santa stockholm

i have been here for a couple days...stockholm. it's sunny. fair to say around 80 degrees so it feels kinda home-ish. been wandering around a lot and it's starting to feel like a true european vacation. the work starts soon though and i'm so excited about it. i haven't talked about music in a way that i love in a long time. last night i hung out with some new friends and talked about music in such a new way. saw some cool bands on the top of a building while the sun was setting. everything going on here happens outdoors which is cool. beers outside. chilling outside. shows outside. i think they have to take advantage of the great weather because in the winter it gets depressingly cold. apparently, sweden has the highest rate of suicides next to japan which i find really odd considering all the people i've met are so warm and positive. guess they snap under the deep long winters. i couldn't do it....but then again i haven't tried. starting to undertand the strange vowel pronunciation but i feel handicapped when i try to pronounce the street names. a little embarrassing but a good challenge to try and hear the sounds and replicate. i guess that's all it is about learning to speak languages- getting the courage to correctly mirror the words back to the locals the way they say it. had this crazy corned beef hash type meal at 1 in the morning last night and they gave us a side bowl with raw egg yolks and chives to poor on top of the fried potatoes.whoa. they certainly wouldn't allow that in the states- and it was so good! heard this girl sing really interesting stuff last night. she sings back up with the girl from the knife and i could hear that a lot. strange voices. i thought it was a cd and then i walked into the next room and this band was totally ripping it up dancefloor style eurythmics style with crazy singing and drum machines. i was down. how could i deny the power of song in a foreign land? i met this really self depricating kid that was making me laugh because he kept putting down his music and saying how bad his songs are but there seemed to be a lot of people there enjoying it. it was refreshing and nerdy. i was given this tshirt to sleep in. so i'm kinda sleeping at home.