takin' care of business

Now I've been back in the States for about one week. My right ear remains plugged, but I'm pretty sure I'm just reacting to American allergies. I had a great family weekend at my Aunt and Uncle's place just south of the Cities, and now I am back in Minneapolis - staying with Marit and Adam, hanging out with friends, driving my car around, walking the dog, and stopping by the Electric Fetus for a visit. I also got to see Scott before he left for Nicaragua. We had rootbeer - which is hard to come by in Norway - and caught up on the past month. My friend Annie flew up from Santa Fe for the week which has been fantastic - just like old times, except that we are wiser and more prepared to save the world.

molly and belle

Here's Molly.
















And here's Belle.

a little r & r @ c c

r at home

On Monday night I landed in Chicago, IL after a long day of travel and one year away from home. My parents picked me up and we drove home to Milwaukee. The weather was just as I ordered: upper 70s, not too muggy, and sunny. As we drove home I watched the sun set for the first time in a couple months and then watched Carolina win the Stanley Cup. The next day I woke up at 5:30 after six hours of sleep and discovered that I had an enormous head cold. Wonderful! So I've been wandering around the house for two days all drugged-up. But drugged up or not, nothing was gonna stop me from having a Honey Weiss with my dinner on Tuesday night. Mmmmmm! Just what the doctor ordered!

Tomorrow we're off to Minneapolis to see more family and friends.

R

PS: I've added a link to my friend Stian's onjo on the right. Check out his adventures in Nepal.

missouri, my love

I had a weird romantic dream about Missouri yesterday.
I figure it's time to come home when I start having dreams about States in the Union that have previously meant nothing to me.

I will be leaving Norway - my adoptive homeland - on Monday morning and will be flying to Chicago via London. Hurray! I am very excited to come home for a couple of months and even more excited to drink a Honey Weiss in the backyard at 2339 N. 86th Street. (And then another in the backyard at 2904 39th Ave. South.) And since the weather over here has been horrible for over a week, I will be expecting temps soaring into the upper 70s/lower 80s. Can someone please arrange that for me? Thanks.

Klem.

PS: For a vivid and very local account of happenings in Jerusalem, Israel, check out my friend Silje's "onjo." She's linked on the right.

just a foreigner

The utlendingskontoret (office for foreigners) at the police station in Tromsø closes every day at 2:30. Not only that, but they are closed every Wednesday, as well. That makes sense. Us foreigners never need to get things done on Wednesdays, nor do we ever need to speak to anyone at - say - 3:00 or - God forbid - 3:45.

And speaking of foreigners. I've adjusted the lyrics of my favorite - well, second favorite - "Foreigner" song so they better reflect my feelings towards the utlendingskontoret here in Tromsø.

Utlendingskontoret, you're as cold as ice, you're willing to sacrifice my residence permit
You never take advice, someday you'll pay the price - by not making as much money as you could if you stayed open later, I know
I've seen it before, it happens all the time - like every Wednesday
You're closing the door really early, you leave the world of refugees and immigrants and study abroad students behind
You're digging for gold, you're throwing away time you could spend stamping my passport
A fortune in feelings, but someday you'll pay

You're as cold as ice, utlendingskontoret, you're willing to sacrifice our already rocky relationship
You want paradise, but someday you'll pay the price when you aren't able to afford a cruise in the Bahamas cause you don't work on Wednesdays, I know
I've seen it before, it happens all the time
You're closing the door quite literally in my face - and then locking it, you leave the world behind
You're digging for gold, you're throwing away
A fortune in feelings, but someday you'll pay

(solo)

Cold as ice - you know that you are, utlendingskontoret
Cold as ice - as cold as ice to me and all other foreigners in this town
Cold as ice
You're as cold as ice, cold as ice, I know, yes I know all too well
You're as cold as ice, cold as ice, I know, oh yes I know
You're as cold as ice, cold as ice, I know, oh yes I know
You're as cold as ice... (to fade)

the infamous mr. k

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Scott, Mom and Dad, Marit, Silje, and anyone else I haven't mentioned for their valiant attempts at locating Mr. Kroeger. I'll bake cinnamon buns for each one of you as a sign of my appreciation. Although our efforts were fruitless, his co-author contacted me on Friday. Ta da! She forwarded my email to him, but his actual email address remains unkown. My guess is: kent.the.man@lostinspace.com

Thanks, dudes.

Silje: Safe and productive travels to Israel.
Stian: Ditto to Nepal.

"don't let them fool ya

or even try to school ya"

On Saturday night Colin the archaeologist made dinner at the apartment. It was excellent. Then the sun came out at 10 pm for the first time in days and we all went to a crazy reggae party next to Circa and danced and had a great time.

tromsø i årene framover

I was invited to participate in a workshop about the international future of Tromsø. Like most things I do in town, I went into it not really knowing what to expect. As it turned out, there were about 25 people who represented different organizations, politics, media, art, etc. taking part in this workshop and we focused on how Tromsø was going to participate and contribute on an international level in the years to come. By the end of the workshop we had pulled out four main ideas - two completely new ideas and two ideas that are already in place - and made proposals for the mayor explaining how and why these things should happen. I was in the group that discussed the implementation and construction of a Mandela house where all different organizations, people, clubs, researchers, etc. could come together and plan and present and propose and engage and discuss and research and problem solve and raise money and feel at home, and so on and so forth, in order to provide people livining in Tromsø - where ever they are from - with a place and platform from which they can act globally in our local society. I think it is a really great idea and I hope that I can continue to contribute to its development. So this workshop was both fun and energizing. I'll keep you up to date on the development of the Mandela house during the coming months.

rock into water

don't bug me while i'm workin'

Actually, feel free to bug me as much as you want because then I don't have to look on the internet for busses to Kirkenes or hostels in Murmansk. I had a friend from Murmansk when I lived in Alta. His name was Dima and he had a helmet haircut. I wonder what happened to him.

I woke up with one of those "been grinding my teeth all night long" headaches. But I put it behind me, went to the post office, stopped and made some inquiries at the bus station, withdrew some cash from the bank, had my visa pictures taken at Preus Photo, bought Paracet at the grocery store, made lunch, watched 15 minutes of ER, ran into my friend Christian on the bus, and came to school. All of this happened between 9.55am and 10.35am.

Now I am sitting in "my office" on the second floor of the Centre for Peace Studies where there are currently three computers at my disposal, two phones, two desks, and where I am using the ac adapter from my laptop to keep warm. (It gets really hot when I have it plugged in and this room is f-f-f-f-reezing.)

It's a rainy day in Tomsø.

We talks.

i'll make cinnamon buns

for the person who can find me Kent R. Kroeger's email address. Yes, THE Kent R. Kroeger - the one, the only, the co-author of "Global Competency and Intercultural Sensitivity" as it appeared in Vol. 5, No. 2 (summer 2001) of the Journal of Studies in International Education. According to the article, itself, Kent is employed as Director of Research at Sirius Satellite Radio and is a grad student in quantitative methods at Columbia. But Kent? Where are you? Where is your email address? Why can't I find you? I'm desperate, because your co-author Christa is out of the office until mid-June and I simply can't wait that long.
Seriously, cinnamon buns (my new specialty) for the person who succeeds in finding this man's email address. And if I find it first, well...I'll make 'em for you anyway because I'll be so happy.

Later, dudes.

me? i'll be at the press conference at city hall.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I volunteered to be Redd Barna's (Save the Children's) representative at the 46664 Mandela Concert One Year Anniversary Festivities in Tromsø next weekend. But I had to go to a press conference today, where everyone involved in the celebration explained what they were going to do. It went fine. Because I am drawing pictures and making birthday cards for Nelson Mandela with kids for eight hours next weekend. Talk about hilarious and fun! In fact, I really got into the spirit when I was milling around City Hall before the press conference started and looking at some drawings that local school kids had made of "researchers." There were maybe 20 drawings and each one was more fantastic than the next. One kid drew a picture of someone researching rock and roll. Another kid drew a frustrated researcher whose head was about to explode. And another one drew a female perfume researcher who had gotten real famous. Word. So press conference or no press conference, I'd draw pictures with kids anyway.

I'll be in the Tromsø newspaper for the fourth time since August tomorrow. They can't get enough of me.

box kicking

Hanne, the 13 year old girl I tutor in English, is a kick boxer. I learned a lot about kick boxing tonight at our tutoring session. Like you start out as a yellow belt, and then when you get enough points, you move to orange, and then to green level one, and then to green level two. And then you start over at yellow - but it's adult yellow. And then adult orange, and so on and so forth. And she told me some other stuff but I'm not too good with the technical names and terminology and all that. Something about sparring and keeping your wrists facing the right way. It sounded intense.

So today is June 1. It started out kind of cloudy, but it became quite beautiful as the day went along. My goal before the 18th is to convince someone to hike (or maybe ride the fjellheis) up the mountain on the mainland at 11.30 and stay up there for the midnight sun. And then hike back down. Ooooooh, that will be great.

My friend Panama likes to put poems on her "onjo," which has inspired me to do the same. Here is one of my favorites.


Happiness. By Carl Sandburg.

I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion


The End.