ONLINE REFLECTION 2

Dear classmates, in the last input to this blog we had the opportunity to reflect on everything we want. After thinking about it, I have decided to share with you what my Erasmus experience has been like for me.

I arrived to Karlstad eight months ago with a mix of different feelings: happiness to start this new adventure, sadness leaving my city, family and friends, fear of my horrible level in English and curiosity about Sweden.

I decided to choose this destination with three goals: improve my English, get to know the Swedish culture and finish my second degree. But I never thought what this experience would mean for my life.

Now, Karlstad is not only the name of the university anymore, where I wanted to study one year ago.
In Karlstad I have experience a lot of feelings: funny (thousands of parties, snow fights, being lost in the forest...), interesting (dinners with new dishes, spend time with people from places I had never heard about, Swedish special celebrations...), but sad ones too, because I am family person and it sometimes has been hard to be so far away from my people.

In Karlstad I have learnt to live by myself. I have become an expert of cooking "Spanish omelets" (I think is the only dish I can cook decently...). I am not reliant on my car anymore. I have had the opportunity to live through an extremely cold winter (in my city I thought that 5 degrees was coldest day of my life). Also, I have valued a bit more my country, my city and our way of being.

Finally, in Karlstad I have a family: people from different parts of the world but their nationalities don't matter because they are with me for everything. They are the most important part of my Erasmus, because without them Karlstad had been just another city. I know the distance will be a problem when we come back to our "real lives", but we will be in touch and I will have free accommodation in different countries.

Now, eight months later, what about my goals? I have met Sweden and its culture thanks to wonderful Swedish people, my degree is almost finished and my English... Well, the Erasmus is not over yet so I can continue improving.

To finish my input, I want to offer one advice: if you still have the opportunity to spend a year abroad, do it! And if you can go to the south of Spain... It will be your best choice ever.

I hope you enjoy reading my reflection!

ONLINE REFLECTION 1

The goal of this reflection is think about different aspects of daily life that I think or hope will appear, change or disappear in two different time periods.

On one hand, in relation with the first time period (1-5 years from now) I am going to talk about the following aspects: read the newspaper and go to the cinema. Why? I am going to explain them.

To my mind, read the newspaper is a daily aspect which is going to disappear. Nowadays, with the smartphones, tablets, laptops and TV with internet access, is not necessary buy the newspaper every morning. The advantages are many: cheaper, more comfortable, and more careful with the environment… But we cannot forget that exist people who enjoy reading the newspaper whereas they drink a coffee or take the breakfast with their partners. The majority of that people will continue buying the newspaper every day. 

However, that custom is not common in the new generations so the newspaper will disappear.

In relation with go to the cinemas, in my opinion that will disappear too. Some years ago the perfect plan for a couple, for a band of friends or just for a boring day was go to the cinema. But now, the majority of people prefer watching movies at home, where is cheaper, more comfortable (and it is a pity, but we are in a lazy society) and where the TVs are bigger and bigger.

On other hand, according to the second time period (6-50 years from now) I have selected two aspects: printed books and spend time with the family and friends.

The first one, I think that the custom of read printed books is going to disappear for the same reasons than the newspapers. Currently, buy an electronic book is cheaper, more comfortable to transport (taking account that we can read a book in mobile phones, tablets, laptops and ebooks and store hundreds of them in the same device) and, obviously, we will save more trees. I have put the printed books in the second time period because to my mind it is a stronger market than newspapers. Everyone has printed books at home, work and school, but bit a bit the idea of the electronic books have more advantages is more evident.

The second aspect of daily life that, to my mind, is going to change is the time that we spend with family and friends. The base of every society has been the family, but that idea is changing with the modern life. How can we see this change? It is easy: familiar dinners, parties with friends… And not too much communication! Apps like Whatsapp, Twitter or Facebook don’t allow have a real conversation. Sometimes it seems like we prefer talking by the mobile phone or the laptop instead in a coffee shop with that person. If we don’t change these kinds of behaviors, in 50 years maybe won’t exist the real relationships, and that would be sad and terrible for the society. But it is true that our busy life, the globalization, and the importance of speak different languages affect to our friend and familiar relationships. People travel, work abroad, but thank if these technologies is easier to be in touch. In my own experience, thank of that apps, right now I can know about my family and friends as I were with them, with the difference that I am in Sweden and they are in Spain. However, when I come back, I will leave a bit my mobile phone and I will enjoy drinking a coffee, a beer and having a real conversation with them.

To finish, I hope you enjoy reading my reflection. Thank you. 

ONLINE REFLECTION 3

“LOLITA”, by Vladimir Nabokov

"Lolita" is a love novel based in the story of the obsession of Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged teacher, for a twelve-years-old girl. This extraordinary book is composed by two explosive components: the perverse attraction of the main character by young girls, or nymphets, and the incest. In this context, they start a journey through madness, sex and death, narrated, while rampant with self-irony and lyricism, by Humbert Humbert himself. Lolita is an acid and visionary portrait of the United States, and horrors of suburban culture plastic and motel.

Although I could reflect about different points of this novel, I have decided talk about the change of Lolita's personality and behavior along the book.

The story between the girl and Humbert starts when he is living in Lolita's house, with only one reason: to be close to Lolita. However, Lolita doesn't feel qualms for having a strange in her home. Even, she looks for any excuses for keeping a corporal contact with him.

I, as a lector, tried to justify this behavior in two reasons: Lolita has no father and Charlotte, her mother, ignores her.

But, with the time, the girl starts to call Humbert things like "boyfriend" or "lover". Actually, she kisses him when her mother sends her to a summer camp.

In this point, I can't understand Lolita's acts. How does she, with 12 years, have these kinds of thoughts? How does not she regret of desire them?

When Lolita's mom dies, Humbert becomes in her father (Charlotte and him got married only because he still wanted to be near to Lolita). In this point, I found one of the hardest and most surreal moments of the book: Lolita and her "new father" spend a night in a hotel, coming back to home from the summer camp, and she has sex with Humbert, justifying it in "camp games".

Again, I can't imagine what there is in Lolita's mind. How is she attracted by a man? How can she have sexual desires? How can she have sex with him for her own initiative?

In my opinion, I can explain this basing me in an anecdote which Lolita told his father. In the summer camp, the director's son taught her these "games", but she, with 12 years, can't understand the real meaning of these acts.

From now, and without Charlotte’s presence, Humbert and Lolita start a relationship (they live together, they discuss, they are possessives and jealous, they love them, they have sex...) but everything is hidden under a fake image of perfect relation between father-daughter.

However, she starts to realize she maintains this kind of relationship because he is the only person who can give her something resemblance a family. Despite of this, she "sells" her pettings and kisses to save money and thus to try to look for a different life. Finally, she runs away with other adult man (who for her is the only person of she has been fallen in love).

To my mind, both of them (Humbert and the second man) are clear pedophiles but, what does it happen with Lolita's behavior? Does she have a mental problem? I think that she is only looking for another father figure, but she doesn't understand with which price.

Finally, with 15 years, she gets married with one boy (one more according to her age) and with 17 she dies giving birth.

We can see that in 5 years, Lolita lives an intense, adult and horrible life. But, why? As I said before, I think that is a mix between the father’s lack, her negligent mother, Humbert's personality and her intelligence but wretched life.

What do you think?

ONLINE REFLECTION 2:

"WHY WORK DOESN’T WORK HAPPEN AT WORK"

Hello everyone,

Although both videos are very interesting, I have decided to make my reflection about the second one. The video is “Why work doesn’t work happen at work”, by Jason Fried.

Basically, in this video, Fried critiques the productivity in the offices. He says that employees prefer work at home, in the train or in the library than in the office, because they want to avoid the distractions that they can find in their work place.

In both of places, the employees can have distractions but there is a difference between them: at home or library, they decide when and what kind of distractions they want to have. In the office, this is not depending on them.

From my point of view, it is good if the boss wants to give the opportunity to his employees to work outside the office, but sometimes that can be a bad choice because the employees cannot work as much as they must.  It would be a good idea if the boss does this: if the employee has different tasks per day, he could work the half of the day in the office and the other half at home. If this strategy gives good results, the boss can plan the job in a different way. Maybe in some context works at home can be a good choice, but maybe in another not (for example, those which the employees need special facilities or instruments to work).

Furthermore, Fried defends that visiting websites like Facebook or Twitter during the work time is not bad. He thinks that these visits are the modern “smoke breaks”.

I think that if the employee is working 8 hours and he or she takes a look of Facebook or Twitter once or twice during the day, is not a problem. But if the boss allows these kinds of things, it can happen that some employees waste too much time of their work. As I said before, my advice for the boss is that he has to control it. He can allow these websites during the work time, but always with responsibility for part of the employees. As important is the time work as the comfort of the employee.

To him, the real problems in the offices are the Managers and Meetings. They provoke interruptions, which in his opinion are useless. To my mind, meetings and managers chats are important to guide the employees work. Maybe some of them are pointless, so the boss should avoid them, and only organize the important ones.

So, he proposes three different solutions: don’t speak in the office, which means no interruptions; change the face-to-face for fast emails or instantaneous messaging; and delete the meetings.

To finish my share, I think that the first two solutions are fine, but in the last one I would do a qualification: delete only the unnecessary meetings.  Doing this and trying to do some changes in the office (more silence, allowed breaks in internet and work in different places than the office if the results are good) the employees can be happier and, in consequence, they will work more, so, the boss will be satisfied too. 

ONLINE REFLECTION 1: 

"THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE IPHONE OBSESSION"

After read the article “The First Five Years of the iPhone Obsession”, by Peter Burrows, I only could think in one thing: send my mobile phone to the garbage.

Nowadays, we are in a consumer society and one of our favorite whims is the technology. Technology advances very fast (sometimes in a ridicule way, like those Chinese robots, which dance Flamenco if you clap) and we want to advance at the same time. For that reason, everyone loves buy the best laptop or mobile phone.

Specifically, this article talks about the famous brand iPhone. This kind of mobile phone allow be connected in every moment, every day, everywhere. Generally, this “modernity” can have two different effects. On one hand, maybe you don’t like be localizable all the time, so sometimes you would prefer don’t have any apps like Whatsapp or Facebook. On the other hand, it’s possible that you love tell everything about your life: what you are doing, with who, which are your feelings and thoughts…

Apps like Twitter or Facebook can be addictives for some people. Firstly, you can think: It’s so stupid write about my life in internet. But actually, it’s another kind of communication during these days. For this, a big majority have the necessity of write about everything. And when I say “everything” is everything… If few years ago someone had told me: “In the future, people will love to write publically things like: “I’m cooking”, “I love him!” or “I’m going to the bathroom, I’m coming soon!” I hadn’t believed him. But now, this is our generation.

In my case, I can’t critique a lot those behaviors because I have got these apps and even I have a blog. I justify my “mobile phone and apps addiction” basically in two reasons. The first one is that, as I said before, these inventions allow us be connected with people who aren’t close us. So, with Facebook or Twitter you can feel that person close. The second reason is that I’m an Erasmus student and everyone wants to know about my new life, the country, my friends… It’s easier to have a blog and write there all the information, instead of tell one to one the same.

Besides, in the article, we can read about new phenomena like “the phantom vibration”, which have appeared with these technologies. I have to confess that I have felt it. Furthermore, it’s common too to have that state of anger when you lost your internet connection, or that necessity to test out that your message has been sent and read (the known “double check”).

From my point of view, it’s a bit sad and worrying to be so connected to a machine, but we have to know that the generations change and we change with them. So, this is our kind of life.

Now, you only can decide if you prefer an iPhone or another brand, with internet connection or without it.