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November 30, 2004
Ahh, Consolation
A friend just wrote me in response to my last entry. In it, she sympathized with my situation and compared it to her own, noting:
"Not only do I hate to be told I'm "wrong," I'm having a real problem with motivation. I don't see how doing all this crapwork correctly is going to add up to something. You want to promote the innovator, not the person who makes sure all your charts are in the same font size...So basically, I have a problem because I have a real big chip on my shoulder and people are starting to notice it. I am not doing myself any favors but undoing my "can-do" attitude."
EXACTLY! This is my main complaint with the whole "system". Bright, intelligent, motivated people are told they are "wrong", then blamed for a poor attitude when the attitude is a direct result of the crap-tastic leadership at the top.
How do we maintain a bright and sunny attitude when it's so obvious that the system is broken?
I swear, when I'm running the world things will be different.
Posted by madchen at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)Deep Thoughts and Irritation
First, let me start with the irritation: why does laundry have to be SO difficult? I am not living in a developing country--in fact, Sweden ranks among the best countries for quality of life. Does this mean that the expectation that washers and drying rooms should be working during the brief time that you are allotted laundry facilities is unreasonable? That "working laundry facilities" are not good indicators of quality of life?
I think not.
In fact, having to condense three people's laundry into a space of 7 hours every two weeks is in itself absurd. I am running a chronic laundry deficit, and Roya regularly spends several hours a week doing "hand washing" in our bathroom to make up for the lack of time in the common laundry room. Jess has resorted to illegally using the laundry room a couple buildings over, usually in the middle of the night, because it has no sign-up requirement.
So this afternoon when I arrived promptly downstairs at 2 p.m., carrying my suitcase packed full of dirty clothes, I was frustrated to find that both washers (we only have two washers, one dryer, and one drying "room") were refusing to go through the spin cycle--requiring me to wring out each piece of sopping clothing by hand. Then, because too-wet clothes NEVER dry in the dryer, I had to hang them all in the drying room, which is supposed to blow warm air out of holes in the bars over which you hang the laundry. Because it just felt like "that kind of day", I wasn't really surprised to discover that the drying room wasn't blowing out any air at all. So I just hung my clothes over the bars and proceeded to watch them stream water until it looked like a river was passing through the laundry room.
Fast forward to 7 hours later (thankfully, I am the only one doing laundry today--after I passed on the bad news to Roya and Jess, they declined to join me in the debacle) and I'm still mopping up the water on the floor, and there are rows of clothes too wet to even be called "damp".
And now, on to my deep thoughts...
I'm feeling like I shouldn't keep writing in this journal, for two main reasons:
1. I don't have very interesting things to say. Most of these entries are just rote recitations of my day--when I got up, what classes I went to (or skipped), and why the laundry facilities are equivalent to those in Bangladesh. Am I really contributing anything here?
2. I feel like I'm censoring myself. While I'm perfectly capable of being cynical and bitchy online, I feel self-conscious about being "thoughtful". Mostly because "thoughtful" isn't my style--or at least not my public style. I feel silly and pretentious when I talk about bigger issues, even though most of it is muddled and confused ramblings about the "good life". Maybe I would be better at exploring these topics offline. But since I just don't have the energy or the time to maintain a public blog and a private journal, I can only pursue one of these.
So, that's where I am right now. I had lots of good discussions with classmates this week about where I want to go in life. I'm still mulling over these things, and I'm not sure what to write about them. In short:
1. I'm not sure I want to pursue the Foreign Service any more. While I would certainly join if I was called up, I can't really face the thought of going through the written and oral exams again, just to try and improve my score. And given that my scores were on the low end of "eligible", I don't expect I will get called up without some serious language points--which I have neither the time nor the inclination to pursue.
2. I'm feeling very disconnected from my classes and the program leaders. While I am enthusiastic about my small group projects (and the upcoming thesis work), I am NOT motivated to go to class. Moreover, I'm feeling estranged from the program leaders. While I have serious concerns about the way the program is being run, I think that the leaders view me too much as a "discontent" to have constructive conversations with. Not that they have time to discuss my concerns, mind you, but I definitely felt a brush-off during my attempts during the field trip to discuss potential projects.
3. I'm feeling VERY up-in-the-air about what I want to do immediately after graduation (assuming I make it to graduation--ha, ha). I know it's kind of soon to be stressing about this, but it's difficult to move "strategically towards a vision of success" when I don't know what "success" looks like.
And with that, I will go fetch the last of my laundry, to continue drip-drying in the bathroom.
Posted by madchen at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)November 29, 2004
Home Again
After more than 24 hours on the bus, I am back home again. The trip was lovely, although I didn't really get much out of the rest of the educational stuff. It was mostly focused on community (hence the "eco-municipality" billing), and I'm beginning to realize I am more interested in the business side of sustainability. The real joy was spending time with my fellow students away from the classroom.
We spent Friday in a workshop with Torbjörn Lahti, author of The Natural Step for Communities, and toured a primary school with an "eco-school" emphasis. The kids were incredibly friendly, and it was really interesting to see how the school incorporates social and environmental aspects into its everyday plans. For instance, we got to see the kids have a "school meeting" where they raised and voted on issues of concern. That day's main concern was that someone was peeing on the toilet seats. After some discussion (all facilitated by the kids, aged 6-12), they voted and decided that everyone should always sit down on the toilet seat. Very amusing!
Friday night was delightful, with a delicious smorgasbord that included moose stew. Now, one of my main goals while in Sweden was to see a moose, but I decided that this didn't count. On the other hand, I can speak highly of moose as a stew base. I stayed up way too late playing cards (a vicious game of spoons that was called off after blood was drawn, hearts, and spades).
The next morning, we got back on the bus and spent the next 7 hours traveling to Ammanas, which is only 120 kilometers from the Artic Circle. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful spot, where I some of the only picture of the trip (I'm counting on the other photographers to capture the basic stuff) and spotted a group of reindeer by the side of the road. We arrived tired but happy on Saturday night and settled into a lovely hostel. Once again, the sky was clear and the moon provided enough light to cast a shadow. The temperature, having steadily fallen from when we left in the morning, was -30 degrees Celsius when we stepped off the bus, but it was dry enough that you didn't notice it so much.
That night we were served a reindeer concoction that reminded me a little of the kebab med bröd meals we get here in Karlskrona. Afterwards, I participated in a time-honored Swedish event—the sauna.
I tromped down with Lisa and Ann to join some of the other students in the sauna behind the hostel. In all, about 12 of us could comfortably fit in the sauna (one you got over the near nakedness of the others—most people were wearing just a towel), which was cranked up to stifling and damp with steam from water thrown over the coals. For once, it was fantastic to be so hot and sweaty. After about 15 minutes, as tradition dictates, you run out of the sauna and throw yourself down into the snow and roll around, then get back up and dash back into the sauna for another round. I wasn't sure I would be up for the snow-rolling adventure, but I thought "when else will I have the opportunity to roll around nearly naked in the snow on a -30 degrees night?" So I tried it and it was amazing!! In all, I did four rounds of snow-rolling—about the average for our group. The next morning I discovered that I had scraped both of my knees on the icy snow, but at the time I just noticed a little stinging (which, compared with the overall shock of plunging into the snow, was barely noticeable).
I didn't get back into the hostel until nearly midnight. After talking with the remaining group in the dining room, I headed up to bed. The next morning I skipped breakfast (ahh, sleeping in!), but joined everyone later for a little craft shopping and lunch. We piled into the bus for the LONG ride back, but enjoyed visiting a local artist and her husband first. It turns out that she's quite famous—having designed the back side of the 10 kronar coin, as well as a bunch of other coins and sculptures. We then got back in the bus and got a little tour of the town from Osvald, a Saami guy who has started his own horse-tours of the area, which I will try and convince my family to do in the summer.
Finally, a little past 4 p.m. (but what seemed like the middle of the night, since it had been dark for hours—in fact, the sun never made it above the mountain at all) we set off for the journey back to Karlskrona. Almost immediately, we saw moose—which just made my day. In fact, it was a mother moose with two calves (the calves were as big as a regular horse) by the side of the road, so we got to see the whole family.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Incidences of note include almost hitting another moose that decided to dash in front of our bus. At over 1,000 pounds, a moose could do serious damage even to our giant bus, so we were VERY thankful that we missed it. We also stopped for another car in the ditch, which had driven off the road in the snow (which went from gentle flakes to near blizzard conditions as we drove south). Other than that, it was your typical bus ride home—late night stops at fast food places, cramped attempts to sleep, movies where you only catch every other word.
At any rate, the bus generously dropped some of us off at Kungsmarksvägen at 5 p.m. Roya, Jess, and I made dinner together and then proceeded to make some sense of unpacking. I realized that I had left my alarm clock at the hostel in Ammanas (there was a little shelf under the bunk bed that was out of sight unless you were lying in bed, and I just forgot to retrieve it after I took a shower and packed). I'm hoping that I can call them tomorrow and have them send it back down.
Fortunately, laundry day is tomorrow, but I will be surprised if we can get even half of our stuff washed. We don't have any classes until Wednesday, so we can do a full recovery tomorrow. So far, my preliminary check of email indicates that our small group's plan to hold a workshop with Tarkett on Friday has been thwarted. This is both good and bad—we weren't really prepared, but we will also have to miss class on Monday (the alternate date they proposed). I also discovered that I don't need to have a conference call with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) people tomorrow, but will try and reschedule for Thursday or Friday.
I managed to walk down to Willy:s and restock my groceries. How nice it will be to wake up tomorrow morning with choices for breakfast!!
Posted by madchen at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)November 25, 2004
Thanksgiving
We left school Tuesday afternoon (after the ubiquitous stragglers finally showed up) and headed up to Stockholm. The trip was uneventful—I was surprised to see snow only an hour outside of Karlskrona. Apparently, there had been quite bad weather the previous 24 hours, and the roads were treacherous at times. Luckily Lars, our driver, was quite the winter weather driving expert—and even when we had to slow down to 30 km/hr (because the wind was blowing drifts into the unplowed road and limiting visibility), I felt quite confident we would arrive safely. We passed an overturned car, half-buried in a snow bank, but after stopping to investigate, we realized the car was empty and proceeded on our way.
We watched Memento on the bus video system (funny with Swedish subtitles) and played "Go Fish". Our hostel was on the south side of the Stockholm city center, so we didn't get a good look at the old town section as we came in—instead we unloaded all of our stuff and checked-in to the hostel.
For my second hostel experience, I was once again very fortunate. The place we stayed, FNB Stockholm, was spacious, spotlessly clean, and toasty warm. Ayamba (from Camaroon), Birte (from Germany), Siti (from Malaysia), and I shared a room. Although we were pretty exhausted (it took us nearly 8 hours to get from Karlskrona to Stockholm—a trip that normally takes 4.5 hours by train), several of us took a little walk around town, just to stretch our legs and get a feel for the area. There were a good 4 inches of snow on the ground, and I was surprised to see that the sidewalks and roads didn't look plowed (at least not recently). Instead, the cars just drive slowly and people wear thick boots. (My new boots kept my feet delightfully warm, but I must admit that the slightly higher ankle height has given the back of my legs quite ugly welts.)
We were back in our rooms by 11:30 p.m. and after a few minutes of reading Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimistic World (I'm still at the pessimistic part), I fell fast asleep. The alarm sounded all too early, and I took a quick shower (narrowly avoiding soaking my clothes in the process) before packing up and getting breakfast.
We were back on the bus by 8 a.m. and hopped over to one of the local Scandic hotels for an all-day workshop with Alan Atkisson, author of Believing Cassandra. He was great—really taking the ideals of sustainability down to the practical level. I enjoyed the group work (imagine that!), but could have passed on the 3 songs he sang (all with a sustainability motif).
That evening, after a tedious adventure getting 40 people subway tickets, we managed to get ourselves down to University of Stockholm to meet with some other sustainability students. The campus was glorious, with huge, puffy drifts of snow glistening in the evening light. It's amazing how light the night can be with the reflection off the snow! As we walked to the far end of campus, it began to snow again—not large flakes, but tiny, stinging, driving snow that formed coats of snowy ice on our jackets, hats, and eyelashes.
We had a brief get together with the other students, but to be honest, my heart wasn't in it—I mostly wanted to get someplace quiet where I could sit down with a cup of coffee. Lisa had the same idea, and we tried to sneak out, but once again we got bogged down in the group process. By the time we left the Stockholm campus, we were up to a dozen people. We took the subway down to the old town area of Stockholm and walked back to the bus pick-up point. It was freezing and snowing and we were all coated in a layer of ice by the time we made it back to the right place. By then, the group had split off into a bunch of smaller groups, and Lisa, Siti, and I found ourselves alone at a coffee shop (Wayne's!!)—just like the original plan.
By 10:30 p.m. we were on the road again, this time to Umea. We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding (a sure crowd pleaser), then tried to sleep for a bit before our required stop for the bus driver. Around 4 a.m. the bus driver pulled to the side of the road and woke us up to show us the Northern Lights. While they weren't spectacular, it was the first time I had ever seen them. It reminded me of a lava lamp, undulating in and out of the night sky—showing up for 30-45 seconds and then vanishing. It was quite impressive, particularly considering that it was competing with a full moon that gave off an incredible amount of light.
I managed to get a little sleep before we pulled into our breakfast stop. I had a bizarre dream where Amity, Rene, Mitch, Ronan, Kristoffer, and I went on an amazing adventure, starting from Kristoffer's family's boat and stretching into an abandoned amusement park where we were chased by security guards and had to evade them with our super jumping powers. There was also some weird love triangle, but it's too fuzzy in my head to remember enough to describe. I was disappointed to wake up and find myself balled up on the bus, facing a full day of activity.
Today we toured a heating plant in Umea, where waste is collected and incinerated. The waste heat is then distributed in the form of electricity and water to the surrounding municipality. I had a horrid time concentrating on the lecture (having really only gotten 2 hours of sleep), and dazedly wandering along with the tour of the plant. I will confess that the most interesting part of the tour was getting to look in the furnace, where all the waste was burning in huge spurts of flame. I had a confused moment where it suddenly struck me that this was very much like the Holocaust furnaces, but I snapped out of it once we emerged into the freezing air.
We had lunch in Umea and got back on the bus for a trip to Umea's "Green Zone"—a collection of businesses (McDonald's, Ford dealership, and Statoil gas station) that have designed their buildings around sustainability principles. Once again, I was too sleepy to really appreciate it (the cold didn't help—it's about -10 Celsius) but picked up a little report for future reading.
Tonight we're at a cute family-run hostel, spread out between three farm buildings. Eight of us are in the main building, but the others are spread between an old house with no running water and a converted garage. We had a fantastic dinner of salmon soup and bread, and spent some time chatting with the family. At one point, a smaller group went around the circle and said what they were thankful for (seeing as it was American Thanksgiving). I was feeling a little homesick—Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday—but everyone was really sweet and I was grateful to be around such a caring group of people.
Now it's almost 11 p.m. and I'm dying to get to bed. I'm wearing a pair of long underwear, plus pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt. On top of this, I'm going to add a pair of wool socks to keep me warm tonight. I'm thrilled to be spending two nights in this place, as it allows me to unpack and organize a little—rather than constantly swapping stuff from my suitcase to my seat on the bus to my suitcase and back and forth.
And now, I can take no more and must get some sleep. Ahh, blissful sleep. Too bad the alarm is set for 6:45 a.m. again.
Posted by madchen at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)November 23, 2004
On My Way
I'm off to Northern Sweden! Bags are packed (almost), hair is dry (not really), and my room is tidy enough to withstand an emergency incursion (perhaps). Back in a week!
Posted by madchen at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)November 22, 2004
Nice and Toasty
I had a horrible night of sleep, filled with bizarre dreams where my mom had died, but no one had told me until I came home from school. It was quite disturbing, and had weird elements as well (like the gorilla that had been hired to babysit Janie during the funeral reception).
At any rate, I skipped morning classes to try and get some real sleep, but went to the afternoon presentation on Whistler, Canada--and how they have incorporated The Natural Step into their community planning process.
Afterwards, Jo, Paulo, and I went downtown and did a little last minute shopping for our trip tomorrow. I ended up getting new boots, which are rated to -32 degrees Celsius (or -25 degreed Farenheit).
They are VERY nice. I also got a pair of microfleece long underwear, as well as two pairs of thinner long underwear. I am determined to be warm enough! And since we are scheduled to have a snowstorm tomorrow, the excessive spending was worth it!!
After a bit of shopping, we met Amy and Kristoffer at Wayne's for some coffee. The discussion went like this:
Cold weather clothing - Snow sculpture - Snowmobiling - Cold weather activities - Drinking - Swedish sexual proclivities - National sex trends - How to ask girls out on dates
Quite entertaining. Then it was back home (Jo gave me a ride, sweet girl!) and here I am, surrounded by long underwear and a pile of clothing. My plans for the night include cleaning out the refrigerator (I can only imagine what it will be like after a week!), packing (I have to bring my suitcase to school tomorrow morning, since there won't be time to come back at lunchtime), and getting some sleep. This may be my last opportunity to have some quality sleep for many, many days.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the last few days have been slushy and slippery--with freezing rain. Not very fun weather for gallavanting around town in.
Posted by madchen at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)November 21, 2004
No Time!
I'm starting to feel a little nervous about my trip up North. For one thing, it's going to be a LOT of group time, and I'm not exactly big on 24-7 "together time". In addition, it's going to be FREEZING--something like -8 Celsius. Ugh.
I have class all day tomorrow (and even an evening "fireside chat"), classes all morning on Tuesday, and then we leave on our field trip promptly at 3 p.m. That doesn't leave me much time to get my stuff together and buy any additional clothing.
Posted by madchen at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)November 20, 2004
Busy Bee
I've been busy catching up on sleep (ahh, wonderful, glorious sleep!), attending boring lectures on the future of our global energy mix, and meeting with my small groups for the Strategic Management and Advanced Leadership classes I'm taking this term.
A word on my return. I was greeted with such warmth and affection when I got back--people seemed genuinely thrilled that I had passed the Foreign Service Exam and that I had returned safely. It was quite touching.
And then to have arranged to be in two fantastic small groups is an added bonus.
In my Strategic Management class, I have teamed up with Jo and Paulo to work on developing a corporate strategic management process for Tarkett Ronneby, a Swedish flooring company. We met with the Environmental Communications manager from Tarkett on Friday and are VERY excited at the prospect of working with the company over the next month.
In my Advanced Leadership class, I have teamed up with Ronan and Karl to develop a review of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), with which I have extensive experience. With any luck, I'll be able to transition this into a thesis topic.
That's about it. Both Jess and Roya are at Kerly's birthday party tonight, but I felt like I needed some quiet time to myself. Our group leaves on a 7-day field trip to Northern Sweden on Tuesday (we'll be traveling by bus the whole time), so I won't have any "alone time" for awhile.
Posted by madchen at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)November 17, 2004
There and Back Again
After an exceedingly long and arduous trip, I am back safe and sound in my spare, barren apartment.
Posted by madchen at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)November 16, 2004
Going Back
In a couple hours I'll be on my way back to the airport. This weekend has been a terrific reminder of why I love the D.C. area. The weather has been perfect (around 60 degrees, not a cloud in the sky), I've been able to see all my friends, and had the opportunity to spend lots of time with my family. I wish I had another couple of days to relax--I am NOT relishing the 30-hour journey back to Karlskrona.
And now...a bit of political humor:
The Republican National Committee announced today that the Republican Party is changing its emblem from an elephant to a condom. The committee chairman explained that the condom more clearly reflects the party's stance today, because a condom accepts inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually getting screwed.
The real joy has been passing the Foreign Service Oral Exam, of course. While my score wasn't high enough to get an immediate conditional offer of employment (I chose the "political" track, which requires the highest score--I would have made the "management" cut-off, which I find very irritating), I have been placed on the list of "eligible hires". Here's more:
Placement on the List of Eligible Hires
The names of candidates who are successful at the Oral Assessment are placed on a rank-order list of eligible candidates based on the career track they chose and the scores they received. A candidate's rank may be raised by veteran's preference and/or a demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language, as determined by the Department through a telephonic assessment. Extra points are given to candidates who pass language tests in Critical Needs languages, currently defined as: Arabic; Chinese (Cantonese and Standard/Mandarin); Indic languages (e.g.,Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Bengali, Punjabi); Iranian languages (e.g. Farsi/Persian, Dari, Tajiki, Pashto); Japanese; Korean; Russian; and Turkic Languages (e.g. Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek). If openings are available, candidates may be made an immediate offer of employment, without waiting on the register. Placement on the list of eligible candidates does not necessarily mean that a job offer will be made. Hiring is dependent upon the needs of the Foreign Service.
Since I have zero chance of getting proficient in one of the "critical needs" languages, I'll try and brush up on my German or Spanish and hope that boosts me up to receive an immediate conditional offer of employment. I have 24 months on the eligible candidates list, but don't have a competitive shot at getting called up without the language bonus points.
Well, that about covers it--I am on my way back to Sweden this afternoon, and after an overnight plane ride (with a LONG layover in London) and a 4 hour train ride from Copenhagen to Karlskrona, I think I will have to go straight to the public seminar hosted by our class. After that, I'm scheduled to have dinner with Jo and Paulo, the two other members of my group for the project in Strategic Management. I hope I can stay awake that long...I may have to take something (Nyquil, Dramamine, etc.) on the plane to help me sleep a little.
Posted by madchen at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)November 15, 2004
Success!
More details later, but I PASSED the Foreign Service Oral Exam!!
Posted by madchen at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)November 13, 2004
Home at Last
After an uneventful trip (oh the hours and hours and hours of traveling), I am home again! It's wonderful. Last night I went straight from the airport to a happy hour with former co-workers (it was like I never left!!) and then had several quality hours with Ms. Janie, who has grown into a real person in the last couple months. The most amazing transformation has been her language skills--I can know understand 90% of what she says the first time round.
This morning I was awake before 8 a.m. and had a lovely breakfast of pancakes, made by my Dad. Then, after a leisurely morning, Jess and I headed off to the mall, which was sensory overload. I managed to buy a candle from Illuminations and some stuff from The Body Shop (everything costs about 1/2 of what it does in Sweden), but just couldn't bring myself to even try on any clothes. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I've grown out of the "shopping for fun" activity. Or maybe I just am out of practice.
This evening was a get together with high school friends. It was a lovely turnout, and so good to catch up with everyone. My mom made an incredible meal (chicken AND vegetable curry) and had everything decorated perfectly. I didn't lift a finger (how nice to be a guest!!) and there is a yummy peach cobbler waiting for my expected midnight food cravings.
Posted by madchen at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)November 10, 2004
More Vomit
Sigh. Despite my crossed fingers, last night was brimming with additional stomach-flu gore. In fact, it was so bad that I kept Jess awake with my retching. Delightful.
Since I was up all night, I was in no shape to go to class today (which was only discussing next week's classes, which I will largely miss). Instead, I took a little nap--hurray for uninterrupted sleep--did some rudimentary unpacking, and took a much-needed shower.
Now that I'm clean, I plan to start the re-packing saga (I'll be bringing the regular-sized suitcase this time), do some dishes, clean out the refreigerator, and perhaps even go down to the grocery store for some bland crackers and ginger ale. Two full days without food and I'm starting to get a little crabby. On the bright side, the stomach flu seems to have passed.
Posted by madchen at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)November 09, 2004
My trip to Poland and the adventure that followed…
Despite my surging adrenaline of the past two hours, I will proceed with this tale chronologically. Not very excitingly, Friday morning was filled with laundry. Fortunately, since Roya and Jess were erstwhile occupied, I had all the laundry facilities to myself and managed to wash (and dry—the most important step!)…
[insert brief pause while I chat with the police and firemen at my door]
…all of my dirty clothes, for once escaping out of my chronic laundry deficit. Just as I was folding the last bunch of clothes, Jo arrived to pick me up. We had decided to spend the afternoon at Wayne's Coffee, discussing our thoughts on the upcoming thesis project. Afterwards, she was going to take me to the ferry, where I would meet the others on the trip.
There was a bit of a scramble to throw some clothes in a bag (Jo had arrived 15 minutes early), but we set off without too much trouble and had a lovely couple of hours at Wayne's. We ran into Lisa and her wife Liz, who was visiting from Boston for a couple days, and Mike—another classmate. Before I knew it, it was time to mosey over to the ferry.
[insert longer pause while I run to the bathroom to vomit]
At the ferry station, I met up with Renaud, Amity, Rene, and David and we boarded the most luxurious ferry I have ever seen. It was gigantic, with several restaurants, places to gamble, a movie theatre, and most importantly of all—a duty-free shop.
We went to get something to eat, and everything was going swimmingly until about 20 minutes after we departed, when I noticed that the ferry was rolling back and forth in an ominous way. I had brought—but neglected to take—Dramamine and it was quickly apparent that the drugs were of utmost priority. Now, I am prone to motion sickness, but the others on the trip will attest to the unusually wobbly nature of a ship so large.
Within 30 minutes I was back to my cheerful (if a little giddy) self. After a little wandering around the ferry, we went back to our cabin (a cheerful, tiny compartment with two bunk beds and just enough room between them for Rene to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.
The rocking was bad enough that when I tried to lay on my side, I was gently rolled onto my stomach, and then to my back. Having taken yet more Dramamine, I was merely intrigued by this phenomenon and was able to get enough sleep so that I didn't want to kill myself when we docked at 7 a.m. the next morning.
After disembarking and making our way through passport control (I have 4 stamps from this trip alone!), we caught a taxi and drove the 20 km from Gdynia to Gdansk. We were dropped off at the train station, where we bid goodbye to Renaud, who was continuing on to Krakow. After withdrawing zlotys (Polish currency) from an ATM, we were ready to go. Rene and I were hungry for breakfast, so we walked up to a local bakery stand in the train station, only to be denied food because we didn't have any small bills. Apparently, 100 zlotys (the bill dispensed from the ATM) was equal to about $30, and the roll I wanted was only 1.5 zlotys. This was my introduction into the wonderful world of cheap, delicious Polish baked goods.
Still hungry, we walked a couple of blocks and found another bakery that let us buy rolls and a loaf of bread. Trailing breadcrumbs behind us, we walked another 10 minutes until we found our hostel. This being my first hostel experience, I wasn't sure what to expect. Aside from the stale-vomit smell in the entrance, it was lovely. There was a comfy living room that reminded me of a group house my friend David lived in during college. There was a tiny kitchen and refrigerator, along with free tea and coffee. Our room upstairs was remarkably similar to our room on the ferry, with two sets of bunk beds, but a little more cheerful, with bright orange curtains.
[insert pause to cut a piece of bread and add peanut butter]
The brilliant thing about the hostel was that it was only 120 zlotys for two nights ($40)! It had free internet and a stereo that played bizarre international music in the background.
Anyway, after we deposited our things in our room and checked out the bathroom (right next door) and shower (right next to the bathroom), we bundled up again (it was cold—we decided that this weekend marked the turning point of fall into winter) and set off to explore the town.
Gdansk is a beautiful old city, founded just before 1000 AD. It has a massive shipyard, and these ship workers founded the Solidarity Movement that eventually led to the transition from Poland as a Communist Nation to a democracy. They held Poland's first workers' strike and many were killed—today you can see a monument to the fallen ship workers of that period.
On the commercial side, Gdansk is noted for its collection on amber and silver jewelry. One of the streets we walked down (made up, of course, of tall buildings and cobblestone) had nearly to dozen amber shops within a single block. I was appalled by some of the gaudy pieces (think something Wilma from the Flintstones would have worn), but there was also some exquisite work to behold.
[insert pause to open up the windows in a futile attempt to get the smoky smell out]
After trekking about, we stopped in at a little place for lunch, where we were treated to heaping plates of shaslik, kebab, and pizza. Thus sated, we continued our walk around the city, stopping in at a couple of the old churches to look around. One in particular was undergoing renovation, and the restoration crew had discovered some original wall murals dating from the 1300s underneath the plaster. It was amazing to look at how the art and architecture had changed over 700 years. Overall, however, it was a bit desolate and creepy, and I was happy to get back outside and continue walking. We meandered back and forth, marveling at the structure of the town, which was built facing the harbor and begins with a solid row of houses, connected to a huge watchtower and heavily fortified mill.
We had planned to see an opera or ballet, but after negotiating the Polish electric train (basically a little tram that runs all over the city) we discovered that the box office was closed. Being so far our of our way, we then decided to do some shopping. Poland is supposed to have really cheap goods, and Rene and Amity had come with a list. At the tram station, a woman had explained that the shopping center called "mo-hatte" was our best bet, and so we started walking in the general direction she had pointed out. It was drizzling, and I was soaked by the time we finally located the "Manhatten" mall. It was depressingly "Westernized" and didn't even have super deals. It did, however, have a coffee shop when I partook of a latte macchiato that was horrendous until I added a few teaspoons of sugar. Amity and Rene had limited success, and we agreed that Poland malls are not for us.
Eventually, we ended up back at the hostel, where we took a quick breather before setting off to find diner. We had heard about a vegetarian restaurant a couple of blocks away, but we were treated rather shabbily and decided to find another place. We ended up back on the main street at a pierogi place. It's main décor revolved around stuffed animals (a little creepy) and we dined directly under a ferocious-looking boar's head attached to the wall. The food was strange and Polish—I got a plate of mini-pierogis filled with what seemed like pureed pork. Ick.
Having had a poor night's sleep, and having walked around all day, we were exhausted after dinner and declined invitations (from other hostel people we met at the restaurant) to join them for a night of clubbing. Instead, we hustled back to the hostel and called it a night.
Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with a tummy ache (damn pureed pork!) and spent a couple hours being silently miserable. So when the rest of the group got up early, I stayed in bed and caught up on my sleep. By the time I was up, had breakfast, and did some reading, the group was back. We had plans to go see the Shipyard museum, but we dawdled too long. Instead, we walked around the town some more. The night was beautiful and the water was perfectly still, so the buildings stood out in perfect reflection. We stopped in at one of the amber stores on the waterfront, and Rene got a couple of gifts to take back home. I was tempted to get a silver necklace, but decided to sleep on it.
For dinner, we chose a pizza place on the main lane, and had great time chatting. Up until this trip, I didn't really know Amity, Rene, and David that well, and I am SO glad that I came along on this adventure. They are all bright, intelligent, funny, articulate, caring people—the best in the program.
[insert brief pause for warm fuzzy feeling]
Once again, we called it an early night. In the morning, I slept in while the others did some last minute shopping and took a walk near the shipyards. Bored, I did some shopping of my own and got a gorgeous silver necklace with two pendants. Pictures to follow…
The entire group rendezvoused back at the hostel and decided to take one last circle round the town. Around 5:30 p.m. we caught a taxi back to Gdynia and boarded the same ferry back to Karlskrona. Miraculously, there was almost no motion on the boat (even though I was heavily doped up on Dramamine) and we enjoyed a quiet evening back. I stopped in at the duty-free shop and bought a couple presents for my trip home this weekend, and was in bed by 11 p.m.
Once again, I awoke in the middle of the night with tummy trouble. Fortunately, we were nearly there, and I only spent an hour or two in the bathroom (oh the yuckiness of it all) before Amity, Rene, and David managed to get me through passport control and into the waiting area. Apparently, the vomiting and other-associated-symptoms-which-I-won't-describe had taken their toll, because I looked like death warmed over. This was far beyond a little motion sickness—more like a full on stomach flu. I could barely think straight, and bless Rene for calling Jo to come pick me up at the ferry terminal—there was no WAY I could have made it home on the bus (the original plan).
I made it home with no terrible incidents, and crawled into bed (well, crawled into bed and then jumped back out to go vomit in the bathroom) with Roya watching on in horror from her room. I have no idea how I spent the next few hours, but managed by 3 p.m. to once again make sense of the world around me. I made some tea and ate some crackers, only to have them come up again on short notice. Things progressed slowly (how strange it is to be grateful to visit the bathroom only once an hour!) until around 5 p.m. That's when my next adventure began…
I had written previously about the family upstairs who likes to yell. Well, shortly after 5 p.m. (still sweaty from throwing up and wearing only a t-shirt and sweatpants), I heard the two little girls screaming in the hallway. It was immediately apparent that they were screaming from terror, so I walked up the stairs and saw smoke billowing out of their apartments. The girls were running back and forth, screaming and crying, and the mother was dashing in and out of the apartment shrieking in Swedish. I peered around the corner of the apartment and could see the glow of flames coming from the living room. The mother was completely hysterical (it is clear to me now that she has severe social problem) and couldn't make up her mind on what to do. At this point, I picked up the littlest girl and grabbed the hand of the older one (they were maybe 3 and 6) and took them down the stairs as fast as we could go. The mother ran by us, trying to knock on one of the neighbor's doors, but when no one answered, she ran back upstairs. I decided she was a lost cause and continued out the door with the girls. They were both barefoot and didn't have coats, so we stayed in the entryway for a minute while I decided what to do. Fortunately, a man came down the stairs and hold me he had called the 112 (the Swedish 911) and that the firemen were on their way. At this point, the mother runs out the front door and I set down the little girl. The whole family turns to see their father coming up the driveway (coming from the bus, I guess) and runs to greet him. At this point, I am distracted by the arrival of 3 fire trucks, an ambulance, and several police cars. By now, passersby are swarming around, but most of the occupants of the building are still inside. While running down the steps with the girls, I had looked for a fire alarm but had been unable to find one. So as the firemen dashed up the stairs, they managed to get everyone out of their apartments. My neighbors took their sweet time and arrived outside with coats and hats on—and there I was in a t-shirt and sweatpants—no shoes, no coat, and violently fighting another wave of nausea.
After about 20 minutes of standing in the freezing weather, Benny and Pavan showed up from the bus stop. Benny gallantly offered me his coat, and Pavan led me up to his apartment to use his phone and get some water. I called Jess and Roya to let them know what had happened, and then went back outside. By then, the family had gone to the hospital (the mom was on oxygen—I suppose from the inhaled smoke), and someone had taken their dog and cat away (poor things, the cat looked ready to die in fright).
After another wait, we were finally allowed back inside. The stairwell was soaked from the fire hoses (they leak) and I trailed up the stairs with some trepidation. The smell of smoke was everywhere, but thankfully, I had the presence of mind to shut the door on the rampage out, so our apartment was largely unscathed. Aside from a smoky smell, and some water that will come through the roof in Jess's room, we are still in business.
The next hour was filled with firemen, policemen, and Karlskronahem security people wandering through the apartment to assess potential damage. Overall, people were quite nice and willing to translate into English. Apparently, the mother had set fire to their couch with a cigarette lighter, and the damage was contained in the living room. Still, their apartment is in shambles. Sigh…maybe they will move out. Too bad, since I was able to use my rudimentary Swedish to talk with the little girl, whose name is Kim.
So now I'm back in the apartment, with most of the activity done. It's taken me a LONG time to go through this entry, and I'm looking forward to a nice long sleep sans digestion or fire problems. Keeping my fingers crossed…
Posted by madchen at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)November 03, 2004
Oh yeah, school.
I shouldn't have so quickly dismissed my classes. This week saw the beginning of the second term in my Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability, in which I'll be taking two classes--Strategic Management and Advanced Leadership. So far, we've only had one speaker, Jouni...
[Note on politics: There are 11 states with initiatives on state constitutional amendments to ban gay marriages. NPR is reporting that it looks like all 11 will pass, including the ones banning civil unions and even a couple banning domestic partnership benefits. UGH! This makes me so mad I can't even think straight. Ha-ha, straight. So far, the initiative in Oregon is the only one that looks like it might fail. On the bright side, activists are already ready to challenge the amendments in court--on the issues that 1) they violate the federal consitution and 2) violate process laws, which require that intiatives include only one issue (gay marriage, civil unions, OR domestic partnership benefits--NOT all three)]
...Korhonen, professor of Industrial Ecology at the University of Tampere in Finland. His lectures, focusing on industrial ecology and corporate social responsibility, have centered around his premise that the current industrial ecology paradigm (based on the neo-classical economics--with globalization, specialization, mass production and economic growth, and competition as key concepts) is misplaced. Instead, Jouni recommends that business should instead use a nature-based model (encompassing locality, diversity, cooperation, and development).
While I think that the lectures were interesting (although a little slow-moving), the best part was the final segment of today's session, where we engaged in a spirited discussion of business paradigms--particularly related to industrial parks. Not that there were many conclusions, but it was nice to reflect as a group on the topics we just heard about.
On an unrelated topic, today was absolutely BEE-YEW-TI-FUL. The sky was a deep blue, the kind you only see in cold weather. Class ended at noon, so I ate my pasta outside in the sun--not even needing my coat. It was lovely, and so unexpected.
I have class at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning (or, I guess, THIS morning) and it runs all day. I already can tell that I'm going to be EXHAUSTED.
Posted by madchen at 04:25 AM | Comments (0)Election Frenzy
I crawled into bed this afternoon just before 5 p.m. in preparation for getting up in the middle of the night to listen to the election results. After a failed attempt to watch ABC News via live internet feed, I ended up listening to NPR's live stream, with Washington Post as my primary electoral map.
Of course, there had to be a technical glitch--apparently, my internet provider here in Sweden (Affairsverken) scheduled broadband maintenance scheduled for 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. When my internet connection conked out with no warning, it took me a good 45 minutes to discover the reason. In the intervening minutes, I was plunged into a sea of despair, feeling totally cut off from the rest of the world. Thankfully, their maintenance must have been completed ahead of time, because promptly at 4 a.m. the internet went back on and I'm now back online, listening to my favorite radio people, Robert Siegal and Linda Wertheimer. Sigh--I love public radio.
I also love the Washington Post, which has a live update on key races. Currently, at 4:13 a.m. (here), the race in Florida is looking extremely tight, with less than 200,000 votes seperating Bush and Kerry with 77% of the vote counted. And just in Broward County, there are 90,000 absentee ballots that haven't been counted, and potentially won't be counted until Thursday.
Another thing I am amazed at is the voter turnout. Apparently, there are still long lines at polling places in Ohio and Florida (main swing states). Even though the polls have closed, the law states that once you are in line to vote, your vote will be counted.
High voter turnout favors Kerry. NPR is reporting that if 130 million voters (or more) participate in the election, the likelihood of a Kerry win increases dramatically. They point to a polling place at an Ohio college campus where students have formed an impromtu party (having to wait over 7 hours to vote), which has brought in additional students that weren't even planning to vote. Yay for voter turnout!
I have been feeling extremely excited about this election, but strangely detached, having voted by absentee ballot several weeks ago. So I'm thrilled to be able to listen to the results on the internet.
NPR has now reported that Senator Bunning (Kentucky) has won re-election. This has been a bizarre case, as the Senator has been behaving erratically--suddenly withdrawing from a live debate and participating instead from his campaign headquarters, where he read his opening and closing statements from a Teleprompter. The campaign got really nasty, and it seems that there are real concerns that Senator Bunning has lost some mental facility. And yet, the voters chose to re-elect him. Weird, weird, weird.
Posted by madchen at 04:05 AM | Comments (0)November 02, 2004
Fun Weekend Plans
Class has been blah, but I have this weekend to look forward to. That's right, I'm going to Gdansk, baby!
Five of us will take the overnight ferry to Poland on Friday night and stay for three glorious days, returning on the Monday night ferry. I don't know a thing about it, but the pictures look amazing. I've been mulling over the tourist guides this afternoon and I'm VERY excited!
I really should be napping, since I'm meeting people at 3 a.m. at the apartments on campus to watch the election results. I'm feeling excited and terrifed.
Posted by madchen at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)
