Oh no!

My worse fear became real today.
I got accepted to Goldsmith College in London as well. It is the course "Media & Communication" that I can start on if I want to in September.
So, should it be Queen Mary and City (Journalism and history) or Goldsmith College?

ARRGGG, I wish they would tell me: "You can ONLY go here" and then point out one single course I could do..... I hate to choose, now I just hope that I don't get into the Danish school of Journalism.

Meeting up with old folks

I must admit that I had periods at the college where I just wanted to run away from it. Just scream FIIIISSSSSSSSEEEE and run down to the fjord and then just start to swim until I couldn't swim further.
I had times when I was thinking: "Wauw, there are so many people I will not miss when I leave this place"...... Now, almost 2 years later, I look back and realize I was right. I have actually started to forget names of my co-years and even more of my second-years.
Still, as Life moves in mystorious ways I have met up with a lot of alumnies around the globe. Ace in Iceland, Fiorella in Peru, Donia in Israel etc. etc.
This weekend was once again one of these occasions that you don't plan, but then you meet up with alumnies.

Daniels funeral was a long day. Probably one of the longest in my Life. It was not so much the fact that Mathias, Klaus and I woke up at 03.30 in the night to take the first plane to Stockholm. It was not so much that the funeral first started at 14.00 and we had to pick up Airiin, buy flowers, etc. It was not so much that I forgot my camera bag and have to drive back and forward in trains to get it. It was not so much because we went to bed at 01.30...no, it was something else. It was just a long day. Cold, very cold - and long.

Linnea, Malin, Matilda, Lisa, Andrés and Marina were also at the funeral and in Stockholm we met with Peter, Isabell and Marie. These were not exactly people I had planned to meet when I graduated in 2005, but Daniel pulled us together.
It was hard to see the coffin with all the flowers and his photo on, however it was also very good to say goodbye.

I was travelling alone back. My plane was very delayed so I got the chance to finish an amazing book, "Norwegian Wood". It touches the subjects of Death, Love and Friendship in a very elegant way. This book, the lenght of the day, and the feelings I had inside made me think a lot about these three important things in Life. Death, Love and Friendship.
It is interesting how the book doesn't see Death as the opposite to Life, but a part of it. I think that is a very important way of thinking.
I have often been thinking about how I would like my funeral to be. I want it to be happy times. Of course there should be time for sorrow and tears, but there should be more focus on my stupidity....(first of all, it would be stupid to die now). I would like to decide the songs myself and even the speech by the priest would I like to write.... I would like people to buy me colourful flowers and wear more than just black clothes. Seems wierd...but that is how I am.
In China the colour of sorrow is white, in Denmark it is black. Seems like the world is not just black&white when it comes to funerals.

I was called to work on the night of my arrival in Denmark, I have to meet onboard the Pearl the day after, so now I am sitting here. Once again, I will have 16 days onboard this crusie ship, Pearl of Scandinavia. This first trip started pretty interesting, I was very tired in the morning, just sitting and looking at the passengers (most of them hungerover) passing by. Suddenly I get eyecontact with a man I had seen before. He doesn't reconize me right away, so I call out his name: JOHN!, Nicky sees me and says hi. I was talking with JLo about college life, all their trips around the world (I should really be a teacher at UWC) and about university - of course when Nicky is there.

And to all the Danes. Today I met Sonja Oppenhagen from Matador, Huset På Christianshavn etc. We also had Peter Mygind, Claus Meyer, Ritt Bjerregård and Bertel Haarder onboard. Don't come and say this is a crappy low-class ship! Damn, I should be a star-fu****.

Stupid!

Muhahaha
Great Stupid Americans!

To risk or not to risk

More and more often I hear in the media that men always get the highest positions and women are discriminated.
Today I found some quite interesting facts that might prove that it has nothing to do with descrimination; more that men just “dare” to do more (stupid?) things.

Of the 500 biggest companies in Denmark are 97, 1% of the board members men and only 2, 9% are women. This is often the same numbers that feminists use.
The interesting number to look at though, is that 95,4% of all inmates in prison are men and only 4,6% are women, not only that, but the men also spend double as much time in average in prison than the women.

There are also more Lotto winners that are men than women, this if of course not due to discrimination from “Dansk Tiptjeneste” (Danish State Football Pools Ltd.), no, it is simply because most men take great risks.

A little example is about the dying father who wants to find out who he should have over his company to of his three kids.
He decides to give all of them one million dollars each and tell them to invest them.

One month later he calls them into his office. Mark has 0 dollars left, Maria has 1 million dollars and Mads has 2 million dollars.
The father then decides to hand over the company to Mads, though, before he does so, he asks Mads how is managed to double the money. Mads answers that he simply just toss a coin with Mark who should get the other persons million.
Maria was the smartest of the three, but Mads took the greatest risk and won.

This is how society works and why men have more top-posts than women (and why men more than 95% of all inmates are men).

On Love - the greatest invention

During the Stone Age a catastrophe was close. Too many people were born and there was too little food. Everyone had sex with anyone and the “family patterns” were non-existing. The former hunters settled down and started to be farmers, however the food was little and they needed some “serious” family planning.

The solution was to invent a “thing” that would make people have sex with, preferably, only one other person. That would lead to less kids and a stronger community.

10.000 years later Beatles sang “All you need is Love” and we started to celebrate the 14^th of February. Now people argue that we cannot live without Love, apparently water, food and Love are the three essentials aspects of human Life. Love more than sex.

Love is maybe one of the greatest inventions, maybe even greater than the wheel, the fire and youtube. Today some people actually believe that the invention is something naturally. Interflora, Hollywood and Barry White have told us that a strong affection for another person is Love.

Some people would argue that we discovered Love, but no, we invented it. A proof for that is how the view on Love (and the way we show it) has changed throughout history. It was actually first in the 17^th century that we started to believe in “one partner for the rest of the Life” and “love is the most beautiful thing ever”. For example Romeo and Julie is a tragedy story.

I don’t believe that natural feelings like; starvation, thirst and pain has changed throughout history. These feelings are natural and not invented feelings. The good thing about the fact that Love is invented is that then the opposite feeling, hate (?) or carelessness (?) is also invented…okay, that if only if you, like me, believe that the world consists of opposites, call it “Yin&Yang”.

Sharkespeare said that “Love from one side hurts, but love from two sides heals”, yes, we need something from the other person, we cannot feel happy on Love alone, and we need to be loved as well. All in all a very selfish way of thought but also a great way of surviving. Of course we all need something from someone else.

I am not saying that we should stop “loving”, we should more start to realize that Love is a great invention. I love. I love books, paintings and poetry – and I should love it, even though I would be able to survive without it. So is it also with the “true Love” to another person.

Valentine's Day

What a great Dane said about every single day and not just ONE day...

When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love. ~ Søren Kierkegaard

London Called...

It has been a while since I have found the time and the strength to write about my trip to London with Klaus.

The week was one long journey into the land of the Brits and the brave, brave because we did the so-called “Spider”.
We didn’t do much sightseeing and the few photos I have from there is mostly from different parties, cafés or shopping.
Klaus and I stayed at the same hostel, pretty cheap (and pretty Russian) and still in the centre of London.

We hanged around with Max, saw his “house” where he is staying with some really cool people…but I wouldn’t like to be treated by them when I need a doctor…
We also stayed with Charlie at the LSE dorms, and my prejudices about LSE were…hmm..yes, right. Nevertheless, Herman, Klaus, Mathias, Max and I enjoyed the “Tipsy Beaver” (The bar that is connected with the dorms), where we played pool and fuss ball almost every single day. The Tipsy Beaver was also the place that we practised for the “Spider”.

The daytime was spent on hangovers and shopping, buying so many books that I had overweight…Furthermore I also bought a nice suit (I needed one for the lecture at LSE we went to….). Klaus and I were the “odd once out” when we as the only people showed up in nice suits and black shoes to the lecture of WMD.

Let me explain you about “The Spider” at St. Georges Hospital. Almost once every week is there a “society” meeting at the pub at the hospital. All of them with One goal; to be a Spider and get the notorious “Spider tie” (blue, with 7 small red Spiders on). To get the tie you have to be able to drink 7 (SEVEN) pints in one hour, 1 (one) of them has to be in less than 7 (seven) seconds! All this is of course without going to the toilet or puke. If you do so, you have to drink an extra pint. When you puke – not because of the amount of alcohol, but most likely because of the volume in your stomach – then you have to do it in a “special puke bucket”.
I am proud to say today that I am a Spider (some people would say alcoholic).

The last night Mathias and I met with Negar and friends out in town…..I came home at 09.30 next morning, not remembering where I had slept and how I got there….but that is another story that you will get another day.

So, as a last note I would like to mention that I got accepted to Queen Mary, City university of London for “Journalism and Contemporary History”, so if I don’t fuck up then I will start there in September 2007 (still have to find out what to do if I get into any Danish universities).
…I am sorry for the lack of creativity in this note….the trip was just so amazing that I can’t put into words…..my next post will, inshallah, be better.

Remembering Daniel

http://rememberingdaniel.blogspot.com/

If you want to write there, and don't have the password and username, then just write me.

Post No. 200

I wanted this post to be a long and funny post about the last week I have spent in London. However, now all that seems meaningsless after the news I got today.

Dear friends, We hope you are doing well. We recently received some bad news from Daniel’s parents. Daniel died during his sleep last Tuesday. A recent event has put an important responsibility upon us. It’s up to us to let the world experience Daniel and everything he stood for. Listen now everyone, so that he may come alive in your mind. Daniel is a kind, gentle tall person. He has a consistently cheerful disposition, and to those who understand, great humor in the face of all things. He’s an extremely considerate and caring person, who always worries about all peoples of the world, even the Dutch. Even though our hearts feel like crying, every thought of him, every memory, every picture, just makes us smile and fills us up with brightness. Remember him! How he was. Remember him! Remember him! Let him shine through in everything you do. Keep strong. Hugs, Airiin and Nareg

I hope we all remember Daniel for his laugh, his silly jokes, his guitar playing, and his eagnerness always to help whereever he could. He did at the college, he did it in Etheopia and we had planned the whole summer for helping.
Daniel left us too early, but lets all have a pice of him in us. Lets all laugh a little more, smile a bit more and help our fellow human beings around us.

4th of August 1987 - 30th of January 2007