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.

Nikki helpt with following the IKEA manuals and creating a bed, table, chairs and a closet out of the seperate parts. Now I also now a little bit more what Your van ‘t Hek (a Dutch cabaretier?) ment with getting the IKEA slatted bed base (lattenbodem) together.

The room doesn’t have that ‘I just arrived here’ look anymore. The blankets on the ground are now replaced with a real bed. I put some of the stuff from my suitcases in the closet and in boxes.

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Most -offline- reactions I get are about the blog being in English :) I do that mainly because I want to document my experiences for a broader public. Not only my Dutch friends, but also the non-Dutch and other people who stumble upon this blog. I also found another blog a few weeks ago from a Dutch guy who also went on exchange to Mälardalen university here. So I write in English to tell my experiences from the university, from the course context and from the country, to more then only my friends.

Further I hope to develop my English writing in this way. I’m also translating parts while writing in English because I don’t know them yet. And a last thing, as soon as I enter another country, I start not only to use English to speak, but also to think. Then the same applies to my writings, as I already think of things to say, in English.

Eskilstuna is a nice small city, the same size as Alkmaar, but with two third of the people. Lots of parks.You see litter (the bedding material for cats) on the streets everywhere, to stop you from slipping away on the ice. Oh, and they love red neon lights here.

I’ve joined Nikki in his apartment as the appointment I had with the rental unit didn’t work out, so I’ll have to wait until Monday (måndag) untill I have access to my apartment (Jong MenS: I drew Lady Lobelie afterwards). The apartment looks pretty good – from the outside anyway. We’ve done some shopping, I still have to find a good place for ecological and vegetarian food.

Saturday (Lördag) we went to Västerås, somewhat larger than Eskilstuna. More something like Nijmegen, again, with about two third of its population. First to the IKEA of course :) Afterwards we went to the student reception at Mälardalen in Västerås. The school building is very nice, with a lot of wood and nice lanterns, also made of wood. A show of their image as a environmentally consciousness university?

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This Sunday (söndag) was an easy day, we’re planing to go to the university (with a card from another student) to do some internet work (Jong MenS: I drew Lazuli for this day).

I did some shopping and had another walk through the city. I tried to get a bike. But although almost every shop is open on Sunday, the bike shop wasn’t. We’ll try it next week.

Then we got a household from Nikki to get us inside the university. I did some online IKEA shopping, checked my school scheme, and got to blog my first posts from Sweden.

Sidestep; yes, a temporary bed. The apartment I rent is without any furniture. So the plan is to buy all new stuff in the first week and sell it again in the last week. Luckily they have something called IKEA there :) Especially as I arrive there on Friday evening, I need something to sleep on the first night, and probably the first (few) week(s).

Today my new camera came in, I’ll make some pictures of the snow tomorrow. And tomorrow a t-shirt will be delivered, and I need to go back to the Bever to complain about my shoe which is already broken (bought it two weeks ago).. Very nice things to happens two days before departure.

I just finished the cake for my farewell party at Mediamatic, now, the bed calls.