The Intrepid Explorers

I’ve earned my Viking horns! The last week can pretty much be summed up in two ways—lots and lots of school work, and some incredible sailing expeditions.

First the updates: Classes have been great so far, lots of learning going on, and it continues to be both from instructors as well as my incredibly talented peers. After several days of learning the foundations of the Natural Step framework, we gave some small individual presentations over the fundamental science behind their sustainability principles.

Our next presentation was to do and ABCD sustainability analysis, and my group chose to examine Löfbergs Lila, the largest coffee importer in Sweden. Our group of 8 included people from 3 continents, 5 countries, and various professional backgrounds. Our presentation went well, and we felt as though we had successfully performed the analysis, so we’ll see if the graders agree!

But I won’t bore you for the rest of the blog. First, the apartment is still fantastic, fully furnished at this point, it’s still a great group of people, and so nice to have people to study with every night. We made a few discoveries in the closet in the back: a kilt and tons of promotional materials for something called Club Zebra, and so our house name was born! As for the creaking, clunking hunk of steel I commented about earlier, it’s now my official bike for the year! It will be a quad workout, but I’ve got her running well and it sure beats walking! Now it just needs a good hearty Viking name…

Last week, we were each invited to give 2 minute presentations about ourselves, so we could get to know each other and so Karl-Henrik could know a bit about our backgrounds. In true Club Zebra style we made up our own rules, and decided to perform a house-wide hoedown a-la “Whose Line is it Anyway?” If you’re really that curious, you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsGWvEOWES4.

Wednesday was my first Swedish Sailing adventure!. Sven offered to take a couple of us out racing with his team, so Charlotte and I suited up for the trip on the 34 foot boat. It was a lot of fun, but I can’t say it was particularly speedy. Due to a serious shortage of wind, we managed once to break 6 knots. But it was fun company. Peter, another racing team member, and Per (the boat owner) were very welcoming and we enjoyed the conversation and the learning. And hey, we did come in 3rd, so no complaints there!

Saturday was an entirely different and wonderful experience. Sven (our fearless sailing leader) rented the old Viking boat from the Blekinge Museum and borrowed 2 small sailboats from the sailing club of which he is a member. I took the helm and captained us out of Karlskrona around to Aspö, an island in the Baltic just off the main coast of Sweden. We landed at and at lunch at a beautiful old fortification along the coast. The boat was a lot of fun to sail, with great handling and it even moved along pretty quickly once I learned its little idiosyncrasies. What a fun weekend!

Well that’s about all the update time I can afford right now, hope you all are still enjoying it. We’re headed inland for the weekend for a retreat, I’ll post pictures and an update when we get back! I realize I can’t put very many pictures on here, so I’ve gone ahead and posted a Picasa album with all the pictures I’ve taken thus far, as well as a few from other folks. If you want to see more than just the shots I’ve put here, you can check it out here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wglarson/AllTheShotsFromSweden?feat=directlink.

Hej,

Wyeth

The first week of school (for the 17th time)

I’m sorry, I have been remiss. There has been a serious lack of material on this blog recently, mostly stemming from my old habit of not carrying a camera with me frequently. But today, I was so proud of myself as I remembered to bring it as I left the house, thinking I could take some pictures of the beautiful marinas, islands, and other scenery on the walk to school. But the camera had other plans. After briefly lighting the screen, the camera refused to even turn on the blue LED power light. I did not have time to be frustrated with technology for long however, as cultural lesson number one for today was about to take place, and fear not, it was back in action later in the day (take a look farther down for some of todays shots).

To help organize the bike coop, I had set to meet another student, one from Germany, to get us set up for an afternoon of work. Our plan was to clean and organize the work room before class started. I, as usual, did not make it out of the house on time; anyone who knows my family knows we run somewhere around Island time, 20 minutes late is right about on time. I was on standard Goltz Larson time and made it to the coop 25 minutes after I had suggested we meet in the morning. Evidently, Germans are a notoriously punctual and organized people, and my late arrival for what I thought of as an informal meeting was a pretty serious misstep. To his credit, my German friend was quite friendly and understanding in informing me of this. But wow, this will be a growing experience for this time-relaxed and organization challenged individual. I can just now picture my mother reading this laughing and saying how she hopes I’ll pick up some German organizational skills.

Cultural lesson number two was an altogether wonderful experience. I had already noticed that what qualifies for a road worthy bike here is quite different from the States. As I mounted a steel steed I had borrowed from the coop today, I rode away on a squeaking, slightly wobbling, occasionally clanking chunk of metal. Mortified to find myself on such an antique meant for the scrap yard, I was careful to keep my eyes out for people staring at me as I passed by. Quite the opposite! No one ever thought twice. I was passed several times by bikes far squeakier, rustier, and clankier than my own. It’s changing my perspective of useable, and at the same time I got a good laugh out of my creative cycling technique to pedal such a monstrosity up the hill to the apartment.

So now to the heart of the issue, classes have been incredible. We started Monday with an opening lecture by Göran Broman, who cofounded this major. After hearing him speak, I’m can’t wait to see what kind of expertise the rest of the faculty brings. Beyond passion, these leaders have spent their lives, studying, applying, and teaching sustainability in all its forms, from theories, implementation, frameworks, to social planning, materials science, and engineering. I’m so excited for the learning that can take place that I can hardly choose a track to pursue. Product development sounds fascinating, and I would love to learn about sustainable products, manufacturing, and design. But at the same time, I am attracted to the leadership track, as it will offer more framework, integration and planning insight. Both are within the MSLS program, so who knows where I’ll end up!

Our next two days were spent in an Open Space meeting. For those not familiar with Open Space, it’s an incredible setting in which people are able to host a session on any topic they are inclined to discuss. There are 4 rules: Whoever comes up are the right people, Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, Whenever it starts is the right time, When it’s over, it’s over. There is also the law of two feet, which says that if you’re not interested in, engaged with, or contributing to the session you’re at, use your two feet and feel free to go somewhere else. While I was at first skeptical of what would come from such an open ended session (and indeed the topics people posted to discuss over the ensuing 2 days were diverse) I was incredibly surprised by the intensely positive, productive and meaningful dialogue that took place. It was an incredible opportunity to listen to others with expertise in areas of interest to me, to share my experience and learning, and to get to know so many of the people from so many different cultures in the program. Not only did I have a better connection with, and even more respect for many of the people in the program, my idea of my own mission here after the session has been shaped much more clearly for me. I cannot thank my colleagues here enough for their support, wisdom and insight.

We did get some great progress made today on the bikes for the bike coop. We have a great group of folks leading it, and we’re having a good time working hard to get the bikes up and running. What a fantastic idea this bike coop is, something schools in the US could really look into.

But don’t worry, it hasn’t been all work. Today we had a little get together at the park on one of the islands in Karlskrona. After some beach volleyball at the courts they have there, we got an incredible game of ultimate Frisbee going. And of course, we had to take the opportunity to swim in the Baltic Sea. It was a fun group we had, so we even headed to the store for some hot dogs and charcoal to end the night with a little cookout. It’s quite a scene watching the sun set over a little finger of the Sea, next time I’ll have to be more on the spot with the camera to capture it.

Well, that’s all for now, hope this finds everyone well.

Hej

Wyeth

Swedish for the crazy American.

The new roomies at the entrance to our new place! WOOHOO!

I found myself being stared at as I sat on the bus today, which was a new experience here. Generally, people have greeted me in Swedish or ignored me in general, while some other students in the program warrant more curiosity as being clearly non-Swedish. But today, in my effort to better my ability to pronounce Swedish words I see (still have no idea what they mean, but hey, at least I sound good saying it) I decided to repeat everything the automatic bus voice said, which mostly included different stop names. Needless to say, most people at least stole a quizzical glance as I muttered several attempts at each name.





It started yesterday at the cell phone store, when I saw a picture of a Koenigsegg, a Swedish supercar manufacturer, and the new parent company of Saab. Recognizing it in the picture on the cell phone salesman’s counter, I mentioned what incredible cars they are, but he just looked at me puzzled. Realizing my feeble attempt at pronunciation of the company name didn’t ring enough bells for him to understand what I was talking about. This brought about only more jumbled and creative attempts at pronunciation by me until I finally decided to just explain they made fast cars and recently purchased Saab. At which point he responded “OH! Keyoenyigshsyegg.” Or at least that’s what it sounded like, naturally. Hooked on Phonics doesn’t work for Swedish evidently. So I vowed to figure out how to pronounce words in Swedish, thinking it would be helpful at least for street names and the like.





Here are a few rules for Swedish language my roommates and I have come up with:





K is always followed a “yuh” sound so if you think of the English name Kent, it would be pronounce Kyent.





R at the beginning of words, as well as RR are rolled as in Spanish. That doesn’t mean all things should be pronounced with a Spanish accent, which several of us find ourselves starting to do.





O nearly always sounds like OU.





The letter E always sounds quite a bit like a long A sound.





A makes pretty much any vowel sound you want it to, with the exception of I and Y.





According to Matt, and I’m not sure he’s far off on this one, anything with dots over it makes the barfing sound.





Beyond its clear potential as a classroom for Swedish pronunciation, the bus offered me a glimpse of a bit more of Karlskrona and I’d like to think Swedish culture in general.





Police cars are pretty much any color under the sun. While all Saab and Volvo wagons (at least the ones I’ve seen), I’ve yet to see to with the same paint scheme or even closely related colors.


Blue and red checkered designs adorned one, while another sported orange and neon yellow. Another just had a navy blue stripe down the side. Have to keep the criminals guessing somehow I suppose.





Ambulances look like a cross between a neon yellow hearse and an ice cream truck.





Thug life! I just have to make a note of this one. I saw a 1 year old kid on the bus wearing a baggy sweat suit with “New York” emblazoned across his chest, a sideways baseball cap, stunna shades and . . . a binky! Now that’s the epitome of stylin.

We’ll divide up the largest room to use as 2 bedrooms and are planning on using the entry (which is plenty big for a couple couches and a table) and kitchen area for the communal space.
On a funny note, as I was sitting in the hostel common room writing up this entry, the host came by and asked if I was a student, and if the local paper could interview me. I agreed, and they are putting in a story about how foreign students come to town, where they stay, and how they find housing. My housemates and I will be the main group featured!

And some updates as of the morning of 27 August. Here's the link to the Swedish newspaper article: http://sydostran.se/index.77749---1.html, and here's one translated into English using Google translator: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsydostran.se%2Findex.77749---1.html&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=

Here's a video I posted of the walkthrough of our new place! Sorry about the noise and the shaky camera hand, but it gives you an idea of where we're living. I'll post another one when we have advanced beyond sleeping on the ballroom floor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OgQBRqR1MU

Anyways, that’s all for now, I enjoyed your responses, and hopefully you can keep enjoying the posts.

Ciao for now,
Wyeth

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