Swedish Stories: First Lectures

Hello All, Sven Here!

Events of the Week:

So this week was filled will all sorts of new and exciting news. We had our first days of lectures this week by 2 of our guest lecturers, Goran Broman (Founder of the Master's Program and professor at Blekinge Institute of Technology) and Karl-Henrik Robert (Founder of the Natural Step). Both lectures (5 hours each) were very interesting and really set the excitement for this coming year! We also had our first assignment due on Tuesday- a report on what we, as a group, want to create this year. The report was created through an “open-space” format- where topics are posted by students of ideas they would like to discuss then everyone can pick the discussions they would like to take part in. There are 5 principles for open-space:

- Whoever comes are the right people

- Whenever it starts is the right time

- When the discussion is done, its done

- Whatever happens is the only thing that could happen

- 2 feet rule- if you are not participating or interested, get up and be apart of

another discussion, take a walk, or just go home.

This week also marks our first swim in the chilly Baltic waters. After class on Wednesday, a bunch of us headed out to the beach by the path behind the University. There we ate some lunch and a few of us proceeded into the Baltic Sea for a swim of the rocky coastline. Floating in the water, about 100 yards out are what look like little floating houses. Upon swimming out to them, we found that they were actually floating saunas! However, they looked as though they had been abandoned and were full of trash. It even appeared as though someone had slept in it a few times as there was a pillow. Upon further investigation we found out that the saunas used to be owned by the city and were open for public use. However a few years ago, they became privately owned. Currently, no one seems to know who owns them, as they are not taken care of at all- maybe we can clean them up and claim them for ourselves!

Swedish Fun Fact:

In Sweden it is very common for them have lights in public places light apartment building hallways that only turn on for a period of time when you hit a glowing button on the wall (so the lights aren’t all the time). So on Wednesday night a bunch of us were out at a friend’s house for dinner. When we left, it was super dark outside and in the hallways. Thinking I was going to be a “knowledgeable” Swedish student, I played it cool and found something glowing on the wall opposite of the place we were exiting. I proceeded to push it in to turn the hallway lights on. When it did not work, I began pushing harder, in many different patterns and finally just held it in for a good 5 seconds in hopes the lights would turn on. At this point, a door opened and a sleepy-looking man and his Rottweiler stood in the doorway- neither speaking English. Apparently the button I decided to push was this poor sleeping man’s doorbell. I tried to apologize in my mother-tongue language.

Swedish Dish:

There does not seem to be any sort of powder drink mix here (that I can find). Ice tea, my favorite beverage is taking the biggest hit thus far. However one of the most confusing naming systems exists in the fruit juices. Apple juice here is called äppeljuice and orange juice is called apelsinjuice. If we look at this from a Spanish point of view where sin means not, we have ‘apple juice’ and “not apple juice.” I guess apple juice is the staple and everything else is just NOT apple juice. Talk about comparing apples and oranges.

Swedish Word:

This week’s Swedish word is going to take the form of their time system. Sweden uses a 24 hour system (like military time) instead of two- 12 hour repetitions each day. We have adjusted to this pretty well, in the afternoon, just take the hour number and subtract 12 to get the logical time. However, we were blind-sided when contacting a possible landlord a few days before we found our current residency. We asked if we would be able to see the apartment, the woman obliged and asked what time we wanted to see it. We had class until noon and then again in the evening, so Spud proceeded to explain to the lady that the best time to see the apartment would be “fourteen o’clock.” Maybe she did not hear, but she asked again, to which Spud again replied “fourteen o’clock.” At this moment, we were informed that you just call it normal 2 o’clock when speaking with someone, not 14 o’clock, and not even 14-hundred hours.

-Sven (Matt)

Pictures from the week:One wing of our School