The long and winding road

While I don't especially care for the Beatles' final album (they pretty much lost it sometime shortly after Sergeant Pepper, I figure), the song title does seem appropriate. I'm penning -- well, keyboarding -- this at Denver International Airport, where I've been for about five hours now. "What, is he stuck in a blizzard? Or did Lotta just have an unwholesome influence on his sense of timing back in London?", you ask. No, no, nothing that bad. While the snow has been coming down for an hour or two, it looks like DIA can handle it. A good thing, too, with half of the US population travelling today. No, I'm simply a victim of the complete absence of public transport in the West. Laramie sports exactly two ways of leaving town: driving or flying. Flying from Laramie to Denver is a fast, stupid and expensive option, and I don't own a car, so this means I'm at the mercy of the circumstances when it comes to going to the airport. The good news were that I was able to catch a lift with my last advisor Alex and his lovely wife Amy. The bad news were that they left town at 7.30 AM this morning. The very bad news are that my flight doesn't leave until 5.30 PM tonight. So I began my already extended journey -- 13 hours of flights plus waiting time -- by... doing nothing for about eight hours. Granted, it's been better than expected: I haven't really gotten very bored, had some good coffee, seen some funny people, and I found free Internet. Props to DIA: most airports don't provide free WiFi, and some only install those bogus kiosks where you pay $500 an hour to surf at modem speeds. All in all, not bad so far.

It's probably superflous to mention it, but I've now finished my first semester (of up to 12) at UWyo. It went fairly well, although the amount of work involved was surprisingly high. I'm fine with spending long hours in the lab -- after all, I'm slaving away for my own greater glory -- but this whole schtick with taking several classes at once and trying to get some science done has been mildly frustrating. As you Swedes know, university back home involves taking one class at a time, and then an exam every 5/10/20 weeks that determines your grade. This suited me extremely well, since I have all the multitasking powers of the average male (can only just walk and chew gum at the same time) and a penchant for concentrating 'til my eyes pop out. Juggling several different classes at once (with associated homework) kind of caught me by surprise and smacked me one upside the head. However, recalling Clint Eastwood's immortal words in "Heartbreak Ridge", I improvised, I adapted, and I overcame. Can't wait for these classes to be over, though, so I can concentrate on what's actually important.

Now, my next line here was going to be something derogatory about Americans and their horrendous Christmas decorations. Every passing year seems to up the stakes and increase the number of lightbulbs employed. I'd even formulated a plan to go out and take some pictures of the worst offenders around Laramie, and gleefully demonstrate the folly of having e.g. a purple glow-in-the-dark Christmas tree. Unfortunately for me, the residents of Laramie turned out to be quite restrained in their choice of cheerful lighting. The ugliest thing I've seen all month was a raindeer that used some blue lighting to indicate a harness or something, and I kind of liked that one. The best I can do is to give you a hint of how bad it could have been.

In closing, I'll comment on something that does feel truly bizarre over here. Just the fact that there is a "Department of Homeland Security" is a sure indicator that something has gone wrong (Departments of Correct Thinking and Random Torture, respectively, are sure to follow) in Western Wonderland. And the constant speaker announcements here at the airport don't help. "The Deparment of Homeland Security Theat Condition Level has been raised to Orange. Please be vigilant of any suspicious behavior and report unattended luggage immediately to the authorities [...]" If this was followed by "Anyone caught thinking seditious thoughts will be tasered and immediately transported to Guantanamo for several years of electrocution and waterboarding. Have nice day!", I wouldn't be surprised in the least. In some respects, Sweden definitely has an edge of the US. Shit, even Osama likes us...