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I started yesterday by being a good Seal and getting up in time, taking the train to Stockholm and picking up the magical DS 2019 document at the American-Scandinavian society. The paperwork behind the acquiring of this piece of paper has been significant. Also in my folder, pressed to my angsty chest I held the vital DS 156, DS 157 and DS 158, all important in my ambitions to convince the authorities that I'm a god fearing anti terrorism, turkey loving friend of America the great. In the folder was also a mugshot of me and several other papers meant to prove that I am indeed me, and what me/I have done with my life up until now.
So the American Embassy is a huge concrete fortress in the middle of Djurgården in Stockholm. There are genuine barricades so no cars can come through. Me and ten other people had to stand outside in the snow in a straight line and wait, before we could even enter the gatehouse (several yards away from the actual Embassy building).
We joked that we had come to the wrong place and this must be the Russian embassy. But we joked in whispers.
They checked all our papers at the doors to the gatehouse. And then scanned us and our bags (which I don't oppose in any way.) And confiscated cellphones.
Inside the waiting room, a receptionist checked the papers again, and then I had to wait for a full hour and a half (after the appointed time of my interview), while a tv set on the wall showed the Iraqi election on CNN continuously. Also, they had Colin Powell framed on the wall.
The interview took 1.5 minutes, I kid you not. It seems I'll get my visa...hopefully, although the coast is not quite clear yet, and I'll not feel secure until I hold it in my non virtual hand.
After this I had to clean out my old area in the apartment from Hell I've been living in for the last 3 weeks. I wouldn't eat from the floor...but it is way way way better than the rest of the dump.
And finally, after that I was ready for some unwinding..so me and Pauline had this bright idea to go watch a horror flick at zeh movies. Yeah..so um..we put our brave curves at the mercy of The Grudge.
First of all, Pauline, I think, saw about 25% of the whole damn film, covering her eyes all the time, me, since I'm not prone to that (too curious) had to suffer the trauma.
It's a Japanese/American movie, with a Japanese director and Sarah Michelle Geller in the leading female part - but with several Japanese actors involved as well. The story is not as inventive as for instance The Ring...but the visual effects were...very effective to put it mildly.
I don't know why this got to me as it did - I suppose I have a special aversion against mutilated female corpses/ghosts making throaty guttural sounds, crawling and clawing their way through a story in blind mindless malevolence. I'm narrow minded like that.
So..there we were, outside the movie palace, not wanting to go home alone to our separate places, and she, evidently being the most chicken...begged me to come with her and sleep on an extra bed...so that we could..um..girl talk some more. (yeah right...)
Out of the kindness of my tender heart, I did this...only to notice..in the pitch blackness of someone else's home..that Pauline..not exactly snores, but sometimes makes this throaty little guttural sound when she sleeps. In the darkness I remembered all the scenes from the movie, the crawling and clawing and throat sounds... and why you shouldn't bother hiding under your covers (a particularly nasty scene in the film!)...and the logical part of my brain simultaneously registered that my sweet friend Pauline (who had talked me into coming) was sleeping soundly with a blissful smile while making these horrible sounds.
It really pissed me off, and finally I rose and went and lit the kitchen lamp while hissing turn and lie on your god damn side!! to her. Confused and only half awake she obliged and started sleeping in a more quiet manner.
It's the first time in I don't know how many years, that I had to light a coward-lamp, and it's all Pauline's fault. I hope she suffers some juicy sliding noises from the attic in the next few nights!
So the American Embassy is a huge concrete fortress in the middle of Djurgården in Stockholm. There are genuine barricades so no cars can come through. Me and ten other people had to stand outside in the snow in a straight line and wait, before we could even enter the gatehouse (several yards away from the actual Embassy building).
We joked that we had come to the wrong place and this must be the Russian embassy. But we joked in whispers.
They checked all our papers at the doors to the gatehouse. And then scanned us and our bags (which I don't oppose in any way.) And confiscated cellphones.
Inside the waiting room, a receptionist checked the papers again, and then I had to wait for a full hour and a half (after the appointed time of my interview), while a tv set on the wall showed the Iraqi election on CNN continuously. Also, they had Colin Powell framed on the wall.
The interview took 1.5 minutes, I kid you not. It seems I'll get my visa...hopefully, although the coast is not quite clear yet, and I'll not feel secure until I hold it in my non virtual hand.
After this I had to clean out my old area in the apartment from Hell I've been living in for the last 3 weeks. I wouldn't eat from the floor...but it is way way way better than the rest of the dump.
And finally, after that I was ready for some unwinding..so me and Pauline had this bright idea to go watch a horror flick at zeh movies. Yeah..so um..we put our brave curves at the mercy of The Grudge.
First of all, Pauline, I think, saw about 25% of the whole damn film, covering her eyes all the time, me, since I'm not prone to that (too curious) had to suffer the trauma.
It's a Japanese/American movie, with a Japanese director and Sarah Michelle Geller in the leading female part - but with several Japanese actors involved as well. The story is not as inventive as for instance The Ring...but the visual effects were...very effective to put it mildly.
I don't know why this got to me as it did - I suppose I have a special aversion against mutilated female corpses/ghosts making throaty guttural sounds, crawling and clawing their way through a story in blind mindless malevolence. I'm narrow minded like that.
So..there we were, outside the movie palace, not wanting to go home alone to our separate places, and she, evidently being the most chicken...begged me to come with her and sleep on an extra bed...so that we could..um..girl talk some more. (yeah right...)
Out of the kindness of my tender heart, I did this...only to notice..in the pitch blackness of someone else's home..that Pauline..not exactly snores, but sometimes makes this throaty little guttural sound when she sleeps. In the darkness I remembered all the scenes from the movie, the crawling and clawing and throat sounds... and why you shouldn't bother hiding under your covers (a particularly nasty scene in the film!)...and the logical part of my brain simultaneously registered that my sweet friend Pauline (who had talked me into coming) was sleeping soundly with a blissful smile while making these horrible sounds.
It really pissed me off, and finally I rose and went and lit the kitchen lamp while hissing turn and lie on your god damn side!! to her. Confused and only half awake she obliged and started sleeping in a more quiet manner.
It's the first time in I don't know how many years, that I had to light a coward-lamp, and it's all Pauline's fault. I hope she suffers some juicy sliding noises from the attic in the next few nights!
