What about my studies then? Well, I study Global trendwatching and it's a very broad subject. It means pretty much that you try to be the first one to see something new before it blows up large. I think most trendwatchers start a project to make use of this new thing and probably earn money from it, my goal is instead to be the first one to write about it, which is a huge plus as a journalist.
My current course is called methodology and the task is to "identify a trend and collect data". It is very hard to define exactly what that means but we can do pretty much anything it seems. At first I planned to focus on the amount of students going abroad, checking my current university Hogeschool van Amsterdam (Hva) and my old university the Mid Sweden University (Miun). I got the numbers from Miun and to my surprise it hasn't increased. As the world gets more and more global I'd think more and more people go abroad but maybe not. The project is still reasonable even if it doesn't end up as a trend, as long as I collected data but I actually got another idea yesterday.
I have many Dutch friends that I met in Sweden and one of them invited me to come visit her ship for "chiling out, food, talks & inspiration. You'll get to know our project and share ideas to keep creating a collaborative, sustainable and happy community.". Finding the way turned out to be quite a struggle due to some work on the road making me follow Dutch signs and improvising to get there. After arriving I had a great time talking to the crew about their idea with the boat. The final goal is to buy a larger boat and sail to Chile with stops on the way but that's in the future. Right now they get around by using the boat as a mini hotel, getting donations and visiting festivals.
What surprised me most about their way of living was their way of trading. Instead of taking payment for making stuff they literally traded, and it could be anything. It could be something like a story for an item or favor. What kind of story? Any kind. It was also clear with their way of aiming for sustainability, for example the food on the boat was almost always vegetarian. This time we were served a sallad, rice and spiced up potatoes and it was a really great meal. All for free also, but of course I left a donation.
And how is this relevant for a trend? Well, both the captain and a crew member said that they believe this trend is going to increase, and they hope to inspire people to do the same thing they do, for a more sustainable world. They want to spread the word and "lead by good example", as a crew member put it. So a trend it is, and I will probably go for this instead of the exchange students theme.
I was supposed to meet my friend at the boat and stay for an hour or so, socialising, taking photos and interviewing people but I ended up staying all night like many of the other visitors. The plan to meet my friends in the city later for a drink had to step aside, and I think that was the right decision. The next time they invite people to the boat I will be back for sure. It was a really cool thing and if I find something similar in Sweden I'm going to write an article about it.
The picture is of a soon to be lamp that the captain has made out of the bottom of glass bottles and they had many other cool things as well. The list is where the visitors could sign up if they wanted to help out in some way. It had a lot of signatures when the night was over, I wasn't the only one who got a good impression.