The Power of Food

I love food. I will freely admit that I probably obsess over it more than most people. Not in an unhealthy way though. The majority of my time online is spent perusing various food blogs and cooking sites. I love collecting recipes and trying out new dishes. I believe passionately in the organic and sustainable production of good food for everyone. I know that the system we have now with industrial agriculture and its vast monocultures is flawed. I understand that the eating habits of the entire whole world can't be changed in the blink of a eye, but I have hope that change is both possible and doable.

Having said all this I want to advertise two up-and-coming food related documentaries that I have come across while browsing around the web. Lunch Line is about the problems with the school lunch program in America. The other film Forks over Knives is about how we can reduce the prevalence of diseases such as cancer and heart disease by limiting our intake of animal products. Fascinating stuff, I'm so glad to see these issues getting more attention in the media. Food Inc. opened many peoples eyes and now the process of education continues.

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.

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.

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.

Week 4: Brunost & Nordlys

You know that you've become acclimated to life in Norway when even the Brunost starts to taste really good...

This has been a hectic week in every way. It all started with the newspaper meeting on Monday where I claimed one article and offered to take photos for it. Things started to snowball from there and soon enough I was writing not one but two articles and taking photos at 5 different occasions. Now I love this newspaper work, and I appreciate the fact that I'm building up an impressive portfolio, but this week was a bit much. On Thursday I put in a 17 hour day, beginning with a lecture at 10 AM and finally collapsing in bed at 2AM.

Things probably would have been easier if I hadn't been sniffling all week. My cold never really developed into anything serious but it was enough to drain me and make concentrating on the work at hand harder than usual. Everyone seems to be getting sick right now, it must be the sudden arrival of the cold weather. A winter storm by the name of "Ask" blew in on Tuesday and since then the temperatures have dropped to -12C and colder. Not that I mind the cold, but some more snow would be nice also.

The kitchen in my house has been changing around a bit lately. My housemate Mike received a bunch of stuff from a friend who is moving to Oslo. Mike got a shelf, another refrigerator, a bunch of spices, tea, an electric kettle, and a food processor among other things. He is very generous with his things and allows us all to use the kitchen appliances. I'm really liking the food processor and electric kettle. So far I've made some tasty homemade peanut butter (why didn't I think of that before?) and breakfast smoothies.

Following that do-it-yourself-healthful-living theme, I planted the seeds that I bought last week. Basil, Thyme, and Chives. I've been watering carefully and providing them with plenty of light, and so far both the Thyme and the Basil have sprouted! I'm so excited, it's going to be nice to have some greenery in my room, and useful greenery at that, which is the best kind.

So I've been working busily for the paper this week. Interviewing people, and taking lots and lots of photos. I got in for free to a Chopin concert on Thursday and also went to see the Mariinsky Ballet on Friday. It's so cool to have the opportunity to do these things that I would never be able to afford normally. Both of these events were part of the ongoing Nordlys music festival which will be continuing for most of next week. After that follows the Saami week, and I hope I get to cover that one as well for the paper. One of the highlights is reindeer racing down mainstreet!

There was a laundry party on Friday also, this time hosted by the Spanish and with a Hawaiian theme. I went and hung out there for a while, there were a lot of people I knew in attendance and the party was pretty ok as far as laundry parties go.

Saturday I attended a Mormon baptism, some missionaries talked to me at campus and invited me to go. I am in no way thinking of converting, I went mostly out of curiosity since I have never witnessed a baptism by immersion before. The Mormons were all really nice people and I enjoyed their company, even if I am not in agreement with the rules and dogmas of their faith.

After that I spent a wonderful evening with my boyfriend, concocting a delicious meal out of leftovers and watching Practical Magic on TV. This morning we had a nice lazy start to the day and made waffles for breakfast. What a great way to wrap up a hectic week.

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!

Week 2: from Utropia to Urørt

This week has been long and exhausting, as the first week back after the holidays always is. I'll try to run through some of the highlights quickly to give and idea of what's been going on.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had morning lectures in my course on Marine Ecology. It seems like an interesting course, and we even get to go on a week long research cruise in April, very neat! The only downside is that the course is supposed to carry on until the 16th of June. I know that I just can't stay here that long, I need to be home in the end of May to help with the garden and the market and everything. Hopefully I can make some sort of arrangements so I don't have to drop the course.

On Monday we also had the first meeting of the new semester for the university paper Utropia. Deadline was on Friday as per usual, and there were plenty of articles to write. I claimed 2 and a half articles for myself. The first was a race report on the Mørketidsløp which the culture section editor asked me to do. The second was an article about a photo exhibition on whales called Øye Til Øye or "Eye to Eye" which is currently being displayed at the Polar Museum in Tromsø. It's basically an exhibition which has been designed to be shown in countries where whale hunting is still practiced since the global ban in 1982. The idea is to try and revitalize the movement to protect whales and hopefully stop the hunt for good. I also helped write a short bit for an article on the upcoming TIFF film festival.

On Monday my friends Josh and Miranda also returned back to Tromsø after the holidays. It was great to see them again, I went out to the airport to meet them and help them carry their bags. Miranda has now moved into the same house as Josh so it's even easier to go hang out with my friends than it was before. My own house filled up slowly during the week and now all 6 of us are back, feels like the place is properly lived in again. This also means that it's hard to find place for stuff in the fridge again, but that's ok.

On Tuesday I went out for my first run since the race. Did 6km and took it easy since it's still icy. I haven't run since then because it continues to be slippery and my right knee has been a little sore off and on, I'm hoping that it passes quickly.

On Thursday I had my first lecture in General Toxicology and Pharmacology. The lecture was interesting and not too difficult, but I was upset to discover that there were no textbooks in the library and that a new book costs 798 NOK = 140 USD = 97 € to buy! I'm hoping that the professor can get me a copy of an older edition to borrow because that's just too much to pay for a book that I will only need for one class.

I've been feeling the economic pressure in general lately. After buying an expensive plane ticket to get home for Christmas and various other unexpected bills I have ended up with a 500€ hole in my budget. I tried to get by this week by buying almost nothing but after 4 days of going to bed hungry I got tired of it. I've updated my CV and am now actively looking for part-time employment. I'm also going to put up some fliers at school offering to do English tutoring and correction of term papers. That would give me some quick and easy cash, and I'm sure it's something that people could need as well.

On Friday some of us exchange students congregated to pack up some second hand blankets, clothes, dishes, etc. to send off to the people in need in Haiti. After three hours of sorting, folding, boxing, bagging, labeling, and stacking we were all pretty exhausted. Luckily the ISU coordinator was kind and ordered us all pizza to thank us for our efforts. So I went away that day well-fed and I also brought a couple of shirts, a jacket, and a nice cast-iron wok home with me.

Later that day Utropia also sent me to cover a concert at the student club Driv called Zoom: Urørt. It was a kind of competition between up-and-coming bands from Norway. This was the northern Norwegian semi-finals. There were 5 bands playing, Swankmajer, Acid Garden, Trendsettarklubben, Jackie Moonshine, and Cyaneed. They were all very good and I got some excellent photos, had fun, and saw a few friends. Check out my flickr gallery for some photos from the concert.

After that I've had a relaxing weekend. I finally got sick and tired of my poor students diet of bland and tasteless carbs (aka rice & pasta) and went out and splurged 111 NOK on just fruit and vegetables. It feels so nice to have tasty veggies to eat again, they really are my life force in so many ways.

So there you go, a (relatively) quick recap of week #2.