Accidents, Jet Lag and Taxi Drivers 020606

Good morning,
I can't say that it has been much of a "trip" yet. The most that I have seen of Sweden is all of the closed shops on Sunday night. Finally, I just resigned to the hotel and ate at the bar, as everything that I saw was closed.
At long last, I talked to my family last night. When they were calling the hotel, they were mysteriously getting a message that the switchboard was closed. When I called them last night, they both had some crazy news for me. D, my little brother was in a really bad accident on Saturday night. He is okay, just really shaken up. They are not yet sure who was at fault. His truck is totaled. Word is still out on the other guy in the accident. Claron had equally bad news. One of our friends, Chris, was walking along the cliffs in Santa Barbara when the cliff gave way. He is okay, but the entire top of his foot was ripped off. As of Sunday, he was on his third reconstructive surgery.
I don't know whether it was all of the news or the jet lag, but I didn't get to sleep until about 5:30 a.m. here. I had to get up at 7 a.m. to check out and get into the office.
I had an interesting taxi driver this morning. Sometimes the simple question of, "So, have you lived in Stockholm long?" can be loaded. This taxi driver was a refuge from Iraq. He was a Kurd. Believe it or not, he agreed with GWB's war in Iraq. He was very upset that the Kurds have been lumped into Iraq and forced to have a government with the Shiites and Sunis. He was atheist and was very upset that the new government was trying to force him to live under Muslim law. He had been a land owner in Kirkuk, but his land had been taken by the other tribes and he had no recourse. He had fought in the Civil Wars in Iraq and believed that Iraq was headed for civil war again. He was quite passionate that the Kurds should have their own nation. He said he was disappointed with the allied forces of late, as the new government was just as depressing to the Kurds as the previous. It was an interesting perspective that you don't hear very often (face to face that is).
Tonight, I will be going to the Hotel J. I am happy to go there as it is a really posh hotel, and I am going to need sleep by the end of the day.
Anyway, better run! I have tons to do and only 3 days in Sweden.
Talk to you soon,
Amanda