Vanessa Carpenter

SwedishVanessa

In 2007, I moved to Malmo, Sweden to complete a Masters Degree in Interaction Design. I used to live in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada so this is quite the adventure. I started here with my good friend Amanda, who was my tour guide and emotional support, we had fun, learned a lot and now she's back in Vancouver, and I'm married to a Dane and have a business here in Denmark. Lots has changed, but the adventures, all around the world, continue...



Travel Blog Posts


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SwedishVanessa
April 14th 2012

I have been to Krakow before, see here where it got quite a brief mention, but this time we took a bit more time, and Dzl and I got to go together so it was a wonderful trip, FULL of pierogies. My goal was simply to see Magda and Al who were visiting her family in Krakow, and, to eat pieogies, all day, every day. I accomplished both. We started the trip off being picked up at the airport by Magda and her family. They took us straight to their house since it was Easter and I had forgotten altogether that it was. The day before we celebrated Easter in Copenhagen with some friends and a lovely lamb curry so it hadn't occurred to me that SUNDAY was the actual Easter day and we were going ... read more



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SwedishVanessa
January 1st 2012

Let's recap if you're only reading this one: It all started in May - Vancouver, Brazil, Copenhagen, France, Sweden - big events we were working in each place. Then a summer of festivals and events and now, here we are, Mexico. A quick run down of events: There was KulturSYDhavn, round 2. It went well. It was combined with a mobile hacking workshop so that was really interesting, and followed up with my good friend Christian welcoming his daughter, Katinka into the world - congratulations to you all! Then we had a fairly hectic insane fall - a quick trip to Berlin as part of a visit with Nick and Ben - my good Canadian friends who have now twice come to Denmark so that was fantastic. A Copenhagen Burlesque, short but lovely as usual. A ... read more



Falling through the Fall

Published: December 19th 2011Europe » Norway » Eastern Norway » Oslo
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SwedishVanessa
October 31st 2011

Let's recap if you're only reading this one: It all started in May - Vancouver, Brazil, Copenhagen, France, Sweden - big events we were working in each place. Then a summer of festivals and events and now, here we are, just before Mexico. A quick run down of events: There was KulturSYDhavn, round 2. It went well. It was combined with a mobile hacking workshop so that was really interesting, and followed up with my good friend Christian welcoming his daughter, Katinka into the world - congratulations to you all! Then we had a fairly hectic insane fall - a quick trip to Berlin as part of a visit with Nick and Ben - my good Canadian friends who have now twice come to Denmark so that was fantastic. A Copenhagen Burlesque, short but lovely as ... read more



Shades of Red

Published: December 19th 2011Europe » Germany » Berlin » Berlin
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SwedishVanessa
August 12th 2011

Coloring one's hair a completely mad shade of red the day before a performance is perhaps not the best idea; but of course, when in Berlin, do crazy things and so here I am. It's been a three day whirlwind tour of arriving in Berlin with Ben, meeting up with Nick, going to a tasty restaurant, a furry red gay bar, and endless tourism as we explored the Reichstag - for which by the way, one now needs to reserve in advance tours for - the area around the Brandenburg Tor, the Jewish Memorial which never ceases to make me truly appreciate the artist who made it: it's a lot of concrete blocks which when seen from an overview look orderly and in place, and uniform, representing the rules, and "logic" of the time of the ... read more



Textiles in Sweden

Published: December 19th 2011Europe » Sweden
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SwedishVanessa
June 12th 2011

On to Sweden! Doesn't seem so far off does it, Denmark-Sweden? But when you're coming Vancouver->Brazil->Copenhagen->France->Sweden, it is a long way. So, Sweden. Sweden was again, another amazing experience that I would love to do over, but on its own, without the madness of the travel and work surrounding it. Unfortunately, nothing stayed in my head, and I learned loads of amazing things. Sweden was a textile summer camp - imagine, people who make your clothing, like literally make the fabric; knowing about electronics and sewing this into your clothing. Combine this with people who study the same subject for three years becoming experts on it - electroplating, painting with graphite, working with thermochromatic ink - and then all of them give their own lesson on what they do. It was incredible! Except that I've forgotten ... read more



LABtoLAB - Nantes, France

Published: December 19th 2011Europe » France » Pays-de-la-Loire » Nantes
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SwedishVanessa
June 7th 2011

Playing catch up in the blogging game is not fun - it's interesting, reminiscing about the past year, but suddenly realizing how much I left out is a bit terrifying. As such, I've decided to put in a few short entries so we can see where I've been and then a longer one about the last few weeks. Let's take it from the top: France. France you see, was part of the summer of absolute craziness. First there was Vancouver, including the CHI Conference and a visit with family and friends. Then there was Brazil, and the crazy printer - there's a video here now by the way, showing the journey and what it resulted in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mEk4A7ETec Okay so that was that, then we went to Copenhagen literally overnight, celebrated father's day by participating in the ... read more



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SwedishVanessa
May 27th 2011

The flights to Brazil were surprisingly bearable. I met a lovely girl on the first flight who works PR for Aritzia in Canada and we gossiped about Gaga. On the second, my fellow passenger was Brazilian and spent a long time telling me about Brazil, the weather, the country, the language and most importantly, the Cachaca. :) The third was spent looking like a fly trap with my mouth hanging open as I had passed out and barely noticed take off or landing. Arriving in Brazil was a bit mad. The Sao Paulo airport leaves a lot to be desired with no instruction whatsoever, a boot off the plane, a neverending walkway followed by an unexpected baggage pickup, passport check, security check with no actual 'check', a surprising exit into the airport entrance, now completely out ... read more



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SwedishVanessa
May 21st 2011

So begins the month of travel. Copenhagen - Vancouver - Rio de Janeiro - Copenhagen - Nantes - Boras - Copenhagen. May 7 to June 20. A bit mad but isn't that always the case? Vancouver has been the first leg of the journey so that's where we'll start this story. I arrived in Vancouver after a very long trip - leaving the house at 7am and arriving in Vancouver at 4am Copenhagen time. Then going straight to dinner with family, sushi, but of course, and then on to the conference beer/presentations night at Steamworks Brew Pub. It was a great night even though my body was fighting me every step of the way. I was a zombie at sushi and trying to make conversation and catch up with my family was a bit hopeless but ... read more



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SwedishVanessa
May 7th 2011

It's been a long time since Australia and so much has happened, so much in fact that it's been nearly impossible to write anything down. Even now, I'm on a flight to Vancouver, and should be spending the remaining hour on my laptop writing a business plan but I felt like writing, getting thoughts out of my head and telling some of the story since Australia. We returned from Australia and were welcomed by Denmark's winter, long, cold, and overall very opposite of what we'd seen in Australia. This year I was prepared, Sorel snow boats, wool I'd bought in Australia and the right gloves. I even biked many times on the days when it was at all possible and the paths were cleared. We had a number of fun weekends, a quick weekend away to ... read more



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SwedishVanessa
October 22nd 2010

Our trip in Darwin started and ended in a friendly way. By this I mean we contacted a member of the Blue Knights, an association of motorcyclists who are either currently or retired emergency personnel, police, fire, ambulance. My dad is a member and we found out that they had a "Northern Territories" branch so we thought it would be nice to meet someone. Luckily, this someone worked at customs at the airport so we had a nice greeting on the way into Darwin! From there we went to our extremely shady hotel. It was supposed to be top rated, and as we found out, for Darwin, it was! Our room was spacious but nothing like Cairns, and there was some crazy guy in the lobby being chased by security, and there was a bloody handprint ... read more






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