Language Barriers and I go Clubbin'!

I took German for almost 5 years. Reading and writing it generally isn't an issue for me, I can understand most of a conversation I hear in German (provided it isn't spoken too fast), and speaking it, though slow and deliberate, isn't too far-fetched. I even at one point had a few dreams in German, which is very surreal. Although all of dreaming is surreal, so maybe that wasn't the correct adjective. I've also read and heard a few times that Swedish and German are quite similar. For whoever said or wrote that, you're wrong. They are not similar. Sure they probably have some words that sound the same or are derived from one another, but most Western languages do.

Interestingly there is at least one word that has the same meaning in both German and Swedish. Whenever I am introduced by my coworker and mentor here, Anders, he makes sure to say both my first and last name. The new acquaintance then generally smirks as they extend their hand. Anders told me recently that it's a very good last name. I didn't think anything of it until I randomly typed it into Google translate. Here are results for both German to English and Swedish to English. It is a good last name...

Switching gears, on Friday night I got home late from work, went to the gym for an hour or so, then bought a cheap six-pack of 2.8% (!) beer, of which I immediately consumed three. This was unsatisfactory for me, and with some liquid courage sloshing around my insides, I decided to take a bike ride downtown and see what the night offered. I saw a line outside of this beautiful, pink building:

Scharinska, which is Swedish for Scharinska

Let's give it a shot. Swedes use the word club loosely, as this 'club' was no more than an entrance, a hallway to some bathrooms, a sitting room, a bar, and a 20 x 60 ft. room jammed with people. Anyway, these guys looked nice when I walked in:

It's all about the lighting.

But then they sounded like this:

It was some entertaining stuff. A real underground Umeå experience. I also met some pretty interesting people at the bar, though everyone at this type of show was probably very interesting. And the beer, though expensive, was delicious. Here's the single and double IPA I had (with appropriate alcoholic content):

If only this was a corgi...

And this was a pug.

They also had one called Sleepy Bulldog, which was probably just as adorable. The second band was more talented, and not as loud.

Ahh, my ears have stopped bleeding.

It was a good night, but made for a very tough first-ever spinning class the next morning.

Skål!