thorstenboeck.dk!

WWW.THORSTENBOECK.DK

Yes, I now have my own website! Inspired my sister Helene I bought thorstenboeck.dk. Had I known it would be this easy I would have done it a long time ago. You just go to one.com or a similar site and buy your domain for USD 15. Then you connect it to the blog which is still hosted at blogger.com. That's it! No html code or anything!

The same .COM site was also available, but although it was tempting (and cheaper) to go with that one I decided to stay loyal to my Danish heritage and go with the .DK site.

NOTIFICATION BY EMAIL

It does seem that the blogger software allows readers to sign up to get an email whenever there is news. You can sign up for an RSS feed, but I think that is overkill for most of the potential readers. To overcome this I will send out a short email notification manually. If you want to get on the mailing list then send me a mail on thorsten@boeck.dk.

THE FIRST MONTH OF THE NEW LIFE

Today it is exactly one month since I packed my things at work and went into the (voluntary) unemployed life. And what a month it has been! Just as busy as before, but with different things!  I have to be honest, though, and say that I haven't been very efficient or disciplined by my normal standards. I haven't gotten started on the stack of books we got from the school or on applying for scholarships. Instead I have gotten tons of other (less serious) things done that I have wanted to do for months or years: I have learned how to blog, I've gotten a website, gotten my dad an iPhone, started cooking a bit again, changed bank, rented my apartment out, started running a bit again and most of all I have seen a lot more friends and family than the last year. Next project is to learn how to get my thousands of photos organized and uploaded to the web, so they actually bring some value.

I have also worked quite a bit on the practical aspects of moving to Switzerland: Getting flight tickets, insurance, phone, internet, moving, etc set up. Considering how much time it has taken me - moving alone within the same time zone to an already furnished apartment - I can only admire those of my future fellow students that move their entire families from the other side of the planet. How do they do it?

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR

Susana and I will be celebrating Christmas with my family in Denmark on the 24th. The next morning at 6.00 we will fly to Madrid to take part in the Spanish christmas celebrations. The 29th I will go to Lausanne to meet up with my Indonesian friends Adi, Binky and Anya who will be visiting me over the New Year. We will all four be attending New Year party in Lausanne together with 50 other IMD student and partners. Susana will come to Lausanne on the 1st or 2nd of January, just in time to join the pre-school skiing trip on the 3rd and 4th. On the 5th and 6th we must attend information sessions on campus and on the 7th at 10:30 the school year officially kicks off! It will be an intense couple of weeks. But probably nothing compared to the year that follows!

You have been blogged!!

Hi Folks, Friends and Family!

I now have a blog! How about that?

WHY A BLOG?
So what happened? Did he grow soft in his old days? The answer to that is probably 'Yes'.
When I went to Indonesia back in 2003 I pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet from one day to the other and I resurfaced again two years later just as abruptly. I have been spending the last few months thinking about how I ensure that doesn't happen again when I move to Switzerland in a couple of months. I have in the past enjoyed following the life of friends overseas by reading mass mails and seeing the pictures they post. Once they returned home it felt like I had been there all the time, so we could just continue where we left off without having to catch up on a lot things first. By doing it in a blog the readers have the added benefit of deciding themselves whether they want to receive the news or not.

WHY IN ENGLISH?
Well, over time I have made friends with people from corners of the world where the Danish language is hard to distinguish from the gurgling of a sore throat. It is my hope that some of these friends also are interested in reading along. And as everybody speaks English, English it is!

HOW OFTEN?
That depends on two factors:
- Whether there is anything to write about?
- Whether there is time to write it?
In the next couple of months the former will likely be the restricting factor, but once in Lausanne the latter will without a doubt be setting the pace. Nevertheless, a commitment is required and I will therefore set the target at 1-2 relatively short entries per week.

SO WHAT IS IT THAT IS HAPPENING NEXT YEAR?
I am moving to Lausanne in Switzerland for a year to attend a 1-year MBA program at IMD. The program starts in January, ends in December and has a 3-week summer break in July. I will come back to the details of the program in a later entry.

WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?
In short I stopped working two weeks ago and am now preparing for the year ahead. Much more about that later. I expect to move to Lausanne between Christmas and New Year.