Useless tidbits
Apparently, Lund is on a hill. I live at the bottom of the hill. My classes are at the other end of the city, at the top of said hill. I climb 70 vertical meters on my bike each morning to get to class. If that’s not motivation to stay home, I don’t know what is. I know it’s true, some tenor told me so.
I also learned that this August was Sweden’s rainiest since the 1940’s, quite possibly the rainiest in recorded history. If the bike mechanic who lent me his tools is to be believed, there was over 300mm of rain this august, compared to the usual 60 and change. The previous record (possibly in 1943) was around 230mm. dayumn.
In other news, the fact that I paid roughly $300 CAD for a piece of crap phone was getting to me. I returned it to the store and bought myself a shiny new palm treo from everyone’s favourite black market, ebay. It’s a sexy, sexy beast.
One of the guys on the Copenhagen trip whipped up a cool little montage of the day. Unfortunately, my internet connection is roughly the equivalent of yelling binary numbers to a blind and deaf scribe and having him mail the transcript to the bottom of the ocean, so I’ll just blatantly steal from him. Get the video off of his server.
On Sunday night, my floor had an international dinner. Everyone was supposed to make a dish from their home country and potluck it up. This provided me with three problems:
- I can’t cook.
- We have no roasting pans or casserole dishes, so delicious lemon-stuffed chicken was out.
- What the hell is Canadian food?! (bacon and maple syrup aren’t meals, they’re just delicious)
After hours of googling, I found many French-Canadian and Eastern-Canadian foods, as well as a few deserts that I’d never heard of before. Since Canada is so huge, these dishes could’ve just as well been from other countries. This is when I realized that my dilemma really summarized the Canadian identity. When I’m at home and I’m lazy, I cook or order Italian. The school diet is almost 100% asian. My family’s cooking could best be described as British. Our favourite fish & chips place (a British specialty) is run by Chinese people. Canada’s food is just like Canada’s people: multicultural, diverse, and just plain delicious. I couldn’t think of what I would consider Canadian food because such a thing doesn’t exist; I’m used to an ethnically harmonious palette experience. Proud that I could excuse my culinary failings with national pride, I ended up preemptively following Jamie‘s advice: “fry it and have pig in it and put maple syrup on it.” The solution: Maple-braised apples and pork, as suggested by the government of Ontario. Verdict: Delicious.
edit: I almost forgot, I joined a men’s choir. The sound of 50 men all yelling Carmina Burana at the top of their lungs is something to be reckoned with. I don’t laugh at the conductor’s jokes, but that’s just because they’re in Swedish. I’m sure he’s very funny.
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you have just finished saying that you were a a good cook. What is wrong with hamburgers and french fries
When I put my mind to it, I can cook. I don’t know how to cook much, though.
And hamburgers are american 😛
Congrats on joining the choir! Maybe you can suggest that they add to their repertoire the “Bork Bork Bork” song of the Swedish chef. That would be a great way to get into the “in” crowd with the Swedes.
I don’t laugh at my conductor’s jokes and they’re in English….wait. Does he read this? Foiled…
Alex just told me that if you right-click on the link to Matt’s video, and select “save link (or target) as”, you can actually download the video to your computer. Gotta love this technology. So very cool to be sharing this trip with us all back in Canuck-land.
I liked the part best in the film where Alex imitates the soldier.
More videos, please!!!
I don’t think Singer reads this yet. Yet.
I’d give you more videos, but I have no camera. So no 😛
I know *you* don’t have a camera, but perhaps you can continue to share those made by your new colleagues. If anything, those shot by others are more likely to have you in them (obviously if you’re also at the same event as they are). I guess I’ll rephrase my request more *links* to others’ videos, please!!
Yes, I do read this, every couple of days. I’ve even commented a few times. Sheesh, Alex, read your mail!
Katie; You’re in trouble!
Alex; Never believe anything a tenor tells you. Have you not listened to anything I’ve ever taught you? Harumph!
Okay, so I DO laugh at rehearsals… usually because of comments such as “Now basses: when you are holding your……” Keep those coming and I will most certainly keep laughing!
I thought I’d seen some comments from you, Singer, but then I convinced myself I was actually thinking of comments from Swinger. Selective memory at work.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lund, it’s 80m between the lowest and highest points, so I’d believe 70m from my house to class. Since he provided me with believable information, I figure he lied to me. He can’t be a tenor.