Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Zurich...

...it is after all! 2 weeks to go before I move, again. The big world of solar cell production in Berlin proved to be a bit too distant from my sheltered research life to date. My whimsical and impulsive approach to experiments had been replaced with goal-driven planning and motivation. I learned how to write experiments in the smallest details and analyse and report the results without ever seeing a solar cell - a different world indeed. While my helter-skelter ways did need a bit of organizing, I'm afraid being 100% methodical is not a sustainable work style for me. I hope that I will be able to find a balance between the two worlds in Zurich. I'll be working with flexible CIGS solar cells at a tiny spin-off company from ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) with a tremendous amount of work needed before any solar cells roll off a production line. I think I'll like it!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Still Here!

It looks like I'll be continuing my "leave of absence" from blogging for a while longer. But I can recount some highlights of my whereabouts this past month. After deciding to come to Berlin, there was, of course, lots that needed doing - moving, selling my house in Uppsala, finishing my job and, oh, attending all those good-bye events! Now in Berlin, I very much miss my Uppsala friends and colleagues, despite having wonderful new Berlin colleagues.

Realizing the likelihood of a vacation in the next half year would be unlikely, I decided it would be best to take a break prior to my start date in Berlin. After saying good-bye in Uppsala, I flew to Zurich to spend several days with a childhood friend, Sybil - and get over my regrets that the Zurich job never came through! From there I took a train to Zermatt to join old friends from high school for a week of skiing, despite being entirely unsure about how to do this with a hand barely able to hold a ski pole. As it turned out, holding a ski pole for a week was the best therapy I've done for my hand all year! Even though the mobility hasn't increased much, the strength has and the pain has become much less. I've decided that a ski week every year is a must from now on!

From Zermatt I took a sleeper train to Berlin, arriving Sunday morning, March 8th. I'm not experienced with sleeper trains but found it enjoyable and not unlike staying in a youth hostel. My compartment slept 4 - there were three very friendly German girls to chat with.

In Berlin, my new colleague, Andreas, fetched me at the train station and we returned to his house where I am still staying with him and his wife, Katharina, while I search for an appartment.

The following day, March 9, was my first day at work. My German is quite reasonable and I can understand if I concentrate well enough. But I wasn't quite up to the task of hearing nothing but German at work and I had 10 meetings scheduled my first week! I remained in a state of constant exhaustion, but at least I slept like a log every night. The second week was better (I think my new colleagues are speaking more slowly with me now). I had a 1 hour presentation about my work in Uppsala which I held in English, thank God! This allowed me to assess my coworkers' language capabilities and it looks like I'm going to have to stick to German.

Evenings I've been traipsing around town trying to determine which areas would be suitable for living. It's hard to accept that everywhere I go it's all city. But I've now lined up 5 rentals to look at next week. I would love to finally move in and have the movers take my things out of storage - I arrived here with only two suitcases.

My plans for today: shut the brain off and rake the leaves in Anreas' garden.

Next week at work I'm off on my first trip, even though just for the day. It's to Freiburg - and I'll get to look at some mountains. Sigh. Berlin is even flatter than I had imagined. I look forward, though, to discovering the city and its fascinating role in Europe's history. I work on the east side and expect to live there, too. I've already discovered that Berlin is still very much categorized as "East" and "West".

But enough for now. It will probably be a month before I write again.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Berlin...

...is my next destination. I'm packing up, selling the house (I hope) and will leave Uppsala in exactly 3 weeks. A new job awaits me at one of the thin film photovoltaic companies lucky enough to secure financing before the financial crisis hit. For almost a year I've been hoping to join a small start-up in Zurich with a long way to go before having anything ready for market. Not surprisingly, the financing stalled and so did my job offer. It's too bad, because they're working on flexible solar cells with a long list of tricky problems to solve - just the kind of thing I thrive on. However, I've been assured that there are plenty of problems at the relatively successful company in Berlin. I'll be in research and development, hopefully not too terribly close to production. I expect the work will be exciting enough. So will discovering Berlin.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Oz Weather is #1

Graham Dawson has finally made it!! His iPhone weather app has become Australia's #1 seller. This is due in no small measure to great programming and attention to design and detail. But ultimately, Oz Weather's the best because of Graham's passion for weather which I can attest he's had at least since his teen years (I really suspect that his parents gave him a toy weather station for his third birthday or something like that). No one better than Graham knows what a weather app should deliver. Graham, however, is (somewhat) modest about his achievement, believing that the record temperatures being set in Melbourne and Adelaide of around 45C cause people to brave the heat and rush out and buy Oz Weather (well, ok, this can probably be done from their computers, but you get the picture).

Now for the request - when will this service be available to rest of the world??

Saturday, January 24, 2009

"Sambo"

I looked up the English translation of the word "sambo": co-habitee, co-habiter, person with whom one lives, partner, common-law spouse. Of these, "partner" is the only one that comes close to being usable in a social context. And yet, looking up definitions for the word "partner", I found the closest definition to be "husband or wife" and "spouse", words which indicate being married to the "partner". A neat little word like "sambo" doesn't exist in English.

The word "sambo" comes from two Swedish words, "samman", meaning "together", and "bo", meaning "home". Socially, being "sambo" carries all the status of being married since marriage doesn't imply that any greater commitment is involved. Legally, being "sambo" carries a lot of weight, even if it's not entirely equivalent to being a "spouse" - only in the matter or inheritance, I believe. In practice, all forms which request information about a spouse will use the word "sambo", since it's never of interest whether there was a wedding or not.

I was thinking about this topic when the daughter of a friend was denied entry to Canada where she hoped to join her boyfriend. It would have been fine had they been married. But, as is, she could only be admitted as a tourist with no hope of work or establishing a life there. A wedding would be required in what seems like an arcane system to define what a relationship is.

I wonder: does the lack of a word actually hinder or even prevent the conceptualization of that which it represents? For example, is my ability to appreciate snow limited by a poor vocabulary? Here are some Inuit words for snow.

I'll end by introducing another common form of Swedish relationship: "särbo", a word which comes from "apart" and "home", which refers to committed relationships of couples not sharing the same home. Should I be in a serious relationship again at some point in my future, this form sounds very appealing.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A new America?

If ever there was a time I felt like walking around waving a little American flag, this would have been it. I didn't actually do this, but it's the thought that counts. While remaining skeptical about how much change is likely to occur under Obama, the fact that there is so much hope is undeniably, irresistably uplifting.

Hope is good.

Nevertheless, the number one reason that caused me to flee the US 21 years ago still remains firmly in place without any change in sight: the cruel parental leave policy - 6 weeks off of work, unpaid (unless you've bought insurance), to include both time before and after delivery. Wikipedia says it's now 12 weeks off as of 1993. Unpaid. My medical issues required much more time off, but insurance overuled doctor's orders. I spent a lot of time coming to work just to lay down all day on the job. The first year of baby care involved me coming up with excuses, sneaking out of work, playing sick, leaving work early etc to be able to cuddle with and coo to the new baby, as well as stealing time off for sick baby care. My boss hated me. Little Daniele was 15 months old when I finally came to Europe in 1988, never to return. Today, "socialism" still seems to be sneered at as if it were a dirty word despite the desperation that I know I wasn't alone in experiencing. One might argue that Sweden has gone too far in the other direction: 480 days off at reduced pay to be divided between both parents - less if BOTH parents don't participate - plus 10 extra days dedicated to Dad at the birth. Not including the paid leave to care for sick children up until age 12. Hmmmm... Could there be any connection between the time spent parenting and the fact that Sweden is an extremely peace-loving nation?

There are actually a few more issues I have with life in the US. That was just the one that broke me. There's still enough to prevent me from returning. Maybe I'll elaborate sometime.