2010 is coming to an end and I wish to take a moment and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and an exciting new year. As I write this Europe is covered in snow and most people who are getting ready to get home for Christmas are in for a challenge. Jochem is in the Netherlands for work but we hope he will make it back tonight to join us when we celebrate Christmas with my family in Skåne (south Sweden). With many cancelled flights at the moment and people trapped on train stations, airports and in traffic jams we keep our fingers crossed and hope that all of you travelling to family and friends find a safe way to get to your destination.
This is our second winter since we moved to Sweden and Ulricehamn and we have really had a chance to experience winter with lots of snow, low temperatures and outdoor winter sports. In the beginning of 2010 Jochem’s brother Harry with wife Miriam, their children and partners visited Ulricehamn for some skiing. The girls even got the local boys to take them on an ice-ride in an old Volvo over the lake and they kept skiing and snowboarding despite a temperature of minus 18 C.
In March Peter and Dorien visited us from the Netherlands and Jochem took them to our newly renovated summerhouse and arrived in a house with an indoor pool. Several pipes had broken when the electricity and heating fell out. It was a real blow to us and we had to redo the whole renovation but luckily we were helped by the talented carpenters and this fall, two years after we bought the house, we finished the project (well, all but the garden). It is a beautiful house with two apartments 30 meters in front of a lake, located 15 km south of Ulricehamn and we hope to use it a lot in the future.
This year Jochem took 5 months off work to spend more time with the family and to get to know Ulricehamn a bit more. He got involved in a local business project, fixed things with the summerhouse, worked on his two wooden boats, took care of the kids and time went very fast. In December he started doing some consultancy work abroad again but now he is trying to work more from home and less days per week. He is still trying to figure out what he wants to do in life but feels better than last year and sees many opportunities. As we celebrated 12 years of marriage this December we both joked about the idea of slowing down the pace in the coming 12 years but then realized that some people (us?) are just not very good at that, but we will try!
I enjoy my work and had a very successful year with several project proposals being awarded EU grants. Through my work I get to travel ever so often and had some fun and exciting trips to the Netherlands (with a bus trip home due to the volcano outburst), the UK and Brussels. I feel ready to increase my learning and hope that my new job in the strategic staff will challenge me.
The kids are all doing well and growing really fast. Ingrid (11) spent a month alone in the US. Well, not alone as there were 47 other kids and 30 adult staff but it was her first trip to the US and her first long camp. She participated in a “CISV – Building global friendship camp” (an international peace organisation) and had the summer of her life. She spoke English for a month with kids from 12 different nations and learned about peace, tolerance and dialog. CISV has become an important part of our lives and Elsa (10) is now getting ready for her camp next summer. I am the president of CISV Borås (local club) and the girls take part in weekend camps and other activities.
Nils (who just turned 7) also went to camp this summer, or at least that is what he calls it. He spent 4 weeks with my parents and learned how to swim while Jochem and I worked at the summerhouse. Elsa helped us out and realized that it feels different being the only child and missed her brother and sister a bit. All the kids enjoy the Montessori school, different after school activities (tennis, table tennis, football, skiing, sailing and drama), to play with their friends and we feel that they are settled and feeling very much at home here.
We had many wonderful visits from the Netherlands, Norway and from other parts of Sweden this year. We visited friends and family in the Netherlands a few times and in November we spent a great week on Sicily. Thank you all for visiting us and for being such good friends! Right now we are taking part in a local project (as a family) trying to become more climate smart and learning more about climate smart choices and attitudes so hopefully we contribute to a better climate (I even have a Swedish blog about it http://klimatsmartfamilj.blogspot.com).
As I write this I sit by the laptop of my parents in the house I grew up in. My parents retired this year and are both doing really well and keeping healthy. We are about to celebrate a traditional Swedish Christmas with my parents, my sister and her family (who are also doing very well) and tomorrow we go to my cousin Petra and celebrate the big family Christmas. For two days we will be surrounded by lots of people, many children, too much food, lots of talking, laughing and exchange our gifts. Christmas to me is about spending time together, enjoying each other’s company and laughing a lot. I hope you all get to laugh a lot this Christmas and that the new year ahead will be filled with many wonderful happenings.
Lots of love from us to you! Thank you for wonderful letters and cards. It is always great to hear how you are doing and to get the latest news from all over the world!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
May 2013
in Ulricehamn
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
The people of Ulricehamn
We had a world premier of the film Angelfarm – third time around in Ulricehamn last week. About 20 years ago the British filmmaker Colin Nutely came to Ulricehamn and the small village of Liared. He fell in love with the place, made a documentary film and wrote the script of Angelfarm. A few years later the film hit the screen and was an enormous hit depicting the Swedish countryside, the pros and cons of small town life and what happens when something odd and unexpected arrives in a little village. This summer, 16 years later, the film team arrived in Ulricehamn to make the third sequel of the film and last Thursday Jochem and I went to the world premier. Most Swedish films have their film premiers in Stockholm and Ulricehamn has never (to my knowledge at least) had a world premier before so this was a real treat. I had no hopes of getting invited to the premier but Jochem run in to Colin Nutley when he was here and they got talking about Ulricehamn and about how it is to live here. The love Nutley feels for this place is deeply felt in his films and somehow Jochem told him about our move from big town to small town and from the Netherlands to Sweden and suddenly we were invited to the premier. We had such a nice time and it really felt like a huge thing for Ulricehamn and I think many people enjoyed it just as much as we did. Lots of famous actors arrived and I sat next to Jochem explaining who is who in Swedish film.
Since November we have had a steady flow of more and more snow. It is almost amazing what kind of heavy winters we have had here in the last two years and it is not typical for the region. Naturally we enjoy it and the good skiing brings more and more tourists which is good for the town but one cant help wondering about a changing climate and if this is something we should get used to? Currently we have about 70 cm of snow and another 40 cm expecting to come within the coming days. Today the kids had a outdoor sports day with school and spent the day on the hill and as Jochems flight was cancelled due to the stormy weathers around Europe he joined them skiing and snowboarding. This evening he got a flight to the NL and I hope he will make it back before Christmas.
As we are getting closer to Christmas we have enjoyed several Christmas parties, Lucia celebrations and Nils 7th birthday. We celebrated Nils birthday in Lund last weekend which was great except for the fact that I forgot my handbag, sent Jochem to get it while my quick mum brought it by taxi which resulted in me and the kids getting on the train. Jochem missed it. The kids cried, Jochems phone was not charge and I had his money and credit card in my bag. It was an exciting day but in the end we met up in Borås with a special banner saying “Pappa”! The last 4 days we have gone from festivity to festivity ending it yesterday with a treasure hunt party for 9 seven year olds. Needless to say we were wasted last night but also happy with the fantastic friends we have made here in Ulricehamn – friends from many different countries, of different backgrounds but with one thing in common – we are all people of Ulricehamn!
Since November we have had a steady flow of more and more snow. It is almost amazing what kind of heavy winters we have had here in the last two years and it is not typical for the region. Naturally we enjoy it and the good skiing brings more and more tourists which is good for the town but one cant help wondering about a changing climate and if this is something we should get used to? Currently we have about 70 cm of snow and another 40 cm expecting to come within the coming days. Today the kids had a outdoor sports day with school and spent the day on the hill and as Jochems flight was cancelled due to the stormy weathers around Europe he joined them skiing and snowboarding. This evening he got a flight to the NL and I hope he will make it back before Christmas.
As we are getting closer to Christmas we have enjoyed several Christmas parties, Lucia celebrations and Nils 7th birthday. We celebrated Nils birthday in Lund last weekend which was great except for the fact that I forgot my handbag, sent Jochem to get it while my quick mum brought it by taxi which resulted in me and the kids getting on the train. Jochem missed it. The kids cried, Jochems phone was not charge and I had his money and credit card in my bag. It was an exciting day but in the end we met up in Borås with a special banner saying “Pappa”! The last 4 days we have gone from festivity to festivity ending it yesterday with a treasure hunt party for 9 seven year olds. Needless to say we were wasted last night but also happy with the fantastic friends we have made here in Ulricehamn – friends from many different countries, of different backgrounds but with one thing in common – we are all people of Ulricehamn!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Who moved the cheese?
Jochem is back working in the Netherlands and I visited Stockholm for two days so my parents came to help out with the kids. They arrived from Malaga (Spain) on Sunday and left Lund (south Sweden) early Monday morning to help out in Ulricehamn. On Wednesday they had to go back home as they had a release party to attend with an author in the evening. I sometimes joke with my sister about where our busy globetrotting parents are off to next but I really think they deserve the health and life spirit they show. They have taken charge of their lives since they retired early this year and are making every day count. I see too many people not taking charge to their own lives and letting life pass by without getting on the train. We are all different and not everyone is interested in social activities or travelling but I think it is important to realize that life is what we make of it. I am responsible for my choices and also for not choosing and sometimes we forget that a path not travelled is also a choice.
At work we are in the middle of a large reorganisation and from the beginning of next year I will move to the strategic staff department and work directly under the two CEOs of the municipality. I think we need a reorganisation and I think there is room for improvement in all parts of our organisation. Still, this reorganisation creates a lot of tension among the staff and many are worried about how it will be in the end (if you think there can be an end in an every evolving organisation!). For anyone in the middle of a change I have a book advice. The book is called “Who moved the cheese” by Spencer Johnson and it’s a bathtub book. It is long enough for a nice bath and I would like to suggest it to anyone who is in a change of some kind. In a simple and fun way we get a look into the human mind and how we can choose to look at a change and how we can choose to react upon it.
It took my hardworking parents some time to get used to the idea of retirement. My mum worked 6 months extra after turning 65 and my dad worked part time for 4 years ending his doctors’ career at the age of 69. But, when they finally retired they had a plan on what they want to do and what makes their days special. See the changes and see the possibilities as they are always there! And get the cheese book!
At work we are in the middle of a large reorganisation and from the beginning of next year I will move to the strategic staff department and work directly under the two CEOs of the municipality. I think we need a reorganisation and I think there is room for improvement in all parts of our organisation. Still, this reorganisation creates a lot of tension among the staff and many are worried about how it will be in the end (if you think there can be an end in an every evolving organisation!). For anyone in the middle of a change I have a book advice. The book is called “Who moved the cheese” by Spencer Johnson and it’s a bathtub book. It is long enough for a nice bath and I would like to suggest it to anyone who is in a change of some kind. In a simple and fun way we get a look into the human mind and how we can choose to look at a change and how we can choose to react upon it.
It took my hardworking parents some time to get used to the idea of retirement. My mum worked 6 months extra after turning 65 and my dad worked part time for 4 years ending his doctors’ career at the age of 69. But, when they finally retired they had a plan on what they want to do and what makes their days special. See the changes and see the possibilities as they are always there! And get the cheese book!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
December in Ulricehamn
We are a few days away from December but Christmas is already here. With half a metre of snow that keeps on coming and a temperature that will make it stay we definitely hit winter. Yesterday we filled the house with Christmas decorations, baked (as we actually do every weekend but now it was gingerbread cookies) and lit all the candles. I even got Jochem to go with me to a furniture store to order some new chairs and a new warm carpet. In Sweden you take your shoes off at the doorstep (to avoid snow and mud to get in I guess) but our old wooden floors get cold as the temperature gets down to minus 10 C. With some warm carpets and slippers we make sure we stay warm.
My Dutch car is not made for this weather. It has no heating in the mirrors, no heating in the chairs (I love a warm butt!) and no four-wheel drive. I hate to admit it but Jochems old Audi gets us up the hills a lot easier than my Toyota. I have learned what steep roads to avoid here in Ulricehamn and to drive backwards uphill if needed. No wonder you need to pass an ice, snow and water test when getting your Swedish driving licence. So, anyone planning a trip here this winter – get the right tires on and bring a suitable car! The cross country skiing opened its trails this weekend and in a few weeks the down hill ski sloop will be ready for visitors and we as well. Our house in Vegby is ready to take on visitors so make a booking soon if you want to try the winter in Ulricehamn!
In two weeks we celebrate Nils 7th birthday by going to my parents in Skåne (south of Sweden). Nils spent a month at their house this summer and when we asked what he wanted to do for his birthday he was very clear on what to do. We will visit grandma and granpa and next summer he wants to go back on “camp” there. As Ingrid and Elsa talk about the different camps they are attending or will attend Nils told us that he was also going to camp.
- You are? I asked. Where are you off to then?
- To grandma and grandpa of course, Nils responded!
Looks like Jochem and I have to find a camp of our own next year! But first we will all enjoy a few December weeks filled with dinners, parties, film viewings in great company.
My Dutch car is not made for this weather. It has no heating in the mirrors, no heating in the chairs (I love a warm butt!) and no four-wheel drive. I hate to admit it but Jochems old Audi gets us up the hills a lot easier than my Toyota. I have learned what steep roads to avoid here in Ulricehamn and to drive backwards uphill if needed. No wonder you need to pass an ice, snow and water test when getting your Swedish driving licence. So, anyone planning a trip here this winter – get the right tires on and bring a suitable car! The cross country skiing opened its trails this weekend and in a few weeks the down hill ski sloop will be ready for visitors and we as well. Our house in Vegby is ready to take on visitors so make a booking soon if you want to try the winter in Ulricehamn!
In two weeks we celebrate Nils 7th birthday by going to my parents in Skåne (south of Sweden). Nils spent a month at their house this summer and when we asked what he wanted to do for his birthday he was very clear on what to do. We will visit grandma and granpa and next summer he wants to go back on “camp” there. As Ingrid and Elsa talk about the different camps they are attending or will attend Nils told us that he was also going to camp.
- You are? I asked. Where are you off to then?
- To grandma and grandpa of course, Nils responded!
Looks like Jochem and I have to find a camp of our own next year! But first we will all enjoy a few December weeks filled with dinners, parties, film viewings in great company.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
We need to stay open to immigration if we want to have a chance on a global market!
A few weeks ago Fabio in Brazil contacted me as he had stumble over this blog while looking at working possibilities in Sweden. He liked the kind of life possibilities in Ulricehamn I portray in this blog and had read about our project of getting Dutch people to emigrate to this region. Fabio is a dentist with a family who already has working permits for both the US and Ireland but who is still looking at what kind of life you can get in different countries. Today I read an article in our local paper warning us all of the great costs of immigration. According to the writer we are in for a great surprise if we do not stop immigration quickly. I would state the opposite!
We live in a global world where most of our companies would not be able to exist if they did not have the chance to export and import goods from all over the world. We need each other! All great innovations and achievements of mankind has occurred when people from different backgrounds, from different cultures and with different knowledge fields have met and looked at challenges from different points of view. Many people in Sweden still live in the notion that Europe is the centre of great achievements and that Sweden is a knowledge country. Obviously Sweden is great country, father of many inventions, with little poverty and a well functioning social structure. However, we are also a country with fairly low wages for high skilled workers and high wages for low skilled workers, with a negative spiral of the number of new started companies, with very low school results compared to the rest of the world (and yes, you can obviously ask the question what do we measure when we talk about school results) where we now see innovation companies leaving Sweden to set up their businesses in India or China instead. In the 60s we saw how the manufacturing industry left Sweden for lower wages in Asia. Now we see Swedish high skilled workers and researchers leaving Sweden for greater opportunities abroad. India and China are the greatest investors in Africa today. In Europe we do not see the same potential in Africa but maybe we are wrong? Why do we assume that people who come to Sweden, weather they are refugees from a country at war or economic immigrants, do not have any skills or anything of interest to us? Who are the once starting new businesses – the immigrants!
We need to improve and extend our service sector in order to survive on the global market and in order to do so we need the expertise from abroad. There are always costs of immigration just as there are costs for a society when people drop out of school, go on parental leave or get sick. However, there are also possibilities in these situations. Immigration brings new ideas and innovation to a country. It helps us fill the gaps when there is a shortage of personal such as in the medical sector or get staff for tasks few people are willing to do, such as cleaning. By taking in high skilled workers, maybe on temporary contracts, we get a more flexible labour market and I think we need to look at flexibility as a factor of success if Sweden is not going to fall further behind. Sweden is a fantastic country with lots of possibilities but if we want to continue to develop and increase our market shares we should not close our doors. We should open them, encourage a European blue-card for high skilled workers and stay a humane country that helps people in need!
Another interesting aspect of immigration is the current situation in Norway where most of the staff in hotels, in shops and in the tourism sector is Swedish. In the shops in the Danish capital of Copenhagen it is getting more and more rare that you see Danish staff. Most of the staff is Swedish. If we see many opportunities abroad maybe we should be open to others seeing opportunities in Sweden?
And, if Fabio learns Swedish and gets his dentist accreditation to work in Sweden I hope he will consider living in Ulricehamn!
We live in a global world where most of our companies would not be able to exist if they did not have the chance to export and import goods from all over the world. We need each other! All great innovations and achievements of mankind has occurred when people from different backgrounds, from different cultures and with different knowledge fields have met and looked at challenges from different points of view. Many people in Sweden still live in the notion that Europe is the centre of great achievements and that Sweden is a knowledge country. Obviously Sweden is great country, father of many inventions, with little poverty and a well functioning social structure. However, we are also a country with fairly low wages for high skilled workers and high wages for low skilled workers, with a negative spiral of the number of new started companies, with very low school results compared to the rest of the world (and yes, you can obviously ask the question what do we measure when we talk about school results) where we now see innovation companies leaving Sweden to set up their businesses in India or China instead. In the 60s we saw how the manufacturing industry left Sweden for lower wages in Asia. Now we see Swedish high skilled workers and researchers leaving Sweden for greater opportunities abroad. India and China are the greatest investors in Africa today. In Europe we do not see the same potential in Africa but maybe we are wrong? Why do we assume that people who come to Sweden, weather they are refugees from a country at war or economic immigrants, do not have any skills or anything of interest to us? Who are the once starting new businesses – the immigrants!
We need to improve and extend our service sector in order to survive on the global market and in order to do so we need the expertise from abroad. There are always costs of immigration just as there are costs for a society when people drop out of school, go on parental leave or get sick. However, there are also possibilities in these situations. Immigration brings new ideas and innovation to a country. It helps us fill the gaps when there is a shortage of personal such as in the medical sector or get staff for tasks few people are willing to do, such as cleaning. By taking in high skilled workers, maybe on temporary contracts, we get a more flexible labour market and I think we need to look at flexibility as a factor of success if Sweden is not going to fall further behind. Sweden is a fantastic country with lots of possibilities but if we want to continue to develop and increase our market shares we should not close our doors. We should open them, encourage a European blue-card for high skilled workers and stay a humane country that helps people in need!
Another interesting aspect of immigration is the current situation in Norway where most of the staff in hotels, in shops and in the tourism sector is Swedish. In the shops in the Danish capital of Copenhagen it is getting more and more rare that you see Danish staff. Most of the staff is Swedish. If we see many opportunities abroad maybe we should be open to others seeing opportunities in Sweden?
And, if Fabio learns Swedish and gets his dentist accreditation to work in Sweden I hope he will consider living in Ulricehamn!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The Norwegian invasion!
We had a Norwegian invasion this weekend and it was really ”greit”! Ingrid spent a month on a CISV peace camp in the US this summer and met kids from all over the world. When she came home she was determined that we should all go to Australia as soon as possible to see some of her newfound friends. I would love to go to Australia but it is quite a trip from Sweden and it has to fit in with our timetable which is not a very easy task. However, Norway is not so far away from Sweden and this weekend the Norwegian delegation (4 kids) made a visit together with one set of parents. The Swedish delegation (also 4) joined in and we filled the house with 8 11-year olds who could not stop chatting with each other.
Jochem and I also enjoyed the visit of Merete and Are (parents to Matilde) and it was a weekend with a mix of Swedish, Norwegian, English and even some Dutch. Now we know that the word for candy in Dutch is the same in Norwegian Bergen dialect.
I don’t think one should generalize but this weekend made me realize that every time I meet Norwegians I really enjoy their company. I shared a house in Wales with Henriette from Norway in 1997 and we had a really fun and intensive year together. While living in the Netherlands I got to know Anine from Norway who also became a good friend and Merete and Are were just as friendly and relaxed as my previous Norwegian encounters. I think it is time for a vacation in Norway!
And for Ingrids and our friends who live far away we have to stay in touch via Facebook and blogs. The doors stay open in Ulricehamn and hopefully we get the chance to see some of you in the near future.
Take care, wherever you are!
Jochem and I also enjoyed the visit of Merete and Are (parents to Matilde) and it was a weekend with a mix of Swedish, Norwegian, English and even some Dutch. Now we know that the word for candy in Dutch is the same in Norwegian Bergen dialect.
I don’t think one should generalize but this weekend made me realize that every time I meet Norwegians I really enjoy their company. I shared a house in Wales with Henriette from Norway in 1997 and we had a really fun and intensive year together. While living in the Netherlands I got to know Anine from Norway who also became a good friend and Merete and Are were just as friendly and relaxed as my previous Norwegian encounters. I think it is time for a vacation in Norway!
And for Ingrids and our friends who live far away we have to stay in touch via Facebook and blogs. The doors stay open in Ulricehamn and hopefully we get the chance to see some of you in the near future.
Take care, wherever you are!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Hoping for a long and happy life!
6-year olds are so literal and Nils is no exception. I used the Swedish saying “a good laugh lengthens your life” and he asked me what that meant. I explained that I think it is vital to your mental health and inner happiness to laugh and have a great laugh ever so often. If you feel happy and joyful I think you might live longer. A little later Nils fell and hurt himself and when I was comforting him he said to me “ will I die earlier now”? I looked at him with surprise and said, of course not! It is only a scratch! But Nils was not referring to his injuries but to the fact that he was crying and that is the opposite of laughing. Luckily I could convince him that crying when falling will not influence once life expectancy.
The other day we were talking about the climate changes on Earth. Nils is interested in the planets and of some reason we talked about the fact that the Earth turns around its own axis. Axis in Swedish is the same word as shoulder and suddenly Nils said:
- No wonder the Earth is feeling so bad. It has to sleep on the same shoulder all the time!
Yes, a good laugh and great kids probably lengthens your life!
For a while everything was white here and the “chocolate and fireplace urge” increased but today most of the snow is melting away. Today we are preparing Elsa’s tenth birthday party with activities such as card making, photo-frame-designing, pizza baking, watching a romantic comedy and then they will all sleep over. Next weekend we also have 4 kids staying over here and 6 people staying in our summerhouse in Vegby as the Norwegian delegation from the CISV camp (Tennessee 2010) is coming for a visit. Will be a fun and active weekend for sure.
But, first we will all enjoy a big brunch!
Wishing you a great weekend!
The other day we were talking about the climate changes on Earth. Nils is interested in the planets and of some reason we talked about the fact that the Earth turns around its own axis. Axis in Swedish is the same word as shoulder and suddenly Nils said:
- No wonder the Earth is feeling so bad. It has to sleep on the same shoulder all the time!
Yes, a good laugh and great kids probably lengthens your life!
For a while everything was white here and the “chocolate and fireplace urge” increased but today most of the snow is melting away. Today we are preparing Elsa’s tenth birthday party with activities such as card making, photo-frame-designing, pizza baking, watching a romantic comedy and then they will all sleep over. Next weekend we also have 4 kids staying over here and 6 people staying in our summerhouse in Vegby as the Norwegian delegation from the CISV camp (Tennessee 2010) is coming for a visit. Will be a fun and active weekend for sure.
But, first we will all enjoy a big brunch!
Wishing you a great weekend!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Getting fit and climatesmart at the same time!
The weekend is starting and we will have a busy weekend with Jochem taking part as a table tennis referee both days in a local tournament. I will help out at the car boot sale of the football club. On Saturday afternoon I am off to a meeting and on Sunday we have invited some of our foreign friends here in Ulricehamn. The kids have decided that we will serve Mexican food to our Danish and German friends but with a Swedish dessert. I got a book from Karin in the Netherlands showing Tapas according to Dutch food traditions so maybe I can even get some Dutch snacks on the menu. Actually the idea of looking at your own cooking culture and changing it to fit in a tapas style is really nice. Last year Jochem and I went to a wine tasting which also included a Swedish Christmas menu but in very small tasty portions with a twist and we loved it. Jochem even enjoyed the Swedish haring!
We are taking part in a pilot study in becoming a climate smart family and Jochem is currently measuring all our appliances on how much power they use. We have realised that we can save some money here and at the same time improve our climate. In a few weeks time a light designer will come to our home and I am really looking forward to this. We only have low energy light bulbs but they do not give a very cosy light so I hope we can make some improvements. We will also have a course in eco-driving and take part in a climate smart cooking course. Quite fun actually and the local press is following our progress (assuming we are making some!). I write a blog about our adventures and the kids are all very much involved. When Jochem and I at times thinks about taking the car they tell us not to and to use our bikes instead. In other words, we are not only helping to save the climate and reducing costs. We are on a path to a fit lifestyle (well, at least a little bit fitter!)
Hoping the sun shining here is also reaching you guys!
We are taking part in a pilot study in becoming a climate smart family and Jochem is currently measuring all our appliances on how much power they use. We have realised that we can save some money here and at the same time improve our climate. In a few weeks time a light designer will come to our home and I am really looking forward to this. We only have low energy light bulbs but they do not give a very cosy light so I hope we can make some improvements. We will also have a course in eco-driving and take part in a climate smart cooking course. Quite fun actually and the local press is following our progress (assuming we are making some!). I write a blog about our adventures and the kids are all very much involved. When Jochem and I at times thinks about taking the car they tell us not to and to use our bikes instead. In other words, we are not only helping to save the climate and reducing costs. We are on a path to a fit lifestyle (well, at least a little bit fitter!)
Hoping the sun shining here is also reaching you guys!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Being British again - even if only for a moment!
The man sitting next to me at my flight to the UK the other day was dressed in beige chinos, a checked shirt and had his long silver gray hair tied in a ponytail. I could not help thinking that he looked like an aged Indiana Jones only missing his hat. He was busy reading but when the stewardess arrived with the drinks and snacks I leaned over and asked him.
- Is it as good as they say?
- Oh, yes! Two years ago I sat in an airplane looking at a man using one and I did exactly what you just did. I asked him if it was any good and the man answered that it was great. I went home and ordered one on the Internet and since then I can´t go anywhere without my e-book. Within a year it had paid itself as I read a lot.
I got really interested in e-books, chatting away to my neighbour as I recently read about the enormous increase in e-book sales. Downloading books cost about 6 or 7 dollars, you can easily adjust the size of the letters and you do not need to carry heavy books along while travelling. The fact that you can download the different titles from most places in the world makes the book market truly global. Another interesting observation was that here I was sitting with a 65 + person telling me why we all should get into e-books. Travelling has a pleasant effect of opening one’s mind!
Right now I sit in a B&B suitable for Jane Marple in a small village on the English countryside. With thick oak doors, a fireplace from 1825, flowered wallpaper and eating breakfast in a large room with different travellers I could be back in the 19th century. But, instead I am on a EU study visit with 9 other foreigners learning about how European mobility can enhance possibilities for people and communities in rural areas. The host organisation is called Grampus Heritage and Training and has since it started 15 years ago made it possible for over 400 young Europeans to do vocational training in other countries. Many students from other countries have come to Britain and many of the Cumbrian students have gotten a chance to practise different skills in other countries, they have worked on many different community based projects and they have increased their language skills and tolerance for others. Yesterday I met Jamie who is a very talented furniture maker who has been away on Leonardo exchanges in Finland and on Cyprus. Not only did he learn new skills himself but he was also able to pass on some of his skills to young people in Finland and on Cyprus. He runs his own furniture making company in Cumbria today!
I hope we can get our secondary school in Ulricehamn involved in some Leonardo projects. Tonight I have been learning about Iceland, Croatia and Rumania and how they work with vocational mobility for young people and my hope is that I will be able to set up a network during this study visit that will lead to a long term Leonardo project focusing on rural areas.
And now I will enjoy my English tea, dressed in an extra cardigan (as single glass is still used in many British homes) and sleep tight in my Victorian bed! Cumbria reminds me of my year in Cardiff and makes me once again realize that the UK have so much more ot offer than just the London area!
- Is it as good as they say?
- Oh, yes! Two years ago I sat in an airplane looking at a man using one and I did exactly what you just did. I asked him if it was any good and the man answered that it was great. I went home and ordered one on the Internet and since then I can´t go anywhere without my e-book. Within a year it had paid itself as I read a lot.
I got really interested in e-books, chatting away to my neighbour as I recently read about the enormous increase in e-book sales. Downloading books cost about 6 or 7 dollars, you can easily adjust the size of the letters and you do not need to carry heavy books along while travelling. The fact that you can download the different titles from most places in the world makes the book market truly global. Another interesting observation was that here I was sitting with a 65 + person telling me why we all should get into e-books. Travelling has a pleasant effect of opening one’s mind!
Right now I sit in a B&B suitable for Jane Marple in a small village on the English countryside. With thick oak doors, a fireplace from 1825, flowered wallpaper and eating breakfast in a large room with different travellers I could be back in the 19th century. But, instead I am on a EU study visit with 9 other foreigners learning about how European mobility can enhance possibilities for people and communities in rural areas. The host organisation is called Grampus Heritage and Training and has since it started 15 years ago made it possible for over 400 young Europeans to do vocational training in other countries. Many students from other countries have come to Britain and many of the Cumbrian students have gotten a chance to practise different skills in other countries, they have worked on many different community based projects and they have increased their language skills and tolerance for others. Yesterday I met Jamie who is a very talented furniture maker who has been away on Leonardo exchanges in Finland and on Cyprus. Not only did he learn new skills himself but he was also able to pass on some of his skills to young people in Finland and on Cyprus. He runs his own furniture making company in Cumbria today!
I hope we can get our secondary school in Ulricehamn involved in some Leonardo projects. Tonight I have been learning about Iceland, Croatia and Rumania and how they work with vocational mobility for young people and my hope is that I will be able to set up a network during this study visit that will lead to a long term Leonardo project focusing on rural areas.
And now I will enjoy my English tea, dressed in an extra cardigan (as single glass is still used in many British homes) and sleep tight in my Victorian bed! Cumbria reminds me of my year in Cardiff and makes me once again realize that the UK have so much more ot offer than just the London area!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Empowered and grateful!
Just got back from a one-week group and leadership development course. It has been really interesting to be part of a psychological group test and I got back feeling really tired but very empowered. I use that term at work once in a while but now it has a true meaning to me and I feel very thankful that I got the chance to be part of this course.
Tomorrow I am off to Great Britain for 8 days to learn about how the town of Carlisle use international work experience among excluded youth to get them included in society again. I am sure it will be very interesting even though I right now would like to stay home with my family instead. Jochem is turning out to become a fantastic stay at home dad and I got home to a house that has never been cleaner, with flowers on the table and the dinner ready. I could really get used to this! And tonight he has fixed a babysitter and we are off for an evening of our own. I feel grateful and very fortunate!
Last weekend Jochem and Nils spent in the Netherlands and we girls had a really girly weekend with shopping at IKEA, eating out, going to the movies and talking, talking, talking. It was great and I made me realize how aware our girls are about many different things. Was I that clever and open-minded at their age (probably not!).
My dad turned 70 last Friday but unfortunately we could not attend his big day. From what I heard from my dad I understood that it was a special day and I know that my parents filled the house with friends and family. I still see my parents as fairly young and very much “in the middle of life”. The number 70 does not fit with that image. My parents travel the world, are very active and very social. If I can come close to live my life like they do at the age of 70 I will be very happy. And soon I hope we can meet up and celebrate the birthday all of us together. Wish I can go to Skåne (region in south Sweden where I grew up) soon to see both family and friends I haven’t seen in a while!
Tomorrow I am off to Great Britain for 8 days to learn about how the town of Carlisle use international work experience among excluded youth to get them included in society again. I am sure it will be very interesting even though I right now would like to stay home with my family instead. Jochem is turning out to become a fantastic stay at home dad and I got home to a house that has never been cleaner, with flowers on the table and the dinner ready. I could really get used to this! And tonight he has fixed a babysitter and we are off for an evening of our own. I feel grateful and very fortunate!
Last weekend Jochem and Nils spent in the Netherlands and we girls had a really girly weekend with shopping at IKEA, eating out, going to the movies and talking, talking, talking. It was great and I made me realize how aware our girls are about many different things. Was I that clever and open-minded at their age (probably not!).
My dad turned 70 last Friday but unfortunately we could not attend his big day. From what I heard from my dad I understood that it was a special day and I know that my parents filled the house with friends and family. I still see my parents as fairly young and very much “in the middle of life”. The number 70 does not fit with that image. My parents travel the world, are very active and very social. If I can come close to live my life like they do at the age of 70 I will be very happy. And soon I hope we can meet up and celebrate the birthday all of us together. Wish I can go to Skåne (region in south Sweden where I grew up) soon to see both family and friends I haven’t seen in a while!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
One world and lots of oppertunities!
It is pitch dark outside and it has been raining for hours. Jochem and Joop are trying to save one of the boats from sinking but now they’ve been gone so long that I think they either drowned or gave up and found a dry place to heat up. Last option being the most likely of course! I guess the battery died again. Being a boat owner has its ups and downs but Jochem has no regrets so far. He just wish he had more time to work on them!
We just got back from a 5-day visit to the Netherlands and it was great to see friends and family again and to enjoy some sunshine and warmth. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to meet up with all of you but I hope to see the once we missed at our next visit. 5 days is just not long enough! One of our main reasons for visiting the NL this time was to enjoy an evening in the company of Paula and Martin who celebrated their 10th anniversary in style inviting 40 friends to one of the best restaurants in Nijmegen. Thank you so much for a culinary experience to dream about for a long time and great company!
Autumn should not be here yet but it is. The trees are changing colour, the football practice is almost over for the season and the changing weather makes it difficult to plan what to wear. Some days are struck with sun and warm winds while others stay grey and wet. On those days eating marshmallows in front of the fireplace becomes an inviting option!
Next weekend we celebrate Elsa’s 10th birthday with the family and once again I look at the numbers and wonder how fast time can actually go. The move two years ago to Sweden was the best thing ever for Elsa. I guess she is just a very Swedish child and she loves her school, her group of close friends and cant wait to have a sleepover party in a few weeks time. The slower paste, the outdoor lifestyle and easy access to different activities (not taking the car everywhere and lower crime rate) suits her perfectly. Currently she is talking about a future in Switzerland (restaurant school) but we will see what the future holds (heard they had really good restaurant schools in the NL as well). Ingrid (11) will start the English International School next year and that is about how far I dear to plan in our family life (unless she hasn’t emigrated to Australia by then). Jochem just quit his job and moved to Sweden and now the girls are talking about leaving the country. Well, a few more years I guess we can hold on to them! Luckily Nils (6) still live with the notion that he never wants to leave us!
After an intensive week of travelling to Belgium, back to Sweden and then to the NL I am looking forward to two weeks in Ulriceham, working and spending time with the family! Enjoy yours!
We just got back from a 5-day visit to the Netherlands and it was great to see friends and family again and to enjoy some sunshine and warmth. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to meet up with all of you but I hope to see the once we missed at our next visit. 5 days is just not long enough! One of our main reasons for visiting the NL this time was to enjoy an evening in the company of Paula and Martin who celebrated their 10th anniversary in style inviting 40 friends to one of the best restaurants in Nijmegen. Thank you so much for a culinary experience to dream about for a long time and great company!
Autumn should not be here yet but it is. The trees are changing colour, the football practice is almost over for the season and the changing weather makes it difficult to plan what to wear. Some days are struck with sun and warm winds while others stay grey and wet. On those days eating marshmallows in front of the fireplace becomes an inviting option!
Next weekend we celebrate Elsa’s 10th birthday with the family and once again I look at the numbers and wonder how fast time can actually go. The move two years ago to Sweden was the best thing ever for Elsa. I guess she is just a very Swedish child and she loves her school, her group of close friends and cant wait to have a sleepover party in a few weeks time. The slower paste, the outdoor lifestyle and easy access to different activities (not taking the car everywhere and lower crime rate) suits her perfectly. Currently she is talking about a future in Switzerland (restaurant school) but we will see what the future holds (heard they had really good restaurant schools in the NL as well). Ingrid (11) will start the English International School next year and that is about how far I dear to plan in our family life (unless she hasn’t emigrated to Australia by then). Jochem just quit his job and moved to Sweden and now the girls are talking about leaving the country. Well, a few more years I guess we can hold on to them! Luckily Nils (6) still live with the notion that he never wants to leave us!
After an intensive week of travelling to Belgium, back to Sweden and then to the NL I am looking forward to two weeks in Ulriceham, working and spending time with the family! Enjoy yours!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
A moose head for the wall?
Where have you been? Are you OK? You haven’t written anything on your blog in ages…
Yes, I am guilty. During summer I lived in Internet free land (which was absolutely great for a while! Try it if you dare!)and then when work started again I was sucked in with the tornado of overwhelming work. Today, which is Saturday I got in at work at 8 am and left at 6 pm with no break, no lunch and a head as a veggie, no doubt. I am trying to finish a proposal before Tuesday and this week I got a no on a previous proposal. I hate when that happens and the only thing I can do to make me feel better is to sit down and try it again but then better.
Jochem knows how I am and let me do my thing. He spent a day at the swimming pool, in the park, at the playground and cut the lawn while simultaneously looking after 10 kids. No wonder he had to get away to pick up a moose head in between. I have no idea what he wants to use it for (it is huge!) but maybe this is as close he will ever come to the Swedish hunting culture. He can kill flies but that is about how far he goes when it comes to killing living species.
This week we celebrated the multicultural aspects of Ulricehamn and I enjoyed a performance on discrimination, a tasty lunch made by some of our newcomers and a football tournament which was held within the municipal organisation. Different departments played against each other and one team consisted of refugees currently taking part in the introduction program. The football tournament was great! We were really good at passing the ball between us as very few of us were fit enough to run but until next time we need to practise making goals. You know you are getting old when you start talking about the importance of taking part instead of winning. Or as one of my colleagues said: You see the ball, you think you can reach is and somehow you just don’t! We ended last but had a ball doing so!
After the game, the organisers (our refugee department and the people attending their program) served hotdogs and we had some time to chat. Ulricehamn has a success rate of 86 % of the newcomers getting into work and local businesses are good at taking in newcomers, which is really important! The week was filled with activities but I didn’t have time for more than this but I heard form others about really interesting and fun seminars and next year I will try and take part in more activities. Integration is not about them finding their way into our society. It is about us meeting them and them getting a chance to meet us!
Tomorrow we will have a day with the kids, watch a football game and on Monday I go for a day to Brussels. In the end of the week we are off to the Netherlands for a short visit and we are all looking forward to it! The kids are planning to eat lots of fries with mayo and I will go shopping, see friends and family and Jochem and I will attend the 10th anniversary of Paula and Martien. We are all longing to go!!
And, if you wonder how Jochems gap-year is going (started 2 months ago) I can tell you that he is starting up a new business and has lots of plans for the coming year. Did you ever think he would do nothing for a year!
Take care everyone!
Yes, I am guilty. During summer I lived in Internet free land (which was absolutely great for a while! Try it if you dare!)and then when work started again I was sucked in with the tornado of overwhelming work. Today, which is Saturday I got in at work at 8 am and left at 6 pm with no break, no lunch and a head as a veggie, no doubt. I am trying to finish a proposal before Tuesday and this week I got a no on a previous proposal. I hate when that happens and the only thing I can do to make me feel better is to sit down and try it again but then better.
Jochem knows how I am and let me do my thing. He spent a day at the swimming pool, in the park, at the playground and cut the lawn while simultaneously looking after 10 kids. No wonder he had to get away to pick up a moose head in between. I have no idea what he wants to use it for (it is huge!) but maybe this is as close he will ever come to the Swedish hunting culture. He can kill flies but that is about how far he goes when it comes to killing living species.
This week we celebrated the multicultural aspects of Ulricehamn and I enjoyed a performance on discrimination, a tasty lunch made by some of our newcomers and a football tournament which was held within the municipal organisation. Different departments played against each other and one team consisted of refugees currently taking part in the introduction program. The football tournament was great! We were really good at passing the ball between us as very few of us were fit enough to run but until next time we need to practise making goals. You know you are getting old when you start talking about the importance of taking part instead of winning. Or as one of my colleagues said: You see the ball, you think you can reach is and somehow you just don’t! We ended last but had a ball doing so!
After the game, the organisers (our refugee department and the people attending their program) served hotdogs and we had some time to chat. Ulricehamn has a success rate of 86 % of the newcomers getting into work and local businesses are good at taking in newcomers, which is really important! The week was filled with activities but I didn’t have time for more than this but I heard form others about really interesting and fun seminars and next year I will try and take part in more activities. Integration is not about them finding their way into our society. It is about us meeting them and them getting a chance to meet us!
Tomorrow we will have a day with the kids, watch a football game and on Monday I go for a day to Brussels. In the end of the week we are off to the Netherlands for a short visit and we are all looking forward to it! The kids are planning to eat lots of fries with mayo and I will go shopping, see friends and family and Jochem and I will attend the 10th anniversary of Paula and Martien. We are all longing to go!!
And, if you wonder how Jochems gap-year is going (started 2 months ago) I can tell you that he is starting up a new business and has lots of plans for the coming year. Did you ever think he would do nothing for a year!
Take care everyone!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Making memories last a lifetime
I could write a novel about house renovations! It is a great achievement for mankind that we are no longer living in caves as the process of making a house liveable (and lovable) can take years! I should know after all my renovation projects over the years in different countries, discussion with builders in foreign languages and misunderstandings about what is included and what’s not. Two years ago I bought a summerhouse a few kilometres south of Ulricehamn at a fantastic location. Jochem was not home so I made the call and got us a house with a lot of potential and in need of some TLC! Sometimes it is good not to know what you are getting yourself into!
Since then we have been renovating a house with a strong water history. Flooding due to broken pipes (twice!), a drainage all around the house that got the water away from the walls but not from the floors (it is coming up from underneath the house!), new bathrooms, new ceilings, renovated floors, new electricity, new isolation, new roof, a new façade, a new balcony, a new entrance etc. etc. With an almost finished house we now have a new roof in the bedroom but no contact for the lamp in the ceiling and a tap in the bathroom so close to the wall that you can hardly get any water out (just to mention a few things…). Despite the struggle we feel that we might cross the finishing line after two years of constant renovation and from now on actually enjoy the house! It is a special house and in a few years we will all be able to laugh about all the mishaps and funny things we’ve been through (at least I keep telling Jochem this). It is a charming house on a great location overlooking the lake Sämsjön and every time I’m there I feel that this is a unique place, which will give us memories to last a lifetime!
The summer holidays are coming to an end and the first soccer practice for Ingrid just took place. She has arrived back from a month in the US with the statement “this was the best summer of my life” and with many new friends spread around the world. The first few days were difficult as it is obvious, even for an 11year old, that some friends she will never meet again. The world is getting smaller and larger at the same time. You can travel everywhere, meet new friends and learn a lot from each other. At the same time it is impossible to stay physically close to people living on the other side of the globe. So, we have spent a lot of time talking about the meaning of friendship, of the memories and insight new experiences give us and that a unique experience is never lost even if you might lose contact with friends on the way. It is what we do with the knowledge we take in and how we use it that make us grow as individuals. And for now we have the Internet giving us possibilities one could only dream of 30 years ago.
Hope you all had a summer full of memories to last a lifetime!
Since then we have been renovating a house with a strong water history. Flooding due to broken pipes (twice!), a drainage all around the house that got the water away from the walls but not from the floors (it is coming up from underneath the house!), new bathrooms, new ceilings, renovated floors, new electricity, new isolation, new roof, a new façade, a new balcony, a new entrance etc. etc. With an almost finished house we now have a new roof in the bedroom but no contact for the lamp in the ceiling and a tap in the bathroom so close to the wall that you can hardly get any water out (just to mention a few things…). Despite the struggle we feel that we might cross the finishing line after two years of constant renovation and from now on actually enjoy the house! It is a special house and in a few years we will all be able to laugh about all the mishaps and funny things we’ve been through (at least I keep telling Jochem this). It is a charming house on a great location overlooking the lake Sämsjön and every time I’m there I feel that this is a unique place, which will give us memories to last a lifetime!
The summer holidays are coming to an end and the first soccer practice for Ingrid just took place. She has arrived back from a month in the US with the statement “this was the best summer of my life” and with many new friends spread around the world. The first few days were difficult as it is obvious, even for an 11year old, that some friends she will never meet again. The world is getting smaller and larger at the same time. You can travel everywhere, meet new friends and learn a lot from each other. At the same time it is impossible to stay physically close to people living on the other side of the globe. So, we have spent a lot of time talking about the meaning of friendship, of the memories and insight new experiences give us and that a unique experience is never lost even if you might lose contact with friends on the way. It is what we do with the knowledge we take in and how we use it that make us grow as individuals. And for now we have the Internet giving us possibilities one could only dream of 30 years ago.
Hope you all had a summer full of memories to last a lifetime!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Peace - picture it!
Ingrid (11) is off to the US on a peace camp for a month with CISV. She celebrated 4th of July with her American host family and has now arrived at the camp. For one month she will live together with 50 other 11 year olds from 12 countries around the world in Smokey Mountains, TN. I envy her. Every time you go somewhere for the first time, when everything is new and unknown there is an excitement of a special kind. As one grows older the experience of being in a new unknown context becomes more and more rare and I guess that is why I envy her a bit.
For some people this is frightening (being in an unknown environment and not knowing fully what to expect) but I really like it and Ingrid is exactly the same. She has been longing to go for several months and I think her dad found it a lot more difficult to say farewell than she did. It is difficult to be at a new place, in a new country, with a different language and different cultural codes but it is also exciting, it stimulates new ideas and new insights and it shows one very simple thing – we are all humans and we are all the same despite looking at things from different perspectives.
The idea of "CISV – building global friendship" came from Dr Doris Allen who after World war II started the organisation saying; “ We must start with the children”! I was part of CISV when I was young and it had a real impact on me and on how I look at life and the possibilities we have in this world if we work together.
This is CISV according to thier website and if anyone of you would like to know more about it all I can say is JOIN!
Following the devastation of World War II, many people were focusing on initiatives to build and maintain peace. One particular idea caught the attention of child psychologist, Dr. Doris Allen. It was a proposal for a UNESCO peace education institute for postgraduates from many disciplines. The idea for Children's International Summer Villages (today known as CISV International) was conceived by Dr. Allen in 1946. As a specialist in growth and development, Dr. Allen, could not agree that the focus for peace education should be in the field of adult learning. She firmly believed that “the ultimate source for peace, long range, lay with the children.”
From this conviction came her vision of bringing together children from all over the globe to learn to respect different and common values. In 1951, she realised her dream when delegates from eight countries gathered in Cincinnati, USA for the first Children’s International Summer Village (CISV). Over the decades, the organization grew in numbers, countries and activities. In 1979, Doris Allen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize -the recipient that year was Mother Teresa.
Over 50 years after the first Village, this programme remains the cornerstone of our international educational activities. CISV's range of programmes has increased from one to six different types of international activities and from one village to around 180 international programmes a year.
Today CISV operates in over 60 countries and since 1951, more than 190,000 people have participated in more than 5000 international activities.
The theme of Ingrids camp is Peace – picture it! What is your picture of peace?
For some people this is frightening (being in an unknown environment and not knowing fully what to expect) but I really like it and Ingrid is exactly the same. She has been longing to go for several months and I think her dad found it a lot more difficult to say farewell than she did. It is difficult to be at a new place, in a new country, with a different language and different cultural codes but it is also exciting, it stimulates new ideas and new insights and it shows one very simple thing – we are all humans and we are all the same despite looking at things from different perspectives.
The idea of "CISV – building global friendship" came from Dr Doris Allen who after World war II started the organisation saying; “ We must start with the children”! I was part of CISV when I was young and it had a real impact on me and on how I look at life and the possibilities we have in this world if we work together.
This is CISV according to thier website and if anyone of you would like to know more about it all I can say is JOIN!
Following the devastation of World War II, many people were focusing on initiatives to build and maintain peace. One particular idea caught the attention of child psychologist, Dr. Doris Allen. It was a proposal for a UNESCO peace education institute for postgraduates from many disciplines. The idea for Children's International Summer Villages (today known as CISV International) was conceived by Dr. Allen in 1946. As a specialist in growth and development, Dr. Allen, could not agree that the focus for peace education should be in the field of adult learning. She firmly believed that “the ultimate source for peace, long range, lay with the children.”
From this conviction came her vision of bringing together children from all over the globe to learn to respect different and common values. In 1951, she realised her dream when delegates from eight countries gathered in Cincinnati, USA for the first Children’s International Summer Village (CISV). Over the decades, the organization grew in numbers, countries and activities. In 1979, Doris Allen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize -the recipient that year was Mother Teresa.
Over 50 years after the first Village, this programme remains the cornerstone of our international educational activities. CISV's range of programmes has increased from one to six different types of international activities and from one village to around 180 international programmes a year.
Today CISV operates in over 60 countries and since 1951, more than 190,000 people have participated in more than 5000 international activities.
The theme of Ingrids camp is Peace – picture it! What is your picture of peace?
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Unplanned summer days...
The kids are off on their bikes getting some milk and bread for tomorrows breakfast and ending this evening with an ice cream. Bribing them with an ice cream might not be the most pedagogical way of involving your children in chores but after all, it is summer!
Summer (meaning a blue sky, warm weather and sun) is finally here and Ingrid and Elsa are enjoying a one week daycamp outside Ulricehamn. Every morning they get picked up by a school bus which takes them to a camp with 43 other children interested in outdoor activities (such as fishing, swimming in the lake, cooking on the open fire etc) and learning about friendship and working together. The municipality and the Swedish church arrange the camp and it is really great! The kids love it and spend every day outside in wonderful summer weather coming home happy but really tired. With ten weeks of summer holidays for the kids we have to do our best to keep them active and happy. Nils has been to daycare at school (BSO in Dutch) where they also spend most of their time outside doing different small excursions every day.
Looking at the lives our kids live here and the way they can enjoy the nature we have around us I feel very privileged. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is not big, we do not have any world wonders around or any ancient treasures but what we have is simple, beautiful and accessible for anyone. The kids can go fishing or swimming and one of the many lakes around here whenever they want, the town of Ulricehamn is small but authentic with a history dating back 700 years and hikers, skiers, golf players, bicyclists etc. can use all of nature as much as they want to. For Swedish people this is not strange but for foreigners it is still a real treat to have free access to all nature. You are even allowed to camp on someone else’s ground for free for one night and if you don’t want to buy a snack in the skiing restaurant or at the lake-cafe you just bring your own hotdogs and grill them over the public fireplaces spread out around the town.
Ulricehamn has a lot to offer tourists but I think that we, who live here, are the biggest winners. Today a colleague of mine said that we would all be happier if we did more “fun summer things” (such as picnics, walking barefooted, playing soccer until late in the evening, making a spontaneous barbeque etc.) spread out during the year instead of pushing it all in during our few weeks of vacation. I think it is true that we sometimes forget to do enough fun things during normal working weeks and that we sometimes force to many activities into our holidays. However, if you live in Ulricehamn you actually have the chance to do many “fun summer things” from May to the end of September and we have tried to make us of this (eating out on the porch as soon as it was warm enough, playing games outside and making spontaneous parties with friends.).
This summer Nils (6) will go to swimming school in Nybrostrand (at my parents summerhouse in south Sweden) and Ingrid (11) will be on a CISVcamp in the US for a month. From the first of July Jochem will become a stay at home dad for some time (first he said a year, then he said 6 months and last I heard him say 2 months so I just wait and see…). Elsa (9) and I will just do whatever comes to mind. I value non planed holidays more and more!
On Friday it is midsummer in Sweden (the biggest holiday of the year next to Christmas) and we will participate in a casual, non-traditional gathering with friends who like us have no midsummer tradition. We make our own traditions with a mix of cultures, food and great company!
Have a great midsummer everyone!
Summer (meaning a blue sky, warm weather and sun) is finally here and Ingrid and Elsa are enjoying a one week daycamp outside Ulricehamn. Every morning they get picked up by a school bus which takes them to a camp with 43 other children interested in outdoor activities (such as fishing, swimming in the lake, cooking on the open fire etc) and learning about friendship and working together. The municipality and the Swedish church arrange the camp and it is really great! The kids love it and spend every day outside in wonderful summer weather coming home happy but really tired. With ten weeks of summer holidays for the kids we have to do our best to keep them active and happy. Nils has been to daycare at school (BSO in Dutch) where they also spend most of their time outside doing different small excursions every day.
Looking at the lives our kids live here and the way they can enjoy the nature we have around us I feel very privileged. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is not big, we do not have any world wonders around or any ancient treasures but what we have is simple, beautiful and accessible for anyone. The kids can go fishing or swimming and one of the many lakes around here whenever they want, the town of Ulricehamn is small but authentic with a history dating back 700 years and hikers, skiers, golf players, bicyclists etc. can use all of nature as much as they want to. For Swedish people this is not strange but for foreigners it is still a real treat to have free access to all nature. You are even allowed to camp on someone else’s ground for free for one night and if you don’t want to buy a snack in the skiing restaurant or at the lake-cafe you just bring your own hotdogs and grill them over the public fireplaces spread out around the town.
Ulricehamn has a lot to offer tourists but I think that we, who live here, are the biggest winners. Today a colleague of mine said that we would all be happier if we did more “fun summer things” (such as picnics, walking barefooted, playing soccer until late in the evening, making a spontaneous barbeque etc.) spread out during the year instead of pushing it all in during our few weeks of vacation. I think it is true that we sometimes forget to do enough fun things during normal working weeks and that we sometimes force to many activities into our holidays. However, if you live in Ulricehamn you actually have the chance to do many “fun summer things” from May to the end of September and we have tried to make us of this (eating out on the porch as soon as it was warm enough, playing games outside and making spontaneous parties with friends.).
This summer Nils (6) will go to swimming school in Nybrostrand (at my parents summerhouse in south Sweden) and Ingrid (11) will be on a CISVcamp in the US for a month. From the first of July Jochem will become a stay at home dad for some time (first he said a year, then he said 6 months and last I heard him say 2 months so I just wait and see…). Elsa (9) and I will just do whatever comes to mind. I value non planed holidays more and more!
On Friday it is midsummer in Sweden (the biggest holiday of the year next to Christmas) and we will participate in a casual, non-traditional gathering with friends who like us have no midsummer tradition. We make our own traditions with a mix of cultures, food and great company!
Have a great midsummer everyone!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Daysland High Reunion - 20 years of Canadian spirit!
My graduation class from Daysland Highschool is arranging a reunion this summer in Alberta, Canada. 20 years have passed and it would be great top join the reunion and meet up with everyone again but I guess it is a bit far to go for an evening out. 20 years is an almost unbelievable time and the fact that I also feel that it went by in a flash makes it even scarier. I have no problem growing older or accepting the change of time but if 20 years goes this fast how will it be with the coming 20 years? How will I possibly have time to do everything that I am planning to do when I grow up? Well, I guess the answer is living long. I will make my best film ever at the age of 90 and my novel debut at the age of 72. Or, just live life, doing only the fun things and make myself change the path ever so often.
A reunion makes you think. What has happened in the last 20 years and did life turn out as I had expected? In 1989/90 I spent one year in the town of Heisler, Canada with 114 inhabitants. I went to Daysland Highschool with 200 kids from grade 1 – 12 going on a school bus for 30 minutes every morning to the little town of Daysland. I now live in what is called a rural area but it is nothing compared to the enormous fields of Alberta, Canada. I was a city girl who ended up learning how to milk a cow, to drink bear at a bonfire and that a life without a truck was a life not lived. I met many great people, experienced a divorce in my host family, saw people close to me struggle real hard and realized a lot of things about myself, and the way I wanted to live my life. I have lived in 8 or 9 countries, worked and studied in many different cultures but I think many of my life defining insights happened in Canada. I don’t think I got it right there and then but in hindsight I think it was one of the most defining years of my life. Then again, since then lots have happened and maybe we all get shaped on the path we travel.
When I lived in Canada the Berlin wall was taken down and for a moment I felt as if I was on the wrong spot when something really big happened in Europe. The again, I lived my life in Canada for a year and for me it had a huge impact just as the changes in east and west Germany changed the lives of millions of people. There are no “right” places to be – only the possibilities we make ourselves.
We were around 18 when we graduated from Daysland Highschool in June 1990. At the age of 38 we are statistically not halfway. Actually this is a really nice thought. Imagine what lies ahead and what possibilities we still have - the Daysland High, Class of 1990!
I like to think that we are all in an everlasting learning process where the secrets of life are still to be discovered and hopefully some of them will always stay unknown to us!
Classmates – have a great reunion and enjoy what lies ahead. A sea of possibilities!
Maria – Ulrika
(I now go by my second name Ulrika but you can obviously still call me Maria!)
A reunion makes you think. What has happened in the last 20 years and did life turn out as I had expected? In 1989/90 I spent one year in the town of Heisler, Canada with 114 inhabitants. I went to Daysland Highschool with 200 kids from grade 1 – 12 going on a school bus for 30 minutes every morning to the little town of Daysland. I now live in what is called a rural area but it is nothing compared to the enormous fields of Alberta, Canada. I was a city girl who ended up learning how to milk a cow, to drink bear at a bonfire and that a life without a truck was a life not lived. I met many great people, experienced a divorce in my host family, saw people close to me struggle real hard and realized a lot of things about myself, and the way I wanted to live my life. I have lived in 8 or 9 countries, worked and studied in many different cultures but I think many of my life defining insights happened in Canada. I don’t think I got it right there and then but in hindsight I think it was one of the most defining years of my life. Then again, since then lots have happened and maybe we all get shaped on the path we travel.
When I lived in Canada the Berlin wall was taken down and for a moment I felt as if I was on the wrong spot when something really big happened in Europe. The again, I lived my life in Canada for a year and for me it had a huge impact just as the changes in east and west Germany changed the lives of millions of people. There are no “right” places to be – only the possibilities we make ourselves.
We were around 18 when we graduated from Daysland Highschool in June 1990. At the age of 38 we are statistically not halfway. Actually this is a really nice thought. Imagine what lies ahead and what possibilities we still have - the Daysland High, Class of 1990!
I like to think that we are all in an everlasting learning process where the secrets of life are still to be discovered and hopefully some of them will always stay unknown to us!
Classmates – have a great reunion and enjoy what lies ahead. A sea of possibilities!
Maria – Ulrika
(I now go by my second name Ulrika but you can obviously still call me Maria!)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
What I just forgot...
Maybe I am suffering from some kind of memory disease. Maybe I have filled my head with too much information making something go away every time I try to add new information. Or maybe I am only focusing on what I think is fun or interesting excluding the possibility to remember boring things (or less important things). I like to believe that the last statement is the most true.
I just got back from an EU conference in Nyköping about the Europe 2020 strategy. Nyköping is a beautiful town on the east side of Sweden about an hour south of Stockholm well worth a visit for any tourist interested in history and old architecture. However, the transportation possibilities between Ulricehamn and Nyköping are not great. I wanted to travel by bus or train as that would give me the possibility to work while travelling. It turned out, after extensive research, that I would be best off going there by bus and leaving it by train. Unfortuneately I was a bit distracted while ordering my bus ticket online (talking on the phone, looking at some papers and getting the ticket at the same time) so when the confirmation arrived I had bought a ticket to Linköping instead of Nyköping. If I would have paid more attention to the ticket I would have realized that Linköping is on the way to Nyköping and I could have gotten a ticket from Linköping to Nyköping. Instead I panicked, just bought a new ticket (changing it was not possible) and called the reception at the municipality to order my train ticket. They always get it right and so they did even this time.
I arrived in Nyköping with my speech, my hotel reservation, got a map to find my way around and felt fairly well organized for a while. Then, in the middle of the night I woke up. I saw a vision of my office and my white board and on that white board I saw… Yes, I saw my train ticket. I had left my train ticket hanging on the whiteboard in the office in Ulricehamn. So, I got up and tried to buy a new one on the net but as the safety system has improved I could not get a ticket. I phoned the train company and was greeted by a recorded voice informing me of their opening hours. The next morning I spent half an hour on the phone to get a new ticket (with a price increase of 100 crowns from the night before), which they could not send as an sms but that I had to pick up at the train station. So, during lunch hour I run up and down Nyköping getting my fourth ticket for this trip!
Well, was it worth it? Did the conference live up to my expectations? Luckily I like to think so even though I missed some of my colleagues at the conference. The conference aimed to look at how we implement the Europe 2020 strategy in a better way but I was one of very few people who actually work with the implementation of these strategies. But then again, looking at my past days of chaotic behaviour we should maybe let someone else do the implementation. I am thinking of taking up a carrier in ticketordering and study a bit more of Swedish geography!
Goodnight everyone!
PS: To forget is the great secret of strong creative natures; to forget is the way nature herself who knows no past and who at every hour begins the mysteries of her untiring labors afresh.
- Honore de Balzac
I just got back from an EU conference in Nyköping about the Europe 2020 strategy. Nyköping is a beautiful town on the east side of Sweden about an hour south of Stockholm well worth a visit for any tourist interested in history and old architecture. However, the transportation possibilities between Ulricehamn and Nyköping are not great. I wanted to travel by bus or train as that would give me the possibility to work while travelling. It turned out, after extensive research, that I would be best off going there by bus and leaving it by train. Unfortuneately I was a bit distracted while ordering my bus ticket online (talking on the phone, looking at some papers and getting the ticket at the same time) so when the confirmation arrived I had bought a ticket to Linköping instead of Nyköping. If I would have paid more attention to the ticket I would have realized that Linköping is on the way to Nyköping and I could have gotten a ticket from Linköping to Nyköping. Instead I panicked, just bought a new ticket (changing it was not possible) and called the reception at the municipality to order my train ticket. They always get it right and so they did even this time.
I arrived in Nyköping with my speech, my hotel reservation, got a map to find my way around and felt fairly well organized for a while. Then, in the middle of the night I woke up. I saw a vision of my office and my white board and on that white board I saw… Yes, I saw my train ticket. I had left my train ticket hanging on the whiteboard in the office in Ulricehamn. So, I got up and tried to buy a new one on the net but as the safety system has improved I could not get a ticket. I phoned the train company and was greeted by a recorded voice informing me of their opening hours. The next morning I spent half an hour on the phone to get a new ticket (with a price increase of 100 crowns from the night before), which they could not send as an sms but that I had to pick up at the train station. So, during lunch hour I run up and down Nyköping getting my fourth ticket for this trip!
Well, was it worth it? Did the conference live up to my expectations? Luckily I like to think so even though I missed some of my colleagues at the conference. The conference aimed to look at how we implement the Europe 2020 strategy in a better way but I was one of very few people who actually work with the implementation of these strategies. But then again, looking at my past days of chaotic behaviour we should maybe let someone else do the implementation. I am thinking of taking up a carrier in ticketordering and study a bit more of Swedish geography!
Goodnight everyone!
PS: To forget is the great secret of strong creative natures; to forget is the way nature herself who knows no past and who at every hour begins the mysteries of her untiring labors afresh.
- Honore de Balzac
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Europe day on May 9th
Each year on May 4th Remembrance day (Dodenherdenking) is held in the Netherlands. It commemorates all civilians and members of the armed forces in the Netherlands who have died in wars or peacekeeping missions since the outbreak of World War II. The next day, on May 5, Dutch people celebrate the liberation of the nation from the German occupation of 1940 to 1945. When we lived in the Netherlands our neighbour always had the flag out half way on the 4th and obviously proudly raised on May 5th. Each nation always has special days worth commemorating and they serve as reminders of the history we share.
Tomorrow it is Europe day – May 9th. For many people it does not mean much and maybe for Swedish people, who do not even feel connected to the national day of June 6th, Europeday is not seen as a special day at all. We talk about Sweden and we talk about Europe as if they are two different things or as we are not part of Europe. We are part of Europe and for every day we get closer and more integrated with each other. You can make laws and you can take away obstacles but the European culture will evolve as people get connected ant this might take some time.
I had written a column in our local paper today about Europe day. Here it follows in Swedish.
To me Europe is about avoiding war and getting people together. It is not an easy assignment and it is not always progressing as I would like it too but I hope that we all one day can feel the value of each other’s differences!
Enjoy Europe day!
Varför jag firar Europadagen den 9 maj!
Min svärmor Nell växte upp mitt under brinnande krig i ett land ockuperat av Tyska soldater. Föräldrarna lät engelska soldater och delar av motståndsrörelsen bo i deras källare som i vanliga fall användes som möbelsnickeriets lagerlokal. Kriget var under många år ständigt närvarande och i huvudstaden Amsterdam svalt befolkningen och alla tulpanlökar tog slut. Man åt det man kunde få tag i. I staden Nijmegen, där jag under många år bodde, gick vi med skolbarnen till gungmonumentet. Mitt inne i stan hänger en gunga på en gräsplätt. Den påminner oss om de 40tal barn och fröknar som dog under krigets sista månader då de allierade av misstag släppte en bomb på fel sida gränsen och träffade en skola. Den lilla gungar berör. Krig drabbar alltid oskyldiga och leder sällan oss framåt.
Söndagen den 9 maj är det Europadagen. Under många år såg jag denna dag som ett marknadsföringsbidrag till den Europeiska Unionen. Vi skulle alla bli omvända att tro på ett gemensamt samarbete. Idag, efter att ha bott i Storbritannien, Belgien och Nederländerna ser jag värdet av denna dag. Ur askan av ett smutsigt krig som krävde över 80 miljoner liv växte en tanke på att ökad handel mellan länder borde skapa ekonomisk stabilitet och större förståelse för varandra. Genom att ta bort handelshinder och skapa möjlighet för människor, tjänster och varor att fritt röra sig över gränserna skulle man skapa en hållbar utveckling och social sammanhållning.
Ett halvt sekel av europeiskt samarbete har visat att helheten är större än summan av delarna. Gemensamma miljömål, utbyten av teknologisk kunskap, spridandet av mänskliga rättigheter och jämställdhet, solidariskt stöd till fattigare delar av Europa och samarbete mot organiserad brottslighet är något som jag tror vi alla gynnas av. De stora utmaningarna som vi står inför såsom global konkurrens, klimatförändringar, en åldrande befolkning (Europas befolkning krymper!) etc. löser vi bäst tillsammans.
EU är ingen lättsam, flexibel organisation och man kan ha många förbättringssynpunkter. Men, kärnan i samarbetet är viktig och vi får aldrig glömma vad det egentligen handlar om. För hur värdesätter vi fred och stabilitet?
Jag uppmärksammar Europadagen på mitt sätt tillsammans med min internationella familj som jag troligen aldrig blivit del av om jag inte utsatts för EUs universitetsutbytesprogram ERASMUS. I min familj samlas olika religioner, olika kulturer vilket inte alltid är lätt men som skapar förståelse och nya synsätt. Europadagen handlar inom om att vi alla skall bli lika utan om att se varandras olikheter och se värdet av detta. Tillsammans skapar vi en framtid där barn kan gunga tryggt! Därför uppmärksammar jag Europadagen!
Ulrika Geeraedts
Tomorrow it is Europe day – May 9th. For many people it does not mean much and maybe for Swedish people, who do not even feel connected to the national day of June 6th, Europeday is not seen as a special day at all. We talk about Sweden and we talk about Europe as if they are two different things or as we are not part of Europe. We are part of Europe and for every day we get closer and more integrated with each other. You can make laws and you can take away obstacles but the European culture will evolve as people get connected ant this might take some time.
I had written a column in our local paper today about Europe day. Here it follows in Swedish.
To me Europe is about avoiding war and getting people together. It is not an easy assignment and it is not always progressing as I would like it too but I hope that we all one day can feel the value of each other’s differences!
Enjoy Europe day!
Varför jag firar Europadagen den 9 maj!
Min svärmor Nell växte upp mitt under brinnande krig i ett land ockuperat av Tyska soldater. Föräldrarna lät engelska soldater och delar av motståndsrörelsen bo i deras källare som i vanliga fall användes som möbelsnickeriets lagerlokal. Kriget var under många år ständigt närvarande och i huvudstaden Amsterdam svalt befolkningen och alla tulpanlökar tog slut. Man åt det man kunde få tag i. I staden Nijmegen, där jag under många år bodde, gick vi med skolbarnen till gungmonumentet. Mitt inne i stan hänger en gunga på en gräsplätt. Den påminner oss om de 40tal barn och fröknar som dog under krigets sista månader då de allierade av misstag släppte en bomb på fel sida gränsen och träffade en skola. Den lilla gungar berör. Krig drabbar alltid oskyldiga och leder sällan oss framåt.
Söndagen den 9 maj är det Europadagen. Under många år såg jag denna dag som ett marknadsföringsbidrag till den Europeiska Unionen. Vi skulle alla bli omvända att tro på ett gemensamt samarbete. Idag, efter att ha bott i Storbritannien, Belgien och Nederländerna ser jag värdet av denna dag. Ur askan av ett smutsigt krig som krävde över 80 miljoner liv växte en tanke på att ökad handel mellan länder borde skapa ekonomisk stabilitet och större förståelse för varandra. Genom att ta bort handelshinder och skapa möjlighet för människor, tjänster och varor att fritt röra sig över gränserna skulle man skapa en hållbar utveckling och social sammanhållning.
Ett halvt sekel av europeiskt samarbete har visat att helheten är större än summan av delarna. Gemensamma miljömål, utbyten av teknologisk kunskap, spridandet av mänskliga rättigheter och jämställdhet, solidariskt stöd till fattigare delar av Europa och samarbete mot organiserad brottslighet är något som jag tror vi alla gynnas av. De stora utmaningarna som vi står inför såsom global konkurrens, klimatförändringar, en åldrande befolkning (Europas befolkning krymper!) etc. löser vi bäst tillsammans.
EU är ingen lättsam, flexibel organisation och man kan ha många förbättringssynpunkter. Men, kärnan i samarbetet är viktig och vi får aldrig glömma vad det egentligen handlar om. För hur värdesätter vi fred och stabilitet?
Jag uppmärksammar Europadagen på mitt sätt tillsammans med min internationella familj som jag troligen aldrig blivit del av om jag inte utsatts för EUs universitetsutbytesprogram ERASMUS. I min familj samlas olika religioner, olika kulturer vilket inte alltid är lätt men som skapar förståelse och nya synsätt. Europadagen handlar inom om att vi alla skall bli lika utan om att se varandras olikheter och se värdet av detta. Tillsammans skapar vi en framtid där barn kan gunga tryggt! Därför uppmärksammar jag Europadagen!
Ulrika Geeraedts
Thursday, May 6, 2010
With diversity we build a place to call home!
Finally the trees are getting leaves and the grass the right colour. Last year we took our first dip in the lake at the first of May (when Karin Greber was here and took the great front picture of this blog) but this year it was much to cold for a dip. I think people were still able to fish on the ice in the beginning of April. Anyway, with the sun, the start of the soccer season and nights that get shorter each week people move out of their houses and into the outdoor lifestyle. This is typical for the Nordic countries and typical for Ulricehamn.
Many foreigners find the winter a difficult season in Sweden with the short days, little outdoor activities and many activities happening at peoples homes. If you don’t know a lot of people, winter is a period of silence and little activity. Expat-firms often suggest that if you are able to choose the time of moving up north you should do so during spring or summer. Refugees obviously do not have that luxury. Sometimes I think we should keep this in mind a bit more. How easy is it to find friends and get to know new people in a new country or in a small town? It is also typically Swedish to join a sport club instead of going down to the local pub on the corner to watch the weekend Rugbygame. It is probably a healthier alternative to join a sport club but if you don’t have kids in the right age I am not sure what you should do.
In a small town like Ulricehamn the local paper is a way in to find out what happens locally. Sometimes we joke about how local it is (last summer a cat was stuck in a tree which was recorded by the paper) but I think it really has an important function in bringing people together and creating a feeling of pride and local spirit. Whether it is a story about a good sport result, a new entrepreneur, a price winning gardener, a local political debate or the weekend’s auction it all show us that even in small towns creativity and ideas are spread. And, for the nationalistic Swedish Democrats who use the paper to spread their ignorant views about people from other countries I wonder if they ever opened a door during the winter months and tried to get to know any of the foreigners in this town.
With a foreign husband I seem to meet some of them as they find each other and often help each other and if I would use a term, which comes to mind for this group, it would be obstacle-movers! The risk all they have to come here, they learn a new language, try to understand a system and culture often very different from what they are used to, they experience recruiters with little intercultural skills and often find that the only way in is to start your own business. I think most people in Ulricehamn see all this and understand and support the newcomers here. Together we create this town and together we enhance each other and make this to what it is. A place we all call home!
Spring – here I come!
PS: A special welcome to Sandra, Joost, Roos, Lars, Niels, Hein, Susanne, Mick, Merel en Emma who are all on their way to spend their May holiday in Sweden and with us!!
Many foreigners find the winter a difficult season in Sweden with the short days, little outdoor activities and many activities happening at peoples homes. If you don’t know a lot of people, winter is a period of silence and little activity. Expat-firms often suggest that if you are able to choose the time of moving up north you should do so during spring or summer. Refugees obviously do not have that luxury. Sometimes I think we should keep this in mind a bit more. How easy is it to find friends and get to know new people in a new country or in a small town? It is also typically Swedish to join a sport club instead of going down to the local pub on the corner to watch the weekend Rugbygame. It is probably a healthier alternative to join a sport club but if you don’t have kids in the right age I am not sure what you should do.
In a small town like Ulricehamn the local paper is a way in to find out what happens locally. Sometimes we joke about how local it is (last summer a cat was stuck in a tree which was recorded by the paper) but I think it really has an important function in bringing people together and creating a feeling of pride and local spirit. Whether it is a story about a good sport result, a new entrepreneur, a price winning gardener, a local political debate or the weekend’s auction it all show us that even in small towns creativity and ideas are spread. And, for the nationalistic Swedish Democrats who use the paper to spread their ignorant views about people from other countries I wonder if they ever opened a door during the winter months and tried to get to know any of the foreigners in this town.
With a foreign husband I seem to meet some of them as they find each other and often help each other and if I would use a term, which comes to mind for this group, it would be obstacle-movers! The risk all they have to come here, they learn a new language, try to understand a system and culture often very different from what they are used to, they experience recruiters with little intercultural skills and often find that the only way in is to start your own business. I think most people in Ulricehamn see all this and understand and support the newcomers here. Together we create this town and together we enhance each other and make this to what it is. A place we all call home!
Spring – here I come!
PS: A special welcome to Sandra, Joost, Roos, Lars, Niels, Hein, Susanne, Mick, Merel en Emma who are all on their way to spend their May holiday in Sweden and with us!!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
With 27 hotshots stranded in Amsterdam
After 16 hour on a bus from Amsterdam we reached Ulricehamn again yesterday. The volcano outburst on Iceland has caused chaos all over northern Europe and a group of 27 people from Ulrichamn got stranded in Amsterdam. Luckily Jochem used his positive persuasive manners and found us a bus in a city with ten thousands of stranded people (something our travelling agency could not do!)
I have spent the last 3 days in the Netherlands with 15 companies from Ulricehamn and a few members from the municipality (including the chief executive) and the association of local businesses showing them different development projects in Amsterdam and Almere. We have also looked at how the city of Almere is working to grow with 60 000 new inhabitants and 100 000 new jobs to 2030. It was a very interesting trip where we were very well taken care of by the World Trade Centre in Amsterdam and Almere, by the City of Almere, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and all the other 9 organisations who participated. All in all I think many of us felt inspired and impressed with what we heard, experienced and the saw. We also had some time to get to know each other better (not only during our bus trip home). I am impressed with the many hard working, inspiring and creative company leaders that we have here in Ulricehamn. A trip like this is about learning more about other places, getting new ideas and contacts but also about connecting our local businesses to learn more about each other. It is vital that the municipality work closely together with the local businesses in order to develop the municipality further and during this trip we talked a lot about different possibilities.
Today Jochem and Nils headed off by car to the Netherlands. The airports are still closed and the last time the volcano on Iceland had an outburst it lasted for 2 years. As long as it is active no airplane can fly. Imagine what effects this can have on the economy of northern Europe? Jochem, who commutes between Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy will not be able to go to work (but can obviously work from home) and transportation of people and goods will have to go by boat, train, bus or car instead. Well, it is no use to worry about this yet but to take one day at a time. In the last few days we have seen many innovative ideas and visions and maybe the impossibility of using our airspace will lead to new innovative means of transportation?
I will spend the weekend with my two girls and enjoy Ulricehamn and the surrounding area. Amsterdam and Almere are fantastic places to visit but being here I feel just like the folder I handed out to our colleagues in the Netherlands – small and proud!
PS: The title is stolen from our local newspaper Ulricehamns Tidning!
I have spent the last 3 days in the Netherlands with 15 companies from Ulricehamn and a few members from the municipality (including the chief executive) and the association of local businesses showing them different development projects in Amsterdam and Almere. We have also looked at how the city of Almere is working to grow with 60 000 new inhabitants and 100 000 new jobs to 2030. It was a very interesting trip where we were very well taken care of by the World Trade Centre in Amsterdam and Almere, by the City of Almere, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and all the other 9 organisations who participated. All in all I think many of us felt inspired and impressed with what we heard, experienced and the saw. We also had some time to get to know each other better (not only during our bus trip home). I am impressed with the many hard working, inspiring and creative company leaders that we have here in Ulricehamn. A trip like this is about learning more about other places, getting new ideas and contacts but also about connecting our local businesses to learn more about each other. It is vital that the municipality work closely together with the local businesses in order to develop the municipality further and during this trip we talked a lot about different possibilities.
Today Jochem and Nils headed off by car to the Netherlands. The airports are still closed and the last time the volcano on Iceland had an outburst it lasted for 2 years. As long as it is active no airplane can fly. Imagine what effects this can have on the economy of northern Europe? Jochem, who commutes between Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy will not be able to go to work (but can obviously work from home) and transportation of people and goods will have to go by boat, train, bus or car instead. Well, it is no use to worry about this yet but to take one day at a time. In the last few days we have seen many innovative ideas and visions and maybe the impossibility of using our airspace will lead to new innovative means of transportation?
I will spend the weekend with my two girls and enjoy Ulricehamn and the surrounding area. Amsterdam and Almere are fantastic places to visit but being here I feel just like the folder I handed out to our colleagues in the Netherlands – small and proud!
PS: The title is stolen from our local newspaper Ulricehamns Tidning!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A map on the wall or a digital tool showing layers of information?
Nils is playing panfu on the Internet and there he can hook up with his friend Daniel. They can become a team and play together and chat with each other on what strategies to use. However, none of them know how to write or read very well yet so instead they call each other and talk while playing. Bet they soon will install the camera on Skype to be totally connected. Yesterday I got the phone from Nils and spoke to Daniel who had forgotten how the H look like (he needed it to log on again) and I tried to explain where on the keyboard the H would be found over the phone. Not an easy task!
I envy the digital generation who never stops by an obstacle but just find a new solution. In Nils world a computer is a central tool and he never worries about doing anything wrong or that he will accidentally delete something. From an early stage he has learned to use much and sometimes complex information (in different languages) in a flat, global system, open 24/7 where you find friends with similar interests – friends from all parts of the world. We watch over his shoulder, do not allow our children to chat yet and keep the family laptop in the kitchen to maintain some control. We talk about the dangers of the net and what they should watch out for but we also see them develop as they use the tools, the games, the films, the information etc.
The kitchen is probably the most use room in our house. On the walls we have two maps. One is an old school map of Sweden from a Dutch school and the other map is a world map with all the world flags. When Jochem leaves every Sunday we have come to talk about where he is going and what country he will be visiting this time. A map can be explored infinitively and it’s a fun way of teaching the kids how the world looks like. Because we know how the world looks like, don’t we? Maybe we as part of the old generation see the world divided into continents and countries while the digital generation look at it in a completely different way? Yes, it is good to know the map as we know it today and to understand how our current world was established and evolved but will boarders have the same effect in the future? Will people feel connected by a nationality or will new cultures evolve that are boundless or will new cultures appear that will change world order, as we now know it?
If one look at how fast things have changed in only the last 10 years with new technologies, new superpowers emerging, developing countries growing quicker than many European countries, improvement of health and at the same time climate changes that are threatening the world – who knows what more is to come! I don’t think anyone can foresee the future right now but despite many serious challenges I think we live in exciting times. The digital generation will live in a new order and influence where we are going. The geography of the world will most likely look the same in 50 years but I bet the maps will look completely different with many layers and much more information and Nils will be able to tell his kids that in the old days they used paper maps that they put on the wall!
I envy the digital generation who never stops by an obstacle but just find a new solution. In Nils world a computer is a central tool and he never worries about doing anything wrong or that he will accidentally delete something. From an early stage he has learned to use much and sometimes complex information (in different languages) in a flat, global system, open 24/7 where you find friends with similar interests – friends from all parts of the world. We watch over his shoulder, do not allow our children to chat yet and keep the family laptop in the kitchen to maintain some control. We talk about the dangers of the net and what they should watch out for but we also see them develop as they use the tools, the games, the films, the information etc.
The kitchen is probably the most use room in our house. On the walls we have two maps. One is an old school map of Sweden from a Dutch school and the other map is a world map with all the world flags. When Jochem leaves every Sunday we have come to talk about where he is going and what country he will be visiting this time. A map can be explored infinitively and it’s a fun way of teaching the kids how the world looks like. Because we know how the world looks like, don’t we? Maybe we as part of the old generation see the world divided into continents and countries while the digital generation look at it in a completely different way? Yes, it is good to know the map as we know it today and to understand how our current world was established and evolved but will boarders have the same effect in the future? Will people feel connected by a nationality or will new cultures evolve that are boundless or will new cultures appear that will change world order, as we now know it?
If one look at how fast things have changed in only the last 10 years with new technologies, new superpowers emerging, developing countries growing quicker than many European countries, improvement of health and at the same time climate changes that are threatening the world – who knows what more is to come! I don’t think anyone can foresee the future right now but despite many serious challenges I think we live in exciting times. The digital generation will live in a new order and influence where we are going. The geography of the world will most likely look the same in 50 years but I bet the maps will look completely different with many layers and much more information and Nils will be able to tell his kids that in the old days they used paper maps that they put on the wall!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Visit Ulricehamn - such a great place that Visit Sweden keeps it a secret!
The sun is back after some grey days and the Easter break is around the corner. Ingrid, Rob and their 3 kids have arrived from the Netherlands and hopefully Ulricehamn will be at its best the coming week. Tomorrow they will go skiing and then we will taste some ecological lamb steaks and roasted veggies with some nice wine. Danish Malene and Peter with their kids will also join us tomorrow so we have all the ingredients for a delightful Easter.
The last weeks have been hectic with much to do at work, the flooding of the summerhouse and just getting the daily life puzzle in place. Ingrid is preparing for her one month trip to the US this summer with CISV and we are arranging a wide range of group activities for the kids to get to know each other well (the 4 kids travelling from here). The camp will take place in Tennessee and the theme is “Peace – picture it”. Two girls and two boys from 12 different countries, all 11 years old, will spend one month together to learn about tolerance, democracy and peace. Ingrid can’t wait to get going! If you think this is something for you kids check out “CISV – Building global friendship” in your country (www.cisv.org). You can take part in youth camps at the age of 11 or on an interchange at the age of 15 but there are also many interesting local activities being arrange within this organization. I was a member of CISV as a teenager and spent an unforgettable summer in the US in 1987 and after that I was hooked on international encounters.
Taking about international encounters I am off to the Netherlands with 15 businesses in two weeks time. It will be 3 days filled with activities and hopefully our local companies will come back with new ideas and new contacts. With continues increased business between Sweden and the Netherlands (our 7th largest export market, our 5th largest import market and a total yearly trade of 120 billion makes it a larger market than our trade with France) I see much potential in arranging a trip to the Netherlands for the businesses of Ulricehamn. I also long to see some tulips, enjoy a latte at an outdoor cafe and maybe have time for a short visit at the embassy (no promises though!).
This morning I spoke to the Dutch family who moved here about a month ago and tried to explain “påsk kärringar” (Easter witches – young kids dressed up as witches doing trick or treat today). They seem to have found their way around here and the kids are getting more and more used to the Swedish language, their school and have made some friends. This summer they get to test their business idea (www.slaktbasiccamp.com). Today another Dutch family called. They have not yet found jobs but already bought a place outside Ulricehamn by Blidsberg. I think it’s wiser to first find a job and then look for a place to stay but I wish them all the best and hope they will enjoy their new life in Sweden.
This winter has been filled with many foreign visitors in Ulricehamn, especially from Denmark and I hope many of them return this summer. Despite that we are not to be found on the official tourist website of Sweden (Visit Sweden) we slowly make this town more and more known internationally. I am campaigning to change Visit Sweden’s way of portraying Sweden. They only show towns, cities and organizations who pay and I think that an official international website funded by the state should include all municipalities at least with a link. I have nothing against that groups who pay extra should have extra space but currently, if you search for Ulricehamn, you get the message that this place does not exist. But we do!
Happy Easter everyone!!
The last weeks have been hectic with much to do at work, the flooding of the summerhouse and just getting the daily life puzzle in place. Ingrid is preparing for her one month trip to the US this summer with CISV and we are arranging a wide range of group activities for the kids to get to know each other well (the 4 kids travelling from here). The camp will take place in Tennessee and the theme is “Peace – picture it”. Two girls and two boys from 12 different countries, all 11 years old, will spend one month together to learn about tolerance, democracy and peace. Ingrid can’t wait to get going! If you think this is something for you kids check out “CISV – Building global friendship” in your country (www.cisv.org). You can take part in youth camps at the age of 11 or on an interchange at the age of 15 but there are also many interesting local activities being arrange within this organization. I was a member of CISV as a teenager and spent an unforgettable summer in the US in 1987 and after that I was hooked on international encounters.
Taking about international encounters I am off to the Netherlands with 15 businesses in two weeks time. It will be 3 days filled with activities and hopefully our local companies will come back with new ideas and new contacts. With continues increased business between Sweden and the Netherlands (our 7th largest export market, our 5th largest import market and a total yearly trade of 120 billion makes it a larger market than our trade with France) I see much potential in arranging a trip to the Netherlands for the businesses of Ulricehamn. I also long to see some tulips, enjoy a latte at an outdoor cafe and maybe have time for a short visit at the embassy (no promises though!).
This morning I spoke to the Dutch family who moved here about a month ago and tried to explain “påsk kärringar” (Easter witches – young kids dressed up as witches doing trick or treat today). They seem to have found their way around here and the kids are getting more and more used to the Swedish language, their school and have made some friends. This summer they get to test their business idea (www.slaktbasiccamp.com). Today another Dutch family called. They have not yet found jobs but already bought a place outside Ulricehamn by Blidsberg. I think it’s wiser to first find a job and then look for a place to stay but I wish them all the best and hope they will enjoy their new life in Sweden.
This winter has been filled with many foreign visitors in Ulricehamn, especially from Denmark and I hope many of them return this summer. Despite that we are not to be found on the official tourist website of Sweden (Visit Sweden) we slowly make this town more and more known internationally. I am campaigning to change Visit Sweden’s way of portraying Sweden. They only show towns, cities and organizations who pay and I think that an official international website funded by the state should include all municipalities at least with a link. I have nothing against that groups who pay extra should have extra space but currently, if you search for Ulricehamn, you get the message that this place does not exist. But we do!
Happy Easter everyone!!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Pia Sundhagen making one little girl very happy!
Elsa received a letter from Pia Sundhagen the other day. Together with a friend from school she wrote to one of the worlds most deserving soccer player, the head of the US Women’s National Soccer Team and got a personal response.
Pia grew up in Marbäck, a small village outside Ulricehamn in the 1960s. In those days girls were not playing soccer and she was signed in as a boy under the name Pelle. Today she coaches one of the best female soccer teams in the world. Under her command the US Soccer Team won the Olympic games in 2008.
Elsa wrote the letter as an English assignment at school and did not really expect to get a personal response. Naturally she was thrilled to hear from Pia and to find out that she has a cat called Elsa.
We live in a world were famous people get a lot of attention and where we sometimes idealize people who have made it. Success is measured in newspaper articles or TV performance and I often think that we loose track of what’s real. It is no longer peoples achievements in focus but what they are wearing or who they are dating. I want my kids to keep a certain distance to this trend of “ 15 minutes of fame” but when it comes to Pia Sundhagen I think we have a real role model worth being proud of.
She started playing soccer at the age of 6 and thought she was the only girl in the world who liked the sport. She had talent and she had drive. At the age of 11 Ulricehamn had started teams for girls and she got to play in the highest local league with grown ups. She was always different, always went her own way and became one of the best Swedish soccer player all times and feels gratitude towards her family and the coach who let her play with the boys team in Marbäck.
Today she lives with the girlfriend Marie in the US with one of the toughest jobs in the world (her pre assessor go fired when the team lost a game after 55 victories) but she still takes the time to write a letter to a 9 year old girl. To a girl who is not very interested in soccer but very impressed by the fact that she has a cat called Elsa!
In an article about Pia Sundhagen said that she is a great dreamer.
- I always write my dreams down. Many of them have come true.
Elsa, my little dreamer – maybe you should do the same?
Pia grew up in Marbäck, a small village outside Ulricehamn in the 1960s. In those days girls were not playing soccer and she was signed in as a boy under the name Pelle. Today she coaches one of the best female soccer teams in the world. Under her command the US Soccer Team won the Olympic games in 2008.
Elsa wrote the letter as an English assignment at school and did not really expect to get a personal response. Naturally she was thrilled to hear from Pia and to find out that she has a cat called Elsa.
We live in a world were famous people get a lot of attention and where we sometimes idealize people who have made it. Success is measured in newspaper articles or TV performance and I often think that we loose track of what’s real. It is no longer peoples achievements in focus but what they are wearing or who they are dating. I want my kids to keep a certain distance to this trend of “ 15 minutes of fame” but when it comes to Pia Sundhagen I think we have a real role model worth being proud of.
She started playing soccer at the age of 6 and thought she was the only girl in the world who liked the sport. She had talent and she had drive. At the age of 11 Ulricehamn had started teams for girls and she got to play in the highest local league with grown ups. She was always different, always went her own way and became one of the best Swedish soccer player all times and feels gratitude towards her family and the coach who let her play with the boys team in Marbäck.
Today she lives with the girlfriend Marie in the US with one of the toughest jobs in the world (her pre assessor go fired when the team lost a game after 55 victories) but she still takes the time to write a letter to a 9 year old girl. To a girl who is not very interested in soccer but very impressed by the fact that she has a cat called Elsa!
In an article about Pia Sundhagen said that she is a great dreamer.
- I always write my dreams down. Many of them have come true.
Elsa, my little dreamer – maybe you should do the same?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A flooded summerhouse!
When Jochem opened the door to our newly renovated summerhouse this Friday a minor tsunami met him. More than 10 cm of water covered the first floor, the basement had even more and from the bathroom on the second floor water was dripping through the ceiling down to the bedrooms downstairs. No power was working. We just finished the renovation with new plumbing, new electricity, new walls, new ceilings, renovated floors, updated kitchens, and a new drainage. Somehow five pipes had detached themselves at the joint or coupling (not sure about the correct vocabulary here) despite us having 18 degrees in the house.
Last winter one of our radiators exploded due to the cold and to prevent this from happening we now had a constant high temperature on. Maybe we had a power cut the led the heating to stop and made our pipes freeze but why would they then detach at the joint? Anyway, Jochem swam his way though the house, closed off the main water supply and called me. Within 30 minutes we had our electrician, our plumber and a builder sent by the insurance company in the house but as they went though the damage Jochem realized that our renovation is more or less lost.
Jochem has had a really tough time lately and listening to a builder telling him that we have to brake off walls, ceilings, lay new floors, set up new wallpaper etc. was more than he could take so the first thing the builder said to me when he called we “you are going to get through this. It can all be solved”. And of course it can and of course it could have been a lot worse (well, maybe not in the house but worse thing could have happened) but it is still crap!
We had a Friday with many tears but now we focus on the future – no use crying over spilled milk (or was it water???). Maybe we can laugh about it all one day and when looking at the problem one has to keep things in perspective. We are so fortunate with many fantastic people around us and the things that really matter in life, the health and well-being of family and friends, is worth so much more than any house or any renovation project.
Today we are all off swimming!
Last winter one of our radiators exploded due to the cold and to prevent this from happening we now had a constant high temperature on. Maybe we had a power cut the led the heating to stop and made our pipes freeze but why would they then detach at the joint? Anyway, Jochem swam his way though the house, closed off the main water supply and called me. Within 30 minutes we had our electrician, our plumber and a builder sent by the insurance company in the house but as they went though the damage Jochem realized that our renovation is more or less lost.
Jochem has had a really tough time lately and listening to a builder telling him that we have to brake off walls, ceilings, lay new floors, set up new wallpaper etc. was more than he could take so the first thing the builder said to me when he called we “you are going to get through this. It can all be solved”. And of course it can and of course it could have been a lot worse (well, maybe not in the house but worse thing could have happened) but it is still crap!
We had a Friday with many tears but now we focus on the future – no use crying over spilled milk (or was it water???). Maybe we can laugh about it all one day and when looking at the problem one has to keep things in perspective. We are so fortunate with many fantastic people around us and the things that really matter in life, the health and well-being of family and friends, is worth so much more than any house or any renovation project.
Today we are all off swimming!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Millennial Generation
I have been working on a project proposal regarding employability for young people which has led me to read a lot about youth in exclusion, lifelong learning programs, employment laws and statistics etc. Youth unemployment is relatively high here, Ulricehamn has a low educated population (only 14 % of the population have higher education in comparison to 19% nationally) and we have more men and an older population than the average Swedish municipality. Creating the ideal climate for employment and business development is a challenge and sometimes local businesses have difficulty finding suitable staff.
Today I read about the millennial generation. Born between 1980 and 2001, the millennials were coddled by their parents and nurtured with a strong sense of entitlement. The typical millennial worker is a hard working job-hopper with little loyalty towards his or her employer. She demands a lot of freedom, flexibility and often bring an attitude of “what are you going to give me” to her employer.
Millennials are our future work force and according to American author Ron Alsop, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, employers need to understand how to deal with this group in order to achieve the best results and to make transitions as smooth as possible.
Although members of other generations were considered somewhat spoiled in their youth, millennials have strong demands and feel entitled to high positions and want a lot of attention and guidance from employers. Older adults criticize the high-maintenance rookies for demanding too much too soon and for not believing in hierarchy. I can see this being true to a certain extent and at the same time I wonder if this is not typical for all generations. We who are now older, look at the coming generation as somewhat a threat, with low skills who will never be able to do the job as well as we did!
At the same time employers do not have a lot of choice as the baby –boomers are off to retire soon and this new group is getting in. Secondly, this new generation does contribute with new skills (teamwork, technology skills, social networking and multitasking) and maybe their view on work is a healthy one? For this generation, work is not a place you go; work is a thing you do and life is more than just work.
While reading this I could not help thinking about the fact that many people from the millennial generation are currently not at work at all. They grew up feeling entitled to a job, they went to good schools, expecting that someone would offer them a job and now when it’s not there it is a long step to create your own job or to lower your expectations. Many of the people taking part in our local youth project for the unemployed still show much entitlement and if there is no employer who can help them they just turn to the state. For many it is always someone else’s fault and its always someone else who should pay the bill.
I understand that being unemployed is crap and I really would like to help our young unemployed people into work or education so that they can create their future. But I think Alsop is on to something when he describes the millennials and their attitude. Somehow we need to combine the attitues of yesterday, today and tomorrow to create an inclusive society.
Interested in reading more; "The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace" by Ron Alsop
Today I read about the millennial generation. Born between 1980 and 2001, the millennials were coddled by their parents and nurtured with a strong sense of entitlement. The typical millennial worker is a hard working job-hopper with little loyalty towards his or her employer. She demands a lot of freedom, flexibility and often bring an attitude of “what are you going to give me” to her employer.
Millennials are our future work force and according to American author Ron Alsop, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, employers need to understand how to deal with this group in order to achieve the best results and to make transitions as smooth as possible.
Although members of other generations were considered somewhat spoiled in their youth, millennials have strong demands and feel entitled to high positions and want a lot of attention and guidance from employers. Older adults criticize the high-maintenance rookies for demanding too much too soon and for not believing in hierarchy. I can see this being true to a certain extent and at the same time I wonder if this is not typical for all generations. We who are now older, look at the coming generation as somewhat a threat, with low skills who will never be able to do the job as well as we did!
At the same time employers do not have a lot of choice as the baby –boomers are off to retire soon and this new group is getting in. Secondly, this new generation does contribute with new skills (teamwork, technology skills, social networking and multitasking) and maybe their view on work is a healthy one? For this generation, work is not a place you go; work is a thing you do and life is more than just work.
While reading this I could not help thinking about the fact that many people from the millennial generation are currently not at work at all. They grew up feeling entitled to a job, they went to good schools, expecting that someone would offer them a job and now when it’s not there it is a long step to create your own job or to lower your expectations. Many of the people taking part in our local youth project for the unemployed still show much entitlement and if there is no employer who can help them they just turn to the state. For many it is always someone else’s fault and its always someone else who should pay the bill.
I understand that being unemployed is crap and I really would like to help our young unemployed people into work or education so that they can create their future. But I think Alsop is on to something when he describes the millennials and their attitude. Somehow we need to combine the attitues of yesterday, today and tomorrow to create an inclusive society.
Interested in reading more; "The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace" by Ron Alsop
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Creative ideas through pain!
It is almost six in the evening and the sky is still bright blue and no darkness in sight. If it wouldn’t be for the massive amount of snow (the kids can still glide off the garage roof) I would say that spring is here. The light, the birds who are on their return and a sun descending a lot later than just a week ago gives us all a hint of what’s to come. The changing of season is different around the world and when I lived in South Africa I missed the darkness around Christmas. It was difficult to get used to a fully dressed Christmas tree next to the pool and braai even if the company was great. Nowadays, waking up at six thirty and seeing the light finding its way in through the curtains make me realize that its time for more light, longer days and more outdoor living. I love spring and suddenly feel energized and fired up! Time to get some work done, prepare the business trip to the Netherlands for 15 companies in Ulricehamn, redecorate my home (to my husbands despair I always change the lampshades and curtains every season) and to get in shape.
Sport clubs usually see an increase of new members in January but within months most of these members have quit or disappeared. I have been a member for a year at one of our local sport clubs but rarely used my membership. Now things will change! For two years, since I moved here, I have been very bad at taking care of my physical health but I have been a good financial supporter of many sport clubs. I though that if I pay I will participate but somehow this incentive did not work on me. This is interesting as we often think that financial incentives can change human behaviour (look at the increase in birth-rates in Sweden and France after the governments introduced several financial benefits for families). At one of our EU projects in Ulricehamn, where we aim to get marginalized youth into activity and employment, we tried to force their participation to a certain extent. It is voluntary to be part of the project and if they decide to take part they have to sign an agreement of participation. If they do not show up at their work placement or at study visits etc. we reduce their social benefits. This has not had any impact on their participation what so ever. Most of the group is participating well but for those who don’t the money does not play a role in deciding on staying home or joining the activities (according to themselves). They don’t show up as they don’t see any use in it anyway. I am now working on another project idea for the European Social Funds and I keep on getting stuck right here. How do we create possibilities and challenges for people in a way, which gives them the tools to elevate themselves? I want to give them a chance to change their lives and to get on whatever path they might find interesting but I don’t believe in full support. They must show commitment and they must get into action. There are thousands of theories on how to change behaviour and attitudes and I don’t think we are looking at one solution but many.
Maybe I can find some suitable answers if I get moving as I do believe in the theory that we are more creative if we also make use of physical activity!
If you see some hyperventilating woman hanging over a bush in Ulricehamn don’t be afraid. It is only I, trying to find creative answers through torture.
Sport clubs usually see an increase of new members in January but within months most of these members have quit or disappeared. I have been a member for a year at one of our local sport clubs but rarely used my membership. Now things will change! For two years, since I moved here, I have been very bad at taking care of my physical health but I have been a good financial supporter of many sport clubs. I though that if I pay I will participate but somehow this incentive did not work on me. This is interesting as we often think that financial incentives can change human behaviour (look at the increase in birth-rates in Sweden and France after the governments introduced several financial benefits for families). At one of our EU projects in Ulricehamn, where we aim to get marginalized youth into activity and employment, we tried to force their participation to a certain extent. It is voluntary to be part of the project and if they decide to take part they have to sign an agreement of participation. If they do not show up at their work placement or at study visits etc. we reduce their social benefits. This has not had any impact on their participation what so ever. Most of the group is participating well but for those who don’t the money does not play a role in deciding on staying home or joining the activities (according to themselves). They don’t show up as they don’t see any use in it anyway. I am now working on another project idea for the European Social Funds and I keep on getting stuck right here. How do we create possibilities and challenges for people in a way, which gives them the tools to elevate themselves? I want to give them a chance to change their lives and to get on whatever path they might find interesting but I don’t believe in full support. They must show commitment and they must get into action. There are thousands of theories on how to change behaviour and attitudes and I don’t think we are looking at one solution but many.
Maybe I can find some suitable answers if I get moving as I do believe in the theory that we are more creative if we also make use of physical activity!
If you see some hyperventilating woman hanging over a bush in Ulricehamn don’t be afraid. It is only I, trying to find creative answers through torture.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Dutch people on the move, heading for Ulricehamn!
A few weeks ago I took part in an emigration fair in the Netherlands as one of three representatives from Ulricehamn. This was the second time Ulricehamn participated and attending the fair is part of a long-term project we started in 2008. Together with several other municipalities in our region (the Sjuhärad region) we are trying to attract new inhabitants.
Being involved in these types of projects always raise many questions and there are people here in Ulricehamn who wonder why we even want to attract new inhabitants. The goal of the municipality, to grow to 25 000 inhabitants in 2020, is often questioned and politicians and civil servants have not been successful in explaining how an increase of population effects the financial possibilities for a town to offer a wide range of services. People want good schools, elderly care with good quality, swimming pools, cultural possibilities, an attractive living space with playgrounds, bicycle routes, an environment which nurtures the business life, an infrastructure that keeps the flow going and not too many cars in the city centre etc. In Sweden these things are paid by local taxes and it’s the inhabitants who pay for them! (Municipalities have taxation right and the autonomy is strong which means that much power lies with the municipalities) With few inhabitants less services are possible. In 2009 146 municipalities increased their inhabitants and 143 lost inhabitants in Sweden. Municipalities are competing in attracting new inhabitants. More and more people move to the larger cities and on several places in the northern parts of Sweden towns are dying out. Luckily Ulricehamn is growing but to grow one needs attractive housing and living spaces, good schools, a business friendly environment, employment possibilities or good commuting possibilities. I think we have most of this (with possibilities for improvement naturally!) and therefore I think this is a place, which could grow if people knew more about Ulricehamn.
So, why attract Dutch people? What do they have that can be of interest to us? Many things! According to Eurostat the Dutch are the most entrepreneurial people within the EU. They are well educated, have strong language skills, their language is of Germanic base just as Swedish which means that they can learn our language easily. The cultural differences are small and the countries are not very far apart. If you emigrate from the Netherlands to Sweden you are not moving to the other side of the world. You can easily stay in contact with family and friends. It is mainly families with young kids who emigrate and these are the people we need. From a business point of view the Netherlands is an important trade country for Sweden. It is on seventh place as export country for Swedish businesses and the fifth place as import country. Dutch tourism is also increasing in Sweden. After other Scandinavian countries, the Germans and the British we find the Dutch. In 2008 Dutch tourism increased with 28 % (looking at hotel nights). So, it is easy to see why this is an interesting group to focus on but maybe the most interesting thing is that the interest is mutual!
Sweden has become extremely popular with Dutch immigrants in the past few years. The wish for more space, more nature, a slower paste, lower costs of living, less crime and the possibilites of making a new start has made Sweden an attractive country for Dutch emigrates. You don’t move to Sweden to make more money as our wages in general are lower but as the cost of living is lower as well you can still enjoy a good life. 16 million people on an area which is 14 times smaller than Sweden makes the Netherlands a crowdy but exciting place. Many people are fed up with trafficjams, unbelievable houseprices, the lack of quiet places and a social culture that is getting harder. This is why the Dutch look at the possibility of emigrating to other places and why should we not use this opportunity? Two Dutch families moved to Ulricehamn in February and started up a business.
Here, they have found what they are looking for. A place to start a business in a location that offers attractive living oppertunities, closeness to bigger cities, airports, nature and many social possibilities.
I hope they will feel very much at home here!
Being involved in these types of projects always raise many questions and there are people here in Ulricehamn who wonder why we even want to attract new inhabitants. The goal of the municipality, to grow to 25 000 inhabitants in 2020, is often questioned and politicians and civil servants have not been successful in explaining how an increase of population effects the financial possibilities for a town to offer a wide range of services. People want good schools, elderly care with good quality, swimming pools, cultural possibilities, an attractive living space with playgrounds, bicycle routes, an environment which nurtures the business life, an infrastructure that keeps the flow going and not too many cars in the city centre etc. In Sweden these things are paid by local taxes and it’s the inhabitants who pay for them! (Municipalities have taxation right and the autonomy is strong which means that much power lies with the municipalities) With few inhabitants less services are possible. In 2009 146 municipalities increased their inhabitants and 143 lost inhabitants in Sweden. Municipalities are competing in attracting new inhabitants. More and more people move to the larger cities and on several places in the northern parts of Sweden towns are dying out. Luckily Ulricehamn is growing but to grow one needs attractive housing and living spaces, good schools, a business friendly environment, employment possibilities or good commuting possibilities. I think we have most of this (with possibilities for improvement naturally!) and therefore I think this is a place, which could grow if people knew more about Ulricehamn.
So, why attract Dutch people? What do they have that can be of interest to us? Many things! According to Eurostat the Dutch are the most entrepreneurial people within the EU. They are well educated, have strong language skills, their language is of Germanic base just as Swedish which means that they can learn our language easily. The cultural differences are small and the countries are not very far apart. If you emigrate from the Netherlands to Sweden you are not moving to the other side of the world. You can easily stay in contact with family and friends. It is mainly families with young kids who emigrate and these are the people we need. From a business point of view the Netherlands is an important trade country for Sweden. It is on seventh place as export country for Swedish businesses and the fifth place as import country. Dutch tourism is also increasing in Sweden. After other Scandinavian countries, the Germans and the British we find the Dutch. In 2008 Dutch tourism increased with 28 % (looking at hotel nights). So, it is easy to see why this is an interesting group to focus on but maybe the most interesting thing is that the interest is mutual!
Sweden has become extremely popular with Dutch immigrants in the past few years. The wish for more space, more nature, a slower paste, lower costs of living, less crime and the possibilites of making a new start has made Sweden an attractive country for Dutch emigrates. You don’t move to Sweden to make more money as our wages in general are lower but as the cost of living is lower as well you can still enjoy a good life. 16 million people on an area which is 14 times smaller than Sweden makes the Netherlands a crowdy but exciting place. Many people are fed up with trafficjams, unbelievable houseprices, the lack of quiet places and a social culture that is getting harder. This is why the Dutch look at the possibility of emigrating to other places and why should we not use this opportunity? Two Dutch families moved to Ulricehamn in February and started up a business.
Here, they have found what they are looking for. A place to start a business in a location that offers attractive living oppertunities, closeness to bigger cities, airports, nature and many social possibilities.
I hope they will feel very much at home here!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A library on the move! Making plans for the future library in Ulricehamn!
Last week Ulricehamn held its first international library conference bringing up issues surrounding the role of the future library and inspiring small libraries in Sweden and abroad. It was a successful two-day conference filled with interesting speakers. During more than a year we have been extending the international influence in Ulricehamn arranging a yearlong Nordic exchange project between librarians and looking at the content of our future library. Ulricehamn is in great need of a new library location but maybe the biggest challenge is to create the library of tomorrow.
What does this mean? Will we need libraries in the future and if so, why? I think libraries have a very important role to play in society but we need to understand that a library is not only a place where you go to borrow a book. It is so much more!
We are in the middle of a paradigm shift. Computing platforms in most organizations today are not able to deliver the goods or services needed and as more and more people use the new techniques new areas of need and business develop. The changes in the availability of information mean that we can all access information from wherever we want at wherever we are but to do so we need help. Libraries can help us organize these new resources so that they can be used by an increasingly mobile society. Furthermore, the library must take on the challenge of helping ordinary citizens make sense of the flood of information now overwhelming them. To meet these challenges, the traditional library must change.
At the conference Ragnar Audunson, Professor at Oslo university, Norway talked about libraries and the importance of them as bridges for social capital. Social capital involves social networks, trust, and norms of reciprocity. For many people the library as an institution is a public place which anyone can attend. Within our communities there are almost no other places that will attract people of different background, social class and from different cultures. The library has become a place with positive effects for community development, schooling, democracy, economic development, well-being etc. You go to the library not only to find information but maybe to meet people, take a class, experience culture, have a coffee with friends, spend some time alone, to use as a mobile office, to read magazines etc. At the conference we heard our Dutch speakers from Pijnacker tell us about the library as a place for improving integration, for helping people with a reading disorder and as a platform for political debates. In Denmark they challenge the children who attend the library by putting out interesting or unusual artefacts in the library or stimulating their creativity by showing them how to make animation and short films and more and more people attend the libraries.
In a multicultural, digital society with larger generation gaps we face new possibilities as well as new challenges. We need to look at these challenges and prepare for a library which takes on a role as a community bridge builder, which stimulate reading and creativity and which has an important social role in society. As changes in society will change the labour market the life long learning perspective has to be integrated in everyone’s life. We do not train for a career in only one field and we will most likely have several employers before we retire. The library is an excellent arena for life long learning.
More and more libraries are looking at partnership possibilities with businesses or local associations. I think we will see much more of this in the future and I think this can lead to very fruitful co operations. Imagine a library where you can buy art or local products. Imagine a library where you have a permanent clothing exhibition which will attract visitors from outside Ulricehamn. Imagine a library filled with activity outside the current opening house as local associations use the premises.
I think that librarians, other stakeholders and local politicians found the conference interesting and inspiring. It was great to see the effects of the international approach. There are so many interesting things going on in the world when it comes to library development and suddenly we had a mix of many different perspectives! I hope that the future library in Ulricehamn can be a place to borrow books, being helped in finding the right information on the internet, where films and music can be downloaded, where you can sit down with a nice cup of coffee, enjoy a course, participate in a book club, use as a workspace, look for jobs, watch an interesting exhibition or learn more about our local history and culture, get civic information etc.
We have an active library in Ulricehamn and if they just get the premises they need and support in taking on the new role of the librarian I think we will have a great place to hang out and enjoy!
PS: Do you know library lovers? Check it out!
What does this mean? Will we need libraries in the future and if so, why? I think libraries have a very important role to play in society but we need to understand that a library is not only a place where you go to borrow a book. It is so much more!
We are in the middle of a paradigm shift. Computing platforms in most organizations today are not able to deliver the goods or services needed and as more and more people use the new techniques new areas of need and business develop. The changes in the availability of information mean that we can all access information from wherever we want at wherever we are but to do so we need help. Libraries can help us organize these new resources so that they can be used by an increasingly mobile society. Furthermore, the library must take on the challenge of helping ordinary citizens make sense of the flood of information now overwhelming them. To meet these challenges, the traditional library must change.
At the conference Ragnar Audunson, Professor at Oslo university, Norway talked about libraries and the importance of them as bridges for social capital. Social capital involves social networks, trust, and norms of reciprocity. For many people the library as an institution is a public place which anyone can attend. Within our communities there are almost no other places that will attract people of different background, social class and from different cultures. The library has become a place with positive effects for community development, schooling, democracy, economic development, well-being etc. You go to the library not only to find information but maybe to meet people, take a class, experience culture, have a coffee with friends, spend some time alone, to use as a mobile office, to read magazines etc. At the conference we heard our Dutch speakers from Pijnacker tell us about the library as a place for improving integration, for helping people with a reading disorder and as a platform for political debates. In Denmark they challenge the children who attend the library by putting out interesting or unusual artefacts in the library or stimulating their creativity by showing them how to make animation and short films and more and more people attend the libraries.
In a multicultural, digital society with larger generation gaps we face new possibilities as well as new challenges. We need to look at these challenges and prepare for a library which takes on a role as a community bridge builder, which stimulate reading and creativity and which has an important social role in society. As changes in society will change the labour market the life long learning perspective has to be integrated in everyone’s life. We do not train for a career in only one field and we will most likely have several employers before we retire. The library is an excellent arena for life long learning.
More and more libraries are looking at partnership possibilities with businesses or local associations. I think we will see much more of this in the future and I think this can lead to very fruitful co operations. Imagine a library where you can buy art or local products. Imagine a library where you have a permanent clothing exhibition which will attract visitors from outside Ulricehamn. Imagine a library filled with activity outside the current opening house as local associations use the premises.
I think that librarians, other stakeholders and local politicians found the conference interesting and inspiring. It was great to see the effects of the international approach. There are so many interesting things going on in the world when it comes to library development and suddenly we had a mix of many different perspectives! I hope that the future library in Ulricehamn can be a place to borrow books, being helped in finding the right information on the internet, where films and music can be downloaded, where you can sit down with a nice cup of coffee, enjoy a course, participate in a book club, use as a workspace, look for jobs, watch an interesting exhibition or learn more about our local history and culture, get civic information etc.
We have an active library in Ulricehamn and if they just get the premises they need and support in taking on the new role of the librarian I think we will have a great place to hang out and enjoy!
PS: Do you know library lovers? Check it out!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Feeling at home in Ulricehamn - most of the time!
Where do I belong and where is my home? Different people will answer this question differently but to me Ulricehamn is my home – most of the time. Soon it will be two years ago that I set off to a new destination bringing my foreign family with me to Ulricehamn. I am Swedish and so are my children but they were foreigners when they entered this place as they had never lived in Sweden before, never gone to a Swedish school, never celebrated Lucia or midsummer and as Swedish was not their first language.
Today, Ulricehamn is the place my children likes the best (and Ingrid who has moved 9 times across 3 different continents should know!). They have made us parents promise not to move in a long time and they feel just as Swedish as their classmates and friends. We are now a part of a place that offers fantastic experiences when it comes to sports, nature and cultural activities. People are friendly, helpful and caring and we have met very many wonderful people. This is why I feel at home here most of the time.
But sometimes I do not feel at home here. I do not understand why there are no women on any chairman positions within our municipality. I do not understand why fewer men in Ulricehamn, then the average in Sweden, take out parental leave. I do not understand why there are larger salary differences between male and female department managers in our municipality than in other towns. I do not understand why most boards (both in the public and in the private sector) are filled with men and on the occasion a woman. Scientists around the world today all agree on the financial and social benefits of equality between the sexes and still this argument does not seem to click in peoples mind.
I do however understand why it is so difficult to get more women active in politics. I do understand why many women decide to use their time on other things then sitting on different boards. It is not their arena, the structure of everything is set to suit men with little home responsibilities (how many meetings do not take place in the evening just about dinnertime?) and if they would dare to make an entrance they are alone as women in the group.
Am I making a problem of something that is not a problem? Not many women in Ulricehamn are complaining about this and the men do not see it as a problem at all. They feel that they have done enough and that we have to wait and see. They would like to see more women in leading positions but unfortunately there are none.
Is this true? Who wishes to leave the power he has achieved? Who is willing to change structures that are favourable for men? Who is willing to change they way we elect of chose new candidates? Who is willing to change the way we look at competence and skills? Who is willing to step back and let someone else, someone with a different way of leading, a different way of looking at things, have a go? Who is really willing to change?
Changes often bring confusion and insecurity. Changes can be painful and difficult to experience but most of the time changes bring about new possibilities, innovative approaches to things and teaches us new things along the way. Ulricehamn is my home and I am not here to change it into something else. I just wish I would see more of the 10000 female talents in Ulricehamn brought forward!
Today, Ulricehamn is the place my children likes the best (and Ingrid who has moved 9 times across 3 different continents should know!). They have made us parents promise not to move in a long time and they feel just as Swedish as their classmates and friends. We are now a part of a place that offers fantastic experiences when it comes to sports, nature and cultural activities. People are friendly, helpful and caring and we have met very many wonderful people. This is why I feel at home here most of the time.
But sometimes I do not feel at home here. I do not understand why there are no women on any chairman positions within our municipality. I do not understand why fewer men in Ulricehamn, then the average in Sweden, take out parental leave. I do not understand why there are larger salary differences between male and female department managers in our municipality than in other towns. I do not understand why most boards (both in the public and in the private sector) are filled with men and on the occasion a woman. Scientists around the world today all agree on the financial and social benefits of equality between the sexes and still this argument does not seem to click in peoples mind.
I do however understand why it is so difficult to get more women active in politics. I do understand why many women decide to use their time on other things then sitting on different boards. It is not their arena, the structure of everything is set to suit men with little home responsibilities (how many meetings do not take place in the evening just about dinnertime?) and if they would dare to make an entrance they are alone as women in the group.
Am I making a problem of something that is not a problem? Not many women in Ulricehamn are complaining about this and the men do not see it as a problem at all. They feel that they have done enough and that we have to wait and see. They would like to see more women in leading positions but unfortunately there are none.
Is this true? Who wishes to leave the power he has achieved? Who is willing to change structures that are favourable for men? Who is willing to change they way we elect of chose new candidates? Who is willing to change the way we look at competence and skills? Who is willing to step back and let someone else, someone with a different way of leading, a different way of looking at things, have a go? Who is really willing to change?
Changes often bring confusion and insecurity. Changes can be painful and difficult to experience but most of the time changes bring about new possibilities, innovative approaches to things and teaches us new things along the way. Ulricehamn is my home and I am not here to change it into something else. I just wish I would see more of the 10000 female talents in Ulricehamn brought forward!
Monday, February 1, 2010
How the world really look like (according to my kids!)
My parents came to help out this week as Jochem is spending most of January abroad and I had to go to Stockholm.
- Holidaytime, Nils said to his teacher at school!
You wonder what kind of working camp he lives in usually? Well, he had short days at school (no after school activities) and this week they had a sports day at school and all went skiing. My parents cleaned, cooked, washed an enormous amount of clothes, brought the girls to their activities etc. To me it is clear that Nils might have had a holiday but they went on a working camp. I am so grateful for their help!!
The winter is keeping its grip on Ulricehamn and the other day we lost power again. In Sweden many of our power cables are still above earth and heavy weather or heavy snow breaks them now and then. I am getting used to finding a torch and candles, changing fuses and getting the fireplace started. I don’t remember ever having a powercut while living in the Netherlands but here it seams, as one should always be prepared. I guess it’s a phenomenon one has to get used to on the countryside. Luckily the problem was fixed within a few hours but with –15 C. outside it cools down quickly inside.
Ulricehamn was filled with 900 competing cross-country skiers yesterday but we did not notice too much of it. Instead we headed off to Jönköping to watch the Disney musical “High School Musical” with Idol winner Kevin as Troy. The girls loved it but Nils told me there should be an age limit for boys. No boys under 10 should have to endure this type of torture. Sometimes I wonder how a boy who grows up in a family where we are constantly listening to music, dance, sing, love musicals, corny romantic films, baking and cooking can be so against all of this. Jochem can’t help laughing at my raised eyebrows every time my lovely son comes with a gender stereotype comment, which needs immediate reaction (not saying that High school musical is an emancipated story by any means). As we live in one of the least emancipated municipalities in Sweden (according to a survey made by SVT) I have to make sure he gets a wide perspective from home but then again; how does your kids really view the world?
When we lived in the Netherlands Elsa (who was 6 at the time) had a project at school called the Star project. It was a project aimed to strengthen the children’s self-esteem and to be better at acknowledging other peoples strengths. All children wrote down what their parents were good at. When I came to school I saw a big picture made by Elsa saying;
- My dad is a star at IT! My mum is a star at drinking coffee!
Gender mainstreaming has a long way to go but at least one boy stated that his dad was a star at making canned soup!
Time for a coffee!!
- Holidaytime, Nils said to his teacher at school!
You wonder what kind of working camp he lives in usually? Well, he had short days at school (no after school activities) and this week they had a sports day at school and all went skiing. My parents cleaned, cooked, washed an enormous amount of clothes, brought the girls to their activities etc. To me it is clear that Nils might have had a holiday but they went on a working camp. I am so grateful for their help!!
The winter is keeping its grip on Ulricehamn and the other day we lost power again. In Sweden many of our power cables are still above earth and heavy weather or heavy snow breaks them now and then. I am getting used to finding a torch and candles, changing fuses and getting the fireplace started. I don’t remember ever having a powercut while living in the Netherlands but here it seams, as one should always be prepared. I guess it’s a phenomenon one has to get used to on the countryside. Luckily the problem was fixed within a few hours but with –15 C. outside it cools down quickly inside.
Ulricehamn was filled with 900 competing cross-country skiers yesterday but we did not notice too much of it. Instead we headed off to Jönköping to watch the Disney musical “High School Musical” with Idol winner Kevin as Troy. The girls loved it but Nils told me there should be an age limit for boys. No boys under 10 should have to endure this type of torture. Sometimes I wonder how a boy who grows up in a family where we are constantly listening to music, dance, sing, love musicals, corny romantic films, baking and cooking can be so against all of this. Jochem can’t help laughing at my raised eyebrows every time my lovely son comes with a gender stereotype comment, which needs immediate reaction (not saying that High school musical is an emancipated story by any means). As we live in one of the least emancipated municipalities in Sweden (according to a survey made by SVT) I have to make sure he gets a wide perspective from home but then again; how does your kids really view the world?
When we lived in the Netherlands Elsa (who was 6 at the time) had a project at school called the Star project. It was a project aimed to strengthen the children’s self-esteem and to be better at acknowledging other peoples strengths. All children wrote down what their parents were good at. When I came to school I saw a big picture made by Elsa saying;
- My dad is a star at IT! My mum is a star at drinking coffee!
Gender mainstreaming has a long way to go but at least one boy stated that his dad was a star at making canned soup!
Time for a coffee!!
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