Sven's Field Trip Observations

Hello All, Sven Here!

Events of the Week:

It certainly has been a busy few weeks- 2 presentations last week and our first exam-WOO followed by a fieldtrip to Vaxjo, Sweden “The Greenest City in Europe” over the weekend. The first presentation was to explain many different concepts that we had learned during the first few weeks including the sustainability challenge, using backcasting as a decision making tool, and explaining the 4 principles of sustainability and the scientific foundations they are based on. The 2^nd presentation was a group analysis of a company in the context of sustainable development. Our group chose to evaluate Whistler Blackcomb, a ski resort in British Columbia, Canada, and the location of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

About 60 of the 75 Masters students here left for Vaxjo at 830am Friday morning and returned at 6pm Sunday evening. We had a few stops along the way including Vaxjo city hall, a tour of “the wooden city,” hotel stay at Blidingshold, a visit to a car cemetery, and a tour at Wanas Foundation. Probably the neatest was the Car cemetery- which is just an abandoned car lot, but its been there for so long that the cars are being taken back over by nature. Plants, moss and trees are growing up around them, the steal frames are rusted and breaking down. However, the plastics in the steering wheels are fully intact and don’t look like their older than a year. Also, all the leakage into the soil of the cars breaking down has seeped into the stream water running near by.

Swedish Fun Fact:

I have noticed that telling jokes to people whose first language is not English is a mistake and just should not be attempted. I am discovering that jokes are very much based on sayings and cultures. I took the opportunity on the 2 hour bus ride home to share some jokes with some of my new friends from Sweden and the United Kingdom. The US actually gets a bit of its comedy from Britain, examples being “the office, whose line is it anyway, monty python, etc. However, Swedish humor must be very different. Check out this one that did not get a laugh, can you believe it???:

A guy, Joe, walks into a bar and sits down. On the counter there is a small bowl of peanuts. As he reaches to grab some, one of the peanuts yells, “Hey Joe, looking good today! Is that a new hair cut?” Joe, surprised, asked the bartender, “what’s up with the peanuts?” The bartender explained, “Oh don’t worry about them, their complimentary.”

Swedish Dish:

At the hotel for breakfast every morning we were offered a traditional Swedish breakfast buffet. I will just list some of the yummy items on the menu. First off there are hard boiled eggs, a spread of ham, bologna, warm sausage, bread with jellies and other funny looking spreads that I didn’t touch. Also, they serve salmon and local eel (at a cool refrigerated temperature). Finally, a staple is “create your own cereal” by just having some cornflakes, and some oatmeal, and other brans that you can put together in a bowl however you like. Then instead of milk, you have your choice of vanilla or blueberry yogurt to bind it all together. It actually all is pretty good- though I think they’re missing some bacon.

Swedish Word:

Utfart means exit. Utfart can be found all around the city and once you get over the funny little resemblance to the English word that is captured in Utfart, you begin to realize how helpful this word is. Keep in mind, when the country’s language is Swedish, all signs on doors by English speakers are determined by guess and check. When approaching the door you realize what you are about to open could be a variety of different things: If your lucky, it’s a bathroom or an exit, but occasionally you’ll hit the “emergency exit only” door. So learning Utfart, as I did last week was a great step in determining what doors are what, and a step away from the guess and check method!

-Sven