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.
4 months ago
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