Destruction and Subsequent Recovery of Dignity

I promised some of you I would post the story of what transpired Friday evening, the night of 13 February (Blimey! How appropriate it was a Friday the 13th!). But for fear of future background checks and possibly younger children, for whom I am supposed to be setting an example, reading this entry, I'll condense the events of the evening into two piece of advice. 1) Never drink anything described by friends as "paint." 2) Never get cocky about riding a bike. In any case, some scratches and a lost phone resulted. I'll leave it at that to spare myself any further loss of class.

Now to, as I quite appropriately described, the "subsequent recovery of dignity." It was nice to have Matt Reardon and his friends visiting from Copenhagen Business School, and although certain circumstances from the previous night – possibly having something to do with the above – precluded quality hanging out time on Friday, we did walk around Uppsala for awhile on Saturday morning. We witnessed some snowboarding on the hill below the Uppsala castle (along with collecting some free hotdogs, Red Bull, and Jägermeister apparel).

Then it was time for the highlight of my studying abroad. The Reccegasque, or reception dinner, for all new members of the nations. The new members first met at their respective nations dressed in their formal attire (I wore a charcoal suit with a blue tie) for a walk behind the nations's flags to the main university building. The assembly there was less-than-enthralling as it was conducted entirely in Swedish (with the exception of a performance by a big band of a silly song whose title and theme I can't currently recall). We members of Värmlands nation then walked back to the nation itself, where we (I'd say about 70 of us) hung our coats and went into the upstairs lobby for champagne. At 18:00 (6:00p, American style), we proceeded into the dining room.

We were seated randomly in an arrangement of alternating genders (i.e. m-f-m-f), with I being the exception to that rule, being surrounded by ladies. Gasque code requires each male to pay the most attention to the female at his right and each female to obviously spend most time with the male at her left. After the Inspector of the nation (think faculty advisor, except inspector is a full time job) was seated, the new members followed suit.

From there, we indulged in a three course meal (cheesecake and caviar followed by broiled reindeer and scalloped potatoes and ending in a dessert of white chocolate mousse and raspberry "something-or-other"), sipped on snaps (yes, spelled correctly – a traditional Swedish liquor), red wine, beer, and Bailey's, sang drinking songs in Swedish (again, one was in English), and enjoyed speeches by the nation's curators (administrators) and Inspector and performances by the various Värmlands nation ensembles. Most notably were a very funny performance by sketch comedy group Spex and an unbelievably outstanding performance by the nation's choir. The latter received a standing ovation.

Swedish (Svenska) is a very difficult language to speak, but singing in Swedish is far more difficult. Nevertheless, as the alcohol flowed, the English-speakers in the room were more willing to attempt to follow along. The only song sang more than once was a thank you song to all performers, who in turn had their own part to play in this song.

After meeting new people and thoroughly enjoying their company, as well as the new found traditions and belonging – approximately 23:00 – we left for the after party at Smålands nation. This, in my opinion, left something to be desired, but I personally had already had an immense amount of enjoyment from the evening.

Today, I booked trips to Oslo and London. I'm very much looking forward to the travels I have planned. This weekend, some of my new friends and I head to Kiruna in northern Sweden. Hopefully, we will see the Northern Lights, but if nothing else, we'll experience a new part of the country we are studying in, a definite must in my opinion.

And Boston College again shocked the world (or the small fraction of it that care) by beating #5 Duke in yesterday's men's basketball game at Conte Forum. I was following along on ESPN Gamecast, but when it was a one-point game with 2+ minutes left, I'll admit I couldn't watch. Though, minutes later I refreshed the page and we had won by 6! BC will hopefully make the tournament after a year's absence! Well done, boys.

And Arsenal. I must just say, it was an absolute delight to see Eduardo playing again. He decided to upstage his own return, though, by scoring twice. What a class act. Arsenal walked all over Cardiff, 4-0. It could have been much worse had van Persie and Bendtner converted easy chances, Cardiff goalkeeper Heaton not been playing out of his head.

Song: "Cherub Rock" – Smashing Pumpkins

The First One

I don't recall who inspired me to start a blog (maybe God), but I have done it. As indicated by the title, I don't even really know what it is supposed to be. But basically, I'm going to write about anything I think of, and since no one is going to read this (apart from maybe God) I can promise this will be terrible. The prose, the thoughts, and even the font will be terrible and probably inspire you to throw something at the screen. That's right, inspire you.

What can you expect from the blogs? Well, I like Arsenal Football Club (from North London) quite a bit, so I'll talk about them. I also go to Boston College, so I'll talk about them. I'm also a fan of the Tennessee Titans. I like music a lot, so I'll talk about that. And I'm going to be out of the United States for five months, so I'll talk about that too. Basically, anything no one cares about (and by inference, that I DO care about) will be covered in this blog (apart from the Titans).

So the next time I get angry (which my friends would tell you, will probably be in the next 45 seconds) I'll write because anger inspires a lot more than happiness. There will be the occasional happy or thrilled blog too, but don't expect them too often.

Boston College 85, @ #1 North Carolina 78
And quite shockingly, the first blog happens to be about something happy. During the game, I thought about why I screamed at the television and threw my hat down even though no one could hear me (at least no one outside of my house, let alone at the game itself). I couldn't think of why, but it felt good that this game was even something to yell about. After all, I read that BC was predicted to finish 11th out of 12 teams in the ACC, so even getting close to UNC was good. Then we won, and it was awesome. Tyrese Rice, Rakim Sanders, and Reggie Jackson were all awesome and Josh Southern (and Courtney Dunn?) played excellent defense on Tyler "I flooded the Dean Smith center with my tears" Hansbrough, even managing to not foul out until the last two minutes. This more than makes up for that sh•t bowl loss to Gaylord Hotels Vanderbilt (I think they're called).

And it's also nice to know that there is some stability with the BC football team. If Jeff Jagodzinski leaves, it indicates both 1) that he is scared about the dreaded 3rd and 4th years when his own recruits must do the talking and 2) that he is akin to a builder who begins to build a house, but gets called into build a mansion, thus deciding to up and leave (which for the owner of the former is nothing but displeasing). Nonetheless, Jags has bolstered the reputation of our small Catholic school, and I guess he has performed well enough to earn an NFL job. As for AD Gene DeFelippo, I already have some qualms with him, so he becomes the bad guy. Why on earth did he go public (or tell someone who could easily make it public) that Jags would be fired if he interviewed. Son of a b•tch.

Until the next bad thing that happens,
Brian