (that's raw herring marinated in various sauces, for your uninitiated). Oddly enough I was just having a bit of a craving for sill (is that possible?) so I picked out three `flavors'. The sill comes in many different sauces. The `senapssill' (sill in mustard sauce) is clearly the most popular (and my favorite, too, of those that I've tried), and the sale bin was empty (but sneaky me went to the ignored regular shelf to fetch some). Naturally it wouldn't do to collect more than one of any flavor, so I selected a jar of dillsill, and then, to choose the third... I picked "brännvinssill" just because it sounded so bizarre (snaps flavored herring? you can read the history of snaps, the swedish "elexir of life," in english [abbreviated] or in swedish.)

Groceries at Matex

SEK 275.66