Afro Headquarters

Sept. 21st

I left Alex’s house in Huerth at 10:45 and followed a print out of a google map all the way to Maastricht. The 95km journey took 7 hours to complete, it could have been faster but when I crossed the border into the Netherlands I saw a sign saying 22km to Maastricht, it was only 16:00 at this time and I wasn’t meeting up with Oliver until 19:00, so I took my time and managed to spread the 22km out into a 2 hour relaxing ride. I arrived at the planned meeting spot (a giant round about near the town centre) at 18:00 and had an hour before meeting Oliver. I put on some music and watched the sun slowly set behind the buildings in front of me. Unaware of my early arrival, Oliver drove right through the round about on his way home from school and didn’t even see me. Also unaware of my presence in the Netherlands, Verena rode by on her bike, but she did see the hair, and thought to herself “it cannot be, that the Canadian is here Maastricht.” She continued home and told her flat mate and boyfriend that she thought she saw a friend but they both told her she wasn’t loosing her mind and that it wasn’t the Canadian she saw. In the mean time, I met up with Oli at 19:00 and we rode back to his place. Oli’s place is really nice, has 4 rooms, a living room, a big kitchen and a back yard, and to top it all off it is only 150 euro a month, really cheap and great for students. I met Oli’s roommate Kathrin and we had dinner together before heading over to Verena’s place (she lives 30 seconds away from Oliver). Standing outside the door to Verena’s, Oli rang the bell and I hid around the corner. Verena’s flat mate opened the door and said “ahh the neighbours are here” and verena came down the stairs to greet Oli and Kathrin, then I came around the corner and shouted “AUTOBAHN!” and the expression on Verena’s face was priceless, she couldn’t believe that it was really me and that I was there in the Netherlands. We then sat around the table talking about what had happened in our lives since Malmo, we talked for a couple hours then went back to Oli’s and went to bed.

Sept. 22nd

On Tuesday I went to class with Oliver and Verena, it was a lab session where the students worked on the skills they were being taught in class. The days topic was Integrative Negotiation, for the two exorcises that we did I sat in as a 3rd party and offered different opinions and insights to help Verena and Oli in their negotiations. After class we went shopping for food and headed back to Oli’s for a big barbecue. The food was excellent and more people kept on showing up until we were almost 20 people hanging out in Oli’s and Kathrin’s backyard.

Sept. 23rd

Wednesday, Oli, Oli’s girlfriend Eva and I went out on our bikes to explore Maastricht. We biked downtown then locked up our bikes and continued on foot. We walked down the shopping streets of Maastricht, and I found a place where I purchased a deck of dutch playing cards. We then headed back towards Oli’s place and I met up with some people along the way at a basketball court to play some b-ball. There was Anthony from France, David from Germany, Scott from Australia and myself the Canadian. We played basketball until we were too sore to play anymore. Then went home had some dinner and chilled for the rest of the evening while Oli and Verena worked on school work.

Sept. 24th

Verena and Oli’s assignment was due today so I just hung around until the evening time when we went to Belgium to visit Ellie and Caro, friends of Oliver and Verena. We took Verena’s car to Belgium and we there in no time. Verena’s boyfried, Nils, was also there so the 6 of us hung out, talked, and played games until some odd hour in the morning. We then went back home to Maastricht and I said goodbye to Nils, as he was leaving in the morning, and then went to bed.

Sept. 25th

I went to class for the second time with Oli and Verena, this time though it was a four hour long lecture that featured 4 guests speakers. After class we went back to Oli’s for dinner and awaited the arrival of Niels Vandeputte and his girlfriend Anna from Belgium. Niels and Anna finally arrived at 9 in the evening and at the same time some friends of Oliver and Verena came over. We hung out at Oli’s place for a few hours then headed to old abandoned factory that had been converted into a concert hall. There was a live band playing and tons of people hanging out having a good time, very different from other concerts I’ve been to, the music was loud enough to enjoy it, but you could still talk to people without having to yell. We didn’t get home until 4 in the morning, at which point we all went straight to bed.

Sept. 26th

We woke up around noon on Saturday, and went for a walking tour of Maastricht with Niels and Anna. It was just Oliver, Verena, Niels, Anna and myself, the 5 of us having all studied/lived together in Sweden. We walked along the Maas River and stopped at a cafe for lunch. We crossed over the river and walked through an older, more residential area of Maastricht that I had not been to yet. The old buildings and stone streets were very beautiful, and there were fewer tourists around, so it was very peaceful walking through this old part of town. Then we came upon a church that had been converted into a book store, in the english section I found “The Silmarillion” by J.R.R. Tolkien. After the bookstore we headed back to Oli’s place. Again we went and bought food for a barbecue, and Oliver’s girlfriend joined us for the barbecue. The six of us sat around the table and ate and talked and talked and talked some more. It was a moment in time that I cannot really describe how I felt, to be there with friends that I had lived together with for 6 months, and had not seen them in a while and won’t see them again for a long time. The whole evening was just perfect.

Sept. 27th

Oliver, Eva, Verena, Niels, Anna and I cooked and ate breakfast together and we hung out for a while before Niels and Anna headed back to Belgium. Saying goodbye to Niels was tough but Niels has said he wants to come to Vancouver in 2010 so I will see him again. After Niels and Anna left, Oli and Verena had to work on school stuff, so Eva, and I called up Scott (the Aussie) to go play some basketball. We played for a couple hours, then went back home for dinner. Then we were hoping to go watch a movie but all the showtimes were pretty late, and I wanted to get a good nights sleep before biking back to Cologne. We ended up watching Pulp Fiction at Verena’s place. Then it was off to bed for the night.

Sept. 28th

I woke up at 9 and started to get my things ready. Verena stopped by on her way to school to say goodbye, and just as I greeted her, I shouted “autobahn” as she rode off on her way to school. I made a quick run to the store to buy some snacks for my trip then packed up my bike and prepared to head out. I said good bye to Oliver and headed out on my way back to Cologne. In the City of Dueren I stopped by a local Real Estate Office and met Oliver’s Mom. She was very interested in my trip and how the time went in Maastricht staying at Oliver’s place. She wished me luck on my way back to Cologne and I was back on the road again. The 95km trip that took me 7 hours to complete a week before only took me 5.5 hours this time around, and I was back in Cologne.

This journey begins August 29th, in the very heart of Rome, and spans many many kilometers across Europe, the french call it a “randonnée” but whatever you want to call it, the word you find can not truly describe “the Rhine Valley Incident.”

Aug. 29th

At 11:30 Alex and I made our way to the main station (Roma Termini) purchased bike passes and at 12:30 we started our journey towards Basel. We took 4 trains to Domodossola, and used the last day on our rail passes to do so. Domodossola is an Italian city near the Swiss/Italian border, it was here that we arrived at 23:30, set up our beds on the platform and set the alarm for 5:00 so we could get up, buy tickets and catch a train at 6:00, and then went to bed.

Aug. 30th

At 3:00 we were awoken by a conductor asking us where we were headed, when we said Basel, he told us to hop on the train and that we could buy the tickets from him. We quickly packed our gear and hopped onto the train. This train took us from Domodossola in Italy to Brig in Switzerland. From Brig we took a train to Bern and then finally a train to Basel. In Basel all the stores were closed as it was a Sunday, so we had to settle for buying our food at the expensive Coop inside the train station. We then headed out of the station and got on our bikes to find the Rhine River. We started to follow the river north until we came to a spot where we couldn’t go any further, the Rhine was to our left and in front of us, and to the right was a canal. As we are turning around to go back an Austrian gentleman starts talking to us, asking where we are going and where we have been? He then tells us that the monument we are standing beside marks the meeting point of the French, German and Swiss borders. We take a closer look at the monument and see that the countries’ three flags are painted on the side. We then back track and cross to the otherside of the canal and meet up with the trail that runs alongside the river. We are going at a steady pace on the dirt road, but we are slowed though whenever there is a town or a bridge over the Rhine. Going through one area takes about 2 hours, although we did stop for a short break, and takes us away from the river side. We ride past an amusement park before finally getting back onto a path that takes us to the Rhine. As the road turns from gravel to pavement, I look down only to find that my rear wheel is flat. With two spare tubes on hand we don’t bother patching the punctured tube, we replace it as quicly as possible and head out again. As the sun sets it is still a ways toKehl (the city we wanted to get to that day). We rode down the dirt path in the dark, with our bike lights to guide us, at every junction we had to stop and look for signs to point us in the right direction. We finally reach Kehl around 23:00 and ask for directions to the train station. We have a plan for going to the train station, we will look up a train that leaves early in the morning, go to the platform where the train departs from and sleep on the platform while pretending to be waiting for that train. Once we get to the station we see a train to Munich at 7:00 on track 4. We go set up our beds and set the alarm for 6:30.

Aug. 31st

We wake up wit hthe alarm and quickly pack our things, then as a train arrives at 6:50 we walk out of the station wit hthe other passengers. We found a super market inside a mall and purchased provisions for the day. We ate our breakfast on a bench that looked over a town square. With the sun shinning down on us and warming our sore and tired muscles, we decided it was time to head out. Getting out of Kehl was no easy task as we travelled down several paths that turned out to be deadends. After about 3 hours we were only 20km away from Kehl. At this point we moved from the dirt path to a paved road that followed the Rhine. On the pavement we were able to make up for lost time and with my sore knees getting better after I adjusted the hight of my seat, making up lost time was a top priority as we didn’t want to bike in the dark again. The Rhine was curving easterly, so we took a short cut along a fairly main road, we passed through several small towns and hoped we could make it to a town with a campsite before 22:00. As it grew dark we found ourselves on a one lane road, with forest on either side. We were following signs to Daxlanden and hoping we would find a place to sleep once we got there. At the edge of a nature reserve we stopped to look at a map, but it only showed the reserve and a few streets on the otherside. We biked through the reserve and found ourselves in the suburb of DAxlanden. At a bus/metro station we looked at a map of the entire area and discovered we were in Karlsruhle, the half-way mark of our journey. In a broken attempt to head north out of the city we stopped for a break to figure out where we were. In just the few minutes of sitting there I almost fell asleep. At this time we discussed whether or not we should continue biking or just take a train from Karlsruhle to Cologne. We decided to take a train and for the third time in three nights we headed towards the train station, but for only the second time in those three nights we intended on taking a train. It was around 23:30 and all the ticket booths were closed, but there were ticket vending machines where we were able to buy train tickets. Our first train didn’t leave until 3:30 so we carried our stuff up to the platform, set up our beds and went to sleep.

Sept. 1st

We woke up and caught our first train no problem, but unknown to us was that in Heidelbourg the train seperated and only half of the train kept going to Mainz. So at the Heidelbourg station, Alex tells me we have to get off, and we rush to get outside onto the platform then as we are running down the platform the part of the train we want to be on leaves without us. To tired to be angry we check the schedule to find that there is another train we can catch and then make a transfer to another train that will eventually get us to Mainz. We get on the train and it is only a 15 minute ride to the next station (Mannheim). Above the door there is a map of other regional trains that travel in the area which is of great help to us when we get to the stop, get off and look at the schedule, and find that if we get back on the same train and go two more stops we can catch a train in 5mins that goes to Mainz. So we get back on the train and head to Ludwighaven. We get off and need to find platform 2, we follow signs that point straight ahead for platform 2 and follow them to a dead end. At this moment we are panicking, we have no time to catch our next train and only know that we need to go up to the tracks abouve us but don’t know how to do so. We climb on our bikes and begin to ride down the platform, then we find an entrance to the station and inside, stairs and an escalator going up to platform 2, we ride our bikes into the station and right up to the bottom of the escalator. As we ago up the escalator the train pulls into the station and as we get our bikes on board the dorrs close behind us. It is about an hour long journey to Mainz and we have some time to relax on the train. We arrive in Mainz at 7:00 and our train to Cologne doesn’t leave until 7:24, but on the schedule it doesn’t show that the train to Cologne can take bikes, so Alex runs to the info/ticket booth to see if we can take our bikes on the train. He is back in a flash and says that yes we can take our bikes. We get on the train and enjoy the 4 hour ride to Cologne. As the train is a regional one it is stopping at all the small stops on it’s way to Cologne HBF and at Cologne South we get off because it is closest to Alex’s new place. We cycle along the streets of Cologne and eventually we are in the suburb of Huerth. We get turned around slightly but an old man shows us where we are on a map and we find Alex’s new place no problem. Sore and tired we take the rest of the day off and relax.

The preceding events have been transcribed from a journal of unknown origin. What has become of the two protaginists is also unkown. All that is known is that the Rhine Valley Incident will go down as one of the most peculiar and awe insipiring incidents of our time.

In a 6 day loop from the City of Grenoble through the french alps we conquered Col du Galibier and Col de la Croix du Fer, the two most challenging climbs on the Tour de France. In the process of climbing Galibier however i pushed my bike to the limit and ended up destroying the internal gear box. This was on a sunday but there just happened to be a bike place open that we had just passed on the road. I showed my bike to the owner of the store and he sayed he could not fix it, and when we took a closer look at the problem we pulled out a piece of metal that held the ball bearings in place and the piece of metal was completely warped out of shape. Luckily i was able to rent a bike from the place and continued up to the top of Galibier and the rest of the tour on the rented bike.

Back in Grenoble, we had a day to go out and find a new bike and then take a train to Italy. Many thanks to Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Karen and Trevor for helping me out with the money to buy the bike. At the Decathalon i found a good bike with more than 7 gears and a regular derailer system instead of an internal gear system.

From Grenoble we endured 25 hours of trains and layovers on our way to Florence. We arrived at Florence Refredi at 16:00 and we were expecting Dustin to arrive at 17:30, well it turns out Dustin went to Florence SMN (5 minute train ride from the station we were at). After checking our email and finding out that Dustin was waiting for us at the hostel we told him to go to if he did not meet with us at the train station, we headed to the hostel to meet up with the one and only Dustin Thomas Dunsmuir.

The 6 of us are currently in the hill town of Saint Gimignano. Last night we went out for supper in the town, it was a cool little restaurant in one of the squares, and we ate outside and watched the tourists walk by. After supper we went for Gelato, and Grandma and Auntie Carol I know how much you love hard ice cream well i wish there was some way to package this gelato and send it to you because it was the best ice cream i have ever had.

Today we plan on biking to the town of Sienna, after spending our siesta swimming at the local community pool.

From Calvi to Bastia has been quite the experience. In the small town of île rousse we purchased front lights as we planned on riding through the upcoming desert at night. well just after midnight we had to stop because Jon could not go any further. so we ended up wild camping out in this desert. In the morning we woke up to one of the most spectacular views we have seen, would have missed it had we continued biking. Then biking up the western coast of the Cape of Corsica was breathtaking, so many awesome views and amazing beaches. Then we spent two days in Centuri, and got stung by jelly fish and sea urchines. Saturday we rode from Centuri to Marine de Sisco, the day started with an intense up hill then a nice gradual downhill then pretty much flat the rest of the way to Marine de Sisco. Today, sunday, we are catching a ferry from Bastia to mainland france. it will be a night ferry, so we will be lying on the deck watching the stars. Tomorrow we train to Grenoble, where we will start our ascent on the alps!

Right I am on the island of Corsica, in the city of Calvi. I am currently struggling to use a french keyboard, so please excuse any spelling mistakes. We arrived by ferrie in the city of Ajaccio. and from there we rode our bikes north along the cost to Calvi. We arrived in Calvi on thursday, and have been enjoying the sun and the beach. Along the coast the scenary is amazing! I really wish I could put some of my photos up here for you all to see but I do not have a way to upload the photos. We are headed to the beach again this afternoon, so I have to sign off now. A la prochaine!

Well I’m not on my way to Mordor to destroy the ring, but I am embarking on an almost equally epic journey around France and Italy, on my bike and with 4 of my best friends and 2 other people will join in at different times. Tonight, Alex and I head to France, a very long train ride that will see us travel through Switzerland on our way to Les Arcs, and we won’t arrive at our final destination until sometime Thursday evening. So stay tuned for an update from France, au revoir!!!

Over the may 29th weekend my time was split between working on my project presentation, packing my back pack and cleaning my room. Then come monday it was presentation time at K3, In the morning we all had 10 minutes each to present our projects to the class, teachers and invited guests. In the afternoon we started with the half hour critique sessions of each project. We finished at 4 in the afternoon and I headed back to Uni Island to get my bags and it was off to Åkarp. Wednesday we finished the the last of the half hour critiques, during this time my project was critiqued and the professor liked my approach to the design problem and my classmates offered some good advice to me if was to work on my concept further. Thursday was officially the last day for my exchange here in Sweden as I handed in my final report on my project. My classmates and I celebrated inside our classroom with an Interaction Design slumber party, not as many people showed up as were expected but for the seven of us we still had a good time. Friday, in the afternoon I went to say farewell to Mr. Laurens Mendes as he was off to travel europe for bit before heading back to South Africa. Then I made my way to Uni Island and we were going to have one last party before people left on saturday and sunday, and to top it all off it was Natalia’s birthday on saturday, so we were keen on staying up past midnight to celebrate her birthday, before we all had to say good bye. There were a lot of good byes and a few tears, but like any family we have Uni Island reunions to look forward too. Saturday night, I was in Denmark for a birthday party for Anders (a fellow classmate). We didn’t watch the football match between Sweden and Denmark, but we did have a text feed from a website, and Sweden lost 1-0 and therefore has failed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA world cup. The most interesting part of the evening happened when I tried to get home to Åkarp. I left Anders’ flat at 12:40 to catch the train at 1 back to Malmö. I got to centralen at 1:45, and walked to the platform where I would catch the pågatåg train to Åkarp. But since saturday was a national holiday (celebrating the day Sweden was established as a country) there were no more trains running. I knew there was a way to get there by bus, but I didn’t know where the bus stopped in Malmö, after checking the signs at centralen I caught a bus to Värnhem where I found the bus stop I was looking for, the schedule showed the next bus was at 2:20, but at 2:20 no bus came, I checked the schedule again and there would be another bus at 2:50, at 2:40 the bus came, either 20 mins late or 10 mins fast it didn’t matter. I was watching the sun slowly start to rise, and realized I didn’t know where to get off in Åkarp, when I asked the bus driver he didn’t know the street that I was looking for, so I said the stop closest to the train station, as we neared the stop I immediately recognized where I was and finally made it home to number 3 Nils Anders Väg. Yesterday I was back at school cleaning out the classroom, we had amassed a lot projects over the semester and we had to sort out what people wanted to keep and what we could throw away, after the cleaning we took some time to share the pictures we had compiled over the course of the semester. Then I went to Uni Island where only my roommate Pets still lives, I burrowed the bike that Oliver had given to him and rode the bike 11.7 kilometers back to Åkarp (it was good practice for the up and coming bike trip with greg, jon, beth and alex). Today I wanted to head back to Malmö to look at maybe buying a bike but the weather had other plans, as it has been raining the pretty steady the whole day. So i’ll have to leave leave bike shopping for tomorrow and I’ll catch the train to Uppsala on thursday.

Monday, May 18 saw the departure of Mr. Niels Vandeputte. The uni islanders walked down to the central station and waved good bye as our dear friend headed towards København Airport to catch a plane back to Belgium. Instead of making the traditional cardboard cut out of a person, we took a hollowed out watermelon, carved a face, gave it some hair, and then taped the name “Niels Vandeputte” to it’s forehead (reminiscent of the times we have played “who am i” here at uni island). The head of Niels is looking more like the “Lord of the Flies” and now resides outside the apartment on the balcony, watching over uni island and warding off evil spirits.

Tuesday, May 19 was an incredibly awesome day. My Interaction Design class and I had rented two vans for the day, and we drove over the Øresund bridge into Denmark and then all the way to LegoLand!! At Lego headquarters we were given a short lecture on the history of Lego, the word Lego comes from the Danish phrase “Leg Godt” which translates to “play well.” We were then given an assignment, everyone was handed a box of Lego for building either a racing car or truck, we had to build our vehicles as fast as possible and then be ready to race. I built my car, in no time at all, i gave the pull-back motor a couple tests and even built a small jump in the conference room we were in and then i was ready for the race. we all lined our cars up in the hallway outside the conference room and pulled them back to wind up the motor. The Lego employee counted down and the vehicles were off, mine was on a slight angle and got clipped in the left rear wheel by another car, which caused my car to turn hard left and then t-bone a truck, although i lost the race, my car suffered minimal damage in the 3 vehicle pile up, the same cannot be said for the truck, that lay in ruins after the race. After lunch a person from one of the Lego Design Teams showed a presentation on the Lego Design Process and how employee’s can easily move from one design team to the next, how ideas are developed and what methods are used. Then we went for a tour of the production plant and saw all the Lego being counted, sorted, faces painted on, bodies put together, pieces packaged and placed into boxes and placed on crates ready for shipping to all parts of the world. At the end of the tour we were shown a scrap box of pieces that are found during clean up, we were able to make our own customized Lego characters with the assorted pieces, I made a cyborg in a white tuxedo with green pants and a medieval war helmet. We went back to the conference room to get our bags and we said thank you for the tour, and as a final gift from lego we were given each a set of Lego from the Ferrari Racing line and a copy of Lego Magazine. After Lego Headquarters we walked over to LegoLand where we had arranged for entrance to the park (Lego isn’t the owner of LegoLand parks), we had about an hour to walk around before we had to drive back to Malmö. I only got see the Lego miniatures of famous landmarks, mostly scandinavian landmarks,but there was a working replica of Kennedy Space Centre with a small smoke and light show to simulate a rocket launch. Then it was back to the vans and back home to Malmö, we arrived at 9 in the evening (12 noon PST) and I called home to wish Trevor a happy birthday but there was no answer.

Tuesday, May 26 started out as a nice beautiful sunny day: Oli, Krysta, Marine and I went down to the beach to go swimming in the Baltic Sea. We had to maneuver around alot of seaweed to get out far enough that the water was deep enough to actually swim in. The water wasn’t too cold, and with the sun shinning we all dunked our heads and swam about the seaweed forest of the Baltic Sea. As we got out of the water, and dried off via towel and mother natures hair dryer, the wind, the clouds began to grow darker and we could tell a storm was coming. Back at uni island not too much was happening as everyone was, and still is, busy with final projects and final exams. As the evening crept over uni island so did the storm clouds, until the wind was blowing with such ferocity, and the rain was falling and I could look out my window and see lightning flashing across the sky once every 30 seconds. The storm only lasted about an hour, and now today it is sunny again with only a few clouds in the sky.

On april 18, Thomas, Niels, Arianne, Oliver and I all piled into Oli’s car and headed out on another whirlwind adventure! With a map of the skåne region to guide us, we headed east towards a lake where we hoped to enjoy the springtime sun on a sandy beach with our picnic lunch. After driving around a labyrinth of side roads, and scattered communities, and stopping several times for directions (even one time the guy couldn’t speak english but could speak german, from what he told us, the only word i understood was “autobahn”) we discovered the lake was privately owned and that there were no beaches open to the public. Undeterred, and knowing there was a point of interest near the north end of the lake, we drove north to the point of interest. We discovered that somewhere between the road and the lake were the remains of a castle. We thought that maybe there would be a way to get to the lake from here, and we tried one last time to get to the lake to no avail. during our adventure we passed to areas that could be considered an area where castle might have stood but no real remains from a castle. We decided to picnic at one the areas we considered to be the site of the remains. The way the earth was built up in a way that suggested the castle stood here, and we found a few stones that were too well shaped to be natural. We had our picnic here atop the ruins, and relaxed in the sun for a bit before walking back to the car. We looked at the map and noticed another lake nearby. It wasn’t too late in the afternoon so we decided to check it out. Again after driving through the labyrinth of side roads we arrived at our destination. Only to once again find out that the lake was unreachable. We stood on the road and stared at the lake that was so close but so far. On the drive back home, we were still about 20 minutes outside of Malmö but there in the distance like a beacon guiding us home was the turning torso.

Two days later, Thomas, Niels and I found ourselves in the capital city of Denmark. We went for our own walking tour of the city, and even checked out the ripley’s believe or not museum. We tried to get into the architectural museum but it was closed. We then walked from the downtown area to a less crowded island within the city. We walked along the water past many boat moorings, and some very interesting street signs that depict a car driving off the road and into the water below. We came upon a wartime museum that looked interesting, but as we approached the door we realized that the museum was closed. It was early in the evening and we decided to slowly make our way back to the central station. I had to empty bottles of squash with that I couldn’t return at the swedish recycling machines, because the bottles were purchased in Denmark. So we found a store where I could return them and bought two more bottles to take back to Sweden. At the central station, Thomas and Niels couldn’t find a ticket machine, as we had 7 minutes before the next train left for Malmö, the two of them got in the queue at the transit office, as time ticked away they bought their tickets and the three of us ran to the platform to catch the train, only to find out that we have to wait 5 more minutes as the train had been delayed. We finally made it back to Malmö, and as we walk out of the station a beautiful swedish girl passes by and Thomas comments “I love this country.”

On Friday May 8th at 4:30 in the morning, I’m watching the canucks game and just as chicago scores to send it into overtime, Niels tells me that we have to leave now to catch the train to Stockholm. Niels, Natalia, Oliver, Verena, Arianne, Pets, Pavol, and I arrived in the capital city at about 9:30, it was a short 4 hour train ride from Malmö to Stockholm. We carried our bags to the hostel and checked in, we didn’t have private rooms so we stored our bags in a locked room in the hostel. We headed out walking around the old part of city known as Gamla Stan. We walked towards the tourist office, but got sidetracked by some free food. Spanish tourism workers were handing out free food to promote tourism in Spain. At the office we spent about half an hour debating on what to do for the next three days, we decided on “Stockholm Cards” for saturday and we would walk or ride bikes the other two days. We got back to the hostel early in the evening, and most of us were still pretty tired from only a few hours of sleep the night before and on the train. We set up our beds and all took a quick nap. We woke up and went out for supper and then to a bar, where we watched Team Canada hand Tre Kronor and 3 - 1 loss in the IIHF World Championships. Saturday we were up and off to explore the city with our “Stockholm Cards” (free transit and entrance to Stockholm museums). We watched the changing of the guard at the royal palace, before entering the royal museum. The palace was very extravagant, with huge rooms, portraits, and amazing chandeliers. After the palace we headed down to one of the harbours to catch a boat over to an island within the city. On the island we entered the Vasa Museum, where the Vasa, that sank almost 400 years ago on its maiden voyage, is preserved and on display. The ship is huge and the way that it was salvaged from the bottom of the Stockholm harbour is really incredible. After the Vasa we headed towards Skansen, an open air museum/zoo. It was later in the afternoon and all the old buildings were closed for the day, but we could still walk around the buildings and see the different wildlife living there. We walked back to the harbour where the boat dropped us off only to discover that it wasn’t running anymore at this time in the evening, a few locals directed us towards the bus stop back on the main road where we could catch a bus back to the central station. By this time we were all getting hungry and we set out to find us some eats. We found this really cool italian joint, you would think it would be really upscale and expensive, but the prices were really reasonable, and they had gummy bears for you after you paid, very sweet set up there. Then it was back to the hostel to relax after walking all day and eventually to bed. Sunday we carried our bags back to the central station and managed to fit all our stuff we didn’t need into one locker, that took some superb skills. We then walked through Östermalm for the rest of day. We checked out two market places, I found one stand that was selling strickly vinyl but had to resist the urge to look through all the vinyl to see if they had anything good, after looking through two stacks of nothing I moved on. While taking a short cut through a mall on our way back to the central station, I picked up a nice pair of aviators for only 150 SEK (approx 22 CAD). We had our traditional sunday dinner at a cool little restaurant in Gamla Stan, and then headed back to the central station to wait for our train at 11 in the evening. It was a 7 hour trip back home to Malmö but we finally climbed the stairs up to our flats at uni island at 6:30 monday morning and went straight to bed.

This week is really intense, there are about 14 students from Istanbul and Mersin (both cities in Turkey) here at Malmö Högskola, and for this week we are doing a workshop in critical design and exhibiting our work at Malmö Högskola and Krets gallery tomorrow (friday). The name of the over all project is City and Art and it involves three schools from the EU and three schools from Turkey, it is sponsored by the EU and its purpose is to strengthen EU/Turkey relations as Turkey moves closer to becoming a member of the EU. This is a really awesome project and best projects from the six different schools will go on display in Turkey from October 15 to November 15 I believe. Even though the 7 other international students and myself in the Interaction Design program won’t be there to see which ideas go through to be presented in Turkey, this one week of working in a team with two Turkish students is turning out to be the best week of the semester so far. I will take lots of the photos of the exhibitions tomorrow and will put them up here for your viewing pleasure.

On another note Gordon “the wall” Brown was on top of his game sunday as he made save after save after save to lead his team to two victories, the first match up was won 9 - 7 and the second 3 - 1. I wish I had a picture to show of the stop I made on a french guy by the name of Fabio, he was in on a break away and I came out to challenge him, he kicked the ball aiming for the right (my left) corner pocket, and i kicked my left foot out to make the save.