Vancouver Giants

The homebase is ready. Well as ready as it can be so to speak. We have managed to make it pretty nice! We have painted, done a lot of carpentry and begging for furniture’s.


I am settling in, I like the city. It feels like a big city, even tough it is pretty small. I love all the second hand shops, the little bars and those American diners, especially Slickity Jim’s. I do miss cafés a la Swedish style (die Starbucks!) and European old houses. Everything is so new here, Vancouver is a fairly young city, just a hundred years. I don’t have to miss my beloved Swedish clothing lines, they have Acne, Whyred and Filippa K here. So I can breath out.


A couple of days ago we had a real life experience. In the middle of a lecture, a crack head came running in to our homebase, he was just on his way of colliding with a few of us poor students, when two cops jump on him and said nothing else then, you are arrested, and carried him away. So I am vary proud to present my first viewing of a person getting arrest. A charming and sketchy neighbourhood we hang out in, isn’t it?

Sue Ellen is also very proud to present her first hockey game ever. You probably know that in Canada you play hockey, a lot of hockey and it is a lot of Swedes playing in Canadian teams. Vancouver’s pride and joy is The Chanucks, which in fact have a Swedish captain. However, me not being in to hockey went to see the underdogs Giants game yesterday, I felt very American doing so, and I was very careful with buying both popcorn and hot dogs. If you are doing it you might as well do it properly, right? So how was sit? It was cold, a lot of fighting, pucks flying everywhere and it said welcome Kaospilots on the score board. So you can imagine that everything was perfect…


We have had a lot of interesting people coming in to our homebase, teaching and inspiring us. If you look at the links you can see what organizations and people we meet. If you want to see more pictures, go to the links under Some More Pictures.

Stanley Hotel

Stanley hotel is the name of the building our homebase (office) is located in. It is in Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood that is a little bit different from all other neighbourhoods I have been to before. It is the poorest area in North America. It also has the highest infection of HIV in the western world. I have never seen so many homeless people before, never in my hole life, not even in the poorest countries in Asia, have I seen what I am seeing now.

This feels rather strange since Vancouver has a rumour of being the best city in the world and in addition to that has a lot of money. You can see construction work everywhere. The city is being repaired for the Olympics 2010. Millions of dollars are invested in this happening, the government do nothing for the people living on the streets. It is mostly non-governmental organizations that have taken upon this task, one of them, which has given us the homebase from free.

Vancouver has more then 2000 homeless people, which most of them is located in this neighbourhood. Our homebase is in the middle of it. We have one guy sleeping in front of the door, another lady smoking crack in our balcony and a set of heroine syringes pined to the building wall. And our backyard is called blood alley by the people living there. So why has the Kaospilots decided to stay here? One of the things we are working with here is social sustainability, one of the school’s values is social innovation and responsibility. So why not be right in it? For me is quite cool and interesting place to be in.

When our team moved in to our new office space yesterday we knew that it was going to be a lot of work of fixing it up. It was just a dirty and empty space. But we had a small budget from school and an owner allowing us to do what we wanted with the premises. Abracadabra, and we all turned in to interior designers. Everything should be ready for Tuesday, when we have our first lecturer coming in. I’ll keep you updated..

Rain City

Arrived yesterday. The trip started shitty when they refused JR and me to check in, apparently we had to much luggage. How can that be possible, I always travel light, don’t I? Anyways after a minor outbreak, we came up with the wonderful solutions that we were going to pack our things in our classmate’s suitcases. So we did and all of a sudden I had my things scattered in five other bags and my suitcase were 10 kilos lighter. The trip could go on in peace.

We live in downtown Vancouver, in a neighbourhood called Yale Town. It is in the very hart of the city. JR and me share the apartment with Malou and Pouria. We live in a skyscraper and we have Starbuck in the building. So we are so totally in the right place.

Today I woke up 05.00 jetlagged beyond belief, soon I had the company of my roomies. Never before have I been shopping in the supermarket eight fifteen in the morning. Because of our early start we had lot’s of time to experience the city. Even though it’s pretty small 500.000 inhabitants, Vancouver feels like a big city. Maybe a mix between Sidney and New York. But with walking distance to everything. One thing that not lies in favour of the city is its nickname “Rain City”, and I do understand why. The rain has been poring down all day. But it’s warm, and I am happy as long as I don’t have to see any darn snow.
Further more the group had an interesting discussion about what the “fluff” in your navel comes from. Why is it there? Why does men have it more often then women? Is it because they have more hair on their chest? JR claimed that he had no hair on his chest but a lot of fluff how can that happen?

Going out now to meet the others on Malone’s, to have a few Canadian beers and talk more about fluff.

So Long Denmark

Leaving for Vancouver tomorrow. I must admit that I do experience some nervousness before the journey. But most and for all I am excited and happy. Tomorrow will be the day of days, a new journey start it’s beginning. Am I going to miss Denmark? NO! I am quite satisfied to leave this God forsaken land and the Danish culture. When I say Danish culture I mean Foosball, Carlsberg, Shawarma, Bicycles, Cigarette smoke, Hippies, Danish pastry, Smørrebrød, Not walking on red light and House squatters. It´s nice for a while, but now I am all in on travel to a new country, and on experience a different culture.

I have had my winter vacation this week, and we have tried to say a proper goodbye to Denmark, going to Spanien twice. Spanien is the name of the only spa in Århus. When it’s says spa in Denmark it means that it is a regular swimming hall, but listen, they do have a sauna thank you very much, and you do get body scrub for free. We have been playing pool, and eating out. Now, the day before our trip JR and me have been in Copenhagen, walking around, sipping lattes and shopping. I even tried to force buy a pair of the ugliest shoos I have ever seen for JR, but he fled the scene.

To night we are going to a Vietnamese restaurant, called LE LE´S. It the best restaurant in Copenhagen according to me, if you are here in the near future you must try it out!


The flight is ready for departure!