gone electric

I've gone electric. Oh yeah, Merry Christmas, by the way. Anyway, I've entered the world of extreme teeth-brushing. My host parents in Alta are both in the dental business and I got a really fancy electric toothbrush from them for X-mas. It's extreme. I haven't dared try it yet. But I will.

So. How was Christmas/Hanukkuh/Festivus/Kwanza everyone? If you are reading this, then there is a great likelihood that I thought of you during this festive Holiday season...cause that's what I do during the Holidays: eat food and think of the people in my life. It's good.

Happy Holidays from the Arctic!

put on a sweater!

Growing up, my Dad always used to tell me and Marit and Mom to put on sweaters instead of cranking up the thermostat. We would usually grumble and then turn up the heat when he wasn't looking. But now I understand my Dad's wisdom...well, I mean, I've known he was wise for a long time, but this thermostat wisdom makes much more sense to me now. I've become my Dad, you see. My roommate Vibeke loves to turn the heat WAY up, and when she's not looking, I turn it down and put on a sweater or crawl under a blanket. When I see 28 degrees celsius registering on the heater my skin begins to crawl because I know that means a monster heating bill next month...and can I afford a monster heating bill??? NO, I CAN'T! So Vibeke, why don't you put on a sweater?

more hydrocortisone, please

Let's play a game. It's called "What Is Rachel Allergic To?!"
I'll give you the first three for free: cat slobber, dust, penecillin.
Now you have to figure out the last one. I'll give you some hints. It made my hands break out in an itchy, red rash for three weeks this summer. It kept me awake at night. It isn't laundry detergent. It isn't chocolate. It isn't contagious. It came back last night and I, yet again, woke myself up itching my hands so bad they turned pink. So far it has only affected the spot between my middle fingers and pointer fingers.

OK, so what is it?! First one to figure it out wins a million dollars!

jesus henderson

I had an email waiting for me in bulk mail today from Jesus Henderson. He wanted to tell me about enhancement pills. I wanted to tell him that if Jesus had a last name, it certainly wouldn't have been Henderson. It would have been del Cielo or Christos or Murphy or something. So Mr. Henderson, stop trying to sell me enhancement pills. Just cause your first name is Jesus doesn't make me interested. Plus, I'm a girl.

melting ice

I attended a seminar yesterday at the Norwegian Polar Environment Center in Tromsø about something called the Arctic Climate Impact Assesment (ACIA). Researchers, meteorologists, scientists, and biologists told the harrowing story of melting ice and rising temperatures in the Arctic and explained that by the year 2040, if not sooner, there may not be any summer ice in the Arctic. The charts and graphs and maps are astonishing and the effects will be bad. Real bad.

Later in the day I received an email in my NUFF Global account from a science teacher in Oregon who told me that the National Science Teachers Association in the U.S. turned down 50,000 free copies of the film "An Inconvenient Truth" because they are worried about losing money from special interests like Exxon. That means that 50,000 science teachers across the country lose out on a valuable and effective tool in relaying important information to American school kids about what is actually going on on this planet - something their current administration likes to ignore and deny. That's 50,000 science teachers times 20 to 30 kids per class...and then some.

If you feel inclined, feel free to send an email to Mr. Wheeler at gwheeler@nsta.org and tell him to take his mind off of political special interests and start thinking about the special interests of young people.

yee-haw!

My sextet preformed at the med. school faculty Christmas party on Friday night. Well, Christmas party isn't the best translation. In Norway there's this thing called a "julebord" which translates directly and awkwardly to "Christmas Table." "Christmas Table" is basically an excuse to dress fancy and get drunk with your co-workers or friends or whoever, so the fact that my sextet was singing two hours into the all-night event was not a good sign. (That's just when they're starting to get hammered.) I didn't think much of it, but the rest of my choir-mates were outraged over the fact that - surprise surprise - nobody gave a crap that we were there! OK, a few people were listening to the lovely sounds of Tromsø Vocal Ensemble, but the rest of the "audience" was pretty satisfied with the sound of booze going down the hatch. Glug, glug, glug.

After promptly exiting the stage, my director turned to the rest of us and asked: "What the hell is this?! A rodeo??"

I thought: "Yep. Pretty much."

nap time

I am about to turn in the last paper of my life. Except for my thesis, which doesn't count. I've gotten to the point where I don't care at all what kind of grade I get on this paper, because I've learned something and can basically just cut and paste it into my thesis. And that's what matters!

Otherwise, I'm gonna take a nice, long nap this afternoon.

Good night.

all that work...

...for nothing! I spent a good three hours researching a film I hadn't seen so that I could write a film description for it. And now they tell me that they had to drop the film.
BLACK SHEEP isn't imaginary, but I'm entering it in IFF '07 anyway.

21st century Berlin serves as the backdrop for this black comedy where five unrelated tales unfold before our eyes. We meet a curious cast of characters including Boris, a former hand model, Charlotte, a tour barge announcer whose boyfriend is an alcoholic, a Satanist named Fred, a couple of cannabis-crazed contemporary hippies, and a crew of sex-starved punks who end up in more trouble than they bargained for. In true Berlin fashion, anarchy reins king as the characters of BLACK SHEEP yearn for love, fame, money, and sex. And in the true spirit of the film, the characters we come to care about fail miserably. Or do they?

did i say those words?

I needed to take a break from translating film descriptions so I decided to read Slate.com. I found a bunch of Bushisms. Here is my favorite one:

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

Yep.

hoopy boothday!

I have to give a couple birthday shout-outs.
My dear friend Annie turns 25 today.
And the bestest sister on the planet turns 28 tomorrow.



Happy Birthdays,
dudes.
(Hope you like this picture I chose of you from the Super America parking lot, M.)


PS: IFF '07 will NOT be a three film festival, so keep 'em coming.