Week 3: Welcome Back Mr. Sun

I'm supposing that the sun is a Mr. since the moon is frequently considered female? Although I guess that depends on what culture you are from. Ah well, the sun has returned to us now in any case. Thursday the 21st was the official first day although we've been able to notice a definite brightening trend here since the 15th. On the actual "sun day" we couldn't see the sun because of thick fog. It's apparently a tradition here in Tromsø to eat something called solboller when the sun comes back, roughly translated it would be "sun buns", and they are basically a Berliner pastry that's been renamed for the occasion. I didn't buy any this week since the ISU will be organizing a party to welcome back the sun this coming Wednesday and then I get to eat one (or maybe even two?) for free. Yay for free baked goods!

The Tromsø International Film Festival has been going on all week. It's really a very big deal here, more so than I expected, and all of the buses have been packed all week. I went and saw one film with my friend Josh on Tuesday. Since I didn't end up volunteering I couldn't afford more than one 80 NOK film ticket. We went to a film called Helsinki Forever. It was a historical film about Helsinki made with a bunch of archival footage of the city, clips from Finnish movies, paintings and such. I actually really liked it even if it wasn't quite what I had expected, and Josh said that it really gave him a good background on the story behind Helsinki. The cinema that we saw it in was also really cool. The oldest cinema of the north called Verdensteatret, a lovely location in general.

I also went to the release party of the University paper Utropia on Wednesday. They always have a release party for every issue of the paper but I have never been to one before. This time I went but wasn't too terribly impressed. We met at Driv and hung out, but things were kind of disorganized and there weren't that many people there. I'm hoping that things calm down at the paper when the new editor takes over. Both my articles look good, and I got a prize for best contributor to the culture section. They didn't include my photos however because the "quality wasn't good enough". I'm able to accept that, but the photos that they chose instead of mine are pretty crappy and to be honest I don't see how mine could possibly be worse. Ah well, I'm working hard not to be bitter about it.

Other than that, my course on Microscopical Imaging Techniques started up this week. It seems like it's going to be a fascinating (and useful) course. I also got a book to borrow for my Toxicology course, which is good because I didn't have the spare money to buy it.

Oh, and I might be running for the position of ISU Webmaster, I don't really have the time or the energy, but they need a website badly and I could whip up a simple one for them in very little time. There might be someone else interested in the position also, so if the other person gets it I certainly won't be heartbroken.

On Friday I went out and bought myself some potting soil, pots, and seeds so I'm going to start growing some herbs in my room to liven up the place. I bought basil, thyme, chives, and arugula seeds. Hoping to get those started this week.

I also went running both Thursday and Saturday, trying to get back into the rhythm even with the ice that seems to refuse to go away. You just have to be a little extra careful is all. I ran 13km on Saturday just for the fun of it. I'm also going to start visiting the student gym twice a week for some strength training.

And that pretty much wraps up my week. Oh, I introduced Lyonel to the strange delicacy which is Lutefisk yesterday. He had bought some frozen Lutefisk around Christmas but hadn't dared to cook it yet. I served it with boiled potatoes, mixed frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, etc), and Bechamel sauce. He seemed to like it, so I think I've recruited yet another person to the Lutefisk Appreciators Club. ;-)

But now I'm going to go study a bit and relax as well, trying to fight off this darn cold which I so don't have time for right now!