Mix all ingredients. Enjoy.
One of many student-related traditions in Sweden is the Spex. Best described as an “interactive musical-theater”, a Spex is often based on a (very) loose interpretation of an historical event. This year’s version of Holgerspexet (one of two Spex groups here in Linköping) had targeted the greek tragedy of Oidipus and turned it into a, well, comedy. The title was “Oidipus – en komplex historia” (Oidipus, a complex story)
Here, Kreon shows the result of a poll on different strategies to depose of Oidipus.
The best part of the Spex is the interaction with the audience. At any moment in the play, the audience may request a replay (for instance, of a funny punchline), or something to be performed in a certain fashion (like “Backwards!”). Every performance becomes unique, and the success depends as much on the mood of the audience as the skill of the actors.
A Spex is also very much like a musical, and a large part of the play is spent on songs. Again, a common theme is to steal…hrm…borrow famous songs and sticking one’s own lyrics to it.
The Wednesday performance that I went to see with my smallgroup was very successful, with lots of strange (and funny!) audience requests. It’s not often that I laugh so hard that I have trouble breathing, but this was one of those times. If you ever get the chance to see a student-spex (and know Swedish), take it!
I love winters. I especially love when there’s a lot of snow and the temperature creeps low enough to make that snow nice and crunchy. Just like last year there’s been an extraordinary winter so far, with the snow from mid-November remaining on the ground all the way until Christmas here in Linköping.
The Valla forest has displayed a beautiful show of light and snow during the last month, not bad for being the daily commute to Campus!
Note the sheer depth of snow in the following frame. This was about 12 days ago, so there’s even more as I’m writing this.
I invested in some traction for my bike, allowing me to get to school in any weather. I didn’t know that the winter would be so heavy this year, and the studded tires proved invaluable. The specific tire model is the Nokian W240 on both the front and back wheels, totaling 480 (!) studs that claw into the ice.
Well, I’m home and alive and all is well. One year in Switzerland is now in the past, and it’s time to summarize these exchange studies.
It all begun in September 2009 at Arlanda Airport.
The two-hour flight to Zürich-Kloten landed me in a warm and familiar city, the city where i was born. I took the tram to the student house in Altstetten where I got to the small room that was to be my home for the next 12 months.
I was not alone in the house, there were in total 170 students from all over the world…sharing one kitchen. Imagine the mess!
The ETH Zürich is an impressive university, with a magnificent main building.
We used to live in that yellow house up that road in Siggenthal.
I found a second home in the ICF church.
Having bought a generous train ticket I was able to cheaply travel around the beautiful country and see many sights of the country. I took several trips, on my own and with my Swedish friend Martin.
I was able to capture some nice shots of the Zürich police intervening in a demonstration.
Switzerland equals skiing and snow!
After winter comes the spring. The warm temperatures came back quickly, and around Easter it was possible to go swimming for the first time.
Zürich is especially beautiful in the spring.
One of the crazier events during the year was the International Pillow Fight Day that took place at Bellevue.
The Swiss train system is legendary and I spent many hours commuting and traveling on rails. This was my home station, Zürich-Altstetten
The main station in the city is the Zürich Hauptbahnhof, around which the entire city is built.
Almost every station in Switzerland is built to the same functional style. This is the station of Spiez.
Summer means city festivals and warm evenings.
The mountains can be breathtaking, to say the least.
Stein am Rhein.
I eventually joined the music team in the church, and got baptized!
It would be impossible to give an exhaustive list of friends, so I’ll just show a few photos of a small portion of the people who have meant a lot to me for this year.
Sam (photo just above) was kind enough to take the initiative for a goodbye party for me. A nice way to say farewell!
On August 24th 2010, the airplane left for Stockholm and Sweden.
12 months of intensive studies in Zürich are over.
…but nobody’s there. Instead I find this:
Either someone genuinely wants to welcome me back to Linköping, or these cookies have some “special” ingredients 
It seems like we have frequent visitors at the student house…
“Not again”, was my first thought as I heard the alarm, before putting on my shoes and reaching for the Speed Freak. “Let’s make the best of the situation and snap some quick shots of the firemen.”
It was some automatic alarm on the fourth floor this time. (To be clear: no fire) I was a bit annoyed as I was just going to sleep. The firefighters were quickly on the scene, but really took their time in the corridor, looking through fire plans before finding the rooms.
As the fire captain searched the rooms for the non-existent fire, some of us went to chat with the firefighters standing by at the trucks. Juan was curious about the rescue ladder.
The firemen were really relaxed and funny, but had to say no to a game of Töggeli because they were on duty. The girls were “super-excited” to have all these good-looking firemen around, and they of course wanted photos. 
Perhaps you recognize the guy on the right side of the frame. He’s been here before.
I know that my neighbors want to download the photos, so I’ve made it easy for you guys. Follow this link to download a zip archive, everything’s included there. Please be kind to my server. I have limited bandwidth and wouldn’t be able to cope if everyone hammered the connection. Thank you. (The link will be removed in a couple of days)
In this blog post I’ll explain why I’m wearing makeup most friday evenings.
Since I got to Zürich in September last year I’ve found sort of a second home in ICF. Monday evenings with the smallgroup, Tuesdays rehearsing music with the band, Wednesdays with the TWC photography workshop, Thursdays with the student group, and Zwänzger on Fridays. Phew! No, I don’t do all things every week, so don’t worry too much about me
Zwänzger is Swiss German for “20-ish person” and is the name for the friday evening services, aimed at people of this age (like me!). As the music team was looking for a pianist when I arrived it didn’t take much time until I was playing in the band.
This last friday was one of my last times in the worship band before I go back to Linköping in August. Danny is briefing the stage team on this evening’s service.
Almost everybody here is volunteering, and during a normal friday evening around fourty people are involved. Musicians, sound technicians, lights, video cameras, producer, ushers, stage manager… the list goes on. Everything is run very professionally, in usual Swiss manner. The goal isn’t to make a concert, though, as this is a service before God. The ultimate purpose of this evening is to lead people closer to Him, and worship music has always been a central part of the faith. I personally believe that this is the ultimate purpose of music, a tool given to us to glorify God.
The soundcheck is done, the music rehearsed and the video production stands ready. We now prepare ourselves in prayer followed by a backstage meal.
And here is where the makeup comes in. Being on stage with video cameras it’s quite important to look well. No, no, I’m joking, there’s no way I’d wear makeup for that purpose. The stage gets rather warm in a city that currently has 30+ degrees of heat, and even dry skin looks rather strange and shiny on the monitors. The “makeup” is in fact just a matte cover to prevent this.
The service starts at eight in the evening. Worship music, followed by Danny’s message (the current series is about grace). Zwänzger is, as you might have guessed, completely a Swiss German-speaking event.
As the pianist I back up the preacher or MC during the prayer. Gotta love that piano+strings patch on the Motif keyboard!
So that was a little about the friday evenings at ICF. Hope you enjoyed it; and remember to pop in to Zwänzger if you are in town on a friday!
Theorem: Football is to be enjoyed in the company of Germans.
Proof: A few hours ago in Meierwiesenstrasse 62, Zürich ∎
Corrollary: Football is even better when the Germans are winning.
Proof: Trivial ∎
I live right next to a tram line, my window faces out to the tram stop.
Pros:
Cons:
I don’t mind the trams themselves, but I do mind the sound of metal grinding in my sleep.
Lens flare is usually considered a defect in a camera system, but can nevertheless be used for creative effect. Last week we took a trip to Rafz with the Smallgroup, and we had a great evening playing football and relaxing in the sun. The sunset proved extremely photogenic, so I made sure to put the camera to good use. The best photo from the evening was definitely when we were waiting for the train. The sun was very low, and I made sure to line up the “cool guys” Joel and Dan for this snapshot. It looks very easy, but getting the flare this way was a precision job with millimeter tolerance. Thank you all for a memorable evening!