The power of scents

I am sure you have experienced how the scent of something or someone can take you back in time. It is funny how something so seemingly simple can trigger powerful emotions in us; the smell of your girlfriend or boyfriend’s perfume can bring to mind memories of pleasant evenings spent with him or her, whereas the scent of summer or spring can produce feelings of happiness and joy. Speaking of summer, whenever I apply sunscreen on my skin, my mind immediately sets out on a journey to previous summers, and my mind becomes overwhelmed with images and sounds of days gone by.


It is a special kind of magic, and while I do enjoy travelling back in time through scents, it often leaves me with a feeling of nostalgia. I often find myself wanting to go back in time and relive those happy moments spent with good friends, but for obvious reasons I cannot. While one may not always appreciate those moments as much as one should when they actually occur, our minds seem to be smart enough to store them for us. So if you do not wear sunscreen: apply some next summer and experience the sunscreen time machine effect! It works.

2009 from A to M

Here's a brief summary of 2009. Initially, I had planned to write something about the year using the whole alphabet, but that would have been too long a post. Trust me. I doubt many of you will sacrifice braincells reading this one, but here goes nothing.

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.

Home

Where is home? Is it where my family lives, where I study or where most of my friends are? Or is it where I gave my heart away and got so much in return? Perhaps it’s where I became me – where I laid the foundations of what I am today? Sometimes the answer seems self-evident, but then I have those moments where I’m uncertain again. It’s very confusing because it feels like I need to know, but maybe I don’t? Sometimes I want nothing than to be home, but then I have those days where I want to be anywhere but there. Peculiar and stressful! The search for a place to call home is proving to be difficult. What’s common is that I often love parts of each “home” I’ve been to, but rarely the whole thing. I guess it’s hard to satisfy me. I feel like a sailor without his compass (back in the olden days when they still used such things) or like a tumbleweed rolling restlessly along the desert. I don’t know where I’ll be some years from now – maybe I’ll never have a “permanent” home but change homes every three years. Who knows? Sometimes I do wish I could decide, but it seems impossible for me.

A few honest words about some of Växjö's dinner establishments

I quite enjoy eating out once in a while - be it due to a special occasion or just to avoid creating a mess in my own kitchen. I've been living in Växjö for some months now which means I've dropped by a couple of restaurants already. In general I've been VERY disappointed with the food I've been served; once I even got food that was more resemblant to prison food than restaurant food. To me that's not a very good thing. Especially not since I have to pay top dollars (or Swedish kronor in this case) for that piece of shit they dare call food. I've been more disappointed with the food at most places than I've been pleased with it. There are, however, a few exceptions. Only one is mentioned in this note, however.


*OXGRILLEN

Oxgrillen is a basic burger joint next to the cinema downtown. I had read good things about it, so naturally I was hopeful when I stepped into the place and saw their menu: their selection isn't very big, but the photos looked promising. After a mere 10 minutes it became clear to me that photos lie. At least at Oxgrillen. Yes, it is a burger joint, but they had something called "Countrysteak" on the menu, so I decided to go for it since I love steaks. I should have been skeptical due to the low price (about 65 SEK), but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. So much for hope. The steak looked more like a poor man's version of a hamburger than a steak, and tasted very fake (the little taste I could actually taste) as well. Bummer. I got a tiny, tiny bit of salat with it, but nothing fancy. In fact, I can't recall the last time I've seen such a small amount of salad served with a meal. Naturally fries were included, but for some reason the staff at Oxgrillen thinks putting a fuckload of mayonnaise on top of the fries makes it a great meal. WRONG! What the hell were they thinking? My arteries are already fighting the burger and fries, but to put up a stand against mayonnaise at the same time? No arteries are up for that task. The fries were definitely the best part of the meal, but the mayonnaise sadly screwed it up quite a bit.
Mayonnaise would have been fine it the amount was reduced severely.

3/10. MAYONNAISE HELL!

*ROYAL THAI

One of the compulsory Asian restaurants in town, situated opposite of the railway station. I know I shouldn't have done it, but their "buffet" managed to fool me. Damnit! Who would turn down a buffet with a wide variety of Asian food? If my memory serves me correctly, I had to shell out around 80 SEK for the buffet (meaning I could eat as much as I wanted). The price was acceptable, but the food was treacherous! Don't be fooled, my friends. The food was dry, tasteless and didn't make me want to come back. I enjoyed the first spoonfuls, but I guess my taste buds woke up quite fast! At a buffet you want to eat as much as possible due to the simple fact that it's free, but it proved a hard task at Royal Thai due to a horrendous selection of tasteless junk. I started feeling slightly nauseous after finishing my first plate which naturally resulted in me not eating much more. In fact, I haven't been to a buffet ever since and now I'm very skeptical about any Asian buffets. I've been disappointed before.

2/10. DON'T DO IT!

*LA GONDOLA

This "restaurant" is situated next to Oxgrillen downtown. When it comes to apperance, it doesn't look like much. In fact, it looks like the kind of restaurant you would find in the old Soviet 20 years ago, but my friends and I decided to give it a shot. This time I was actually hopeful due to the fact that a normal meal costed around 120 SEK (sort of expensive). I thought that high price equals good quality. Appearently not. A high price at La Gondola means nothing else than that they're ripping you off. I ordered a schnitzel and potatoes. Doesn't sound like much, and it didn't look like much either! When it comes to esthetics, this meal was definitely the ugliest looking piece of shit I've seen in a while. Burned potatoes and a burned schnitzel for 120 (?) SEK. Are you fucking kidding me? I was very disappointed in the meal - it was barely edible, but I forced it down my throat anyway (as best as I could). At this point I felt I had to voice my opinion about the food. I had actually hoped for feedback sheets where you rate the food and service by using different smileyfaces where ":)" means good and ":(" means utter crap. Unfortunately La Gondola didn't have these, so I had to give oral feedback to our waitress. I told her straight that the food was quite bad and asked if I could get a discount. She didn't really reply, but I'm pretty sure I could see a small frown on her face. I didn't get a discount either. In retrospect I feel kind of bad about complaining to her and not the chef, but at the same time I was honest and didn't just keep shut and accept that piece of rubbish they call food.

1/10. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.


*MAIDO

Maido is a cosy sushi restaurant (they do sell a few other dishes as well) in downtown Växjö. It's close to Åhlens, but not necessarily that easy to find. If you like sushi, you should use a map to find the place if you have to. It's a hidden gem. I'm not a big sushi fan, but I've eaten it a few times during my life and I enjoy it now and then. Thanks to Maido I'm now a bigger sushi fan than I was before; the sushi tasted great, service was good and the place looks charming too. They definitely use fresh ingredients! I could taste it. A sushi meal costs around 80-140 SEK (depending on what you want, of course), and it's well worth the money. I've been there twice with my friends and girlfriend and I have yet to hear a complaint about the food there. Just writing about it makes me want to go back there.

10/10. TRY IT!


That's all for now as I'm getting slightly tired. Maybe I'll post some more reviews later. ;)