Week starting 20/09/10

This week: Salsa and Tango lesson in my basement, there was 14 of us which made for a cool session. Making some progress in Salsa; I need to forget about my feet, flow with the rhythm.

Tango is a beautiful and very sensual dance, at the beginning of each lesson we usually ask Ricardo and Caroline for a demo. They really make it look like they are burning for each other! I like it because it’s very mature. As part of Monday’s class, they put us in a circle, girls facing the guys, 1^st the girls closed their eyes and we had to caress them, from the face, down the neck and arms to their hands. There were a few giggles of course, but ‘this is the essence of tango’ says Ricardo, you need to feel your partner in many ways. Then we switched roles and carried on with actual dancing. Many thanks to our teachers to bring us new skills, that’s what it’s all about!

This is Ricardo and Carolina giving us a demo 2 weeks ago (?). Photo stolen from Alejandro's FB ;)

Tuesday we had class all day (yes yes I will get to sharing the material), then Maja from Serbia, Tamar and Sar from Israel came over for a cup of tea, checking out some shoes on the way(!). It was amazing to hear from Israelis 1^st hand, how rich their history is and how much is happening in their country, the complexity of it all. We had a big Google Earth session to fly around the place! I also want to hear more about Serbia/Bosnia from Maja.

Wednesday we had class till mid-day, then I pretended to read some course material. At 4pm we had a presentation by Edgar Gouveia from Elos Institute on Community empowerment and engagement. Within the ‘Oasis’ movement, what they do is take a group of volunteers and go to help a community for a month, but not in a traditional way. Their methodology is as follows:

-          - Gaze – find the beauty within the community

-          - Affect (affection) – find stories from the locals behind the beauty

-          - Dream – ask the locals what their dream is, regardless of the problems and what they think would stop them

-          - Care – Take the dream and do something with it – design phase.

-          - Miracle – Make the dream true, without money, only resources present within the community

-          - Celebration

All this is done in just a few weeks (depending on scale of action). The whole process must be without pain, only beauty. It’s a game, playing to change the world, and the locals are ‘inflamed’ again. They realise how much they can do, and join in the process to build their dream in reality. Edgar showed us photos and videos of his work, powerful stuff, a few people were cried!

This video shows the ‘game’ they did in India this year:

A key message he had for us was that if you want people to make a move, whether it is on climate change or improving the local community, it is useless to just point at the problem and TELL people to act. You have to model the way, show how much is possible and how powerful people are together. Generally people (I’m still quoting Edgar here) are afraid of being hurt or have loved ones hurt, of being manipulated, and afraid of doing things that won’t bring real change. Action is invitation, and the challenge is focused on positive aspects, on winning, it’s a game! The best way is to play!

That was very inspirational. Another video he showed us is this one; cleaning up Estonia in 1 day!!:

At the end the guy says “I believe this can be done in your country, it doesn’t take much money, and it’s done in a day!”

Thursday we had class till 12:00 again. Since Tuesday these classes are in the town centre, close to my place, so I’ve been riding my long-board. It’s downhill from the town centre to the water so I’ve enjoyed a few curvy rides – good for my soul :D.

Note on our lecturer Dr Goran Broman, absolute legend!: putting on salsa music during breaks, advertising and giving us discounts on local judo lessons, and doing a few funny things to keep the crowd entertained... one example was an 'attention test': he did a ju-jutsu roll on stage out of nowhere, clearly catching everyone's attention, and asked if we could remember what he had said just before: he presented some statistics of a previous case, showing that only 12% of the audience could repeat what was said before the action. Stats also showed that - among other things - 20% of the audience were having erotic thoughts at that time!! Awesome!

Anyway then I went home for lunch, picket up the text-book to go to Lango, read on the rocks by the sea until some of the crew showed up for Yoga on the grass. Maja Feldman from the US is our teacher, and I must admit I was impressed!! After being stretched, toned and balanced up we had individual photos taken at uni for the class biographies. At 6:00, fitness training in my basement with Ricardo – 20min high intensity workout! I still managed to read a whole text-book chapter later in the night. What a great day!

Today it’s all about the ‘Leadership thread’ – Presentation skills, feedback and non-violent communication, systems thinking and Daily game on the menu!

Tomorrow is dance class and a birthday party, will give an update after the week end, have a good one!

Hello!

This week we had Monday off and lectures till tomorrow, then lectures/workshops Friday. 

We're deepening our knowledge of scientific foundations of sustainability, using thermodynamics a lot which I will review later (not post in great detail don't worry). 

A few events are coming up:

Oct 12: Jazz concert in Karlskrona:

http://www.jazzikarlskrona.com/

Oct 29: we have a 'final exam', but in the evening a Cuban salsa group will be in town, dancing on stage and the rest of us will be able to dance below.

Oct 30 - Nov 1: Going to Prague by family invitation: Sweet!

Nov 13: Sensation in Copenhagen, a delegation of MSLS students will be going to burn the dancefloors:

http://www.sensation.com/

Yes there are other social things in between, along with staying healthy, do day to day obligations, and yes we must go to classes and study/do assignments in between. Tough life...

On a side note, check out how BTH is doing in terms of education for sustainability (short summary):

http://www.bth.se/ste/tmslm.nsf/pages/c8da93f7eaa7cce8c12575b5004ea785!OpenDocument

September MSLS field trip

Hejhej!! I got back yesterday from an awesome week-end trip: Vaxjo (with 2 dots on the a and the o – pronounce “Vaekroe”), the greenest city in Europe, then a place called Mundekulla, sort of conference/’retreat’ place in beautiful woods. (photo link at end of post).

Last week was action-packed with a lot of group work, presentations and test, which called for some celebration on Thursday night... Karaoke!! Anyway back to the trip story:

Departure point: BTH (uni) in Karlskrona at 7:30 Friday morning! A big double-deck bus took us straight to a presentation just next to one of Vaxjo’s lakes. On the menu; how it came to be named the greenest city in Europe, what they did to their surrounding environment, policies and energy management, budget allocation etc... As far as the 1^st point is concerned, it was the BBC who wanted to make a show about the “greenest city in Europe” and they were pointed to Vaxjo... hence the city got more and more attention, which in turn made them take the idea onboard and take further actions to stay that way.

Some impressive things we saw there were buildings essentially built from wood, including structure, walls, insulation etc... we’re talking 8 storey buildings!! It was quite impressive. Energy for the city is 90% renewable, mostly bio-energy, some solar, wind, hydro etc... We visited the local power-plant; similarly to the bagasse in Mauritius, they basically burn wood-chips to run a turbine. Following the visit they gave us a presentation. I must admit I don’t remember anything because I was dosing off and struggled not to be a disgrace to the presenter hahaha!!

During the 1st presentation of the day however, it was said something I really liked: "we don't need to wait for international consensus to move forward, why wait?" 

More information here, it's worth checking out:

http://www.vaxjo.se/default.aspx?id=1630

We got to walk around Vaxjo for an hour and we took off for Mundekulla, a retreat centre 10km southwest of Emmaboda.

Photo courtesy of Mundekulla: http://www.mundekulla.com/

This ‘retreat centre’ hosts conferences, seminars, music festivals and other gatherings. All the buildings are made of wood, including oak, and along with the surroundings the place feels really warm and suited for relaxation, conversation, and... party!! We stayed there Friday night through to Sunday afternoon. Our group being quite big we stayed in different houses. I stayed in the restaurant house (top of photo), where there are a few rooms with 2 to 4 (5?6?) beds/mattresses, and a big room upstairs with about 8 mattresses. Our workspace was in the building to the right of the photo – will post a link to a photo album soon.

Friday night we enjoyed our 1^st copious organic (vegetarian) meal, and then the owner – Peter – played some music for us. I can’t really remember what most of the group did after... they must have stayed up playing music or something like that. A few of us decided to go for a sauna session!! On the photo above you can see a small pond (bottom left). The sauna is wood-fired, in a little wooden house (yeah everything is wood!), there is grass on the roof too which looks awesome. After melting (I had puddles of sweat at my feet after half an hour) in 52 degree heat some of us jumped in the pond... worst thermal shock ever!!! I must have been out faster than I fell in and raced back inside where it took a few minutes to feel warm again haha. By that time I was more than ready for bed...

Saturday we had a group assignment: present ‘stories from home’. The idea was to make groups by continents or region where you have a sense of belonging. I was in the Africa group, with 3 girls from Gana, Nigeria and Tanzania (Charlotte, Fumilayo and Evelyne), one South-African (Andrew) and a fellow Mauritian (Jovin). We had to talk about the uniqueness of our region, the achievements, the challenges, what it might look like in a desirable, sustainable future, and what might be done to get there i.e. what to keep and change. We talked for most of the day, learning a lot from each other on the differences and common points about our countries. The thing is we had little time left to prepare a presentation!... We followed the instructions structure, and Jovin suggested a Mauritian dance to finish with: ‘Li tourne li tourne’!!!

After another superb diner followed by a race to finish washing up (we had to do the dishes there) and rehearse our dance, presentations started at 8:30. The variety and creativity used by the different groups was amazing. ‘Canada’ used a flashback idea, where they were in that sustainable future, reminiscing today’s challenges etc... ‘Europe’ had struggled to agree on many things, which in the end they acted brilliantly in their presentation! ‘USA’ adapted a song (anyone who was there please remind me the name if you know it!) and other groups all had clever ideas of getting the story across to the audience who had a lot of fun.

Peter played more music for us afterwards and made us dance which was really cool and the party kicked on with drums then ‘disco’!! A group went to the sauna, including some till 5am, nice work!! I was out of action at about 1am. Group work and day-long discussion really take it out of you!

Sunday after breakfast we packed up, washed, went for a walk in the surrounding woods (seen the most cartoon-perfect mushrooms) and had lunch (hehe, more food :D). Later we had a ‘Leadership thread’ session; talk and exercises on deep listening, and U Journey, a succession of questions aimed at clarifying one’s situation, aspirations, and progress. Great stuff... we went over schedule limits though so we cleaned as fast as possible and left for Karlskrona at about 6:30.

Note on the owner of the place (Peter, with Anne his wife on the photo above) who was super cool and inspiring. At 26, after studying the native Americans, he returned to Sweden and decided he wanted to live closer to nature, rather than having a ‘career’ in a big city like the rest of his friends. His family had an old holiday house near Emmaboda, where he lived very alone for nearly a year. In 1998, with is dad they bought the Mundekulla property (not named then), restored the main 200yo house with the help of the region funds for historical heritage, and slowly acquired ‘recycled’ modules for new buildings. In his time of solitude he also created a lot of music, which surely helped with the project. I was impressed by his far-reaching aspirations and ability to work from his vision. He told us how he learned from the native Americans; ‘think for the 7 following generations’. Many thanks for the experience. Mundekulla btw means ‘World on the hilltop’.

SOME PHOTOS: http://picasaweb.google.com/105026054672533308619/SeptemberMSLSFieldTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCKjsyL2hm86M6wE#

PS: I think I’ll skip telling the story of the 1^st few weeks I haven’t talked about. It seems appropriate to write about them later, as a ‘flashback’. In general it has been filled with classes, group work, getting to know the individuals in our group (ongoing process!) and getting used to our new home. I feel extremely lucky to be with such great people, in a stunning place and high quality education for sustainability, which I believe is the only way for humanity to progress on many levels. I will post a summary of the core concepts soon.

Karlskrona Part 1 – 1st week Aug 23 to Aug 29th

For photos of the landscape around here, follow the link in the previous post.
Here are some early photos (I haven't been shooting around that much, will gather more):
http://picasaweb.google.com/105026054672533308619/ToAndInKarlskrona#

When I arrived in the apartment, the 1^st thing that struck me was the absence of curtains! My window is sort of in the inward corner of two buildings, there were people drinking at a table on the roof of the adjacent building and I was totally exposed!! The shower had a curtain so I put it on the window for some privacy! Hehe, it’s white with coloured balloons on it. Next, nothing to cook and wash with, no internet cable (thought it would be wireless but nope!). All that was dealt with more or less quickly. Funny things: the light buttons work upside down, opposed to wherever I’ve been before. When you have 2 at the same place (for 2 lights) it took a while to actually understand which one to press... sort of mind-fuck for a few days!!

Enough about domestic stuff! I’m in ‘down town’ Trosso, just next to the ferry terminal to Aspo, an island nearby where some people live – better watch out for sea level rise! I’m also at walking distance from the main square with lots of churches and ‘busy’ streets with shops, restaurants, cafes etc..., pretty sweet spot about 3km from the university. Roughly 30min walk.

Tuesday morning (Aug 24) I went to a ‘meet and greet’ session at uni to start meeting the group. We have a ‘learning lab’, a big room with couches, chairs, big whiteboard, a few tables, and boxes full of stuff from last year’s students everywhere (that all got organised later). So we all sat in a big circle and introduced ourselves. It was fascinating to hear about everyone’s background and story, there is a great diversity of people, from around 30 countries! The rest of the week was filled with social activities and other ‘meets and greets’ for the new arrives. Karaoke one night, drinks at the local sports bar another, bbq + night club another, etc... really cool. Stoked to have a few native Spanish speakers, I can finally pick it up again from what I can remember of the high school course! Need to get onto it more!! We also had a day at an ‘eco-farm’, more like a big vegetable garden where we helped out in weeding the place and prep cut grass for future plantations! Good fun getting our hands dirty.

Generally the people are really nice when you talk to them, without being overly enthusiastic. The younger crowd seems happier to put their English skills to use! In line with Sweden’s reputation, every second woman is a top model (will keep my eyes in good shape), I haven’t seen any sign of poverty, and everything is really clean! I can live here :D

Sunday 30^th a fellow countryman attending the course, Jovin, arrived and asked if he could couch-surf for a couple of nights. It was cool to speak a bit of mixed creol, French and English together! He came from Singapore, had worked in Europe before, and I was impressed with his background and achievements. Definitely motivating!!

I’ll gather some photos of people & activities from classmates and share them soon. Classes started Aug 30^th, details in future post ;)

Karlskrona (quick one)

Hey dude/ttes!

Here's a link to a photo album from a collegue, take a talented photographer and a beautiful place, this is what you get:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimimago/sets/72157624809007991/show/

Karlskrona life updates coming soon

Paris, Stockholm, trip to Karlskrona: August 2010

Super stoked to have been in Paris a few days on the way to Sweden!!
Photos from Paris and Stockholm at there:

http://picasaweb.google.com/105026054672533308619/ParisAugust18thTo21st?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPbmMr02PGl-wE#

http://picasaweb.google.com/105026054672533308619/StockholmAugust21stTo23rd2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCK2EzLmClL3zbg#

Now, I've typed the story before in French with a decent amount of details so I 'google translated' it:


It was fantastic to see Paris again, take a more appreciative look because it is a city that contains real treasures. In four days I visited the Pantheon, the Invalides (Napoleon's Tomb + military museum) and the Arc de Triomphe. I walked a lot there, from Francoise's place (my aunt, in the 5th) to Notre Dame, the Jardin des Plantes, the Trocadero, the Invalides, from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. Superb, easy to navigate and find your way in the subway ... etc.


Saturday 21, afternoon flight to Stockholm. I was going to join a classmate, who was supposed to arrive earlier and look to find a hostel for us. Arriving at the centre of town, still no news and I dragged my luggage in search of a place to sleep! After having tried four hostels or budget hotels full, I finally found a bed and breakfast not too expensive! A good shower and direction Sturecompagniet, a big nightclub in Stockholm. Party time!! I had a chat with some Swedes but didn't stay out too long. Sunday I walked around to see the maximum. There are lots of young people around, 2-3 main shopping/pedestrian streets, there was a demonstration of some horse-riding Royal Guard (something like that), and in general is a pretty cool vibe, it seems safe, the atmosphere is almost 'family' - a good vibe without being incredibly dynamic ... that's my impression of a Sunday in Stockholm.


Oh, I forgot the classmate! It was evident in the after noon, he is an Iranian named Behrad. His problem was the loss luggage the night before! Happily it was found later! He had a group of Iranian friends in Stockholm, so we all went for some drinks! It was something quite special to hear the experience of the lives of these people in Iran, being in Stockholm! We were going to travel to Karlskrona together but because of the communication problem, he had taken a train ticket for the same night at 11pm, which is a shame because during the trip you have to change trains and it takes total 5hours. .. In short, he has not slept all night and even missed a train ... I had taken a ticket for the first train the next morning, and couldn't change it so we went separately.


On the way I almost left my laptop bag with all important papers in the 2nd train when changing to a bus! I realized just in time to run back to the train and get it!!!Once in Karlskrona I got my appartment's keys right away, sweet little place, everything I need! Behrad couch-surfed for the night because he didn't have accomodation organized. The rest of the week (week starting August 23rd) it was really busy with the university, setting up here, meet the 'class' (it is almost 70 of us) and social activities / parties!, We have a really great group of people from everywhere! 




Hehe, I had to correct google here and there but it worked out pretty good, thanks Maja for the suggestion!!


I'll make another post on how it's been here since arriving, there's a lot happening, the vibe is great and the course crystallises a lot of amorphous ideas already!!

Mauritius - july-aug 2010

Alright so before leaving it was really great to see everyone for a big night out, thanks a lot to those who recognise themselves. It was a joint farewell for Maurice also so that's why we moved from one pub to another at some stage.

I left Perth on July 5th with lots of shit!!: windsurfing gear (1 board, 1 mast, 1 boom, 2 sails), and a total of about 45kg of other luggage. The windsurfing gear was cheap to take on thanks to generous Air Mauritius sports equipment policies. I think I paid $65 for the rest of the excess.

Kind of weird to think OK, I just closed a chapter of my life by leaving Perth, it felt good at the same time because it was the right thing to do. Everyone there is very much in my mind, and I'm really looking forward to meet up again.
I was there for 6 weeks, fantastic to spend quality time with family and friends, had a couple of good wavesailing (windsurfing in waves) sessions, party, relax, planning the future trip etc...

I met Gabriel, my good friend Tatan's son, born in June. So cool to see the little family!! Old Lincoln buddies getting into windsurfing too, great to spend some time with you guys.
Fred Desvaux came from Reunion for his Bday, he had spent 8 months (I think) in Perth and left in april, my windsurf/kite buddy for that time.
I also really enjoyed the time spent with the Martins. I had lived with Doudou from 2005 to 2008, and we left Perth together. Hope the job-hunting is going well man.

There was also a big sailing day at Pointe d'Esny, with a 30km race in windsurfing, kitesurfing, hobbie-cat and sail-boats divisions. I placed 4th in the windsurfing race so was pretty stoked!!

I really didn't take many photos!! You know how it's like ;) If you don't then get onto it!!

Before leaving a few get-together's were in order, preparation, and BAM!: departure for Paris August 17!!

Let's get started!

Hej everyone!

Hope you are all doing great. Since leaving Australia then Mauritius for Sweden, I must say that it was [although enjoyable!!] quite time consuming to write to everybody(??) in different languages etc...! Hence I apologize for the lateness. I've been suggested today to use the same emails and 'google-translate' them, so I'll see how that goes.

Anyhow I'll explain quickly how I got here and why! But first I must acknowledge how good life was in Oz since I graduated in 2007.

Some photos to represent a few good times since then:
http://picasaweb.google.com/105026054672533308619/XGHK?authkey=Gv1sRgCMuhl6ihydmneA&feat=directlink

Started with a 3week road trip with the uni dudes after the last exam period: plenty of boozing was had, fairly continuously... (some photos representing that here: link)

Then we more or less spread around with different jobs etc... For my part the initial mining job lasted about 10 months, plenty of playing in iron ore dirt/dust was had, flying around, kind of fun until the it all got too repetitive. I got the chance to start with Austal Ships in oct 08, which was pretty cool but I won't go into details. Along the way I kept in relatively good contact with Mauritian and Aussie buddies, and made new friends as well which was fantastic. With a bit more cash I got to buy some toys and enjoy more time away from Perth, generally for windsurfing, which was particularly good in the 09/10 season.


CHANGE COMING!!: From around mid-09 though, I started thinking about getting more involved in mitigating all the bullshit happening around us: biodiversity crisis, financial crisis, food/water crisis, depression rates, climate change, just to mention a few. The more I read (mostly in the paper) about it all the more I felt useless.... I went to speak to the head of sustainability at Murdoch University, and he pointed me towards (themselves 1st!) Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. Ok, some possibilities, And I really wanted to experience a life other than 'Perth Life' before I got tied up with a mortgage and other serious stuff.

It was still a tough choice to make, mid 09 I didn't have enough money to just move, AND I had a great situation, good friends network, world class windsurfing conditions..... I considered a post-grad with Murdoch externally, even possibly doing it in Mauritius for half of 2010. But it was too quick a move, I was still paying back my car, there was the possibility of getting Aus citizenship, money factor etc... So I stayed and applied for 2 Masters courses in Jan2010, 1 in Denmark and the Swedish one. At this point my work had got agonisingly boring (due to the market - not much to do!). But I hung in there and saved as much money as I could for whatever move was coming. Forgot to mention! Dec 09 I went back to Mauritius for 2 weeks to clear my mind and really make a decision... I was pretty restless so that break was immensely helpful.

So yeah, in May 2010 I received an acceptance letter and I was nearly already gone!! I resigned with a 7 week notice, sold my car, all my house stuff (bed, lamp, desk etc...) closed all insurances, accounts, booked tickets for Mauritius for early July then 1 way to Sweden (via Paris) in August!! Objective: Get a Master of Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability (it's quite a mouth-full indeed).

What I think I'll do is post the Mauritius holiday summary in another post, then the trip to Europe ending in Karlskrona, then updates Karlskrona.

Well, if I hadn't brain-washed you with the story before, there you have it!