ventilation

I thought I should write something again. Really, I haven’t posted something proper in like a year or something like that. This year has been crazy, full of arabic verbs and conjugations. I managed to survive though. This year has also made me miss English, more than ever. I think I am as Swedish now as I will ever be in the next 10 years. Well, close enough.

At the moment, I am back home, doing nothing, just because I can. Every time I step outside of my door, it feels slightly unreal. I mean, 3 years ago, I lived here permanently. These years have passed by so quickly, yet, it sometimes feels like it was yesterday, especially when you go back home.

So, this Sunday, I’m going to Gothenburg to meet up with Sofi, who’s there with her big-ass boat. Later, I’m meeting up with Amanda (finally!), and doing a sleep-over at Diana’s, who I haven’t met in pretty much one year. And… on Monday, I’m off to London where I’m going to stay for 12 days. So many people to meet, so much time to compensate for, so much love.

The most exciting thing I have to tell you about is actually that I move to Lebanon in like 20 days, actually, less than 20. That is exciting. I will tell you more along the way. Right now, it feels quite okey just sitting here, relaxing, not doing much. Somehow, I suppose it’s okey.

Moving

Right now I am sitting on the train between Gothenburg and Malmö. X2000, 1st class. I ought not to complain, certainly not. Plenty of space, free wireless and free drinks. Very nice indeed. Anyhow, this is not my first trip since Grad. In fact, I now realise that I have not blogged since before Grad. Well, Grad was nice, yet very strange. I still do not if I really enjoyed it in the proper meaning of the word. One thing is for sure, which is that it felt more like leaving UWC than graduating. That feeling of leaving was immensely much bigger.

Anyhow, the bus trip was at first pure horror. The weird feeling I had combined with the roads of Norway and a crazy bus driver was not nice. We reached Oslo, and I then had a wonderful time at Gjertrud’s. It was so nice just to do nothing, I really have not done that for 2 years. Then we went to Risør to attend Espen’s party, which was really nice. We had a wonderful view of the ocean and the weather was perfect.

After this I spent some days at home, which was nice but weird. I finally met up with Sofi, Theresia, Hanna, Denise, Mathias and the others. Very nice. Gothenburg was next on the schedule, where I was going to Gustav’s Grad party. I went by car with Patricia, Diana and Frida and had a nice day in Gbg before the party.

Now, I am sitting here, waiting to arrive in Falsterbo, thinking if I should buy something to eat. Hm. Oh well.

Au revoir. Almost.

Okey, so I am about to leave Norway. I have one subject left to have exams in. It feels okey, and I am not too stressed. Increasingly, I have become aware of the fact that I am leaving this place. Yesterday was one of those moments where you realise that it is happening. We were watching Eurovision Song Contest, which is, to be fair, really interesting and amusing at this place. Disregarding the result for Sweden, I still realised that at this point last year, my second-years had literally just left, and now I am sitting here watching the same program as a second-year.

Anyhow, I am really looking forward to all our grad parties. From Norway through Sweden and almost all the way down to Germany. Two weeks and x hours of train travelling and loads of nice parties. It’s going to be great. I will finish off with a picture from the last cabin party. In the picture are Mads, I, Lukas, Maria and Lucia.

PNAUPNAUPNAU

No, I am not at all obsessed. Not at all. But they are just so cool. And I love the accent.

OMG

I just realised. I am actually graduating in 16, soon 15 days. Of course it is not true that I just realised it, but in a sense it is. I have not until now really grasped it in a more concrete sense. It fills me with a sense of happiness, nostalgia and it makes me rather sentimental. Woah. I really don’t know how this is going to be. Life without UWC, it seems like it never would happen. But now it is. Right? We’ll have to work this out in some way.

The Bay is bombed

Today the founders of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay were found guilty of the charges held against them, and they are sentenced to one year in prison and to pay an indemnity of 30 million SEK. Quite a heavy sum. Although, if the sum of the revenue everything that have passed through their website was to be summed up, it would certainly surpass that amount by a considerable amount. It is of course quite complicated to judge whether or not th sentence is fair or not. Some people argue that music (art) is free whilst some stubbornly refer to the notion of copyright.

In today’s music climate, with MySpace and foremost YouTube being a given part in almost anyone’s life possessing an age under 30, and many over that age as well for that matter, many people have a sense of music and movies as being public goods. The time when you bought things on CD or DVD is gone, many people seem to argue.

What is clear though is that the big corporates such as Warner Bros., Universal and others NEED to adjust to the new climate in this area. They cannot, quite frankly speaking, just sit and watch and expect that things will happen as they did 10 years ago. Technology, or rather the improvement of it, enables many things, file-sharing being one of them. In addition, there are bands and artists who I suppose are quite happy they got exposed on the internet with people copying their music. Without it, they wouldn’t have been known to the wider audience. The fact is that this possibility of sharing music instantly has brought about a revolution in the music industry. Something that the big corporates have not grasped.

iTunes is a perfect example, where people pay 0,99$ for every song they download. It’s legal, it’s safe, it’s convenient. So far, so good. But of course, the incentives for downloading illegaly still remain. However, the new IPRED law in Sweden, enabling corporates to look for illegal downloaders by removing all kind of anonymity on the web. This can result in legal consequences, which, I suppose can be quite massive. This is, of course, complete madness, since it fulfils one more criteria of the Zeitgeist prophesy. Now, doubtful as that movie might be, the thought of it is quite frightening. And to be fair, no argument of national security or anything else can bite on me in regards to private integrity. If we loose that, we are lost. With that gone, security amongst people soon disappears whilst fear, resentment and reluctance prevails.

Home and set

I’ve arrived safely at home. After 20 hours of travelling including night trains with drunken hard (well, they wish) rockers, weird bus drivers and packed lunch, I am now sitting in my own old bed, thinking about what to do tonight. The weather is very very nice, blue sky, sunshine and around 12 degrees. Perfect spring weather that is.

It is quite funny how it always happens that as soon as I go within the city borders, I am bound to see someone I know within something like 1 minute. Today, it happened as well. I saw my old class-mate biking at around 1 minute after entering the city. How nice.

I have quite a distinct feeling that this stay at home is going to be really really nice. It just feels like it’s the perfect re-charger of one’s batteries. And yes, I’ll take one of those, please.

The notion of home

So, this is supposed to be my first blog entry. How nice. I have to admit that I am actually quite excited over this thing about new blogs, and yes, I do like WordPress. It’s sophisticated without getting too boring. In this blog, I will write most entries in English, however, I will if there is something that concerns Sweden of course write in Swedish. Hopefully, I will in a years time or so also be able to produce something in French. I will write things on politics, language, society, architecture, music, my life and lots of other things.

Okey, so right now I am sitting on the ferry to Bergen, on my way home to Lidköping, my native town. Now, this is where it becomes complicated. I have now lived in the middle of nowhere in Norway on a boarding school for two years with schoolmates from literally all over the world, which has sort of destroyed my notion of where my home is. In fact, it has gone to the degree where I see myself having a home in some sort of vague transcendental international sphere, whatever that is. Of course, I will always in a sense see Lidköping as being my base, or whatever one may call it. You know, something you’ll always relate to in different ways. But still, it has gone to the point that any inclanation of even thinking about moving there again seems to be reducable to a ridicule.

Anyhow, it is nice to be on my way back. I feel like I need a break at this moment. Not that I am tired of studying, quite the opposite. It’s just that I need a break from the place, to get some new ideas and get some space. To be anonymous for once, how I ever thought that would happen in Lisch. Hah.