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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
