(Hello) Stockholm + Lund + Karlstad, Sweden

In February I ventured back to Sweden for a great week in one of my favorite cities, playing one of my favorite sports, and briefly seeing some of my favorite people. This was the second iteration of the Hello Stockholm tournament, which is indoor on artificial grass at the Swedish Olympic Training Center. Everything was contained at the center (accommodation, food, party, playing), which was very convenient. 

I joined the team of another former Swedish Fish player, Yrr (pronounced "ihr") from Munich. The name comes from the book The Swarm and yrr are crab-like sea creatures that are trying to eliminate humans, but this can only be achieved through collective actions... or something like that. It was so nice to be playing again! My knee didn't even hurt - until I tried to dance at the party :( 

Not the best team pic ever, but also not the worst. (the twins alternated having their eyes closed in each of them)

It was so nice to see all the Stockholm folks, watch some good ultimate, do some swedish-ish things and to play with this cool team. I will go with some of them to a beach tournament in Italy in May, along with Frida, a Swedish Fish friend.

Then I headed down to Lund to visit Emilia, a friend from Stockholm, whom I haven't seen in a few years. She just got back from doing research for her masters thesis in India and interrailing around Europe over the summer, so it was great to catch up. We thrift stored it up like the old days. Lund is a cute little university town. 

Viking runes in Lund.

I then went to Karlstad to meet with my committee, do some bureaucratic things and give a lecture on business innovation in the water sector, which could have gone better. Now I have a much better picture of what needs to happen for me to finish my doctorate.

Two weeks back in Switzerland, then it is off to Tanzania for a PhD course!

Boracay, Philippines

Since I was "in the neighborhood" at a conference in Vietnam, I decided to check out a well known beach ultimate tournament in the Philippines. It was pretty sweet. I picked up with a university team from Australia, which was going by the name Sharkbait for the tournament. The name comes from Finding Nemo, so there were lots of great movie references as cheers. There were also two Filipinos and a Canadian on the team. This was my first tournament back after having a bone bruise on my kneecap in August. I had only even been to two practices, but everything felt great! 

Lookin' good! Not that my eyes were open in any of the photos.

I met up with my team two nights before the tournament began for a strategy session.
We discussed tactics for 4vs4 beach - cutting patterns are illustrated above. 

Some of the team went snorkeling the next day - I spent it reading and getting a massage on the beach.

No the worst place to have a throw.

 The tournament has some teams at a high level, the home team was using it to train for the World Championships of Beach Ultimate, which are coming up next month, but there were still plenty of quirky elements that can be expected of beach ulty:

• Pulls had to be overhand throws  
• You could drop the pull as long as you were attempting a trick catch
• An endzone-to-endzone score counts as two points



Teammate coming down will a (poorly considered) 2 point huck of mine.
Photo from Diego Zuluaga via facebook (check out the whole series starting here)

• Instead of flipping, one player from each team stands together in an endzone and simultaneously throws a disc, aiming to be the closest to the other endzone line, without going completely over (I was really good at this. The fields were pretty much exactly as long as my hammer.)

Doing a throw-off against Hong Kong. Awkward posture. Photo credit: Bella

The tournament is known for its nightlife, which did not disappoint.
Photo credit: Ali

My team, along with future tournament winners, Bangerang!, are serenading me with Sweet Caroline.

These boys killed it on the drums on the slow march/dance parade on the way to the party on the last night.
It was a part of a Ati-Athihan Festival simulation that was put on for tournament goers. 

Ati-Atihan revelers. Photo: Ali

So much sun! Photo: Bella

So I over paid for this dope hat to stem the sunburn.
Although, the real star of this photo are the mango shakes!
Photo: Bella

Fun playing, fun people great food! All in all we won two games, both against the same team. One of my teammates made the mythical squad from our bracket (like the dream team) and I won a pair of flip-flops and a carved Boracay Dragons rock thingy for having the most Ds of the women in the B bracket - I felt so tall compared to most of the Filipino women . 

Wouldn't have worn the glasses, if I had known I'd be going up on stage. Photo: Diego Zuluaga via facebook

My leaving the island breakfast. A fantastic pancake with peanut butter, mango jam, and clotted cream.
I could only eat half of it.

Obligatory infrastructure photo :)

I don't actully know what islands those are.

I flew back to Zürich via Singapore. I had grand shopping plans for my layover, but was in the wrong terminal. I was really close to buying a a cell phone that looked like a mini calculator like 2x3 square inches and just a centimeter thick.

I was able to visit Mickey's Swiss chalet in the Singapore airport (the roof looked like a poptart!)

I landed to snow in Switzerland - not the sun and sand to which I had quickly grown accustomed.

Vietnam

My time in Vietnam was split between work and play. I was able to spend time in Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Ninh Binh province. I was there for the third international fecal sludge management conference. You might chuckle, but there were over 500 participants! Sanitation is becoming a hot topic - we even have our own Sesame Street character!

I got a lot out of the conference because it is mostly focused on what happens after you use the toilet, whereas the other conferences I have been to concentrate on water and getting people to use toilets with little attention paid to what happens next. Don't get me wrong: getting a toilet built and actually used is difficult, but the whole sanitation chain must be considered. This is one of my fears concerning India's 100+ million toilet goal.

You probably aren't here to read my opinions on poo policy, so here are some glimpses into the rest of my time in Vietnam (more photos here):

Luckily, someone on sabbatical at work has lived in Vietnam, so he took us to a great restaurant and ordered up a feast that included morning glory (garlicky "water spinach"), fried tofu, salad, some buns, plus seafood hotpot and:

... fermented sausage (wrapped in like a banana leaf or something).

Before the conference I went to the Ho Chi Minh museum. This photo is from the part where it is supposed to be like you are walking through his brain. Admittedly, I didn't know much about this part of history or the world so it was difficult to know what to trust. There was one really trippy part where a video was shown in which the Challenger explosion morphs into a nuclear mushroom cloud.

nice mosaic-y lotus fountain

Super coffee drinks. This one is iced condensed milk and coconut milk with coffee on top.

After the official conference was over, there was a day of workshops. During the session on resource recovery I was pretty much convinced that worm farming is the future. Luckily, I should be writing a case study on a growing worm concern later this year. The following day was for field trips. I went to a sewage composting plant in Hai Phong.  

You should have seen  those sanitation researchers sprint to check out this vacuum truck.
It is my understanding that the sludge stays in these stabilization ponds before it is moved to windrows for composting.

After the field trip, I headed to Tam Coc province with a co-worker. This is an area about two hours away from Hanoi that is known for some cool rock formations.  

We took the train

first class or "soft seats" there were also TVs and a ticket checker, who fell asleep and snored incredibly the whole trip.

Vietnamese-style coffee. The silver disc acts as a filter. Vietnam produces quite a bit of coffee, but it is used mostly to make instant coffee. I really enjoyed the vanilla aroma of the coffee. I brought some beans and two of these filter contraptions back to Switzerland and am looking forward to trying them out.

The thing most people do when they come to this area is the three caves boat trip. Basically, water flows under some of the rock formations and you can have someone from the boat-guide association row you to all of them. Our guide rowed most of the way with her feet.

I'm usually really good with boats. This one was near impossible to steer or propel.
It took some convincing for her to let me try with the real oars. There were some token paddle for the tourists, but they were flimsy tin attached to about two feet of wood. 

 I think the boat trip went on for a bit too long. It was pretty far and you can really just sit there enjoying the scenery and making awkward faces at the other tourists who are on their way back. One cave probably would have been enough, but the most impressive one was the last one. The hotel had free loaner bikes, so we explored the area for the rest of the afternoon. They were very helpful and provided a map with some points of interest.  It was so nice to be back on a bike (freedom!) and out of the hectic city. I got the hang of it eventually, but crossing the street in Hanoi usually felt like a bit of a gamble. Plus the air quality in town is rather poor.

That is a goat on an almost vertical rock face. I bought a similar (okay much clearer) postcard at the natural history museum in London a few years back when pops and I were there for soccer watching

Click the above photo for a 360+ degree view.

The karst landscape almost masks the encroaching industry. 

The next day, we went to Cuc Phuong National Park, which is a rain forest. The park opened during the war and was so important to Ho Chi Min that he took time away from leading the army to attend the ribbon cutting.  You can get a sense of what it was like to be in the forest here.

The trash receptacles were carefully molded/sculpted to look like stumps. 

Conservation sign. I did not see any tigers or monkeys.

This was pretty much the only wildlife I saw. There were lots of bird noises.

The park is know for its allegedly 1000 year old tree, but this other (younger) tree was much more interesting. 

The park also has a turtle and primate rehabilitation centers, which I did not visit, because I was fairly certain it would just make me sad. I did go by the gift shop of the monkey center, because all the others were closed and it actually seemed pretty legit. The next day there was time for a smidge more sightseeing before heading back to the city. 

So hip.

Obligatory Southeast Asia rice paddy photo. For a photosphere that includes a boatload of stairs that lead to some sort of temple click here.

The best fried tofu of the trip. So fluffy. With a nice, slightly grainy, chili sauce for dipping and surprise herbs/leaves.  

On the way back we rode second class or "hard seats"

The second class windows were just grates, not glass.

Once back in Hanoi I stayed at a hotel with ants and spent my last day at the Hoa Lo prison and catching up on work while drinking more of those delicious coffee concoctions - one even had rice in it, before flying to the Philippines.

In the international departures terminal in Hanoi-
Watch out capitalism is on its way!