Can we talk for a second about how Boulder's Marine Apartments threw down so hard that 2000 CU students partied in their courtyard last night? This was also the night we got knocked out of March Madness. Sweet Sixteen spots are fleeting; Boulder pride is forever.
Since I've arrived in Sweden, I've realized my endurance for late-night partying has pretty much disappeared. Parties start as early as 17:00 around here, so I feel like you're asking a lot when you expect to still be having a good time until 2 or 3 in the morning. About half my nights end before midnight...and I love it.
I've never been a great night person in the first place (but I'm a BOMB morning person. I'm almost always naturally wide awake by 8am) and I turn into a real bitch when tired. Sweden's early start/early end thing is my kind of night...but the return to American parties might actually kill me.
There's this thing here called "Eurovision". It's this singing contest between 42 European nations (and a couple random Middle Eastern ones too). Each country sends a national sensation to Azerbaijan (last year's winner) and the contest airs internationally in the end of May (think of a mix of American Idol and the Miss America Pageant). This tradition is on its 57th year. It seems as though every European kid knows exactly what this gigantic pop celebration is, including past winners and current entries, but it would probably be a struggle to hunt down Americans that have even heard of it. So weird. Anyways, all the songs are pretty catchy.
Here's Sweden's 2012 entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4PMQB5zmAU
Obsessed.
I'm heading to Amsterdam at the end of the week! I'm just mildly terrified, as I'm going with another CU student and neither of us have ever been to the Netherlands. It's going to be a sinfully high adventure, full of red light scandal and Anne Frank museums. It feels so sacrilegious to keep mentioning Anne Frank in the same sentence as a world famous sex district and "coffee" shops. This will also be my first experience in a European hostel, so I'm all around thrilled. It might be a disaster. We shall see.
The whole city is warming up and people are planning big for the spring and summer. A plan to tour around Spain in mid-May is in the works. We're thinking about catching super cheap flights, then renting some beat up old car and just roadtripping around the country. Sleeping in the car, living on Barcelona street food and Sevilla sunshine, and embracing the sweet feeling of the Spanish wind in your hair.
Anyways, it's amazing to see Uppsala bloom. A lot of us joked about how the only way you can see the sun in Uppsala is if you check out Google Maps, but the vision of a glorious little warm weather haven is starting to materialize. I've always liked Uppsala, but I'm starting to like it a lot more now that it's not covered in ice.
And March 24th marks the halfway point between when I left America and when I'm coming home. It's going to be bittersweet.
