Dirty Dancing, Filthy Room.

Ok.  Hold the phone.  My room is a mess.  Not a "train wreck" per se, but more disorder than I am comfortable with.  By the end of the weekend, I need to clean up, wash clothes, and get some notebooks/folders for the 187,634 pages of campus information, concert programs, class schedules, and random assortment of sheets I may never look at again.  I can feel the urge to organize practically throbbing in my fingertips.  It's bad.

A lot has happened this week...

First of all, the police (or perhaps some random pedestrian in Stockholm) found our bags/backpacks, and after Sara (ESN Student Coordinator) doing a bit of heavy pleading in Swedish, the Stockholm police station has agreed to mail our bags back to us at no charge.  Obviously, the valuable things were long gone by the time the bags were retrieved (Goodbye, sweet Nikon!), but luckily, I don't have to replace my backpack, nor do I have to pay the 800 SEK replacement fee for my house keys -- whew!  The packages should be here by Monday, fingers crossed...

I finally dropped my '20th-century Fiction' literature course, and honestly, it feels really good.  I've since had an audition/meeting with two other faculty members in the school of music here at Örebro, and consequently am now registered for chamber choir (we had our first rehearsal on Thursday and I can't tell you how natural it feels to finally sing with an ensemble again; they're pretty good, too!) and COMPOSITION!  I met my composition teacher just today, actually.  His name is Anders Flodin, and he seems very, very cool.  I showed him some examples of my work, and he showed a great deal of interest, which was a nice surprise.  There seems to be a good possibility of my composing something over the semester and having it performed at the school of music at some point.  I'm completely satisfied with my schedule now.

I've been doing a fair amount of partying this week, which is not typical for me during the school weeknights.  Back home, I tend to keep hours like a librarian until the weekend hits, but there are always things to do and people to hang out with here, so I've sacrificed those few extra hours of sleep to build some transcontinental bonds, and I am not the least bit apologetic in that decision.

Today was "Örebro Day 2008" - a big competition downtown for all the new students, including the internationals.  In the end, we were humbled by our Swedish competitors, but it was fun to cheer our team on and I am still of the opinion that my 'international' cheer (adapted to the tune of "Ice, Ice Baby") was the most original display from any team all day.  After the full day of competition, a 1-hour nap followed, before I was up and out again for Örebro's huge downtown party and series of concerts called "It's SÅ", held inside at the swanky Conventum.

What else?

Oh, I bought an umbrella (a must in this city), received my Swedish bank card (finally!), and decided to start renting a bike, as of Monday.  All the cool kids have one...

...but seriously, I think I'm the only one without a bike.  They're as thick as flies in this nitty gritty city.

P.S.  I watched American History X for the first time ever this week.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it.