Update from Linz

2009-11-30
It is the last day of November 2009, this year is slowly coming to an end. I have soon spent three months in Austria and I am feeling slightly homesick. The last weeks before the Christmas break usually means a lot of stress, exams, deadlines etc. Hopefully it will blow over soon.

Ever since I arrived here, I have had the opportunity to confront new cultures that I have interacted with. I have been forced to deal with my own prejudice and stereotyping, and I have been forced to lead others into dealing with theirs. I have been exposed to xenophobia in its purest form, to justify my right to exist and to live in "their" country - and I have had to prove to people that I am not a terrorist, nor in possession of highly enriched Uranium (or kryptonite as one moron believed). However, I have had positive experiences as well. I have had the chance to attend a prom in southern Austria, and I have seen locals fanatically enjoying the polka music while dancing to it. It was an interesting experience, far from anything I have ever seen before. To me it looked like as if dressed up people were wrestling to the tunes of circus music, but it was of course more than that ;).

After having seen Assyrian weddings (and danced their traditional dances), I feel that there are many similarities between these experiences. I remember that I felt the same (as an outsider, far away from home) when I attended my first (and until now only) Assyrian wedding.

In other words, I had a nice time while learning something new.

Anyway, despite my enhanced cultural sensitivity and anticipation, I still miss things from home (as well as despising things in my presence here). I am pretty disgusted by the absence of AC. I hate that the water temperature shifts when I am taking shower. I hate the cleaning lady. Today she (and her self righteous colleagues) managed to collectively cause more mess than usual. To make a long story short, they like moving stuff around (I fucking hate that!!!), and they have a strange predilection for putting dirty furniture/objects on my bed. This is called sadism. May they burn in hell!

I spent a couple of hours at the local IKEA store a few days ago. I took the chance to have some Swedish food while being there. It's nothing fancy, rather simple - but still brilliant.

I promised to post a "review" of my room soon, and I will, I promise. I just need to get a few tasks out of the way and then I can dedicate myself more into posting updates of my life in Austria.

Thank you for reading!

Euophoria and pride

Eleven years of waiting is finally over. AIK beat IFK Göteborg yesterday evening and I can not really put words on the massive happiness and joy that I feel. I will not try to draw any conclusions about the season that just passed because I can't, there is just too much and too many feelings at the same time. I need some distance to this in order to really understand what happened. I just want to point at a post from one year ago, written by me shortly after the appointment of Mikael Stahre. This is what I had to say then. This is what I want to say now: Micke, förlåt! I was wrong and I admit it! When I attended the first game of the season on April 5th earlier this year I could not imagine that this season would evolve into what it eventually did. November 1st 2009 is a day that I will never forget, and I still cannot believe that it is true.

I found some strong images from the game yesterday (courtesy of Magnus Neck).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You!