Vignettes

So, I finally found  a new job. Phew.

I’m working two-three days a week at Optimizers, a pretty small market research / consultancy in downtown Copenhagen. Now, rather than just interviewing day and day out, I’m actually involved in the entire research process: Meeting with the client, drafting questionnaires, processing survey results, writing reports, conducting interviews … It’s great. It’s quite a mouthful, but I’ve been dying to get out and do something with my studies. … Oh, and the pay is better., and I’m no longer working nights and weekends.

I called and quit at Nielsen Company this evening, and I’ll be going in Thursday to say goodbye and see if I can get my reference, otherwise they’ll just mail it to me. I’ve been there two years, learned a lot, but it’s was definitely time to move on.  It just wasn’t going anywhere. I’ve tried moving on and upwards twice in Nielsen, but to no avail. Last year, I contacted the Qualitative Research dept., since I was considering applying for an internship there. I exchanged some emails, had an interview with them… and then never heard a thing. This year, I applied for a job as a qualitative project assistant … but I haven’t heard a thing either. So I started looking elsewhere, and got it. Bu-bye Nielsen. There really isn’t all that much to say.

Except hurray! I have a real job!

When I was in Finland, I had a lecture on political anthropology mostly based on fieldwork from Taiwan. I can’t tell you how interesting it was. He talked about game and other perspectives on politics, sovereignty and the legitimation of power and of course, about China, both the mainland and Taiwan. I was fascinated. I had been interested in China as a possible location for future field work and study, and this quite inspired me to look more into it.  So, it seems as if I might be taking a minor in China Studies and Standard Mandarin this year. It’d be 2 years - or perhaps just one and a half. I’m really hoping I can find a way to make it work with my studies and plans.  I’ll keep you posted. Right now I just have a lot of ideas and thoughts and I need to work on some more concrete plans…

As I’ve blogged about before (last post Undran driver verket), I’m sort of people watcher. Perhaps not surprisingly, considering my (future) line of work, but none the less more so than other people I know, who dismiss my fascination with the trivialities of daily-day life as pointless – or even dull. Now I’ve been called many, many things in my as of yet rather brief life, but dull is an epithet I’d rather avoid. Being a tad geeky, nerdy, a bit of nutty professor, an eccentric… is all fine. Being dull is not.

Anyway, the latest thing I’ve discovered is the classifieds section of the newspaper. Typical me – it’s a semi-public, semi-private, semi-anonymous forum where people show a bit of themselves. It’s a nice way to observe and very undemanding. I simply read and wonder. Who is, e.g., this lady?

”I’m looking for ‘gals’ who are retired for health reasons too. I was born in ‘74. Not lesbian”.

What’s her story? Why use a little text in a newspaper? I understand wanting to see people in a similar life situation, but still can’t keep from wondering about what the greater story is. These classifieds offer just a little snippet of someones’ life – but just enough to get you wondering. It’s fascinating.

Man 34 looking for woman 30-44 to spend his life with. That’s rather direct. Most aren’t. Unfortunately, my computer crashed while I was writing this so I lost a lot of other classifieds and comments. But still, let me just add these observations to the cacophony that is the blogosphere.

Varför sitter det en liten man i en rullstol iklädd röd överhalare med kapuschong bakom en inredningshandel på Runebergsgatan? Han är kanske fyra eller fem meter från en indisk restaurang och har utsikt till Hotel Radisson. Jag har sett honom sitta där förut. Han tycks inte vara hemlös - han har inga påsar med sig, ser varken full eller smutsig ut. Men det börjar ju bli tämligen kallt - särskilt om man sitter alldeles stilla. Jag skulle nästan tycka synd om honom, men som sagt sitter han bara där i lugn och frid i sin röda överhalare. Varför sitter han egentligen också där? Han må väl bo någonstans och om inte han gör det, varför då sitta just där? Inte skulle jag säga, att det er stadens mysigaste hörn. Kanske har han inte lust att sitta hemma hela dagen - eller gillar en lite tupplur utanför. Det är möjligen inte den bästa förklaringen. Hmm. Jag undras.

Mina medmänniskor förvånar mig ständigt. ‘Förvåning’ är kanske inte ordet. Read the rest of this entry »

Next semester, I’ll be finishing my Bachelor’s - in anthropology, for those new to the blog - and I have to do a major project and write a so-called Bachelor’s essay, even though it’s more like a mini-thesis; i.e. it should be research based. I’m constantly considering my options, and in doing so, I’ve got to thinking a lot about what anthropology is as a science and scholarly discipline and what it can contribute to the world. And what people write on the walls of public toilets. Read the rest of this entry »