Monty

Outstanding. Alot of new material. Hilarious. These were a couple of the comments and words I heard during the evening about stand-up comedy artist Magnus Betnér (to the left). I really enjoyed the warm-up by Martin Soneby (to the right), what a nice attitude. I think the crowd was a bit hard to amuse in the beginning, because they were very calm. But that’s maybe just because people in Växjö have a bad taste for.. well, practically everything, including humour.

Magnus talked almost about everything. From painting up the news magazine Aftonbladet to be the Devil’s work to gender differences in our society and how we raise our children differently. I strongly recommend everyone to see his show; atleast one time.

And speaking of humour, me and Erik were out friday evening at a private party in the city. On the way downtown we walked by SOS Alarm (emergency central in Sweden). You probably have to know Swedish to understand this, but we started to think really psycho and the conversation was something like this:

- “En kille bankar på dörren till SOS Alarm..”
Kvinna kommer ut.
- “Hålla, öppna dörren nu.. detta är brådskande..”
Ja, vad är det? Vad har hänt?
- “Jo, jag behöver pengar..”
Pengar?
- “Ja, pengar..”
Vad menar du? Vi har inte pengar att ge ut..
- “Va? Kan man inte få SOS bidrag här?”
Kvinna smäller till dörren.

Anyway, it was a pleasant evening. I learned alot about downtown; never go there again. At the end of the evening all I was thinking about was: Alcohol. Travelling. Party. Sex. Rush. Alkohol. Sex. Travelling. Sex. Party. Soon there will be a 60 minutes long non-stop blasting trance set for all party people out there.

Today will be dedicated to survey construction in psychology.

That’s right, now things are really beginning to happen. It has been a really fun and exciting experience going to the US embassy in Stockholm. Arrived there at 09 o’clock with the train from Norrköping, where I stayed over the night visiting my brother.

A lovely view in the morning. Sometimes I forget how calming everything is during the morning. No people, no cars and the only thing you can hear is the sound of the early birds.

Finally I got to the embassy by taking bus number 69 towards Kaknästornet. You get off at the bus stop “Ambassaderna”. First, you go through airport screening. I got instructions from an Australian guy and I almost couldn’t hold myself of laughter because of his accent. Sounded like he was talking with an apple in his mouth.

After almost 2 hours, I was called to my interview. This guy could really talk fast, I got alot of silly question due to my background. But I guess that’s just security measures they have to take. However, I didn’t even answer on one question until I got a new. And our conversation was somewhat like this:

He: Hello, how are you today?
Me: Fine thank you, and you?
He: Great thanks, so what is your purpose in USA?
Me: Studies
He: What field are you planning to take?
Me: Psychology

And now over to the funny questions.

He: Do you have a dual citizenship with Libya?
Me: No.
He: When did you arrive in Sweden?
Me: Between when I was 6 and 7 years old.
He: Have you ever been there since then?
Me: No, I don’t know anyone there.
He: Ok, so you have no interest going there..what was the purpose of your visit to Syria during 2003?
Me: I was visiting with my family.
He: Do you have any relatives there?
Me: Probably, I don’t know. I have never been there before.
He: Do you have any relatives anywhere else?
Me: Yes, I have an uncle in Berlin.

This continued for about 10 minutes. Was really funny answering all those question. But I learned from Peter Andrén to keep my answers very short. Then it was time for fingerprinting, nothing complicated. After that I noticed he became unsure of giving me the VISA so he spoke with another consul officer and one minute later he came back and said it was approved. So releaved! And here I thought I would go through a “Matrix-Smith-interrogating-Neo” in a room like this.

Then it was over. 3 long hours for a couple of papers. Went back to town and met some friends and ate dinner at Kungshallarna. I love that place! At 16.55 I was on the train to Arlanda Airport to take my flight back to Växjö. I forgot almost how much I love airplanes, airport and the entire process. But I learned one thing with airports, the perfume is NOT cheaper in the tax-free stores. I felt it costed more there rather less.

However, the flight went well and I got home at 20.00 o’clock. Now it’s a new day with alot of psychology involved. More information to come, alot of things to do in the upcoming days now that I got my VISA approved.

I had boring. Erik had boring. So we just took off to IKEA, it was really fun. I always think about why I get crazy in my mind when I am going to IKEA, I think it has alot to do with their bed department. We arrived quite early during the day, it was really hot.

But since it was hot, I got very sleepy and when neither of the people I was there with saw me I was:

I call this “the sweet catfight”.

But of course, Erik did not have the balls to hit me with it and therefore he decided to do something better, grow bigger balls!

Final comment: I hate SAS. I hate SJ. I hate Swebus Express. There is something terribly wrong with the transport communications in this country. I feel sometimes as if you can’t get to the place you want to go without having trouble with the time schedule. 5 more days, then it is interrogation time at the US embassy.

Listening to right now: Kalafut and Fygle - Novocaine (Mark Otten Remix)