Finally a white Stockholm

I have had the feeling of being ripped off by coming all the way to Sweden but not yet experiencing a hardcore Scandinavian winter. Here I am, sitting in my office, facing en entire whilte world outside of my window. Very light blue sky, a bit sunny.

Sunday I had a long walk with Maria Johansson in the farm and forest next to our neighbourhood, where I saw kids sliding down the slopes, adults doing cross country skiing or dragging their kids sliding in the snow, sheeps, horses and huge bunnies, family doing barbeque outdoor. I can strongly feel that people are DIFFERENT after this first snow which really brighten up the city as well as lit up people's mood. People laughed at themselves when they almost fell on their back walking on the slippery ground. People said 'hello again' to us when we got lost and walked back and forth in the same area.

I had a great week last week. Tue and Wed I went for a biz trip to Brussels (ended up having dinner in Leuven and caught up with Eric Yueng - a Malaysian intern working for InBev) and Amsterdam. The familar feeling of that part of Europe cheered me up. People smile at you as long as there is an eye contact. Everything is 1.5 times cheaper. And of course, missing badly the dutch bluntness and cute accent. The trip also provided me valuable insights into the company (thanks to the re organization in the european chapter) and its local implementation of marketing campaigns.

There was a birthday party on Friday evening when and where I finally met Emma Gävert (MCP Sweden 0506) who went for a long south east Asia trip before I came here, who asked me to come to Sweden for an internship when she was in Rotterdam for the AI transition party back in July. Obviously, I took her wise advice!

The best thing happened in the past 2 weeks was that I moved to live with Maria Johansson (MCVP Sweden 0506) in a very sweet, cozy and spacy 2 bedroom apartment, close to nature and easy to travel to the city. And finally, I have the feeling of settling down.

The Story about Learning Kongfu

Aron and me were discussing this movie about a young guy went to an old karate master to pursue karate practices. The young guy wasn't taught any karate but asked to wash cars and do other physical work for 10 years before the master started to teach him the real martial art. After 10 years of cleaning work, the young guy realized that a lot of moves he had to make are the same as the karate moves (e.g. clearning the car windows). He was learning karate through those cleaning work. His determination of learning karate was tested through 10 years of boring work. (Btw, this story itself sounds very Zen.)

This out of sudden reminded me of my current job. My work is mostly about executing communication campaigns according to the agreement reached between Elux and our advertising agency. In (the cruel) reality, executing advertisement or organizing events to launch products is not as exciting and fun as most people think. I keep on wishing that I can be involved more in the creative concept development. Meanwhile, I haven't shown much enthusiasm in my day to day execution work.

Now I got enlightened by connecting with this movie: First of all, my willingness to learn more in the marketing area needs to be proved through my eagerness to excel in my current role. Then of course, I should try to grasp whatever I can learn through the detailed work I am dealing with. After all, successful marketing is all up to execution and the timing of execution.

Indeed, it is a painful adjustment to join a company from the bottom level after coming out of AI. Nevertheless, I came out of AIESEC to learn. And there is enough to learn!

Doing Better and Better!

Almost cannot believe that it is 2007 and I am already 24.5 years old!

2007 started with toasting, greeting each other and watching a lot of fireworks from the neighbours of Maria (a friend of Aron's parents, also living in Väjöx). It was a lovely New Year's eve dinner at Maria's house. I contributed a Chinese cucumber salad which was the first time that I made it, more challenging than that, through reading an Asian cookbook in Swedish. Good food, good drinks and good conversations.

I used to reflect a lot while finishing a year and entering a new year. This time I caught the fashion of making new year resolutions:

1. Excercise more. I can even delete 'more' because I don't excercise at all for now. So I have signed up for 2 spinning classed in company's gym. One is regular on each Monday. One is adhoc depending on when the instructor will be free. I have also signed up for 2 running: one of 5km in June and one of 10km in August. Very excited about starting the spinning classes to spin off some fat on my tummy. :)

2. Learn Swedish. Learning Swedish is a lot about having an easier life living in Stockholm though very unlikely I will be here longer than my traineeship. It is also a lot about being able to communicate with Aron's parents better and deeper. After all, I have always loved learning new languages. Shall be fun! So I have found one very good Swedish institution at a very good deal (900SEK for 6 months and I can go as many times per week as I want). I will try out one class this or next week then decide if I should subscribe!

3. Pick back Aikido and Zazen practices. Shame on me that I haven't done either even once since I moved to Stockholm (almost 2.5 months). Jan 20th I will attend a Zazen induction session at Zen Centre Stockholm. Still figuring out which Aikido dojo I should approach from a friend whose son is practising Aikido.

Otherwise, things are pretty okay:

Before leaving Stockholm, Aron and I went for an Ice Hockey game between Sweden and Canada of U20. Then I had a relaxing 10 day rest in Väjöx. Getting up around 11am each morning for a brunch. Then go our for a walk, to go the city centre for boxing day shopping, go to a theatre for a play about immigrants coming to Sweden, go for stick walking in the forest close by, a lot of good and long conversations over dinner table. Family, nature, excercise.

I have always liked western Christmas eve dinner. Nice food with the entire family followed by 'gifts presentation'. More than the gifts themselves, I always appreciate the thought behind choosing the best gift. This year I got a huge book called Sweden from the above from Aron's parents. And some other practical households to start my life with Maria. I felt touched by the magnetic stones Aron's dad gave to me and Aron, symbolizing how relationship is and how we should approach it. Aron's gifts are a dinner together with an opera on Feb 2nd! :) Looking forward to it!

Work is not getting me much busier still. However, I can see myself getting involved in more projects. (Ironically, my managers are so busy that they have no time to brief me what they want me to do.) My team is doing our spring planning on our team meeting tomorrow when I will know what's gonna happen and what involvement I will have. (Yah!) I am looking forward to the first quarterly evaluation meeting at the end of Jan: hopefully we will move one level up to work together as a team then! Also next week, my 2nd biz trip is coming up: 16th in Brussels and 17th in Holland (going back after 5 months).

In short, my personal life here is very eventful. I don't think I have ever participated so many shows, concerts when I was living in other cities in the past. I need a bit of patience to see how my professional life will evolve. Doing better and better!