Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Everything is love.

So I've had some baseball games, gone to a museum, shopped, partied, cheered at a soccer game, attended a jazz festival, and worked on my thesis the past couple weeks. I needed a respite from blogging, but now I'm back, and I bet that thrills my reader.

There's a free yoga meditation class in English near Skanstull. I was a little worried it was a cult, but last week I went anyway. The "class" was more of a "prayer session in some random dude's apartment," but I half expected that. When I arrived they asked me how much meditation I had done in the past, and when I attempted to sit cross-legged they realized I was a beginner. "The essence of Yoga is that everything is of the same consciousness," was the first thing the monk said to me. "It's like ice. It is ice, but it is also water." Yeah, he said that.

The monk had loose white pants, a loose orange shirt, long blond hair tied in a pony tail, and what can only be described as a lumberjack-like beard. I'm certain a blue jay could have raised kids in there. "Matter is not constant," he continued. "Everything in the universe is one consciousness, and Yoga is about aligning yourself with that consciousness." First, we're going to chant, "Baba na, ke ba la," which means "Everything is love." When those words hit my ears, I felt like I had been transported back to the 60's. And what a chant it was.

One guy whipped out an acoustic guitar, we all stood up, and danced. The dance was: pick up right foot, touch floor with right foot behind left foot, return right foot to original position. Repeat with left foot. While we shuffled back and forth you could hold your hands in prayer position, or reach them both up into the sky which I was told "symbolized being aligned with the universe." We chanted and I chose to align my self with the universe until I got bored. We did this for 20 minutes, which is a long time when your singing a song with one line.

Next, we meditated for half an hour. I meditated on myself being love. Five minutes in, I mediated about me feet being asleep. I made it 20 minutes before my knees started bothering me and I broke my impressive cross-legged position. After meditation was a prayer or sermon or something, which preceded the best part: snacks! Apparently the monks own a bakery nearby and bring leftovers, which are quite good. While eating, I talked with a British guy who was planning to hitch-hike around the world and make money by working at orphanages and organic farms. It was an extremely cool conversation. When I left, I felt quite enlightened.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Another New Place and Steamboat Beef

I'm moved into Anton's now. He's been working a lot, so we haven't done too much together aside from play ESPN Baseball 2K5 before bed. You know you're not a teenager anymore when your ass gets handed to you in a video game. And I still can't figure out the base running! Guess I'm just showing my age. The day I moved in, I went on a steamboat tour of Stockholm's Northern Archipelago.

I was supposed to meet Anton's father, Janne, in T-Centralen at 4pm. As a somewhat time impaired individual, I was 15 minutes late. Janne led me to meet his brother, Gustav, and we hurried to the train that went to Kungsträdgården and the ship. On that train, Gustav informed me that he didn't like to be hurried because of his heart condition, and that he didn't appreciate that I was trying to kill him. I am truly super at first impressions. We made it to the boat though, AND Gustav didn't die.

I was a little hesitant to take this 5 hour tour with two men twice my age, but it was worth it. The many islands were gorgeous, and I learned quite a bit from Janne and Gus. Gus is very involved with jazz in Stockholm, doing everything from promoting to performing, and has done a lifetime of research on Louis Armstrong. Armstrong led a more fascinating life than I had realized, dining with much of Western Europe's royalty, opening his dressing room to everyone after a concert, and answering his fan mail personally. Gus told me he corresponded with Louis several times while Armstrong was alive. Janne also bought me what was basically a $75 dollar three-course meal, the main dish being traditional steamboat beef. It was all excellent, and the whole trip was very tranquil and relaxing.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

After Work Foolery

Last Friday Johan Lantz and Anton invited out for a little "after-work" drinking. "After-work" is a monthly meeting of young telemarketers from my friends' company where they unwind at a bar. I met Johan and Anton at 6pm in Fridhemsplan. I surprised Anton a bit, because while I had my nice jeans on, I was only wearing a beater for a shirt. I'm assuming that reflects his views on American fashion, and not specifically my style. It was just too warm on the subway to wear the long-sleeve pink button-down I had in my left hand. Soon we arrived at the bar, where our group was enjoying themselves at a table outside.

I was extremely excited. There were several attractive girls there, AND it wasn't suspicious if I talked to them. When I approach an attractive girl that I've never met before on the street, or a club, or on the subway, I can tell their defences go up. And why shouldn't they. Attractive women get approached all the time by guys who say really boring things like, "Do you like American music?" or really only want to sleep with them. I have a much easier time conveying my lovable self when I have a substantial reason to speak with the girl, which could be as simple as her bumping into me a saying, "Sorry." I was going to be part of the group for a while, so it was only natural to meet everyone.

I met most of the people in the group, told a couple stories, asked some questions, and was having an excellent time. It also helped that Victor, a guy from the group, kept buying me drinks. Stockholm is expensive, so I readily accepted what was given to me and I thought Victor was a great guy. Towards the end of the "after work" session, I was engaged in conversation with two girls, while another that I thought was really cute was sitting on my lap. Unfortunately, I didn't know Victor always tries to get new people drunk. And he's good at what he does.

I wasn't really paying attention to the last few drinks he bought me. While I was drinking the last one, I found out it was a Long Island Ice Tea. I followed that up with two shots that may have been double shots, and things went way downhill from there. I had a moment of semi-clarity where I realized what I had done, and decided to wander outside. I sat down on the sidewalk outside the bar, and soon Johan, Anton, and Johan Keding decided it was in my best interest to take me home.

Thank God I have good friends. I threw up five times, twice on the Subway, and I progressively became less and less coordinated to where they basically carried me back to Anton's. Johan Lantz even went as far as to remove and soak my befouled shirt and shoes. I owe all of them a bunch. While the evening didn't end ideally, what I remember was a lot of fun and its just nice to know I have people who about me out here. And, if I didn't make too bad of a first impression, I'm excited to hang out with those girls again.