Arrival in Göteborg

Aug. 26, I arrived in Göteborg yesterday and with my body not quite on track with the time changes it is now 4 AM and I am wide awake; subsequently, I thought it an opportunity to start this project. This “project” is a blog with two basic goals:

1. Share my experiences with friends and family.
2. Use writing to help me understand this experience.

Before I dive in too deeply, just a note of thanks to many of you who will be reading this. As I prepared to depart Duluth, I realized just what an incredible support network of people I was leaving. I engaged in some emotional accounting before this big change…I had the realization of how rich I am! Here’s an example, I spent a small, albeit wonderful, chunk of my summer paddling with my sisters:

I have arrived a few days early. The intent is to get settled and use this solo time to concentrate on studying for my upcoming comprehensive written exam for my doc studies--this I will do...as well as explore a bit.

I am living in guest student/researcher housing in a part of Göteborg called Haga. The university here does not have a defined campus area, rather it is spread out throughout the city, intermingled with everything else; and this arrangement is true for my housing.

The building in the middle is where my room is—second floor with a view of the street (it is a radically different view from any window of my home in Duluth).

This next picture shows a broader perspective of my neighborhood taken from the vantage point of a 300-year-old tower overlooking my neighborhood.

The tower is at the end of my block and provides a great vantage point for much of the city. check out the rock work on this fortification.

With a strong need for fresh air after being cooped inside of airplanes and airports for ~20 hours I went on a walk/jog/explore of my neighborhood soon after arrival. The fresh air helped to clear my head, but I was haunted by the reality of being here…The “Oh my god! What have I done! What am I doing here…” sort of anxiety (because after all the excitement, there is a bit of fear). It is not as though I can walk around as a tourist and simply take in the sights, I see everything right now with a realization that this is where I am and I have a lot of work to get done. I wish I could be easier on myself, but the gut knows what’s really going on, thus my first walk was a bit intense.

I saw this bit of “Banksy styled” graffiti and thought of Peter, and further, it fueled the noted anxiety—the translation is “Göteborg kills.” Whoa! Kills what? Kills the spirit? Seemed a bit harsh and I hope not relevant to my upcoming experience with this place. Not too far off I saw more of this urban art, and I should explain—the font and graphic style are derived from the warning label on Swedish cigarettes (e.g. instead of “Göteborg Kills”, the cigarette packs read: “Smoking kills” or actually, "Rökning dödar").

“Swedes are naïve.” Hmm?

At this point in my exploration, I was deep into thoughts about this opportunity—trying to calm my anxiety with deliberate reflection (i.e. dig deep and get the positive excitement back!) I thought of a passage I recently read in David Orr’s book, Earth in Mind (2004). Orr shared a quote from Vaclav Havel who stated: “Hope is definitely not the same as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” Orr goes on to describe how he believes that "...hope can be nurtured by doing good work, being open to life, and rising above our lesser selves. Hope, real hope, comes from doing the things before us that need to be done in the spirit of thankfulness and celebration, without worrying about whether we will win or lose” (p.210).

I have a great opportunity here, thus I shall heed Orr’s words and nuture hope via doing good work in a spirit of thankfulness.