The Olympics of American Idol in One Night

What could be as magical as an entire season of a reality singing competition combined with the international elements of the olympics all performed in one night?


Only the Eurovision Song Contest, of course!


So, for the Europeans reading this - as far as I can tell, there's really no middle ground, you either love it or you hate it - so you're probably thinking one of two things right now:

"OMG!! Best night ever!! SO MUCH FUN! Must stay up all night and vote and watch!!!"

or

 "wtf. Seriously? How embarrassing."

As for the non-Europeans, you're most likely thinking "uhh...?" So let me explain.

via

Eurovision has it's origins back in the 1950's when someone, somewhere thought that an good old fashioned singing rivalry was just what post-war Europe needed to get everyone talking to each other again. It is held every year in May and takes place in the country of the previous year's winner (for example, in 2010 the contestant from Germany won, so in 2011 Eurovision was hosted by Germany). 

Each country selects one musical act to represent them on the big night. I think there is a days of semi-finals and trials and such, but the big event - everything that matters - happens on one night and lasts about 4 hours.

So how do you win this Olympiad of singing competitions? It's a pretty genius system really.  Each country scores their top 10 favorites (but you're no allowed to vote for your own country). The #1 favorite for any given country gets 12 points, #2 gets 10 points, #3 gets 8 points, and #4 - #10 get 7 down to 1 point respectively. But let's be honest, getting points in Eurovision is pretty much 75% crazy, flashy show, 15% political/social ties with other countries, and 10% actually quality of singing. Which, in my opinion, makes it all the better! 

Sounds pretty epic, doesn't it? So when can you catch Eurovision 2012? Well, you can't. It happened a couple weeks ago. But don't worry, there's always Eurovision 2013! And guess what everybody, it's going to be hosted by one of my favorite countries! That's right, Sweden, the country that can do no wrong, continues to get it all right with this, their winning Eurovision entry:

But guys, if you thought that was good, you're gonna be so disappointed that Russia only came in 2nd. 

Jul, Jul, Strålande Jul

You know Shahida? We met during our year in Zürich, but our story is really a Christmas story. A Swedish Christmas story, to be exact.

See, at first Shahida and I didn't really know each other that well, but we hung out with the same group of mutual exchange student friends. One fateful fall night while we were out on the town everyone was discussing their Christmas plans. As most of my friends were European, they all planned on going home. When Shahida heard that I still didn't have any holiday plans she immediately insisted I come back to Sweden with her. Years later, looking back on it, we both always laugh at the randomness of the invitation. We really barely knew each other at that point, but she still asked and I still immediately agreed. For the next month or so leading up to Christmas, Shahida and I decided we better start hanging out more often if we were going to spend Christmas together. And, as they say, the rest was history. 

By the time Christmas rolled around, it was safe to say we had become pretty close, and getting to spend Christmas with Shahida and her family only made us that much more awesome together. Not to mention it helped condition my love of all things Swedish. Like this delightful Marzipan cake. 

And I also got a total kick out of this sauce (and I totally forget what kind of sauce it is exactly) because it's from Sweden and it's called Abba... just like something else I know! 

It was my first Christmas away from home and absolutely amazing! Not only was it the catalyst in meeting one of my best friends, I felt so welcome by Shahida's family and loved getting to experience a Swedish Christmas. 

The happiest place on Earth

For this week and next week I am enjoying my first school holiday (that's Brit speak for vacation). My big endeavor for fall break is to head down to Forchheim next week for a few days. But until then I have a whole week of no commitments and a Semesterticket at my disposal (basically giving me free-reign to travel anywhere in Nordrhein-Westfalen for free). A winning combination, if I say so myself. 

After a lazy Monday, I decided to take advantage of my free time + free travel by spending my Tuesday at the happiest place I could think of. 

Oh internet people, how I wish I could explain my Ikea love to you. Perhaps it has to do with my love all things Swedish (Ikea, H&M, ABBA, Shahida, Ace of Base, that guy who wrote pretty much every hit pop song of the late 90's, meatballs, and the list goes on!). Maybe it's their unwavering trust in mankind to assemble any home furnishing in existence. Whatever it is, it makes me light up like a kid at Christmas when I see those giant yellow letters posted high on the bright blue building. 

So I spent a very delightful afternoon mentally furnishing my future home. And to top it all off, I had lunch for 1€. 

Tomorrow the plan is to go to Aachen, a city on the Belgian/Dutch/German border. We'll see how it compares to today's excitement.