Lyktvägen 5A

Dubai x 3

Come to HUFS, see the world

Five years ago in a Beijing hotel, I saw an ad in the Chronicle of Higher Education for a position as Senior Lecturer at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS). At the time, I was on a short-term contract as a Marie Curie Research Fellow at Tsinghua University with little certainty about the future. With my PhD less than a year old and only a handful of publications, I was very far from my current job security as a tenured associate professor in Umeå. Yet, the world laid open with nothing holding me back so I submitted an application. A month later, after a rather confused phone interview in Osaka, I landed the contract with a one-way air ticket to Seoul.

In the end, I spent three fascinating years at HUFS, meeting many remarkable people, like my super-bright student Sarah with whom I later came to co-author a paper on the domestic Korean climate change debate. During those years, I also travelled like never before, in part due to necessity (our faculty dorm room was simply unbearably small and hot for a family) but primarily out of choice. I would not say that all the travelling gave me a “global perspective” or anything but it exposed me to snippets of alternative lifeforms and realities. In part I fear I also became a bit like the person I once mocked. But still, when making bulgogi in Gothenburg the other week, I realized that the journey is very much with me even as I never felt more settled. For more on that, once we get everything in order, there will soon be some pictures from our new home at Lyktvägen 5A in Tomtebo.

Lego Creators

This picture is an excellent illustration of why being on parental leave with a 3.5 years old can be pretty magical when it is no longer only about changing diapers and being sleep-deprived...

May Day

After a few days of icy cold rain, spring finally made it to the West coast of Sweden. Running around with this little fellow in the sun, it feels like we are in for a summer of truly great adventures!