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Dear WASTE,

my dear old friend. I felt like writing you as I have recently noticed you everywhere, but not communicated with you. I hold bits of you in my hand while eating this dry $1.75 Blueberry Muffin. I carry you all day comfortably wrapped in various layers of my tightly squeezed backpack. Somehow, I have gotten used to your presence. You have been my daily companion for all my life. Not at any moment have you left me alone. I feel inherently intertwined with you.

However, during the past 35 days I could sense that more of you is starting to creep into my life. Frankly, I don't like it. Never have I witnessed a place where your being is so pervasive. You hide in cars, homes, closets, food, electronics, roads and even people. As far as my short-sighted eyes can see, I cannot escape your evil stares. It is bad. Very bad.

You are thriving like a superior organism in the biosphere would. I have to warn you, though. Your expansion will only be of temporary nature. I believe that your most abundant moments can very quickly turn into a feeling of dismay and fatigue. Pain and desperation. Yes, without any hope. It might be your end. YOUR DEATH!

It will not be a sudden death, but a gradual demise that begins with an end to your expansion and a subsequent brutal process of degradation. Nature will slowly consume you and incorporate you back into its cycle. You will not be able to do anything about it!

I hope you realize that we will thrive and fall together. Thus, please behave. I would be glad if you could get back into that little corner of my life. Stay on a low profile or take a diet. It would be better for the both of us.

Thank you WASTE for paying attention. I feel relieved to have finally told you that.


Goodbye my friend! I hope to stay in touch with you here and there, but not everywhere.


Your lifelong companion, Philippe

Northern Chicago, the 31st of August 22:21.

Power outage!!!

Darknessssssss...



Mox (my CS host) and myself tapping through his apartment. We felt lost. A moment earlier we were about to cook a delicious pasta dish, but no... god, terrorists or some horrific piece of equipment did not want that to happen. It took us a while to find sources of light that could illuminate our surroundings. Battery-run devices did the job. A mobile phone and laptop.

There we sat thinking of what to do. Nothing works... that freaked us out! TV is down. Cooking won't work (exempting gas stoves). Computer games shut down. Reading turned impossible. So... there is nothing to do, right? Or is there?

A few minutes into our collective desperation we deserted the building and found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of people. At the reception, in the front yard and as far as your eye could see

!!!PEOPLE!!!


... and they weren't just standing idle. No! Strangers chatted to other strangers. What a novelty!

Thus my reasoning:

1. Humanity is in trouble because of a lack of communication!
2. The lack of communication exists because of an insufficient level of social capital.!
3. Social capital isn't there, because we turned so individualistic in modern society!
4. Technology was and is a prime contributor to individualism!

Following that logic, what is better than a power outage, as that would reduce the amount of time spent in front of electronic devises, make us socialize, create bonds and eventually understand each other better.

It's a very effective way of getting rid of discrimination.

Who wants to join in and take down all power plants in your home region? Let's make that a global movement!

VIVA LA REVOLUCION

A metropolitan forgotten in time... ugly yet beautiful... abandoned but crowded... feared and loved... so litte in so much. That's Detroit.
It is the city of shattered dreams by half a century of economic decline and social decay. Facades and faces tell me with a sad voice "... it's all gone". But no, that's not all I see. I also see hope. I can feel it. I can breath it. Everywhere from Heidelberg Project to Pulaski.
Within a climate of destruction seeds of beauty have spread. Community. Art. Nature. Those can be found again. They were lost in a world striving for efficiency. Detroit has it.
There is so much more about Detroit, but it does not let me express it. It rests firmly in my heart and shall be remembered forever.
"March into the Sea" from Pelican symbolizes what Detroit is to me. A Kaiser that fell deep. Very deep. Down into an abyss. But after the pain has gone there is...

The U.S. is founded on various principles layed down in the "Consitution of the United States of America". People here are very proud of this piece of work and it is indeed a marvellous achievement for humanity in that it acknowledges the rights of the individual. These have been upheald and treasured for a long time over here. Everyone is aware of how precious it is and how much needs to be done to preserve it.
At the moment there is a consensus across right and left that due to the increasing power of corporations and the failure of the State to behave reasonably towards its own citizens, the constitution is slowly being torn apart eroding all those rights the individual person was granted. I am in full agreement with all of that and would like to see those principles being upheld.
Unfortunately, quite a number of supporters of the constitution take it to the extreme and believe that their rights cannot be infringed by anything. They neglect that life functions in a system. Think of the following example: You bought two acres of real estate in a dense neighbourhood and you want to build a high-rise structure there. It is your right to do so, because you own that land. However, in that case your neighbours protest, because they fear that any high-rise structure will infringe their rights to have a pleasent view.
This exemplifies that things aren't that easy. We have a clash of interests that needs to be regulated through the creation of laws that infringe our very own right to build whatever we want on our own land in order to uphold the right to have a pleasent view for your neighbours. This is what the government is supposed to be there for. Tea-Party activists and hard-core libertarians often don't understand that we live in such a system in which there is give and take. A system cannot you give you everything, because it would eventually take away from someone else. Henceforth, we need a balance between what Person A and Person B. Neither of them can have everything, but one can try to regulate their relationship to achieve maximum satisfaction for both.
I want to stick to this idea of extreme libertarianism by elaborating on the demand that anyone should be allowed to carry a gun anywhere they wish to, which includes places such as public schools, festivals and churches. Why does a certain number of people wish to do so? They argue, because it serves the protection of the individual. Their logic goes that if the Jews in 1938 or youth in schools would be allowed to carry guns they could protect themselves against the Nazi's and shooters on campus, respectively. Luckily carrying guns anywhere you wish to is prohibited in most States, but as I have heared from e.g. Michigan, is being liberalized.
You get the idea of Liberalism turned into Extremism by neglecting the fact that we live in a system. This particular case of having the right to bear arms is enshrined in the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Members of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and other gun-lovers interpret this as them being able to purchase any type of gun without any form of registration and carry it anywhere. The further you go down South in the U.S. the more of those gun-lovers you meet. Unfortunately most of those live right across the Mexican border in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and many other southern States. As a consquence these States have the most liberal laws or should I say no laws for gun ownership. Thus anyone who wishes to can buy anything he wishes to. The proof of identity you need to show when you go to a gun-shop can certainly be circumvented somehow if you wanted to. A direct result of it is that criminal gangs get their hands on guns very easily. 90% of the guns and grenades used by the Mexican Drug Cartels are imported from the States. With these weapons thousands upon thousands of people are being slaughtered every year. It is like arming the Taliban and eventually fighting it (it already happens).
This makes me angry at the intentional neglect that we live in a system by a large number of U.S. citizens. It makes me sick and upset at this nation (sorry to generalize). I know that many people oppose it, but I cannot help being upset at the United States. First of all the U.S. fuels the violence of the drug war, are the prime consumer of drugs and launch NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). All of those create havoc within the Mexican society. And what do they do as a reaction? Call for more liberal laws to carry weapon, so everyone can protect themselves and erect massive walls at the border to keep out an influx of immigrants that wants to escape a literally failed state.
You see now how ignoring the fact that we live in a system leads to problems? We all have to realize that our rights need to be infringed to make the system work. We need to give to get back. I am angry at these idiots for denying this. Sure, they have come to that conclusion through living in their very own complex environment, but that doesn't deter me from wanting to frown at them and put them all into Ciudad Juarez. I hope the people of the United States figure out how to deal with such radical elements in their society, but I doubt it. The situation seems to worsen as the rise of the Tea Party shows.
Extremism is dangerous. In the U.S. it is on the rise and that will not be of benefit to Mexico. Not at all.

The United States is founded on libertarian values as laid down in the "Constitution of the United States of America". Americans are very proud of this document that was the first of its kind to acknowledge the rights of the individual so vehemently. These values have been upheld and treasured since the founding of the nation in 1791. By upholding these values the United States became the symbol liberty, equality and justice in the entire world.
Radical elements from the political right, however, take these values to the extreme. An example is the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, which grants citizens the right to “keep and bear arms”. The founding fathers wished for a strong civilian force that could fend off attacks from colonial states that threatened to subjugate the new-born nation. However, members of the extreme political right take it out of the context that prevailed in the 19th century and demand unlimited freedom to carry any weapon anywhere at any time. Keeping weaponry at schools and in cinemas certainly does not protect the nation, but is a mere desire to demonstrate power. Imagine fellow school kids walking around with a gun in their holster. Would you feel safe? I wouldn't! In the Southern part of the U.S. regulations are the least strict, because the extreme right is politically more present. This is of importance, as Arizona, New Mexico and Texas share a common border with Mexico. From these States Drug Cartels acquire a staggering 90% of their weaponry. It illustrates how important it is to consider that everything functions in a system. Here the correlation is as follows: The looser the control of arms in the United States, the more violent the conflict between Mexican Drug Cartels. Sadly the extreme right is more likely to say that “We need more guns for protection against criminal activity” than to acknowledge the problems their insistence on liberal gun laws brings. If the procurement of weaponry stays that easy it is unlikely that the balance of power within Northern Mexico will shift in favour of the government. The instability already spills over into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California and are likely to worsen if laws do not become more restrictive. Until that day citizens in Mexico and the United States will continue to suffer from preventable violence.
There are other factors contributing to the strength of the Drug Cartels and the reasoning of the extreme right. This article was written to demonstrate the damage extremism can cause. Acknowledging and accepting that all of us live in a system that is based upon interdependencies will be crucial to help Mexico solve its problems with the Drug Cartels. I hope that the extreme right will come to its sense and realize how their insistence on freedom infringes other people's freedom. Wake up!

Yes, New York is a bit of everything. It is insanely diverse and amazing, while at the same time it represents something horrible to me.
On the one hand it helped me to realize what an amazing amount of opportunities there are in such large metropolitan areas, whereas simultanously it confirmed my worst fears that humanity won't make it that easily over approaching hurdles. But from the start...

The day I got into Manhatten I felt flaggerbasted. Incredibly huge blocks of buildings towering to your left and rights. Concrete and glass as far as your eye could see. Supersized may be an underestimation. It may have felt even more drastic to me, because I have spent most of the time in 2009 and 2010 in medium sized cities. Due to my late arrival I saw the city covered in a mixture of darkness and neon-light. However, I was busy figuring out to get the phone numbers from my hosts (John wasn't there yet), so I couldn't get into a deeper exploration mode right then. From Penn-Station (2nd biggest train/tram station in Manhatten) to the apartment was a quick walk of about 15 minutes or less. It's really easy to get around due to the grid system here in the States. 33th, 34th, 35th Street... and Avenue 4, Ave 5... easy. Johns flatmate Paul was home, so I could get in, have a brief chat with Paul and throw myself onto John's bed. I was pretty tired. On my watch it was past midnight (Icelandic time), whereas for them it was just about time to go out. Nah... not with me. All in all I have been pretty much a bore with clubbing during my whole stay. It's just not my type of thing. So I slept...
The following two days consisted mostly of exploration activity of Manhatten (Down & Uptown) and finding Cafe's with wifi, so I could develop a travel plan for the rest of the US and Canada and write a ton of Couchsurfing request. The latter took seriously long and ended up being pretty annoying, cause there was so much other stuff waiting for me plus work. However, by now I'm settled until Red Deer (South of Edmonton, Canada). Phew!!!

While exploring the city during Day 1 and 2 I grew increasingly disappointed, frustrated and disillusioned besides being curious, interested and fascinated. It was due to the utter unsustainability of Manhatten. Globally, metropolitans like New York are the prime drivers of environmental (and social) destruction. The inhabitants are mostly unaware of the consequences of their consumption habits, as they are just getting on with their lives. Issues such as BP's recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico affect them, but most of them fail to draw the connection between cause and effect.
Since the whole world is seeking to attain the material status New York enjoys, I grew highly pessimistic regarding the question of whether our modern civilization will sustain itself by devising appropriate mechanisms that keep us within the boundaries nature has set whom we cannot circumvent with technology, yet.
New York basically threw a realization into my face that: "NO, not our civilization." The momentum appears so strong that the sinking ship cannot be turned around. Everyone does their own bits to shovel water into the ship, making it too heavy to float.I feel what New York is, represents human nature pretty closely, which is maximizing ones own gain with limited vision of the elsewhere (both in space and time). Although, we can alter incentives, I believe there is some fundamental truth involved that keeps creating trouble for civilizations. Yeah, the old human woes of greed, indulgance and ignorance... that's also us.

Alright, I will stop elaborating on Shock and cross over to Awe. New York is an amazing place. Such an obcene amount of cultural diversity. Examples are China town, Chelsea with its non-hetero community, Williamsburg with all the Hasidic jews, Queens with ithe idndigenous, Bronx with the black and latino community, all those groups from South America (primarily Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Rican's...), and not to forget tourists. London is diverse, but I feel New York is just a level further up the ladder. Crazy... especially how tolerance seems to be so prevelant here. I can't look below the surface, but I suspect that they mostly live in peace and ethnical hatred is relatively. I feel impressed. Many people from my home town should go to New York for a month of education in ethnic diversity. All this diversity brings about creativity and cultural education. People here are not that easily fooled into believing all Muslims are evil (as elsewhere across the States)... although there is some controversy over the building of a cultural center for Islam close to Ground Zero. From that perspective I can only bow and take my non-existent hat off. Impressive!

The following days I kept looking for places to work in. It wasn't that easy, because cafe's in Manhatten are constructed generate consumption and to make you leave rather than stay. With these property prices you gotta have a high rate of turnover to sustain your business. All this makes it a little uncomfortable around that area, as there are very few places to relax. Central Park park is the great exception.
Somehow, I managed to get some work done and have finished a draft for my research proposal. I only have to review it and specify my intentions, thus I suppose I can meet my self-set deadline of Wednesday the 25th. I'm still not too sure to what extend travelling inspires you or diverts your attention towards more interesting stuff, so if it is good or bad for your workflow. At the moment I tend to choose the latter, however, I believe if you develop a suitable methodology on how to go about it can also help a lot. Let's see how it's gonna work out towards the end of the summer.
Once John came I started doing more stuff during the evenings. I hung around with him and his flatmates Chris and Paul. I had an elaborate discussion with Chris on the usual stuff young people talk about. Life, philosophy and travels. He is a web developer, works at home and dreams of becoming a full-time musician. He's not that far away actually. He writes his own songs and just started to play in a band, so let's see what happens to him.
It was a great pleasure to meet all of them. They are a shining example on how to have success, while being very young. Yeah... geeks... good geeks are needed all over the place.

So you get the picture. This is how much of my time passed in New York. Other events that were quite fun were a free concert where I met Ally (Couchsurfer from Leeds) and another girl I had met in the Baltic states already.
And on Saturday John and have venturewill to parts of Queens and Bronx. I was particularly curious about Bronx, but we were too tired to go a lot deeper into the district. The highlight of the day was an indigenous tribe from South America performing a ritual in a park called Astoria Park. Sitting there was one of these moments where you felt totally home in New York as a world citizen. I was lying on the ground beside my US-American friend, and a Chinese dabbling lady, watching Indians dance and sing, hearing trains thundering across the Hell's Gate Bridge and waiting to walk to Bronx which is full of Latinos and African-Americans.

To finish off I want to return to my first statement of "Shock and Awe". I still feel torn apart between the good and the bad, but am able to enjoy the good a lot more. Essentially I am living inside the box, as Chris likes to portray it. Living inside the box means to enjoy live, whereas you know the joy is not real (or in this case based much of it based on social & environmental exploitation of which at least the latter has to end at some point).
I, for my part, believe/ know that this lifestyle is a temporary success of Western society and won't last too long, if we don't radically transform it. Or perhaps cities like New York will keep thriving, but do so more on more on the back of the poor. So, overall I enjoyed myself very much while having a constantly nagging voice in the back of my head telling me stuff.

I profoundly thank John, Chris and Paul for their hospitality and company. It has been an interesting experience all the way and I hope to meet you guys again.

At the moment I am sitting in a McDonalds in Washington and am about to leave. I wanna see more of the city, but am pretty tired. I caught some sleep on the way here, but that was pretty much it. Hopefully I will find a more comfy place to do some work at and it stops raining so I can sleep on the lawn beside some of these monuments. I can only meet my Couchsurfer Michael sometimes during the late evening.

Twelve days in Iceland have come to an end. It was rich of experience, although different to what you may expect when you come to ICELAND.Within a few days I have come to realize that I am neither a tourist nor a traveller, but a travelling researcher. I am writing my Master thesis, which requires work. And not just a little bit, as I want to use the thesis to get somewhere. I want to meet experts who work with REDD+ and be able to discuss the issue with them. Hence, I had and will have to spend hours and hours sitting in front of my laptop and doing research while I am in some of the most amazing place you can imagine. Yes, I do feel torn apart, but am managing well to get my butt down and research. Actually, for some of my hosts it has been even more difficult to comprehend, however, I do not think that I have articulated my intentions well enough. Anyway to do some progress on story telling, here is the rest of my “asi asi” adventure in Iceland. I was feeling relieved after having received a “Request Accepted” from that family I was talking about earlier. I was eager to meet them. So a little later, Andrea, the wife, picked me up after some trouble finding each other (I was directed to the wrong cafe of a chain called Kafitur (biggest in Iceland)). There I met her and both of the boys. They were pronounced something like Pirque (three years) and Thorque (18 months). The latter is connected to Thor, which is an old Norwegian god. Many sagas and fables are related to that name in the Nordic countries, thus it is sad that his name gets misused by the radical right in Germany to portray their arian superiority. After roughly 15 mins drive in a medium sized Jeep we got to their place, which is situated South of Reykjavik. Unnar (husband)was picked up by her afterwards as the car was overcrowded already. So around 6pm I was facing the whole family. It was only the second time to have a family as a host. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but happy that it worked out that way. The first evening we just talked while I was curiously watching the children getting fed and entertained.Pirque (as 20 times every week) watched the movie “Monsters Inc.” at least once and Thorque fooled around with everything he could find. The younger one is a bit more active, as he is not so easily calmed down by putting him in front of the TV. He prefers throwing toys off the balcony and pressing the “Switch on/ off” button at the TV. Meanwhile our discussion took on the usual dimensions with fellow Couchsurfers: Philosophy of Life, but also more specific information such as interesting comments of Unnar's work. He is maintaining equipment to measure the size, weight etc. of “units” on fish farms. The most interesting thing he said was that the old fish species are disappearing, due to climatic changes. In addition to these comments from Unnar I have heard a guide talking about climatic changed on a walk I took yesterday and someone else telling me that Reykjavikians for the first time ever had to water their lawns in June/ July. All of them have lived all their lives in Iceland, thus it is yet another form of, let's say, indication to me, that climate change is real and happening. Iceland will, according to the IPCCC, be one of the most affected locations (although Icelanders may be happy about warmth) with something between 4 to 8 degrees temperature increase. Can you imagine the temperature in your home town climbing by 4 to 8 degrees? And that on average? All in all the days I stayed with the family were very pleasant. In the mornings I was working on my thesis (writing lots and lots of E-mails, reading documents and studying Spanish) and evenings I spent time with the couple and the babies out of which always new insights originated, especially on how to raise children. Make simple, transparent rules. Be repetitive. Calm. Don't make too many exceptions. Both mummy and daddy shall treat the kids alike. Children taste different, so sweets are fine and many types of veggies out (hope Diana doesn't read that). Don't try to forcefeed your children any of that or perhaps you should... not sure about the healthy stuff. Most important of all though should be to love your kids. This particular couple did so and provided an excellent example of how to do parenting. You get the picture of how the days passed by. Except there was still weekend on which I did two really fun things. First I attended Gay Pride on Saturday. It is one of Iceland's biggest festivals, collecting ¼ of the country's citizens (80.000) plus some tourists. Pretty impressive for such a stretched out place, but not so much if you consider the amount of events happening in the countryside... next to none. All in all the event went by as any other parade, apart from two things. First of all Reykjavik's recently elected mayor joined in on one of the wagons, dressed as a gay. To clarify he is a straight comedian who was elected probably because of the populace's dissatisfaction with the old elite's rule under which many citizens are aching under a heavy debt burden, but more to that later. The other issue of importance to me was to see that many casually dressed middle aged men and women participating and revealing their sexual preferences. I felt strongly impacted by that as I had placed homosexuals into a box of party people before. It was mostly unconsciously, but nevertheless there. This discovery proved, yet another time that judging ethnic (or whatever in that case) groups instead of individuals is plain wrong and leads to narrow minded racism. And on Sunday I got myself to hike up the local mountain range. The altitude difference was about 700m and, honestly, it didn't feel very challenging until I decided to go off path. It took only 2 hours to get up to the plateau which stretches out a few square kilometers. I crossed most of it and then took a left turn into a long valley. I had to do some left and right turns and walk, climb or crawl across bits and pieces of the downhill stretch. However, I always found a patch that was within my reach as a climber. I could have never managed to get down on one of these cliffs myself, but probably fallen of into a mass of stones and made “popp”. In my case it was pretty safe, though. The valley appeared to me much shorter than it ended up being, because there was no path, meaning I had to fight myself though low bush territory. (((Huiii... there are some turbulences in the plane. If I manage to get this post up then I will have survived it. Wohooo...))) The whole going off the path thing was rewarded by the sight of a pretty nice waterfall and tons or should I say masses of sheep roaming the grass. Later I learned that these sheep actually belong to someone. The shepherds mark the sheep and set them free during summer so get them fat and wooly. In autumn shepherds around the country collect the sheep in their territories and hand all sheep back to their owners. Interesting system that is quite unique. That was pretty much it for Reykjavik. My memories are quite nice with sleeping in containers, climbing local mountains, a comedian as a mayor and an awesome family as a host. On Tuesday the time came to say goodbye to family and Reykjavik. I had to hitchhike to Keflavik (very close to the airport), which was 50km away. It took me two rides and a TOTAL waiting time of 10 minutes to get down there. I have hitchhiked three times and never waited longer than six minutes. This and the fact that two out of three hosts were families demonstrates how trusting at least part of the Icelandic society is. No wonder by a murder rate of one a year for 320.000 people. Family number two was no less welcoming and even more trusting. Apparently they never ever lock their door, although I am not entirely sure, because most of the time at least a kid was home. Ko-leen the wife had invited me to stay with them, as she was born in Saskatchwan, a place I was going to go. In addition an aunt is involved in an environmental group that fights the exploitation and environmental destruction caused by the tar sands in Alberta (all in Central Canada). Thus we had a basis to communicate from and shared some interesting thoughts on this and that. Her husband was equally fun. We (two more French Surfers, me and him) played a game of risk together, which I lost badly. Last! Never happened before. Embarrassing for Germany's reputation in Strategic Thinking and Diplomacy. Much else did not happen. I got along well with everyone, took the dog out a few times (she ate and vomited my nudels) and did a little bit of hiking around. Here I want to explain what I mentioned earlier with the economic situation of Iceland. This family was in some decent fincancial trouble, as they owned a morgaged house in Reykjavik. Due to the currency fluctuations their debt has exploded and they can't even service their interest, so they witness a perpetually increasing minus on their bank account despite work AND renting out the apartment. The same happened all over Iceland. Still even they said that to the Icelandic society this may be healthy as it makes it question it overtly materialistic aittude. Status symbols, especially in the form of cars, were all around it. Let's hope the best for this little country!
I describe the trouble I had to book additional tickets to get out of the Unites States in my next blog.
(Pictures are on my PICASA account)

For gods sake!!! What a rush... and it was my own fault! At the moment I am sitting at the airport and waiting with a calm conscience. Phew... This morning I checked the entry regulations for German citizens again and it said something that made me say something mean. I had to have booked a ticket that gets me out of the US in order to prove that I wouldn't stay in the US and work illegally. To what extend this is paranoid or sane I don't know. However, I googled it up and discovered that within a year roughly 1.200 poor Australian (only this nation counted) travellers had been rejected and ordered to return right away. That must have been a blow to each and everyone. The article said that it was mostly due to missing return flights. Hence, I figured that if Australians get sent back Germans would not be treated much better, especially because the relations between Australia and the US are better than with Germany, due to the war in Iraq. Before I have read that article I thought about giving it a try, but now I was sure I had to book a ticket beforehand. Eventually I managed to do so, but only after a lot of hassle. First my bank card was rejected on the bus company “Greyhoundbus”, which would have only cost 22$. The only option left, as there are no (literally) trains in the US was a flight. However, since these are superexpensive for me and also totally unnecessary I spent a good deal time looking for fully refundable flights. Dumb as it is they cost five times as much even with the cheapest airline. My fare amounted to 1200$. Uiiii... Before I could book, however, I was asked for a password that I didn't have. So in the rush I had to call up my bank and then my grandparents. I am inherently grateful that they were home to provide me with the password that has been sent a few weeks before!!! Grandma is a superb secretary. Everything available at any given time! I should pay her for that. Finally I managed the booking, rushed to the library to print it and hope that I first get into the US and then get a FULL refund. I'm poor now and in addition owe some money to the state. So quickly you can go from hero to zero. (@ grandparents: don't take it so serious I still have more than enough money to get me going a few weeks!)
In the hassle I lost three eggs, my (buhuhuuu) sporky and the last 80 pages (rest is ripped out to save space) of my Spanish book. Sporky hurts the most and then the three eggs. So much protein going down the drain. The hens needed to suffer needlessly :(

My DEAREST readers!
I have had some wonderful days! All of them in Reykjavik. It started with receiving a positive reply from one of the local Couchsurfers that I could stay over. She even told me I could come right away, which I did. Of course. As a result there wasn't any need for raoming around the city and looking for suitable places to sleep. That particular night (last Wednesday) I had stayed at a camping site, but I already knew that I didn't want to keep paying, so I was looking for alternatives. I eventually found a particularly good one, which was a park just beside the camping site. That way I could pitch my hammock in trees, hide my bag somehow and have access to showers (at the campsite) and other useful facilities such as kitchen and internet. As mentioned before I didn't need to pursue this thought further.
During my search for convenient places to sleep I had some interesting insights that are worth mentioning... just because the perspective I was looking from changed. What I had turned into was literally a beggar or homeless dude looking something mildly comfy. Strangely most of the opportunities I saw weren't very legal. Remember my last entry when I was talking about the sleep-over in the container? Private property, right. And it doesn't stop there. When you have little money or are trying to stay on a very tight budget (also called greedy) then many set rules become blurry. You start entering and reentering a grey zone or go beyond it. On Thursday morning for example, I managed to sneak myself into the breakfast area of the Youth Hostel. The YH and camp site are right beside each other and cooperate on many issues, so I assume they basically belong to the same owner. I only paid for a few square meters of space and no breakfast, however, but there I was eating away at the YH. Well, it was delicious... fruits, cornflakes, toast and milk for FREE... what else could I have wished for. But here's the issue: Grey Zone. No one or nothing explicitly told me not to do that, so I did it. Was it right and honest? Most likely not. Did I steal food? Probably. Don't get stuck on my failure to stay clean. Imagine what people who live on the street must feel like. Constantly out looking for stuff they can fetch for next to nothing or nothing. They are prone to trespassing lines created by comfortable middle class people. I would even include poor people here. Both of these groups face pressures to behave in certain ways that push them across the legal boundaries they should be living in. Criminal! But is it really their fault? Should they be punished harsh or... or what? Receive help? It's easy to frown on the scum of society without even trying to understand their situation. I assume many of those affected unvoluntarily slipped into that situation. From sneaking into breakfast rooms towards stealing in supermarkets towards robbing the wealthy etc. Is that what happens to many youngsters across the world? Do they choose that path? I doubt so. They get pushed into it. Those that make it and keep some of their dignity alive should be congratualed. These men and women have managed to cope with a situation in which they are looked down upon, are being harrassed by youth and police and have a life that lacks comfort literally everywhere.
It was an interesting discovery and hopefully helped to change my attitude towards the so-called scum of our society. Most of the bottle collectors, homeless and petty criminals deserve to be treated and looked upon a lot better than we currently do. I include myself here most willingly.

Yesterday I was looking for an alternative for hours. I mean I had my superhammock and sleeping bag. Due to the lack of trees there weren't many suitable opportunities around. Nevertheless, I eventually found one. It was bits and pieces of forest that have been planted around a hill some years ago to bring some visual change into the Icelandic or in that case Reykjavikian picture. On top of that hill there was a domelike structure containing a viewing platform, restaurant and some form of musuem. The toilets were free as usual, which is quite important to me, as my bladder tends to be of minature size. Although that day I preferred releaving myself onto trees, which were all around me.
After having found this spot suitable for camping I went back to Elenora's place to pick up my backpack and say goodbye. That's what happened and not much else. We haven't developed much of a interpersonal relationship, partially because she was injured so couldn't walk around and her boyfriend was over. Also I was mostly out surveying Reykjavik, which I had started to like quite a lot. Perhaps it reminds me of Uppsala, plus coast.
So I left my comfy home behind and got my butt to the industrial area. I wanted to go dumpster diving, basically going to a supermarket and looking for something for free. No it's not stealing, but utilizing unused resources. For that I had to wait however, which I did on top of some sort of garage. It was easily accessible and soft, because gras has been planted all over it. There I spent a few hours reading, enjoying some sunlight and from time to time walking around to find a better place to sleep. On top of that building I was still fairly exposed to godly weather conditions. The temperature doesn't change much during night, but it always feels that it could give a shower within a few minutes. My second walk around the industrial estate finally brought some success. Behind an office building there was an open container with some building materials for stages inside. It had sufficient space for me, so I spent a night in a container. It is not much different from a floor in a house with a half opened window. Quite the same actually, apart from the fact that you start worrying from 6pm onwards that no one comes before you leave. I left 6:15 to avoid any coincidences.
As it was too early I couldn't go anywhere inside, so I ventured along the harbour eventually sitting down to enjoy my breakfasst. Great when the sun is shining into your face. Although today clouds were there all the time they got stuck behind the mountain range towards the North. After descending Southwards they disolved. Good job :) I'd encourage that until next Wednesday.
During breakfast I also had some rething going on. I was a little upset yesterday, because I spent so much time on looking for things, plus thinking of what to do with a hammock in a treeless country and last but not least didn't want to spend heaps of money on some touristy activities. My realization? WORK! After all this is a Work n Travel trip. My conclusion with which I am explicitly happy is living cheap, eating cheap, studying morning until late afternoon and during the rest of the time discovering new places.
Surely I am gonna use the weekend for leisure stuff. On Saturday the gay parade in Reykjavik and Sunday hiking up the local mountain.
Yippey!

At the moment I am sitting at my hosts (Elenora's) home, having some supersimple breakfast and studying Spanish vocabluary.
Iceland is nice. At least what I have seen so far, which boils down to Keflavik and Reykjavik. Keflavik contains not much more than the airport and the coast, however Reykjavik has quite a lot to offer. It also lies directly at the coast, thus has two or three harbours. Due to the weather they all look a little colourless... white, grey, black, but nonetheless it is pleasent wandering along them. The wind that blows from the sea is between slow and fairly strong, but always refreshing, so you enjoy breathing in the salty, moisture laden oxygen. The city of Reykjavik is pleasent to walk through. What becomes apparent is that, especially the city center has been made for tourists. Or as I have been told yesterday, transformed into a literal tourist city since 2008. The reasons are the devaluation of the Icelandic Krona and lower transportation costs due to Iceland Express. As a result they had somewhat of a peak influx of tourists last year, which has declined by about 50% in 2010 due to people's fear of not being able to get here... thanks to Europe's favourite vulcano Eyjafjallajökull.
I'm not entirely sure what I will be doing during the following days. Today I plan to hit some musuems and look for a tent to rent. My freedom of movement is greatly limited as I carry my water proof hammock. Why? Very simple... the Vikings cut down all the trees and make Iceland look like a shaved butt. Ok, it does look pleasent nevertheless, but causes me trouble. Yesterday I have written some requests to CS'ers along the way in the hope that I would find a roof, but hope is dwindeling a little. I got one in Keflavik, but nothing further North where I plan to go on Thursday... See what happens. I can sleep outside, only need some shelter from the rain though.
Other than the travelling I have realized something in the past few days. Openness and a non-judgemental attitude make people feel comfortable with you. If people realize or just imagine that you condem their behaviour it makes them feel uncomfortable. I will give a few more moments of thought and see whether I have adapt my behaviour in certain situations.
I'm having a bunch of interesting days and I hope you too. Enjoy your life!

Philippe

This is our anticipated route.

First for about 2 1/2 months from Tromso to Malaga cycling for around 6000km. On the way we plan to meet some of my family in Germany and Italy, plus friends in Uppsala and elsewhere. Not to forget her family in Barcelona. It will function as something like a test for the real hardship... Africa.


All pre-planned routes aren't final, as we will have to anticipate a lot of changes during trip. The distance is roughly 7000km.

Same here. Nothing final, but by flying from, e.g Cameroon to Ruanda we will avoid troubled areas in the DRC and Angola. Right here caution has to be taken about Zimbabwe. Due to quick changes on the continent we will remain attentive to any news from Africa.

At the moment we gain some insights into how it is to travel Africa on bike by reading the book: "Around Africa on my Bycicle: Riaan Masner. Interesting book, I recommend it.

You'll receive updates on our plans. However, before that is planned I will do my Master Thesis, travel North and Central America and hopefully hitchhike the Atlantic Ocean back to Europe.

Adioz a todo mundo!

Having arrived safely in Torino I called my aunt who picked me up half an hour later with Sara. I had missed the Brazil-Netherlands match, but who cares. I have arrived on time, even though I was close to giving it up in Savona, as I was tempted to take the train as a cheap option. Hitchhiking is a good school to learn stamina and faith. You may stand for 3 hours, but right then someone stops and the time you have been waiting has paid off.
The weekened Sara and myself spent at my aunts place was fun. We saw Germany kicking Argentina's but 4:0 and went to closeby monastry. All in all highly relaxing two days. What was more important, however, was to talk to my aunt about my/ our future plans. She always wanted me to go into Switzerland to find a secure job, earn my money and work on my career, but I refuse. It's the easy option. Sure it has its own obstacles, but certainly less problematic than wandering through the world for a few years before eventually deciding to take on a steady occupation. In the end I succeeded to gain her mental acceptance for our bike trip, although I believe it was more due to the eagerness of Sara to join than me arguing for the usefulness of traveling to build up character. Well it worked, which means I do not face any opposition to my plans within my family for the near future. Relief!
On a Monday morning we decided to leave. Hitchhiking again. This time together. I was promising myself that it would go a lot smoother with a girl than without. Partially true, but we also realized that lorry drivers took us a lot less, because we were two. Understandably, as none of us are insured and they only have one seat.
We started out in Torino and got a ride quickly. A professor of the University of Torino and journalist gave us a ride while lecturing us about the greatness about Italian breakfast and the slow food movement. He ended up inviting us for a coffee at the petrol station and dropped us later. The situation required us to cross the highway (on a bridge of course) and made us walk through a big mais field. We followed the lines, otherwise we would have been totally lost. With some zick zack we made our way up North and reach the Lago Maggiore. There we took the wrong side, which was overpopulated with hotels and restaurants. It took a loooong loooong time to pass the lake. Thus once did so it was already seven. A lot later than previously thought. According to plan we should have had arrived in Ravensburg already with coffee in Liechtenstein. Well, emergeny plan... sleeping beside the petrol station on a grass field. Apart from some huge dogs no one bothered us. Even the dogs were comparably peaceful. Sleeping in the midst of a mountain ranges (about 150 km's South of the Gotthard & San Bernhardiner tunnel). Around 1am we were awoken by heavy thunder and lightning. Behind the mountain range to the South we could witness the heaviest thunderstorm we've ever seen... with such a rapid succession of lighning, it was unbilievable. One every 1/2 a second. Bang, bang, bang for an hour. Lucky us that it didn't pass the mountain range, but stayed South of it.
Night passed and we waited another two hours until we decided to take a different route. We wanted to go through the Bernhardiner tunnel, but no one went that way, so we chose to join people towards Zürich and then head of eastwards at Zug. It went all fairly well, although one has to admit that in the South of Switzerland people seem to be highly conservative towards hitchhiking. Another remarkable phenomena I would like to tell you is the change in weather conditions. Before the Gotthard tunnel it was 25°C and sunny. Behind only 17°C, rainy, foggy and cloudy. Quite staggering.
As planned we had our coffee and cake in Liechtenstein. Eventually we walked through half of the country to get back to the highway. Funny... these little states. And back on the highway. A few more hours hitchhiking brought us to Ravensburg in Southern Germany, where we met Inge's (friend of ours) parents. They hosted us gracefully, providing us with obcene amounts of food and showing us around town. What more can you expect from strangers. The next day we hitchhiked up to Heidelburg, where Inge was residing at the moment. We only went to her parents place, due to a confusion, as we thought she is there. On the ride there Sara hitchhiked the first time in a lorry, which was great fun for her. Sitting far above anyone else makes you feel almost superior. It's cool for sure.
At Inge's place we watched Germany being beaten by Spain. Yes, they didn't deserve it, but since they gave England a beating I am happy nevertheless.
Next stop was my grandparents home in Pegau, where we stayed for 3 days. I had to say by for a whole year, as I won't be seeing them due to my travels through the America's. Not even christmas, which is the first time ever I will be absent. Sorry, but once girlfriends come into the game one has to choose between two families. Next time again for sure though.
The rest of the time in Eastern Germany, my home place, flew past. Hitchhiking, meeting old friends and showing Sara around was great fun. Then, last Saturday morning we had get on our way back to Leeds. We wanted to make it by Sunday evening, however, I speculated more with Monday around lunch time. We had to get across the many highways in Germany, cross the Channel and get beyond London, which I figured were the most difficult parts of the task ahead. Further complication was added by our desire to pay Luxembourg a visit. All of it worked out fine. Again the same thing as always... great discussions, sleeping on or close to petrol stations and begging people to get a ride. We even managed to hitch a ride across the channel. The guy who took us got a prison sentence of three months in Italy, because he took a few Somalians along who had fake passports. Poor guy. Still he took us, also reassured because an incredibly friends French police officer let him know that we were alright. This police officer even offered us to ask people if they could give us a ride. I can't recall a more friendly policeman than him. Congrats.
The same guys the got us across the channel drove us all the way to a petrol station on the west side of London. Thus we already were on the M25 and had seemingly easy play to get to Leeds the next morning. We slept in some comfy seats at a Costa Coffee for about three hours and got up once the sun rose above the horizon.
The first ride we were given contained an interesting discussion with a former soldier who's is a dedicated entrepreneur. It was great to listen to him eagerly explaining how he makes his money. There are simple tricks to many things in life. You just need to know how. Attaining money is one such thing.
Around noon we were back in Leeds. We decided to celebrate our timely arrival at the Greek.
Overall this journey has been pretty exhausting but superfun. It's always a question of comfort. Do you wanna make the effort and hitchhike or not? So far I have more often than no decided to do so, if I had time. It always has been worth the effort.

What a great time I had! Montpellier was seriously awesome. Rich of fun, experience and some insights. After having hitchhiked there and having cheered Germany to victory over England (arch enemey Nr.1) I headed to Ellyn's place. She was going to host me through Couchsurfing throughout the days I would reside in Montpellier. At the moment she did a PhD in evolutionary biology at the University of Montpellier. It seemed like a pretty exhausting job to me, but which PhD isn't. Hers lasts four years and the qualification you receive thereafter will turn you from job-begging to being begged to do the job. Alright, it's not so clear cut, but goes that way. Sunday night we had our introductory chat and dinner (with Quinoa... amazing grain) and went to see Andry, Anil and some other girls to watch a fairly funny (but superdumb) movie together. So the first day passed really promising. For night-time, Ellyn gave me her spare room, which contained a supercomfy matrace and a washing basin for my clothes. Excellent! Monday was the first day at the “Innovation in Agriculture for Sustainable Development” conference. It was located in a gigantic house called Corum, right in the center of Montpellier. The locals apparently didn't like it too much, as the building feels a little misplaced. It went well, apart from that I realized that I felt a little ashamed to walk around with two gigantic holes in my trousers, which I had ripped open the day before. They looked like monstrous holes trying to eat you! Ellyn said, however, that she may be able to fix them. That's what I hoped for that night, but we realized she was out of sewing stuff. Pity. Thus I decided to take it in my own hands (like a real man) got myself a sewing kit and sow away on a bench in the park beside the Corum. Wohooo... how exciting. Teaching yourself to sew is fun and not that dangerous after all. I did not end up bleeding to my own surprise. It took me roughly 2 ½ hours, so I had missed most of the morning sessions, but not all. When I got back to the conference center, I had an Email from Michael in my inbox. He wanted to meet up for lunch, as he wanted to know about people in Uppsala. He will be going soon and intends to meet up with some researchers to discuss matters. We had a fun lunchtime, eating cheap baguettes and chatted away about all sorts of stuff, mainly related to sustainable development. With us was one of his mates from Stanford Uni, whose parents are originally from Germany but who's lived all across the world. You can imagine why this was a great opportunity for talking. It also helped to do some networking, which I wasn't doing at all until then. So far I haven't figured out approaches to get to talk to people, basically breaking the ice. I mean real reasons, not just asking how the weather is doing or if they enjoy Montpellier. It's difficult to do so, because, personally, I was only there out of interest, but for no reason unlike seemingly everyone else. So great thanks to Michael for making the first step. Before we left lunchtime, however, something dumb happened (fortunately under the table). On my left leg another giant hole ripped open. Yes, FUCK! While walking back I was holding my bag in front of it, so not to expose it. The other two were both wearing business suits and I was wearing overused hiking boots, a sports shirt and ripped apart trousers. It made me quickly depart from them so I could sew the hole. It's incredible how this changed my self-confidence. Without hole was so much better at approaching people. Lesson is: appearance counts not just for the sake of it, but for your personal satisfaction. I just don't want to overdo it, but I guess this is hardly the case for me. During the evening all people attending the conference were loaded into buses and transported to a farmhouse where local farmers were giving tasting sessions of their organic produce (fruits, vegetables, bred, chips, vine, water...) and trying to sell some of it. It was incredibly delicious. I can't remember having eaten that well. After everyone being stuffed by the farmers the actual dinner came. It was also good, but can't come close to the farmers produce. During the evening networking felt a lot easier, as you had many points to start for a random conversation. I talked quite a bit to Christoph about general experiences in life, which is the friend of Michael. The latter was sick for whatever reason. Besides talking about philosophy there were some practical advices too. He told me in order to accredited for COP16 it is worth visiting this … website and writing some mails to NGOs that participated in the former COP's. The mailed content should be personal, showing a strong interest from your side and possibly offer them some help in return. I sent five of these mails the next morning and got two positive responses by now. Even Christoph was surprised by how fast it went. One of them is willing to just put me on the list and the other wants to have some sort of interview with me next week. Can't wait to talk to them, also because of my thesis. Thanks a ton for the advice and well, I'm 100% committed to seeing both of you in San Diego and Frisco.
There is a lot more to tell, so I keep it short now. The CS-community was fun. Most of those I met were US-Americans. Some of them were building a boat out of plastic bottles that they are planning to stay on for a week, starting on Sunday. Good luck doing so.
While writing this article I'm being driven towards Italy by an older trucker. It's going well and fairly quick. He may even ask other lorry drivers through their walkie talkie if they can give me a ride to Torino. He's having his break now and I'm starting to get fairly hungry. I will stay with him though, cause I don't want to wait an unnecessary four hours somewhere in the pampa of Italy, where I could see my girlfriend and aunt within a few hours. Good luck to myself!

This Sunday was fairly extraordinary, as it was picked with many little fun events. I left Leeds for good, only missing lil` woman. So in the plane and off to France. Carcasson was the destination, a beautiful little town, where much of its medieval building structure is well preserved. The city center is encapsulated by old walls th were used to defend the core of the city. Pleasent and nice to walk through. As I have decided to go hitchhiking all the way I bought some food for the day and ate on the way to the highway. I got a lift after 10 minutes waitng. Guess who was driving. A French woman that wanted to get her wife from Narbonne and their child. Wow. In my mind I was a little taken aback. I always say that I oppose gay couples adopting children, but hey... why not. Unfortunately, we didn’t talk about the topic, so I didn't get any new inspiring thoughts on that. Not sure how i would vote regarding that issue right now. After she dropped me in Narboone I followed the instructions of two pedestrians, who directed me onto a country road towards Montpellier instead of the highway. Unfortunate, because people there drive considerably shorter distances. Before I got my finger out, however, I had to clean all my bags because the chocolate I bought a few hours earlier had dripped all over my clothes. I ended up wiping the chocolate off the clothes onto a nearby wall. I wonder if anyone licked it off by now. It must have been a whole chocolate bar! Then I decided it is time to take out the laptop and hope people will stop because I look more formal and trustworthy to them. It didn’t seem to work. Perhaps it’s more useful in a very rural part. It took me about an hour to get a lift, which lasted for a mere four minutes. The same waiting time, but much larger distance next time. I got picked up by a purple Mercedes without a roof. When I entered he played Rammstein out loud. How fun was that! "Duuuu, du hast, du hast mich... dududummdumm..." Cheers France. He dropped me close to Bezivier, which was about half way distance to Montpellier. Waiting on a cross road where both signs indicated Montpellier?!? I decided to go left. While hiking towards the Montpellier on the left, I got picked up and driven to a toll station at an entrace of the highway towards Montpellier/ Barcelona. I was surprised to find another couple and an old Frenchie trying to hitch there way on that spot. Although, admitedly it looked like a very convenient one. The Canadian couple got away first only to be replaced by another Frenchie intending to go to Toulouse. He stood right in my way, so I had to put distance between us, so not to confuse drivers that we hitch together. I wanted to go the other way. A girl initally wanted to stop for him, but saw that his direction was Toulouse, so I waved her over. We chatted away in Spanish, English and also French and it worked. Time flew by and I was dropped on the outskirts of Marseille. Now it was time to hurry. Only 40 mins to go for the worldcup match. Damn, I wanted to see at least half an hour and the tram would only come in 20 minutes! I was doomed. But no there is still hitchhiking. I got a ride after asking a woman simply if “this way is MTP?” She replied: "Yeah, you wanna come in?" and off I went to see the German squad beating the shit out of England. 4:1!!! Congrats lads! Will report some fun stuff about CS-Montpellier next time.
Aurevoir!

P.S.: I also ripped both sides of my shorts at knee height. As it was the only pants I got here, I have to go to the conference in ripped trousers. At least I don't stink as much as at the OECD conference!

The following thoughts are a continuation of the logic of what I have argued for in "The Benfits of an Unstructured Career". It is about exposing yourself to the unknown, widening your horizon and ultimately become wiser.
When I think back a year ago I remember how I denounced much of what has been talked about regarding climate change, as bogus. I did not believe climate change was a reality, as I was simply lacking knowledge of the issue. Basically, I judged without understanding what climate change is, what it does and how it is being promoted. I judged while resting in igorance. By now I have come to know the mechanisms that influence the global climate (great thanks to Uppsala) and revised my opinion. After having learned about the causes and effects I turned into a supporter of many measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and even activist.
The lesson I draw from it, is that it is worth to expose yourself to viewpoints you disagree with. In the "Unstructured Career" I literally propose this as being a way of life. To what extend this is entirely feasible, I don't know. However, exploration is the first step to discovery, or second if you include intentions. At the moment, as I am about to prepare my Master Thesis and finish my studies I am thinking of what to do later on. Shall I take on an internship at the UN and promote sustainability or what, so keep pursuing a career path that lies well trampled? What sounds much more intriguing to me is to work for an oil company or some other highly destructive business. I may not be happy there, but it will be an invaluable opportunity to learn about their perspective on, say, environmental issues. In addition it may be possible in some way to introduce some environmentally sound practices.
The same counts for political parties. I usually vote Green or perhaps Left some other day, but something tells me that I should become member of the Liberals.
The latter idea is about to be implemented. It feels stange adding to the numbers and finances of the party that generally disgusts you.
I will give some of these ideas and more a try. If I can gather the strength I may implement that in my everyday life... behaving counter-inuitively.
I will see what I gain from it and what not :)

Not sure how I am feeling right now… it is a little strange to have left a place that I already miss. I have never felt that in my life, so it’s a new experience, so to say. Leaving everything behind. People you have come to know pretty close. Who have become friends to you. Well, it’s one of the costs that this rapidly evolving society imposes on us. We reap the benefits of getting to see and learn so much more, but are breaking ties with our surroundings over and over again. Or for that matter being broken out of them, if you look at the current situation at the job market. Uppsala made me feel really good. I have learned so many new things, even though I cannot name a specific example. I suppose it’s a lot of detailed knowledge about, say nature through studies in chemistry, biology and geology. But there was also wisdom that has come to me, I believe. Surely not in excessive amounts, but I have grown as a person during the past nine months. I was in an environment that was much more encouraging of personal growth than what I had in Leeds. In Uppsala most people I knew were greedy for personal growth, seeking every opportunity do learn something more. My Bachelore in Leeds was surely a little bit interesting, but business alone doesn’t contain much of a purpose for me, so I felt slightly unsatisfied. Uppsala University with its Masters in Sustainable Development has provided me with more. Especially with a very diverse kind of people. Will, the hardcore hippie, Chris the (US-American/ Swedish business man that turned into an urban garner), Christian a man who pursued a pretty “unstructured career” up to the point, Sana who is a highly interesting person… talking and smiling a lot, Ana who is hyperactive, super creative and so wonderful to be around with and so many others who I may not have been close with but who also impressed me one way or the other. Here credit goes to Brody who knows so much at the age of 19, Mladen who’s attitude is the very opposite of mine but we stand for and behave very much in line of our philosophy about life. It was a pleasure to meet you all. You all have contributed to my growing personality in one or the other way. I hope I helped you doing the same too. I think the lessons that I learned prepared me better for what is about to come. A lot I suppose. Much good and hopefully not that much bad, but whatever may come I shall take it and make the best out of it. The same counts for all my friends from Uppsala! Don’t give up, but go on. I haven’t been in a tunnel with an end yet. There is always light somewhere. But let’s not be pessimistic, as there no reason to be. So finally BIG THANKS to all those people for enabling me to gain new insights and growing as a person. This year has been extremely important to me and I very much appreciate what has happened. Gracias and good luck on all your very own paths. I’m sure at least some of us will encounter each other again!
Philippe

Hi everyone! I have been wondering what to do with this blog...do I delete it, since I have been so bad about writing here? Or do I keep it around and promise to myself to write a lot more?

I have been doing my Master's research about how UK municipalities can get their town employees to reduce their carbon footprint. A lot of my work is about awareness campaigns, and how to get people to actually do something! It can be a bit frustrating since sometimes it feels like people know what we should be doing, but we don't actually do it. This is called the value-action gap, or knowledge-behaviour gap. What will it take to get across the gap to get societies to actually make enough changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Or to be be more pro-environmental in general?

There are basically two ways to go about encouraging people to do more pro-environmental actions, like conserving energy or reducing how much they use their car. One is to change their values, since people who care about the environment are more likely to do actions that match up with saving the environment. Teaching and inspiring people about nature is one way to reinforce their positive values about the natural world.

The other way to do it is to just get people to change their behaviour, without changing their attitudes. This can be in the form of giving people incentives to get more efficient appliances, or a hybrid car. They might do the action that saves energy, but in general they're doing it to save money or because they think it will make them look good.

Both approaches have their pros and cons, and people respond differently to what motivates them. In my opinion, we need a combination of both to get things done. What do you think motivates people to change? Would you change your actions just because its the right thing to do, or because it would save you money? Or maybe you would like to make those changes but can't afford it, and a financial incentive is the only way to make it feasible for you?

It started off with just another Tuesday morning breakfast in a small German town called Pegau (South of Leipzig) and should end with some fun stuff on the way to Klosterdorf for me to join the Green Games.
So, I made my food conserves for the day, said goodbye and headed off onto the road. This day I was particularly excited about what would await me, because I haven’t had hitchhiked for months and was impatient to experience some degree of randomness again.
Going with the flow, probably best describes what hitchhiking is about. You get in a car and drive off. So far I haven’t refused a ride yet because the person in it seemed inappropriate to go with. I tend to trust people and have never really been threatened, so this trust got reinforced. Surely, if needed I will also refuse or tell them to let me out. Being drunken, abusive or stoned are no-goes, but never happened to me on tens of thousands of km’s.
280km was the distance I had to cover that day, which did not seem terribly much, as I have done around 1000km already. Hitchhiking in Germany is especially easy, so I had no reason not to expect to reach my aim by hitchhiking.
As a result I got on the first Bundesstraße B2 and got picked up within 2 minutes. Driving was a worker from a chemical factory. We had a quick chat about workers rights and how they changed from the GDR to the BRD. Apparently they are constantly being cut, as companies get under pressure or else they go out of business. He dropped me off close to Zeitz at a road that reached the highway within a few km’s. That way I wouldn’t reach the aimed at petrol station, but I thought it would be alright anyway.
So it was. I quickly got picked up again and driven up to Saalepark, a huge shopping centre close to Leipzig. In the car I sat with a woman who worked for the Green Party in Thüringen and her two sons who were about to finish their highschool. We had an awesome discussion about the world’s environmental problems. She even felt compelled not to drive too fast, as she assumed I had a very environmental attitude. Great to see how simple behaviour inspires others to act. At the end she told me the Left Party may have a job vacancy for an environmental consultant that would fit my profile. I left her my E-mail and hoped for the best.
The next ride I got was from a lorry driver who dreamed of migrating to Canada, where lorry drivers are paid much better. A friend of his already has a house and two cars. Interesting to learn about the dreams of average people on the read. For lorry drivers he is among many with similar visions.
Again, I was dropped. Unfortunately this time at a place where it took me ages to get picked up. It was a Safari jeep with a highway construction site supervisor on board, who misunderstood something. He left me at the highway cross that way 5km’s away. I got a lane where cars change from the A14 to the A9, but they’re still seriously fast. It didn’t look very healthy.
About 45 minutes later someone stopped, but only because I stood in a very inconvenient spot, not to say dangerous for me and drivers. Therefore, I got safely out of it and put onto the next petrol station.
Since petrol stations are great, it only took about a quarter of an hour to get a ride, but just another fairly short one. 30km’s is not bad, but I wanted to get to Berlin. Damn it. My 6th ride that day. The couple left me standing at an highway entrance North of Dessau.
So far both waiting time and ride were short. Good and bad. Unfortunately it turned worse now. once I passed Dessau. I was standing at the entrance to the A9 and waited for about one hour for a next ride to only find myself being dropped at the next entrance. Yeah, it wasn’t going well. Since I was already past the time to meet up at 5pm in Klosterdorf and the spot I was at was the worst I have been for years, I gave up. I walked myself out, which took about 1 ½ hours for 9km’s. I took the train and arrived 11pm at the location.
No, it wasn’t successful, but I had some interesting encounters and learned to be patient, positive and a good (or bad) decision maker. Especially, patience is a skill that needs to be nurtured throughout your life and worthwhile preserving. In addition meeting random people and showing your friendliness gives people another picture of strangers. It provides them with a new sense of trust that the media steals from them. Standing on the road is good for you, society and the environment. Trust your senses and you’ll be safe.