a thousand miles behind

my favorite holiday

2007-11-22T01:51:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it.
But I haven't been able to celebrate it properly for a few years now. This is distressing to me. But on the other hand, being away from home has made me concentrate on the inner meaning of the holiday. Indeed, Thankgsiving seems a little bare minus the food, football, and family, but it also reminds me how thankful I am to have what I have, to be who I am, and to live the life I live. I am a thankful person everyday, but especially so today.

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing many of you in a couple weeks!

Love from R

tromsø minus one

2007-10-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Scott, one of the greatest guys on the planet, is leaving Tromsø tomorrow and going to Spain. Even though I'm gonna miss him terribly, I am excited for his next adventure! And I get to see him in MN in December, so that makes me happy. Despite the fact that we went to Luther College together for three years, we didn't really become friends until we both ended up way above the Arctic Circle for two years of grad school and fun. And I'm glad it happened that way.

Have a great time on your next adventure, Scotty. You'll be missed.

murmurs in murmansk, cont.

2007-10-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

Murmansk is a pastel city. Most of the buildings are grey, but every once and a while they are pink or light green or baby blue or maybe even pale yellow. Red or orange or any other bright colors can mostly only be found on signs or clothing. Considering that this is a city situated well above the arctic cirlce, the pale colors don't do much to warm up the place. Luckily for us, we arrived on the first day the city turned on the heat. All heating is controlled centrally, so when there have been three days in a row of 32 degrees F the city turns on the heat. The smoke stacks in town were spewing out black smoke. One of the Russian Save the Children employees assured me that the smoke was usually white (which was only mildly comforting to hear.)

Murmansk is beautiful in its paleness and I guess it makes you appreciate human warmth even more. It is a place where I feel particularily reflective and at peace. (Except when driving throught the city center, which is a chaotic experience at best.) Being in Murmansk is, in many ways, like being on a different planet.

And I revere the stoic solemnity of the place.

ok, dad, no more creepy meatball

2007-10-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

My dad has informed me that the meatball is too creepy. I still get a kick out of it, but I understand how it might be...well, terrifying to some.

So, here is a new post!

I went to Murmansk, Russia last week. I was there about a year ago, so it was really great to go back and see some of the same kids and people. The highlight of the trip was a visit to school #16 in Abram-Mis where we are working on setting up a cooperation between the school and Save the Children. I will write some more in another post.

things occupying my mind lately

2007-09-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

A smiling meatball.

A huge baby (born in Russia and weighed 17 lbs).

My new haircut (here with my friend Kristian who is like 7 feet tall).

the plan

2007-09-06T01:47:00.000-07:00

Assuming my work permit comes through, I will be staying in Norway for a while longer. I got a job working for the organization I have been volunteering for since I moved to Tromsø - Save the Children. This is very exciting because I know the organization well and and have invested quite some time in it, too. My tasks are varied and I will be kept quite busy. I will also get to travel around a bit. A trip back to Murmansk, Russia is scheduled for October....again, assuming I have my work permit by then. But I will be back in MN for most of the month of December and I look forward to that a great deal.

In other news, I will be changing addresses yet again. I will not post the address here, but if you want the new one because you want to send me mix cds or peanutbutter cups or hilarious home-made t-shirts, just send me an email. The place I am moving into is just north of downtown and I will have one roommate (who I have yet to meet). He is apparently a busy, friendly, and laid-back dude. Sounds good to me.

There is snow on the mountains now. The end of August was very cold and it looks like it might stay that way for a while. But I love this time of year. It smells so good outside. I was down in southern Norway last weekend for the Save the Children national meeting in a place called Gjøvik, which is on the biggest lake in Norway (Mjøsa). I thought I had gotten so used to and comfortable with the smell of the sea, but when I got to the edge of the lake I took in a deep breath and thought: Home.
It smelled like home. Freshwater and pine trees. That smell fueled me through the weekend.

i know, i know, i know

2007-08-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

So I have been a pretty crappy onjo-er lately. My bad. But there hasn't been too much exciting news to onjo about. I just got home to Tromsø after being in Alta for a few days. I have posted some pictures below. It was a relaxing time. A little rock and roll, some fiskekaker, reindeer (both dead and alive), some really dumb sheep (both dead and alive), and a few movies. Alta has a new movie complex - and when I say complex, I mean one big theater and two little ones. And there is a brand new student union, too. It's real nice. So Alta - the ugliest town in Norway the year I lived there - is becoming a bustling metropolis. Or, at least slightly more attractive. The guitarist in the one picture is my AFS cousin Sigbjørn. He was like 9 years old when I lived in Alta and now he plays in a rock band called Red Metal.

meatmarket

2007-08-07T03:56:00.000-07:00

If you are a smart Norwegian (or American) you will travel to the border towns of Enontekio, Kilpisjarvi and Karesuando to buy meat and booze. It is much cheaper there. But Daniel and I went on business. We are writing an article about border runs for Daniel's paper, GRUS. We went to three grocery stores, two gas stations, one liquor store and then Daniel chased a reindeer into the woods and we drove home. I also bought a Finnish wilderness t-shirt which I think says "fox" in Finnish.

russian kids and a rainy festival

2007-07-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

I spent a few days in a town called Melbu this past week with some of the Russian kids I met while in Murmansk last September. 16 of them had been invited to Norway to take part in a festival where they got to participate in some dance and theater classes. Most of the boys are big into break dancing and I even learned a couple moves, myself. The girls also like to dance and had started learning some of the break dancing moves, as well. Kto zis glavny! (That means: "Who's the boss?")

This is my new haircut. I got some weird bangs that like to do their own thing. It's cool though...I don't mind.

This past weekend was Bukta Festival. It rained pretty much the entire time, but most everyone managed to make the best of it. I wasn't really excited about much of the music, but Calexico was fantastic and Iggy and the Stooges were totally extreme and crazy. That dude is skinny and leathery. Like an alien.

4 something in the morning

2007-07-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 4 something this morning and couldn't sleep. I don't feel very tired, I guess. But my sleeping patterns have been anything but normal lately and I will probably take a long nap in the middle of the day...which will of course screw up tonight's sleep. But since I'm awake I'm gonna get things done. Might paint a while or finish an application or bake something.

Good morning.

me as cat

2007-07-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

If I'd been a cat I would have looked like this. I tried to get a good picture of its crossed eye but wasn't able to capture it very well. You can kind of see it in this picture. This cat followed me and Kari for a block or so. It was a very affectionate kitty.

more smrprty

2007-06-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is my view during the summer.

All pictures shown here were taken between 11.30pm and 1.00 am.

smrprty

2007-06-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Mack øl. Proudly touting their claim to fame: The World's Northern-most Brewery! And it's summer again which means that Mack is brewing caseload after caseload of their famous (or not) "smrprty." In case you can't see it, "smrprty" is an abbreviation and combination of the two words "summer" and "party." We like smrprty. Not because it tastes good but because of its name. When we say it, we try as much as possible to eliminate all vowel sounds.

Now you say it.

In the previous onjo post you can see that both Silje and Anders find delight in their smrprty.

idyllic midsummer

2007-06-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was Sankthans here in Norway. It was kind of a gray day, but just past 11pm the sky started breaking up and the lighting was amazing. The next day was the hottest day I've experienced in the Arctic. Ever.

just call me south point r

2007-06-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

I have moved to Sydspissen (the south point of the island) and have a new address. However, becuase there are some creepies out there on the www I won't post my new address here. Just remember, if you need to get in touch with me via snail mail, contact me for the new address first!

I have welcomed myself back to nature with a quiet post-thesis evening at the house.
It's absolutely fantastic.

master

2007-06-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is me before I went in for my master thesis oral exam at 15.00.

This is me after I came out of the exam room at 16.01. Dude. I'm a master. Call me Master R.

(And yes, Master R wears her grandma's sunglasses sometimes. Don't worry, it's cool.)

flag day?

2007-06-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Today is Flag Day.
Now, I don’t really know what that means.
I think we are supposed to celebrate the flag.
Or something.
But I have always known the day better as my mom’s birthday.
Yes, today is June 14th and it is Kathleen’s birthday!
She’s a better reason to celebrate than the flag.

My mom, the former Richfield High cheer leader extraordinaire, exceptional cook, registered home health care nurse, jazzercise expert, (soon-to-be) drummer, Motown-lover, fast-walker, cozy-nest-maker, father-daughter look-alike contest winner, advice-giver, blonde babe has a birthday today.

I wish everyone could be lucky enough to have – or even just know – a mom like mine. She is one of the most compassionate, patient, and generous people I know.
I strive to be like her.

Happy birthday, mom.

Love from R

oh canada

2007-06-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

This week I've hung out with a lot of Canadians. They are in town for the Nordic Youth Film Fest Global and I found out that my Canadian geography sucks and that a "two-four" is Canadian for a case of beer. Two of them have started their own green architecture education firm and made a film about it, one lives in Mozambique and made a film about climate change in South Africa, two made a film about the mountain pine beetle which is devastating Canadian forrests, and one dude was just along for the ride.

Here are some pics from the past few days. Antlers, sunshine, Gatas Parlament, dancing, Canadians.

done with one thing, moving on to the next

2007-06-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

I submitted my thesis today (hurray!) and dive head-first into the Nordic Youth Film Festival. It's been a lot of work and it will continue to be a lot of work, but I am ready for the challenge (I hope). I'll let you know how I feel on June 11th, I guess.

If you want to read the thesis, send me an email and I can send it to you. I'm not super hip about posting it on the onjo or anything.

Happy June and I hope the weather is as beautiful where you are as it is where I am!

official: midnight sun

2007-05-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

It's official. The midnight sun has started in Tromsø. And yesterday there really was sun at midnight. Not that I saw it. I have, afterall, taken to sitting on my mattress on the floor (had to give my bed away) and typing on my computer. Why would I go hang out in the sun when I can type on my computer???

SinceI don't have anything exciting to say except that a multivariate analysis of variance was performed on the different villages with regard to the Intercultural Proficiency scales, I will just post some pictures.

iceland two

2007-05-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

iceland one

2007-05-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

explanation!

2007-05-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an EXPLANATION! I haven't been writing much lately cause I'm busy trying to finish my master's thesis. And working with this youth film fest. So I just thought I'd explain why I haven't been and probably won't be writing much for the next few weeks. But when summer comes I will be back it it so that I can keep you all updated with regards to the midnight sun and the view from the South Point of the island. Hurray!

rei-dunebuggy

2007-04-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

My hilarious friend Reidun has an onjo. I've added her to the list of links on the right side. Read it because she's an American living in Finland and we all know how much Americans like to make fun of Finns. (Right, Mj?!)

and by "A" I mean "D"

2007-04-23T02:52:00.000-07:00

Oh no. I did it.
I created an account on Facebook even though I swore I never would. I was able to resist it four years ago or whatever when it was the rage in the U.S. But ALAS! I couldn't resist it here in Norway when it became popular...oh...approximately last Monday afternoon at 15.37.
Oh well. I tried.

Now I'm gonna finish my thesis. And by "finish my thesis" I mean "add friends on fartbook."

dark outside

2007-04-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

citizen of the world

2007-04-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

If you were born in the tax-free store on a ship floating in international waters, then I think you'd be a citizen of the world. Right?

to d

2007-04-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

It's my Dad's birthday today. The 12th of April.
Happy birthday, D!

If I was in Wauwatosa, then we'd have a Leinie's and some hotdogs. Then you could play your electric guitar and we'd have a jam session. I'd play the knee drums. And then, after that, we'd go on a walk around the neighborhood, followed by dessert and a dvd. That's what we'd do.

If you were in Tromsø, then we'd have a Mack and some chili-nuts. Then we'd walk around town and up to the top of the island. I'd give you a tour and you could practice your Norwegian: "jeg liker ost." And then, after that, we could go out for pizza and beer with my friends. You'd like them. That's what we'd do.

You're the best.

Love,
R

i've deleted you as a friend

2007-04-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

I've deleted you as a friend (on Facebook)

How many friends do you have?
What?!
You only have 23 friends?
What kind of a person only has 23 friends?
You must be lame.
None of my 835 friends are lame.
And my favorite book is Anna Karenina.
And my favorite band is obscure.
You haven't heard of them.
And if you're lame,
Then I'm gonna delete you as a friend (on Facebook).

Deleted.

me (by daniel)

2007-04-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

flames were shooting out

2007-03-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Duluth News Tribune. I've highlighted my favorite parts.

Ten-year-old Becky Engle was paddling in the water park at the Edgewater Resort and Hotel in Duluth Thursday night when she saw something funny — black smoke pouring from the top of the park’s centerpiece volcano.

Seconds later, Becky was running from the water park along with plenty of other guests because flames were shooting out of the top of the volcano.

“Just like a real one,” said Becky’s friend, Angela Beckman, 11.

Unlike a real volcano, the one at The Edge water park, 2400 London Road, is equipped with lights and speakers. One of those electrical speakers caught fire about 7 p.m., resort General Manager Leanne Joynes said.

“We experienced a small technical difficulty,” Joynes said, though the Edgewater planned to reopen the water park at 8 a.m. today after the place airs out. Viewed through emergency doors that had been propped open, a smoky haze hung over the water park.

No one was hurt as hundreds of guests were evacuated, though many were left standing outside wearing only their swimsuits. Eric Markman, 8, of Sartell, Minn., still wore his swimming goggles as he, his brother Matthew and mother Kathy shivered their way across the parking lot toward the nearby Perkins Family Restaurant. All three were barefoot and wearing wet swim suits, though they were wrapped in blankets handed out by resort staff members.

vampire

2007-03-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

A Vampire Has Bitten Most Of My T-shirts

A Vampire has bitten most of my t-shirts.
He takes them out of the washing machine
bites them
and puts them back in before I notice.

My red shirt
has two fang marks
right in the middle.
When I put it on over my head
light shines through the holes.
. .

The Vampire doesn't bite my pants.

the metropolis (continued)

2007-03-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

I lovingly refer to Oslo as "the metropolis."

metropolis

2007-03-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

I think Marit forced me to watch the 1927 film "Metropolis" once after she rented it from the Duluth Public Library. I know I've seen it and I wouldn't have rented it myself, so it must have been her. She was always picking out movies like that. One day it was "The Name of the Rose" (which I definitely shouldn't have seen as a nine year old) and the next it was "The Mission" or "The Seventh Seal" or something. If it was black and white, weird, or depressing, she forced me to watch it. And all I really wanted to see was "The Black Stallion" or "The Man from Snowy River".

the war school

2007-03-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

As a student of "peace and love and some other abstract crap like that" I was totally obliged to visit the War School in Oslo. Oddly enough, I know two gentlemen who work there and who happen to share an office. Andre (or Dr. Dre, as we like to call him) used to live with Hanne and me in Tromsø and is a fellow "peace and crap" student. He's a "fixer" and has the mentality of a New Yorker. The other is Hans Olav, the only non-biological brother I have in this world. He's so into skydiving that he probably won't come to Tromsø this summer despite an open invitiation. The two of them sit in their office all day planning wars.

methodology

2007-03-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

There's a conference at the Centre for Peace Studies right now about peace research methodology. What is it? Is it transdisciplinary? Is it qualitative? Quantitative? A mix? The director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) gave a very good presentation this morning that touched on the basics of peace research methodology and I thought to myself: "This info sure would have been useful a year ago." Ba dam bam ching! I have a plan to make money off of this recently gained methodological info, in fact.

In other news: I'm going to Oslo this weekend for a couple days. "Save the Children" is paying the bill.

slimer

2007-03-16T04:57:00.000-07:00

I was just sharing some candies with my friend Stian and he kept making this weird smacking noise with his mouth. Then he explained that eating sugary candies makes his mouth slimy. Then I realized that my mouth gets slimy, too. It's pretty gross, actually. Then we got on the subject of Slimer from Ghost Busters.

googly eyeballs

2007-03-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

There's nothing better than wearing googly eyeballs.

three sentence updates

2007-03-08T01:55:00.000-08:00

I slept for almost 12 hours last night. It was the first lazy evening I've had since returning from the States. I watched some TV, ate some chocolate pudding, and went to bed early.

Scott and I played at Driv two nights ago. We covered Fiona Apple's Paper Bag - a song that was introduced to me by Molly Yergens. Thanks, Molly.

I ate a big breakfast this morning. Someone told me that you should eat lots in the morning to fuel you for the day, and eat less at night. I thought I'd test out this theory.

I'm going to a cpr/first aid training course tonight. It's free and I've been certified before, so I might as well renew. Then I can save people.

very sexy, okay, okay

2007-03-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

through the yard

through the yard of blonde girls

through the river and the sea

gold sharks glittering

a tree of white

breaks the earth

the streets where lola played

it's in your heart

it's in your art, your beauty

even in this world of lies

there's purity

you've got innocence

in your eyes

even in this world of lies

you're still hopeful

very sexy, okay, okay

(Jeff Buckley)

little big sister from the north

2007-03-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

My host sis Kari came to visit for the weekend. We went to a concert, attended a birthday bash, saw some seals, stayed at a hotel for free, ate good food (my appetite is back), and spent time with friends. Most excellent!

the long draw

2007-03-01T02:28:00.000-08:00

I had blood drawn today, but nothing came out. So I had to clench and release my fist over and over again until they got some to come out. It took five minutes. I'm glad my nurse wasn't creepy and smiling like this one.

cue the horns

2007-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

Scott and I are trying to assemble the most outrageous band Tromsø has ever seen. We have selected the song (that was the easy part) but we are currenlty lacking drums, cowbell, bass guitar, maybe another electric guitar, and if my lips are in as bad shape as I think they are, someone who can crank out some riffs on a trumpet. (I'll see what I can muster, though.) Oh, and organ/keyboard and back-up vocals.

So for those keeping score, we have one guitar, lead vocals, and some dude Scott knows who apperntly plays the trombone. We're getting close!

from bottomless pit to complete loss of appetite

2007-02-26T00:48:00.000-08:00

Just about a week ago I felt like I could eat anything. And everything. And did. [Recall the hickory burger with a side of mac and cheese, a popover, a slice of pie, and two margaritas....a very hungry caterpillar, that's for sure.] But for the past five days I have had absolutely no appetite. This is a kind of scary feeling for me 'cause I have never lost my appetite to this extent before. Sure, for a day or so because I had the flu or something. But this is just plain weird. So I am forcing myself to eat food despite its complete lack of appeal. Perhaps I need someone to make me a hickory burger. Mmmmm. It actually sounds sort of good, so that might just be a good sign.

stateside

2007-02-23T04:38:00.000-08:00

the bottomless pit

2007-02-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've been in the States for 48 hours and have already consumed enough comfort food to last me until June...or tomorrow, when I plan on eating some more comfort food. Tove and I and our friend/co-worker, Randi, went to Threadgills for dinner last night. It's apparently quite the Austin establishment. Here's what I ate (and mind you, I had not eaten much at all during the previous 48 hours, so I was kind of hungry) : A large hickory burger with loads of bbq sauce, cheddar cheese, and bacon, and instead of fries on the side I opted for something else from the "vegetables" category on the menu: macaroni and cheese (they really do call it a veggie). Plus two margaritas, a popover, and some strawberry/rhubarb pie. I ate it all and had enough energy left over to sing along with every song the Bealtes cover band played. It was delightful.

I gave my presentation today and was very pleased with how it went. It was a relatively small group, but the three of us presenters complemented each other very nicely. The people in attendance seemed to enjoy it.

I head to Arizona tomorrow and can't wait to see my family!

the brakes

2007-02-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

I got up at 4.30 this morning, was delayed almost two hours in Tromsø, and made it to Oslo knowing that I had already missed my flight across the Atlantic. But wait! I hadn't missed my flight cause it was delayed for three hours because of the brakes! Just my luck. But then they couldn't fix the brakes at all, and by 6.00pm I was on my way to the airport hotel for the night. Let's try again tomorrow.

I'm exhausted. Sick of standing in lines ALL day long. Haven't had anything to eat. And just want to get to the warmth. Get me out of this country!

It's 8.00 pm or something and I'm going to bed.

disqualified!

2007-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Today was the day: the Norwegian reindeer racing championships down main street in Tromsø. I'd waited for this day for a year. Despite the fact that I'm trying to get myself on a plane to the U.S. tomorrow morning and have packing and tons of other stuff to do, I HAD to see the races. And this year I got video footage! It's incredible!

I also found out from Tove that her favorite reindeer from last year had been disqualified. What? A reindeer disqualified? I assumed that it must have done something bad...like hired a hit man to smash the other reindeer's knees. Or taken steroids.
Nope.
It was a Finnish reindeer. No Finnish reindeer allowed in the Norwegian championship, duh.

So I'm off to Texas tomorrow. Wish me luck. I still haven't finished my presentation and have nothing to wear. So I guess I'll just stand naked in front of everyone and sing them some Roxette.

the jets/rockets

2007-02-06T02:06:00.000-08:00

I had an experience yesterday that reminded me of my soccer coaching days. (My friend Sarah and I coached a team of 8 and 9 year old boys back when we were college students in Iowa. I'll get back to that later.) The experience that reminded me of this was a free-for-all in a small gym with 30 kids and two shell-shocked adult figures. I have signed up to do this "homework help" thing at a local elementary school through the Red Cross and Save the Children, and yesterday was the first day. After the tomato soup had been consumed and the rules and schedule had been thoroughly discussed, one of the leaders made the mistake of asking the kids: "So, what do you guys want to do now?" to which the ENTIRE group responded with a resounding: "GYM!" and then promptly launched themselves out of their seats, through the door, and down two flights of stairs. They then proceeded to take out every ball they could find in the equipment room and turn the gym into a battlezone. I covered my head and ran for safety.

After approximately 15 minutes of ball insanity, I managed somehow to get their attention and told them that gym was over.

At times, this soccer team - who couldn't decide if they wanted to be called the Decorah Jets or the Decorah Rockets and ultimately landed on the Decorah Jets/Rockets - was equally crazy. Sarah and I would often find ourselves laughing hysterically at the out-of-control-ness of the situation and would make up some ridiculous drill involving pile-ons and traffic cones in order to tame the beasts.

I could have used some traffic cones yesterday.

in front of the kebab seller

2007-02-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

In Front of the Kebab Seller - a poem

Yes. Wear that jacket.

Even though it's a windbreaker and it's cold outside.

Wear that jacket cause you look awesome in it.

Awesome.

No. We don't want kebabs.

Even though it's cold outside and we're kind of hungry.

We don't want kebabs cause we're afraid of mystery meat.

Afraid.

x-treme america!

2007-01-31T03:57:00.000-08:00

I'm going to the States in about a week and I'm trying to prepare myself for the impending culture shock. I wouldn't worry so much about this if I were going to Minneapolis or Milwaukee, but I am flying into New York and then going south to Texas - from "yikes" to "yeehaw." That's like going to Afghanistan and being picked up at the airport by the Taliban, or being teleported into the middle of a beer-chugging contest during Oktoberfest in Deutschland. Extreme, to say the least. But I'm not one to shy away from a little extremity. (I just gave the word a new meaning.) I really only have to deal with New York for a few hours, and I'm going to Austin, Texas, which is the least Texas-like place in the State - or so I've heard. But anyway, if they don't mess with me, I won't mess with them.

green is the new blue

2007-01-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

Blue used to be my favorite color, but now I prefer green...hence the new appearance of my "onjo." I hope you like the updated look!

meatball delight

2007-01-29T03:03:00.000-08:00

Some guy recently added a McSweeney list about meatballs, which got me thinking about this classic old song.

On Top of Spaghetti

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze.

My questions is: What are you doing tasting something that was sneezed on, then rolled on the floor and under a bush, and that was eventually squashed into some grody meatball mush? That's nasty.

gracias a la vida

2007-01-27T02:25:00.000-08:00

I thought I might see the sun today for the first time in over two months, but then the clouds rolled in. But that doesn't make me sad or anything, I guess. It just means that when I see it next it will last even longer than it would have today. It is true that no matter where you live on this planet you will receive the same amount of sunlight in the course of one year...the summer makes up for the winter, or vice versa depending on how you look at it.

power pointy kitty

2007-01-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

I've been acquainting myself with PowerPoint lately in an attempt to look somewhat professional at this conference I'm presenting at in Texas. I've done PowerPoint before, but it was for some lame-o class presentation about corporal punishment (aka spankin' your kids, for the proletariat out there) so I didn't put much effort into it. But this time around I'm going hard core. Pictures, graphs, quotes, funny joke slides to get the audience laughing, you name it. It's gonna be AWESOME!

But seriously, I think it would be rad - I mean, if I actually had time for this sort of nonsense - to make PowerPoint presentations about every aspect of my life and then make people come over and watch them. Like I could make one about my bus ride to school this morning, or about the meeting I went to last night, or I could even make a PowerPoint presentation about making my PowerPoint presentation. I would make some cool ones, too. Like a PartyPowerPoint. Anyway, you get the picture.

Here I've included a PowerPoint slide from the Breakfast Club of Regina. I like that the toast is wearing a necktie.

post film fest

2007-01-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

Hi. Now that Tromsø International Film Festival is finished, I can catch up on some onjo-ing. I saw some good films, a couple of great films, and a lot of short films. I don't really see the point of choosing a favorite, but I will recommend a few to you.

"The Cats of Mirikitani" - about an elderly Japanese-American artist who spent much of his life living on the streets of New York and drawing pictures of cats and his internment camp in California.

"Chronicle of an Escape" - about four men who are victims of torture at a detention camp during the Argentinian coup d'état of 1976 and how they ultimately escape.

"...More than 1000 Words" follows two years in the life of world-famous Israeli photo journalist Ziv Koren.

If you ever get a chance to see any of these ones, do it.

sleeping under a fake fur blanket

2007-01-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Panama is working at the film fest this week and staying at my apartment. I'm letting her borrow my blanket, which means that I am using this black, fake fur blanket that showed up at our apartment when I got back from Alta. Sometimes if I wake up during the night I get startled by the fake fur, thinking it's an animal or that I have become a wolf or something. But then I remember where I am and what the deal is.

I googled "fake fur blanket" just for the hell of it and found a picture of one that looks almost exactly like the one I am using. I like that someone wanted to take a picture of it.

creepy man wearing slippers

2007-01-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

The front page story in today's paper is about a man who has been creeping around Kvaløya and breaking into people's houses to steal cash and credit cards while wearing red and green slippers. They already call him "Slipper Man." I wish I could include the newspaper graphic they made of this dude in my onjo...it's a short, shadowy, grey-toned, faceless man wearing bright red and green checkered slippers. And since the slippers are the most important characteristic of this guy, the graphic artist has chosen to include a couple of "sparkle stars" for emphasis...you know, those three-line stars that are supposed to indicate that something is shiny or important. Well, there's one of those on each slipper. Rad.

If I can get ahold of the graphic, I'll be sure to include it.

AND GUESS WHAT!! I don't have to move, afterall. Hanne found a replacement for her room and Vibeke has agreed to stay, as well. The replacement is, oddly enough, a former peace and conflict student called Hanne. Weird, but makes life easy for me...no new names to learn.

where is the yellow river?

2007-01-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

The Yellow River starts in southwestern Winneshiek County, Iowa and then flows through southern Allamakee County. It joins the Mississippi River near Marquette and Effigy Mounds National Monument.

Last night Tove sang a song about the Yellow River at a song night at one of the local pubs in town. I didn't know what to expect going into this evening of song, but it was really fun and, at times, totally hilarious. I joined her on stage for a second number leading the audience through a Skogfjorden classic, Jeg Plantet et Tre. In my opinion, Tove stole the show.

Sometimes I miss Iowa.

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2007-01-08T04:51:00.000-08:00

Time to "turn and face the strain."
My roommate, Hanne, is moving to Oslo soon, and she and Vibeke and I have decided that the best and most financially lucrative option for all three of us is to give up our wonderful apartment in the middle of downtown Tromsø. This isn't an easy decision, but it is the best one, I think. So, as of March 1st, I will have a new address. I don't know what that address will be, but I will let you know as soon as I know. For the time being, I'm gonna soak up my last month-and-a-half in our penthouse suite overlooking Kongeparken.

Send me good apartment-finding vibes and keep your fingers crossed that I can adjust to new surroundings, write my thesis, work, and volunteer at the same time.

PS: Thanks for the Chex Mix, Grandma and Grandpa!

IFF '07 resurrected (uncle john's entry)

2007-01-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

Apocalypto I Tystnad

en film av Ingmar Bergman

When Bergman made "Jungfrukällan," based on a folksong, he called it an homage to Kurosawa, while some saw reflections of his earlier, angry-young-man films like "Hets," "Kris" or even "Kvinna utan Ansikte," which was praised as "förtjusande omoget ibland."

Now at the Götterdämmerung of his career, Bergman has again confounded the critics and legions of aging film professors by shifting time periods, thematic elements and whole continents.

Having worked with American Actors before so pointlessly in "The Serpent’s Egg," ("Das Schlangenei") Bergman wrote the entire mise en scene based on an Aztec headdress he saw in The Old Shaman Store in the Atlanta Airport while he was in exile from the Swedish Tax Authorities.

What resulted was a radically atypical movie for a man who has devoted his long and illustrious career to breaking down barriers between sanity and depression, between being able to cope and wanting to curl up in the corner of a stone church in Uppland and calling on a God in whom you no longer believe.

While lacking Mel Gibson’s ecstatic/psychotic visions of Grand Guignol theo-catharsis, Bergman has the maturity to see through the outward paint and pyramidicall glitter of a sacrificial religion into the heart of those trapped in a system that their fathers were so good at, but which they don’t quite appreciate.

Foregoing the easy options of topless maidens in the tropics, Bergman has set "Ur majoretternas liv" not in the Yucatan jungle, but in the pre-Christian forests of Uppsala.

Bear Paw, the chief of the Viking raiders, is a reluctant slave trader who has lost faith in his community’s Vinterblot, the great sacrificial orgy of midwinter near the grave tumuli of the great chieftains.

Plagued by doubts, Bear Paw confesses his doubts to his wife, Synnove Snowbakken: "I go into the sacred grove to have Thor dissolve my resistance, to try to bond with Odin, the father figure I can never please enough, but my faith scurries away like mice when you throw Lutfisk at them.

"Our attempts to please the Aesir are futile. Life is futile. Spring will come again whether or not we sacrifice a single horse, let alone a person. This cannot go on."

The color has leached out of the film until this final scene when there is no color left, save flashes of Euros being pushed across the ticket office desk by Graduate Students in Film Studies desperate for a new Thesis for their Doctoral papers.

Cahiers du Cinema hails it as a masterpiece, "Entertainment Tonight" interviews the third girl from the left in the great Viking raid on Paris, and Pat Robertson issues a Fatwa against the pagan Scandinavians for endangering his trade in blood diamonds and African gold.

blåmerke

2007-01-02T02:11:00.000-08:00

Ouch. I rammed my left thigh into the corner of the couch this morning. It's gonna leave a really pretty blåmerke.

Happy New Year! I brought in 2007 with Panama, Hanne, Marjaana, chicken tandoori, red wine, and fireworks. It was a fun and fairly exhausting evening. There was a huge "2006" sign (made out of torches I would imagine) on the moutainside on the mainland that changed magically to "2007" at the stroke of midnight. I wondered about the people up there whose job it was to extinguish some of the torches so the 6 became a 7. Brrrrrrr.
I have spent a few New Year's Eves looking down from a mountaintop, but this time I was gazing up at one. If I choose to interpret that metaphorically, which I do, then I assume it means that I will face some challenges during the coming year. But to be honest, that sounds really good to me. Perhaps I've been cool-breezin' a little too much as of late. So, to my metaphoric fortune I say simply: bring it on.

Peace.

incognito

2007-01-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

gone electric

2006-12-27T03:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-12-21T02:28:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-13T04:29:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-12-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-07T02:51:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-12-04T00:56:00.000-08:00

...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?

2006-12-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-12-01T05:18:00.000-08:00

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.

IFF '07 (jay's contribution)

2006-11-30T01:41:00.000-08:00

The collaborative film debut of acclaimed stage director Peter A. Maritson and edgy, avant-garde cinematographer Eve Quick documents an existential journey in winter-dark northern Norway in TAKE A BUS TO ALTA (2006), the much-anticipated entry in this year’s Imaginary Film Festival. A young man, Nils, played in a dangerously disarming way by newcomer Collin Eric Peterson finds himself thousands of miles removed from friends, family and home in a strangely familiar, yet oddly unsettling place. His search for nourishment and human warmth at Christmastime becomes something quite unexpected.

The sinister issues of man’s inhumanity to man, and peace and conflict edge like knives into the mind of our protagonist as the dark and claustrophobic hours pass on a six-hour bus trip. Passenger interactions play out dramas that eerily reflect all that happens in our world in a larger sense. Are the images in the bus window ghostly apparitions, or simply reflections of other passengers . . . ? or both? The usually reclusive Director Maritson, in an uncharacteristically outspoken interview commented, “I was just so sick of that Hallmark Christmas crap that I felt compelled to bring my own vision to the iconic Christmas journey story.” In the end, our hero Nils, finds what he was looking for. But was he looking for what he finds?

IFF '07 (mj's contribution)

2006-11-29T03:53:00.000-08:00

THE MESSAGE (2006) Can one message change the course of your entire lifetime? The question that many don't dare to ask is challenged in this small-budget movie. The story takes place in a small town in Northern Norway in the year of 1981. A small yellow post-it note is posted on the cubicle wall of our lead actress. The note simply says: "I think you smell nice". Her thoughts start galloping at the speed of light as she ponders who the mystery man could be. The story builds up on the post-it note relationship that blossoms as the notes start appearing on a regular basis. Our anonymous leading lady decides to take a chance and leave her own note on the cubicle wall of the man she suspects of courting her with the notes. This is a story of miscommunication and misinterpretations, of smiles and suspicion, but also ultimately of discomfort and shame. A tale of how things can go desperately wrong in a town where shyness is a virtue.

The movie is a part of a larger group of movies fighting for the removal of janteloven.

IFF '07

2006-11-28T02:27:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I announce the first annual Imaginary Film Festival (IFF)!

I have been so inspired by my work with the Nordic Youth Film Festival (NUFF) and the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) that I have decided to start my own film festival...namely a fake one. Here's how is works: Make up a movie - one you'd really like to see - and write a short, one-paragraph description for the IFF catalogue. Allow me to illustrate:

DO NOT COVER (2006) is director Juliaana Nypponen's first feature film. Shot over a three-month period in the frigid climes of arctic Finland, this film tells the remarkable and semi-true story of Scoot and Stiven, fraternal twins separated at birth and recently reunited. For the brothers, what begins as an obligatory journey across the frozen tundra in search of a forgotten piece of family land ends up as an expedition into the depths of their hearts - to a place neither knew existed...a place called brotherhood. Nypponen's film gracefully tackles such melancholic subjects as separation, death, and loss, leaving us with but one thought in our minds: DO NOT COVER.

Ok, now you try. This is gonna be the greatest imaginary film festival ever!

trucks!

2006-11-25T04:59:00.000-08:00

I saw a picture of a truck recently that reminded me of the Stephen King - AC/DC collaboration Maximum Overdrive. It's a movie.

If you haven't seen it, do.

I have had the same weird, inexplicable reaction - laughing uncontrollably while at the same time being totally embarrased and terrified - to two things in life: Maximum Overdrive and the time in seventh grade when I took our cat, Pete, to the animal clinic and watched him scratch and bite the hell out of vet. I'm not sure why I had this reaction, but as far as I know, I haven't had it any other time.

Poor vet.

that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

2006-11-24T05:13:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to a lot of Queen lately and decided that "Don't Stop Me Now" is gonna be my theme song for a little while. Not because I'm on a role or anything, but mostly just because as soon as I hear it I suddenly feel like I'm in a movie and that people are watching me and thinking "She's in control!" Even if I'm just walking to the busstop or trying to decide between orange juice and tropical juice (the former being healthier and the latter tastier) - suddenly I'm taller, I'm faster, I'm wittier, I'm.....I'm.....
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity.
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva.

Watch out. Don't stop me now, fools!

the secrets and the signals and the system

2006-11-23T04:31:00.000-08:00

Our Prayer of Thanks by Carl Sandburg

For the gladness here where the sun is shining at evening on the weeds at the river,
Our prayer of thanks.

For the laughter of children who tumble barefooted and bareheaded in the summer grass,
Our prayer of thanks.

For the sunset and the stars, the women and the white arms that hold us,
Our prayer of thanks.

God,
If you are deaf and blind, if this is all lost to you,
God, if the dead in their coffins amid the silver handles on the edge of town, or the reckless dead of war days thrown unknown in pits, if these dead are forever deaf and blind and lost,
Our prayer of thanks.

God,
The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and the system; and so for the break of the game and the first play and the last.
Our prayer of thanks.

art exhibit going national

2006-11-21T05:34:00.000-08:00

The Redd Barna art exhibit we spent 11 hours setting up last Friday is going to be featured in a segment on Frokost TV (think Good Morning America, just Norwegian) this Friday. That's pretty exciting. We had the opening yesterday - a very low-key affair involving two fifth grade classes singing a song about tolerance and respect, lots of Redd Barna flag-waving, and a speech by the mayor that was drowned out by a big garbage truck.

So far, nobody has gone to the bathroom, thrown up, or fallen asleep on the exhibit (which is precariously perched next to taxi line (aka: lots of drunk people on Friday and Saturday night)) but I'm preparing myself for the worst and hoping for the best. Such is life!

t-giv in h-sink

2006-11-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

I got two emails today (one from my sister in Mpls. and one from Miss Bliss in Finland) that contained a couple of the greatest word abbreviations I've seen yet.

In summary, I'll be celebrating T-giv in H-sink this year.

(I won't actually be celebrating Thanksgiving in Helsinki, but it sure would've been rad.)

long friday

2006-11-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

In Norway, they call "Good Friday" "Long Friday." Maybe it's just me, but I don't often associate crucifixion with a word like "Good." "Bad Friday" or "Painful Friday"... even "Freaky Friday"perhaps, but definitely not "Good." I think "Long Friday" makes more sense. But it also conjures up a hilarious image in my head of J.C. debriefing with the Big Man when it was all over - putting his feet up on the coffee table, takin' a swig of beer - saying something like "Man, it's been a long Friday."

Why, you might ask, am I writing about this? Easter is months away! Yes, but Friday the 17th was one LONG Friday. I spent approximately 11 hours in the freezing cold rain helping to set up this art exhibit. We built a house. Well, a shack. And I got an electrical shock, a free hamburger, ten frozen toes, and intense pain in every bone of my body. It sounds horrible, but it was actually quite fun. The company was good, and I also got to climb like a monkey and perch myself on top of some scaffolding in order to hoist some gigantic pictures up into the air. The photos are really beautiful.

As I sat up on that scaffolding, fearing for my life everytime the North Wind came tearing through, I realized that I wouldn't have an experience like this anywhere else on earth. Only here. Only in the Arctic.

It was a long, but great Friday. And I (re)met someone really fantastic.

a crane, some scaffolding, and a carpenter

2006-11-15T01:37:00.000-08:00

I've been put in charge of organizing the construction of a big art exhibit for Save the Children that involves some huge photographs, some slightly less huge photographs, and a house. Knock on the table (as they say in Norwegian) but everything has gone pretty well so far. The day of construction is set for Friday and I have located an enormous container that went missing in Kristiansand for a couple weeks, a crane, some scaffolding, electricity, volunteers, and step ladders. But where, oh where, might I find a carpenter? One skilled carpenter who is willing to donate five hours of time to a good cause is the last piece of the puzzle.

Heck, at this point I'd settle for any kind of carpenter.

it's all in the name

2006-11-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Here's Collin Peterson, the guy from Minnesota's 7th Congressional District who shares 2/3 of my name. He looks like a reasonable fellow. But with a name like that, he's gotta be, eh?!

see no evil

2006-11-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

my absent absentee ballot

2006-11-07T02:59:00.000-08:00

I forgot to send in an absentee ballot - which makes me feel kind of crappy. But did you know that they only count the absentee ballots if it's a really tight race? And since I expect the democrats to take the republicans to the cleaners this time around, my ballot wouldn't have been counted anyway. If you ask me, this whole "not counting absentee ballots in a close race" thing is probably just another republican gimmick when you take into consideration the fact that people who chose to live abroad probably lean more to the left than they do to the right.

my left eye

2006-11-05T04:40:00.000-08:00

Ok. Here's another poem.
This one's called My Left Eye

My Left Eye

I stabbed my left eye last night
with a mascara brush.
It hurt so bad,
I thought I might go blind.
But I think I just scratched
the cornea
or conjunctiva
or something.
I can still see.
So that's good.

walt disney resort

2006-11-03T02:14:00.000-08:00

I zoned out during a classmate's presentation the other day - sorry, Simon - and I wrote a poem called Walt Disney Resort.

Walt Disney Resort

Win me a trip to a Walt Disney Resort on the Price is Right.
I don't care which one.
Just take me to the palm trees and buy me a pina colada.
You can have one, too.
Then we can swim all day long and get wrinkly like chicken McNuggets.
Like two chicken McNuggets in the sun.
Thank you.

do what tastes right

2006-10-30T04:17:00.000-08:00

There was a Halloween party on Saturday. It was huge and excellent.
There was a snowy soccer game on Sunday. TIL won. Also excellent.
I really want a hamburger from Wendy's right now. And some fries and a frosty malt.

Kareem Abdul-Peterson

2006-10-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

In a recent email to my sister I shared the story of the first ever varsity soccer game I played in for my high school team - the Marshall School Hilltoppers. I was an eighth-grader and since wire-rimmed glasses weren't allowed on the soccer field (for obvious "poke somebody's eye out" reasons) I had to buy a pair of plastic glasses for soccer-playing purposes. (Contact lenses just weren't nerdy enough for me, you see.)

The other "glasses rule" from the Varsity Soccer Federation of the Universe was that if you wore them, then you also had to have a strap around your neck to keep them on. This was all good and fine, except for that the only strap I had was the same one I had since I started playing soccer as a seven-year-old.

It was royal blue with green and pink dinosaurs on it.

I would always turn the thing inside out, so that only the plain black side showed - but throughout the course of the game, the dinosaurs would always find their way to the surface. "Look at us! We're dinosaurs!"

This first-ever varsity soccer game was an away-game at Proctor High. I was playing outside midfield which meant that I was always closest to the crowd. A group of four or five Proctor High guys was standing in a cluster pretty close to the side of the field and whenever I ran by, they would shout out: "Hey 15! Nice goggles!" Or "I like your goggles! Where'd you get 'em!" Or just simply "Goggles!" if they couldn't think of anything better. Ultimately, this didn't bother me too much. We won the game, and in my heart I knew they weren't goggles, anyway. They were plastic glasses. With a (dinosaur) strap.

In response to this story, which Marit had undoubtedly heard a number of times before, she sent me the following picture with caption:

Tell him he's wearing goggles, jerks.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

please do not feed fitger, rex, or zombie

2006-10-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

I was walking from where I live to the south end of the island yesterday afternoon and it smelled like fall - dead leaves and fires in fireplaces. Whenever I smell the fall like that, I am reminded of the four-and-a-half block walk from 2631 Branch Street to Congdon Park Elementary School. Across Branch Street from my elementary school there was a fenced-off area where a guy kept some deer. Thinking back on the "deer pen" (as we called it) it was kind of strange....having wild deer inside a pen in the middle of a residential neighborhood, I mean. Some days we would go and watch the deer, and if we were lucky, they'd come right up to the fence and we could touch them and, despite the sign, feed them some leaves. Their names were Fitger, Rex, and Zombie, but we couldn't tell them apart.

I don't think there are any deer in the deer pen anymore - at least there weren't the last time I checked. Fitger, Rex, and Zombie are probably running free in deer heaven.

sorry ms. jackson, i am fo real

2006-10-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

I was running on the treadmill this morning and I'm pretty sure I started singing out loud along with my rPod. Fortunately for me, it was 7am and there were only a couple of other people working out. I'm not really sure how much Outkast I sang - and when I say "sang," I mean "rapped" - but knowing me, it was the line "fo ever, fo ever ever, fo ever ever" and the part that follows that. I guess I had gotten into the running zone - where I forget that I'm in a public place and sing out loud and play air keyboard/drums. Way to go, Rach.

somebody's gotta catch those naughty pirates

2006-10-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

Friday was a blast.
But Saturday was equally blasty.
Scott - or should I say Captain Meyer - and I had tickets to the Oktoberfest party thrown by the medicine students.
This year's theme: Pirate Life.
Going into this, I knew I didn't want to be a pirate. I mean, I love pirates and have loved pirates ever since I was forced to wear an eye patch for a couple years as a child and since Cap'n Billy visited the Morning Show on MPR. But EVERYONE and their mother was gonna dress up as a pirate, so I asked Marit for some alternative ideas. She sent me a list of about ten hilarious ideas and the one Scott and I chose was Navy Officers.

Somebody's gotta catch those naughty pirates, right?!

We found some insane-o Russian navy coats at the army surplus store in town and made "Pirate Patrol" signs to put on our backs in case people didn't get it. We looked fantastic and we got loads of postive feedback.
The party was packed and we ran into some other friends and danced til our feet fell off. (Or at least my toe-nail's about to fall off after approx. sixty pirates stepped on me on the dance floor. Oh well, it hurts to be awesome.)

However, the most highly hilarious part of the night was when we got on the bus from the pre-party going to the University. The ENTIRE back half of the bus was FILLED with pirates and when Captain Meyer and I got on everyone screamed and went nuts. ARRRRGGHHH! Then we charged through the crowd and started pretending like we were gonna arrest 'em all. They loved it. (Exhibit A)

Exhibit A (left)

Don't worry Mom and Dad, I only had two beers the whole night. I promise :-)

lemme hear ya say "aiiiiight!"

2006-10-16T02:46:00.000-07:00

Friday night was the big night - well, so was Saturday for that matter, but we'll get back to that in the next post. My favorite Swedish indie-hoppers performed at Insomnia Festival here in town. In case you didn't know, an indie-hopper is the name I made up for really good-looking white hip-hoppers who looks like indie rockers. Snook - in a word. The other rad thing about Snook - besides the music - is that they wore hooded smocks.

After Snook came the featured act of the festival: Public Enemy. Yes, all the way from the U.S. to tiny little Tromsø, Flavor Flav and Chuck D. brought the house down. And me and my U.S. homeboys Scott, Colin, and Jeremiah rocked ourselves unconscious during the two-hour long concert. Being in Norway and all, I was a little disappointed that Flav wasn't wearing his viking helmet. But when you've got a crowd of crazy, drunk Norwegians shouting out "Hell Yeah!" and "Aiiiight," nothing else really matters.
It was probably the raddest and most hilarious experience I've had in a long time.

bad luck

2006-10-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

I know it's bad luck to walk under a ladder, but is it bad luck to almost knock a guy off a ladder? I opened up the door of our study-room cause I needed out, but little did I know there was a man perched on a ladder fixing some wires in the ceiling right on the other side. He said "Oi!" I said "Yowzahs!" Nobody was harmed.

My friend and co-worker from Skogfjorden, Grambo, came to visit for a few days last week. By the end of his first day in town he said: "I could see myself living here, for sure." That's what Tromsø does to you.

And then my lovely Bulgarian friend and peace classmate Tsvetan left Tromsø because his girlfriend is expecting a baby - which was sad because we want him to stay here, but happy because he's gonna be a dad. And he'll be a great dad.

singing on the pier

2006-10-09T01:18:00.000-07:00

The sextet I sing in - which, unbeknownst to my fellow singers, I have dubbed sexytet - preformed at a 40th birthday on Saturday night. Considering that we had only practiced twice since June, we did fine. My favortie part of the evening, however, was not singing at the actual party, but warming up in the rain on the cement pier under the yellow glow of the shipyard lights. The bridge to the mainland towered above us as the smell of salty sea fish filled the air. Imagine if you were walking over the bridge and suddenly heard the faint refrain of Blackbird coming from somewhere below...coming from the water. How creepily wonderful!

snip snip goes the hair

2006-10-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

Vibeke The Great cut my hair last night.
This is what I look like now:

oh geez...please don't fall

2006-10-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

I had my first day of work at a daycare/pre-school last week and when I wasn't wiping runny noses or peeling clay off the floor, I was stabalizing furniture and covering all remotely sharp corners with my hands. One to three-year-olds get hurt a lot. The funny thing is that when you think they've hurt themselves real bad, they just get up and shake it off. It's when they graze their head on the book shelf or accidently get hit in the face with a pillow that they freak out. But man, they're cute.
I was pushing five kids on tire swings - each swing was attached to its own side of a pentagon-shaped swing set so I just had to walk around in a circle - and when I made it back to the girl I had started with, she was on the ground. She had simply slipped right through the hole in the middle of the tire and landed on the ground. I tried real hard not to laugh, but I couldn't help myself.
Working at the barnehage reminded me of an exhibit my mom and dad took me and Marit to see at the Field Museum in Chicago when I was maybe 8 years old. It was a reminder of what it was like to be three years old again. They had built a huge table and chairs so that when you sat down your head was barely above the table surface...and your feet were dangling in the air. For an eight year old, I probably didn't quite get the point. Three was still failry fresh in my past. But I'd like to see that exhibit again. Except this time I'd want a huge bowl of applesauce and some gigantic animal crackers, too.

tupac shakur never not dead...

2006-09-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

While wandering the streets of Abram-Mis, Murmansk, I couldn't help but notice the assortment of rap-related writing on the walls. Here are my favorites:

Notes:

I'm not sure what the double negative does to the message in the first picture, but I think it means that they really like Tupac Shakur. I particularly like the quaintness of picture number two. It's like someone is softly whispering "cop killer." The last two pictures were taken at the bus stop. The only bus stop in town.

dima, are you down there?

2006-09-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

When I lived in Alta I had a friend from Murmansk named Dima. He was my height - maybe a little shorter - and had a haircut that I called "helmet head." He didn't know that, though. As I was driving through the serenely Soviet streets of Murmansk this weekend - passing grey concrete building after grey concrete building - I wondered if maybe he was in one of them. Maybe he got an engineering degree and got married and had a kid. I even opened up a phonebook thinking that I might be able to determine how to spell Polykov in Russian.
Nope.
I had an urge while standing on top of a hill overlooking the segmented city to shout out "DIMA!? ARE YOU DOWN THERE?" But my shout would have gotten drowned out by the clanks and booms and groans of the shipyard below once it made it to the bottom. It was the industrial soundtrack to the industrial city - and it beat everything.
I didn't find Dima this weekend. But I am able to picture him as a kid. Running down the stairs of his building, throwing rocks at metal barrels and walls, bounding over railroad tracks and hiding behind smoke stacks. I think he was a happy kid.