Feedback

I will start to thank my important readers for the feedback I got on my latest texts. I can’t say it was the most positive reviews I got but I guess it is better than nothing… But I think it is only fair to give some response back since you actually took your time and gave something back.

First of all, I’d like to state that I’m a law abiding person and I would never dream of doing something illegal. Well not paying the licence fee doesn’t look good but you’ll have to remember that I’m a poor student and I do intend to start paying the fee when I’ve got a decent job as a teacher somewhere in Sweden. I might even earn so much money that I’m will be able to pay the whole sum back to the noble company SVT. I’m sure that you as fellow student can understand my situations and besides I don’t watch that much TV anyway.

Now I was particularly satisfied with my Christmas text, I sort of managed to give you an X-mass message and that the calendar is a great way to travel back in time and reminiscing old times when Christmas was something magic and you thought the days moved awfully slowly towards the 24th. Some of my readers have obviously not given it a chance which is a pity but it is never too late to change your mind, so bee childish and watch the calendar.

A real X-mass

I lost the magic Christmas feeling a long time ago. Okay, I’m always looking forward to it but it has more to do with things such as school holiday, food indulgence and family time. This year I think I have found a tiny link to that special feeling you had when you were much younger. No it is not religion…it is the Christmas calendar that is showing on SVT every day until the 24th of December. I wont go into any details but it must be something extra with when it motivates me to go up and watch the program 7:15 every morning. You should definitely watch it, maybe not in the morning but later in the evening. The darkness and the cold winter weather have swept their long arms around us…so ask yourself if it wouldn’t be nice to light a candle and tune in SVT 1 and enjoy some pure and classic TV entertainment and get some of the well deserved Christmas feeling.

I’m looking forward to a new exciting week at the University (something new everyday ehh?) even if the dreadful Umeå weather tries to spoil everything with slippery footpaths and dullness. We are gonna hold a presentation later during the day and we are armed with a powerful power point and well prepared facts, the others won’t stand a chance…

Yes, positive thinking is the motto of the week, more motivating texts later during the week.
Bye for now

The return of the blogg

The blogg has been down for too long and I can understand if my dear readers have lost interest in my small Internet space. Something clearly went wrong with the “old” blogg and I will therefore try to change the way of writing. The text will from now on be much shorter (I know most students to be very busy with their lives so reading my blogg wont cost you more than just a minute of your precious time); you could see them as small bite sizes of information it could for example be something I’ve seen or heard at the university or a specific thought that I like to share with my readers.

Something I thought I didn’t like is karaoke. I went to a friends place last weekend and the only rule he had was that you should (must) sing karaoke during the evening. I cursed in silence since I do know my own limitations in this silly activity. Anyway, a few beers later and some spectacular performances (I have never heard that interpretation of Elouise before…) it was time for me to grab the mike and pull of an ear deafening show together with my brother. A friend of mine showed me the video today and I’m glad that the phone’s poor microphone couldn’t record my voice’s whole register.

The Umeå Weather

The blogg has been sort of inactivated during the summer even if I intended to write... Anyway, I am back and my blogg will continue to provide my readers with insightful reflections of a would be teacher student life.

Umeå is in many ways a nice city, the student life is rich and it has a great mixture of students. I could go on like this but I would like to point out something which, according to me, is a big fat minus. The darn wind, I haven’t done any calculations but it feels like the good-forsaken winds never leave this city alone. You start to wonder if some evil power is controlling the wind since you always have a head-wind in your face. Today statutes a perfect example on how the Umeå weather really can spoil the tiny bit of enthusiasm you manage to muster a Monday morning before going to school. A grand combination of piercing winds which made the rain feel like it was below the freezing point, agonized me on my way to school. I was wet cold and annoyed when I arrived to school and it took me at least two cups of (expensive) coffee to thaw. I have now eased my urge to complain but would most definitely like to hear from my dear readers what you think about this matter.

Summertime

I thought about closing down the blog during summer or actually change language to Swedish since quite a lot of people have complained about how hard it is to read. It is of course something you have to take into consideration since you want as many people to read the blog, I have however, decided to continue with English since it gives me, theoretically, the opportunity to reach out to the whole world. So this blog will still have a international touch but will still be a about a teacher student in Umeå, all this means that I will keep my regional profile but with a global window.

Anyway it is summer which means that I’m home in Nävekvarn. I don’t think I have mentioned the place before so it definitely deserves a comment. I’m, at this very moment, sitting on the veranda looking at the summer-landscape and thinking of how important it is to have some touch with mother nature. Sure it might be more convenient to live in a city and that is what most of the worlds people do but to have the opportunity to go for a walk in the surrounding forests or take the boat out in the archipelago during summer is for me pure life quality.

This might be the most unstructured blog text so far but it is summer time and I must grab the opportunity when I feel motivated enough to write. You know, if you are a frequent reader of this blog, that I went on a cruise to Estonia this Easter and now it is time again. Me and three more people are going on a cruise to Helsinki the capital of Finland. You could regard this as a teaser since I definitely will write what I have been up to the boat. The only thing I know is that it will be a wet cruise…and fun.

At last I hope all of you out there are enjoying the summer wherever you are!

King of Beer

The long awaited beer night finally took place last weekend in one of Ålidhem’s local residence halls. The main purpose with the evening was (apart from having a great time) to give the guests something they hadn't experienced before, good tasting (and expensive) beer. I had, to make the experience even better, prepared something to eat to every beer. The highlight in the food department must have been the meatballs and I’m glad that they went down well considering the hard labouring hours behind the carefully handmade delicacies. It wasn’t exactly a four course meal, but there were plenty to eat so even my hungry brother could satisfy his empty stomach.

Three out of four were ale and they were really appreciated among the guest, I hade also bought a normal lager beer which has a can that titillates itself as world champion 17 years ago…anyway it was interesting to compare the different types of beer and also detect how they smelled even if it was hard to distinguish the faint and subtle smell of coffee from one of the beer’s.

This wasn’t only an opportunity to enjoy good tasting beer and food together with good friends it was also a cultural event since I had set out to cultivate my guests regarding the history of the beer and also give them interesting facts about the golden liquid that were served. It wasn’t exactly a history lesson but my enlightened guests can now impress other people when they tell them about the legend of the hobgoblin, how the prohibition in America affected the breweries and also that people has been brewing beer for more than 12 000 years.

One of my friends had prepared a quiz competition with 9 cunning questions, I teamed up with my brother and we managed to get 7 out of 9 which is quite impressive but we failed to nail the last tie-breaking question…”how many birches are there in Umeå?” his girlfriend got it perfectly right with 3 000 threes. (I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories but is it just a coincidence that he choose a tree question when his girlfriend is…a tree expert…? I don’t know if the truth ever will be told but the candy bar that she and her competitor won looked damn tasty…)

I do think that the beer night was appreciated and that it was worth the 60 kr you had to pay for good tasting beer and food.

9 km of pain

I have never been very keen on running; the “magic” flow people are talking about has never helped me…

Anyway, I have during April and the first half of May been preparing for a charity race around Umeå’s only lake. One thing which is of crucial importance when you are to run 9 km is preparation. I did prepare, I have for example done some swimming and cycling at the gym and two football matchers can be added to the list. But hey…weren’t you supposed to run a race shouldn’t you have done some running too? Of course, it was top priority for more than a month but I couldn’t find (in some strange way) time for it until it was two days before the race. Smart move Markus, I was cursing my unwise decision when I, on the race day, was walking on legs full of aches towards the lake.

Anyhow, I teamed up with my brother during more than half of the race but he must have taken some painkillers before the race as he seemed untroubled with the more than real pain. I was, in the end beaten with 25 seconds and I’m not looking forward to see the photographs of the finish since I must have looked like a person who had lost his ability to walk and run for that matter and also someone who performed the least graceful finish ever.

I must mention that the race when it comes to arrangement was a huge success, all cred to the people involved in it!

Global warming

I have recently finished a course called teaching for sustainable development. This course dealt, among other things, with how we humans are using the earth’s recourses and the big gap between the richest countries in the world and the poorest. It definitely made me realize that we can’t go on like this forever, we are consuming far too much and the impact on the environment is huge. One of the main messages with the course is that you as a consumer and individual can make a difference, we can try to cut down on waste and also try to buy more food witch are locally produced.

I and a friend have been intensively discussing global warming during these five weeks. I do think that we humans are contributing by letting out huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere whereas he thinks it also could have something to do with natural variations. We saw Al Gore’s film “an inconvenient truth” the last lesson and it is a pretty strong message in it, but it is also important to be aware about the fact that the movie is biased and some facts have been left out. I have also seen another movie called “The great global warming swindle” and it is, as you can hear, claiming that global warming is a myth. It is interesting to observe how you can come up with two totally different conclusions based on party the same facts. I mention this only because there is a general view that global warming is an unquestioned truth and that all scientists see it as a universal fact but that is not the case. I got annoyed when I saw it but it definitely made an impact and I can’t wave it aside as humbug. Anyway, be as it may with that it is still of vital importance that we find a way out of our fossil fuel need and face the truth that the consumer society of today is not the society of the future.

The arrival of the Wii

At last it is here, the long awaited game console. My brother and I ordered ages ago in the beginning of January. (Together…? But you two don’t live in the same house, well we have worked out a great way of solving that, the wii will be moved around and I have the honour to have it the first month) I haven’t tried it out yet so I won’t be able to give you a hand to hand experience, but it will come later.

I have talked a lot about this gaming console with my friends and I have tried to put forward all the positive aspects like motion sensor controls which give the player more freedom than before. There are still some scepticism but they wiill be won over to the right side.

All this may sound a bit geeky but it is actually a console that everyone can enjoy, even those who haven’t played TV games before.

Cruise

Ah sometimes you just need to get frustration out of the system and that is exactly what I used the blogg for that in my previous text (I have also used my brother and two friends). It feels better now which means that I can write about what I intended in first place, my Easter brake. So what have I been up to? Well, the male part of the Wassing family went on a cruise to Tallinn, in other words my brother, I and our father. The whole adventure got a shaky start since it turned out (we were on the motorway towards Stockholm) that no one did know from which harbour the boat was about to depart from. Dad (Tuve) took the blame since he is well dad and must be seen as the person who should take the blame when something like this happens…anyway Tuve phoned mum (she is sometimes regarded as the all knowing oracle in our family) and we got a perfect road description from her and were able to find the harbour without delay.

The cruise itself was as pleasant as I had expected a delicious buffet (I’m not sure if that way of dinning suits me since I ate a little bit too much…) a nice 6 hours stroll in Tallinn and sauna with a could beer at the boat’s spa. The only disappointment was the lack of party it would not have been a problem to find people to dance with if I hade been 50 years older). Anyway, we had a good time and that is the most important thing.

university standard...

Mackos blogg has been inactive for quite a long time now, and the explanation behind that fact is not that I haven’t got anything to write about it just that I been neglecting the blogg. I’m now in Umeå again and I feel that the Easter break was good for me. I intended to do some studding but I gave up my ambitions rather quickly. One thing I did prepare for though was a presentation about environmental goals. I was about to present four goals, and each goal would take approximately 5 minutes, which means that the presentation should be around about 20 minutes. I don’t like to make things half-finished so I was well prepared for the seminar with a couple of OH colour (!) figures and a written script. So how went the presentation?? Well, we had only to present one of our four goals (at least some of us) which basically meant that you could sit and read from the basic material that were handed out to us the week before Easter and that was exactly what some people did. Okay this was not a huge assignment and yes I could have spent half amount of the time preparing but I do think there should be a co-variation between performance and grade. As far as I’m concerned everyone in the room passed, hardly university standard.

pain

I just want to give you a general advice (yes Macko’s blog is full of useful tips). Don’t eat a sandwich for lunch together with two cups of coffee and dinner three hour after. That alone is far from satisfying especially for a person like me who need to eat more than four times per day. Anyway I stayed at school for another two hours and was completely drained of energy when I came back (thank god that no one was in the corridor when I came back since I’m not the most sociable creature when I’m hungry…). I had a big plate of pasta salad and I started to feel a soaring pain in my stomach shortly after 5 minutes of frenetic munching. My stomach was obviously fed up with my way of treating it “-coffee and virtually no food what the hell were you thinking?!” I had to pay the price and I was forced to go home from the pre-party I went to after dinner. I felt miserable since I didn’t like the thought of going to Umeå Open (a concert) with an agonising pain in my stomach. I phoned home and my father answered. He managed to calm me down since he was convinced that the pain would go away soon and he also managed to give a biological explanation. The pain subsided a few minutes after our conversation and I was able to go to the concert and have a really good time.

Downhill skiing

Frequent readers of this blog know that I have tried downhill skiing before in a small slope outside Umeå. I am back from a four days experience in Kitellfjäll. It is situated in the 400 km north west of Umeå and it is a part of Skanderna which is a very old mountain chain. I’m not a very experienced skier so I started with a smaller slope and yes I had fairly good control over the icy surface. I can’t say that I wanted to try the bigger slopes but you don’t pay 2 000 kr to spend four days in a beginners slope. So it was time to turn up the heat, to take the big lift up to the highest slope. I have to admit that I’m a little afraid of heights and I felt weak even if the view was breathtaking. My brother and his two friends started descending one of the slopes and waited for me before it started to go sheer down. I said to myself “fine I can do this I know how to break and I can always do that if I’m going too fast...-I’m approaching the others and it is time to slow down but nothing happens (!) panic, I have to stop my velocity at all cost so I decide to go for the only thing I can think of, to fall. The problem with that breaking technique is that you have very little control over where you’re going. I tumbled straight into one of Erik’s friends and knocked him over and continued for another 10 meters. Too experience such a fall during the first day is not good for your ability to sky and I lost everything I had learnt so far. I wished myself back in my student room in Umeå but I was still on that damn mountain and I had to get down somehow. I was too afraid to ski down so my kind and helpful brother and I walked town that slope and it took us almost half an hour. This might sound like a total disaster but the trip to Kittelfjäl turned out to be great. I’m still a pretty lousy skier but I learnt a lot and mountains mixed with good company is a combination I really can recommend.

Massage 2

Don’t get too excited…two new texts in just one day. I just want to give you a short update on my massage venture. I know I know it might not be the funniest thing in the world reading about my ailments…but I’ll try to make a point out of it so it might be worth reading anyway. The masseur was able to detect some seriously malfunctioning back-muscles. They are tense very tense which means that they are working overtime - wouldn’t you get all worn out if you never had time to rest?? Well that is exactly what is happening with some of my muscles, 24 hours shift with no rest (!) The bright side of this rather gloomy diagnose is that it can be fixed! With lots of stretching and work out sessions at the gym and (my wallet won’t like this) some more massage hours. The point I’m trying to make (yes I told you about a point in the beginning) is that it is DEFINITELY worth to make sure that your body is feeling alright, the amount of time it will take to fix is nothing compared to the agony you experience while in pain.

massage

I have just eaten a toast and a sandwich and I had intended to do some studding, but I don’t have enough motivation to do it right now so I’m writing something on my blog instead. I have had a back problem for more than 3 years now, I don’t think it is nothing serious and that is probably the most logical explanation why I haven’t done anything about it. Well to be honest I have been to a physiotherapist a couple of times and been sent home with a list of different exercises. I have carried out the programs for at least four weeks without the slightest improvement and have finally been too tired of doing them every night. Maybe I need to be more patient but effort and result is something which normally is closely connected so I have almost in some tragic way accepted that my back hurts every evening and morning. To be in pain is never pleasant and I have finally decided to make another try with my back. I will this very evening go to a masseur and it will hopefully (fingers crossed) improve my back condition and also give me more information on what is wrong with it.

For the sake of yourself

The university is a great arena for loads of things; you might for example be on a dead boring lecture wondering what the hell I’m I doing here? Or you might have a giving discussion about something that actually has something to do with your education (or a less giving discussion about how awful the cheap coffee tastes). Being a student is normally expensive you borrow money every month and you will end up with a nifty load in the region of 250 000 sek (20 000$) it is a respectable amount of money and you really want to make sure that you can start to pay back as soon as possible. My point is that it is of vital importance to you that your education is of high quality and that you as a student make the most of it. You wouldn’t buy a car for 300 000 kr if you know that the tires would fall of after a couple of miles and you would definitely not crash a brand new car into a brick wall… I’m a teacher student at the University of Umeå and there is a debate going on whether our program is good enough. Students are moaning about how rubbish everything is and constantly questioning the different classes they are taking, it could sound like this “oo this sucks why haven’t they removed this course yet?”. Okay I have to admit that there are a couple of things that isn’t as good as it could be. There is, for example a lack of control. It is perfectly possible to go to a seminar in lets say English without having read the book the seminar is about (yeah I know it sound like a joke but it is happening) there is also a need for raised standards. I am of the opinion that students definitely would work harder and see it more as a challenge if some classes were more demanding. But I also think that some students must change their attitudes. You are only fooling yourself if you constantly are looking for short cuts when it is time for a group assignment or group work. You might have an easy time at the university but the short cut may prove to be a detour in the end.

The perfect lesson…

I’m a teacher trainee student and I have been practicing for almost three weeks now at a large upper secondary school in Umeå. I can’t really say that I have worked my self out but it feels good to come in contact with the “real” school. Anyway, I had a lesson today where the main task was to work with an oral exercise. The students were to work out which room some hotel guests lived in and also figure out what kind of job and hobby they had. I was a little nervous before the lesson as I know the exercise would be quite difficult. The reason for this is that I had tried to complete it at home the very same morning. I worked with it for more than half an hour and realized with despair that I could not work it out. I tried to calm my nerves (plus taking a deep breath) with the fact that the students can work in pairs and I usually find it hard to complete things like this. So the lesson starts and the students are complaining about how hard it is. “well I know it is hard but you have to try a little harder and I’m sure you’ll work it out”. They continue to struggle with this challenge until my mentor (who hasn’t been able to complete it either) asks me that something might be missing…and yes 30 percent of the clues were missing so no wonder that they couldn’t work it out… A applaud from the class and several curses later I’m back with the correct clue paper.

Ski adventure

So the first text on this blogg is about the first time I tried downhill skiing. Yes there are actually people from Sweden who have not tried this sport and no we don't have an everlasting winter. Anyway my brother I and a friend to my brother went away to "agnes backen" round about 80 km south of Umeå. It's not the biggest slope in the world and thus the perfect place for a beginner like me. So after having borrowed a pair of skies it was time to head for the real slope. I'm not sure if you can call the kid slope a real one but it was real enough for me. My helpful brother and friend gave me a couple of useful tips "remember to turn either left or right it will slow your speed down" ah okay sounds logical. I managed to master the slope and felt like it belonged to me until a 7 something year’s old kid swished passed me with a gleeful smile on his lips. Okay the illusion was broken but the fact that I had managed to actually go down my first slope ever without any broken bones felt awesome.