my favorite holiday

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.