I don't have the energy to write up a big blog post today, my brain is friend from too much Toxicology. But I will leave you with this cute comic for now. Like Paige, I just can't wait for spring to come this year.
4 months ago
Feb 28, 2010
Waiting for Spring
I don't have the energy to write up a big blog post today, my brain is friend from too much Toxicology. But I will leave you with this cute comic for now. Like Paige, I just can't wait for spring to come this year.
Feb 21, 2010
Week 7: Salmon Feast and Lent
This time my blog update is actually on time! I really need to actively stay on top of this, it's the only way not to get overwhelmed I think. So here's how I spent another week in Tromsø.
For starters, on Monday Lyonel cooked me a lovely feast with smoked salmon in a sour cream and caper sauce over mashed potatoes. He had recently received some money and wanted to treat me to a slightly delayed Valentine's dinner. It was fantastic, I haven't had salmon in so long, what a wonderful meal! Not to mention that we also saw some incredible northern lights together that evening and he gave me a few small Valentine's gifts. A home-made card (very cute), a nifty Fatima's hand amulet, and a few packets of seeds (sweet peas and lettuce). I thought it was very sweet, because he said that he wanted to get me flowers at first, but then thought that I would enjoy seeds more since I could grow them myself and the plants would last longer. Very thoughtful and personal gifts, I just adore them. :-)
On Tuesday we had another meeting for the ISU, this time concentrating more specifically on the International Childrens Day that we will be hosting in March. I volunteered to work on the food part, but I really do hope that I manage to find some people with a decent work ethic to help me. We are supposed to serve the kids (they are 5th graders, so not teeny-tiny kids) exotic foods from around the world. We also discussed the planning of the trip to the Kautokeino Easter Festival. I won't be attending that one since I'll be heading home to Finland for Easter, but it seems like a cool event.
On Tuesday I also made pea soup and (tried) to make fastlagsbullar or Shrove buns as they call them in English. It is traditional to celebrate the Tuesday before lent in Finland by a) going sledding, and b) eating pea soup and shrove buns. The pea soup was tasty as always, but the buns didn't rise like they were supposed to, probably due to a yeast malfunction. I figure I should have used fresh yeast like the recipe said, and not dry yeast which I had on hand. Ah well, I will make a second attempt at some point!
As for lent, I have decided to make some Lenten changes in my life. First I totally re-arranged the furniture in my little room for a change of pace. But more seriously, I will be limiting my intake of processed sugar up until Easter. Not really out of religious purposes, more out of health purposes. I don't eat a lot of sugar anyway, but I'm cutting out things like jam, and any processed food with added sugar. I will allow myself a sweet treat on Saturday or Sunday if I happen to have something, I figure you shouldn't deprive yourself of all the joys associated to food. I'm already living on a poor college student's diet of oatmeal, crisp bread, beans and brown rice, carrots, and home-made whole grain muffins. A small indulgence here or there certainly won't hurt me.
The new edition of Utropia came out on Wednesday. My article turned out well and the photos look ok, admittedly not great. I intended to go to the release party this time around but ended up taking an extended nap instead. The editors still owe me a beer, not that I really want a cheap Mack beer anyway.
On Friday I did some microscopy on water samples with Nona. I had collected two water samples out at Telegrafbukta, a lovely beach side park located on the south end of the island. Unfortunately my samples didn't have anything really interesting in them, Nona was much more successful with her aquarium water samples. We will be making a second attempt on Monday, with some water that Nona collected out on Kvaløya somewhere.
Saturday was by far the week's highlight. Josh invited me to go along to a sledding day hosted by the Buddy Tromsø program. We were supposed to meet at the student housing in Prestvannet and then walk to the hill from there. Lyonel came along although he seemed hesitant since he told us he had never really been sledding before, except for one time when he was maybe 10. So we got there, and there was a surprisingly good turnout. The day was lovely, clear and sunny, and only around -11°C, so not terribly cold. Few of us had sleds so we had a bunch of plastic bags with us. Luckily as we walked to the hill we went past an elementary school where there were a bunch of sleds that had been left outside by the kids. We borrowed them for a few hours and that really saved the day. The hill turned out to be fantastic and everyone had a blast. We even had some active photographers along so I hope to get some photos from the day. I wore my Finnish student overalls which were great for sledding. We practically had to drag Lyonel off the hill. He is in love with sledding now it seems, and he begged us to go again next week. I wouldn't mind doing again, but then he needs to dress a bit warmer and definitely wear a hat!
On Saturday evening I went over to Ellen's house (a mutual friend of Josh and Miranda's) and we hung out, had root beer floats, and watched an interesting Native American movie called The Business of Fancydancing.
Then today I went out for a lovely 10km run. The weather was gorgeous again like yesterday, and there were so many people out walking, running, skiing, and exercising their dogs. I do love the Norwegian traditions of going out and exercising on Sundays.
For starters, on Monday Lyonel cooked me a lovely feast with smoked salmon in a sour cream and caper sauce over mashed potatoes. He had recently received some money and wanted to treat me to a slightly delayed Valentine's dinner. It was fantastic, I haven't had salmon in so long, what a wonderful meal! Not to mention that we also saw some incredible northern lights together that evening and he gave me a few small Valentine's gifts. A home-made card (very cute), a nifty Fatima's hand amulet, and a few packets of seeds (sweet peas and lettuce). I thought it was very sweet, because he said that he wanted to get me flowers at first, but then thought that I would enjoy seeds more since I could grow them myself and the plants would last longer. Very thoughtful and personal gifts, I just adore them. :-)
On Tuesday we had another meeting for the ISU, this time concentrating more specifically on the International Childrens Day that we will be hosting in March. I volunteered to work on the food part, but I really do hope that I manage to find some people with a decent work ethic to help me. We are supposed to serve the kids (they are 5th graders, so not teeny-tiny kids) exotic foods from around the world. We also discussed the planning of the trip to the Kautokeino Easter Festival. I won't be attending that one since I'll be heading home to Finland for Easter, but it seems like a cool event.
On Tuesday I also made pea soup and (tried) to make fastlagsbullar or Shrove buns as they call them in English. It is traditional to celebrate the Tuesday before lent in Finland by a) going sledding, and b) eating pea soup and shrove buns. The pea soup was tasty as always, but the buns didn't rise like they were supposed to, probably due to a yeast malfunction. I figure I should have used fresh yeast like the recipe said, and not dry yeast which I had on hand. Ah well, I will make a second attempt at some point!
As for lent, I have decided to make some Lenten changes in my life. First I totally re-arranged the furniture in my little room for a change of pace. But more seriously, I will be limiting my intake of processed sugar up until Easter. Not really out of religious purposes, more out of health purposes. I don't eat a lot of sugar anyway, but I'm cutting out things like jam, and any processed food with added sugar. I will allow myself a sweet treat on Saturday or Sunday if I happen to have something, I figure you shouldn't deprive yourself of all the joys associated to food. I'm already living on a poor college student's diet of oatmeal, crisp bread, beans and brown rice, carrots, and home-made whole grain muffins. A small indulgence here or there certainly won't hurt me.
The new edition of Utropia came out on Wednesday. My article turned out well and the photos look ok, admittedly not great. I intended to go to the release party this time around but ended up taking an extended nap instead. The editors still owe me a beer, not that I really want a cheap Mack beer anyway.
On Friday I did some microscopy on water samples with Nona. I had collected two water samples out at Telegrafbukta, a lovely beach side park located on the south end of the island. Unfortunately my samples didn't have anything really interesting in them, Nona was much more successful with her aquarium water samples. We will be making a second attempt on Monday, with some water that Nona collected out on Kvaløya somewhere.
Saturday was by far the week's highlight. Josh invited me to go along to a sledding day hosted by the Buddy Tromsø program. We were supposed to meet at the student housing in Prestvannet and then walk to the hill from there. Lyonel came along although he seemed hesitant since he told us he had never really been sledding before, except for one time when he was maybe 10. So we got there, and there was a surprisingly good turnout. The day was lovely, clear and sunny, and only around -11°C, so not terribly cold. Few of us had sleds so we had a bunch of plastic bags with us. Luckily as we walked to the hill we went past an elementary school where there were a bunch of sleds that had been left outside by the kids. We borrowed them for a few hours and that really saved the day. The hill turned out to be fantastic and everyone had a blast. We even had some active photographers along so I hope to get some photos from the day. I wore my Finnish student overalls which were great for sledding. We practically had to drag Lyonel off the hill. He is in love with sledding now it seems, and he begged us to go again next week. I wouldn't mind doing again, but then he needs to dress a bit warmer and definitely wear a hat!
On Saturday evening I went over to Ellen's house (a mutual friend of Josh and Miranda's) and we hung out, had root beer floats, and watched an interesting Native American movie called The Business of Fancydancing.
Then today I went out for a lovely 10km run. The weather was gorgeous again like yesterday, and there were so many people out walking, running, skiing, and exercising their dogs. I do love the Norwegian traditions of going out and exercising on Sundays.
Feb 18, 2010
Weeks 5 & 6: ISU, job interviews & Valentine's
It's been an eventful two weeks and I've fallen woefully behind on updating this blog. I am determined not to fall off the wagon like I did last semester so here's another update on what's been going on up here in the north of Norway!
Some of the highlights of week 5 (1.2-7.2) were the ISU election, my intensive microscopy lab course, the Utropia release, and the Saami festival during the weekend. Here's a bit about those things in short.
I was convinced, or maybe guilt-tripped would the be more appropriate choice of words, into applying for the position of web master for the new ISU board by the current President. The election was held on Wednesday at Bodega, and the turnout was not all that great. We all ran unopposed but at least we have a complete board. Lyonel is also on the board, he was elected for the position of Public Relations.
All that week I also had an intensive lab course to attend with. The schedule for the course said that we would work 9-16 but I had a day when I didn't get out until 18. It was fun but exhausting, and I had an excellent lab partner named Nona. We quickly became friends when we realized how much we had in common, from musical taste to lifestyle choices. We are also going to work together on our semester project, which we will present as a poster after Easter. We are planning on taking sea water samples from at least two locations around Tromsø and then examining them with microscopes and taking photos. We will then use some water from an aquarium as well and compare the organisms that we find. It should be a fun and interesting project I think.
The Utropia paper was released on Wednesday that week also and my photos and articles were a big success! They published my photos from the Nordlys festival in a gorgeous 4 photo spread and one of my photos even made the front page of the culture section!
On Friday I went with my friend Josh to the student club Driv for a Saami DJ. The music was about the same as usual, which was a bit disappointing. One cool thing however, was that there were lots of Saami people at Driv wearing their traditional costumes. It was interesting to see so many different ones.
On Saturday I went with Josh and Lyonel to a flea market at a school in the middle of the island to browse around. The market was a fundraiser for the students' trip with the White Buses to the old holocaust concentration camps. I feel that it's an important educational program and a good cause to support. We each found something at the market, Josh a popcorn popper, Lyonel some music, and I got an assortment of cookie cutters, a scarf, and a used bread machine for only 10 NOK!
After the market we headed downtown to meet with Miranda for pizza. We checked out the Saami festival for a bit but Sunday was definitely the highlight with the reindeer races. I took some photos which I will post to Flickr ASAP. I also ended up standing next to a very friendly British couple who asked all sorts of questions about northern Norway and the Saamis. Thanks to the course on Arctic Culture which I took last semester I was able to explain a lot of things to them, who knew that stuff would ever come in handy? They were also very impressed by my English, stating that "everyone in Scandinavia speaks such good English". I didn't bother to tell them my life story, just this once I let myself pass as an unusually eloquent Scandinavian. ;-)
That wraps up week # 5, on to week # 6. Highlights of week 6 include a new round of newspaper work, a job interview with Norwegian airlines, the first ISU meeting with the new board, and Valentine's Day celebrations.
Another newspaper meeting started off the week, and after the last crazy newspaper week, and a week of intensive lab work, I was feeling very drained. I chose not to claim so much work this time around, only one article and two photo sessions. I wrote an article about the Mizik rasin music movement in Haiti (a fascinating subject by the way), and took photos at a jazz concert with Sergio, and the portrait photo of a man named Jan Gunnar Winther. Tomek dominated the paper as usual, and we also have some new writers joining the crew.
On Tuesday I started my day with a job interview for Norwegian Airlines. They seemed to really like me and I thought I had the job in the bag until they asked me if I would be able to work all through the summer and I had to tell them no. After that I knew I had lost it, because despite the fact that they remained polite they weren't very good at masking their disappointment. Ah well, at least I tried. I'll keep looking for temp positions, but it looks like I'll have to get used to living on porridge and knäckebröd for the remainder of my time in Norway.
The first ISU meeting was held later in the day that same Tuesday. We met at the Grill behind the main canteen. First we discussed business, and then we were allowed to get food for free. Otherwise good, but they never seem to offer any vegetarian options of the warm food, so I ended up with tray full of vegetables and fruit plus a sandwich. Not bad as far as healthy eating goes, although an annoying German (who will remain unnamed here no matter how much it tempts me) criticized me for not having any "dead animals" on my plate.
The new board definitely has its strengths and weaknesses. We still have some problems accessing our money due to some bureaucracy issues regarding our organization number. We also have a secretary who doesn't really know how to take minutes, and operations officers who aren't always very enthusiastic about doing the work that their position implies. I'm just the web master but if I'm not careful I have a feeling that I'll end up doing a lot more than my fair share of work. Sometimes I get tired of being the workhorse of every organization/group I join.
On Friday morning I had my second job interview of the week, this time by phone and for the local paper back home in Finland. I applied for a position as a summer journalist position at Västra Nyland. I'm really hoping I get it, they seemed to like my examples from Utropia, as well as the fact that I can handle a camera and have a driver's license and access to a car. If I get the job it means I'll work all of June and July and then head to the US in August. I really, really need the money and it would be awesome work experience also so here's hoping I get it!
On Friday Nona and I decided to host a quiz evening to celebrate Valentine's day. It's a new trend here in Ørndalen to have quiz nights on Friday evening instead of (or before) a night out on the town. Our quiz was Valentine's themed, with questions about romantic movies, famous couples, marriage statistics etc. We had a good turn-out, 12 of us in total, and I got to meet some of the new internationals. I baked Red Velvet cupcakes for the occasion which turned out beautifully. A really fun evening in general, even if it did end with some unnecessary drama...
On the weekend I opted to take it easy, not venturing outside much since it was practically a blizzard with lots of snow and chilly winds. I made my own Valentine's cards this year and made some chocolate peanut-cashew clusters for my friends. I even experimented with a few heart-shaped ones as gifts for Lyonel, he seemed to really like them. A low-key Valentine's but a nice one nonetheless.
Some of the highlights of week 5 (1.2-7.2) were the ISU election, my intensive microscopy lab course, the Utropia release, and the Saami festival during the weekend. Here's a bit about those things in short.
I was convinced, or maybe guilt-tripped would the be more appropriate choice of words, into applying for the position of web master for the new ISU board by the current President. The election was held on Wednesday at Bodega, and the turnout was not all that great. We all ran unopposed but at least we have a complete board. Lyonel is also on the board, he was elected for the position of Public Relations.
All that week I also had an intensive lab course to attend with. The schedule for the course said that we would work 9-16 but I had a day when I didn't get out until 18. It was fun but exhausting, and I had an excellent lab partner named Nona. We quickly became friends when we realized how much we had in common, from musical taste to lifestyle choices. We are also going to work together on our semester project, which we will present as a poster after Easter. We are planning on taking sea water samples from at least two locations around Tromsø and then examining them with microscopes and taking photos. We will then use some water from an aquarium as well and compare the organisms that we find. It should be a fun and interesting project I think.
The Utropia paper was released on Wednesday that week also and my photos and articles were a big success! They published my photos from the Nordlys festival in a gorgeous 4 photo spread and one of my photos even made the front page of the culture section!
On Friday I went with my friend Josh to the student club Driv for a Saami DJ. The music was about the same as usual, which was a bit disappointing. One cool thing however, was that there were lots of Saami people at Driv wearing their traditional costumes. It was interesting to see so many different ones.
On Saturday I went with Josh and Lyonel to a flea market at a school in the middle of the island to browse around. The market was a fundraiser for the students' trip with the White Buses to the old holocaust concentration camps. I feel that it's an important educational program and a good cause to support. We each found something at the market, Josh a popcorn popper, Lyonel some music, and I got an assortment of cookie cutters, a scarf, and a used bread machine for only 10 NOK!
After the market we headed downtown to meet with Miranda for pizza. We checked out the Saami festival for a bit but Sunday was definitely the highlight with the reindeer races. I took some photos which I will post to Flickr ASAP. I also ended up standing next to a very friendly British couple who asked all sorts of questions about northern Norway and the Saamis. Thanks to the course on Arctic Culture which I took last semester I was able to explain a lot of things to them, who knew that stuff would ever come in handy? They were also very impressed by my English, stating that "everyone in Scandinavia speaks such good English". I didn't bother to tell them my life story, just this once I let myself pass as an unusually eloquent Scandinavian. ;-)
That wraps up week # 5, on to week # 6. Highlights of week 6 include a new round of newspaper work, a job interview with Norwegian airlines, the first ISU meeting with the new board, and Valentine's Day celebrations.
Another newspaper meeting started off the week, and after the last crazy newspaper week, and a week of intensive lab work, I was feeling very drained. I chose not to claim so much work this time around, only one article and two photo sessions. I wrote an article about the Mizik rasin music movement in Haiti (a fascinating subject by the way), and took photos at a jazz concert with Sergio, and the portrait photo of a man named Jan Gunnar Winther. Tomek dominated the paper as usual, and we also have some new writers joining the crew.
On Tuesday I started my day with a job interview for Norwegian Airlines. They seemed to really like me and I thought I had the job in the bag until they asked me if I would be able to work all through the summer and I had to tell them no. After that I knew I had lost it, because despite the fact that they remained polite they weren't very good at masking their disappointment. Ah well, at least I tried. I'll keep looking for temp positions, but it looks like I'll have to get used to living on porridge and knäckebröd for the remainder of my time in Norway.
The first ISU meeting was held later in the day that same Tuesday. We met at the Grill behind the main canteen. First we discussed business, and then we were allowed to get food for free. Otherwise good, but they never seem to offer any vegetarian options of the warm food, so I ended up with tray full of vegetables and fruit plus a sandwich. Not bad as far as healthy eating goes, although an annoying German (who will remain unnamed here no matter how much it tempts me) criticized me for not having any "dead animals" on my plate.
The new board definitely has its strengths and weaknesses. We still have some problems accessing our money due to some bureaucracy issues regarding our organization number. We also have a secretary who doesn't really know how to take minutes, and operations officers who aren't always very enthusiastic about doing the work that their position implies. I'm just the web master but if I'm not careful I have a feeling that I'll end up doing a lot more than my fair share of work. Sometimes I get tired of being the workhorse of every organization/group I join.
On Friday morning I had my second job interview of the week, this time by phone and for the local paper back home in Finland. I applied for a position as a summer journalist position at Västra Nyland. I'm really hoping I get it, they seemed to like my examples from Utropia, as well as the fact that I can handle a camera and have a driver's license and access to a car. If I get the job it means I'll work all of June and July and then head to the US in August. I really, really need the money and it would be awesome work experience also so here's hoping I get it!
On Friday Nona and I decided to host a quiz evening to celebrate Valentine's day. It's a new trend here in Ørndalen to have quiz nights on Friday evening instead of (or before) a night out on the town. Our quiz was Valentine's themed, with questions about romantic movies, famous couples, marriage statistics etc. We had a good turn-out, 12 of us in total, and I got to meet some of the new internationals. I baked Red Velvet cupcakes for the occasion which turned out beautifully. A really fun evening in general, even if it did end with some unnecessary drama...
On the weekend I opted to take it easy, not venturing outside much since it was practically a blizzard with lots of snow and chilly winds. I made my own Valentine's cards this year and made some chocolate peanut-cashew clusters for my friends. I even experimented with a few heart-shaped ones as gifts for Lyonel, he seemed to really like them. A low-key Valentine's but a nice one nonetheless.
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