Landing the Job Interview

Those of you who know me, know that I have an unusual hobby. That hobby is reading and rewriting CVs and personal letters.  The process usually goes like this:

Friend: Hey, do you think you could take a look at my CV?
Natalie (internally): OMG OMG I get to read another CV. OMG OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME!
Natalie (to friend): Yeah, sure! Send it over and I'll have a look at it tonight. 

Later that evening.

Natalie (to friend after scrupulously looking at every detail) :  Yeah, so I had a quick look and just have a couple of questions - sends a long list of questions.
Friend(internally): Oh God, what have I gotten myself into?

Some background to my hobby. When we moved back to Sweden we were pretty much starting fresh. We had few people that we knew and we knew little about integrating to the Swedish way of life. This meant that when I was 15-16 my classmates were getting summer and part-time jobs through their friends and family while I didn't even know where to start. Then one day during my usual boring English lessons we got to write CVs. I remember what the English teacher said if it was yesterday:

"If you want to find a job outside Sweden you have to have an English CV. You have to be able to present yourself professionally to a culture you don't know."

Suddenly it was clear that this is what I needed to reach the Swedish working world. A tool that I didn't know existed was suddenly handed to me and I went nuts. I sent my CV to every job at Arbetsförmedlingen that I thought I had the slightest chance for.  I would go to companies asking to see the manager so I could hand over my CV to them. The result of all my hard work? Nothing. Zilch.  Nada. I was never contacted by any of the companies that I sent my CV to.

I had been handed a hammer but forgotten the nail. My personal letter used to be a standard short note just specifying the skills that I was good at. I realised that I needed help from a professional Swede. Half a year of my dad reading and criticising my personal letters to pieces finally paid off. I got a part-time job as a tele-marketeer, selling audiobooks. I hated it and held on for 3 months - enough to save up for my first laptop.

Even though I hated this first job it gave me an understanding of the importance of presentation. We had a script that we were allowed to rewrite and change to optimise for the best selling tactic. I used what I learnt and tried to apply it to my application process. I started reading articles of how to write the best applications and asking people to read my CV. More importantly I asked them to send me their CV so that I could actually see their presentation.

The best understanding I got of writing CV's was by looking back at the applications that had gotten to an interview. By comparing the job ad, the personal letter and CV I started see patterns of how they work together. This realisation was so cool that I want to understand more.

So that is why I get this super-excited feeling when I get another CV on my table. I get to apply my years of job application experience at it while at the same time better see the patterns that evolve from the process. But the best feeling ever is actually hearing the results (Thanks T! 12 hours - that must be the quickest turnaround of an job application to job that I've been part of!)

Information is Power

In June I was elected as workplace representative for the office and have loved every minute of it.

It is one of the things, apart from my colleagues and projects, that I'm going to miss the most. 

My current workplace is covered by a collective agreement and one of the benefits because of that is that the employees have the right to elect a representative and they chose me. As a representative I got to present to the employer what the employees want and I also have had the right to recieve all information concerning changes to the organisation, changes to the workplace and how the company is going. Shortly, it's meant that I could ask questions and expect answers to most of them which is awesome! I get to be 5 again and ask "why?" "why?" until I annoy everyone. But jokes aside, it does come with an amazing right to actually know what is happening. In a world where a lot of companies make money from selling knowledge it is a rare treat to be able to experience knowledge freely.

For those who do not know the Swedish employment system, the workers union is a very strong force in the politics of workers rights. There is very few laws in Sweden that governs employment rights and instead a lot more power is giver to the unions and their collective agreements. In most cases this has been for the better as the common collective agreements in Sweden are much better for the workers than most law regulation in the rest of Europe.

Of course there is also downside to this set up. Not all companies in Sweden have a collective agreement in place. The latest numbers I could find was 88% of the Swedish workforce is covered by the agreements. This means that 12% risk getting contracts which do not cover rights such as minimum wage, wage development and pensions.

Comic Con Gamex - Awesome Day!

With an estimate of over 30 000 visitors to Comic Con Gamex, where about 5% are dressed up in some way or another, multi-player games being played on huge screens and artists showing off their latest creations, there was always something to look at while we wandered around the fair/convention. Some of the things that were going on just today:

• Star-Wars Parade
• BattleField 4
• Lecture on "How to survive a zombie apocalypse"
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Lecture on "Introduction to Cosplay"
• Assasins Creed - Rogue
• Lecture on "How to build your own R2D2"

For those who do not know what Gamex is, it is an annual game fair that is held in Stockholm. This year they have joined forces with the comic books and film industry and called it Comic Con Gamex. Just walking around and seeing just how big this community is and what awesome things people do was great fun!

Not being a good photographer, but still wanting to show you some of the creations, here are some pictures of the ones I dared to ask to photograph:)

New Opportunities

So the questions have been coming in:
"Are you changing jobs?"
"How did you find the job?"
"Don't you like your current job?"
So I thought it best to answer all in one single post.

Are you changing jobs?

Yes, I will be starting my new job at Tictail as a Data Scientist as of 1st December.

Don't you like your current job?

I like my current job as a Data Analyst at Rezidor and I love my colleagues. My decision to change jobs has nothing to do with being unhappy with where I am. It has everything to do with opportunities and the future.

How did you find Tictail?

Well, I didn't. Tictail found me. I recieved an email from Carl (CEO for Tictail). He said that he had found my blog on the internet, found me interesting and asked if I wanted to meet up for a cup of coffee. After some googling to ensure myself that the person wasn't a complete weirdo, I accepted the invitation.

We met up and I realized that this is a passionate person with a drive that could kindle anyone's interest. As he talked about the future of Tictail I could already start thinking about the data potential that lay within it's depth. His last question was direct - "What is holding you back from joining us?"

I asked to meet the rest of the team. A couple of weeks later I got to meet Siavash and J at Tictail's office. Being at the office I saw that the passion and drive was not limited to Carl. We talked numbers, models, analysis and potential. The questions asked were clever, the analysis had depth and I saw that Tictail has smart people with great abilities. We talked future and I saw how Tictail is really focused on getting a good team to deliver a great product. This drive was visible in every person I talked to, and made me realize that Tictail is going to go far.

So, next step is going to be Tictail and I'm excited!

Update: For those who want to join the Rezidor team you can apply to the Data Analyst role on LinkedIn here.

Why Self-Censorship?

When I write, I write about things that interest's me and what is on my mind at the moment.
Lately I have had my mind full of work and some pretty awesome development that is going on there. The problem is that when I signed my contract of employment it stated, in short, that I am not allowed to reveal company secrets.

What are and what are not company secrets can be discussed but the main issue here is that there is now another filter that I subconsciously think about when I write. And this brought up another subject that interests me - self-censorship.

Self-censorship on Facebook

A few weeks ago while I was browsing, I stumbled across a research paper concerning self-censorship on Facebook. The focus in this paper was on last-minute self-censorship. That is to say when you start writing in the status bar on Facebook, but then decide not to post it. It was published by Facebook themselves (a list of their publications can be found here) and is, as they mention themselves, an exploratory work where the focus is mainly demographic and evaluating basic assumptions. But there is one of the results that I found was especially interesting:

Snapshot from the results section in "Self-Censorship on Facebook"

This correlation between diverse friends and self-censorship was not fully in-line with the original hypothesis that the researchers had. It is not clear which ones causes the other - Do people who self-censor less have a higher tendency of befriending diverse friends or do people who have a diverse friend-base, self-censor less? Either way it is an interesting correlation that I hope more research will be done on.

Personal self-censorship

I am a person that uses social media avidly, maybe because of sheer relief. It is not that I do not know the dangers of gossip and social media. I grew up in an environment where the police would circle our apartment block weekly to check up on the area. It was always assumed that whatever we said to our neighbours it would always find it's way to the police. Once while I was out walking our dog I was brought in to the police station by a friendly policeman and questioned by two-three policemen about my family and life and my parent's work. I was twelve.
My parents were always clear to both my sister and I that it was important to think through what we said. We were always asked to think about how it would be perceived by people who don't go to church, haven't lived in another country or gone to school.

Artwork by Askin Ayrancioglu, faced a lawsuit because the art was objectionable.

This type of lifestyle bred self-censorship like nothing else ever could. Once I got my fingers on blogging and social media it was a  relief to me. I could write down my thoughts first and be able to view them afterwards and censor at will before it was visible to everyone. I could take time thinking about what I wanted to share instead of not being able to share anything due to the time-constraint.

Self-censorship at the workplace

In my own experience self-censorship is most prominent in the work environment. I hadn't realised how much I subconsciously self-censor until I had a longer period where my main social interaction had been with my colleagues. The relief of being "myself" when I was with my friends surprised me because I had not been aware that I had been doing anything differently. It made me think back to the different work places I have been at and the level of work-related self-censorship that is noticeable.

Why do we self-censor at work? Apart from the usual reasons to self-censoring it seems we have more to lose making it more important to be careful.

George Orwell's essay on "Politics and the English Language" written in 1946 touches on one of the reasons to self-censorships at the workplace when he writes:

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."

Each individual at a workplace have their own incentives and goals. These do not always align 100% with the goals of a company, even though good company management will do their best to build a company structure that aligns them as much as possible. It is therefore important for the individual to be careful of what they say as saying the wrong thing may disrupt the individual's goal.

The second reason I think has to do with communication. When it comes to language and culture, the workplace is a very static place, compared to "the real world" of friends and social media. It is harder for companies to adapt to new cultural and language innuendos usually because change is expensive for a company.

 Due to this static state there will arise differences to how people communicate with each other at work compared with how they communicate outside. 

A simple example of this difference is just the way communication has moved from email to other systems. Using email is a rare occurrence with my friends as I will use tools such as chat, Dropbox and document sharing programs which I would find more efficient. This switch means that my communication would be more about updates. 

I will write a short chat update saying "Filled in the document" and as everyone has access to the same document and are able to see what changes I have done, writing anything else in the chat would be in excess and seen as a nuisance as people get the chat message straight away and just want an update so they know what's happening.

Compare this to an email where it would be important to introduce the reason to writing, to whom it concerns, state the changes that have been made and specify on how to proceed and where the latest document has been saved. It is more important here to get a summary of everything than when receiving a chat message.

This difference in communication ways make you unsure of what will be understood in the correct way. The uncertainty of whether everyone has watched the latest funny video on Youtube makes you careful with making a reference to it. Not being sure if the boss understands the latest modern word, you will go with wording it in a more traditional fashion.

Lost in Translation

In a work place with 11 different nationalities we are all very aware of the misunderstandings and invisible barriers that crop up due to not having a common first tongue. But it is not at my work place where I have experienced most of my language issues.

From my new favourite comic series, Wasted Talent

Recently, I was down in Småland visiting my parents. My sister and her boyfriend was also there and while we were all (but one) gathered, we decided to drop by Farmor, my grandmother. My dad gives her a call to warn her of our coming and says something in the style of "Ts fästman är också med".
This, which was overheard by the rest of us, created an uproar as the translation means "T's fiancé is also with us" My dad was attacked by all of us of how he could say something that wasn't true to Farmor and why he had to go and do that for.
He tried his best to defend himself,
"It doesn't mean fiancé! It means boyfriend!"
This to no avail as we could quickly prove that it did in fact mean fiancé, Wikipedia, says so. Dad remained quiet the rest of the journey. Once at Farmor's place and comfortably settled, it was felt that we had to explain the misinformation that had been given to Farmor. As the explanation that T had her boyfriend with her and not fiancé was accounted to Farmor, Farmor looked baffled. Dad proceeded to ask her what does "fästman" mean?
"Well, it means a steady boyfriend, of course!"

When growing up, I learned most of my Turkish "on the street" so to speak. This meant that I adopted words and meanings in accordance to where I heard them used. This is usually a good way of learning a language as you get the feel of the language directly. I did experience some slight problems though. How words are used do not always reflect their meaning, especially when it is kids speaking. For most kids this will be corrected, if not at school, then at home. Both these correcting institutes did not come to my aid because a) I spoke Swedish or English with my parents, not Turkish, and b) I was only in Turkish school part time for 5 years.

This interesting way of learning Turkish gave me some problems later on. I remember being shown something really impressive and exclaiming "Oha!", having naturally learnt that this is what to exclaim when something surprises me. The shock on the person's face when I said this! The person lost no time in explaining that this is absolutely not something that should be said by a civilised person. I later looked it up in a dictionary and the translation that came up was "Woah!" or "Stop". This did not seem so bad, so I disregarded the person's warning, assuming that the person was just being a prude. It was not until much later that the true meaning of the word was understood by me.
The word is used for herding animals, usually cows. As with most words that have to do with animals in the Turkish language, the daily use becomes vulgar and a more accurate translation of the word would be "Oh S***!"


Moral of both these stories, don't trust the dictionary.

Comic by Gruhn

Epic Split - Viral clip

One of the new top viral videos is not about cute cats or kids doing what kids do. No, instead it is an amazing advertisement stunt performed by Jean-Claude Van Damme for Volvo Trucks with over 8 million views in two days. Below is the clip:

It is one of the few advertisements I have seen where the stunt has enhanced the product so much I have actually looked up the company. In this case I wanted to find out who had developed this technology and proceeded with my Googling and LinkedIn snooping. (There is probably several confused LinkedIn members wondering what I was doing on their profile).

I didn't find much. Either Volvo Trucks is making sure they don't lose their developers by hiding them or I suck at looking up development teams.

• I found a job advertisement deadline the 20th for those who are interested
• There were at least two people, Jan-Inge Svensson and Sten Ragnhult, both senior engineers, who have worked on it.
• The project is most probably based in Gothenburg
• Both of the engineers have Facebook

If anyone knows more be sure to tell me, it would be very interesting to know how they developed this amazing technology, the calculation models and how long it took to develop.

I also enjoyed they two different ways they market the same product in different countries. Go to UK's specification for the Truck FM and you will get a 2 page spread of Volvo Dynamic Steering (VDS) with pictures, compared to Sweden's three sentences:. 

One page of UK's two-page specification concerning VDS

Sweden's complete specification concerning VDS

The press release concerning it can be found here. And just to end with a snapshot: from the clip:

Not thinking of your target

2014-08-12 Update: This whole post seems to have disappeared completely which has meant that I am reposting it now.

Many of my colleagues have moved to Sweden for this job so a lot of our talk at work has been about how Sweden handles immigration and the bureaucracy around it. Now this gave us all a laugh today. Tapping my shoulder, T ask's me if I can translate a letter he has received from the Migration department. 

Now read the above sentence again. I had to translate. A letter from the migration department. Who was sending a letter to a person they know isn't Swedish. And know that they haven't stayed in Sweden longer than 2 months.

In short, the message the Swedish Migration Department want to give all immigrants is:

"Welcome to Sweden. We don't give a s**** if you are from another country, you have to know Swedish if you wanted to live in Sweden. But as we can't write that as our law we'll just make it hard for everyone who doesn't know Swedish."

Below is the letter he received:

Swedishness and Religion

The Church of Sweden are having their general elections tomorrow and for once it is a big deal in Sweden due to the increased debate concerning the nationalistic party Sverigedemokraterna (SD) about what Swedishness is. In one of Jimmy Åkesson's speeches, he touches on the subject of being Swedish and being a Christian. Freely translated here is the extract from the linked article concerning the church.

Jimmy Åkesson, leader
of Sverigedemokraterna (SD)

  "Åkesson goes on to talk about the church elections, and that Sweden is a Christian country.
- No other movement has affected our country's traditions as much as Christianity says Åkesson, who believes that it is impossible to separate the Christians from the Swedish culture.
Akesson says he wants to defend freedom of religion, but that one does not have to be a Christian or believer.
- But you have to respect our Christian heritage and to be prepared to nurture it for the future.
Åkesson talks about a distinctive Swedish church, partly because it is the only church that preaches in Swedish.
- Swedish Church is Swedish for its cemeteries, baptismal fonts and the embellishments in most cases are designed by Finnish Swedish material, he says, and also mentions that hymns in the Swedish church is typically Swedish.
Akesson says the church has "unfortunately" in recent years become less and less Swedish and less Christian, and it worries him.
- It is because socialism and liberalism have turned their increasingly aggressive claws on the church says Akesson.
He picks up when bishop Eva Brunne in connection with the opening of parliament in 2010, delivered a sermon against racism and xenophobia, which got SD to march out in the middle of sermon.
- You can tell that cultural radicalism trinity, feminism, cultural Marxism and multiculturalism are increasingly replacing the Holy Trinity.
He takes up the church dedicated to hiding refugees, arguing that the church actively supports the "Islamization of Sweden."
- Sweden Friends, I think it is obvious that something must be done and that it is we who have to do it, said Åkesson, and concerning the church election in three weeks[read tomorrow]:
- Let us start the process with replacing the call to prayer with "En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt" [Popular Swedish Hymn]
Akesson says that the result in the church elections can have an important strategic role for the upcoming election year, and urges everyone to vote in it.

As I was translating the above text I felt how the anger burned inside me. When was Christianity ever based on the cemeteries and the decoration?  When has the language of what the sermon is preached in have anything to do with the church being Swedish? I want to thank Stefan Klint, a priest in the Swedish Church, who wrote an open letter to Jimmy. Below is the freely translated version:

Stefan Klint, priest in the Swedish C

Hi Jimmie Åkesson. I have read your summer speech in Sölvesborg from last Saturday. You stressed the fact that Sweden is a Christian country. You seem to say that to separate the Swedish from the Christians or the Christians from the Swedish is as impossible as trying to pick eggs out of a cake.
But let me mention a few typical Christian phenomena that are the same regardless of where we are: Baptism, communion, the Bible, the Message of Love, Christmas, Easter, Jesus, God.
Or some typical Swedish things that are not necessarily related to the Christian to do: maternity, childcare and healthcare for all, Freedom to Roam [see link], midsummer and to be moderately religious.
When you say you want to safeguard religious freedom, but that people have to respect our country's Christian heritage , I suspect that you want to use the church for your own political purpose, a purpose that for me is completely different from the Christian heritage that you are talking about.
You preach a doctrine where people are judged not as individuals, but as belonging to a particular group that you have determined have certain characteristics: Swedes, Somalis, immigrants, Muslims or Christians. It is a dangerous doctrine that is fueling fears of people for what is different, and raising walls between people instead of tearing them down.
For you ​​the Christian heritage consists of a distinctive Swedish church. You talk about church buildings that are made of indigenous materials and design or ornamentation in a way that is unique to our country. For you it is important that the hymns we sing are typically Swedish and the priests preach in the Swedish language.
Influences from all over the world
But the Christian heritage we have received from a Jewish man and his disciples from the Middle East, Africa and Southern Europe, conveyed to us by the British, German and probably Russian and Greek missionaries. Our Swedish churches built after Asian and Southern European models. Psalms in our Swedish hymn book are authored by Danes, French, British, German, Peruvian, South Africans, Stockholmians and västgötar [Västetgötland is a province in Sweden where, among other cities, Gothenburg lies] .
And if my Swedish parish received refugees from Syria, I would preach the Christian message of love in Arabic if I could. Or, in sign-language if my congregation consisted mainly of deaf people. It is the message and not the language that matters. It is the worldwide fellowship of brothers and sisters, the universal church for the confession, which is the church context and subject, not a particular national origin.
You worry that the Swedish Church in recent years has become much less Swedish and mush less Christian. If you mean that the church has become less anxious and more open to cultural and religious diversity of Swedish society , then the church has become more and not less Christian. You argue that socialism and liberalism in recent decades have their claws deeper and deeper into the church. If you mean that the church raises its voice to demand for justice and solidarity  for the weak and vulnerable individuals, or that the Church takes a stand for freedom of every person to realize their dreams and their calling regardless of ethnicity or sexuality , then the church has not become less but more Christian .
Jesus included immigrants
You are angry that the church engages in hiding refugees and call it supporting the Islamization of Sweden . If you had lived in Bible times, Jimmy, I guess you just as eagerly had accused Jesus to support Samaritanism or heathen-iring of traditional Jewish society, considering how Jesus included immigrants and non-Jews in their business. I'm guessing you would want to use your influence in the Egyptian parliament to prevent refugees like Mary and Joseph with their newborn baby from seeking asylum in your country to escape Herod's reign of terror. What if your political agenda had succeeded . We would neither had Christianity or blue and yellow flags with crosses on up here, nor the eggs or cake to link to your own likeness.
And you're still angry that Bishop Eva Brunne in connection with the opening of parliament in 2010 delivered a sermon against racism and xenophobia , which got you and your comrades to march out of the church . But do not forget that it was your own decision Jimmy . It was you who felt the message. But you don't need to take it personally. Bishops, priests and pastors preach about humanity and against xenophobia every Sunday. To do otherwise would be to fail the mission as a preacher of the Christian message in the Swedish society in the 2000s.
Now you hope that your party will have increased influence in the upcoming church elections . The truth is that the legacy that the Church manages badly suits your political agenda. Take this as a piece of good advice: look elsewhere for a set of values ​​that can support your political ideology. If you allow the Christian gospel within, the walls that you build will be torn down from the inside.

Change = End?

My TCK-friends on Facebook have been sharing a blog link called  'third culture kid': what to do with change (not the money kind). I naturally had to check it out and it moved me to write my own thoughts.

"Nothing from the old world could enter into the new one. That's how it's always been. I felt there couldn't possibly be enough love, enough friendship in any of us to bridge the gaps, to build back towards each other after graduation and marriage and so much change."

And why should we try and bridge towards each other? What do we have left in common? Our lives are taking different directions so what could we have to talk about? I have killed many friendships thanks to this reasoning. I could no longer see how the relationship could continue in the way it has before so therefore I need to finish this relationship because, in my mind, I could never see how it could develop to something different. As a TCK, I have a tendency of glorifying the past, as that is how I want to remember it. To keep the memory of the friendship and not change it. 

This is what I couldn't fathom. That to keep the friendship it was up to the both of us to find a NEW way to continue a friendship. That change doesn't only mean new friendships, it also means new old friendships. And it is hard. 

" Because change is hard on souls and because I'd rather not admit all that space and time and life that's built a chasm in between us...and I'd rather not do the work of bridging it all. There's isn't time to anyway. The visit ends quickly and we slip back into our lives as if we'd never been friends."

It took a special friend to show that a friendship can change. That through change, a friendship can grow and develop to something more and something stronger. 

As I was always the one who moved away, I assumed that it would be me who changed the most. That I would grow away from my former friendships and they will just carry on in the same way as before and not want to change anything. It took my friend to show that this is not the case. That people change and grow for many different reasons. And most of all, my friend showed me that I need my old friendships. I change, and as a TCK I will adapt to the new situation I am in. But it is my old friends that will point out who I really am. How my decisions are based on my past life and why my history affects me.

Changing an old friendship is hard. It is so much easier to leave a friendship how it was then having to apply myself to finding new ways of continuing the friendship. There were awkward silences. There were misunderstandings. There were times where I just didn't have the energy.The friendship isn't as smooth as both of you were used to. 

Sometimes you realise that the friendship can't evolve. But when it does evolve, it is worth the hardship.

Wedding preparations and skydiving

I spent Saturday shopping for the wedding; a dress for myself and a shirt for Matte. I also tried to find a specific book but as there is only one bookstore company in central Stockholm that I could find and they didn't have it in stock in any of their stores I'm going to have to order it online. I miss Linköpings Bokakademin...

Anyway, as Matte's white shirt isn't very interesting, here is a picture of my dress:

It pretty scary how soon the wedding is... Time really flies and there are so many other things happening at the same time. But I'm really looking forward to it!

Today Matte finally got a time to do the skydiving present that he got so here are some pictures:

Minecraft - Did you know?

So, my husband and I have been in a bit of a Minecraft faze. Or rather, the Tekkit mod of Minecraft is what we've been playing every single night since Sunday. This has left me little time for blogging, which some of you may have noticed. All I've had time for is write short drafts with ideas for posts, so nothing is finished. We have lived in our own minecraft world building, mining and creating awesome things like lasers, machines and houses.

A sorting machine in Minecraft, which is what I want to build

So as I have been dreaming of minecraft blocks I have stated looking up a bit more around the game and what I found was very interesting. So I am going to use the standard phrase that I used when I was little to introduce what I found:

Did you know...?

That Minecraft is used to help the public be part of the design process when communities are being redesigned? Minecraft is working together with UN Habitat to provide a platform where anyone has the opportunity to be involved in the design process. This removes the knowledge barrier and helps the community to actually visualize the changes that can occur.

The link to Mojang blog announcement can be found here.

Did you know...?

That Minecraft is being used to help teach kids programming? The game is simple and children of young ages are often playing this game (A quick google gave me that the youngest was 3 years old). The game is also easy to mod (modifications to the game) with loads of information available on the internet. This means the kids are introduced early on to what is possible to reprogram. One oracle blogger posted that Minecraft was what introduced his kid to java programming

Did you know...?

Minecraft is a powerful tool in teaching kids many basic concepts, including searching for information, visual understanding, design. I found a blogpost from a mother about how she uses minecraft to teach her son with aspergers how to write and read.

Farmor - an outstanding woman

My Farmor (mother of my father) is an outstanding woman. A couple of years ago, a documentary was made about the role of the mother in the family and in society and Farmor was interviewed as a part of this documentary. The attached film clip is in Turkish and the interview with Farmor starts around 4 min and 30 sec in to video.

My Farmor is from a poor background and started working when she was 15 years old. The interview gives a lovely insight in what it was like when she was little and also how she had her hands full with all her 13 children.

Even now when she has recently turned 90, she spends a lot of her time working with Erikshjälpen, a  relief organisations with it's roots in Småland, Sweden. She regularly bakes buns and bread and donates it to their cause.

For those of you who would want a translation of the interview, contact me and I do my best :)

Starting a company

My husband and I have long been discussing whether we should start a company together. It was a subject we broached a couple of years back and we recently came up with an idea that we both believe we would like to work with. This being said it has not been a top priority for either of us and is something we mainly play with on our free time.

comic from xkcd.com

 I have spent the afternoon reading up about how to register a company here in Sweden and I cannot say I felt it was very straight forward. My research has lead me to understand that for me to get a company of the type Handelsbolag (partnership company) started I have to do the following things and in this order:

1. Register the company at the governmental department Bolagsverket. This can be either done electronically using e-legitimation, which costs 900 SEK or filling a form and sending it which costs 1 200 SEK. The form can be found here. Registering electronically requires all partners to have e-legitimation.
2. Once an organisation number has been received from Bolagsverket a registration to Skatteverket can be done.to get an approval for F-skatt, which proves that the company takes care of taxes and any social expenses that might occur. The registration includes a placement of the company in what type of business the company does (SNI -codes), which partners are in the company, whether the company will be employing people, registering for VAT and a calculation of preliminary tax for the firm.
3. Once the company is registered and generating income, I, as one of the partners in the company need to register for a "särskild A-skatt (SA-skatt).

I have now spent more time than I thought on this subject so now I'm off to do something more fun, like play Civilization V :-)

Going to play Germany

Personal Motivation

Today I will be going to an evening seminar with two work colleagues. The title of the seminar is "Unleash the Power within" and even though is not a seminar I would have gone to by myself it will be interesting to see what it is. This seminar concerns what I believe is one of the most important aspects in Swedish culture; how to motivate the individual. This being said I want to reflect in what way motivation is represented in my own experience..

I moved to Sweden when I was 14 after having spent my 7 years of schooling divided between local Turkish school with 30 students in each class, individual homeschooling and international schooling in a mixed classroom with an age range of 6 years. The motivation I had was not "complete fourth grade, or you'll be held back a year" or "if I do this extra work I will end up on the honours list". For me there were no such things. Held back a year? what did that mean? I could complete all my maths for a year in 2 months and still have french assignments left from last year. End up on the honours list? What would I compare? How could I compare with people around me when they could be working on Turkish grammar and I had English literature?

My motivation, I believe most probably came from my parents. All their life they had spent working on something they believed in and their constant motivation of making a difference in the area they  found themselves. I saw my dad work constantly with the pioneer projects that were going on where we lived. I saw my mum motivate and See (with a capital S) the children and families in the area where we lived through her music, art and lessons. I saw both my parents make a difference to the people they met.

One of my mum's pictures from Turkey, Clicking on the picture will direct to her gallery

I entered the Swedish schooling system with an attitude that anything was possible. My childhood had just proven to me that there is more than one way to developing yourself so why worry? I changed schools 3 times in 3 years, every time because I and my parents did not feel the school did the job of what we believed a school should do, fulfill the needs of the student. Finally entering a school that satisfied our requirements I completed my high school and started university studying the subject that I enjoyed most of all; mathematics.

My motivation developed throughout this time. I studied economics and realised that the best way that I could make a difference is to specialize in the area I was good at and make use of my ability. And I focused on doing what I was good at. And because I was good at it I enjoyed doing it.

What lesson have I learnt from my own experience? I guess not to be afraid to do things differently. The "normal" way does not always have to be the best way.

This does not mean that the "unnormal" way is easy...

Eavesdropping

On the subway after a day at work. I've got the typical glazed look of someone who does not want to be disturbed. The usual chatter of who's done what with whose girl is being discussed eagerly over the phone in the corner while the rest of the subway pretends not to listen.

I hear a an exclamation of "Yok ya!" behind me and I sharpen my ears to try and distinguish the words from the noise. A girl and a boy are talking to each other.

My Turkish was never fully fluent and the years of neglect of the language leaves me poorly qualified to be able to hold a proper conversation. I listen hungrily as the words flow over me, understanding only partly what they are saying but enjoying it all the same.

They get off at the same station as I do. I "accidentally" end up behind them. The girls gives me a glance and then continues her conversation. And my internal battle begins. My internal battle against my cowardice. My internal battle against the natural instinct of not speaking to strangers. My internal battle against acting normal.  And I lose.

I turn away and walk a different path. I choose not to speak. And it is my choice. I can choose to hide that part of me that doesn't fit in. I can choose to act normal.

Riksdagens Security

I'm in line. Waiting to be let in to the warmth. It is open house at the Swedish Riksdag and there is a lot of people waiting for the chance to get in to see where the politicians work.

Finally inside. A security guard tells us to prepare to remove our outer clothes and let our bags be scanned. I've brought a packed lunch so I ask the guard if it OK that I've got a bottle of water and a thermos mug with coffee.
He smiles at me and says
"We do profiling so it's the whole pictures that's more important. I don't think you need to worry."

With that said I feel relieved that I do not need to worry about having to leave my thermos of coffee with the security guards.

My name is Natalie. I live in Sweden. I've got dirty blond/brown hair. I have green eyes, pale skin and speak Swedish fluently. If you ask me where I come from (which rarely happens to me in Sweden) I would answer "It depends on what you mean."

I was born in Sweden
My first words were Arabic and spoken in Egypt
Most of my childhood was spent in Turkey
I speak Swedish with my dad, English with my mum and sister
I have a citizenship in Northern Cyprus
I am a hidden immigrant.
Welcome to my life.