torsdag 25 april 2013

Two months in the Philippines

Holy cow! My eight weeks of adventure in the Philippines is almost over. In a few hours I will start my journey back home to, hopefully, not so cold Sweden.

Let´s start with the bad news. For the first time in my life I´ve lost my wallet (bankcards and 7000 pesos). Someone must have stolen it from my purse while I was shopping in Manila earlier today. Shit happens, and luckily I´´m leaving tonight. Anyway, it has been a very very very very very good trip, or a "very good nice, high quality" trip (local style). The data for my thesis is now collected, I tested a software in a context of The Philippines (work stuff) and I managed to still my surf abstinence - missions completed in other words. But the best outcome of this trip is all the nice people I´ve met, which have given me new perspective of things in life. I´m so freaking thankful to have the opportunity to travel and discover different places, meeting awesome people on the way and learn how to live more in the present. It will be a huge contrast to come back home - but I will slowly adjust to it, as I always do! Don´t get me wrong, I really looking forward to get busy again. I have so many projects and business ideas I want to start with! :D

In order to get to the airport in time I should start to back all my things. See you soon Sverige!






onsdag 13 mars 2013

Siargao Island

Hey people!

I am not going to lie, I LOVE MY LIFE! Arrived in the Siargao Island 7 days ago and I totally love this place! Surfing some, styuding some and eating some... Here are some pictures from the last days!













måndag 4 mars 2013

Manila

Arrived safely in the Philippines! And I survived the 10 hours at Beijing airport as well (I am not a big fan of airports tbh). Since Facebook and blogspot.com are forbidden in China I spent my time drinking two Starbucks coffees, reading research papers and wrote some scholarship applications.

Here in Manila I´m staying in the area Makati, my contact person Tommy has relatives who have an apartament I could use. Yesterday, after sleeping until 3 pm Philippine time (still jet lag) I went shopping with Letty (Australian relative to Tommy) and the driver Toto. Got my self a Philippine phone number! After a few hours shopping we went for some Philippine food. Milk fish, sallad with mango, tomatoes,unions and rice. DELICIOUS. When we were ordering the food I saw this Swedish flag and asked if the pork was from Sweden, the people in the desk just laughed and told me it just was a price tag. Anyhow, it was quite funny since there was a Swedish flag among all the Japanese ones!


Today I spent a couple of hours writing on the thesis. Have this deadline tomorrow. And at the moment I am waiting for my other contact person Emil to pick me up for some dinner! Busy days, aight. But in a few days I will be surrounded by white beaches, blue water and coconut trees. Can´t wait!


torsdag 28 februari 2013

Bye Jönköping, hellu ADVENTURE!


This is it, the six intense weeks in Sweden is over. With intense I refer to my new job as a seller and marketer at the network company Ip.1 and writing the Bachelor´s Degree thesis at the same time. I´m not complaining, I love challenges! Anyhow, tomorrow I´m off to Manila, Philippines! Super excited! Will be picked up in a limousine at the airport (!!!!), looking forward to that. So what is the plan then?! To be honest, now plans are made so far, accept to start with two three days in Manila in order to arrange interviews and stuff. Where to go after Manila is therefore unknown at the moment which makes traveling so much fun, you just have to be open-minded and see where is takes you!

Today will be my last day here in other words. On my way to Skövde now for a meeting with my mentor, followed by a seminar and a couple hours of work! Later on I´m heading to Gothenböörg where I will meet some good friends and spend the night before the flight is taking me to Stockholm - Peking - Manila.

Received the Fish Cruiser from my sponsor Navis Board yesterday! It´s a board developed and designed by the Navis guys and me. It feels quite awesome to be a part of that kind of process. So, of course the board will follow me to the Philippines, super stoked to finally get some skate since its been a while now!






lördag 23 februari 2013

Flashing back

God morning readers!

Shame on me for not posting lately. The past 5 months have been so busy, but in a good way. The travel and surf account are refilled again. So what have I been up to?! Here´s a short summary:

Erasmus exchange at Bournemouth University: This semester went so fast! Got to know so many nice and amazing people over there. I´ll def come back to this place. It was a challenge to study 150 %, especially the three intense units in English,  but I think my effort will pay off eventually. Waiting for the final result which will be posted on Monday (crossing my fingers).



Surf trip to Ghana: After spending Christmas in Sweden I went to a three-weeks of surf trip to Ghana, which was absolutely radical! So many nice and friendly people! Delicious food and uncrowded waves. Before me and Erika went to this trip we raised some money in order to support the children´s education. For the amount of money we raised we bought school equipment to the local school in the village Busua, and  we also helped five poor children to start their education. Ghana as surf destination, easy top 3 on my list!

Minor Field Study- scholarship: During my time in UK I received a scholarship from Sida for a eight weeks of field studies in the Philippines. As a said in my last post, a new adventure is coming up! The flight tickets are booked, will try to sort out the accommodation and all the boring practical things tomorrow. The main focus now is to prepare my thesis and develop a method to collect the right data whilst I´m there. More about the thesis subject will be explained later on.  

See ya!

torsdag 21 februari 2013

THE PHILIPPINES NEXT!

Hello people!

My blog is on fire, AGAIN! Next adventure is coming up. Heading to the Philippines on Friday next week. Mission? Collect data to my thesis, work and surf ofc. This 8 weeks trip will be an adventure for sure!

STAY TUNED, more posts will appear here soon! :)



söndag 4 november 2012

Sunday, baby!

I can´t believe I have been here for 1 month and 3 weeks already! It´s Sunday, AGAIN! Sundays = "let´s be a good student and study-all-day", due to my hard-core Monday with 3 lectures and 2 seminars. On top of that I have my distance unit from back home. Days like these I should stop being a time optimist and work on my time management instead. But by being spontaneous and living in the present-person it´s hard to plan the future. And to be honest, I kind of like my lifestyle... so I have to deal with this...I guess. 

Situations like now I always turn to Tim Ferris, what would he do? The simple answer is: "Focus on being productive instead of busy". Which means no blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Skype or Youtube. I should go back to crazy Gareth Morgan and his metaphors and be PRODUCTIVE, ofc!!!!  


Have a nice Sunday people! 


This Helen "writing a useless blog post and productive" Van