Course dropped

I had a new course that began a few days ago and it was a continuing course of another one that I recently passed. Anyhow, the workload seemed very heavy in relation to the ECTS credits one would obtain by taking it. We were however asked to form groups the first lecture, and I ended up with my Norwegian friend J, a Spanish girl and an Austrian guy (who had blood running out of his nose). I told my colleagues that there was a possibility that I would drop the course due to the heavy workload, but they insisted on having me in the team anyhow, accepting that I might contribute less than the others. We received this e-mail from our Austrian colleague on Thursday:

From: "L"
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 20:35 PM
To: "J" ; "S"
Cc: "M"
Subject: ........

hey...

i'm sorry... but i'm forced to quit the course because i can not write the final exam. In the first week of february i am on a workshop and it does not really make much sense to put so much effort in a course when i may have no possibility to write the exam.

best wishes

L

... And then, shortly after that I received this hilarious e-mail from the Norwegian guy:

From: "J"
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2008 20:35 PM
To: "S"
Cc: "M"
Subject: Strategy

Okey... Now, what do we do? I'm not going to be able to write the whole case by myself!! I was even sceptical about writing half of it... Fuck. That little whore teacher. She should have given us some time to plan. Like a couple of weeks...

... And three hours later this one:

From: "J"
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 15:49 PM
To: "S"
Cc:
Subject: Re: Strategy

Faen. Jeg dropper kurset... Brenn jævla X hora! Jeg orker ikke å lese så mye for å få 3 ECTS... Det er ikke verdt det! Jeg får heller ta et ekstra fag hjemme i Norge. Så da sitter M igjen med sin egen gruppe! Haha. Stakkars...

Those of you who understand Swedish/Norwegian/Danish can probably see why I find this story funny :).

Back from one of the planet's greatest cities

Sorry for the late update but it has been a lot to do ever since I set my foot back in Austria.

• Paris was wonderful to begin with. It felt great to finally be there and to enjoy the culture and history that lies upon the city like a blanket. It is a place I would love to go back to, just like London and to some extent Rome.
  
  
  
  
• One interesting and entertaining detail during my stay in Paris was the fashion and elegance that was so evident. After having been in Linz for almost eleven weeks, I am slowly getting used to see all types of funny beards, funny clothes and pink hairstyles. I saw nothing of that in Paris. I wish to think that even the homeless were elegantly dressed.
  
  
• We arrived in Paris early on Saturday morning, and we headed towards our hotel. We were not going to be able to check in directly and we knew it, but we already had three friends that were staying at the same hotel so we went to wake them up and to go sightseeing. The last thing the hotel receptionist said was "A bientôt monsieur" (meaning "see you later sir"). He also told us that we could check in later during the day, and we kindly accepted that without any problems. After a long day of sightseeing we returned to the hotel to check in, only now there was another man standing in the reception, telling us that our room had "plumbing problems". I felt a strong and unpleasant moment of déjà vu (mid September, Linz, Kolpinghaus). I was too experienced in this field to even react in a "customer oriented" way. I knew that this battle was lost from the very beginning. The room did not have plumbing problems, the idiot on the other side of the counter had double booked the room. We even offered him to stay there without using the restroom and the shower, but he refused. He also refused to show us the room (I was "curious" to know about the standard of the place). He redirected us to another hotel around the block, a complete joke. I have been to some shitholes through the years, but this place was worse than anything I had ever seen. No door to the showers (I was sharing room with two girls) and the toilet seat was located in a separate room, without direct accessibility to a zinc.
  Bottom line: Stay the hell away from Hôtel Darcet!!
  
  However, one of the girls in the company had a brilliant solution to our problem. She started bidding through an Internet service on an unbooked hotel room in a 4-star hotel in another part of Paris instead, and we ended up there an hour or two later. The normal price per night in that hotel (or the equivalent) was somewhere around €200 - €250 per night. We paid €30. That is €3 more than what we were supposed to pay at the other place.
  
  
• The hotel was (as I mentioned earlier) brilliant, and we checked in right in time to see Sully Muntari score 1-0 for Inter vs. Juventus in Derby d'Italia. Fantastic.
  
  
• I did not see the whole game, only 15 minutes or something. Before we left the hotel to have dinner in the city, we scrolled through the titles of adult content that the hotel had to offer for enthusiastic guests. The titles were absolutely hilarious, but what struck me the most was that almost all of them were in German. Doesn't that tell you something?
  
  
  
  
  

• The weekend is almost here and it has almost been one week since I left. I have one more deadline this weekend and my midterm exam on Tuesday. Tough luck. I handed in some bureaucratic masterpieces today at the international office. It's amazing how complicated everything gets.
  

• I am looking forward to a fantastic evening with reading, writing and more reading... NOT.

• No classes tomorrow I believe, I am looking forward to more reading writing and even more reading.
  
  
• My friends that I travelled to Paris with are leaving for Rome in a couple of hours. I am pretty tired of being a traveller (considering my situation as an exchange student), but it would really feel good to see new places every week (just like they have been doing the last two months).
  

Thank you for reading.

Ready for take-off

I am currently sitting in class, bored listening to the same lecturer for the last three hours (out of 21 totally during the last week). I am leaving for Paris in a few hours, a simultaneous decision.


First I need to take care of a few practical things before I leave. It is going to be a very interesting trip. Updates are hopefully to be posted either Monday or Tuesday.

Thank you for reading.

Update

A few updates from the last week:

• My anger about Rikard Norling's departure from AIK is almost gone, left is solely disappointment.
  
  
• Mikael Stahre could maybe do well at AIK, but he still has a lot to prove before I will be praising him. I remember when Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined Inter in the summer of 2006. Check the blog archive for my thoughts at that point, and compare them to what I have to say today. Boy was I wrong...
  

• The exam was shorter than I thought it would be, and hopefully I passed.
  

• I am currently taking a break from a case analysis of Intel Corporation. The last week has been one of the most busy ones. Somehow I am toughened by the challenges and responsibilities I faced during my year in the student association.
  
  
• I attended a seminar on Friday which was scheduled between 10.00 to 18.00. We ended up leaving three hours earlier, but given a writing task about the current financial crisis. 4 ECTS credits of work is to be handed in just like that. I have never experienced a shorter course, being worth so many credits at the same.
  
  
• I must say that I (ironically) admire the Austrians innovation and sense of furnishing. I saw this brilliant idea at the seminar:

• Later on the same day (Friday) I attended a concert with my girlfriend and some of her friends. One of their pals plays in a band and they were performing in a small, cozy, underground place. I am not a fan of punk music, and especially not German/Austrian punk music, but this was good stuff. They were organized, loud and talented! Thank you for the entertainment.

• The lecturers keep bringing their dogs to campus and they are free to run around the place. It's hilarious to see the lecturer speaking in front of the class, waving and gesticulating with one hand and feeding the dog with the other one.
  

• I visited Sara in the middle of the week for some coffee. I decided to bring some bakery and i stopped by at the supermarket (the prices are more fair there). I found something that looked tasty and that had an almost delicious touch on its name - Mohnstrudel. Fuck, never try that shit. I took the first bite at Sara's and she was trying to judge the taste of the damn thing by looking at my face expression. She ended up laughing out loud at my disgusted expression.
  

I have to get back to my books now. Thank you for reading.

Thank you for everything Rikard

I am disgusted and outraged. I feel betrayed. I feel disappointed. I am pissed off. The board of AIK finally decided to fire headcoach Rikard Norling, after three seasons in the Swedish premier league.


I am so disappointed right now that it's hard for me to find words. He was contracted until the end of 2011, he was a part of the plan to create peace and calm at AIK. He was our 7th coach in ten years. That says everything. He is in my eyes one of Sweden's most talented and ambitious managers, and he did not deserve this kind of treatment. I know that he will find a new club soon, and when he does, I really hope that he gets to prove those who fired him that it was a huge mistake.



AIK's new manager is a hillbilly with no experience of the elite whatsoever. I just want him to fail, and I have never felt like this about my own favorite club before. I know that if he fails, things will go sour for the whole company, but I feel that the club is filled with inexperienced people with no feeling about football anyhow.


Unprofessional businesspeople who decide what is right and what is wrong on the pitch. Disgusting (once again). It is truly disgusting.
What will happen to the rest of the coaching staff? What will happen to the players that Rikard brought to AIK? I am seriously considering to boycott the games once I'm home from my exchange year down here. I know that a lot of fans are doing the same thing, not renewing their season tickets. And then the board members claim that they made this decision because they wanted to boost the turnover (which in turn is dependant on the sport related results). I have lost my faith in the current board and I feel run over. The board can forget about my individual support the coming seasons. It hurts and it breaks my heart, AIK is my team, my club. It feels good to know that I am not the only one feeling like this. Rikard was our man, our coach. He was a true gentleman who always spent time with fans, answering questions, taking photos, signing autographs. He loves the club, and he was forced away. If Mikael Stahre (the new hillbilly coach) makes AIK a balanced team that wins titles I will be very surprised. I will in fact shut up and never complain about him again, I will admit that I was wrong. But come on now, we all know that isn't going to happen. He will:

a) make us a mid table team filled with mediocre players from Sweden's lower divisions
b) get us relegated
c) not have the time to make an impact, after three losses in the first three games next season he will be fired anyhow.

The flipside with option c) is that if that happens, we will experience another crisis similar to the one in the beginning of the 2000's. Rikard was AIK's 7th coach in ten years! He was hired to create stability. The only problem is that those who hired him eventually backstabbed him.

The board is in my opinion filled with ignorant and snobby businesspeople from different corners of the Swedish industries. The fans made it quite clear a few weeks ago that they would not approve on a decision like this, and I thought the board was smart enough to realize that the fans (which form the club to what it is) are important and that it is vital to respect their interests. The boardmembers have no idea what they are doing. If they think that Mikael Stahre will ever manage to make this club no 1, they are mistaking. So, that brings me to my (and everyone else's) questions, WHY DID YOU FIRE RIKARD NORLING?


AVGÅ STYRELSEN!!!!!!!

Fathers' day

• It's fathers' day today, the second Sunday of November. Isn't it amazing? A year ago I wrote the TOEFL test in order to prove the people at the International Office of Linköping University that I am fully capable of going to the United States of America to pursue my academic studies. My result on the TOEFL test were high and I was far above the lowest acceptance levels. I still didn't make it due to fierce competition. It's OK though, life took another path and I can't say that I am unhappy about it right now.

• We spent the evening at Barolo, congratulating my dad. The dinner was great and it was a pleasant evening. It feels like six months ago, not 12. I had to return to Linköping that same evening so shortly after we had finished our meals, dad drove me to Södertälje Syd train station for the late train back to "Camp Bad Accent". The following weeks were calm compared to the rest of 2007, I saw a light at the end of a very long tunnel.

• The meeting with the former exchange student on Friday night was cool, nothing special though. He was very nice and he liked to drink a lot of beer. He emptied three Stiegl bottles while I was struggling with one. Sara told me that he had four beers altogether that night, we only had one each. Anyhow, the bar (or whatever the fuck it was) was situated on the top floor of a student dorm. The building was a typical soviet-like, spartan and ugly concrete block. Ten tenants were supposed to share toilet and showers, and the walls (including the very scary elevators) reminded me of a prison. We'll see if we meet again.

• AIK finished 5th in the league this season after a 2-0 victory over GAIS (stupid name).

• I am currently taking a break from a very long and exhausting chapter about "Customer Centric Organizations". I am supposed to present Nokia from a customer centric viewpoint in a couple of days but I am not very motivated about it. It is a lot of reading...

• Something that actually does motivate me to continue, despite the enormous amount of text that I need to read, is the fact that things are going well. My grades have been hight this far, and if I can manage to nail the exam on Wednesday, it means that I have passed my second course down here.

• The coming weeks are stuffed with lectures, seminars and deadlines/exams. After that things will hopefully cool down a few notches.

• Quantum of Solace was impressive, but I saw it in German so I don't have much of a clue what the story is about. I feel obliged to watch the English version, but the question is if it is worthwhile, I have already seen all the scenes and nothing will surprise me. I am mentally cleft. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant evening, and I would like to this again. Thank you Nicole!

I am heading back towards the books. Thank you for reading!

Resumé

• Dinner is being prepared.
• Dinner will be eaten.
• Sara will stop by later tonight, we are going out for a beer and to meet a former Austrian exchange student who spent one year in Linköping. He speaks Swedish fluently.
• I have an exam in a few days time, this weekend will be packed with studying hours.
• Quantum of Solace tomorrow night, finally!!
• No focus on football whatsoever this weekend.
• The zoo has left town (praise the lord!!). Helsinki was their destination.
  
• The MENSA party was nice, but it will require a lot of incentives for me to visit one again.
  
• It's eight weeks since I got here today. Pretty fucking amazing.
• The seminar today was interesting (like always), but it is not nice to have class between 15.30 - 18.45 on a Friday.
• Dinner is almost done, time to go.

Thank you for reading.

Feeling like home

It struck me the other day that the air and and climate in Linz reminds me a lot of Tehran, as corny as it sounds. Linz is an industrial city, so is Tehran. Tehran is surrounded by the mountains of the Alborz mountain chain, Linz is surrounded by plateaus (in lack of a better word). The conclusion is thus that the air is not in motion (as in Linköping, where you always have to fight head wind). Smog can be seen often, and after a few hours of rain, the sky is clear again. Just like Tehran. The industries contribute to the heavy smell, and pollution can easily be tasted as it is a flavour in the tap water.

This is the view from my window in Linz.














This is the view from "Tappe-ye Sa'aadat-Abad" in Tehran (if that makes any sense...). I know that Tehran is a much more polluted city and by watching the picture from Linz, it doesn't look smoggy at all, but it actually is!





It has been relatively warm the last few days. When I first arrived here about eight weeks ago, it was raining constantly and it was rather cold. the last few days I went to the university without my jacket on, only with a polo t-shirt. The sun was really burning yesterday and i skipped an hour from a boring lecture just to get to sit in the sun for a while. It felt as if it was the last days of May back home, that's how warm it was!


My first exam is coming up and I feel good about it. The courses down here differ from how it is in Linköping in regards of pace, workload and scheduling. Everything here is supposed to be made by yourself exclusively, the administrators help you out whenever you end up in trouble (with this I mainly mean overlapping courses). In Sweden you usually don't experience such problems, if you have chosen your major, you will be able to take whatever courses you want without having to fear that they will collide in the timetable. Everything has been worked out in advance so that you can pick one road initially, and finish it without having to change lines simultaneously.

It's Thursday afternoon and I'm hungry. My roomies are cooking so I'll have to wait for them to finish their work in the kitchen. I have one seminar left this week and I must say that these seminars are the most interesting ones I've attended this far of my academic life. The professor is American and knows a lot about our subject (varied aspects of global business). I handed in my first paper to him the other day and I am eagerly anticipating his response. I am curious to know what level I am on and what I need to improve.

Later tonight I'm heading out, a MENSA party (a more brief explanation of this subject is to come in the near future!), but it will most probably be a calm evening for me. I have class tomorrow. I doubt that there will be many exchange student out tonight because many seem to be going to the movies to see Quantum of Solace. I almost feel a little jealous.

Thank you Mats Rubarth

A hero left the big scene last night. Mats Rubarth will not play in AIK's black jersey on the pitch of Råsunda stadium. He arrived in 2001 and after eight seasons and numerous magical goals he will forever be remembered as a true hero. He never complained through the rough times, and he always tried to give the fans something special. Nobody who saw him throughout the years will forget his raids, his dribbles, his technical numbers that made him the special player he was. I grew up loving this player, I grew up defending him in school when kids picked on me for being a fan of Sweden's biggest club. I saw the game against Helsingborg last night (victory, 3-1) and I enjoyed seing one of my childhood heroes bidding farewell from our home. Thank you for everything Mats!

I have uploaded some favorites from YouTube and some images. Enjoy.
(Photos by Magnus Neck!)

Vienna

I spent a day in Vienna with my girlfriend. It was a pleasant daytrip and I am happy to finally have seen this wellknown city. When I arrived to Austria we didn’t really have the time to stay in Vienna and look around, we headed from the airport directly to Westbahnhof and eventually Linz.

Anyway, here are some images from the short trip to Vienna.On the way we passed Fritzl’s hometown. Pretty awkward. The trip itself did not take long, a little less than two hours, and that is approximately how long it takes to go from Stockholm to Linköping.

 

 

 

 

The Danube. It looks much better in Vienna than in Linz. The color is different and it doesn’t smell as bad as in Linz.