2002-04-23: Day two, life of luxury

Day two, life of luxury. I think my life of luxury requires sunshine. It's dreary outside which made it hard to get up early (i.e., I didn't), and doing so is one tenet in the life of luxury. Okay, sunshine or a legitimate café and a good book. But as you know, Wall Berlin closed, so the global café outlook is rather dim.

Checking my mailbox. Surprised to see a large, obviously well-traveled manilla envelope. Large ``OAKLAND CA'' circular postmarks. Addressed in sharpie. From Grizzly Peak, Berkeley. My heart lept, and inside I exclaimed, ``Tyson!''

I was right. Eagerly opening the envelope I discovered a copy of his zine (Sometimes) and a little note. Receiving a handwritten letter and a thoughtful gift from someone I've never met is kind of unusual, but nice. Actually it's kind of unusual to receive a handwritten letter or a thoughtful gift at all. Anyway, I guess Tyson isn't really a complete stranger; I knew him originally through his columns in the Daily Cal, and he heard of me via Jessica. Opening Sometimes, my eyes fell at once on the title, ``Svenska Stories'' — My own work in progress is titled, "Swedish Stories." Actually I think it will be ``Stories from Sweden.''

I don't know what it is about this, but it makes me want to cry. Maybe because I'm leaving Sweden, but that's not all. Maybe I should save this for the airplane out of here.

Day two, life of luxury. Cycled down into the city to collect the papers for SUS 106. Eating ice cream (Guava and Saffron... I really like the Saffron, especially in conjunction with a sweet flavor) at Stortorget, I ran into two people I knew, simultaneously: Zayna and this other girl who I couldn't quite remember wherefrom I knew her. Zayna, there with a friend from her korridor, had some funny stories to tell. I don't think we've ever really talked, or for that matter been introduced, until now. When I told her I was spending the summer in Israel, she said ``Cool, I'm spending the summer in Lebanon!'' Apparently she's half Lebanese and is visiting her relatives in Beirut for the first time. She appreciated that I actually knew something about the country (people, politics, geography).

Spent the afternoon reading at the library, first Tyson's zine and then the papers from SUS 106. The other papers from that class aren't terribly impressive. Oh yeah, the sun came out. Walked down out of the library, ran into Christina and Mattias by the bus stop. Considered dinner at Kalmar but cycled back to Delphi instead, had a pizza for dinner. Husfests meeting. Then cycled down to town again to see a film at FilmStudion.

The film at FilmStudion was La Stanza Del Figlio (imdb), which has an English-language title of The Son's Room and in Swedish it's Ett Rum I Vårt Hjärtan (A room in our heart). It was very well done, but I'm getting a bit weary of this theme.

I think every film I've seen there this year has been about a dead kid. At least it seems that way. Dead Man Walking, In the Bedroom, and this latest one. And most of the Michael Haneke films I've seen have also involved kids dying or being killed tragically. It's really kind of creepy.

On the way out I decided to take the bike route instead of the street back to Delphi, and quickly ran into that girl I'd met on stortorget earlier in the afternoon, at the bar there with outdoor seating. Aha, it clicked: it's the girl who works at the bakery at Delphi! (Upon introductions, she said, "I'm sorry, I don't know your name. I know you only as `Brie Baguette'.") She's really very nice, and I was surprised that she was only in gymnasium (meaning she's probably 19). Of course the subject of the Tobin Tax came up as soon as I was introduced. Apparently she had just done her gymnasium thesis on the Tobin Tax and, when I asked about it, she gave me a quick rundown on the history of the Tobin Tax and such. Then they just started talking about normal things, which was all very amusing, but as it took almost all of my effort to follow the conversation (completely in swedish) so I didn't have much to say. (One thing we/they talked about was how some people seem to just be ``magnetic''.. they could just sit there in a café and interesting people would naturally gravitate towards them. Continuing the physics theme, this girl said she'd rather attract them by ``intellectual radiation''.. actually it sounded quite poetic in Swedish. I didn't think it proper to add that I agreed entirely.)<

Got an email from Charlie Olofsson saying he shipped the telephone to me.

Stories from Sweden

Day two, life of luxury. I think my life of luxury requires sunshine. It's dreary outside which made it hard to get up early (i.e., I didn't), and doing so is one tenet in the life of luxury. Okay, sunshine or a legitimate café and a good book. But as you know, Wall Berlin closed, so the global café outlook is rather dim.

Checking my mailbox. Surprised to see a large, obviously well-traveled manilla envelope. Large ``OAKLAND CA'' circular postmarks. Addressed in sharpie. From Grizzly Peak, Berkeley. My heart lept, and inside I exclaimed, ``Tyson!''

I was right. Eagerly opening the envelope I discovered a copy of his zine (Sometimes) and a little note. Receiving a handwritten letter and a thoughtful gift from someone I've never met is kind of unusual, but nice. Actually it's kind of unusual to receive a handwritten letter or a thoughtful gift at all. Anyway, I guess Tyson isn't really a complete stranger; I knew him originally through his columns in the Daily Cal, and he heard of me via Jessica. Opening Sometimes, my eyes fell at once on the title, ``Svenska Stories'' -- My own work in progress is titled, "Swedish Stories." Actually I think it will be ``Stories from Sweden.''

I don't know what it is about this, but it makes me want to cry. Maybe because I'm leaving Sweden, but that's not all. Maybe I should save this for the airplane out of here.