A is for Avatar, James Cameron’s latest movie and instantly one of the biggest movies of the year. Movie-wise, one of the biggest surprises for me this year. The trailer didn’t excite me at all – in fact it made me not want to watch the movie. Due to all the hype, however, I still went to see it with my girlfriend. Both of us expected a major disappointment, but three hours later we walked out from one of the best movie experiences of the year. The only minuses were that it wasn’t very original, and it was a tad bit too long for me. Check it out! It’s currently rated 8.8/10 on imdb.com, so Cameron must have done something right.
B is for Bodypump, a fitness program where you listen to great music while exercising to the max! Trust me – you don’t want to look bad in front of the inhumanly fit instructor and 40-year-old women who lift more weight than you without breaking a sweat. In an attempt to do something else than study, drink and sit in front of the computer, I’ve been going to the gym now and then for the last couple of years. Exercising is supposed to be good for you, and why would I reject good things? Some even claim it’s fun, but I don’t know if I’m there yet. Anyway – Bodypump has become my new favorite form of exercise for numerous reasons; it’s less boring than trying to figure out how to use the alien-looking equipment at the gym, and you push yourself harder. An added bonus is that you rarely encounter steroid-eating gorillas in Bodypump classes. You know who I’m referring to; the guys that look like XL-versions of Bruce Willis in Die Hard, with arms wider and thicker than your legs, and with grunts and groans that resemble sounds made when an individual jizzes off to XXX on the Net. There - I said it, I meant it, and I’m here to represent it!
C is for the Czech Republic. My girlfriend and I spent almost a week in the wonderful city of Prague in August. Neither of us had ever been there, and it turned out to be a great experience: cheap (and tasty) beer, low prices and a lot of places to see. The weather was fantastic, too, and I definitely want to go back there some day. The perfect place to go with your girlfriend/boyfriend!
D is for Denmark. Maybe you are familiar with the expression “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Well, nothing was rotten there this August. (Except for the prices, but I’m used to it being Norwegian and all) Why would a Norwegian invade the kingdom of Denmark? Well, I had to pay my respect to my man Thomas Baark as he successfully had managed to tame and fool my girlfriend’s sister, Hanna Baark, into marrying him. I went there a few days after my summer job ended, and it turned out to be one of the nicest memories of ’09: happy people, great food and great weather. Too bad the musicians were so bad. Oh well, you can’t always get what you want.
E is for English. I’ve always had a thing for English, so I started studying English as a minor at Växjö University in September. It has been a lot of work, but I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. With just one course left, I can soon say “mission accomplished”. Oh, btw, Old English is a mean biatch.
F is for Friends. I once read that friends are the family you choose yourself. There’s a lot of truth in that phrase. This year has been both bad and good when it comes to friendships. Due to my moving to Sweden, I had to say goodbye to my closest friends. Saying goodbye is never fun, and it always hurts. Despite the fact that we all keep in touch, I often find myself longing for the good times we spent together. I feel that I should have appreciated them more, and I wish those moments of joy and fun lasted longer, but time has a tendency to go fast when you’re having fun. Joel, Carsten, Vivian and Sari: We will meet again and we’ll have a helluva good time when we do! You are all like family to me. Some positive things happened as well though; new friendships were made in Sweden, so things are not all bad. Who knew that there were nice Swedes, Americans and Canadians out there? I kid, I kid.
G is for Games. Being the geek I am, I have to mention games. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you! If it does, you should ask yourself if you truly know me. Fallout III was a positive surprise this year, and now I just feel silly for not purchasing it when it came out last year. D’oh. Thank you, Jordan, for enlightening me. A lot of games have been published, and I’ve probably forgotten plenty of them, but Modern Warfare II and the new Monkey Island episodes turned out to be among the best games of the year. The former boosts a great single player campaign, but unfortunately the multiplayer campaign leaves a lot to be desired. Consolification, anyone? I’ve been a fan of the Monkey Island series for a long time, so of course I had to buy all five episodes when I came across them. A lot of fun has been had, but despite me being older than when I played my first Monkey Island game, I’m still not that good at solving those damned puzzles.
H is for Helsinki. What can I say? When it comes to entertainment and fun, most of it was had in Helsinki due to the great people living there. Expensive beers, crazy dancing (if it can be called dancing) and 4 a.m. conversations with your best friends, need I say more?
I is for Idiots. You encountered them this year, and you’ll encounter them next year. Watch out!
J is for Joy. When my girlfriend and I reached the decision to go to Sweden, I was feeling anything but joy; I was scared, and I didn’t want to leave my friends and the “safety” of home. A few months later, I realized I had been freaking out for no reason; Sweden proved to be a nice place to study (despite the amount of work), and a great country in general. As mentioned earlier, I met a lot of new people from all over the world. Very cool. The Swedes don’t hate Norwegians by the way, they are just jealous of our wealth (why do you think most of them flee to Norway?) and don’t understand our fascinating language (despite Swedish being so similar!).
K is for Komedy. I know comedy is spelled with a C, but I had to fit this one in. Besides, if they can get away with it in Mortal Kombat, why can’t I? My favorite comedian, and indeed the favorite comedian of many of my friends, is Pablo Francisco. Together with my friends I’ve been ROFL-ing and LMAO-ing at his Youtube-videos for a long time, so naturally we (my girlfriend, my friends and I) had to get tickets when we discovered that he was coming to Helsinki to entertain the cold and grumpy Finns! Tickets were bought, and months passed (slowly…), but the day finally came – Pablo was in Helsinki, and together with his comrades he was going to entertain us for two hours! All of us thought his show was hilarious despite the insatiable Joel Peart, but then again, he is of British descent, so one must not expect too much. I had never before been to a stand-up comedy show, so it was a new experience for me. Definitely one of the highlights of the year.
L is for Laptop. After working my ass off in Norway over the summer, I had gathered a lump of money. That’s right: I had that cheese, I had that cheddar, I had the dough, I had them Benjamin Franklins. I’m quite relentless when it comes to spending money, so I finally bought myself a laptop! I will admit that I haven’t used it a lot in Sweden, but it has been very useful on my trips. I am actually writing on it right now. You see – it’s not that useless. I could have spent money on far worse things, such as call girls and gentleman magazines.
M is for Moving, Movies and Michael. My girlfriend and I finally got to move together in August after living in different cities for several years. How was this possible, you ask? No, it wasn’t a miracle – we both simply applied to go on an exchange to the same university. As a result of this, we both moved to southern Sweden in August, and we will stay there indefinitely. Okay, so we will return to the land of Finns some day, but Sweden is great most of the time. Okay, moving on to movies then. Movies YOU should watch: Avatar, The Hangover (one of the best comedies ever made), I love you, man, A Christmas Carol, Drag me to hell and a bunch of other movies I’ve completely forgotten about. Finally: R.I.P. Michael Jackson.
