Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Reflections and Future Reflections

2007-10-26T12:24:00.000+02:00

Thank you for joining me on the past years exploring the "Motherland" of Norway. I have moved locations and will soon take the time and energy to sit down and properly reflect on my experiences in Norway. Check back for the reflections soon.

In the meantime...new adventures are beginning. And with the new adventures come a new blog that will (soon) be both a visual and textual experience. I hope you join me as we take a walk through and with places, people, and experiences. You can join the journey at: http://scottfromsouthdakota.blogspot.com/

Thanks for following me, wherever I tend to amble. Be sure that I am thinking of you and am thankful for your thoughts, comments, and curiosity.

Lasts and Firsts

2007-10-19T14:36:00.000+02:00

Last (for a while): beautiful snowfall, time I see the ekspedisjon lady, bodega coffee and waffle, time i pee in the huge handicap bathroom, time i buy first price toilet paper

First: time i kept a key long enough to get my deposit back

It's not everyday...

2007-10-12T02:06:00.000+02:00

that you experience a single bolt of lightning and a single roar of thunder that briefly knock out the power...while it's snowing. But i guess it happens at least once every two years in Tromsø.

To Every Season, Turn Turn Turn

2007-10-09T10:37:00.000+02:00

I had the "pleasure" yesterday of experiencing first hand the transition from fall to winter in Tromsø. I was walking home from town in a constant, and annoying rain. Suddenly when I was close to my house, it grew ominously silent and suddenly a noise starting building like people shaking a tree. I suddenly realized that the rain had changed to ice. This transition continued throughout the night, and this morning we were greeted by this idyllic scene of thin layer of snow covering Tromsø. Looks like I made it up Tromsdalstinden just in time (see below).

On that note...I bought my ticket to Spain! I do love winter and snow, but I'm ready for a little change and some time on the beach. So as of October 22nd, I will be living in Laredo, Spain. It is a small, old town right on the beach in the north of Spain. More info will be coming on that adventure as well as a new site prepared for a multimedia (multimedic?)account of my Spanish adventures. Check back here for more information soon. In the meantime, happy winter!

To the Top

2007-10-09T09:57:00.000+02:00

After two and half years, I have finally accomplished one of my goals here in Tromsø: climbing to the top of "my" mountain, Tromsdalstinden! I have spent the last two years looking out my window at the mountain looming over Tromsø at 1238 meters high, always showing the changing of the seasons as snow and sun would creep up and down the mountain, until both disappeared at opposite ends of the time spectrum. I finally decided that I could wait no longer and with winter looming around the corner, I knew this weekend it was my last chance before I leave Tromsø. So, I talked to my friend Maaike who I used to live with and who had previously attempted to reach the top with me before we were stopped by snow last fall. Maaike, her boyfriend Erik who just moved her from the Netherlands, Erik's boss from Tromsø, and I all met behind the Arctic Cathedral for our long walk up the mountain.

We had a great tour, starting at 11am. I was the unprepared one with only a few sandwiches and a little chocolate. Fortunately, everyone else had treats as exotic as manchego cheese and belgian chocolate. We filled up our bottles from the stream running down the mountain and enjoyed possibly the best water I have ever tasted. We walked up the slightly steep trail, stopping for a while near the top wondering if we should continue. Clouds were rolling over the mountain and Tinden as it is called is notorious for fast-changing weather conditions. We ultimately decided to go for it and it paid off. We were rewarded with an amazing few at the top! We could see the ocean on both sides, nearby villages, and fjords cutting into the land. On top there was a huge rock tower built from people putting a rock on top to mark their success, plus a small book where you could write your name to document your triumph. I added my name with a message of farewell for Tromsø.

It felt great to finally be on top of this city I love so much! I'll be leaving soon for a new adventure in Spain, but I think these mountains (not to mention the people, cafes, bars, university, and everything else in Tromsø) will call me back soon, either to visit or work or even live. Who knows. But for now, I can rest my sore butt and tired legs after 7 hours of hiking to the top of Tromsø.

Drugs please

2007-09-14T12:45:00.000+02:00

Oh, Norway. Sometimes you're too healthy for your own good.

I woke up this morning and after a few days of fighting the onset of the cold, my nose finally gave in and sprung a leak. I was blowing my nose all morning and finally decided to walk to town to get some pills to help plug my nose up. Something like Sudafed.

So I walked into the pharmacy and had even written down the scientific name of Sudafed, and asked if they had anything. She looked at me very confused and said, "is it a tablet?" "Yes, of course, I said." "No, we don't have anything like that."

WHAT?! Nothing like a common cold pill to solve all my problems?! Don't you have any pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, or phenylephrine, or some other drug that I can make meth with? Come on.

But no. What did she offer me instead? "Actually the best cure is to spray saltwater in your nose." Um, what? Are you telling me spraying a little salt water will make me feel better? Thanks a lot Grandma.

But, with no other options, I purchased the very hightech "Salt water" spray. Now I will give a tour this afternoon as the drug addicted guide who has to shoot up every 10 minutes...with water. I guess it's my first step to being drug free and a reminder that (for better or worse) not every culture is as drug/pill obsessed as the old US of A.

4 x 4

2007-09-03T00:30:00.000+02:00

Craziness this weekend in a few different ways, well four to be precise. Which means of course, we start by setting the stage with the 4 x 4 art show.

This weekend there has been an interactive, modern art exhibition here in Tromsø called 4 x 4. There was an amazing mix of video art, live art, dance, sound, and improvisation. My favorite was probably the hypnotic modern Sami joik combined with random instrumentation from a Portuguese guy named Nunu. It made sense at the time. The exhibit did a great job of making me wonder what was real and what was part of the show because artists were throughout the building and occasionally there would be a dancing tree on the stairs or someone with their head in a pile of moss. All in all, great fun.

The second randomness of this weekend was on the way to the show tonight when I saw the craziest dog collar I've ever seen. There was a big dog sniffing a tree and around its neck was a bright, multi-color, blinking collar. It was like a disco ball on its neck, or maybe better described as a Simon dog collar. You remember that game where green, yellow, red or blue would light up and you'd have to push it. Well, I guess it was useful so the owner didn't lose his dog...but also in case of parties.

The third, not so random more just fun, was a welcome party for the first year peace students! Everyone brought food from their home countries so I enjoyed a Sudanese salad, rice water from Mexico, and whale meat from Norway. I contributed my mom's nacho dip, which I guess is a bit Mexican, but I think that since it is layered it is also American.

OK, finally the big finish. My day as a hero! Yes, I'm a local hero for one lucky 18 year old boy...at least I hope I am. I was walking to town on Saturday and saw a young kid who was obviously drunk and staggering down the street. It normally wouldn't worry me too much but the street was next to a big drop off and it looked like he might fall over the guard rail and down the hill. So I went over to home and made him sit down when I realized that he was in severe pain (beyond the alcohol). I lifted up his shirt and he scratch marks all down his stomach and back as if he had gotten into a fight. I decided that I should call the ambulance and reached for my phone...unfortunately I didn't know which number to dial! Here in Norway, they have a separate number for the fire department, police department, and hospital. I knew it was either 111, 112, or 113, so I went with the first one. Sure enough someone picked up right away and I told them the story. They paused and said, "you know that you're talking to the fire department?" So they connected me and eventually the police came and took my statement and number in case I was needed as a witness. I like to think that I helped the kid out, but I'm not quite sure since the whole time I was on the phone he just said "don't call the police, don't call the police." Maybe I should lock my door so he doesn't come scratch me!

So, an average weekend here in Tromsø. The snow is already on the top of the mountains, and oh yeah, the fifth exciting thing, the first northern lights! Saturday night they appeared for the first time which means it is getting dark and winter is coming...but it is beautiful none-the-less, and as you can tell, never dull.

foot-loose thinking

2007-09-01T16:05:00.000+02:00

It's been a tough week. It seems like everyone around me, including myself, are going through this big decision phase of deciding where to live, what to do, and who they want to be with. It's insane. I really enjoy living the ex-pat, international life. I'm constantly learning, exposed to new people, and in general enjoy the challenges, so I feel bad complaining. But I've had numerous conversations with a variety of people lately about how hard it is too. I mean, it seems like most of my friends are living the same type of life, and it's frustrating to constantly build strong relationships only to see the friends leave, or to leave myself. It's as if I'm constantly rebuilding instead of being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

So the question is when do you decide that, yes, I can be satisfied here or with these people or doing this thing. Or do you? On the other hand, I am making lots of friends that are doing amazing things all over the world, so it's great to know that I can go visit them and see the world...although it would also be nice just to have a coffee on my veranda with them regularly. I know that if I had the settled life I would be dreaming of the international life, so I'm not complaining, just thinking.

Bonding with Norwegians

2007-08-14T14:40:00.000+02:00

This morning I stood waiting for the bus and the stereotypical Norwegian arrived wearing his "Skullcandy" headphones, tight jeans, and leaning casually on the bus stop. We both minded out own business of course, but we were briefly united as a car sped by splashing a big puddle of water across both of our legs. We simultaneously looked down at the damage, and then look at each other, and laughed. Then, back to the solitude, but for a brief moment, I think I bonded with a Norwegian.

I'm not a Hippie

2007-08-11T13:35:00.000+02:00

I made an important discovery this weekend, that despite two years of studying peace studies, I am not a hippie. The big discovery came thanks to the Karlsøy music festival.

The Karlsøy music festival is a five day music/art/political festival that takes place on a small island about 1 and a half hour boat ride from Tromsø. Apparently in the 1960's, a group of people moved to the island to form a unique living community, or commune, in which the ideals of peace, love, and community would actually exist. These ideals are embodied in the festival which gives space for political demonstration, political films, political music groups, and a week of community in a wind-swept, small, isolated island only accessible by boat three times a day.

It sounded like a great chance to take part in a unique festival here in Norway, so Elisa (who has been visiting me from Spain!) and I decided to go a day before the music to enjoy three full days of community. We arrived and saw the small number of buildings painted with sunshines, rainbows, and doves. We walked by the large tents where the music events would take place and headed to the field to find a place to set up our tent. We had packed well for the trip with enough food for a week, even though we were staying three days, including: Spanish tortilla, pasta salad, meat and vegetables for grilling, a one time use grill, 6 litres of beers, a little tequilla, bread and peanut butter, and lots of salty snacks. Unfortunately, our outdoor skills paled in comparison to food abilities.

We arrived to a location that looked good to our untrained eyes, and as soon as we started setting up the tent, the storm arrived. Suddenly the wind started blowing it started to downpour, not in the typical vertical way, but in a horizontal, wind-driven rain that penetrated our gore-tex, getting our tent, our bags, and us completely wet. We got the tent set up and sought refugee inside (of course after helping another girl set up her tent in the name of community). Once inside we took off our wet clothes and realized that everything was wet, from our extra clothes to our tortilla. We ate our Spanish tortilla trying to stay positive, and went into a small building where they showed a documentary about the occupying/squatters movement in Copenhagen. We then went to the large tent where there was a fire and enjoyed a conversation about the medicinal power of red root before heading back to our little tent.

We then endured an extreme night of continuous rain and wind. A constant 30-40 mph wind with constant rain meant that we got little sleep and where constantly shivering. We thought that morning would bring new hope, but instead we awoke to the same strong wind with occasional downpours. One of the sticks of our tent that was facing the wind was starting to bend, and we were nervous that soon we would be blown away like Dorothy. We headed to "town," meaning the one building by the dock where the cafe and post office were connected, and had a cup of coffee with the locals. We started talking with one of the locals who said that there was a boat leaving at 12:15. We looked at each other and decided that was it.

We dashed back to our wet camp, tore everything down and shoved it in my backpack and did our typical dash to the boat just in time to come home. When we arrived from the boat we saw the huge line of people heading to Karlsøy. They looked a little curious wondering if we knew that the festival was just starting, and we just had to nod and admit that, no. We're not hippies.

We headed home to hot showers, movies, and began to eat our food that was already prepared. Pasta salad, grilling, and lots of great snacks. Not bad. Of course, today it is sunny and would have probably been a perfect day for a festival, but I think both Elisa and I are content to support alternative living from a distance. Peace and love from the couch.

Mulitmedia ATTACK!

2007-07-30T20:50:00.000+02:00

The multimedia has been lacking lately from the old blog, so I thought it was time to catch up, in a big way! I have added photos, complete with the locations where they were taken, captions, and space for comments. The pictures start from my family's visit in the middle of June until today. To enjoy them, just click on the photos link above.

I also added a new link: video! We made a few videos singing on the bus on the way to town, so if you want to hear some bad singing and smiley faces, check out the videos.

Hopefully I'll keep up to date now, so keep checking back for more multimedia!

My Job

2007-07-27T18:13:00.000+02:00

I've had a great time this summer showing off Tromsø to the friendly hoard of silver haired tourists. As you can see from these photos, it's fun stuff! Today we had a perfect, sunny day and a great trip to the Wilderness Center on an island near Tromsø where we had a great view and lots of fun with their Alaskan husky sled dogs. Props to Stewart for the great photos.

Holding one of the two week old Alaskan Husky puppies at the Wilderness Center. Hard not to love them, even if you're not a dog person.

Our puppets, I mean, tourists waving at the camera at our behest while sitting in our traditional Sami lavu. Kind of like a teepee outfitted for lots of tourists

And the great view from the Wilderness Center of both the landscape and the meet and greet for the tourists and dogs. Over 200 dogs and just under 100 Brits. A good ratio I think.

If you want a tour, feel free to come to Tromsø! We'll be happy to show you this beautiful city.

Bukta '07

2007-07-22T23:46:00.000+02:00

The past weekend has been spent enjoying one of Tromsø's summer highlights: the Bukta music festival! I had the chance to enjoy some great acts like Calexico, Johnossi, and Sivert Høyem and some crazy acts like Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Yes, iggy in all his 90-ish years of glory was on the stage prancing around in his leather skin, sans leather jacket (or shirt). I even got into the front row after moshing around with the relatively peaceful Norwegians. It was a great concert that seemed to follow the typical music festival pattern of lots of rain! But with plenty of layers of rainproof clothes, I stayed warm and had a great time!

Now it's back to the real work, and I'll start by giving two tours tomorrow to a bunch of old British people! But they're usually very friendly so I'll be ready to show of Tromsø.

Aerial Onslaught

2007-07-09T02:00:00.001+02:00

I just returned home having survived the second attack of the day. Yes, it is the beginning of July and I am quickly learning that it is seagull hatching season. This means that suddenly the bushes and lawns are suddenly filled with ugly, furball baby seagulls. They have an ugly white and grey speckled color like an ugly, old man sweater and they cackle incessently, seemingly protesting their inability to fly. To compensate for this important defect, their parents (and their parents' friends) hover over the babies to protect them.

The parents position themselves on lights and chimneys keeping watch, and when someone approaches their helpless babes, they call out for help. Within seconds two birds are flying circles around the baby while the third is on attack mode...literally. It dive bombs the innocent passerby (me), diving directly at my head with its mouth open, cawking and shitting in its attempt to scare me away...and it usually works. Those ugly beasts of flight are not to be trifled with, so I usually make some weird noise (like uhaww!!) and duck, trying to avoid the onslaught.

It's a dangerous season here in Tromsø, but I will do my best to enjoy the amazing weather and midnight sun while surviving the unprovoked attacks.

Back to Norway

2007-07-03T20:23:00.000+02:00

What is this weird Crazy Horse-like shape on my blog? Well, the path of my recent summer travels! I have enjoyed a few great weeks traveling with my family through Norway from Kirkenes all the way to Trondheim, then from Trondheim to Asturias, Spain to spend time with my friend Elisa, and now on my way back to norway...unfortunately, Norwegian airlines is a bit slow coming to London so I'll be late getting back to Norway. But, with free internet and plenty of e-mails to catch up on, hopefully i'll keep busy! More to come soon.

The thesis

2007-06-16T23:06:00.000+02:00

It's great to be done, but also to share my hard work. If anyone is interested, you can get a copy of my thesis online at this address: http://hdl.handle.net/10037/1033

Closing One Chapter

2007-06-13T16:11:00.000+02:00

The end has officially come, and I can now call myself a "master"! Monday I had my oral exam, and it went well. Stian and Elisa came to the defense at first the professors had to make sure that it was a public event (I guess people don't usually come!) After they were allowed in, the defense began. I summarized my thesis and told them what I would have done differently if I had time. Then the panel had their chance. I had a great panel, which consisted of my advisor, an examiner from the University of Tromsø, and an external examiner from Finland. They asked a lot of challenging questions and brought up a lot of points that I basically agreed with. After about an hour, the questioning was over and they told me they were impressed with the thesis! They said it was creative, elloquently written, and addressed important issues. It was so great to finally receive a little academic encouragement. We even started talking about PhD programs, and they encouraged me to think about publication and a PhD. So exciting!

The day after the oral exam, we celebrated as our whole program had a graduation ceremony with a nice dinner and lots of laughs throughout the evening. The highlight was Stian giving "a student's view" of the program.

We laughed about doing almost the exact same thing (with the same fish soup) two years earlier. It's been a fun ride, but I think we're all ready to be done with the program. Norway on the other hand is a bit more difficult to think about leaving. I've made such great friends that it will be hard to leave in September.

After our class party Tuesday night, I got up early and left for the exotic city of Kirkenes next to the Russian border in the far Northeast corner of Norway. I'm excited to meet my family this evening here in Kirkenes and then take the boat around the Northern coast of Norway back to Tromsø! I've spent the afternoon in Kirkenes and well...it was underwhelming. Kind of a sad town. I had the map of the center of town and was excited to see all the museums. About 5 minutes later I had.

I was so surprised at how the distances between places in town where almost to scale with the map I had. Fortunately, we will be leaving tomorrow at noon to start a 1 and half day trip around Northern Norway! It will be so great to see them and celebrate the end of a master's degree as well as my brother Paul's graduation and my sister Andrea's graduation. So much to celebrate, and I'm glad we can do it here in Norway! So...time to close the master degree chapter. On to the next adventure.

I'm Done.

2007-06-02T19:25:00.000+02:00

Summer has arrived, and I couldn't be happier! I am (almost) completely done. I finished and turned in my master thesis on Wednesday, and two hours after turning it in I had my oral Norwegian exam, which I felt went quite well. I then took a quick trip to Oslo where I met up with two Luther alum and my friend Andre who studies peace studies with me. Today I arrived home to Tromsø to BEAUTIFUL weather, seriously amazing. About 70 degrees with sun (all day and night). So, now I am falling in and out of sleep on my porch overlooking the mountains and ocean. Great. Unfortunately, my body is also done finally succumbing to a cold after fighting it off for a few weeks. But, if that's the worst of my problems I'm doing pretty well! Now, I have the defense of my thesis on the 11th and will meet my parents a few days later for a few weeks of travel and relaxation. I can't wait!

Bittersweet Weekend

2007-05-27T17:26:00.000+02:00

This weekend has been a bittersweet weekend as friends have started to leave Tromsø. Before this, however, we had to go out in style...which of course means a South Dakota party! I "treated" my friends to South Dakota party where we had South Dakota trivia (they got 3 out of the 6 bordering states), South Dakota music (South Dakota, my home), and taverns (or sloppy joe's to most of the world). They were amazed that someone could use so much ketchup, and my Italian friend Marco commented that he could only make it if his mom wasn't looking. Despite the foreign food, we had a great time chatting, listening to music, enjoying the midnight sun, and my new veranda and view.

Saturday was round two with a huge grill party at the student housing where most of the international students live. Almost everyone I knew (and didn't know) were there trying to stay warm in the misty, cloudy weather. It was fun to chat with everyone and to enjoy some crazy group photos! We ended the night in typical fashion going to Driv, the student bar/disco. There we dominated the floor and everyone was in a mixed moods between wanting to have a great last night and realizing that the year was finishing. We had a tearful goodbye as some of the students got ready to leave this morning.

It's been a great year and again, I've had such an amazing time meeting the international students and learning about the rest of the world. There are so many people to visit and so many more adventures to embark upon. I'm thankful I had the opportunity this year to meet all of this wonderful people.

A Day at the Beach

2007-05-26T20:18:00.000+02:00

Bikes in a Tree

2007-05-26T20:13:00.000+02:00

One thing I like about my new neighborhood is that it is full of children playing. Since our street is a dead-end, they have total control of the street and have fun talking with the guy who speaks English. However, they can also be little monsters, like today when they decided that it would be fun to ring our doorbell every 5 minutes for 3 hours. Recently, however, my roommate Børge has come up with a great way to hit them back, devised when slightly enebriated and walking home in the sun at about 2am. He took all of their bikes, which often are parked outside of our door, and put them in the branches of a tree in front of our house! When I walked out in the morning, it looked like something from a fantasy movie. It was great. So, the war is on. I'll let ya know who wins.

Showing It's Colors

2007-05-19T13:25:00.000+02:00

May is an exciting time in Norway, not just because everyone is stressed out about papers and exams, but because it is the month of color and holidays in Norway! On May first is the Labor Day celebration when everyone goes out and protests something. Then the next two and half weeks are full of drunk high school seniors celebrating their graduation. Finally, on May 17th is the national constitution day when people dress in their traditional costumes and for one day show a sense of nationalism.

Last year I did the whole 17th of May experience, going to all the parades, playing games, eating lots of cake and drinking coffee, and taking lots of photos of Norwegians in bunads. This year was a different, but equally great experience. I slept in and hosted an all day, low-key party at the house. All my favorite Norwegians came, and some international friends, and we enjoyed a day of eating, talking, drinking, eating, talking, playing games, and eating. Pretty much in that order. I didn't to any of the official parades, partly due to the fact that it was raining, but I did dress up in my suit to try to fit in with the beautiful Norwegians!

I am way behind on photos, and so I've decided to take the opportunity to move a new photo page! So now, you can check out all my photos at flickr by clicking on the link above that says "photos." The old photos will still be availble for viewing at, of course, "old photos." With flickr there are a lot of opportunities for comments and sharing, so I expect everyone to let me know what you think. I also started posting Easter photos, 1st of May photos, and some pictures of my house. I hope you enjoy the colors of Norway!

2 Years, 300 kb

2007-05-18T15:42:00.000+02:00

I'm DONE (ish)!! I have printed out and am currently looking at the first complete rough draft of my master's thesis! To think, 2 years is summed up in 300 kb. I handed in the draft to my advisor and we'll go through it for the final time next week! Then, I'll turn it in a be free! Woo Hoo! Now, it's time to celebrate with a coffee and a shower. In a few days, I will be excited to present: "From Horror Story to Manageable Risk: Formulating Safety Strategies for Peace Researchers." Check back for the full text soon!

Familiar Faces, New Places

2007-05-15T12:37:00.000+02:00

I had the pleasure of being swept up in a Luther reunion of sorts recently when a group of Luther and Concordia College students studying in Norway came to Tromsø for a visit. They invited me to give them a little tour and join them on their bus/boat tour of the fjords of Troms. It was a great trip, and quite fun to hear the Midwest accent and hear the latest about Decorah, Fargo, and every small town in between.

In the midst of this reunion, I was on the phone discussing my future plans. I found out about a week ago that I was offered a job in Santander, Spain as an English teacher. At first I was incredibly excited, then I sat back and thought about it a bit trying to find the catch. After much thought, I am excited to say that I accepted the position!!

As of the first week in October, I will be living in Santander in the north part of Spain. If you click on the map to the right, you can see where Santander is...west of the Basque country, east of Asturia, and almost directly north of Madrid on the Bay of Biscay. I will be teaching 12 hours a week in secondary schools and of course studying and immersing myself in Spanish. I also hope to work privately as a tutor in the meantime. I'm also pumped to enjoy beach ultimate frisbee in Santander and the convenience of having Ryanair fly direct to Santander...which means, there is no excuse not to come visit! Consider yourself welcomed. I also am excited because there is a possibility I will be able to continue working on a few project here in Tromsø while living in Santander via the internet.

I hope to stay connected to Tromsø and come back and visit. Who knows, maybe I'll be back next summer to show the tourists around...this time in Spanish! So, that's the big next step. I'll spend the summer here in Tromsø and will hopefully spend a month at home in September before starting the next adventure. Prepare yourselves, I'm sure a new blog will spring up!

Driving along in an automobile

2007-05-07T15:28:00.000+02:00

I was excited yesterday when had the first chance in a long time to drive a car! My roommate Børge has a car and his girlfriend Hilde was going to her grandfather's house in Tromsø. She drove on the way there, and I got to navigate the streets of Tromsø with manual gears and without power-steering. Cruising with the windows down and the sun shining felt great.

So, when Børge called from his home in Hammerfest and asked if I could pick him up at the airport in Tromsø when he arrived, I was excited to help out. When I went out to the car, however, I turned the key and nothing. Tried again, and nothing. The battery was completely dead. Apparently either Hilde had turned on the lights and I didn't know it or I had accidently turned them on and somehow didn't hear the warning beep when I left the car.

So Børge took a taxi home and we thought we could get it started by pushing the car down a hill. We pushed the car up the little going into our driveway with me behind his little Toyota Corola and he pushing the door, ready to jump in. We got it to the top of a hill near our house and pushed it down the hill. He jumped in, and I could see it start to jerk as he tried to put it in gear. A little puff of smoke escaped from the exhaust pipe and, nothing. So, the car is still standing...or maybe laying, at the bottom of the hill by our house. A sad reminder of my recent loss of driving ability.

Decision Time

2007-05-03T12:14:00.000+02:00

I am in the luxurious, but difficult position to decide whether or not to take a job in Spain as an English teacher! What do you do when decide between a job offer weighed against unrealized posibilities? Should I spend another year away from family and friends and in another culture and language? Or looked at the other way, should I continue to learn and challenge myself and meet more friends? And if I don't take it, do I just assume something cooler will come to me? I don't know, but I put a 24 hour deadline on myself. I think I'll take it, but I have to breathe.

Man House

2007-04-26T18:27:00.000+02:00

I made it! I have successfully left the peace house and now am a member of the "Man House." Not sure why it's called the "Man House" but I think it's because we're hoping to have classy pre-parties with all the sensitive men...which of course Børge and I are.

Yes, Børge. This is him...my new roomie! Along with Børge, Rachel and Daniel helped the move-in and celebration process with some wine, cheese, and chocolate! We had a good time moving in and now I'm getting settled by quickly flinging my thesis material around the house. I can't wait to use the veranda and enjoy some free time in the sun...yeah. Maybe in June.

Peace Out

2007-04-23T13:56:00.000+02:00

After almost surviving two years, I have finally made the decision to leave the Peace House. As of 5pm this evening, I will have a new apartment that I will share with one friend named Børge. My new place is very cozy with a fireplace and a huge porch overlooking the city and the mountains. An awesome place to come visit! So, if the Peace House has been detering you, feel welcomed to come visit now.

My new address is:
Kvamstykke 7
9009 Tromsø
Norway

I'll hopefully have pictures soon. Until then, time to finish packing and saying goodbye to the Peace House.

My Norwegian Doctor

2007-04-19T09:51:00.000+02:00

In Norway everyone is assigned a doctor as soon as they start living here. Part of the whole socialized medicine thing. You don't know who your doctor is when you get a letter with their name on it, and hopefully you never need to know. Today, however, after almost two years of anticipation, I met my Norwegian lege (doctor). ..and she was so cool! I had to go in to get a doctor's note that I was able to work and apply for a job. Dr. Warren back home was nice enough to send me a note on short notice, but when the deadline for applying was pushed back, I thought it was time to meet Dr. Cathrine Ditlefsen.

I walked to the third floor of a building on the busy street where I live, only about a 2 min walk from my house. I walked in and of course the walls are full of wood and old pictures of Tromsø from the late 1800's. The secretary sits in her office and instead of going up to the window, you walk into a tiny room, so you can close the door behind you and talk to the secretary in private. I didn't have much to say, so I just told her I was there. About 15 seconds later, Dr. Ditlefsen herself (no nurses) walked into the waiting room and called my name. Only in Norway could a doctor where jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, but she was very professional, kind, and your stereotypically attractive mid-30's Norwegian professional. She asked about my medical history, checked my blood pressure and breathing, and took my weight (63 kilos) and height (182 cm). I could imagine my sister being like her in about 8 years. I felt very proud because I did the whole thing in Norwegian, until then end when I had her write a letter in English, then I got to help her with her English.

Then I was sent for a blood test and urine sample, at which point I realized I had just gone to the bathroom before I left home. So there I am, standing in the Norwegian bathroom slamming Dixie cup shots of water waiting for it to flow through my body. After about 10 minutes which felt like 10 hours, I was able to turn it in and a few moments later they told me to go home, everything was fine.

So I guess I passed Dr. Ditlefsen's test and now can say that I know my doctor, and I highly recommend her! Plus, it was only $25. One of the only deals in Norway I think!

Is this my home?

2007-04-17T08:33:00.000+02:00

It's hard when you read the news as obsessively as I do to avoid constantly reading about bad things that happen. But, I could help but be affected by the latest story about the school shooting in Virginia. It is so preposterously awful and insane to imagine.

Although it is much different, it brought to mind memories of being at Luther College on September 11th. We watched all the shit happen on the tv, which was bad enough, but was worst was that there was a bomb threat soon after the planes crashed. Everyone was evacuated from the university, no one knew what was going on, and there was just this sense of being stunned.

It's this sense of not really knowing what is going on with all the violence I constantly read about and just being stunned by the latest news headline. It's also frustrating because the US is my home, and I would like to return there someday, but events like this just make me wonder if I want to go there because it's a good place or simply because it's where I was raised. I'd like it to be both, but the solitude (although overly romanticized in this moment) of Tromsø just seems so tempting when trying to escape something like this.

I hope people who are affected by this story are doing alright because I'm guessing it's a lot more difficult to avoid hearing about it over and over. I like to go out on some kind of wrap up line or positive not, but it's just time to leave the computer and think about something else.

30 before 30

2007-04-15T21:46:00.000+02:00

My mom tipped me off to a travel blog of an American living in Malaysia who had the lifelong goal of visiting 30 countries before the age of 30. For a country to "count" in the contest, the following rules must be observed:

Airport transfers or layovers do not count - you must leave the airport premises
You must enjoy a meal, or other significant cultural experience in said country
Preferably you will stay overnight in said country (but this rule can be waived in certain instances of desperation, such as my example of Liechtenstein, I mean, really, who wants to stay overnight in Liechtenstein?)
Preferably the complete list will include countries from multiple continents

We keep a map at home with pins for all the places we've been, but I thought I would count up the list, and I came up with 27 countries. 3 to go! Although, as you can see there is a lot of the world left to explore. Where should I go next, and how many countries have YOU visited?

You can see the visited countries on this map.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Surfing Europe

2007-04-13T19:08:00.000+02:00

I am back in the swing of things in Tromsø after returning from a meandering journey through Northern Europe for Easter. My friend Elisa and I had a great time wandering through the capital cities of Oslo, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin, and Copenhagen drinking coffee, taking photos, trying to stay warm, and enjoying random experiences while couchsurfing!

Couchsurfing may be my favorite concept/social project. Basically, you offer to host people visiting in a city where you live and in return can stay with people wherever you are! Elisa and I stayed the entire journey with a random collection of hosts who showed us the local ins and outs of the Euro capitals.

We officially started our journey in Oslo where we crashed with Hanne. Elisa got there in time to sleep, but before her arrival Hanne and I enjoyed ice cream on Karl Johans Gate. Yes, ice cream! It was a beautiful day and great to see Oslo in the summertime as the Of Montreal song goes. We headed out early Friday morn for....

Our first stay was with Timo, the 37 year old divorcé who was an experienced host and avid hockey fan. He treated us to tickets to a semi-final game that featured the local Helsinki team Jokerit winning! He also gave us the local bar tour along with a host of other couchsurfers, ultimately leading us into a gay kareoke bar after our original kareoke destination was full. Elisa and I also explored a nearby island and were treated to a day at a Finnish cabin thanks to Marjaana's parents!

From Helsinki we sailed across the Baltic to Tallinn for one afternoon in the beautifully ancient city. We stayed with Kaarel who was a 21 year old bartender taking time off from his cultural studies to improve his cultured/artsy image. He gave us a great walking tour of the old city and in the evening insisted that he show us all the "alternative" bars in Tallinn. This included one bar with no sign and a single red light outside the door and a bar that was decorated with 1970's hair perm machines. It was a short and fun stay in Tallinn, even though we just slept on Kaarel's Persian rug.

After a flight to Berlin we met up with Cyril who was the 21 year old French/New Zealand host who was based in Berlin working for EasyJet. Berlin was my favorite city that had an amazing combination of new and old, local and international in everything...architecture, history, transportation, food, and style. Elisa and I had a great wandering tour past all the sites and down Karl Marx street where Soviet style apartment blocks lined the streets. We also explored Potsdam and had fun playing football, eating turkish and vietnamese food, and enjoying cheap drinks with Cyril and the other guy staying with Cyril at the time, Brian.

Elisa and I somehow managed to get the last tickets on a bus to Copenhagen and after an eventful trip arrived in Copenhagen where we were immediately greeted by our warm-hearted, body healing host, Marie. We spent our days in Copenhagen riding rented bikes all over the city, just like the locals! We saw the alternative community of Christiania, I bought 10 LP's for 50 kroner, and even got to play some ultimate frisbee! Marie was very generous and invited Elisa and I to her family's home for an "Easter Monday" dinner with ham and potatoes. We enjoyed the evening with her brother and parents after enduring a 45 min bike ride to the house. The rain and Marie's cozy house forced us to relax a bit more in Copenhagen. We left very early Tuesday morning and arrived back to sunny and snowy Tromsø!

It's great to surf Europe. Somehow the traveling makes it more exciting to come back and be in Tromsø. I think I'll stay put for a while finishing the thesis before plotting my next adventure, but I do have some couchsurfers coming my way already next week, so I too can be a paragraph in someone else's blog. Happy surfing everyone. Check back for more photos and videos soon (berlin and copenhagen forthcoming).

Gummy Bjørn

2007-04-06T18:05:00.000+02:00

Oh, the fun never stops here on continental Europe. Today was another travel day as we headed from Berlin to Copenhagen. We were so thankful to have the tickets in the first place. Unlike the rest of our travels when we planned everything well in advanced, we decided to leave the transportation from Berlin to Copenhagen for the last minute. We didn´t know how long we would want to be in Berlin or if our housing Copenhagen would work out, so we left it up in the air. Once we started looking however it was like, duh, it is almost Easter so everyone was traveling.

We went to the bus station yesterday and got the last two seats on the 9.30 am bus going from Berlin to Copenhagen. And we barely made it. The trip from where we were living to the bus station had every snag imaginable. First we did not have enough money for the bus card, then when we did it was too large of bill and since everything was closed since it was Good Friday, we had to ask people to change it for us. Finally, after sprinting about 400 meters from the metro to the bus station, the bus driver said the bus was full, leaving Elisa and I as well as two other girls standing outside. We tried to argue, but he said he only had one seat. When he went to put some luggage under the bus I went on and told Elisa to sit in the open chair while I went to the second floor of the double decker bus to try to find somewhere. Fortunately, there actually was an open seat...unfortunately however, it was in between a group of 20 kids on a Danish swimming team.

They were maybe 12 years old and very hyper with little supervision, so they had a great time crawling around and enjoying the ride. The highlight of sitting in the midst of this madness (along with all my luggage) were the songs. I think they sang "Wouldn`t that be Sweet" by Gwen Stefani maybe 13 times, always shouting out the `woo hoo, woo hoo´probably because they didn´t understand the English. Other fun tunes included the Gummy Bears cartoon theme song, in Danish of course, as well as...Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Yes, `give me your colored coat´ Benjamin`s song and much more were being belted out by all the young swimmers, in Danish yet again. Who knew that Randy Grimsely could speak Danish? Oh no, not me. (or should I say, oh nei, ikke ham).

But despite all these adventures, Elisa and I have made it to our last destination in Copenhagen. We have a very nice host who picked us up at the bus station and we even have a bed at this stay! We will explore the city (and play ultimate!) until tuesday morning when we head back to the North Pole.

I wish everyone a Happy Easter! It`s my favorite holiday and always sad not to celebrate with family, but know I am thinking about you while checking out the Little Mermaid.

Red, and yellow and green and gold and blue.

kippis, verveseks, proost, and cheers

2007-04-03T19:08:00.000+02:00

Sitting in Berlin on the third stop on the Euro tour with my friend Elisa and it has been crazy. We have enjoyed a variety of unique experiences including hiking with Marjaana's parents around a lake, having a beer at a gay karoke bar, watching a helsinki playoff hockey game, climbing on the city walls of the old city of Tallinn, sleeping on a Persian rug, seeing Spanish people everywhere, navigating the berlin subway system, and taking a shower. max two. This crazy keyboard and the calling shower prevent me from elaborating, but i am having a great time. We will be here in berlin three days and then to copenhagen for easter. More updates in the future§/. insert exclaimation point because I cannot:

Hello EU

2007-03-29T09:26:00.000+02:00

Europe, here I come! I'm leaving the falling snow of Tromsø in about an hour to head on an Easter trip to almost all the Northern capitols: Oslo, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin, and Copenhagen. I'm excited for a little spring weather, some cheap food, and some crazy couchsurfing experiences! Keep up to date on the adventures here as I'll try to update whenever I have access and time with a computer. In the meantime, Happy Easter!

Bus 32

2007-03-27T10:52:00.001+02:00

Living on Stakkevollveien, one of the busiest and dirtiest streets in Tromsø, affords one many unique opportunities, like hearing the beeping of trucks backing up, getting splashed by cars driving through puddles, and attempting impossible phone conversations while walking. However, the greatest pleasure of living on Stakkevollveien is taking bus number 32.

Bus 32 is sort of the forgotten stepchild of Tromsbuss, the bus company that not surprisingly drives buses in Tromsø. Other buses like number 20 and 42 are top of the line, newly outfitted with electronic signs that say what stop is next and stop buttons on every hand rail to easily alert the driver when you need to get off. Bus 32 on the other hand is like traveling in a cable car in the early 1900's. There are no stop buttons, only a wire along the roof that you have to pull to stop the bus, like trying to stop a locomotive.

The drivers of bus 32 are always the "newbies" who have no experience driving and who always seem to be in training. Also, everyone on bus 32 is mad. I'm not sure if it's because they live on Stakkevollveien or that they are all dreaming of a different bus with better hydraulics, but everyone scowls when you walk on, well, scowls even more than the usual Norwegian bus passengers. When I say everyone though, you have to put that in context because the other unique feature of bus 32 is that no one is ever on it! There are usually 2 or 3 people hiding in the corner behind the dusty and mud-covered windows that at least block out the view of Stakkevollveien.

It is especially surprising that no one is on the bus because it only travels once an hour, during the busy times! And of course, bus 32 is always late, except that one time when I was late. That time it was early.

So, it's a love/hate relationship with bus 32, but mostly hate. However, I must admit that my body's clock is now set to the bus 32's 10.14am departure from Kræmer. I mean, if you miss it, you're stuck at home for another hour!

Bundle Up, It's Spring

2007-03-26T11:59:00.000+02:00

I was able to see two encouraging signs of spring in Tromsø today. First, I actually saw grass! Yes, green grass growing along the edges of place where people put out their cigarettes. Now, I don't know if it's the heat from the butts of the cigarettes or the warmer temperatures, but it's encouraging.

Secondly, tables and chairs emerged today outside of cafes! Now we are able to pretend that we are in Oslo by sitting outside in the sun, bundled up in a blanket, drinking coffee while sitting underneath a heat lamp. Long live the Northern Norwegian spring!

Extending the Birthday

2007-03-21T00:43:00.000+01:00

Spring is officially here meaning my birthday has now come and gone. For the first I experienced the benefit of having friends on both sides of the Atlantic. I got my first birthday greeting at midnight Norway time, and thanks to all of you great friends (and the convenient time difference) I received consistent birthday greetings and notes all day. Nothing like taking advantage of all 24 hours...plus six more in the US! So thank you for all your birthday greetings. It was great to hear from everyone and to be reminded of all the great people on both sides of the pond. I hope we'll cross it soon to see each other. Happy Spring!

Int'l Food for Int'l Folk

2007-03-19T00:04:00.000+01:00

We had a great dinner party to celebrate my birthday and the coming spring yesterday, and the highlight was my first ever attempt at making sushi!

Sure, the rice was hot, the salmon was smoked and not raw, and I couldn't hold the chop sticks correctly, but it was so much fun! Marieta, Elisa, Stian, Anders, Silje, Daniel, and Rachel all joined for the sushi dinner. Rachel, Stian, and I were novices but the experience of the others helped us get through the event.

We each took a turn making a roll of sushi with the ingredients of our choosing. Avocado, green onion, salmon, chicken, and lots of wasabi filled the table along with wine and lots of candles since Rachel burned out her lamps! In addition to the sushi, we enjoyed some tiramisu made by Marieta for dessert and sangria to start the party, made by two Spanirards who were given the recipe by me!

Eventually, the house filled with friends and it was a great mix of folks. Classmates, Norwegians, internationals, and friends from all circles came and had a great time meeting new people and talking with friends. A perfect celebration and a fun night.

Costumes and Face Lifts

2007-03-13T22:00:00.000+01:00

It has been the spring of costume parties here in Tromsø. First came the Carnival party in which I dressed up in the overly abstract "message in a bottle" and had people write messages on my white shirt while I had plastic as the bottle and algae in my cork. Ladybugs, Disney characters, Indonesian ski champions, and rappers filled the room showing how giving an international group a theme can lead to a wide variety of interpretations.

Last weekend was one of the more creative costume parties: the K party! Everyone was supposed to come dressed as something beginning with a K, which is infinitely easier in Norwegian than English...None-the-less, I was able to think of a creative and quite frightening rendition of Kermit the Frog! I looked more like Igor from (clock), Frankenstein, but the green tights were appreciated, or at least noticed by all. We also had some other great costumes like a kiwi, a kaptein (captain), a kot kristus (horny Jesus), ei klokke (clock), kinesisk kvinne (chinese woman), and kirurger (surgeons).

In addition to the costumes, I decided it's also time to give the old blog a face lift. Keep checking back for new colors and designs as I find the perfect layout for the spring cleaning of peace, love, and lutefisk. In the meantime, what should I wear on Friday for the bad taste party? It's just, oh so difficult for me to dress in bad taste.

The Revolution Begins...

2007-03-08T00:15:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday we officially started the revolution with a protest outside of the Danish Consulate.

The story begins in Copenhagen with the Youth House, or Ungdomshuset. The Youth House was a building that was a center for political activists, leftists, and anarchists. The building was occupied for over 25 years by these squatters but ventually, the building was sold by the municipality to a radical Christian sect called "Faderhuset." They said that they had a vision from God that they should tear down the house, so one week ago, the Danish government gave in to pressure from Faderhuset and sent in police forces in a military-like operation to remove the residents of the Youth House. Helicopters, cranes, tear gas, riot gear, and one-third of Denmark's police were used in the operation. The action sparked violent riots in Copenhagen and led to massive street protests in many other places around the world...including Tromsø! (Read the whole story here)

My housemate Stian helped organize a peaceful protest here in Tromsø against the disproportionate response of the Danish state as well as the commercialization of public spaces. About 25 people gathered outside of the Danish Consulate, and we presented them with a statement saying that we were opposed to their actions and that we were in solidarity with the causes the youth were fighting for, even if we were against their means. Stian read a speech and together we hopped in solidarity with Copenhagen saying "Anyone who is not jumping is in support of Faderhuset." All of this excitement attracted radio and tv attention as well as police attention. There were 12 policemen parked and standing about 50 meters from the Danish Consulate (about one policeman for every two people), and frighteningly enough one of Stian's co-organizers received a call from the police only hours after sending the first e-mail talking about organizing a protest. Are they watching us?! Fortunately, everything was peaceful and even though the police didn't sign our letter for the Danes, they didn't intervene either. (You can watch the news clip of the event and even see me jumping here.)

It was great though to be active politically. It made me realize the benefits of living in a smaller country like Norway or most European countries. There is more of a feeling that you can make a difference or stand up to decisions by the government whereas in the US it often feels like you are so small in the big scheme of things that you can't make a difference...but you can! A little organization and hopping can go a long ways. Maybe the US has a culture that promotes complacency politically, but hopefully the hopping can show that acting in solidarity is one important way to make a statement. It might not change the world, but it sends an important signal.

Viva la revolucion.

I'm the fact man

2007-03-02T09:03:00.000+01:00

I'm currently in training for one of the coolest summer jobs: being a tour guide! Basically, I spend almost 40 hours this spring memorizing random facts about Tromsø and learning how to herd massive amounts of bodies through different museums in Tromsø.

For instance, I learned the difference between a fjord and a sund. A fjord is a body of water that cuts inland from the ocean, but that cannot be navigated, meaning you can't get out on the other side. A sund however looks the same but has an exit. Thus, Tromsø is located on a sund, not a fjord. Interesting to know. Also, Tromsø has enough chairs at bars and cafes to seat 22,000 people, which is one-third of the population! Lots more facts to learn, and I hope everyone can come visit this summer to let me tell them all about this "Gateway to the Arctic!"

Get out the Sol Briller!

2007-02-21T15:50:00.000+01:00

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!

Reinlappkjøring and International Fun

2007-02-19T17:49:00.000+01:00

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!

Survival on the Slopes

2007-02-16T22:13:00.000+01:00

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?

Gulp

2007-02-14T15:00:00.000+01:00

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.

Calling Ståle

2007-02-11T01:41:00.000+01:00

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.

Moonrise

2007-02-08T01:09:00.000+01:00

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.

My Technologically Advanced Friend

2007-02-07T11:19:00.000+01:00

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

My Life in Bubbles

2007-02-06T19:46:00.000+01:00

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.

Go to Gate...

2007-02-02T09:10:00.000+01:00

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...

Noah's Arctic Arc

2007-01-29T00:24:00.000+01:00

Do you ever wonder what Noah would have done if it would have been below freezing when the whole 40 days and 40 nights thing started to happen? Would he have built some kind of eco-dome to support the animals, and if so how would they have enough oxygen and how would it smell...or maybe he just would have built a house? Thoughts like these enter your mind when you enter approximately the 6th day in a row of constant snow. It is deceivingly beautiful, and it falls so slowly and lightly that you think there is no way that it could possibly accumulate...but it does.

And it has now engulfed our mailbox, our porch, and soon our entryway. This has seriously tested our unspoken rule about not buying a shovel for the house. No one in the house has ever offered to buy it, and we have never really had a conversation about needing it, so we just continue to create a small walkway through the huge pile of snow to the street. . .It usually works alright, until the piles of snow go to your waist and the path gets narrower and narrower...and let me tell you it's difficult to mirror the stride of someone when the dryness of your groin is at stake. Now we walk out of the house and arrive to the street with two matching white legs. It's too bad white jeans aren't back in style or we would be in fine shape.

It doesn't look like it will let up any time soon, but tomorrow the mail comes again, so I'm excited to see what the mailman does. In the meantime, I'm going to wiki "the construction of bio-domes." Hopefully see you in 34 days.

APPENDIX

As a late addition to this blog, today I have to ask again what's up with the snow. It's not falling as flakes in the shapes that we used to make out of construction paper. Instead it's falling in small, condensed balls, like dippin' dots from the sky. Does this mean that the future of ice cream is finally here? As exciting as that could be, it is quite strange to see people using umbrellas to seek refuge from the pellets of snow. Take cover, the dippin' dots are here.

A foreign winter

2007-01-26T12:47:00.000+01:00

Even though winter in Tromsø lasts from October until May and is completely dark for about half of that time, the one consolation we have is that it's never as nasty as winter in South Dakota. Sure we get a lot of snow, but it's never that 20 below, blowing snow, blizzard, cancel school kind of weather. Well, until today. I made the mistake of coming to school today in my first ever Tromsø blizzard. The wind was whipping off the fjord sending snow upwards and downwards at the same time. Meanwhile, I was attempting to walk up the hill to the peace center, which is a little steeper than most of the hills in South Dakota. The only thing falling faster than the blinding snow was the snot dripping out of my nose, which gave me brief distractions from attempts to see how close the peace center was...and by peace center, I don't mean world peace. I mean the center of tranquility, warmth, and internet connection. And how great it is. Too bad I have to go back out there eventually, to relearn what winter is all about.

Film Festival

2007-01-18T18:55:00.000+01:00

The past four days have been filled with everything from man eating Korean monsters to military juntas which can only mean one thing: the Tromsø International Film Festival! It is a huge event that fills downtown Tromsø with thousands of eager movie fans. This year I am volunteering which means I can get into the movies for free! I have been running from theatre to theatre trying to decide what to see, and am off again soon to try to get a left over ticket for the short film festival competition. Thus far the best film I've seen is "The Cronicle of an Escape" about Argentina in the late 1970's. Full reviews of all the films will be up soon...after I rub the glaze from my eyes.

I heart Jostein

2007-01-12T19:11:00.000+01:00

My housemate Jostein comes from Kirkenes, which is the Norwegian town next to the Russian border. I'm not sure if this is the reason or the excuse for what happened about five minutes ago in the kitchen. He asked me if I had ever had reindeer heart. Since he asked in Norwegian, I wasn't quite sure I understood what he meant. He then leaned into his fridge and pulled out a frozen reindeer heart in a plastic bag. Now, this wasn't like tripe when it doesn't look anything like what it actually is...this looked exactly like a heart with the valves and veins in perfect view. He pulled out a knife and in stereotypical Finnmark fashion cut off a piece of the heart and ate it off the knife. Well, I couldn't miss this "opportunity" so he cut me a piece, and I choked it down. It tasted a little nasty...maybe like very over-cooked roast beef. Maybe it would have tasted a little better if I hadn't seen him holding it front of me like the Indian Jones movie while I ate. "Kalima!" Now, off to eat our homemade pizza. I better make sure the heart doesn't sneak in underneath the corn...and seriously, who eats corn on pizza besides Norwegians?!

The Shortest Distance is not 6 Stops

2007-01-11T14:32:00.000+01:00

Hello again from Tromsø!

It's dark today, but the crisp air and deep snow are welcomed signs as I return to my life in Tromsø. It feels great to be back and sitting in the reading room..."reading." I'm still carrying a few signs of Americanism like the dollar bills in my wallet and the baseball cap I'm sporting today, but I think soon they will fall victim to the cultural imperialism of Norway.

I had a smooth trip back, albeit with quite a few stops. In an effort to save a few bucks, my itinerary included stops in Sioux Falls, Minneapolis, Chicago, Amsterdam, Oslo, and finally Tromsø. Oddly enough, I spotted a Luther classmate, Megan Clarke, on the flight to Amsterdam so we had fun catching up and sharing Europe graduate school stories (she's graduating right about now from her one year program in the UK). Finally, 27 hours after leaving home, I staggered to the Peace House and was greeted by the newest member: Gjermund. He opened the door to my incessant doorbell ringing and just stood in the doorway until I explained that I lived there. He seems like a great guy though, and as Stian and I learned last night, a fellow Settlers of Catan player.

I was quickly thrown into Norway upon my return. I headed out to town to meet Rachel for a beer at Blå Rock and then we headed to a cafe where there was an acoustic night featuring all the hippest Norwegian songs. I started to fall asleep about 10.30pm so I had to head home for my cozy bed. I think my body has to adjust to the new dimensions because I definitely drilled my elbow against the wall in the middle of the night!

I followed up the excitement of my return with a busy first full day in Tromsø. I enjoyed a run across the bridge in the snow and became the newest member of the local gym called SATS. I then headed to the university where I took a Norwegian entrance exam. It ended up being three hours long, but I think I did pretty well. There were 17 students and I think 12 are accepted into the course, so hopefully I'm in the top 60%! I do think that the questions were a bit biased against me though because we had to write an essay about European immigration and fill in the blanks in a story about Baghdad. It's as if they were trying to isolate the American!

So life begins again in Tromsø. It's always fun to return to friends and a schedule and a sense of purpose (which will hopefully be the thesis). Tromsø is as beautiful as ever and even the kitchen was looking clean through my rose colored glasses. It was a fun and busy holiday season and now I can look forward to my family coming to visit my other home in Norway in June! Until then, time to...read. oh yeah. read. Here I go...

Happy Holidays from SoDak

2006-12-29T19:54:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays from South Dakota!

It's been a busy holiday season around the Meyer house with activities basically every day since I came home. Lots of fun relatives, gift opening, singing, talking, and even a Christmas Day 5k for the family. We needed to run off all the great food we've been eating. It's been more of a Christmas extravaganza than a Christmas vacation, but fun none-the-less. And as one of my international friends noted, just like a postcard! It's always great to see the family and friends and enjoy a postcard Christmas, but I feel this year more detached from the US than I have before. I guess I really am carving out a life in Norway.

One of the biggest changes has been worrying about weather again. It's great in Tromsø that all I have to worry about is not falling on the driveway and running to catch bus 32, but now that I'm home and have to drive everywhere, I'm glued to the tv (ok, the internet) trying to figure out if it will be icy. The colored maps appear every five minutes during the news, and I'm never quite sure if there is actually a threat or if they are just trying to get people to watch the news by selling fear. I guess either way it worked. Plans have already been altered to try to beat the storm coming tonight in order to escape to the east.

The other crazy change was going out on the town in Brookings with my brother! Now that John is 21 years old and can legally drink, we enjoyed a night in downtown Brookings together, along with about 10 of my high school friends and my college roommate Paul who surprised me and showed up for some hang out time. It felt a little strange going out with high school friends because we never really have since we grew up always being underage. Just feels different without those crazy Norwegian and international folk. Fortunately, one of my friends went to college in Brookings and was able to give us the full tour of all the desireable and undesireable night spots in Brookings. A good learning experience. We had a great time together and spent the next morning recovering with lots of water and episodes of "The Office."

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and will have a fun New Year's. Like Rachel said, if you're reading this I've probably been thinking about you, so feel loved because you are. I'll be enjoying a little more relaxation the next week and will fly back across the pond on the 8th of January. Until then, relax don't do it when you wanna go to it.

In the US home

2006-12-20T06:21:00.000+01:00

I made it back! It was a relatively smooth trip back, and as always, it feels great to be at home with the family. I spent the night last night in Amsterdam with a fellow couchsurfer who treated me to a relaxed and comfortable stay. I just hope I remembered to turn her toaster off...can't remember...

after sleeping in and seeing the sun for the first time in two months, i flew over the Atlantic and made a tight connection to arrive in Sioux Falls to see my mom, brother John, and sister Andrea all waiting. We had a great time eating Mexican food and catching up. Should be a lot of eating and catching up in the coming weeks. So fun!

So now, I've almost made it to midnight. Time to go to bed and try to find this so-called Central Time Zone. I'll believe it when I see it...or feel it.

God Jul from South Dakota.

Normal...but great

2006-12-15T01:26:00.000+01:00

Today was one of those days that makes you not want to leave Tromsø. It was pleasant in that it was a fairly normal day, just that everything was great.

I woke up at a decent hour, arrived at the university and spent the morning and afternoon actually producing. I enjoyed a great lunch, good conversation, a few visits with friends on campus, and beautiful northern lights on my way home. Then I ate dinner and talked with Stian, Jostein, and Maaike for two hours in the kitchen while Maaike and I tried to learn how to say fun norwegian words like omskjære and tenk i koffert. After slowly eating and enjoying some conversation with the "family," we all sat downstairs and watched a movie together, Borat at that, which provided even more for discussion. The four of us then took a nice walk to town together and sat at the comfortable and hip Verdensteatre where we enjoyed a glass of wine. Almost all of my good friends were there: Stian, Maaike, Jostein, Marjaana, Hanne Rachel, Fredrik, and Martin. We just enjoyed lively conversation and a fun evening. Then, Maaike and I walked home and enjoyed the second-most amazing northern lights i've seen this year. Somehow the entire sky was covered in a fog-like green and the white northern lights moved within the green northern lights that covered the sky, and it actually lived up to its name, somehow making the city and our walk more light. Upon our arrival home, Maaike and I rehashed the night over a plate of nachos...ok, two plates. Then internet and bed.

I think everyone can feel Christmas coming and our departures sneaking up on us, so maybe I'm recognizing the otherwise common-place, but tonight was great. Normal, but great. And that's a great feeling.

Look at the stars, see how they shine for me

2006-12-13T18:07:00.002+01:00

It was great walking home today at 4pm. It was a cold, crisp evening and the stars were shining brightly from the Northern sky. On top of that, the rocks that the city of Tromsø puts on the road to prevent slipping on ice has some kind of shiny rock in them, so when you walk the road glitters with each step. Since the ice has all melted now, it seems that the stars surround us. Not a bad way to walk.

Hunden...og opp

2006-12-12T18:56:00.000+01:00

I think I have finally recovered. It took me almost a week, but my body is back to its unaligned-normal state after a week of floating on air after my first ever Norwegian, well actually first ever yoga class!

Marjaana had been asking me to accompany her to the yoga class at the local gym all fall, and finally I got up the courage to do it. I was very impressed! We walked into the studio and there were candles on and nature noises from the sound system. We all grabbed a little rubber mat and found a space on the floor. Then, a very fit, good-looking Norwegian yoga instructor came in and put on her Britney Spears microphone and started our class with an amazingly soothing voice. I kept hearing all these yoga positions in Norwegian over and over "hunden, pust ut, og opp." I never knew Norwegian could be so beautiful! As we were tied up in knots trying to hold ourselves and stretch our muscles and breath out ("pust ut"), she was calmly speaking in the most relaxing Norwegian. The best part was that if I wanted to I could easily block the meaning out and just enjoy the sound. That's one of the greatest parts of living in a country with a foreign language. Of course it's a struggle to understand, but at times, it's great to just sit on the bus, or lay sprawled out at yoga class and not understand anything. happily.

The class was about an hour and a half and it ended with some relaxation on the mat. She was telling us to stretch this way and that and I think I went in between being awake and asleep, unsure exactly what she was saying, but not wanting to open my eyes to see if everyone else was doing something else. I left feeling like I was walking on air, all aligned, stretched, and sore. So great. Unfortunately, the yoga class is over and the beautiful Norwegian is moving to Oslo, but at least I had one chance to be wooed into contentment by a Norwegian.

You Know It's Dark When (2)...

2006-12-12T18:55:00.000+01:00

You have to turn the light on your I-pod on to choose a song on your way to catch the noon bus.

The Population Density of Norway

2006-12-09T20:44:00.000+01:00

I discovered the most densely populated place in Norway: the liquor store in Tromsø at 2:45pm on Saturday December 9th! I headed to town today, a weekly Saturday ritual, with Stian and we took the bus at 2:40pm. Our first stop was the alcohol store which closes at 3pm. We could barely walk in as people filled all the aisles in an amorphous mass of desperate alcohol seekers. We were there to get some alcohol for a Christmas party and I think everyone had the same plans! Stian had to escape and I made a mad dash for the gin aisle, which also doubled as the back of the line for one of the four cashiers. I grabbed the bottle inbetween customers and looked across the store to find the shortest line. I counted the people, 20 in the first line, 17 in my line, 22 in the third line, and 18 in the far line. It was like we were at Disney World waiting for a ride, except there was no "15 min wait from this point" sign. So, I battled the crowd and snuck out with my life in tact. I can't imagine trying to get in at 2:56pm. I'm sure the bodyguards have to come in order to close it down. Off now to enjoy the fruits of my strenous labor. God Jul.

You Know It's Dark When...

2006-12-04T14:42:00.000+01:00

The lights go out. And they did this morning. I woke up a bit early at 8.45am and was sitting at my computer when the lights flickered and died. As goes the power, so goes the internet, so I headed downstairs and enjoyed some yogurt and muslix by candlelight. Life on the frontier. It was actually really cozy and kind of romantic, even though I was alone. The best part was looking across the street at the big stores and seeing a few lighters as people wandered through the dark aisles trying to find their way out. Kind of tough when it's dark outside too!

This got me thinking more of one of the recent observations about Norway: its use of electricity. It seems that everywhere people leave lights on all the time. I don't know if it's because of the darkness or because of Norway's historical excess of electricity supply, a lot of which comes from hydro power, but it seems so contradictory. I mean, we seperate our trash, recycle our cans, use public transportation, and there are always political discussions about the environment, but somehow the use of electricity is seperate from this debate. So, maybe this morning was just a wake up call: remember to shut off your lights!

Music Music Everywhere

2006-12-02T01:01:00.000+01:00

I just got home from a great show: Thomas Dybdahl! About four years ago my good friend Emily gave me a CD of an artist called Thomas Dybdahl, but it wasn't until a year later that I found out that he was Norwegian (he sings in English). Tonight, the musical connection came full circle as I got to see him in concert in Tromsø. It was a great show complete with sing-a-longs, trumpets, accordians, and a girl playing a Mack beer bottle. What culture. It was great to hear him between songs giving shout outs in Norwegian, and the music was predictably gorgeous. So fun!

Despite Thomas' great show, Rachel and I gave him a run for his money for the best show in Tromsø. Last Thursday we performed at the monthly open mic night called Hugin's Report. (Hugin being the bird of knowledge in Norse mythology if I remember what Silje told me!) After an hour of painfully slow and slightly boring acts, Rachel and I finally got up to bring the house down. We weaved a smooth version of the song "Silver Rider" by Low. It was great! Very beautiful.

Just moments after we finished, I was again called back to the stage where I shocked the audience with a little Caucasian rap! That's right, bringing back the memories of fourth grade, I got up on stage, put on the dog tags, and was ready to drop some phat beats. I had used some geeky computer knowledge to make a back-beat for one of my favorite rap songs that one my freshman roommates, Matt Curry, introduced me to: Reverse Psychology. It's a very witty rap song all talking in reverse psychology with the chorus being "put your hands down." I thoroughly confused the audience, but they all understood the language of the thumping bass and head nods. I had a great time, and even when the music cut out prematurely, Rachel came up and beat boxed and I finished the rap a capella. Good stuff! And even better is that it was video taped!

You can check out the madness known as Hugin's Report here: Rachel and Scott and Caucasian rap.

You can also check out clips from the Thomas Dybdahl concert here: Dybdahl 1, Dybdahl 2, Dybdahl 3, Dybdahl 4, Dybdahl 5

Enjoy the music of Tromsø!

Couch Surfing

2006-11-30T12:08:00.000+01:00

The past three days a 37 year old Australian has been sleeping on my couch. Noel, better known as "the couch guy" in our house, has been traveling for seven months, from Singapore to Tromsø. He found me thanks to the greatest tool for travel since AAA: couchsurfing! It is an amazingly simple concept that makes me think of the rules of Greek hospitality I learned in Paideia. Basically, you create a profile on couchsurfing.com. Then, if you travel somewhere you look online to see what couchsurfers live there, and they let you stay for free on their couch, and often take you out, show you a local view of the city, and introduce you to fascinating people...like Noel, who worked in the mines of Australia for two years to get money to travel. Now he is traveling Norway for almost nothing. Plus, thanks to my housemate Jostein, Noel is looking into getting work unloading fishing boats. What a world. So pack up your bags and open up your couch. You never know who you will meet, but if the experience of thousands of people on couchsurfing is any indicator, it will be an adventure!

Julebord

2006-11-25T18:05:00.000+01:00

Although Thanksgiving was totally missing from my life this year, I think I had the next best thing: an early Julebord! Julebord is the traditional Christmas feast, and although Christmas is about a month away, Stian and 19 other friends have an annual tradition of having a Julebord in late November. They figure that they never get to celebrate Christmas with friends because everyone is always at home, so they get together and do the whole shabang, and this year they even invited an American!

The night was very cozy and Christmasy. I felt like it seriously was the 24th of December with a coat hanger decorated as a tree complete with gifts underneath and a Christmas star hanging in the window. We arrived at a girl named Sara's house and enjoyed great conversation while smelling amazing smells coming out of the kitchen. After what seemed like an eternity. The food was ready and we sat down for a traditional meal of ribbe (rib meat), potatoes, sauerkraut, plums, cooked apples, sausage, little cabbages (not sure what they were), and of course, aquavit to help clean the heavy food out of the stomach. There were lots of "Skål!" and a loud din of conversation and passing of food the entire time. At the end of the meal, it was me and the other skinniest guy still working on picking off the last remaining slabs of meat and taking the last of the sauce. So good! It felt great to eat a big meal with friends and to see everyone so happy and dressed up.

After eating and drinking, we began the present opening. We all had the mission to buy 5 useful gifts, each for less than 20 kroner. I went with the hygiene theme and bought toothpaste, dish washing supplies, soap, axe body wash, and soap. We passed around the gifts and everyone showed extreme excitement for each gift that was open. I got a muffin making kit that I already used this morning as well as candles, a small snow globe, English Premiere football cards, and some chocolate. Not a bad haul. I think I'm putting up the Michael Owen star player sticker as soon as possible. Might even be guitar case worthy.

We then cleaned up and enjoing more conversation and some games. Fredick busted out balloon animals from his balloon kit he got as a gift and soon the Yatzee game was out to the approval of all the men at the party.

Finally at about 1am Stian and I headed home with the Christmas spirit. On top of all the Christmas fun, earlier in the day I bought myself the new Sufjan Stevens Christmas album, so now Christmas songs and Christmas joy fill the top of Stakkevollveien 60. It's been a great Christmas already, and to think I have another month of it. How exciting!

God Jul alle sammen.

Birthday Day

2006-11-23T10:01:00.000+01:00

Today is Rachel's birthday! Marjaana and I helped her celebrate by getting up early and surprising her at a breakfast place this morning. Great fun! The funniest part was getting on the bus at 7.34am. It's been awhile since I've done that, so to get up in the middle of the dark and see all the people half asleep on the bus was quite hilarious. Marjaana and I had way to much energy for bus 42 at that time of the morning.

Also tonight is an open mic at the student bar, so Rachel and I are going to bust out a tune and I'm going to make my rap comeback. My first performance since the smash hit "Sacajawea" rang through the halls of BHS. We'll see how the folks in Tromsø like "Reverse Psychology," a cover of a Bullfrogs song with instrumentation done by me and my mac. Pics and reviews will surely appear online soon.

Happy Thursday!

Shake What Yo Ancestors Gave Ya

2006-11-22T00:38:00.001+01:00

Two weeks ago I was walking home from the center and I heard this music from an old building and found over 50 Norwegians swing dancing...tonight I joined in the madness!

I called up Elisa, a Spanish friend who is a great dancer, and we both dressed up in appropriate swing attire, me with pinstrip pants and a white shirt and Elisa with a funky skirt with Ché, Elvis, and Marilyn Monroe and a black top. We matched quite well. We walked in and just had to laugh...they were basically swing dancing to country music. I felt like I should be back in SD. We joined in the fun though and after about 15 minutes Elisa had learned all the moves I had to offer. We danced alongside mostly older Norwegians who could shake it surprisingly well. We took a break halfway through of course for coffee and cake, and then we were back at it...almost 2 and a half hours of dancing! By the end of the night we were doing lifts and having a great time trying to dodge the dancing Norwegians. It was great to dance up a sweat and find a hidden, random building hiding such a crazy secret...some Norwegians can dance!

Coming Home

2006-11-19T22:13:00.000+01:00

I have returned to the dark, and unusually warm metropolis of Tromsø. I had a great few days of travel, but I came home with an unexpected present...a cold! Somewhere between London, Madrid, and Tromsø I found a cold and have been fighting it off alongside Stian who has been going through the same. Friday, I tried the traditional Norwegian cure: tran!

Tran is cod liver oil and is supposed to be taken by Norwegians in every month that has an "R." That's right, add it up. September until April. Tran is very high in omega 3 and vitamins which helps counteract a life without sun and is supposed to give you energy! So, I took a spoonful with a glass of red wine and sudafed. It seemed like the right combination...and I must say, I think I'm recovering quite well, both from the cold and the taste of tran.

In terms of my travels, it's hard to summarize, maybe the photos do a better job. I felt a bit like a blur as I spent only a few days in each place. I had a great time in Spain with friends in the Northwest and with my family in Madrid, both my brother and my Spanish family the Fernandez. It's so great to be able to travel to a new place and be treated just like another kid in the family or another friend. After Spain, i was quite exhausted and my time in Netherlands were enjoyable, but I was quite content to wander, drink coffee, and read the paper at the bagel store. I stayed with a friend from Latvia who I didn't know that well, so that also made it awkward at times, especially after being a part of a family in Spain. I took a trip to Belgium which was a great, unexpected leg of the journey. I was able to meet up with two friends from Luther who work as teachers at an international school, and they were great hosts! I not only had a true Belgian waffle and French fries (which come from Belgium), but also was able to see the town and catch up with some other lutherites. Plus I got to see their int'l school. So interesting. Hundreds of kids from all over the world speaking a variety of languages, but all just being kids. I love the linguistic diversity and hate the lack of socio-economic diversity, but it really makes me want to somehow expose any kids I may someday have to a variety of cultures and languages as young as possible.

And just like that, back to Tromsø and tran. I'm trying to get back in the work mode after a day watching the latest episodes of "Lost" and "Heroes" (a ridiculous show that my Spanish brother Patrick got me into in Spain), so it's time to rest up, drink some tran, and start using that magic fish energy.

Hopping

2006-11-14T12:39:00.000+01:00

A sign is hanging over the stairway asking me: zin in 'n fiesta tlidens je siesta? Of course I had to answer yes. (and I got this great nacho bagel after answering correctly.) Thus is life in the Netherlands.

Yeah, the Netherlands. Craziness huh? I'm currently sitting in a bagel shop called Bagels and Beans looking out over a plaza in The Hague. I've been traveling for a week now, friend hopping, and it's going to continue this afternoon when I head to Brussels to see a few Luther friends. It's great to have friends who love to do crazy, random things like me and not surprisingly, the more I travel, the more people I want to go visit. It really is the only way to travel...so whether it is staying out all night in Santiago, inhaling caulk fumes in a flat in Cambridge, or listening to Grandpa Fernandez read the paper out loud to himself in between naps, adventure always is right around the corner.

So, time to turn the corner and hop on a train to Belgium...the heart of Europe. I'll be back in Tromsø Thursday with more photos and stories i'm sure.

You know you live on the frontier when...

2006-11-04T16:17:00.000+01:00

you want to go to a movie, and it's not playing because it didn't make it to town due to bad weather.

That's right! I was very excited to see the new movie "Babel" which was coming for a special premiere in Tromsø, two weeks ahead of the Norwegian opening. I've watched the preview probably 5 times trying to convince other people to share my excitement, but this morning, when Rachel went to get tickets they told her that bad weather prevented the movie from arriving. Apparently the boat from the New World with the movie is lost somewhere in the North Sea. Or maybe it was eaten by one of those dragons on the edge of the world. Either way, no movie today. Just another day of surviving on the frontier.

A Deep Haircut

2006-11-03T18:53:00.000+01:00

I got a Euro haircut today from my friend Vibeke. It looks like this:

While at the Nikita salon, I started talking with the woman sitting next to me reading magazines. It turns out that she is an occupational psychologist who helps people deal with stresses in their life. Apparently she has mediation sessions and works on getting in touch with these thoughts in order to overcome them. It was one of the most intense conversations I've had in a long time, and I guess if the thesis gets the best of me, I can go to the free meditation session on Monday evenings. Happy Friday.

Happy Halloween

2006-10-31T14:45:00.000+01:00

Nothing brings out the important metaphysical questions like Halloween...how does a fork end up on a washing machine? How does an apple explode in a varmeskap? How long does it take to use 200 cups? How many people can sing Botan Anna at the same time?

These and many other important questions were brought up following the Peace House's Halloween Party on Saturday. We had over 50 people occupying all three floors of our house in a ridiculous collection of crazy and creative costumes. To understand the full extent of the Halloween Party, we have to start at the beginning...

I had my first guest come last week as Beth Borowski who went to Luther with me came for a short visit from the UK. We had a great week doing all Tromsø had to offer including bargain shopping, eating rømmegrøt, climbing a mountain, and getting ready for Halloween! Beth brought with her incredible expertise and we bought two pumpkins and Thursday night had a kørselig little party with a few friends. We did the whole works: carving the pumpkins, cooking the seeds, and even making pumpkin pie out of the left overs. It was so much fun! You can check out the pics here!

After a great night of halloween fun, Beth and I spent Friday climbing a mountain near Tromsø. We had a great view of the city, and we brought sleds with us so on the way down we were able to sled on some fast, bumpy, virgin trails. After a short night out with some random Norwegian course friends, Beth and I got ready for Saturday, the big day!

We spent the morning getting the house ready. Beth did a little more shopping with Marjaana while I got my costume from Silje. We decided to meet up at where else, but the Tromsø storm basketball game! We had a great time at the game laughing and enjoying the entertainment that is professional basketball in Tromsø. We walked home and Beth was getting frustrated that after being in Tromsø for multiple days that she had not seen the Northern Lights.

She didn't have to wait too long. We cooked a little dinner and finished up preparing. We had a game room complete with bobbing for apples, a jail, a feel this gross stuff that we're going to label as scary, and a seven minutes in heaven booth. We also had great American decorations all over with spider webs across the ceiling, Halloween candy throughout the house, our pumpkins out front and candles spread everywhere, and Ipods playing on all three floors. Beth threw together a good boyscout costume with Stian's clothes (which always seem to be picked when costumes are needed). The Dutch girls were the first to arrive to get their costumes ready and soon Rachel, Hanne, and Eleonor came to prepare. Finally, the clock struck 9pm and the party began with the Mosjøen Men, the guys from Stian's home town. The party continued to grow and I was truly amazed by the great costumes. I know I've said this before, but I always feel like Norwegians are not big on putting themselves out there, but on Saturday everyone did! It was great. I think the prize for the best costume would have to go to Line who was a hunchback, Silje who was a great witch, or maybe Eivind for his homemade robot costume!

In addition to the well decorated house, mother nature helped us by providing some amazing northern lights! It was such a beautiful night, but cold enough that everyone wanted to stay at our house instead of going out. The party lasted until 6am when I walked downstairs with a group of Spanish girls and was treated to a Saami Joik circle. There were four Saami people singing, which sounded somewhat similar to traditional Lakota singing. So I was hearing people talking in Spanish, people singing in Saami, and the whole time wondering how the night ended at this point. It was great!

Well, unfortunately the night didn't end there. There was one person who was asleep on our kitchen floor when I went to bed. I figured he would wake up and think, I gotta get home. Instead he thought, I gotta get up and take of my clothes. So he did. I got a call from my roommate Ida and had to go help the guy get dressed and get out the door. Then, I got to crash.

Beth and I enjoyed a quiet breakfast amidst empty bottles and trash. Along with Stian and Maaike, we managed to clean the house in two hours! We all picked up trash, and then I vacuumed while Stian washed the floor behind. At the same time, Maaike was washing dishes...every cup in our house (which has a lot of cups!) had been used. But now, the house looks better than before the party. Beth left Sunday afternoon, and I enjoyed a Tromsø football game in the snow.

So Halloween has already come and gone here in Tromsø...and it was great! I hope that anyone celebrating today has as much fun as we did here. Happy Halloween!

Tromsø Impresses

2006-10-23T23:05:00.000+02:00

I had a great weekend complete with Rachel styling my hair into a new hairdo (not pictured), making my first ever home-made batch of guacamole (a messy, tasty creation), and winter! That's right. Winter has arrived with about half a foot of snow covering the island. It now looks beautifully wintery! Along with the arrival of snow came one of the best parts of Tromsø: the Northern Lights! For the first time, I was able to get out my tripod and capture the beauty on film. Check out some of the best pictures I've taken in Tromsø...hopefully it will make you want to come visit!

If These Houses Could Talk...

2006-10-19T10:35:00.000+02:00

I made a great discovery this morning as I was stretching in the sun after a run. The houses in Tromsø talk! I was slowly stretching trying to suck in as much Vitamin D as I could when I started hearing noises. My guess is that as the frost melted off the old wooden houses in the sun, the houses started to creak and moan. Kind of reminds me of myself trying to wake up during mørketid! I guess it's just part of living here in Tromsø, for both houses and people.

The Newest Dutch Hit

2006-10-17T23:38:00.000+02:00

It's been a late night studio session her at Meyer Productions, but I am proud to announce that the first Dutch release of "Noodles" is now ready. Click here for all the details and the audio download.

Sneaking Up

2006-10-17T09:54:00.000+02:00

I didn't see it coming this year. All of a sudden this morning I woke up and realized that mørketid (the "dark time" when the sun doesn't come up) was quickly approaching. I had an unusually difficult time falling asleep last night and waking up this morning, and I think I must have started to think about it yesterday when, for the first time this fall, I had a conversation about mørketid. Fortunately, it started to snow today which will help lighten things up. With my new warm socks from home and lots of candles, I'll hopefully be able to survive! Off to send in the absentee ballot...if I can vote, so can you!

Yo Ho Yo Ho

2006-10-16T10:33:00.000+02:00

It was a crazy weekend here in Tromsø with the unusual combination of Swedish hip-hop, American rap, and Norwegian pirates.

It all started Friday when I joined Rachel, Collin, and Jeremiah for the Insomnia Festival. It was a four day festival of electronica, hip hop, and rap music. I just checked out Friday because there was the awesome line-up of the Swedish hip-hop group Snook and the historic US rap group Public Enemy! Both lived up to the billing in my eyes. We were in a cozy venue with maybe 400 people, and Snook came out in white fraks like you would wear in middle school art class. Their music was very danceable and I took the opportunity to bust a move to the incessant, rhythmic stream of Swedish lyrics. The funniest part to me was when they would speak to the audience. It usually went something like this: (in Swedish) "All the ladies in the house" (in English) "Say ho. That's right." It was such a fun mix of Swedish with American slang. I especially loved the song "Längst fram i taxin" when they ask the philosophical question, if women make the same amount of money as men, (remember this is a Swedish group so maybe they can actually say that), why can't they pay for their own cab.

Following Snook was Public Enemy with Flava Flav and Chuck D. They put on quite a show. Over two hours of high energy performance. The highlight was the MC who had a scratch solo. He was unbelieveable making this 5 second sound clip into an amazing solo. Flava Flav was pretty ridiculous too with his gold teeth and huge watch hanging from his neck. I even got to give him a high five because we were so close to the stage. It was pretty funny and sad to see this 98% white crowd holding their fists up in the air singing "Fight the Power." Also hilarious to here Flava Flav yell, "Tromsø!" If you want to enjoy that one for yourself, check out the video on my webpage.

There was no time for rest following the concert because Saturday night was the Oktoberfest party! It was basically like an early Halloween party with a theme, which this year was a Pirate's Life. Rachel and I decided to try to be creative and we dressed as Royal Navy officers out to catch the pirates! We made our costumes, and I even hand sawed batons for us, and also made capirininhas! We ran and caught the bus and headed first to a pre-party at Tim's house, a friend from Germany. There we had a great time talking to some other pirates and after a while we headed out to catch the last bus. The northern lights were filling the sky and it was the best bus entrance ever to walk on and in the back of the bus see 30 pirates all singing, drinking, yelling, and being rowdy. It was one of the most fun bus rides I've had in Tromsø.

I felt the same effect walking into the party. We walked through the entrance and then the stairwell in the medicine building where the party was leads down into a huge open area. As you entered you saw down into the open area and it was packed with over 800 people all dressed as pirates! It's my impression that Norwegians rarely get dressed up or really into something, but they sure did for this party! It was great to walk around and see the costumes, dance to the loud music accompanied by lots of flashing lights, and live the pirate's life.

Now back to school for a while. I have an exam due Friday and part of my thesis due on the 10th of November, so it will be back to work for me. Arrr.

"Protecting" Democracy

2006-10-13T15:55:00.000+02:00

It's been a week now since I flew to Latvia where I took part in my first ever election observation mission! It all started last spring when I took a course called Election Observation where we learned about democracy and about how to watch elections and discourage, identify, and report election fraud. Well, our class was fortunate enough to get a chance to practice this new skill for real in Latvia last weekend.

My friend Andre and I flew down from Oslo on Thursday and spent the next two days learning about Latvia, their electoral system, and dividing into groups that would look at different aspects of the Latvian democracy. Some groups talked with the media, others with NGO's working with democracy, and my group was supposed to look into voter education. Unfortunately, we didn't have a translator before the election day, so we spent most of the time walking around the beautiful city of Riga and performing hand motions at the election centers were voters could go to get information about the candidates.

The city of Riga truly was beautiful. Parks and rivers leading to the nearby coast filled the city, and a beautiful mixture of colorful buildings, orthodox churches, and art nouveau lined the cobblestone streets. Riga, and Latvia in general, has a fascinating history as well. It was not an actual country until after World War I. Then when Hitler and Stalin signed their secret non-aggression pact, the Soviet Union was "given" Latvia. Thus, when the Germans later invaded Latvia, Latvians greeted them as liberators. They soon realized however that the Germans weren't much better. The Soviets then came back at the end of the war and occupied Latvia until the end of the Cold War. During the Soviet occupation, Latvia was dramatically changed as 40,000 Latvians disappeared to Siberia the first week of occupation and Russian became the official language. Now, Latvia is in an interesting process of rewriting their history and identity, explaining that Latvians have been a nation occupied for hundreds of years. There is a tension between Latvian speakers who make up about 60% of the population and Russian speakers, about 40%, who are often unfairly association with the past occupiers. That also is one of the only issues in politics in Latvia. Most Latvians were quick to agree to join the EU and NATO (to which they now belong), and the main issue in the election seemed to be who was more Latvian and who hated Russia more. Interestingly enough though, the President visited Russia in the spring and after that happened the official historical view of Russia was softened...crazy how history can be changed to reflect the present.

This was one of the things for us to watch for: to make sure that minorities, like Russian speakers and the Roma (gypsy) population were not discriminated against and to make sure that everyone had a chance to freely vote. To do this, we woke up early Saturday and watched the polls open at 7am. We watched them unlock the polling station and seal the ballot box. We then watched about 20 different polling stations in a Russian majority town about 50km northwest of Riga and kept track of any problems we saw. The most common problems were family voting, when a bunch of people would go into a booth at the same time, and lack of privacy when voting booths were easy to see into. Both are technically violations of the election laws, but it also is partly a cultural aspect. That was one of the challenges for me. Often I felt we were culturally observing instead of election observing, so it was difficult to say "this is wrong," when essentially you are saying "your culture is wrong." After a day of watching the polls and staying up until 2am while they counted the ballots by hand, we met with the other 10 groups and compared our results for a report that will be giving to the election commission for recommendations for the next Latvian election.

Following our days of hard work, we were able to celebrate Sunday night with a few of the other observers and some of the translators who helped the different groups. We had a great time enjoying the colorful nightlife of Riga, even on a Sunday night. The only downside is that Riga is considered a weekend holiday spot, especially for British men, so there is an excessive amount of escort women and drunk foreigners. Fortunately, there are also a lot of great people and places! I was wiped out after the quick trip to Riga, but thankful for the experience, even if I really didn't do too much to "protect" (impose?) democracy. Now I'm resting up for a fun weekend of concerts and costumes. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, check out the pictures from Riga.

Two Discoveries before Latvia

2006-10-04T21:11:00.000+02:00

I am currently sitting in Andre's apartment in Oslo on my first stop on the way to Latvia where I'll take part in an election observation mission. I'll be with about 20 other Norwegians who studied election observation with me last spring, as we take part in a training mission. We'll go around to different voting locations and hopefully deter any cheating. I'm not sure if I'll be the most intimidating observer, but I'm excited to learn more about it and to experience a place I know very little about.

I had two great experiences before leaving the sunny island of Tromsø. First, I went for a run this morning as the frost was melting under the sun's rays. I came home after a quick run and realized that I looked like one of those big football players playing at Lambeau Field as my sweat was evaporating and creating the illusion that I was on fire. I had fun pretending that I ran so fast that I was smoking!

The second cool discovery was on the outside of our laundry room. There were over 20 tiny snails clinging to the wall, presumably to stay warm during the night. Well, it didn't work. They were all dead and as soon as I touched one it would fall off. Maybe a sad reminder of what might be on the way...

Time to cheer on the twins via gameday. They need it now! Keep your eye on Latvia on Saturday!

Keeping the Bad Guys In

2006-10-01T22:52:00.000+02:00

Last night I enjoyed a great pizza party at Rachel's apartment as we tried to re-create the magic from last spring. There was good wine, great pizza, and of course, lots of conversation. By the end of the night, however, this conversation had taken its toll on me. I've been getting over a cold and after a night of talking over music I sounded like a 13 year old singing the national anthem. I decided to head home a little early as everyone else hit the town. When I arrived home though, I realized that I didn't have my keys and that everyone was out on the town. Since I didn't know when my roomies would get home, I decided the only solution was to break in.

I, quite obviously, pulled one of our garbage cans to the side of the house underneath Maaike's window. I carefully climbed on top of the garbage can and slipped my fingers in the small opening between Maaike's window and the window frame. I heaved the window open and with a deep breath jumped and pulled myself up and into her room. I felt quite accomplished having made it without injury. I tried not to get too much mud in her room, and as I tip-toed across the floor I grabbed the door handle and pushed. Nothing happened. I turned the light on and realized that she had locked her room door. Who does that?! I tried to pick the lock for a few moments and finally just sat down at her computer and surfed the internet.

About 15 minutes later I heard someone come home, so I again got to play spy, except this time I had to climb out the window, jump on the trash can, drag the can back to the street and then ring the doorbell. I then realized that I left my coat in Maaike's room and left the light on, so I had to text her and admit that I had successfully broken in and out of her room. She later admitted that she had locked her room because everyone was gone and she didn't want her computer to get stolen. Now she learned her lesson: don't lock the bad guys in. Leave your room open so when the bad guys break in, at least everyone will get their stuff stolen. Oh yeah, and don't forget your keys.

The Mountaintop Experience

2006-09-27T17:54:00.000+02:00

Stian recently asked a friend: "Why do you live in Tromsø?" He responded, "because it's like giving Mother Nature the finger." Yesterday, I tried to give Mother Nature the finger, and Mother Nature won.

It all started at 8.36am. At exactly that moment, the sun peers over the mountain, through my window, and into my eyes. It's great though because it is not every day that you get to see the sun, so you have to enjoy it while you can, even if it wakes you up. Well, for some reason on this particular morning, I decided that Mother Nature had something to offer me, so I texted Maaike and woke her up, and we decided it was finally time to tackle Tromsdaltiden, the tallest mountain near Tromsø, and the mountain I look at every day outside of my window. We packed food, hot chocolate, and plenty of layers of clothes, ready for the snow and wind that awaited us...or so we thought.

The hike started innocently enough. We started at about 10.30am and made it to the tree line by 12.30pm. There we were treated to a sighting of reindeer! There were over 20 reindeer wandering around the area where the snow began and the trees ended, drinking water and finding the last remaining blueberries. We were only 20 feet away and just watched the awkward creatures stumble around. We even got some great photos of the reindeer and the hike if you want to check them out.

This is the point in the mountain tour (fjelltur in Norwegian) that we should have gone home happy, but we were determined to go to the top. So we continued as the snow began to increase in depth. Soon, the trail we were following disappeared and we just started going up the mountain. Literally up. There were quite a few big rocks and I would kicked my feet in the snow, dig my hands in, and pull myself up as if I had ice pick shoes and was climbing a glacier. After I would move up a few feet, I would then turn around and give Maaike my hand and would help pull her up. It was after a few minutes of doing this that we realized we were not on the trail and were climbing an incline that was about 130 degrees in 3 feet of snow. Well, at this point we thought about turning around, but it seemed almost safer to continue going up and walking around the top to try to find a less steep way down. So we continued, slowly scaling the mountain and trying not to slip and fall through the drifts of snow, and trying to stay positive.

We finally arrived to the crest of the mountain. It wasn't the official peak, but about 800 meter from it. We didn't even think about going to the very top because we couldn't even see it through the snow that was falling and blowing in the wind. We were however treated to a nice view of water all around us. The ocean on the far side of Kvaløya (the island protecting Tromsøya from the ocean), and water cutting into mainland Norway where we were standing. It was also very impressive and depressing to look down and realize how far we had come and how far we had to go, but it was beautiful to see the streams cutting black lines through the snow and to watch as the snow eventually turned into yellow and gold birch trees which in turn became a small city clinging at the water for survival.

We didn't linger too long at the top as the snow continued to fall, so after a few moments we decided to head back down and to get out of the cold and blustery wind. We thought we had found a safer way down, but after about 20 minutes, it was impossible to walk.
Maaike and I sat on our butts and would literally slide for 50 yards hoping that we would not discover a rock underneath the snow. Snow went up the pants, down the shoes, and in the face, but looking back, it was quite fun! The only scary part was when Maaike started sliding and couldn't stop. She even took a little jump while sliding, but got up with just a sore wrist. We slowly traveled down the mountain in this way, falling, sliding, and tasting snow the whole way down. The whole time I kept thinking that the yellow luftambulanse, or air ambulance helicopter, that I see almost every day fly by our house towards the mountain might soon be coming to rescue us!

Fortunately, we smoothly slid to safety. We sat on a rock when we again found the trail and ate our matpakke and hot chocolate out of relief more than enjoyment. We walked down into the valley and got to the bus stop just in time to catch the 5:30pm bus home. We stopped and bought frozen pizza and refused to move once we got inside and stripped off the five layers of wet clothes. I must say though, that my Great Outdoors clothes did very well and kept me warm the whole time!

So, when the snow settled, we walked for 7 hours and roughly 26km (16 miles) according to my podometer. Crazy. Needless to say, I felt it this morning as I woke up with sore legs and a runny nose. Now I'm laying bed, taking Aleve, blowing my nose, and shaking my first: I'll get you next time Mother Nature.

Football in the Snow

2006-09-25T15:53:00.000+02:00

The proud mountains and the valley that was so green and welcoming only days ago, like the Great Valley in The Land Before Time, have now become a sign of the impending winter. It's fun to watch as the snow moves lower and lower until finally we are inundated by it! Looks like it's making an early attack this year. Fortunately my long underwear and I are ready!

And, I got to test out the long underwear for the first time last night. Petter, my Rotary contact in Tromsø, called me up and invited me to go to a huge football game as Tromsø played against Bergen's team: Braunn. The match was very important for both teams, but for very different reasons. Tromsø was in last place of the league when the game started, and in the Norwegian football league, if you finish in the bottom two places you are automatically relegated to the lower division where there is less money, less TV deals, and worse teams. So basically, Tromsø was playing to stay alive in the major leagues instead of being demoted to AAA. Braunn was in first place and was playing to move a game in front of the second place Trondheim team.

Since I was with Petter who used to be a trainer for the TIL (the Tromsø team), we were treated to the VIP treatment. Pre-game meat and potatoes as well as coffee and fruit for dessert. We also got to sit inside while it started to dump snow outside...perfect for the home field advantage! TIL scored quickly and the crowd was into it the whole first half. Starting the second half, Braunn scored a goal and it looked like the wheels were going to fall off. Then, with about 20 min left, Tromsø had a free kick at about the 18 yd. box. The Norwegian kick taker took a perfect curving shot around the wall, over the defender's head, and into the corner of the goal. Just like something out of "Bend it Like Beckham!" The crowd went nuts and the Bergen players looked ready to escape the North. TIL then added another goal late in the game just to rub it in and to move out of last place! They now have four games left to get another win and hopefully avoid relegation. Exciting. The game was the headlines of the morning papers with the title: Winter War! I guess there are some benefits to having September snow.

More to Learn

2006-09-24T12:38:00.000+02:00

I have been adamently studying lately on an important Norwegian skill: opening a bottle with random implements such as a lighter, a box of snuss, or a spade. On Friday I had class with Stian, Martin, and Eric. After three tries, I was pretty smooth at opening a beer bottle with a lighter. Unfortunately I think I got a little cocky. Last night I was at a student house and wanted to open a bottle. There was no lighter in sight, but there was a huge knife. Now, I had seen Stian do it a hundred times so I figured that I could as well. So I had a firm grip on the neck of the bottle as instructed and put the flat end of the knife under my knuckle and pushed upwards. And pushed upwards. And pushed upwards. Finally, the cap flew off, beer sprayed over the counter, and the knife drilled me above my left pectoral. It must have been the flat end that hit me (otherwise I might not be writing this), but I still got a nice cut to help remind me that I continue to fail at being truly Norwegian. I'll get it someday...but maybe I'll just work my way up to the knife.

and it's hailing out right now...what a weird weekend.

and again I have to edit the post. The hail has now changed into snow, so this afternoon, as the green tree with bright red berries stands defiantly outside my window, I can say we've had our first snowfall. September 24th. Not bad. I'll eat a snowflake for all of those missing out on the unique opportunity for tasting September snow. Yummy, my favorite.

Two Firsts

2006-09-22T00:40:00.000+02:00

It's been a few exciting days here as we are quickly transitioning into winter. The first big moment came last night when we looked outside at our thermometer and for the first time this fall it was at 0 degrees Celsius. That's right, freezing time! Maaike, Stian, Tsvetan, and I decided to celebrate the end of green-ness by walking on our new road to Bobo's at 11pm. That's right, the street in front of our house that has been under construction since last March is now newly paved. Just in time for a nice layer of snow (which is slowly creeping in from the mountains).

The other big event was tonight while walking home from a great international seminar about Israel and Palestine. While walking back with Stian and Tsvetan, a small green line began to show in the sky. By the time we were halfway home the northern lights were out in full force, dancing and guiding our way home. They were a very Tinker Bell-like green and served as a reminder for the beauty and cripness of the coming winter. I guess we're losing one green and replacing it with another. That's alright with me.

The New Peace House

2006-09-21T10:53:00.000+02:00

I wanted to give you a look at the new peace house!

On my right is Ida from Trondheim who is studying to be a X-ray reader. She's very energetic and kind, and she adds a little energy and pop to our house by turning the radio to the pop music station in the morning. Great morning music! She has a Mac iBook.

On my left is Anders who is from Molde and studies art. He is a friend to all the ladies and likes to display his sentimental side with his blue finger nails and love for classical music. He has a Mac PowerBook.

Maaike in the bottom center is writing her master's thesis on fishing, oil, and the culture surrounding it in Finnmark. She is from the Netherlands and likes to share great music with me and learn American slang. She has a MacBook Pro.

Next to her of course is Stian, the proleteriat-loving, revolutionary that studies peace with me and keeps me entertained on the top floor. He bought a laptop for a six pack of beer from a friend, but it has to be plugged in to work, so I think it's called a walltop?

In the picture we're missing Andre, who is a gym rat and a quiet Norwegian from Lofoten and Marjaana who just left the coup-ridden nation of Thailand. Tsvetan, from Bulgaria who is studying peace is a soon-to-be father, is currently living in Marjaana's room, giving the peaceful men the majority! It's been a great house thus far, and how could it not be with so many fun looking people!

Rain, Rain, here to stay

2006-09-19T10:44:00.000+02:00

It's day four of the rain, only 36 more to go. Saturday we had a brief view of the sun, and we should have left immediately for the mountain, but instead we stuck to our plan to climb on Sunday...well, that didn't work too well as we couldn't even see it behind a wall of rain clouds. So, life continues on Stakkevollveien. Rain, construction, and fun indoors. We continued our tradition of playing Diplomacy on Sunday and this time I extracted revenge for last week's defeat. Otherwise, it's been mostly hanging out, working, and working out as Stian and I have been running sprints over the fjord. Not something I got to do at BHS. Finally this week my indigenous law class kicks off, which I'm excited about. Maybe this weekend the clouds will part so we can conquer the mountain. We'll see...

Watch out. Winter's coming.

2006-09-15T18:25:00.000+02:00

I'm hoping to avoid snow Sunday as I head to the top of the mountain, where winter has already begun.

Hugin's Report

2006-09-15T11:23:00.000+02:00

I learned last night that one of the birds on the University of Tromsø's logo is named Hugin. In honor of Hugin, they have a monthly open mic night at the local student pub called Driv. Last night Rachel and I went and knocked him dead. We were the first act and sang "Killing the Blues." She hung on the blue notes while I ripped on the harmonica. It was a great show, and we had great support. Nearly all the Mosjøen men were there and all but one of my new housemates were there. It was awesome! (You can check out new photos posted to see all the action.)

The show progressed and since it was the first one, they didn't have many acts. They asked if we would be willing to do antoher song, so I decided to cover one of my favorite bands: the OC All-Stars! In honor of Dain and Nick, I busted out a little Careless Whisper, just like the old days. So if you guys are out there, know that you are well loved in Tromsø. Unfortunately the dance moves were not as crisp as they once were and it is higher than I remember, but I wailed it out and they seemed to like it. It was fun night either way.

Now the weekend has arrived. Tonight I'm playing some poker here with teh Mosjøen Men (Stian and his hometown friends) and tomorrow I think I'm going to Driv for a four floor party they're having. I'm not sure about the mountain top though because as of yesterday, I can now see snow outside my window on the top of the mountain! Yikes. I hope it melts away before Sunday, otherwise we're doomed to watch as it slowly creeps towards the city. Enjoy the fall weather. I'm bundling up!

Peace by Peace

2006-09-13T20:28:00.000+02:00

It's back to the real world this week, and I'm realizing though that my "real world" here is pretty cool!

Saturday I kicked off my second year of peace studies by meeting the Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai (in the bright dress). She is a Kenyan woman who focuses on the connection between the environment and peace and she talked in the Peace Center to crowd of students and talked later in town to a huge audience of Norwegians. It was pretty crazy to just sit in this tiny auditorium in Tromsø, Norway with such an important difference-maker. Inspiring to see that you doing your thing and working hard sometimes equals big results.

Saturday night was also a blast as we had a double-header of birthday parties. Maaike (housemate from the Netherlands) bought toliet paper with me (at the request of the birthday girl) and we joined a group of peace students met to celebrate Silje's birthday. After some lively conversation, we eventually migrated to a birthday party for an American living in Tromsø named Jeremiah. Just when I was about to head home at a decent hour, Stian called and I joined him and his hometown boys for a nattspeil. I had a great time seeing everyone again and seeing the sun rise on Sunday morning!

Sunday was intense because it was Diplomacy Day! Stian and I now have playmates in the house who will play conquer the world games with us, so Mostopha joined Maaike, Stian, and I as we meticulously began dividing up Europe. Just when it looked like I might be able to assert my dominance, Maaike stabbed me in the back and won the game. Needless to say, there is no more trust in this house. We had a great time though, and have already played some Yahtzee and Settlers of Catan since. It was also a good activity for Stian. He had a little accident when his bike hit a rock in our driveway and went head first over his bike. He was left with a nice beauty mark and was definitely ready to hide in the house behind a boardgame instead of showing his battle scar!

The rest of this week has been diving into the thesis project. I'm now focusing a little more on if and why people give charity/aid to places that are far away rather than locally. We'll see how it goes! Besides transcribing and talking with my advisor, I also had the opportunity to meet the mayor of Hiroshima. He gave a lecture at the Peace Center as well talking about a movement he started in which cities basically request that their city be removed as targets for nuclear weapons. The hope is that with enough pressure from the local level that national governments will be forced to reduce and hopefully eliminate nuclear weapons. It was a little idealistic for me, but interesting and just refreshing to be thinking and learning on a daily basis again.

So life is back in motion. I'm having a great time with everyone here and although the weather is pretty gloomy, I'm finding plenty to do. The next big event is tomorrow night when Rachel (the other American in the peace program) and I make our musical debut singing "Killing the Blues" at an open mic concert in Driv. Off to play a bit and get ready to take Norway by storm!

I've never run this far

2006-09-12T16:47:00.000+02:00

I just got back to the university after taking a break to go for a run, and I literally felt like the guy in the Nike commercial who is stunned by a crazy new place, only able to say "I've never run this far." Today I got on the lighted ski trail and ran north on Tromsø island. Now I have rarely gone north, but I might have to do it more often after my exciting discoveries. Five minutes into the run I saw a big fenced off area and as I jogged by an albino raindeer raised its awkward head and just stared at me. I felt like I was on another planet. I didn't know there were raindeer on Tromsø island, let alone albino raindeer. I keep running, and heard a quack and looked to my right to discover a lake that I didn't know existed! A little further up the hill was a water/radio tower that looked like something used to contact the supernatural. I reached the top of a hill after burning my calves into the group, and had a beautiful view of Kvalsøya which is a big island between the ocean and Tromsø island. I had a beautiful view and just had to laugh. The only explaination was: I've never run this far.

More on the past couple of days soon...

A Welcomed Return

2006-09-08T12:45:00.000+02:00

It has only been two days and already I feel at home back in Tromsø! I hardly missed a beat upon arrival Wednesday night, and Tromsø didn't disappoint. I landed about 8.30pm Wednesday night after a delay in Oslo where I got to talk in Norwegian with a Norwegian about hunting in Finmark and how water affects the taste of beer. After that enlightenment, I sleptt almost the whole way to Tromsø and got by massive bag without a hitch. I hopped in a cab and started asking about how the weather was this summer, and started talking about how it was raining. Then the taxi driver turned to me and asked if I had a reflector on. How perfect! I, unfortunately, was not prepared with a reflector so he opened up his glove compartment where he had about 100 extra reflectors ripe for the taking. He gave me one and told me to put it on my coat immediately. So I safely returned to my house and took a big breath in a smelled the fish scented air. It's funny that I don't notice it when I live here, but when I've been gone and come back, it has such a distinct smell.

I was literally home for 30 minutes, just enough time to read a pile of rotting mail, before I headed down to the student pub Driv to meet up with old and new classmates. We had a great time talking and meeting everyone. We stayed until it closed and enjoyed the cold walk home in the rain. Perfect Tromsø weather!

Yesterday I headed to the university and saw a few more international friends and claimed a new desk in the reading room and dropped off some books. I did the monster shopping trip getting a hundred dollars worth of groceries and finally getting back to the house. When I came back, I finally met a few of my new housemates and they are great! Very fun and social. If we can figure out the dish washing we'll be great. So, now in the house we have 3 Norwegian guys: Stian who was here and two new guys named Andre and Andreas. I haven't talked to much to them. We also have two new girls in addition to Marjaana: Maaika from the Netherlands who is working on a master's thesis in fishery management and sociology and Ida who is studying to be the person who reads X-rays. Ida is very perky and happy with stereotypical Norwegian blonde hair and blue eyes. Plus, she has the unenviable task of living in Igor's old room! Maaika is very chill and is willing to sit in the kitchen with Stian and I and keep up with our ridiculous banter. Plus, she likes board games so I think we are busting out Diplomacy this weekend!

It should be a great year and a great house. I'm excited to get started, and no better way than doing some laundry! Ha det fra Norge!

Happy Labor Day from Lugano

2006-09-04T17:45:00.000+02:00

I finally have a moment with internet so I am excited to write and say hi and that I made it to Switzerland! It was an eventful trip but it ended up working pretty well.

A friend from Oslo, Richard, picked me up from the airport in Oslo and I spent the night at their house which was beautiful. Lots of trees, Norwegian food and cheese, and a bed to crash on. They even took me to the airport the next morning for my flight. And, when I got on the plane I recognized this guy and girl. After we hit 30,000 ft. I walked back in the plane and sat down by them and started talking, and it turned out that it was the guy in charge of Bergen ultimate frisbee whom i had met when I went to an indoor frisbee tournament in Oslo last spring. He and his wife were going to an ultimate frisbee wedding of an ultimate player from italy in italy. pretty cool! so we talked a long time and we started sharing some ideas about ultimate in Tromsø. Basically, he is in the Norwegian sports organization which can give me a bunch of money if I can get a group of people playing. I might try to start a team at least once a week and go down to Oslo for one tournament in Dec and the one we went to. So, we'll see!

But I landed in Milano and John and I walked around there for the afternoon which was alright. Kind of just a big city. But we did see the fashion district with a ton of high class stores all along this huge block. There were men and women all in black waiting at every door to open the door for you. Pretty posh! We took the hour and a half train back to Lugano and went out that night to a city concert that was in the plaza downtown. We heard some good blues music and had some great wine and pasta!

Yesterday was fun. We got up and went to a town about an hour north in the mountains. There they were having a beach ultimate frisbee tournament! There is a river and next to one part of the river is a beach area where there is enough room for one field. It was gorgeous. You could see vineyards on the mountains surrounding us and a little swimming hole with lots of beautiful Swiss people jumping off of rocks into the water and sunning on the rocks. There were even a few topless Swiss women tanning unbashfully. We didn't get to play, but we met a lot of people that will be good contacts for John and will hopefully find him a team he can play with.

Today we've been chilling in town. I helped John move in a little more and we did a major grocery run so he has some food. Lugano is a beautiful town that reminds me a lot of Bergen, Norway with green mountains with houses dotting the slopes and a big body of water cutting through the mountains. Plus, it's pretty small and quaint and it feels safe, so I think John feels comfortable here. A good place to study and enjoy a new culture. And that's one thing that has surprised me, is the amount of Italian John will have to know to get by. Since English is the fourth language here after Italian, German, and French, very few people speak it. So I think John will be doing a lot of pointing and hopefully a lot of learning throughout his time in Lugano.

It's been good to be here with him a little bit. Now he's at class so I'm at his library finally checking the internet. He is supposed to have wireless access in his common room of his dorm, but it's pretty spotty. i'd say it works maybe 10% of the time, and i get way to click happy to actually read anything. But I think it's good because it will force him to get off the internet and out into the culture (I should work on that too).

Tonight he is having a meeting with a few of his study abroad compatriots who are also keen on traveling. They are getting together to try to gather information on the best places to travel and hopefully plan trips together. They are already planning on perhaps going to Amsterdam this weekend, so John has the opportunity to do that, and he also was asked to play at the Swiss Ultimate Frisbee National Championship game this weekend in Bern, Swtizerland. Pretty cool choices! I'll be sticking around until Wednesday morning when I head back to Norway and back to the academic life. In the meantime, I'm going to soak up this Southern European weather (in the 90's today with a ton of sun) and eat as much food and drink as much wine as possible!

Ciao from Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland!

Mmmm...

2006-09-01T21:43:00.000+02:00

I am now comfortably sitting in the typically beautiful Norwegian apartment of my friends Kjersti and Richard. It's covered with wood from floor to ceiling and it is so korselig! I am very fortunate to have such great friends. Richard came and picked me up at the Oslo airport and brought me back to his house before he had to go back to work so I've been able to clean up, brush my teeth (with that mysterious liquid called toothpaste that i can't take on the plane), and have a little time away from a herd of frustrated travelers. Not a bad ending. Plus it's so great to be back in Norway. I stepped off the plane into cool, crisp Norwegian air and Richard and Kjersti's apartment is next to his father's farm where they grow wheat and oats and a rolling forest. So beautiful! It's also great just to get off the airplane and feel comfortable. Even though I'm far from being at home in Norway, it definitely is a comfortable place, both the people and the environment. After spending a few days in NYC, Oslo just feels like being in Brookings. Chill, comfortable, clean, safe, and a place I really enjoy being. I even sat outside on the porch for over an hour just reading and sitting the late hanging sun. It felt so great to be chilly and tranquil. I guess I'll shake the tranquility tomorrow when I hop on a 9.40am flight from Oslo to Italy and will catch up with my brother only about 12 hours late....

Even though it will work out fine, I feel like I failed a little bit. After the mechanical problems in Iceland, I went on the internet and tried to find a way to get to Switzerland before nightfall. I had a host of options, including flying from iceland to copenhagen instead of norway, then flying to zurich and taking the last train to arrive in lugano by 2am. Despite myriad of options, the Icelandic air people just weren't very creative. They said that since I had luggage they couldn't go into the luggage and get it to put it on a different flight. Come on people, we can't win the race with that attitude! So in the end, a new ticket from Oslo, but it's probably best that I get some rest and take a break from hectic travel.

I uploaded my photos so you can see my awesome time in Iceland. Just click on photos at the top of the page. Signing off from continental Europe. *sigh*

Welcome to Scandinavia. You Can't Leave.

2006-09-01T14:32:00.000+02:00

Oh travel. I am currently sitting in a place I have always wanted to visit: Reykjavik, Iceland. Unfortunately, all I can see is a vast expanse of emptiness surrounding the airport. That's right, I'm stuck at the gateway to Europe. I took a flight from New York last night to Oslo through Iceland. Unfortunately, when we got on the plane this morning in Iceland to take the short two hour flight to Oslo, our plane had technical difficulties and since we are at 66 degrees North in the middle of nowhere, the next flight out isn't until 4pm. Plus, the airport shuts down because they basically have two waves of flights, so all the stores are locked up and i'm just listening to a large group of Asian tourists playing an intense round of cards. It's actually kind of funny in a Ze Frank sort of way. Also, they keep giving us information like, "it might leave in two hours" so I can't even go to the Blue Lagoon to soak in a hot geyser. Well, on the plus side, Iceland's airport is the first one I have found that has FREE WIRELESS! Or as the sign above me is informing me: ϸrá∂laust net. It came it really handy to finally change my flight to Italy. That's also correct. I should be on a plane to Italy in about 20 minutes, but instead I got to bust out my dusty Norwegian cell phone and go through my phone book looking for someone to stay with. Fortunately, my friend and classmate Kjersti is in Oslo and is willing to help me out, so I'll crash at her place tonight and for $250 dollars head to Italy tomorrow at 9am. So, free ham sandwiches instead of pasta and pizza i guess.

But, it's all part of the amazing race and of course I've gotten to meet some interesting people b/c of the delay like a college kid from macalaster who worked for two summers at the Mack beer brewary in Tromsø and the Norwegian guy sitting next to me who works with metal smelting. I have to admit i wasn't quite brushed up on my norwegian words having to deal with minerals, but i was able to hold my own. So, as I withstand a weird mix of jet-lag and fatigue thanks to some homopathic pills called no-jet lag, i'm left to do the last sane thing i can do: take weird pictures. Enjoy. and I hope to see you on the continent soon.

The Turner County Fair

2006-08-16T01:53:00.000+02:00

Every year around this time, people of all walks of life (but mostly rural, middle class, white walks) take the religious-like journey to Parker to take part in one of South Dakota's great traditions: The Turner County Fair. The fair is a mix of agriculture, entertainment, food, family, political campaigning, photo taking, and good ole South Dakota fun. Personally, the Turner County Fair is a huge family reunion. Every year I walk to the old picnic table next to the chislic stand (chislic=cooked lamb on a stick). There at the table, my Grandpa Johnson holds court like the Don himself. All of the family on my mom's side comes so I get to see all the uncles and aunts and cousins, as well as family friends and other more distant relatives like the chislic owners themselves! It is a great chance to catch up and have some summer time fun. This year, like most years, started by throwing down as much chislic as possible. I took down 18 sticks before chasing them with a pork sandwich from the Lutheran Church food booth. While eating, we all do our best to sound knowledgable about agriculture. We talk about the drought or the flooding (it's never perfect you know) and the corn and the beans, and fortunately, Uncle Paul is kind enough not to make fun of my own lack of knowledge and to help me know what's going on at the family farm.

After a lot of great conversation, the young cousins finally drag us to the carnival area where we have close encounters with lots of scary looking Carnies and random rides and games. Although it seems like we do fewer and fewer rides each year, I had fun watching the cousins almost puke on the Octopus ride, and did my best to display my weak abilities at Ski-Ball and Ski-Ball Horse-Racing. Fortunately, I think that all of our hard earned play eventually helps one of the cousins to win a huge stuffed tiger, or something that resembles a wild cat of some kind.

After the games and Carnies, it's time to grab some homemade ice cream, made by the Mennonites. Always large because it goes down like applesauce. Usually the ice cream is half-way gone by the time we finally squeeze onto a wooden bench for the night's true activity: VFW bingo.

VFW bingo is an amazing experience. Wood benches surround a rectangular area where members of the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) stand around and collect 25 cents for each bingo card someone is playing. The head honcho VFW member is the caller, while the "younger" more "inexperienced" VFW members continue their training for the glorious day when they can be a caller. Everyone squeezes onto these benches in hopes of getting bingo and winning the 10 dollar prize! Of course, the Johnson clan takes up about 1/4th of the bench space and usually turns the relatively tame game of bingo into a competative sport that far exceeds the World Series of Poker. People are shouting "YESSSSS!" every time they hit a number and everyone gets really angry if someone finally screams "Bingo!" and forces the game to start over again.

This year the Johnson clan, (which can be subsequently split into sub-clans such as the Blues, the Browns, the Paul Johnsons, the Meyers, and even the honorary Thompsons), cleaned up at the bingo table. Elliot, Jennifer, and I all won Bingo rounds, bringing in 10 dollars each. I was especially lucky because I won bingo at the same time as two other people. Usually, they would split the prize among the winner, but the VFW old boys club thought that dividing 10 three ways was difficult, so they let us all get the full award. After the regular bingo rounds finally draw to a close, the VFW ends the night with a bang: blackout! This is the variant of bingo in which every number on the card must be called to win. It not only requires luck, but also stamina. This year Brian demonstrated those characteristics. He perservered through over 5 minutes of numbers to come out victorious with the the $50 prize. On top of the that, the VFW men either miscounted or thought that Brian really needed the money because he was handed four 20 dollar bills! Boo yeah! We left the bingo table very satisfied having supported our troops in the best way I know how.

The Turner County Fair is a great summertime tradition, and I am happy I was attend this year. It's so much fun! It's interesting that when I take photos or stop and look at the fair objectively, how absolutely strange it really is. It looks like something from a generation gone-by where people gather together, (for free), to take time to eat unhealthy food without feeling guilty, to walk around looking at animals and 4-H awards, to play bingo with at least 3 and probably 4 different generations, to ride ridiculous rides run by even more ridiculous people, to spend wads of cash to win simple prizes that represent hurculean efforts, and to just enjoy time together. Parker's city slogan is "A Great Place to Live," but I think that on the week of the fair it should be "A Great Place to Lose Yourself" because that's what we do, and it's great.

Why We Fight

2006-08-10T21:04:00.000+02:00

I saw one of the most thought-provoking movies I've ever seen today called "Why We Fight." It was a great documentary about exactly that question, what pushes the United States into war. It looked mostly at the military industrial complex beginning with a stern warning from President Eisenhower as he left office that the Military Industrial Complex must be carefully managed so it does not gain control over the President and Congressional bodies in Washington, DC. The documentary takes a look at the military industrial complex (the business of making war) and at its power over politicians and presidents of both parties and its power over society in general. It was a scary look at America.

Additionally, the movie looks into conflicts of the past 50 years, especially the War in Iraq, and the influence of the MIC and the actual results. The most thought-provoking part to me was about the media and think tanks. It talked about how Vietnam essentially failed and that now the Pentagon and military has extensive training in giving interviews and goes to great lengths to "embed" reporters and give them a sympathetic look of the military instead of having them shoot images of body bags. I just thought of the news we constantly see and how all the reporters we see are in a sense, manipulated by the military. Scary stuff. Without the free press, it is much easier to convince a nation to go to war. The think tank component was also scary. It talked about how the majority of policy decisions now come from think tanks where researchers, high ranking officials, and other well-known people are gathered to find justification for their policy goals, which in the movie is going to war. It looks into the Iraq War and notes how not only was the Axis of Evil speech taking ideas form think tank papers published BEFORE 9/11, but that members of certain think tanks were actually given an office in the Pentagon and an official position as advisors. Thus, war is justified by these think tankers on numerous shaky grounds and facts are spun into ideas like Iraq aided terrorists, Iraq has WMD, and Iraq tried to acquire nuclear material from Niger. All of which were based in some sort of report, except the facts were taken out of context without qualifiers to make it say what the think tankers and according to the movie, the MIC wanted.

I feel suddenly embolden to research and find a way to dig deeper on these trends. It's a problem not of one party, but rather of our democracy. If we want to have elected officials do what the majority wants, we need to eliminate the power that think tanks and military businesses have over them while simultaineously educating citizens with what is actually going on. Free media + people + voice = power.

Back to my Youth

2006-08-08T22:55:00.000+02:00

It's been a bit of a throw-back week here in Brookville, USA. I headed down to Kansas City on Saturday and went to the Twins game and my brothers and I were pumped because my dad spotted a woman he thought he knew: Jason Kubel's mom! For everyone else in the world who doesn't know who Jason Kubel is, he is a young prospect for the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Anyways, he spent a few years of his life in Tyndall, South Dakota where my dad grew up and his mom went to school with my aunt. So, after some urging (and after her husband had left to get food), my dad snuck down and talked to her. He found out that it was actually his aunt, but still, cool enough. Then, on the way back to the hotel on a city bus, we were surrounded by Twins fans, including the aunt and uncle of Josh Rabe, another young player for the team. We were almost as excited as the one time we met Dennis Eckersely in the hotel lobby. funny stuff.

Well, on top of baseball (which is obviously not only childhood, but also a current passion), my bros and I busted out our old Magic cards. These are the nerdy cards that are used to create some sort of fantasy-battlefield where we fight with wizards and mythical creatures. The best part is just laying down and card and all of us going, "Oh yeah, I remember THAT card!"

Finally, I figured out how to run old mac programs on my laptop, so I dusted off the old Civilization II game in which you build empires from a single settler. So, today I have been working on putting the Lakota Sioux in charge of the world. Instead of having treaties broken, I'm doing the breaking! Oh my Machiavellian world! So, back to ruling the world while my brother touches his website up next to me.

What I Learned in School Today

2006-07-28T03:15:00.000+02:00

I have just returned home after four days in Pine Ridge, but it feels like I was there so much longer. I feel like I learned more in those four days than I have all summer, and although I am nowhere near qualified to be an expert on Native American issues or history, quite a few things stood out that I want to share.

First, the biggest thing is realizing how little I knew. It is unbelieveable that this enormous part of South Dakotan and American is glossed over at best in schools, media, and conversations. For me, this trip was supposed to be for research for my master's thesis, but it was quickly apparent that it was more of a personal journey for me, one that I think I have wanted to take ever since reflecting on my South Dakota roots while in Norway.

I feel like I have seen poverty before in Tanzania and South Africa, but Pine Ridge was different. The people there were not as poor as in other places, but the barriers for people succeed seem greater. The first thing that stood out was the lack of commercial opportunities in Pine Ridge. There is not a single bank in the city of Pine Ridge (the largest city in the Pine Ridge Reservation), and the only outside businesses are a Taco John's fast food restaurant, a small Alltel cell phone store, and a gas station that has grown from an old trading post to its current 24 hour status. There are no small businesses, clothing stores, sports stores, libraries, restaurants, nothing. In fact, the largest employers are the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Fed Gov't), the Tribal Gov't, and the Tribal Gov't services like police, hospitals, etc. It is no wonder then that the unemployment rate on the reservation is 85%! Can you imagine that?

The problems are all so interrelated as well. Another problem on the reservation is a housing/land shortage. People there often live with 8, 10, 12 people to a small trailer-size home. As I understand it, every family from the tribe is allotted a portion of land. When I say family, I mean 3 generations of extended family. In order to sell land, there has to be approval from 75% of the family, which makes it incredibly difficult considering that a majority of the family lives outside of the reservation and are often impossible to contact, especially without help from the government or anyone else who could help faciliate. Thus, if you grow up in your dad's house and want to stay in the reservation, you either have to squeeze another house on the land or live in your father's house. This compounds the problem of getting businesses to the rez since it is so difficult for them to get land themselves.

On top of this, insurance is extremely expensive because of vandalism and probably stereotypes that insurers may have of the reservation. Pine Ridge is also miles away from anywhere so businesses don't want to come there, and the land that the Lakota were corralled onto is basically worthless. Crops hardly grow and there is hardly enough grass to even have a ranch. Plus, there's the history. I learned so much of the dark history of the US while at Pine Ridge. The Lakota controlled land from Canada to Kansas and Wyoming to Minnesota. When gold was discovered in California in 1849, the Oregon Trail cut through Nebraska and the US gov't and the Lakota signed an agreement of non-violence on the trail. This evolved from removing Lakota from the trail to eventually confining them to western SD. Then, Custer illegally entered the Lakota's terrority and discovered gold in the Black Hills, which is the holiest place for the Lakota. It's their Garden of Eden and Jersulaem rolled into one. The Whites of course wanted the Black Hills to extract the gold and they tried to buy it. The Lakota refused (who would sell the wailing wall for mining?), and the US began a nasty policy called sell or starve. They basically slaughtered the buffalos throughout the plains, shooting buffaloes off of trains and just leaving thousands of carcasses to rot. The buffalo were the life source of the Lakota and as the buffalo disappeared, it became more difficult to continue the semi-nomadic life style because there main food source become more and more scarce. As it became more difficult to hunt food, they were forced onto the reservation where the government offered food. The gov't continued to take more and more land, and it culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre. In 1890 Black Foot, the chief of the Lakota tribe, led his people towards the Pine Ridge Reservation. They were intercepted by US forces and disarmed and escorted to Wounded Knee, a small valley about 10 miles from Pine Ridge. The Lakota were surrounded by troops armed with an early machine gun and at some point, a gun discharged and the US troops opened fire on the 300 unarmed men, women, and children, chasing after and killing victims up to 4 miles away from the camp. It was the last conflict between the Lakota and the US gov't.

This pillaging and massacre-ing was followed by almost a hundred years of forced assimilation by outlawing the Lakota language in schools, "adopting" (read taking) Lakota children from their parents into White families, and outlawing traditional religions and cultural activities. This all culminated in the 1970's. Two Lakotas in two seperate incidents were killed by Whites who were eventually found not guilty. This ignited a civil war on the reservation. The American Indian Movement (AIM) took over the city of Wounded Knee for 71 days as protest to governmental policies. There was a shoot out with government agents and a few casualities on both sides, but it set off a fight between Lakotas who wanted to return to a traditional lifestyle and those who wanted to be more connected with the outside world. In the 1970's there were over 70 unsolved murders as the tribe was divided and in the midst of a civil war between traditionalists and modernists. Everyone was in one camp or the other and at the time Pine Ridge was one of the most dangerous places in the US, maybe the world. Showing up as a white person would be inviting disaster. Even today, there is a tension between tradition and modernity, and although it is no longer violent, it is interesting to see some people practice traditional beliefs like sweat lodges (where lakotas sit in sauna like places and pray) and the sun dance (a traditional religious dance), while others embrace english and christianity. Interestingly enough, many people also practice a hybrid of both.

I definitely feel guilt and embarassment of what my government and relatives did and continue to do. Fortunately, I feel after being there that there is hope. I mean, if a culture and people can survive almost 100 years of violence and efforts to destroy their culture, it seems that their culture could have a rebirth with space and support from others. There are huge problems with poverty, opportunities, sexism, alcoholism, domestic abuse, and discrimination, but there are talented, hard working people fighting to improve conditions. We just have to do what we can to help and acknowledge what we have done in the past.

There are so many other interesting experiences from Pine Ridge such as the splinter University system in which teachers travel around the reservation so students don't have to and debates in the tribal council now, (done in a mix of English with a little Lakota), about opening a women's health clinic (possibly abortion clinic) on the reservation to circumvent SD laws outlawing abortion. But I ramble. Basically, it was a good experience. I don't know if it will help my research, but personally it was an important experience. I am far from an expert, but I want to learn more and hopefully some of these thoughts will help spark interest in someone else.