College Hockey and More!

Hey All,

Not too much to report right now, actually...

I'll be working all weekend this weekend (yuck), but next weekend I am definitely headed to Amsterdam. Which will be nice. And Ashleigh and I are all booked for our trip to Paris at the end of April!

In the meantime, I'll be cheering DU on in the NCAA Hockey Tournament that starts this weekend. DU won the WCHA title for the 15th time, the most in WCHA history, last weekend! Miami of Ohio (my parent's alma mater) is also in the national tournament after coming in 2nd in the CCHA tournament.

Not much new to report here. If I get some time, I am going to try to get out to see a few museums this weekend, but I may just need some R&R, which is too bad.

Talk to you all soon,

Jared

It's been a long time

Hey All,

I know, I have been really bad about posting since I got back here! Last week I had a few crazy days at the office, but have really been enjoying the long weekend (Good Friday is a national holiday here, so no work for me)! I was originally hoping to get out of town for the weekend, but I just waited too long, so that didn't end up happening. I did end up having a really great time, though!

Friday, I got out to the Vasa museum with a co-worker and his girlfriend who is out here visiting for the weekend. http://www.vasamuseet.se/InEnglish/about.aspx Very cool museum; probably one of the best I have been to, ever.

Friday night I met a fellow Sigma Chi in the executive lounge of the Hilton. We called up some friends of mine and hit the town. Ashleigh can verify that I did, indeed, have far too much to drink since she was the unfortunate recipient of my drunk dialing... Or, so she tells me... :) Last night, I headed out to a friends apartment and played a little beer pong - ah, to be back in college! It was almost your typical frat guy weekend. Today I am staying in, getting some homework done, and looking at the -6 degree sign that has been steadily falling for the last couple days. I am hoping that this is just the final cold spell before spring comes...

Speaking of colds, I have had a miserable one for the last week. I think it might have something to do with having spent over 30 hours on airplanes in 5 days, drinking heavily and sleeping only when there was a free moment. But, the fellow Sig leaves tomorrow morning, so my liver will have plenty of time to recover. This coming weekend I'll be staying in Stockholm and working all weekend, so there won't be much partying. The weekend after that (April 4-6), I am going to meet up with one of Adam's college friends in Amsterdam. Should be a good time!

Jared

Back in Stockholm

Hej,

Made it back safely this morning from Adam's wedding. I had a great time there and was glad to see so many people that I hadn't seen in ages, including some friends of his from high school. I've switched hotels to the Hilton - it's a bit cheaper than the Sheraton was, and therefore the rooms are smaller and lacking in some of the amenities. It's also a bit farther than the Sheraton was. I'll miss the Sheraton, but there are a lot of Aprimo folks staying here at the Hilton, so there will be more to do. And, there's the executive lounge here, so I can go have a drink or two for free instead of going to the bars.

I'll post more when I am settled back in. This is a long weekend for me (we get Good Friday off), so I may do a bit of traveling. Not sure where yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Jared

Long Weekend

Hej,

It's been a hectic week this week. It's now 10 AM on Wednesday, and I am officially at 30 hours since Monday. Yikes. But, I have 3 clients going live this weekend (1 in the US, 1 in Canada, 1 in Sweden), so getting ready for all that has been chaotic, to say the least. Fortunately, the one in the US is in the capable hands of my PM right now, the one in Canada I am only a support role, and the one in Sweden will be handled by a fellow Technical Consultant (TC), so I can enjoy my brother Adam's wedding.

I'm getting things cleaned up today so that I can fly home tomorrow, to Texas on Friday, go to the wedding on Saturday, fly home Sunday, and fly back to Sweden on Monday. Nice long weekend, but a little hectic, too. I still don't know what I am going to say for my "Best Man's Toast" at the wedding, but I have at least thought about it. At any rate, it'll be quiet on the blog front for a few days until I get back to Stockholm.

It looks like Ashleigh is going to meet me in Paris for a long weekend in April, which will be nice. And, I am planning trips to Rome, Tallinn, Geneva, and London over the next 2 months, so there will be plenty of pictures and stories from those.

In other news, I just registered for my last 2 classes of grad school, so the light at the end of the tunnel is within sight!!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Jared

No DST in Stockholm

While all of the US clocks changed last night (or, at least most of them did), the clocks here in Europe did not. So, I am now 5 hours ahead of you East Coasters and 8 ahead of you West Coasters...

City Exploration

I finally got a chance to go see some of the city today, and it is beautiful. In particular, the theater really stood out, so I attached a picture of that below:

Today's adventure took me a whole metro stop away from "home", to give you an idea of how little I have had a chance to see so far... I headed out to the Kungstragarden stop where I walked over to (what I thought was) the National Museum. Turns out, I was on the wrong side of the bay, and ended up at the Museum of Midieval Stockholm. Ordinarily, I would have just stayed and not admitted my error (typically male of me, I know), but I was meeting some friends and decided I should try to join them. So, I hustled my way around the bay, only 15 minutes later than expected, and was fortunately not the last to arrive! :-) Once the group gathered, we wandered through the museum together - lots of neat artifacts from Sweden's history, as well as some amazing art from around Europe - even one painting of George Washington! Actually, there was an Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit going on, which was fantastic to get to see, and the Swedes have a pretty nice collection of Cezanne, Renoir, and Gaugain. There were also some exhibits from Swedish aristocracy through the ages - cups, cabinets, plates, etc. that were quite ornate. There were even a few Nautilus Cups, which were incredibly opulent and were made out of large shells that had been carved and inlaid with gold. See here for an example of a Nautilus Cup. Very cool. Anyhow, we then wandered around the harbor area for a while, and got an early dinner.

I spent the rest of the day studying - got a midterm out of the way as well as a couple assignments for other classes. Not sure what I'll get into tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so I may take a rain check on the next round of city search. We'll see. Cold rain kind of sucks... :-)

Bar Scene

Hej,

I got a chance to check out the bar scene a little bit tonight. A lot of fun, but the bars here follow the pattern of virtually every other building in Stockholm - they crank up the heat as if to compensate for how cold it is (and it does get REALLY cold here, especially at night). Also, the bars ban coats, so you have to check them (for 20 SEK or about $3.00) every where you go. But, because things are so expensive here - especially booze, which is taxed heavily - tipping is rare, so leaving more than a few SEK (Swedeish Kroner) for a tip is going to make a bartender's or waitress' night. I am not sure what the drinking age is, but bars have three levels, depending on what their target market is - 18, 20, and 23. And the Swedes love their lines. No matter how busy or empty it is inside, they'll make you wait! We even saw velvet ropes and multiple bouncers for a club ("The Club") located in a subway station. I'll have to check that one out and report back later... :-)

I also learned today that the Swedes have no word for please. Instead, you say thank you when making a request, as well as when you receive whatever it is that you requested. Technically, there is a word for please, but it's only used when begging for something, so you would never use it at a restaurant or bar.

Anyhow, off to bed - full day of museums and midterms tomorrow!

Jared

Hej

Ok, so this is one I need to learn quickly... :)

In Swedish, "Hello" is said "Hej" (pronounced like hey). I have gotten into the bad habit of responding to hej with hey. To the Swedish, there is no difference, so they think I speak their language and just start talking. If I instead were to say Hello, they would know that I am an American, and would speak English right away (it's compulsory for them to study English for at least 8 years in school, so they are all quite proficient). Or, if I learned Swedish, then it wouldn't matter if I meant hej or hey, as I'd be able to follow along anyhow. But, alas, I continue to respond hey.

To expound on my current knowledge of the language, the less formal hello here is hej hej and goodbye is hej da (pronounced hey doe). Actually, that gets really confusing, because when they speak quickly, it almost sounds like someone with a cold saying hello, so hearing that at the end of a phone call is a new experience. :)

A couple of links to the Eniro website (Sweden's version of Google, but with much cooler maps):

Here is a cool view of my hotel and here is the office I am working at.

Hotel Room

Hey All,

I have quite a view from my hotel room - see the attached pictures. The room itself is quite nice, as the hotel was just renovated a few months ago. It even has a few US outlets - guess they're catering to my kind here! :-) The only weird thing about the room is the shower - there's only a half wall, so water gets everywhere, but it has even better water pressure than at home, so I am certainly not complaining!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Oh, and I have confirmed that my direct line works, so you can always reach me if you need to. If you don't have that number, I just left it on the voicemail message of my cell phone, so you can grab it there - not too interested in posting it on the web for the world to see...

Jared

I Have Arrived

It did take me almost 23 hours, door to door, but I made it into my hotel just a little while ago. I got off to an auspicious start with a 2 hour delay out of Denver. At the time, I figured it was no big deal, since I was just compressing my 5 hour layover in Frankfurt to 3 hours. Better to be in an airport I know for an extra two hours than in one that I don't. So, the flight finally took off. I was seated next to a very nice German woman who was in the States for a conference on nuclear waste management. We chatted for a little while until the beverage service started. Then I popped an Ambien with a glass of wine, ate dinner, and fell asleep half way through my after dinner beer. Fortunately, I woke up just in time for breakfast, about 5 hours later. That is when I discovered that my flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm had been delayed by an hour. So, back to a 4 hour layover. I managed to kill that pretty easily and finished my first book of the trip. The boarding process was a nightmare. Instead of the orderly process that we're all used to with boarding groups, etc. we were told to board all rows at once. Three lines of people swarming onto the plane en masse created a nice snarl. So, it wasn't too surprising when the captain came on to announce that because boarding had taken so long we had missed our window for takeoff and would need to sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes. Just what I wanted! :-)

But, on the plus side, I am here in my hotel, so, I am off to bed. I'll post some pictures soon, once I have time to take them! :-)