Christmas wishes to you all 2012!

I write a Christmas letter every year to all friends and family with a special thought of the once we do not see that often. This one is little bit different but please follow the instructions!

2012 was for many people around the world a difficult year. Before I started writing this letter I scanned the internet and felt almost overwhelmed by all the challenges we are facing. War, poverty, global financial crises, climate change and in a few days time the world will come to an end according to some people (even found a website showing the best doomsday prophecies in history!).

But, I believe that we all can play a part in the world we live in and contribute to it in different ways. Often small changes become the most sustainable once and to remain the perspective of what is important I want to send you a Christmas letter with a few inspirational tasks.

I would like you all to listen to Matt Cutts talk “Try something new for 30 days”, then I would like to send you a message from Candy Chang “Before I die I want to” and finally make you listen to Johan Hunters talk “World peace gamer”. All these talks are to be found at www.ted.com and only last from 6-18 minutes which are well spent minutes. At the same website you will find a lot more inspiring talks! In 2012 the talented musician Dave Brubeck passed on and I also want to send you the song Take five which I think is a classic piece of music for any age. Enjoy!!!

We, the Geeraedts family, are all doing well leaving an active year behind us full of trips (to London, the Netherlands, to Malta, to Skåne in south Sweden etc.), great visits from both close by and far away and a lot of fun with family and friends. I celebrated number 40 with a big party in Ulricehamn and really appreciated that so many of you showed up. It was great! Thank you! And thanks for all the greetings I got from around the world – it was heartwarming!

Jochem worked at Philips (the NL), at Volvo, had some time off and just started at Arla (in Sweden) and I will be starting a new fun job as CEO for Ulricehamn Business Development and Tourism next year. We keep on being active in the peace organization CISV and took part in a family interchange with children from Rome, Italy. We renovated the basement and got a bigger house despite saying we would never renovate again (actually it was the talented carpenter Eric who did it!) and faced some more challenging days when Jochem had to have knee surgery. It will be a long healing process but he is doing better every day. The kids are growing and keeps us busy with tennis, drama lessons, football, singing and homework. Elsa (12) is still totally into cooking and baking making Christmas candy while I am writing this, Ingrid (13) keeps working hard at the English school, enjoys her international friendships and will soon be winning the world championship for sleeping out on weekends. Nils(9) combines his interests for computer games with tennis, football and has a new hobby playing the flute. Life is good and we are grateful!

Today Ulricehamn is covered in a thick layer of snow and we have all enjoyed a lazy Sunday. The house is fully decorated and in December we have celebrated Nils 9th birthday and our 14th wedding anniversary. Christmas is around the corner and I hope you all will have the time to enjoy it with friends and family. Let us all make time for reflection and contemplation and think about everything that makes us smile!
My wish for you all is a laugh a day in 2013! The best medicine ever invented!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Autumn leaves

We are between autumn and winter here and it gets dark early in the afternoon now. Swedish people turn on many inside lights, use a lot of candles, meet up for dinners in each others homes and we move towards a life lived more indoors (except if you are a skier but the snow is not yet here). I have met many foreigners who find the darker part of the year quite difficult in Sweden and if you don’t have a large social network that is understandable. I try to invite both old and newfound friends for a simple dinner or a get-together and encourage other “locals” to do the same. Ulricehamn seems to be in a growing phase both when it comes to people moving in and businesses showing interest in settling here. If we want them to stay we need to make them feel included and welcomed!

When we lived in the Netherlands we had a fairly well sized garden for Dutch standards. Our garden here is 3-4 times bigger, with apple, peer and plum trees. We really liked the fact that we got a nice garden with fruit trees when we moved here and it fitted the stereotyped idea of a red old wooden house situated in a characteristic Swedish little town (would have fitted the description of any location in an Astrid Lindgren childrens book). But there were some aspects we didn´t think too much about. I think we are the only ones on our street who haven´t cleaned up the garden leaves this autumn. Jochem can´t as he can´t walk and I don´t have the time. When at Malta this summer Jochem hurt his already week knee and had to have surgery when we came home. The knee is healing slowly and will be all well in 12-18 months but it keeps on being sensitive. Yesterday he went for a walk with Ingrid but came home with a swollen knee so doing garden work is not possible.
I am in a really busy period right now finishing off my project at work, getting ready for my new job as CEO for Ulricehamns Business Development, writing on my book (got a publisher which is really great) hence a terrible garden. I try not to be bothered by it, sticking to Jochems argument that anyone who spends time on getting annoyed over some leaves need to think of better ways of using their energy but it only works so, so. Next week we have a training day for all our managers about gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting and emancipation. Talking to the lecturer about the program we came to talk about norms in society. Is it socially acceptable not to do something about your garden for a few months? When is is no longer acceptable? And why is this a bigger issue for me than my husband? Is this related to my Swedishness or to gender? I don’t know and as our days get shorter I focus on creating cosy lighting on the inside (goes a lot quicker) to attract the eye away from the garden and maybe soon, the snow will hide all traces.

If you have ever been to Ulricehamn in the autumn you know it is one of the most beautiful places to visit. We are surrounded be different types of forests and the month of October gives off a variety of forest colours found almost nowhere else in the world. I go bicycling on our many bicycling tracks and I still find it surprising not to meet up with more people. On Saturday mornings I can be out on my own for an hour or two only seeing the occasional car passing by. It is quiet, colors and the sky is clear. Maybe this is why the driver who drove straight out on a main road was so surprised when I came bicycling downhill three weeks ago. Luckily I survived with some bruises rolling off the bonnet but my bike had to be fixed.

As we are in the middle of a changing season I look back on an autumn that felt shorter this year than previously. I know that many people in Ulricehamn can´t wait for the snow to arrive and actually I also long for reflecting snow (it increases the light and breaks off the massive dark sky) and to see the town turn into a winter town welcoming tourists from Sweden, Denmark and other places. We are slowly becoming a true winter town offering both cross-country skiing and downhill skiing, arranging many competitions, a high school skiing program and courses for anyone wanting to get ready for the Swedish Vasaloppet. Maybe it is about time I learn to ski cross country?

 

Strange Swedish customs, new foodexperiences and lots of fun!

This summer we have all been involved in a CISV Interchange between Sweden and Rome, Italy. Interchange encourages a deeper encounter between two cultures by placing young people within families. Group activities such as a mini-camp are vital in complementing the intense in-depth family experience. Interchange takes place in two phases with one delegation visiting another country and then reciprocating by hosting the delegation from the country they visited (www.cisv.org )

In our case this meant that our Ingrid spent 2 weeks in an Italian family, experienced life in the wonderful city of Rome and learned a lot about life in Italy. After two weeks Ingrid and the daughter Flaminia of the Italian family came to stay with us in Sweden. Blessed with mainly nice weather we spent two weeks enjoying the company of (in total) 20 youth from Sweden and Italy, arranging a number of minicamps, going canoeing, bicycling, trampoline jumping, playing hide and seek until late in the night (due to our long light nights) etc.

Going on an interchange at the age of 12 or 13 is fun but also demanding. The youth spend 4 weeks together with each other and two cultures meet. We had the pleasure of getting to know Flaminia, a polo playing energetic sweet girl, with a constant smile on her face. Ingrid and Flaminia got on really well and enjoyed the experiences of each other’s worlds. It is quite a difference growing up in central Rome or in little Ulricehamn! Ingrid loved the shopping, the food and the beautiful architecture of Rome and I think Flaminia had fun canoeing, doing water games with our boat or just playing outside with all the kids in our neighborhood.

When two cultures meet new perspectives become visible. One day when we were all in Ulricehamn (all 20 youths and leaders) one of the other Italian girls said to me;

- You Swedish people are strange!

- In what way, I responded.

- You are all so serious and you never smile to unknown people. Look around you here on the street. People do not look at each other or smile. Why is that?

As we were standing on the main shopping street in Ulricehamn I took a look around me and looked at people passing by and noticed that she was right. People passing us by where not smiling and almost seemed to avoid contact. Only when two people met, who obviously already knew each other, I saw people smile and it made me think about what the girl had said. Swedish people are not known for our outgoing character or for being an easy going culture. We are often referred to as hard working, trustworthy but are we too serious? A smile is for free and it is much more heartwarming to be met by a smile than an empty expression so from now on I will think of smiling more.

During our weeks with the Italians we had many fun days and funny moments, experienced food from both worlds, talked about different customs (such as why seatbelts should be used in the backseat in Sweden, that we take off our shoes at the door or that some rain is nothing to fear) and enjoyed the creative and innovative environment that occurs when different cultures meet. It made me think about my own interchange in Tennessee in 1987 and my high school exchange year in Canada in 1989/90 and how much fun I had then.

The CISV interchange is not only a profound intercultural experience for the youth participant, but it also engages the whole family, and potentially the community in which they live. If this is something for you take a look at www.cisv.org

Hope you also had an intercultural summer!!!

Ulricehamn - getting the best of both worlds!

I met someone while in Borås (a city located 30 min west of Ulricehamn) who startled me by saying;

- You live in Ulricehamn? (and not as in “wow, that sounds exciting” but more of a “oh, that´s such a boring place”).

I always try to stay open to new perspectives and not be judgmental. If someone finds it strange that I have chosen to live in Ulricehamn they say so due to some assumptions that I am not aware of. They most likely have a completely different image of Ulricehamn than I have. I was not prepared for the question and it was not really posed as a question and in hindsight I wish I would have answered it better. I just said that I live here because I like it! However, the comment stayed with me and when I brought it up for the 5th time Jochem told me to just accept that different people like different things. This is obviously true but what bothers me is that I had a chance to change someone’s opinion about Ulricehamn and I failed to do so. So, now I do it here and if I ever meet the guy from Borås who could not understand why anyone would like to settle in Ulricehamn I will be better prepared.

I did not grow up in Ulricehamn and I have spent approx. 14 years of my life in other parts of the world – living, studying and working abroad. When I moved back to Sweden in 2008 I wanted to bring my international family to a place that felt close to nature and still conveniently close to bigger cities. I wanted my children to be able to bicycle to school on their own, to live in a house with a garden so that we could enjoy the different seasons. I wanted to exchange big city life to life in a smaller town and I wanted this town to have some facilities such as schools, libraries, a swimming pool, shops and a genuine feel to it. All of this and more we found when we arrived in Ulricehamn 4 years ago.

The town of Ulricehamn is situated around a lake that defines our town both during the summer months (with lots of water activities such as sailing, canoeing, kayaking etc.) and during the winter months. We experience different seasons here with real winters and great skiing possibilities, hiking all year around and bicycling on 90 km of bicycling tracks. As changes here have not been as drastic as in other faster growing cities we still have a beautiful city centre with many buildings dating back several hundreds of years and many opportunities for enjoying great lunches/dinners or high class coffee in a picturesque surrounding. Small shops offering a variety of goods are sold on our shopping street dating back to before the city was established 700 years ago.

Obviously there are many places around Sweden who fits this description but very few are as strategically situated as we are. We live in a peaceful area but very close to the second largest labor market in Sweden. Logistically we are on the track between the harbor city of Gothenburg and Jönköping which is considered the top logistical path in Sweden. 45 minutes away you reach the airport Landvetter and 1 ½ hour away Gothenburg city airport. For us, this meant that moving to Ulricehamn gave us the best of both worlds.

Ulricehamn is one of the most beautiful small towns in Sweden located close to anything you might need from a bigger city. The smaller villages around Ulricehamn all carry their own history and maybe we, who live in Ulricehamn, need to get better at telling others?

So, next time when someone asks me why I live in Ulricehamn I will say that I live here because I get the best of both worlds! For anyone who is looking for attractive living possibilities, in a historical setting, who wants to be close to both nature and sport facilities and still enjoy the opportunities big cities offer Ulricehamn is the place to be! (and this is still just the beginning of the story as there are so much more to tell…)

Summer has arrived in Ulricehamn!

And suddenly summer arrived! In a world of flowers, bright green leaves, bird song and a lot of sun the winter months are quickly forgotten. Sweden and the Swedes come to life in the summertime. Suddenly the agenda is fully booked with garden parties, dinner with friends along the lake and outdoor activities. I love it!

Our days are long and we spend hours sitting outside on the porch sipping on a Belgian beer or a South African wine. In the last two months we have gone bicycling, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and each week seen 30 – 50 kilometer of Ulricehamn.

I think this winter felt darker than the previous once and obviously it was. We had a lot of snow the previous years but not as much this year and snow reflects light and make the days look a little bit brighter. Somewhere in the beginning of March it melted away and left us with a rainy, cold, grey season being neither winter nor spring. The way we depend on the light here up north cannot be explained in writing. One has to live here to understand how we live with the seasons. Dark long winter months are transformed in the summer season into long days where the sun does not set until late in the evening (or not at all if you live above the polar circle). In the winter months I go earlier to bed, feel more tired and we stay a lot more inside. Maybe the urge to be outside as much as possible in the summer months is a physical compensation needed by both body and soul to get through life?

I think I live in one of the most beautiful places we have in Sweden but I am also in love with big cities and traveling so this spring we took the kids to London in February and to Amsterdam in April. It felt great letting the kids experience the big city life for a little bit and it also felt fine coming home. For some people it is clear where they want to live and how they want to live their lives. I am always curious about other places and meeting new people and feel energized when I come home with a new experience. A few weeks ago I visited Iceland which was very interesting and the hospitality was fantastic but it made me wonder how it is to live on a remote island. We live in mobile times in a global world but actual distances still have an impact on people’s possibilities.

This weekend the girls are off on a CISV weekend camp and Nils, Jochem and I spend the morning at Komosse hiking for 4,5 km. Nils will walk 20 km this summer in order to get a new Wii-game and is keeping track of all our hikes. With 90 km of bicycling paths and hundreds of kilometers of hiking paths we have lots to explore this summer.

Hope the sun is shining on you too!

A really precious gift

I got a really special Christmas gift last year. It was so special that I decided to save it and sit down with it when I had enough time to really go through it. January and February passed quickly and now, with Jochem spending March in the Netherlands I decided to sit down with my precious gift. For the last five years my dad has written a book – his memoires.

In this book, given to my sister and me, we get the family history told by our father and it puts a life full of memories, both good and bad once, in a historic perspective. It is a wonderful book that has made me both laugh and cry while reading it and led to many discussions with friends and colleagues. We live in times where we often talk about technological frog jumps and that we are part of some major knowledge shift (where changes happen over night). Reading about how society has changed in the last 100 years I wonder if the changes we are now facing will change society as much as the changes that occurred in the last century (at least in Sweden). The core values - the values that defines a culture and how we think we should act within it - has changed dramatically in the last 100 years including increased emancipation, diversity, an acceptance of critical thinking, acceptance towards challenging set ideas etc. Life was not better in the old days and not everything is better now. I think my dad has had a wonderful life in many ways and has enjoyed it a lot. I think we are all products of the world we live in and I come from a family with a humanistic view on life. My parents have lived through changing paradigms and been able to adjust to these changes and embraced them. This they have passed on to Hanna and I and what better gift could we get!

Reading a story filled with well know characters whom I feel connected to is something special. It is emotional in many ways as I see my spot in a history that started long before I arrived in this world and this story will not end when I pass on. Ingrid, Elsa and Nils chapter is only beginning. I also see much resemblance between my father and me. I have been given a wonderful gift!

Decor - a student company moving ahead!

Today the high school students on the entrepreneur program in Ulricehamn are showing off their businesses for the first time this school year. In September they started their businesses in small groups and today the first competition round takes place. They will be judged by a panel of business people on their annual reports, marketing, sales strategy, company presentation, product and/or service. In March they will compete on the semi- regional level and the winners in each category will continue to the regional level followed by the national and European level. During one year they start up and run a business and this American based idea is this year including more than 3,1 million students only across Europe. Schools all over Europe help students to start up student companies and Ulricehamn has a strong winning tradition in this field. In the last 10 years we have been among the best 5 in Sweden every year and two years ago Bolsa from Ulricehamn even one a category on the European level.

Two years ago I helped out as a jury member locally and was seriously impressed by the achievements of the student. This year I had a role as adviser for a student company called Decor.Decor is a company focusing on interior design using sheet metal to create a multifunctional plate, tray or table. It has been fun to be apart of a group of students fighting real hard to go from 6 different ideas to production, making a business plan, creating a selling stand, learning to sell their product etc. How many companies go from idea, production and sales in 4 months?

Now I cross my fingers that they will get credited by the jury this afternoon. To me they are already winners but naturally I think they deserve to win at least best stand at the exhibition!

PS: They did win best stand and were nominated for best business. Well done!!!

Dutch on the move...

It is almost time for the 2012 Emigration fair in Houten, the Netherlands – a fair Ulricehamn has taken part in the last 3 years. This is Europe’s largest Emigration Expo and attracts around 12000 visitors during two days – all interested in emigrating from the Netherlands. It might sound sad that so many people are thinking about leaving their country, especially such a well organized, wealthy, democratic country but I see it as a sign of times. We live in a global world, the migration flows are constantly increasing and more and more people want to explore the world they live in. 100 years ago emigrating from Europe to Canada was a one in a life time decision. Once you moved you knew that you would probably never return. Today, global infrastructure and digital solutions make it possible to stay in contact with family and friends and moving to another country might not be forever.

My family is part of this migration flow and my husband and children are part to the statistics of emigrated Dutch people. In the last two years I have been part of a group from Sjuhärad (small region in west Sweden) who visits the Emigration Expo in order to attract more inhabitants to our area in Sweden. This year we will be there again and so far 42 people have moved to our region since 2008.
The urbanization in the world has had a major impact on Sweden. I think more than 80% of all municipalities suffer from a decreased number of inhabitants. As each municipality have taxation right the town has less to spend when the number of inhabitants decrease. Each municipality is responsible for education, childcare, elderly care, sport facilities, local infrastructure etc. so when many people move to bigger cities, smaller communities find it harder to offer a high service level.
The Dutch have always been traders, explorers and travelers. To seek new knowledge and to try new things is part of the Dutch culture. According to Henrik P van Dalen and Kéne Henkens from Tilburg University, the Netherlands are experience an emigration wave again. They have studied emigration and the reasons for emigrating.

In a study from 2008, 25% of the people who had plans of emigrating in 2005 had left the country two years later. This is interesting to look at if one wants to look at the time span from idea of emigrating to actually doing it. Several studies talk about an average of 6 – 7 year from idea to action but if 25 % move within two years, we, who want to attract new inhabitants, can focus on the 25% ?

Looking at numbers from Statistics Netherlands (www.cbs.nl) 132 000 people emigrated from the NL in 2006, many of them to nearby countries such as Germany, Belgium and France. Between 2006 – 2009 the numbers decreased but in 2010 they started to rise again. In the first 6 months of 2011 58 000 people emigrated which was 5000 more than the year before. According to P van Dalen and Henkens men are twice as likely to emigrate as women, and it is mostly the young (under 30) who emigrate. It is also more common that the emigrants come from the higher income spectrum and 69 % of them choose to settle somewhere in Europe. The increase in the last two years also show that it the increase of emigration mainly is to be found in the group of people born in the Netherlands.

When we as a town or as a region discuss immigration I think we need to look at the facts, be realistic about what we can achieve and be honest to anyone interested in moving here. I also think it is important to stay connected to anyone who moves here and to listen to their experiences. It is not easy to be the new one in town and if you come from another country it is even harder. To support newcomers is something we need to do together, all of us living here.