The Airportline: Observations

I'm not sure why. But lately I've become very nationalistic for a person not living in his home country. When I go to book stores I point out what books are by Swedish authors, I count H&M stores in cities I visit, and today I watched Robin Söderling play tennis in the French Open. It was a nerve wrecking experience, to say the least. Fernando Gonzalez fought with the referees while the sometimes erratic Swede kept his cool as if he was standing in the middle of a Swedish winter storm. It was a real tight match, mostly because Söderling only managed to break 5 of the 18 (!) times he had a break point, those who know tennis knows that it is difficult to win a match, especially against such a good serving player as Gonzalez, with those numbers. In the forth set it looked like it was all over for the fighting Sweden, but suddenly he came back from nowhere, breaking Gonzalez like he had just been waiting for it for the last two games but not really wanted to. After that it was all over and Söderling ran out as a comfortable winner, ending the game on his knees on the same clay court which Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg celebrated some amazing wins. Now Söderling, who previously bet the unbeatable Nadal, is looking at his first ever Grand Slam Final. On Sunday I'll be watching in Amsterdam while my room mate follow it more closely in Paris. And tomorrow there is more nationalistic opportunities as Sweden plays Denmark in the Word Cup Qualifier in football.

In pop culture news, I saw French popexport Phoenix yesterday. They were truly amazing. More about that later, maybe even some pictures.