I Sverige Igen!

Well I am back! Only for a few days unfortunately. So I will begin by re-capping my trip (I have to relearn the punctation on this keyboard so bear with me). The flight was the second worse of my life...coming a very distant second to my first flight to Europe. It was not the flight itself so much as my inability to sleep, general discomfort, and insanely wretched stomach sickness developed mid way through.

It was a very turbulent flight, but that did not really bother me. Air France was comfortable and pleasant as usual. I always get stomachaches on international flights, ok I get stomachaches everywhere, but international flights are among the worse. Its the combination of anxiety, eating, and sitting still and upright for 10 hours that does it to me. On the flight to Paris it was just generally nagging stomach pain, but on the one to Stockholm from Paris it was intense pain followed by the requisite frequent trips to the bathroom. As for the lack of sleep, that just happens from time to time but is never pleasant when it does.

I sat next to an oversized Italian man who drank about a gallon of vodka, and while he was rather nice, he was more than "boisterous" the entire time...as Italians tend to be. It would not have been bad had it been for 5, 6, even 7 hours...but at nearly 9 it was rough. The same goes for the overflow of his body that shared my seat with me the whole way.

I had a hard time making the connecting flight at De Gaul as well because the airport is organized like a labyrinth with misleading signs, and the French are more insane than we are about security checks...a hint to my friends in France, design your airport so connecting passengers do not have to re-enter the general population in order to get to their flight and you will not have to re-check everyone of them before they can board...but, hey, it would not be France if it were not a little inconvenient. If it were England it would be more chaotic, they would charge you for every breath you took while you were waiting, and you would be accompanied by loud, obnoxious, horse-faced drunks the entire time. Arlanda airport in Stockholm has a new policy called a "silent airport," which means that instead of the cacaphony of incoherent messages delivered without end in a series of languages they post messages on digital boards. One more attempt by the Swedes to make their existence so peaceful that it slides off the other end of "existence" altogether.

With that here we are, in Sweden! It is just as wonderful as it was when I left minus about 12 hours of daylight and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. When I got in I was unable to contact my old flatmate and I was operating without sleep, winter clothes and with a crippling stomachache...I needed coffee of course. So I dragged my bags to one of my favorite cafes in Stureplan and prepared for 7 hours of reading and trying to stay awake while I waited for my flatmate to get home (it would turn out that her phone was not working). It was actually very pleasant out, probably low 50s or high 40s, but very sunny so comfortable. I scoffed at the silly locals in winter jackets, scarves, hats and gloves (although people look very classy in winter clothes and Swedes need little help as it is given that they are probably the world's most naturally beautiful people). Here is a bit of advice for you lone warrior travelers out there...if the locals do something there is often a reason for it. Around 4 pm when the sun went down that reason became more than evident.

Back to the cafe though, and back to changing paragraphs whenever I feel like it and with little regard for linguistic convention. I cut quite the odd figure in there being underdressed and carrying two empty suitcases. I was dressed nicely, don't get me wrong I always am here, but the jeans, button-down shirt and blazer were not becoming the weather at all. So I figured that since I was already offending the hyper-conformist tendencies in Sweden I would do the ultimate social sin and, god forbid, talk to someone I don't already know!!! It was going to be a revolutionary or seditious act for sure, but I was tired of pumping worthless American money into phone calls and I needed to see if someone would let me use their mobile phone. I was once told by a Swedish friend that she thought that one should not just start talking to someone they do not know because it invades their "social space"...only in a big country of only 15-20 people, like Sweden, does such an idea of "social space" take on that kind of acreage...leaving aside the fact that this makes initially acquiring friends a logical absurdity. Here is a trick about Sweden, sometimes Swedes can seem a bit cold or stand-offish but if you take a chance and talk to them you will find that there are no nicer people in the world. So of course someone let me use their phone and even came later and asked before leaving if I would like to use it again.

As I mentioned, my flatmate's phone was not working, so I could not get in touch with her. It eventually came to the inevitable hike back to the apartment on a leap of faith that somebody would be here. At this point the cold was nearly unbearable and the walkways had iced-over so the path was treacherous to boot. Ok, I will not even bother trying to make this part exciting...I got home fine and she was here to let me in. I slept like a baby and I am near finished packing.

I am going to give some things away to "charity"...assuming there is someone in this country who is not living an upper-middle class life as it is...maybe they will ship it back to America and I will see someone sporting it by where I live where ethnic-cleansing, oops I mean "re-gentrification" or "urban-renewal," has pushed all the poor people (out of sight, out of mind...oh wait, the Democrats are back in power I guess so now we should get some righteous indignation to go with corrupt and ineffective government instead of just callous, corrupt and ineffective government). There are things I do not need like t-shirts, under shirts, sleeping shorts. I am also consolidating by putting cds, dvds, into my case and throwing out there individual cases. As it is, I have nearly all my clothes in one suitcase but I may spread them into two because the books are going to be too heavy for one bag. There are a lot more books then I had remembered. The skateboard is going to be a problem. I have to call Air France and see what the charge is, but I may have to find a friend who can hang on to it here.

Once I finish this I have a few days to try to enjoy life. I have emailed a few law firms and if they get back to me then maybe I will be able to meet with people. I suspect that will go one of three ways...1) they won't get back to me, 2) they will not be able to employ me unless I am bar approved, 3) they will not be able to employ me unless I take a local legal masters degree. I will also try to catch up with some friends, make new ones for no reason at all, and do a bit of sight-seeing and picture-taking.

My latest plan is to take the bar in NY so that I can work in NYC because its the best place besides DC (which is federal so covered by the NY bar exam) to use as an international point of departure. This approach is severely flawed because its so pricey and the test has such a low pass rate (I got in contact with old law school classmates and only 2 of them have passed the bar yet...about 10 have taken non-legal jobs and decided not to bother with the law anymore). Take this as opposed to say, taking a Swedish legal masters which would be free for me except cost of living, would defer my loans, and would make me eligible for employment during and after school and it is not really clear as to why I have chosen the former route. I guess I have no faith in getting a job at all anymore, and if I go to more school and then still cannot get a job then I am back to the miserable place I have been in. To take the bar is to drive out this never-ending lost cause to its final point. I am still extremely reluctant though because my chances of passing are very low and this would completely break my back financially if I do not pass. Again, I shake my head when I think that a country I am not even from will educate me for free and then make me eligible for work while in my country the debt just continues to grow and seems to be its own industry, to the point of requiring more money to be borrowed after school so you can take a nearly impossible test in order to get a job. God bless the USA! If I had known all this when I was younger I would have done things very differently...more recently I would have passed on the LSE and gone for free to a Scandinavian school to get my legal masters and employment eligibility...hmm, Sweden-finish American law school and take a free one-year masters or America-finish American law school and take a 5,000 dollar test hardly anyone passes so that you can be left wondering what to do after that...tough decision, I will certainly make the wrong one in keeping with the trend.

For now I am in a place I am happy in so I will forget about the crummy modern condition I have to live my life out in. Maybe I will get some clear thinking done, at the very least I will have a pleasant week. Jag älskar sverige mycket och jag ska flytta här någon dag!