The birth of a journey

And the journey has begun! It all started with a passing mention of this wonderful program here at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona Sweden. The Masters Programme in Strategic Leadership Toward Sustainability (we'll call it MSLS) partners with the Natural Step to bring real-world experience and sustainability in action into the classroom. The application process was surprisingly easy (though of course in my very own fashion I turned everything at the last minute).

If only I could say receiving a visa to study in Sweden was as easy as applying to the university. After chasing down letters of verification from my bank, insurance company, as well as extra passport pictures, school paperwork, and application forms, I finally put the package in the mail. I feel I should mention here that the visa application process, difficult as it is, appears to be incredibly simple when compared with the US process, not to mention about 1/20th the cost.

It's August 8th, and I'm finally prodded into action by my growing discomfort at having not yet received my visa and my parents growing suggestions that I chase it down harder than I was. After several phone calls to my senator's offices, the Swedish Consulate in Los Angeles, as well as my mom (yeah I'm such a big boy!) making contact with our US representatives office, we finally felt some movement beginning to happen, only to stall out when the paperwork was discovered to be at the Swedish Migration Board where it would stay until a decision was made. One 3 AM phone call to the Migration Board started to accelerate the process when a very helpful agent named Catarina was able to grant me a new case worker, since mine had conveniently taken a vacation. Another panicked 1 AM phone call on Friday finally finished the process and I was home free!

August 22nd 6 AM and I was finally blasting off, taking off from the Spokane Airport in a plane so tiny anyone over 5'6 hit their head on the way in, and people were asked to move seats to balance the aircraft. I learned something about myself that morning: though normally a very confident and comfortable flyer even on very small and very old planes, the captain asking people to move to balance the aircraft quickly saps my confidence in the ability of the craft to take us where we're supposed to go. But we made it upright and intact and I connected on to Chicago where the expected amount of panic all set in at once.

After one of the smoothest transatlantic flights in history we landed in Copenhagen. A quick (and I mean quick-if you smile and have all your teeth they wave you right through) check at customs I was on my way to grab the train and wow is that incredible! Electric rail systems run all throughout Scandinavia, making it affordable, fast, comfortable and quiet. A beautiful bridge connects Sweden and Norway to Denmark across the Baltic Sea. Sailboats and wind turbines shared a steady sea breeze as the train crossed the bridge.

By 5:30 pm local time I was at the hostel in Karlskrona and ready to wander around town. Karlskrona is an incredibly beautiful town surrounded by the Baltic Sea on 3 sides. It was sunny and warm my first evening here, and the sun was still up until 8pm. That night I met several people in my program while cooking dinner in the hostel. This is going to be a fantastic year! If the rest of the group is anything like Lea, Spud, Matt, Andrea, Pablo and Katie, I'm in for a treat.

This morning we all met for breakfast at the Hostel, and wandered down to campus for an MSLS student get-to-know you session, and stopped by several housing agencies on the way there. The group we met this morning is from all over the world. Though only about half of the students are yet in town, we had students hailing from the USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Chile, Spain, Italy, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Sweden, Japan, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting. I'll be heading up the bike co-op this year, and am looking forward to getting to work on the bikes to make them road-ready!

We took a bit of time to wander around campus, which has a mix of new, environmentally friendly buildings and old, beautifully charming buildings. The campus is situated right on a piece of the Baltic Sea, and as we walked around outside, gulls called from sailboats moored nearby. As the priest from the Church of Sweden said "Welcome to Paradise. If you take the S and W out of Sweden you'll really find where you are."

The house hunt started this afternoon. Housing prices really vary in town here, the first apartments we looked at were nice, but pricey, and as the day progressed the prices fell, but the quality generally fell faster. Until THE MANSION, which despite our name for it is quite affordable when split between the five of us. Situated above a bank on one of the main walking streets in the heart of Karlskrona, the beautiful old charming apartment will be a great fit for our group, providing the group that has priority over us decides they don't want it tonight. So if you're reading this Monday, keep your fingers crossed for us!

Well I hope you enjoyed it, or at least the pictures. More on the apartment search tomorrow!

Wyeth