• an academic journey
• a cultural journey
• an intellectual journey
• and an emotional journey

Next to these categories you can of course still read every post from start to end. And also, read my report for the HKU (although it is in Dutch).

Thanks for being an audience. Although there weren’t that many reactions on the blogg itself, I got a lot ‘offline’. All supported me and learned me new stuff. Thanks for that :) Frida recently told that a friend of her was following both our blogs with a feeling of inspiration. That was really wonderful to hear. I hope it was interesting. For me it helped a lot to write things down. And it was an easy way to update the people ‘back home’ :)

For now I stop this blogg I think. I don’t have the need for it that much anymore. It is something I did when traveling. The posts from this blogg will go to an archived place on my website to which I will link from here. And one day I will have another blog of another travel; which for sure, will come :)

One thing to close, the tips I wrote in my report for HKU for other traveling students.

“The tourist sees what he came to see. The traveler sees what he sees.”

Go without too much preconceptions, look at the world like it is and remember, that how different people may be, the country is not in a crisis, so apparently, their way of working works fine too.*

Culture is so much more than just ‘fine-art’ culture. It’s how people act and think. Which structures are being made, what people think is normal, what things they completely overlook because they never do that kind of things and how close you are with people. If you’re starting to see that, you’ll ‘see’ a lot more. If you hold on to the glasses of conclusions and preconceptions you actually are holding on to your own culture which makes it a lot harder to learn from the other culture.

* Which says something interesting about countries being in a crisis right now :)

First I went with Frida to her parents place on the countryside. We were there for over two weeks and also visited a friend at Gotland, a small island in front of the Swedish coast. Relaxing, reflecting, finally seeing this beautiful Swedish lake with a sunset.. And looking forward; where do we want to be together, and how, and what do we want to do? On Gotland I finally saw some real sea again! The Swedish coasts are nothing compared to the Netherlands, just rocky. Interesting to look at but not that much enjoyable as the Dutch ones. But at Gotland I got to experience it more. Gotland was strange, Sweden in small it is called. Flat in the south, cold in the north. And a lot of rocks :)

Then my brother Tijl came by and we went backpacking into the forests. As we both never did such a thing before we started carefully, but already within 24 hours we came back and repacked our backpacks :) Then it went better, but I now know I’m more a cyclist.. Canoing on the Swedish lakes with Tijl was fantastic. We went for a full day and slept on one of the islands. We also went to Stockholm, which was a bit strange.. and a lot of fun.

When Tijl went back to the Netherlands, the last week for me and Frida physically together started.. That was a lot harder one. With al the plans in our heads, it still wasn’t easy to cope with. I tried with a party on the last day, which helped a lot in making it a happy after-halfyear-party. Nonetheless, saying goodbye was almost horrible.

Then I traveled to Berlin. A nice trip on a train and ferry where I met a Japanese guy with which I later spent a day in Berlin with. Berlin was really nice. A good atmosphere, lots of bio shops and not such a busy center as for example Amsterdam.

After two days of Berlin I went on to France. There was a nice park in Lyon where I ate my lunch. And then the wonderful week in Rancy, France. I was there with a group from Mens en Spirit (Human and spirit) at La Ripe Blance. Also a lot of ‘down to earth’ stuff, which is really necessary for a spiritual heavy week :) I could reflect a lot on the last half year and life in general. I started a new company which I wanted to do already for some time, Frida helped me knowing that, and the France week helped me starting it. When I left there I knew I would just start. More on that later via the website and maybe the blog as well.

And then at last, the travel back to the Netherlands. Seeing the Eiffel tower in the distance as the train came past Paris and via a beautiful station of Antwerp. Having traveled a lot, I could finally write destination Alkmaar in my interrail log..

He wanted to see the museum für film und fernseher (movie and television). The exhibition was not that interesting to me, but the building was pretty interesting, and there were some other nice things.

Then we went to the museum of communication. It had some nice things, good interaction as well, but it was too bad that most descriptions and explanations were only in German. And a nice thought on diaries and blogs. Are the diaries of today (the weblogs) still as private as they were? And, is there a difference between how the writers and readers see that privacy?

In the evening we went to a vegetarian Japanese restaurant. I found one before, and, it seemed to be a very good choice. Masa said it was so good that they could easily open a shop in Japan as well :) And he was really happy reading some Japanese again (on the menu) after three weeks of Europe trip. The restaurant was called Susuru, which means slurping. It was advised to do that as, according to the menu, it made for a better taste. And, it was good anyway to be able to eat the udon, a special kind of noodles. And, really tasty it was! You should go there when you’re in Berlin!

I’ve been thinking about Frida all day.. Only three days ago now.

Next stop, Tournus. The train leaves in an hour. For a week with Mens en Spirit (human and spirit).

There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator (Thea von Harbou)

And then I saw this, here in Berlin. Wikitravel calls this neighborhood one with students, artists and left-wing people. The streets are big, large apartments, people on the streets everywhere. In the shopping street there are all these small shops. Goods from all over the world, people from all cultures. Semi-old style buildings, open windows, music and talking coming through them. Whole gardens on the balconies. People smiling, even if they don’t know you. A very alive atmosphere.

Not houses with plants growing on the walls, but whole cars and bikes covered with plants! A student house, Chateau Manteuffel, named after the street, where the students had set up their own dream organization as well. Living, working, partying, together, in the same place.

The park and playground in the middle had a complete biological market. At first I thought “that is a waste of energy, two bio grocery stands opposite each other”. But then everything was bio. Three groceries, two cheese stands, a bakery, five clothing stands, a shoe stand, two with household stuff and an ice cream stand! Oh, ad one with flowers and one with juice and wine. I’ve probably forgot some more :)

At the playgrounds the mothers and some fathers were talking and watching their children. The women, about half of them, without bras. No limitations for the body anymore? When the children couldn’t make up who’s turn it was now, one of the mothers took care of it. In a perfect and calm way. As if every child was her child. No need for a “how to raise your child” reality tv show here, no “I only care about my own child” mentality.

In the evening I ate at the vegetarian restaurant next to the park. Really good food, nice juice (rhubarb!) and not expensive. In the whole neighborhood I found five bio shops, a vegetarian café and this vegetarian restaurant. And I’ve only spent half a day there. The closest bio shops in Eskilstuna were an hour and a half away by train.

I knew it can be like this. In Alkmaar we also had three bio shops. I’ve seen such streets and atmosphere in The Hague before. In Eskilstuna there were also always people talking and children playing in front of the apartment.

But somewhere, I forgot this longing. To have all this, all around you. I forgot, while knowing it unconsciously, that I wish to live in such a place.

—

Update: I’ve uploaded some photos

I really have to get used to the new place, changing my habits. I already can’t count the times I’ve said “tack” (thanks in Swedish) and “hej”.. Here “guten Morgen” is more used by “the local people” :)

Apparently, the Germans don’t really trust the Swedes. The EuroNight from Malmö to Berlin goes, unexpected by me, on a ferry, and skips all Denmark’s islands. At the harbor, half an hour under Malmö, we stopped. Since our departure from Malmö our tickets were checked by a conductor from SJ (the Swedish railway company). During the stop, two conductors walked by the train, spoke a bit about which wagons they already checked and then the second conductor came in and started checking tickets.. Then I noticed his name tag, Deutsche Bahn.

Further everything went nice. I met a nice guy from Japan, doing a roundtrip through Europe. It was a good way to talk about (and verify) the things I learned about Japanese culture in the last half year. It is strange to hear that it is really true that they have about 5 vacation days a year. Officially more in the better companies, but nobody dares to take them because they get looked upon by their co-workers. Co-workers, or indeed their group members. Because he said it was true that they were more group oriented than individualistic. But how this was in reality was hard to tell.. I guess you have to experience that for yourself. And he said that these restaurants “you have here” is something unseen in Japan. In Japan, restaurants are standing restaurants. You eat diner in 5 minutes. I told that it may be because when we go out for food (which is more expensive) we want to make sure that it was worth the money, so we stay longer and enjoy the good time there. But in Japan eating out was not that much more expensive he said. Still, even at home, I take some 20 to 30 minutes for a casual day diner. He is going to stay in Berlin for some days as well, so we decided to meet tomorrow morning at the Hauptbahnhof, so go in the city together.

I can now go back to the central station to pick up my reservation for the CityNightLine towards Basel (on my way to France). I picked up the original reservation this morning already, but then the date was wrong. Luckily they could provide me with a new reservation right away.

So, off from the computer, into the city, now that I have my new ticket :)

Why is Berlin so far from Eskilstuna? I want to be closer to you Frida.

Waarom verblinden we ons van de sterren
met de kassen voor de tomaten die hier eigenlijk niet groeien?
Waarom leven we niet van het voedsel wat hier groeit
en laten we de vruchten uit Spanje en Congo komen?
Hoe zijn we zo ver van het leven met de natuur gekomen
en hoe komen we weer terug bij moeder Aarde?

Pacha mama, I’m coming home

Net met Tijl (mijn broertje) erg lekker gegeten van de lasagna. Hij is hier voor een paar weken en we trekken veel de natuur in. Een soort “overleven in de wildernis” maar dan met de supermarkt om de hoek. Zoals Tijl zo mooi zei, je kunt hier in Zweden zo goed midden een de mooie natuur zitten; een halve dag lopen; kamperen in een dorp en naar de supermarkt gaan; weer een halve dag in prachtige natuur; en de bus naar huis vanuit het volgende dorp.

De natuur, de echte natuur, is hier nog direct om de hoek. Zoals je in Nederland de randstad hebt met een paar stukjes groen, heb je hier het stuk groen, met een paar steden en dorpjes. In de stad zit het vol met ‘kleine’ stadsparkjes, maar dan wel van het soort “een grote rots met bomen”, niet het gemaakte “grasvlakte met een vijvertje”. En dan loop je de stad of het dorp uit en zit je gelijk in een bos waar niet elke vierkante meter recent nog belopen is door de mensen. Het ziet er nog mooi uit, niet platgetrapt, dat verschil is zo duidelijk. En dan de grotere bossen in en je komt oude wegen tegen, van tientallen tot honderden jaren oud. Overgroeid, maar als je ze weet (of je ouders) dan kun je hele mooie tochten maken en dromen over vergaane tijden :)

Meer later, nu even terug naar het eten :)

Tijl kwam er mee dat het wel eens duurder zou kunnen zijn (voor een Nederlander) om fruit uit een Nederlandse kas te halen dan om sinaasappels uit Spanje over te laten vliegen. Dat vliegtuig hoeft maar één keer de natuurlijk groeiende sinaasappels te halen terwijl de kassen hier het hele jaar, dag en nacht, aan staan. Maar eigenlijk is beide natuurlijk raar.

Laten we eens het voedsel gebruiken dat hier wél groeit, in het seizoen dát het groeit. En weer kunnen kijken naar de sterren.

* Een Nederlands blogje omdat ik daarvoor voelde. En omdat Frida Nederlands aan het leren is :)

This post will be in Dutch, look at the bottom for an English translation of the introduction. Swedes can read parts of the Dutch text also.

Gisteren is het Nederlandse woordenboek binnengekomen, voor Zweden wel te verstaan; Nederländska fickordbok. Zodat Frida de Nederlandse grammatica achterin in het Zweeds kan leren, wel zo makkelijk.

En achterin hebben ze ook heel handig een lijst voor in een restaurant of voor de ingrediëntenlijst geplaatst. Van Nederlands naar Zweeds, zodat je op een pak de ingrediënten in het Nederlands kunt lezen en dan weet wat dat eigenlijk betekent. Het leuke.. al die typische Nederlandse recepten die geen directe vertaling hebben, worden hier netjes uitgelegt :)

• Haagse hopjes: hårda karameller med kaffesmak
• hagelslag: (choklad)strössel som äts på smörgås som pålägg
• Hollandse nieuwe: holländsk matjessill (jämför maatjesharing nedan)
• hutspot: maträtt bestående av kokt potatis, morötter, lök och kött
• krentenbol: litet runt matbröd med korinter i
• kroepoek: indonesiska chipsliknande tilltugg av fisk, kött eller frukt
• maatjesharing (vervolg van Hollandse nieuwe): matjessill (med skarpare fisksmak och mindre kryddsmak än den svenska motsvarigheten); köps ofta i stånd utomhus
• moorkop: chokladtäckt petit-chou med gräddfyllning
• oliebol: friterar bakverk i form av en boll, pudrat med florsocker, som främst äts vid nyår
• pepernoot: kryddad sötsak som främst äts i början av december i samband med S:t Nikolausfesten
• stroopwafel: dubbel, hård våffla med sirapsfyllning
• taaitaai: mjuk, seg pepparkaka
• vla: kräm som äts till efterrätt

Gelukkig is het andersom nog veel ‘erger’. De lijst van Zweedse recepten met de Nederlandse uitleg is veel langer, omdat bijna elk product een flinke uitleg nodig heeft om in het Nederlands begrijpelijk te zijn. Heeft Zweden een rijkere culinaire cultuur?

En dan de standaardzinnetjes natuurlijk. Hoe zeg ik x in het Nederlands (iks). Wat de mensen van dit woordenboek die arme Zweden allemaal aandoen..

• Uit eten; Wat wilt u drinken? “Een pils, alstublieft.”
• Op reis; “Wilt u me bij de volgende halte laten uitstappen?”
• Apoteek/Ziekenhuis; “Kunt u mij iets tegen hoesten/keelpijn/zonnebrand aanbevelen?”

Dat wordt nog wat..

—–

Yesterday, the Dutch dictionary came in. The one for Swedes. So Frida can learn the Dutch grammar in Swedish. The dictionary included a list of typical Dutch food and recipies, with their explanation in Swedish. Quite funny to see how some of those typical Dutch things are translated :) And also the default sentences that these kind of books give you, like “Can you tell me where the trainstation is?”. Only some of them are a bit strange/old, or just wrong. Lets hope that all goes well..

Well, not completely true of course :) I just finished my last course here, handed in the research paper. I did a research about ‘doing nothing’. About the time people have in between tasks. About what they do with that and how that influences their work and their personal well-being. If you’re interested, leave a note or check my portfolio some time later.

But at the same time, I make sure that I get some fresh air :) I took a short ride on the bike to Hällberga and Skogstorp. A trip on a sand road along an old train track. I met the poisonous snake of Sweden, in a dead state though. And then, when you’re in the middle of the forest, suddenly this village of Hällberga turns up. Without even a name sign, too small for that.

And with MDH we went on a last trip with the international group, to the silver mines in Sala. We spent some time 155m underground (without that much fresh air, although there was enough via ventilation holes) we also had a good time playing dodgeball (spökboll, trefbal), eating fresh salad in the park next to the mine, and later enjoying the view of little ducks in a park in Västerås together with Frida.

One more week now. Then Frida is free from work also and we go away for a few weeks. Visiting her parents place again, to Gotland (the supposed beautiful island next to Sweden), canoeing maybe and we’ll see. Oh yeah, learn more about self sustaible living!

One research was investigating the (Hofstede’s) culture dimensions (like individualism – collectivism, femininity – masculinity, long-term – short-term orientation) and how they applied to exchange students. Otherwise said, is it so that people from the ‘travellers country’ have another scale on the culture dimensions? :) And, although the research has some limitations, it showed that for example people from this travellers country were more individualistic – not surprisingly of course.

A lot of the other research also showed a difficulty in research and culture and language. When research about stress and burnout for example, might it be the case that American people experience something else than Swedes. And thus that when it turns out that American people are more stressed and have more burnouts than Swedes (according to this research), that that is because they see more situations as stressing and/or have a different understanding of the ‘same’ word.

In the train back to Eskilstuna a guy was offering his newspaper back to some elder couple opposite to him; he probably borrowed it earlier. After they said that that wasn’t neseccary he said “tack så mycket” (“thanks you very much”, in Dutch you would probably say “heel erg bedankt” or “dank u zeer”). To me, that sounded a bit too much for just getting a newspaper in general, but it might be influenced by the fact that the people were older, more ‘respect’ for elder people? Or a different understanding of the same language? Maybe in Swedish it is more common to speak like that..

Do I still want to continue with HKU? I’m not thát sure anymore. Although it might not be bad for me and also give me a nice few projects again. (Something practical finally! I’m quite done with the theory here..)

I found the Interactive Institute here. Looks like a nice place for projects. I’ve been thinking about staying there for some time. If at all I get in here at some place. Without diploms, without the language (which is more important here than in the Netherlands).

And spiritually the Netherlands would be a very interesting place. A lot of things are happening there. So maybe we can life there for some time. Start new projects there, explore what I want on that green sphere.

I’ve started to work again, small things, but still. Yesterday I continued walking through the methods I use in projects I did. The step of yesterday was making a mindmap of everything. Quickly the paper (A4) became too small :) There is a lot that I know, a lot I’m experienced in, a bit too much maybe? At least I should structure it a bit more now. I want to describe the methods, for myself and for ‘clients’.

And when I was going through some past projects I saw Lones again.. Did anybody made those things for real? I could use them now.. Or, in two months would be ok as well ;)

“This our concept video of the Emotion Stone, that transfers warmth, emotions and gestures over long distances. This video gives an example how it could work.”

Two weekends ago I went to Stockholm, there was a Russian film festival where I went together with Maaike (‘nr 2′, the one who stays in Stockholm) and Niklas (a Swede/Belgium guy she knew). We went to Closed Spaces, a bit weird film, expected though because I chose to see this movie because it was a bit weird :) And also pretty funny, and nice arty because it left us with the feeling not fully understanding it yet.. Now I read the website and the director’s comment it gets even better (read: try to see this, with subtitles :)):

The idea is that all origins of our psychological problems, our victories and defeats, all happiness and unhappiness are in our past, in the family. The key of all “doors” of adult life is in the childhood. It seems to be obvious, but on the verbal level this thesis does not make people act. Every psychological book contains the story that children repeat their parent’s mistakes. The model of their behaviour turns children into hostages. And it repeats from generation to generation. How is it possible to stop this repetition? Emotional influence that exists in films is in need. “Closed spaces” is about that. The film shows what key we have to choose and what door could be opened with it.

And last weekend I went for another hike along the Mälardalen lake. It was planned by the hiking club, but I went alone in the end. First I was somewhat later because I had another train and couldn’t reach them to ask to wait for me. But, as I found out yesterday, they went to another place anyway :) So I went with my map of the Eskilstuna commun (the county here) at which the part I was walking stretched for about 10cm.. I guess I didn’t really follow the normal path, but that didn’t made it any worse, I think it was way better actually. Mostly I just took some path. Paths here by the way are only paths because people or animals have walked there before, no path is made with wood, stones or seals, no marks along the path eighter.

The forests change pretty quick, at one point you only see long bare trees and then suddenly you’re in the middle of a green coniferous forest. It looks more beautiful than forests in the Netherlands, you can notice that the places here are visited by less people, nature still is a bit nature. Just listening to the birds and the water.

See some more photos in the hiking album.

It was a good introductory lecture about things you already know but are good to now have the words for; stress is not having a lot of things to do; stress is about (not) being in control; stress is about (re)interpreting situations to gain this control. Another one was the thought that positive stress doesn’t exist, as stress is not having control anymore, about going over your taxes, it is always negative. Positive stress is just pressure. Another interesting one for ‘leaders’, if you want to help somebody with stress, don’t do their tasks, rather give them control over these tasks.

An interesting puzzle we’ve been taking as an example for the past lectures is the following:

You’re lying on a railway track. You’re stuck. In the far distance, you hear a whistle blow. What do you think, feel and do?

More after the meeeep..Most reactions varied from “I’m going to die”, “see your life flash before you”, “fear”, and “say goodbye to your loved ones”. Nice examples of giving up life..

But you can also take a more stress reducing – and also way more positive – approuch. Look around, what do you see? Maybe there is a second railway track next to you? Maybe there is a canal with boats (with wistles)? Are you tied stuck or is it just your leg which you can get out of? Are you maybe lying in line with the tracks? Are you actually in the middle of the city and are there a lot of people around to help? After these thoughts, you can start doing something about them :)

All about interpreting the situation. Look at the possibilities this situation gives you. I was thinking that maybe all stress comes from a too rigid interpretation of the situation. You think you won’t be able to handle this, you think you will fail. Based on experiences from previous situations where something went in a certain way, you’ll judge the current situation and think it will be the same. By really looking at the situation you’re in, looking from other perspectives as you learn at any creative study, you should be able to solve the situation.

Depending, of course, on how much you can do about it. Although I think the last step you can always make is change your mind, change the way you feel about something. Your attitude towards a certain situation.

On Tuesday I went to Mestute, an outdoor shop in Eskilstuna. I’ve been there before and met very nice people. So I went again to have a chat about the new stress course.

Hans, one of the owners, told about the two helpers he has on his shoulders. On his left shoulder sits anxiety, on his right curiosity. He has to listen to both, balance his shoulders. People who try to reduce their anxiety also lower their curiosity. Resulting in walking with hanging shoulders :)

We also had this in the first course, anxiety (and uncertainty) are reduced as you get to now people (or situations) better. But in the same way that anxiety shouldn’t grow to high, it also shouldn’t be reduced completely. If there is no anxiety or uncertainty you not doing anything new.

Hmm, interesting trying to explain this. Learning through teaching..

The idea is to make a portrait of a number of international students including photos from their ‘home’ “back home” and the home they created here. Their own portrait – face – as a bridge between these two environments.

Together with Nikki, I was invited to join this project as interaction designer. Yesterday we had the first meeting over a fika in the student restaurant Kåren. Apart from Hubert ans us there were four others, of which one photographer. The rest I hope to get to know better in their roles here (I know some from the hiking); for the next meeting we planned to see what we came up and to devide the (flexible) tasks based on that :)

One of the ideas from this first brainstorm was from beauty product commercials enlarging a wrinkel on a persons skin and displaying facts about that part. The idea is to encircle the wrinkels in the students faces – as experiences in their lives, moments they laughed and cried – and to link these to the photographs around.

I really like the creative mood this whole projects gets me in again. The courses mainly got me in a philosophical mood. I miss the moments with Roy (a classmate from HKU) in which we just tried weird experiments without any direct goal. I got the feeling that these moments came from all the creative projects at HKU.

How is it in Japan?

Eldflugor och Odågor (picture from eldflugor.se)

There was a concert last Sunday were I went with Frida. It was from 6 girls, Google Translate said they called themselves Firefox and Waster (Eldflugor och Odågor), singing songs, mostly a cappella, some with addition of drums.

Most of the songs were in Swedish so I didn’t understand the words, but I could understand the feeling sometimes. A bit like Evelyn Glennie showed on TED.

It also was a great place there, good atmosphere. I think it was a living and working community (is that a correct term in English?). And there was a ecological shop in this building, finally with really good goods. Too bad it is in Uppsala which costs about €30,- to travel to..

It was great to travel this whole day. Although not as far as Nikki is traveling, I finally see some other places then only Eskilstuna and Västerås. And also that the good day is more than the goal your going to (the concert), it is also the travel, the things you see, the talks you have, what you think about..

On the way back there was this flyer on the streets of Uppsala. Some flyer from the International Womans Day. On the front it had a quote:

“Det är tur att vi finns, men det är en skam att vi behövs!”

I, apparently with my cultural background, read something like ‘man are scum and we behave’. Ohoh, don’t read that! Too late :) Not, it was more something like ‘it is good that we exist, but a shame that we are needed!’, about the womans organization behind this flyer.

On days that it actually snows the snowplows can be seen in front of my apartment three times a day.

Actually, the snow is not everywhere.. In the city they have a heating system for the sidewalks. Sometimes in the city you tend to forget that there is actually a lot of snow. You get reminded of that when the heating system is absent.. resulting in interesting pictures :)

In above video, due to numerous requests in Dutch – I hear you Maaike :) – I tell about how the Swedes don’t like winter or the snow that much as I do. They don’t like to go out when it is cold or snowing. So I have to go to other people for meetings, they won’t come to me. Not that I mind that, I like the snow :)

For my last course – which I finished with a ‘pass with distinction’ grade, the highest possible – I had to write a book review and I reviewed ‘A Geography of Time‘ by Robert Levine. Levine describes very interesting differences between our experience of time amongst different people / cultures. How our experience of time influences our whole structure of life and how not every culture lives with the calendar as we know it. Not only starting the counting of the year at another point in time, but also having different week, month and year lengths.

The most interesting point he makes about time I think is the difference between clock time and event time. People living on clock time let events start when the clock ‘tells’ them to do, whereas people living on event time let the events themselves tell this, also more feeling when the time is right to start something else. An excerpt from my paper:

Take the example of being in a conversation with someone. In a clock-time culture you would keep an eye on the time and try to work towards an end in the conversation when the clock tells you you have something else to do. If this doesn’t work as good as you want, you need to abruptly end the conversation to be in time for the next.

In an event-time culture you wouldn’t mind what the clock says. The conversation continues until both parties have the idea that it is over. This is more likely when a goal has been reached, when you feel that there is nothing more to say. After ending the conversation in this way you still don’t look at your watch. Instead, you’ll see what comes on your path next. This then, is the next event.

This example gives a bit extreme view on clock- and event-time though. Not all conversations will be ended abruptly because time is up and after a conversation in event-time you can take a look on the calendar to see what to do next. Nevertheless, the tendency is towards these examples.

Further Levine gives some lessons you should learn when you’re ‘time traveling’, traveling to a culture with another experience of time. I added a part in which I tell how to change your behavior if you’re staying in the same culture but want to adjust to another time anyway :)

One part of that is ‘learning to appreciate doing nothing’. In clock time cultures ‘doing nothing’ is mostly seen as a waste of time, time in which you could have been doing something else. In event time cultures ‘doing nothing’ is more an event on its own, as good as other events. You spend time looking around you, thinking, not thinking, talking, eating, waiting, feeling. As you see, you still do things, the difference lies in doing things without a direct goal. ‘Doing nothing’ is more about not having a direct goal and just feel what you’ll do and not feeling awkward about it!

So that is what I’ve been doing a lot lately. I spend a weekend with Frida just doing nothing. Talking, looking, listening to music, eating, thinking, laughing, healing. Later this week I saw an older couple in the IKEA restaurant, they already finished their meal and were doing nothing. Looking around, at each other, digesting, thinking, talking a bit. Very cool to see.

I was a bit anxious (a thing we needed to learn for the exam) for this. In the Netherlands I normally have 1 to 2 hours, and 3 hours is for something like a graduation exam. Here 5 hours is very normal.

And actually it was really nice. First I spent 1,5 hour on writing the answers in a short form and then I spent the rest of the time rewriting it and making nice sentences. Also good because you go over the questions and your answers once more and you correct things. This is really different from what I’m used to. Usally I always go through the questions and answers one more time, but as it is already writing down, you hardly look at it in another way, and it thus won’t help much. This time it did. And I think it went very well. Also not that much of a problem as it was about how you understood things instead of knowing facts.

The only thing that was not so nice is the pain in my hand from all the writing. Though it is less when there is no direct pressure, like when you have say 5 hours ;)

Below the mindmap that I created when I was learning. This covers only I think about half or 1/3 of the information we got..

For the people with FreeMind (the software ;)), you can download my mindmap.

First is Järnpojke (Järn = iron, pojke = boy). First of all because I think it was kind a cute :) He was meditating here all day for the people who worked in the iron mines.

The people that lived and worked next to this little statue took good care of Järnpojke. He always wore some clothes, a scarf or a jacket when it was really cold.

The guide told that the story goes that you’re blessed if you stroke his head, but she thought that was nonsense she immediately added. That was the reason his head was so shiny.

There were more of these kind of meditating statues in Stockholm, nice :)

When we entered the museum (Moderna Museet) we could choose for an audio tour, which I didn’t as I like watching more. But some others did so the lady explained how this worked.

There was this MP3-player-stick with infra-read. When you were in the museum there were several ‘dots’ next to art works. Here you could point the MP3-player to and it would start telling a story.

There weren’t any other controls, except for one; you could point the MP3-player down, to the ground, and it would stop the audio. This reminder me of an umbrella-controlled MP3-player I once saw. With different gestures, like opening (start) or closing (stop) the umbrella, turning (next song) and others you could control the music which was kind a neat. But that was just a concept back then, here they made a little start with an actual product :)

Further they had a quite advanced toilet system.

First of all the lock. They had an explanation (in Swedish) on how to use the handle to close the toilet.As you can see you have to move the handle up to close and down to open. From this explanation I pushed the handle upwards and let it go again. Went very well.

Then, luckily I was already ready and washing my hands, the door suddenly opened! Apparently it wasn’t locked.. After some testing it seemed that you had to move the handle up further and that it then would stay up. Too bad there was no second feedback if you did it well. No problem for Swedish speaking people though as I guess the text will explain this..

Further they had this very good ‘dyson airblade‘, no airplane, but a hand dryer. I first saw this in the museum for Beeld en Geluid (Video and Sound? Well the museum attached to the Dutch public media archives). You slide you’re hands through this and they are totaly dry afterwards, working very well. On the other hand, using a lot of power also I guess and it is no disaster to not completely dry your hands..

As a last thing they had a CCTV system in the toilets. Outside the toilets there was a TV and you could see the toilet room, the toilets, the urinates, etc. This gave a bit strange feeling as you walked in, but when inside this was explained using another work of art:

(…) Al hoewel het niet mijn bedoeling is een toeristisch reisverslag te schrijven maar mij te concentreren op (…) onderzoek (…) kan ik het toch niet nalaten dit park aan te raden!

In Dutch he says that he is going to blog about research done on Antarctica and not a writing a tourist blog, although he cannot fail to recommend this Torres del Paine park.

What is interesting is that the rest of the blog is a pleasure to read I think. It is of course about this goal they had, getting to know the research done there. But more than just ‘in between the lines’ he tells about Antarctica and what they experience there. And I’ve never been into the Dutch royal family that much, but I really liked reading it, sad it only lasted for four days / posts.

What I also noticed is that he didn’t had any pictures in the blog which I hardly could understand. But after some looking around they were in a seperate photo gallery. What was more interesting is that this seems to be maintained by other people as the captions read, i.e. ‘De Prins van Oranje kijkt door een microscoop’ (‘The Prince of Orange looks through a microscoop’) whereas the posts are signed by ‘Willem-Alexander’. I thought about the security-card system here at Mälardalen högskola, we’re not allowed in all parts of the university, only in the departments were our courses are, not in the staff corridors, etc. Which really conflicts with the general atmosphere, and in particulary the relationship between students and teachers, which is very informal.

Systems not really adapted to the people inside.

At the station I bought a Balder (a sandwich with the same name as my brother) as I didn’t had breadfast yet. Than the guides which would take us into the old part of the city came, almost excusing for the fog. When we started walking it was clear what she meant, you could hardly see any building which was further than 100m away :)

But this actually gave pretty nice views of the city. At some places it made me remember of Paris, for example this picture on the right, but also this square and this passage next to the train. Maybe all old cities look alike?

Often, we had to imagine the great view which we would have gotten if there hadn’t been such a heavy fog. But it also gave views for some great photo’s; such as the fairy tail castle on one of the bigger islands, also hosting a lot of museums; our own clothings collecting dew; and the photo below near the royal castle which got me interested on taking photo’s of the people of Stockholm.

Not all creatures in Stockholm are people though, they also have animals there, sitting on lanterns and by the river. And statues, but they’ll get their own story. As well as the interaction design in Stockholm :)

After lunch a we went with four people to the Moderna Museet. Where I finally saw Duchamp’s urinoir after talking about it so often in the Interaction Design lecutres! One artwork was about birth and time. Pictures of a rising belly with poems, one read:

One is born into time. And in time, introduced to language…
Or rather – One is born. And through language, introduced to time…
Perhaps even – One is born, in time, through language.

Further they had a nice tree. Really strange. It was like a tree, cut inside another tree. When I saw the bottom I thought that the outer tree was actually made of two parts.

But upon viewing the other side that was clearly not the case, this made the mystery even bigger.. There you could see how a tree’s branches are branches inside the tree too. Not that strange when you think of it, but that is it with these unconsiousness things, you never think of it.

Or wasn’t it the reality?

After the museum of Modern Art we went to the attached Architectural museum where they had some nice examples of how to build a city. Explaining and showing the different ways of housing and patterns to make the city accessible, explorable, interesting, efficient, quiet or cozy.

As the evening fell I went for some diner for which – after some search – I ended up in a standard Chinese restaurant. It was pretty hard to find something ‘local’, or maybe I was just in thew wrong neighborhood. But maybe you need to be a local – or have one with you – to find the better Swedish restaurants. Well, I want to go to Stockholm again for a few days, so than I’ll go to some more Stockholmish places :)

Stockholm at night

To I met St. Eskil, see him on the right. This saint founded the tuna (a Swedish name for a village).

First I would pronounce Eskilstuna without much emphasis. But now I know to lay the emphasis on the E and the a. And to in someway pronounce it as Eskil’s tuna, which is hard :)

And I need more pictures! Yesterday I was at the Eskilstuna’s campus of the university and found this place with the nice lights.

Mälardalen university, Eskilstuna's campus