I hear strange sounds

Today has been really intense.

I just returned to my hotel room and there was music on, that really freaked me out until i realised someone from the hotel had been in here and put chocolates on my bed and turned on the radio.

my head doesn't function normally right now. We have had 4 seminars, to much food, strange/great/unexpected conversations.

First thing after breakfast Knight Kiplinger hosted a discussion about the situation for journalism today, the development the last years and the future. I couldn't really contribute, but it was interesting listening in to the discussion.

In the morning we're inspired by great lecturer Robert Hernandez (@webjournalist), he spoke about social media, why and how we could/should use it. I really don't have the energy to properly write about the lecture right now, but he reminded us of what's important: no matter how useful or attractive social media seems, you're always a journalist, and you have to do your job properly.

Later on Jeff Cutler (@jeffcutler) continued speaking about social media. He presented some tools and practices that I think may be useful in our newsroom.

Around 3 pm my head was already full, and I kind of regret that, because I think that Kevin Z Smiths (@SPJethicschair) discussion about ethics in social media was really interesting. Especially since we do things very different in Sweden. I would like to say that we have higher standards, but thats not really fair, because we really have different standards, and having spoken to Kevin afterwards I have a deeper understanding of how things are done over here, even though I don't always agree.

Now, enough of this rant. Good night.

Best regards from a washed up swede.

Pics from a 15 h journey

This country has many perks. The Coffee is not one of them.

Roy Liechtenstein welcomed me at the airport.

Sadly, the football season hasn't started yet. The arena is huge!

Attention dogs!

Conversations for a 15 hours (+) journey

Go west - were the skies are blue.

Pet shop boys were right. It's not just sunny California - but sunny Columbus today. I slept a good 9 hours and woke up early for a run in the campus area. It's quite chilly out, around 35 F, but running in the mornings gives you a good "feel" of  a place, of a place itself; the soul of the buildings, their material, the way the sun shines on them from a different angle. And those little things, that tend to get lost as soon as people start to wake up, like squirrels, funny birds I've never seen before, street sweepers.

Yesterday was intense. I woke up 5:40 am and got ready. Flights: 1 hour to Stockholm, waiting around, standing in line, safety, passport control, 8 hours flight to Newark (got to see Wolf on wallstreet - ok film, the trailer was better), passport control (border police asked me why I was travelling alone, "Nobody wanted to come with me" I said, honestly, Him: A pretty girl like you?" Me: Smiled and bit my tongue), toll, bagage check, train, safety check, taxi, take off and landing in Columbus.

The plane Newark-Port Columbus was a sad creature, similar to the aircraft that carries passangers between Östersund-Umeå-Luleå. But I got to sit next to a very nice lady from San Fransisco who was visiting her boyfriend in Columbus. We're wearing the same nailpolish, that's a conversation starter!

In Columbus I had to wait for the hotel shuttle for almost an hour, but I didn't mind really, the weather was great yesterday and I had a stroll around the pick up area. The only green was the fenced dog litter area.

The boy how picked me up was a sweet little thing, student at the unversity (like 70 percent of hotel personnel) he played soccer and studied some kind of physical therapy.

Later that night I had dinner in the hotel lounge where I ran in to another Kiplinger fellow, Stuart from BBC. He turned out to be a nice guy, a fast drinker and a good laugh. Welsh by birth and self-taught sports fan.

We'll probably skip some classes to go watch a hockey game. Go Blue jackets!