Deppert.se

Basically, when you talk about the southern parts of Sweden and winter you always say something like this:

“Yes, everybody expects us in Sweden to have a lot of snow. But the truth is, that is pnly valid for the northern parts of Sweden. Down here in Skåne we usually only have some snowflakes once in a while and we consider ourselves really lucky if any lakes freeze over. Snow here is mostly slush, dirty slush.”

Well, once again, I am proven wrong. The winter already came before Christmas and has stayed on. Yesterday I made an attempt to attend a kick-off in Tomelilla (small town in the eastern rural areas of Skåne) and did not make it. For the second time within 1,5 month I could not go there because the Swedish Road Service said that they could not clear the streets and that they due to the expected snowfall in the evening warned everyone from going out in these parts.

While we still had a good kick-off at my place instead I started to think about snow. And could not help myself in making comparisons with Vancouver last year – even though we had much much more snow in Vancouver they did not manage to clear the streets either. Still, Vancouver somehow made the snow feel ok and more or less gave it a romantic touch – who would not want to have a beautiful white cover in the morning on a day that you are off? Giving you lots of material to build figures with and an exceptional view of the mountains surrounding Vancouver. Even if you would need to go to work, you would not complain about the bus being late.

In Lund, snow just becomes an obstacle. You cannot bike, everything takes for ever, people are reluctant to go out and some unlucky ones even had problems with the power supply and the telephone lines. I just somehow get more comfortable here and refuse to change just for the snow.

Still, I am admiring the wonderful that I have from my window, all small the small houses with white roofs and the quietness that comes with people not moving around as much. I think I might as well enjoy it while I can!

Cheers,
Ulrike

Often I write about the culture clash that takes place when I go to another country. This time I will turn it the other way around. I was fortunate to have visitors from Uganda last week and they certainly questioned some very usual things here in Sweden.

For example: Why do people ride their bike around here so much? In Uganda, riding a bike is a sign that you are not rich enough to by a motorcycle. Well, sure, the students in Lund are poor, but not that poor. The argument that biking is good for your health and an easier means of transport did not really convince my visitors. And once we saw a bike with a cart for kids behind it, which really triggered some discussions.

The other astonishing fact was that we have tarmac roads to basically every little house on the countryside. In Uganda, building a road to the house is the owner’s responsibility and he will then be thanked by some hefty road taxes. And tarmac is mostly non-existent in Uganda, only the main traffic roads in the country have tarmac.

While giving lectures at different school, my visitors also experience some shocks. Not only was the lunch heated in the microwave but also was a class made up of about 15-20 students and a variety of teachers. In Uganda the equivalent is 70-90 and very few teachers in general.

In all, it is very useful to get some provoking thoughts about your own situation and lifestyle. And it has not made my urge to visit the African continent go away.

Cheers,
Ulrike

Yesterday, I did one of the most courageous things I ever have done. I donated blood. Not for the first time in my life, in fact it was visit number 11, but it is always the same fear that strikes me. I get nervous about a day before and the 15 Minutes (tops!) in the chair are the most horrifying in my life. Even though nurses guard me the whole time and I always bring a friend/family member to keep me company. I just can’t do it without being afraid.

But yesterday, I had the big revelation. While going through the procedures, I wound myself saying that “but I am at least not afraid of raiding trains anymore”. And realised, that yes, that was true! After almost 27 years of riding a train, well lets say that I have been feeling that fear for maybe 24 years (I can’t really count the earliest years in my life), I am no longer afraid of entering a trains. Yes, I am still nervous, but no longer afraid of being left alone on the train or anything else.

And with that hindsight I can make some calculations: I have been donating blood for 8 years. Overcoming a huge fear for something takes approx. 24 years. That leaves me with a meagre 16 years before I will happily walk to the blood donations centre! Not bad, I must say. And I will hopefully catch malaria before that and be relieved in less than 16 years!

Cheers,
Ulrike

Lange war der Familienausflug geplant, lange sollte er zum Meereskundemuseum in Stralsund gehen. Aber als der Tag endlich da war und sämtliche Mitglieder der Familie endlich im Auto saßen, gab es neue Pläne. Güstrow und Fischland. Gut, die Sonne schien, die Jüngeren schliefen sich erstmal im Auto aus.

Bei der Fähre in Gedser gab es dann Debakel. Die Pläne wurden noch mal geändert. Wismar stand nun auf dem Programm, au, fein, Kultur und Geschichte auf hohem Niveau. Aber der Hunger machte sich in Puttgarden breit und es wurde kurzerhand beschlossen, in Lübeck Mittag zu essen. Wismar war dann die nächste Anhaltestelle.

In Lübeck wurde das Kartoffelfest gefeiert, alles nach dem Motto: Schick in Schale. Kultur gab es auch, Kirchen und Thomas Mann, Erich Mühsam und die große Einkaufsstrasse. Dann war es auch schon Zeit für Eis und Kaffe und es war schon später als wir im wieder im Auto saßen.

Irgendwie gelang es uns, die hinten saßen, wieder alles vollständig zu verschlafen. So auch die Abfahrt nach Wismar, mit der Begründung, dass es schon dunkel wurde und wir Wismar noch bequem morgen schaffen würden. Wäre man doch bloß wach geblieben.

Der Abend verlief spielend, erst haben wir Bä bä vita lamm gespielt, der Lachfaktor war hoch und Spaß hat es auch gemacht. Dann war Trivial Pursuit an der Reihe, mit seinen Wissensspeichern und Wissensecken. Geteilter Platz für Bruder und Mutter, Tochter wurde letzte hatte aber dafür wahrscheinlich die meiste Schokolade gegessen.

Nach einem sehr ruhigen Morgen mit frischen Brötchen ging es los in Richtung Güstrow. Ernst Barlach, Holzschnitzer, hatte dort sein Atelier und viele seiner Stücke sind hier ausgestellt. Wir besuchten auch den Dom, mit ”dem Schwebendem”, und das Schloss.

Ein spontaner Abbruch war das kurze Baden im See; kalt und nass aber doch sehr erfrischend, vor allem weil wir vor dem Regen wieder raus waren.

Dann weiter Richtung Wismar. Endlich! Was uns da wohl erwarten wird? Aber wie verzaubert, es passierte schon wieder und wir gestehen: die hinteren Sitze im Auto formen eine Schlafbank. Plötzlich war Wismar schon wieder außer Reichweite. Und der Zweifel wurde groß, gab es diese Stadt wirklich? Ja, sie ist auf der Landkarte vermerkt. Ja, der Reporter im Radio brachte gerade eine Liveübertragung von einem Sonntagskonzert in Wismar. Und die Straße hat vorbeigeführt.

Aber gesehen habe ich nichts!!

One lesson I really have learned is that you have to dare to ask others. For example if you are looking for a job, you should ask anyone around you that might be able to help you. Family, former co-workers or, above all, former teachers. The importance of asking is because if you do not ask, people will not think about you when they see an opportunity. But if you tell them that you seek something, they will come to remember it when they see something relevant.

I have heard this has to do with the way the brain works. It works by remembering things people have done or said, and things we have experienced. If you do not say it, another person cannot remember it.

So if you seek something – tell it to the world, and your chances of finding it will increase.

Winner: best optical illusion.

Just some info for those of you who want to know how I am living right now.

After having lived at 4 different places in the same town in the same number of years, I have now moved to a new home again.
It was no option this time, as the last place I stayed in is about to get a total face-lift, and probably will be one of the cities mote expensive places after-ward. Not really an option to stay there for me.

So I had found myself a really nice little apartment before I left in the begining of summer. However, the same day I signed up for the apartment, and one day before I was about to leave, an old friend called. He and his girlfriend where moving together he said, and there room in a larger apartment would be free. An apartment that also had 2 other residents, both of whom I knew since earlier.

So with a little luck I managed to get someone to take over the apartment I had found, and decided instead to move in in the larger apartment with my now 2 new room-mates.

My second morning here now, and it seems to get pretty sweet. One of the room-mates is a former co-DJ to me, so now I actually have acces to really good equipment and good connections if I want to play a little in Sweden. The apartment is also located really convenient, with a 5 minute walk to all relevant spots for me. And – so far I have not had to move one single piece of furniture and that could very well stay that way. Which is nice, for I have been moving so many times that I am glad if I don’t have to move a lot of things again – my room now is small enough to not need more then a borrowed bed and sofa (I need some things for the walls thou), and the rest of the apartment has all that I could ask for.

Seems very good this far.

Another season in Greece comes to an end. Just as all my previous season, both here and in Turkey, it is an intense experience, emotionally. It teaches you a little bit more about yourself every time.

My biggest bad point is that I got the comment that I did not look as having as much fun as last year. Something that might be right, but I cannot feel that I have had less fun. However I think this is partly because of my involvement in SHIP the last 6 month. It was quite an exhausting period, and I think it took a lot more energy then I like to admit.

Härarbete
I have also experienced “härarbete” in a real way. It took a while to take off, as it took more then 3 weeks to get my new computer (which I am really happy with). But now I have starting using Ubuntu, and getting things done from here is no problem. Biggest drawback is the ability to talk over telephone – there are no really good quite spots here to talk on, so it is always a little bothersome.
Compared with Sweden, I spend about as much time with “office work” as back home. There are some complications, most related to that the files are on the old computer, and that I do not have a fixed office, but otherwise it works surprisingly well. Would I have been here longer it would all be about setting the right routines.

DJ
Professionally I have also come a long way as a DJ. This year is a lot of different, music wise, then last year. But I really do feel I do a lot of a better job and I have really enjoyed it. I have also been offered to play in Norway next May, through one of the former employees here. Nothing sure if it materialises, but it would be fun to visit everybody in Oslo for one week.

Some other good acquaintances have been made as well, some of which maybe lead to big new projects for me in the future. But that will only time tell. Needles to say, the biggest lessons from here is that good people can be found everywhere, and just by acting in an honest way yourself, you will find them and you will inspire each other.

But now it is almost finished, and I will miss being an employee when I get back to Sweden. It is really good, as a boss, to be an employee from time to time – you can learn a lot about leadership just by being subjected to it.

I always find that being in another place gives you a whole new set of daily routines. One that did not translat too well to being in Greece was taking time to read books.

I have however now finished one of the books I brought done here, the slimest one: Full koll på mailen. It is a book I bought when I realized that I more or less do all my work through emails, and wondered if there aren’t any guides to leadership through email. There weren’t. Not what I found at least. I did however find the above mentioned book, which is about how to write and behave in electronic conversations.
There is also a small chapter devoted to being a boss and using emails.

I was sceptical to the book to start with. I usually only read books I have gotten recommended, and this one I searched for and bought without knowing anything about it. However, it turned out to be a good buy.

The book talks about a lot of things that can seem to be common sense. But, as always, common sense is not something given. So it is good to read that yes, it is important to have a friendly tone, and yes, you should start your letters with “hi” and finish with an apporiete ending (because it shows that you take your time when writing, and it therefore conveys importance to the letter)
A lot of details like these, but they are good to hear.

The things I take to me the most from the book:
- There are 3 golden rules – 1) avoid creating distance to the person you are writing too 2) think about the other persons needs 3) treat the “email room” as a limited resource, and don’t just send emails because you can.
- The book also stretches the need for good emails, avoiding to many recipients, and just talking about one topic at a time. And that you really, really, should avoid arguments through letters.

So overall it was, actually, a very good read. At 88 small pages (not even A5!), you can easily read it in under 1 hour, and I would recommend it to everybody who works with a computer. For even if you don’t think about it, a lot of our work nowadays is about getting and replying to emails.

The book is from 2 Danish authors (I think) and I haven’t seen it in any other language. So the link above is to the Swedish version.