Hallå där Stockholm, vakna upp!

To grab your attention, here is a picture of a sassy Swedish girl in the club

She actually had good reason for her surly demeanor. She was looking at a 4 ft tall middle eastern looking guy dancing around in an FBI hat who moments later made a pass at her. Here's the damageSo after that we made our way to the dance floor, but let me catch you up a bit first with how the night progressed.

Saturday nights in Stockholm kick ass. I started the night playing cards and drinking games with some of the internationals I met at Lodge 32, on Kungsholmen. We finished six large beers each of 3.5% tall boys. I thing it was called Carlsberg, a Danish beer. It cost me something like 75 SEK for a six pack at the 7-11 next door.

After the pre party, we crossed the bridge to Norrmalm, the island north of the Gamla Stan, which sits just north of Södermalm. We went to a place called Chaplins Bar. If you want to check it out, www.chaplinsbar.se. Here is a picture of the dance floor. Special thanks to the guy who let us in when he told us we were dressed nice and asked where we were from. When I said California, he said, 'nice place' and let us skip the line. Turns out the other two were from other parts of Sweden, but they kept quiet, and it worked out. 160 crowns later and we were in the club.




Of course, I made some new friends. We got a girl to take a picture of us outside the bathroom. Kinda cool, I guess...










Then came the highlight of the night...welll, one of them-at least. So this couple of girls, and I either mean couple literally or maybe Swedish girls just like to party (who knows), approached
us and started dancing with us. I danced with the blonde one for quite some time and we were having fun, getting into heavy petting and I think she might have given me a kiss but I honestly can't remember, and this is about how it progressed from there














Which brought us to this.




















But don't think the night ended there. Next door to the club was the American Embassy, where we made a stop and witnessed Stockholmians enjoying a taste of American culture. After that, we made the decision to go back home at 4 AM, which by the way looks more like 10AM in most other places, because the light never really ends in Sweden during the summer. We realized that this was a good chance to jump into the canals naked, which is something you should do in Europe at 4 in the morning, or else you simply aren't partying right. Don't worry, the guides said the lake water was clean enough to swim in. Oh and look at me in front of Central Station. How wonderful.

Jag tror nog att det går: nasta stoppa Stockholm

We've made it and my head is spinning. I feel like I'm living out a lucid dream. It is my last night in California for the summer and I'm about to board a plane heading East over the States and the Atlantic. Looking out to the West won't help me now; I was here just about this time last year, heading over the Pacific to see the nice Australians down under. Would-be summer romances have been cut off, or perhaps just delayed, and any chance of stability in my life has been thrown into the wind. Strange how so many things can change and yet stay the same in the early years of your life. So for a second summer in a row, I leave my ghost to roam the California coast.

I told all the European friends I made in Australia that I would likely be coming to Europe this summer, though I must admit even I wasn't certain whether or not my words were more full of empty promises or palpable realities at the time. I particularly remember the first night I met Filip, during the Melbourne Welcome. It was at the formal dinner and he incidentally sat next to me as we both showed up late. We talked about Sweden, and I mistook the currency as the Swedish Franc. Now I know very well that it is the Swedish Krona (Crown), and that 1USD is about 7.8 SEK.

Somehow I made it happen, and I got my school to fund it. I guess sometimes you just get lucky and the universe unfolds for you. That's life's magic I've been talking about, and I hope it continues to favor me and that my starry skies never burn out.

I've planned about as much as I reasonably can, and I have to admit that it's been very exciting and I've spent the last few days pacing around, booking things here and there, and looking up every place I'm visiting on Google Earth to make sure nothing extraordinary gets left behind. I used that strategy for New Zealand, and it worked great. Sometimes the best plan is none, and I'm sure things will change and I've learned to just go along with it.

I don't know how well I'll keep up with this once I'm gone. I tried to tell myself I would keep my blog going after Melbourne, and I haven't even looked at it myself since I left. I guess we'll just see.


So, off I go to my first stop, with a handful of mobile numbers, contact info, and the plans I've made for the time I'm in Sweden. Speaking of Sweden, min svenska är dålig.


The Norwegians also seem excited to see me, and I must admit I'm also excited to see them after some 8 years of not seeing them. Always good to see how old friends are doing.



"May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face. And may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars."
George Jung, writer of the Hollywood Film 'Blow'


With that, I'm off; lever min dröm

In Reverie

Today was a gloomy day in Orange County. In the morning, I drove down and spent a quiet moment alone watching the ocean breathe waves as they crashed into the shore and collided with the sand of the beach. The Pacific is beautiful as she transforms from the darkest most unforgiving black to brilliant sapphire-and, without missing even a moment, creates a frothy white wash that gently rumbles and slowly dies out as it approaches the beach.

My parents, and older people in general, always told me that life seems to pass you by quicker than you could hope. I'd never really appreciated that advice until today. As I sat there, alone on the gloomy, windy beach, I realized that this was my last true summer, and that it was already ending moment after moment, quicker than I'd ever like, and yet so harmoniously that I couldn't help but wonder if there was maybe some master plan, some great gig in the sky.

Everyone deals with loss in their life, and everyone has some sort of struggle at some point or another. Everyone (I hope) also feels love in their life, and has great feelings of accomplishment. Maybe it's all for nothing. Maybe it's for everything, to the extent of which we can never truly comprehend. Either way, I'm doing my best to find the beauty in everything life has to offer, which is a hell of a lot in case you haven't noticed.

Sometimes I find the best thing for me to do is just sit back and watch the world as she revolves and rotates. She has been pretty fucked up lately, and it's all our fault and none hers. Radical terrorism is still a global threat. An enormous oil spill is poisoning much of the Gulf region in the states. People remain jobless and helpless to change this by themselves. The global food crisis endures. The European Union is on the verge of economic ruin, which will likely overlap into global economic instability. Today's university students are learning concepts and skill sets for jobs that don't even exist yet-but soon will.

I'm trying to make sense of this as best I can, if there is any sense to make of these vast complexities and problems. It's been exhausting, and I think that sometimes the only thing you can do is embrace the chaos. You'll never be the smartest, best looking, wealthiest, perfect being. You've got to let the veil of darkness engulf you, conquer it, and emerge victorious, in whatever small way you can. You'll find help along the way. There's magic everywhere if you only take the chance to find it.

Maybe I should take my own advice. I'm far from perfect, and I've been trying, and most of it has been me clumsily stumbling through motions as I make mistake after mistake. I also feel that I should confide the fact that this year I failed immensely. I had some of the best opportunities I've had to make that one beautiful girl I've been entranced by since my first year in college mine. I still remember the first time I noticed her on Stewie Beach my Freshmen year. She was beautiful then and I was too afraid to introduce myself, and she's beautiful now and I'm too afraid to put myself out there and let her know how I really feel. Chances are I'll get shot down anyway, but fuck I have to try someday, because otherwise I'll always wonder, and I can't live with that anymore. Three years has already been too long, and I don't think I can take it much longer... I've got one more year, which is a pitiful excuse, but maybe I'll man up between now and the end of it. Keep the music playing, girl, and this boy will stay even after you're gone...


Thanks to all my friends and my family. I love you all and you're what makes this blog worth writing and these thoughts worth sharing. You give me my motivation and my love for adventure, and without you my life would surely lose what little meaning it has.

Sic transit gloria mundi-so passes the glory of the world.

Western Winds blow the American Summer into Me

Well my Junior year at Oxy has come to an end, and it couldn't end any sooner. I've spent my last few days between friends' houses near school and Orange County, where I've almost finished moving into my room for the six weeks I'm here this summer. I've had a couple of good surf sessions, and I'm running on the beach to get back into the shape I expect myself to be in but I'd fallen out of because of finals and work and Europe and gurlz LOL.

I'm moving into a house next semester with Ian Powell and Jake Wright, and couldn't be more happy about it. Ian and I lived together my sophomore year and threw some great themed parties when we put our minds into initiative mode, and I can't wait to see how things play out. Jake Wright is the illest surfer kid from San Diego, so I doubt I'll have any problems getting along with him.

On the real, though, it is good to be done for the summer and I've been reflecting on my priorities and where I am in life currently. I'm proud to say that I could care less about having a beautiful barbie-doll type girlfriend and proving how cool I am to the world-which was kind of what I put my focus into this time last year and the year before. Instead, I'm living for myself, getting back into shape, visiting family and good friends, and getting ready for a summer that will likely be the best I've had yet, though last summer will be hard to beat as I spent half of it in Australia. My how time flies.

I've been hanging out with Phil a lot, living like a deliquent, and drinking a lot of beer and sangria and getting fat. It's a pretty good life, I must admit. Here is a picture of Phil in San Diego, perched up on a rock formation. He claims someday soon he will swim back to Taiwan. I guess we will just have to see. I've got a EUrail pass that is good for 15 days within the two months I'm in Europe, so things should get interesting as I now have a great deal of mobility available to me.





Plenty of surf in the next few weeks, and I'm happy to be back in the season. Hopefully I can put my mind body and soul at ease and prepare myself for Europe and all the glory two months there has to offer.

Denmark July 5-11

Hey Kids

So it looks like I'll be attending the Danish Atlantic Youth Seminar in Aalborg on an airport base in Denmark.


I'm really excited because this means that I get to talk about American National Security with other students. Here's an image from the website at : http://www.atlant.dk/days.html




Also one of the social events is skydiving, so I'm pretty stoked.


That's the only update I have so far.

European Travel Dates Summer 2010

Here are my tentative travel dates based on tickets, arranged meeting times, and modes of travel-planes, trains, buses, boats. Contact me if you will be in this same area at the same time as me and would like to meet up.

Depart: June 2nd, LAXm Los Angeles
Return: July 29th (tentatively), Heathrow, London

Sweden: June 3rd-12th
June 3rd:Arrive in Stockholm, meet Swedish friends from Melb
June 7-11th: Interview week in various Swedish cities-Stockholm, Goteborg, possibly Lund.
June 12th: Depart for Norway

Norway: June 12th-17th
June 12th: Arrive Oslo
June 14th-18th: Meetings in Oslo and Bergen. Meet with Mathias and Hege Lundgren
June 18th: Return to Stockholm

Sweden: June 18th-19th
June 19th: Depart for Helsinki

Finland: June 20th-26th
June 20th: Arrive Helsinki, meet with Finnish girls
June 21st-25th: Meetings in Helsinki
June 26th: Possibly Tallinn, Estonia
June 27th: Depart Helsinki/Tallinn
Denmark: June 29th-July 2nd

The Netherlands: July 2nd-5th
July 2nd-5th: Amsterdam, meet with Fleur and Dylan
July 5th: Depart Amsterdam for Pamplona, Spain

Espana: July 6th-20th
July 6th-14th: Encierro, Pamplona
July 14th-20th: Barcelona

Italy: July 21st-24th
July 21st, 24th: Rome and surrounding areas with Lorenzo, maybe meet Matteo.

United Kingdom: July 25th-29th, maybe longer
July 29th: Depart from Heathrow and return to Los Angeles

Transcendence

Does anybody even read this?


I've moved beyond my melancholy mood. I am still somewhere between here and there, and I go through the motions of the waking world, but I always remember there is something more, something beyond, some sort of etheral landscape of dreams that I am welcome to visit but can never stay at for long...

Tomorrow I will receive the funding for northern Europe. I've received significantly more than anticipated, so I will be spending half of my summer in Europe. Why the hell not, right?

Santa Barbara brought on a weekend of debauchery, new friends, new experiences, new women, and beautiful seaside adventures. Here is a picture of the mission, established as part of Spanish colonization in the early 1600s if I'm not mistaken.
My Tuesday class was canceled so I used it as an excuse to sneak away to Malibu and get some rock climbing in with Ben. The day was perfect, and we could climb rocks, swim in the ocean, and watch the attractive girls put a show on for us at the beach. I like to think they were dancing to put on a show for us, but maybe they just enjoy dancing anywhere anytime, which is also good.



Last night I went to the Getty for college night. I wound up going to UCLA afterwards with some new friends and had a charming and eventful night.

You're in my eyes, in my head, in my soul-I feel you there.