I think I missed the memo that all of a sudden it is time to start sporting the latest in sunwear fashion. The sun is just starting to come back, but for some reason all the teeny bob Norwegian girls had their huge sunglasses today on as if it was the middle of the summer. It's fun to see someone in a huge winter coat and sunglasses, but I guess that reflection off the snow can be intense. Regardless, it's now sunglasses season so time to dust 'em off and get ready to be sexy!
It has now been a week, and I am finally recovering from the
exciting finish of "Speedy" and "that other reindeer." Yes, the reindeer drag race has once again come and gone, and what an exciting event it was this year! Once a year, Tromsø celebrates Sámi Week, highlighting the indigenous peoples of Northern Norway with a variety of cultural events, the best of which is the reindeer race! Young Sámi children harness a reindeer and ski behind the reindeer who sprint 200m through mainstreet in about 16 seconds. Better than I ever did!
This year was filled with controversy as one of the returning favorites was disqualified because it was discovered that he (being the reindeer) was Finnish. After this shocking event, everyone was surprised by the newcomer appropriately named "Speedy." Speedy did well, making it to the finals where he was beaten out by another reindeer who was cast as the villain and thus quickly forgotten.
It was a great day for a reindeer race with lots of blowing snow and cold temps. It was cold enough for me to buy a hamburger from Burger King to keep warm...my international friends didn't let that one go very easily. But what a great mix of cultures: fast food
and reindeer races. What a day.
I also enjoyed a crazy cabin tour before the reindeer race with 35 international students. We all packed into a cabin meant to hold 18 and enjoyed playing in the snow, hopping in the sauna, devouring
a huge meal of pasta, and running into people everywhere we turned. It was a great party though about an hour and a half outside of Tromsø, and it made me feel at home as the snow was blowing making it feel like a blizzard outside!
We all survived...more or less. Just another crazy week in the life of an international student in Tromsø! You can see all the craziness by clicking on photos above or on the links on this entry. Check out all the fun photos!
My body is now moving again and I can safely say that I survived my first ski trip...yes, ski trip! I thought it was going to be snow boarding, but after going down the hill once, I got stuck in the turnstile before the T-bar lift and then, while being pulled up the hill, I fell and was dragged sideways until I was spit out halfway up the mountain. I tried to put my shoe back in the snowboard and couldn't do it and got extremely frustrated. Stian found me and suggested that I switch to skis, which I did.
Then, like angels from the Norwegian sky, two beautiful, kind, and professional female Norwegian skier gave me free lessons! We went down the hill together twice, enough for me to learn how to stay on my feet. It was great
because when Stian found me again, I was ready to ski while standing next to the two ski babes.
Stian was a great teacher the rest of the night. We even went up the large lift and I made it down the 15 minute run. It was an incredible night to be skiing. It was freezing outside with temperatures at -15 degrees Celsius, but the sky was filled northern lights. When you reached the top of the lift, you saw the northern lights and all the lights from Tromsø and the surrounding islands and the dark areas where the ocean was. So beautiful. Unfortunately, I had to concentrate while racing down the mountain, but I definitely enjoyed a few moments of stillness while realizing where I was and what I was doing.
I'm no ski pro, but it's pretty cool to think I learned how to ski in Norway. I want to make sure to go again soon so I can remember how to do it! Until then, I'll keep taking the Aleve and massaging all these new muscles. Qué fuerte, no?
It's been roughly 5 years since I climbed Mt. LaCrosse and attempted to learn how to snowboard with my friend Margaret, and today I am going to relieve the pain by going to the nearby mountain to attempt to snowboard! I'm going with a bunch of friends, so hopefully it will be a good time, but I'm a little nervous about surviving after a 5 year hiatus (which was proceeded by a 19 year hiatus). I hope that I live to tell the tale and the tales from this past weekend when I survived and enjoyed a cabin tour with 35 international students and reindeer drag racing down mainstreet Tromsø. Wish me luck and life.
The past year and a half here at the Peace House has seen quite a turnover of tenants. However, everyone who has spent time living at the house is dearly remembered thanks to one constant reminder: mail. Letters arrive daily for mysterious member of the Peace House, and even though I have never met Ståle, I like to think that based on her envelopes, she (it's a she right?) is a great person. So, to Ståle, Theresa, Kjersti, Berit, Ada, Ida, Marjaana, Maaike, Tsvetan, Igor and other random alumni, our thoughts are with you...and seriously come get your mail. It's filling up our kitchen.
My bed, window, and room lie in a perfect angle so I can see the tallest mountain out my window while I'm in bed. Last night I was treated to a special treat...as I was getting bed, I looked outside and thought I saw a light on the top of the mountain. It looked like a street light, and my jet-lagged mind even thought it made sense. I almost shut my eyes, but I kept watching and soon I saw a nearly full moon slowly rise over the mountain in an almost horizontal fashion. It was incredible to see the moon slowly following the arc of the mountain until it was finally free and in the sky. Goodnight moon, goodnight room.
I just visited Alison's blog who I stayed with in New York this past weekend, and she has mastered the art of inserting video into blogs. I haven't tried this yet, so you should check out her blog to see the promo video for the Broadway show Spring Awakening, which we saw this weekend. It sums it up much better (and much more musically) than I could.
Alison's Spring Awakening entry: Click Here
I have hopped back across the pond and am in fine form after a four day trip to New York! 
The reason for the trip was a job interview, or so I thought. I bought a new shirt and tie all ready for the big event, but when I arrived it seemed I missed the memo. Everyone else was wearing jeans and sweatshirt. What I soon found out was that the "interview" was actually a throw-back to old standardized tests...I think I distinctly remember saying after the GRE that I was forever done with standardized tests and bubbles, but no. That’s right, in order to work for the federal government you have to be well-versed in bubbles.
The test was a little over 3 hours and consisted of critical reasoning in which we would read a paragraph and they would ask us oddly worded questions to see what info we could deduce from a few facts. Then there was the personality section (my favorite) when I had to say that no, I did not think that a messy room was a sign of an unintelligent person, yes, during high school I would see friends 7 or more times a month, and that I thought the worst part of the “computer revolution” was the loss of personal contact. Interesting stuff. Not sure what kind of person the test will tell them that I am, but I wish I could just tell them myself. The final section was basically like the English section on the SAT, correcting spelling mistakes, organizing data, and finding passive voice. So there you go. That’s how you become president, or at least a presidential management fellow. I think the test typified the federal government as an impersonal way to move through a bunch of people so it made me think twice if this was a job I wanted, but I’ll wait and see what happens. The highlight was meeting a girl from Hawaii who knew someone already working for US AID. We were both a little out of our elements in New York so we stuck together and laughed about it afterwards.
Besides the test, New York was great (and ridiculously cold)! I stayed with my friend Alison and she was kind enough to show me the city and enjoy some theatre with me. We hit up the half price ticket line to enjoy two great, and very different, Broadway shows: Translations and Spring Awakening. Translations was a play written in the 1980’s about an Irish girl who falls in love with the colonizing British soldier. They don’t speak the same language and it plays with the idea of names and language and power. After the show they had a discussion which was really cool in which an actor from the play along with a famous Irish author talked about it. Apparently, the play was really controversial because it was show in Ireland right during the height of violence between Protestants and Catholics, who were often fighting of the same thing of naming and place and claiming it as their own. Basically, I felt a lot smarter after that show. Spring Awakening was a rock musical about rebellion and repression from parents. It’s set in German in the late 1890’s and shows kids dealing with their new sexuality in a culture that makes them feel guilty for it. It had amazing music and all the actors were probably in their late teens. Just amazing voices. Also, a guy who was in season 5 of 24 was in it and apparently the music was by the band that had the song in the early 90’s “I am barely breathing, I can’t find a way, don’t know who I’m blah blah, imagining you here...but I’m thinking it over any way...” It was so much fun and great to see a new musical (apparently it was based on a play written in Germany in the 1890’s that was banned for decades.
Besides the culture I also ate some of the best pizza of my life at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn and enjoyed some shopping in downtown Manhattan. Lots of food and relaxation. I even started Alison on the path towards an Office addiction, I think. Now I’m back in the Oslo airport, waiting for the short flight home. I’m excited to go home and enjoy my life outside of the bubbles in Tromsø.
and I have. I am watching them gas up the KLM plane as I prepare for some trans-atlantic hopping. I'm doing the business trip itinerary of Norway to New York and back in four days. Kind of crazy! It should be exciting though. The reason for this sudden and short trip is also exciting: a job interview!
Monday morning I will have a combination of a test and an interview for a position as a "presidential management fellow," which basically means I would get a job in one of the variety of departments in the government. I think it would be a good way to get my foot in the door working with foreign aid and international politics, and hey, it would be a job, right?! So dust off your suit and prepare for a variety of fine inflight entertainment because we're taking off. If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere...
