17 Mai and long weekend

[Of course there would be a viking ship]

[Norwegian flag of fruit -- haha]

Friday was Norway's national day "17 Mai" / "Søttende Mai". Marius and I had breakfast before we walked to the city to see everyone in town. People were dressed in their bunads (national dress), and we met a few of Marius' old classmates to say hello. We took it easy in the afternoon, and just did some work since it was raining. Saturday, on the other hand, was great weather! Sunshine, clear skies, and about 70 degrees!


I knew there was no hope that I would actually manage to get any work done on the first sunny weekend we've had in a while so we bought some lumber and a couple of plants, and we built ourselves a flower box. It turned out really nice. We bought a raspberry plant to have in it, I planted my half grown green pepper, Marius added some raddish seeds, there was a daisy that we transplanted, and a yellow flower (I forgot the name) that can hold up to winter. I also rearranged the flowerbed against the wall of our building and put the daffodils in a row, and two more winter-hardy flowers. Our yard looks really nice now. Knut also came over for some BBQ that evening.

[Our new veggie/flower box (top and bottom right), hopefully with some berries, more peppers, and raddishes; and my improvised BBQ planter from a rusty bbq (bottom left)]

[Chicken skewers on the BBQ -- we need a lawn table and chairs now]

This morning I woke up at 6:30 with a sore back, so at 7:30 I was ready to do something. I convinced Marius to wake up and go for a hike up Ulriken with me. When we got to the top we enjoyed some coffee, bananas, and pastry that Marius made last week. The summer-like spring weekend was great! Now only 11 days until my thesis is due!!

[Very gorgeous day in Bergen - our two days of summer]

Sunrise Hike

This morning I woke up around 5:30 to have some eggs, toast and coffee before I headed out to enjoy a morning hike up our local mountain, Ulriken, which stands about 640 m above sea level (approx. 2099 ft). I left the house a little after 6, and it was really nice to be the first one up the mountain. There was no one around until I was on my way back down (which was around 7:30). I was fast on the way up, but I'm always quite slow going down because I'm not very sure-footed and I need to strengthen those muscles for walking down. The sun was shining and the temperature felt like it was around 50 degrees F. The rain is supposed to come in this afternoon by the bucket-loads, so I'm happy that I got out of bed for this hike. 

Only 3 weeks left until my thesis is due...no rest for the weary!

Weather from April 28 - May 1

The weather has been pretty wild here in Bergen. Here are some pictures from the last 3 days...
sunshine, rain, snow. It is sunny right now, after biking through some snowfall this morning.

This time last year it was in the upper 50's and sunny.

[Bottom left: clear sky at 10:30pm; middle: rain coming in on Monday night around 9:45pm;

 right: snow on Labor Day]

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! What will you do to give back to our planet?

I haven't heard of any sort of collaborated movement over here in Bergen, but there are still many things that can make a difference. Little everyday things make the biggest difference. My contribution today was jogging to my office (but that (or cycling) is an everyday thing anyways).

If you don't believe Sir Attenborough, then you should just see what will happen to the marine life with continued pollution...

Started a new job today

[Good weather for the last ski of the season]

[Tron, Rigmor and Marius]

Last weekend I took one final ski trip of the season at Geilo.

 It was a relaxing 16km loop in about 2 hrs 15 mins. The wind was against us the whole first half, but it was a breeze the way back to the apartment. I managed to work a bit while I was there, still not enough though.

[the EvoFish guppy lab]

Today I had my first day working at the Evo Fish guppy lab at the university. There is a room full of tanks that have guppies that were collected in Trinidad. The research group is using the guppies for evolutionary analyses, such as color changes through generations and effects size selection. Every 5-6 weeks, different populations are "harvested." So today we sorted population 1 into two size fractions (less than or equal to 16 mm, and greater than 16 mm). Some of the guppies are also marked with a type of "color tattoo," so those were also separated....yada yada yada...ok...so we had to use a chemical that mixed with water to make the guppies "sleep" for a few minutes while we measured and noted the sex and maturity of certain individuals. Some guppies were not so lucky today and were "killed" using a double dose...all in the name of science. So I will continue this job tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. It's a nice bit of experience to add to my resume.

When I got home I went for a run, and it was probably about 48 degrees F - perfectly fine shorts weather back in Michigan...well, when I was walking back from the grocery store (still in my shorts) it started snowing! Crazy Bergen weather! Almost feels like MI. Good thing I have my green peppers growing inside!

[Winter outside, spring inside]

Easter at Synnfjell

[GoPro skiing pictures]

After we returned from Portugal, Marius and I drove up to Synnfjell where the Engebrethsen's have their "ski lodge" -- they call it a cabin, but it is clearly so large it should be called a lodge. Tron, Rigmor and Katrine were already there, as well as the Easter sunshine. We quickly ate some lunch and headed out for a little ski trip. We gave the GoPro Hero3 some tests in snow conditions. It was great! So far very happy with our new camera.

[Working in the lodge]

Every morning I woke up before 8 and worked on my thesis until the family got up about an hour and half later, then we had breakfast, and I joined them for skiing two other times. The second ski trip was up a mountain called Spåtind. It was just uphill, and then a relaxing trip down that took a tiny fraction of the time it took to climb up the mountain, but still a fun trip. At the end of the ski trips we always look forward to coffee and chocolate and/or cookies on the porch in the sunshine. The third trip was my favorite loop that we can take from the lodge called Sæterunden. It's mostly flat, with some gentle up and downhills - I like to practice my skate skiing on this route. I had to dedicate the other days, and evenings to my thesis. I made sure to take a little break of course for some games.

[Bonfire, hotdogs, and hot cocoa outside the cabin - Marius' smoke signal]

[The first annual "Synnfjell Open" Easter competition]

On Easter Sunday, the neighbor cabin (family friends and former neighbors in Oslo back in the late 80's) hosted a little event where we had to ski to stations and answer trivia questions (mostly about Norway and skiing) and then the final round was skiing the loop twice and the time for each loop had to be the same time to get more points. It was fun! Tron came in 2nd place...none of the "kids" got in the top 4 places. I think we need to brush up on our Norwegian celebrities and Oslo geography.

Next week I start working at the guppy lab at the University of Bergen. I will work only 4 days next week, but that's perfect since I'm in the final 2 months of my thesis. Time flies!

[Hawkowl that sat in that tree all day while I was writing my thesis in the sun]

Portugal: Lisbon

Onto the final entry of our trip to Portugal. (Note: we have been back in Norway since the 25th, and I'm just being slow at writing since thesis stress has taken over my brain.)

[25th of April Bridge - the start of the half marathon]

We got to Lisbon around 7pm after our day of quick highlight pitstops and had to pick up my packet for the half-marathon. After, we called the place where we thought that we were staying...well, when Marius booked the room he got a little confused and said we were staying with them from the 23rd, not the 22nd. So we parked the car in a very expensive garage in the city (cost 17 euros for 12 hours - more expensive than the rental itself) and walked around the city looking for a place to stay for the night. The hotels were WAY too expensive, so we found one little hostel that had a room to spare. It looked a little shabby, and it was. When I turned on the light to the bathroom there was a loud BANG! and the lights went out and glass crashed to the floor from the light!

[Artbeat Rooms, Lisbon]

We called for the manager, an old short man, and he brought a spare lightbulb and just said "Here, you are taller, you must fix for me. Then, all good, no problem." Marius very carefully replaced the bulb ---three bad bulbs later and we finally got one that wasn't a dead bulb. Next the glass...the man said "I clean." He took three little sweeps and said "Clean. No problem, sir." It was clearly not clean. We asked to sweep up more but he did a couple more sweeps...still glass on the floor. We had to walk around the room with shoes on. That was the worst hostel I have ever been in, and we were very glad to be at the place we had booked the next two nights. This shabby hostel really set the bar low, but our next hostel was really nice. Very cozy, cool paintings on the walls, a little kitchen, and great staff --- called Artbeat Rooms.

The day before my race we of course started the day out with some pastries and coffee for breakfast before we headed out for some sight seeing. We saw: the Castela de Sao Jorge, which is the highest point of the city with great panoramic views above; a few churches, including the Lisbon Cathedral; a flea market; and had a nice little tapas meal of shrimp, sheep cheese, sauteed peppers and bread. We were exhausted very early (9:30pm) and went back to the hostel to get a good sleep before the big Meia Maratona de Lisboa!!!

[Cathedral of Lisbon]

[On top of the castle, overlooking Lisbon]

[A view of the castle (left) and the bridge (middle)]

[Speedy Diaz at the Meia de Maratona 2013]

The event hosted 28000 participants for both the mini marathon (5k) and the half marathon. The half marathon had more than 8200 runners! Compared to the Knarvikmila (my first half marathon), this one was ENORMOUS. I had to take a series of trains to be transported to the other side of the 25th of April bridge for the start. The race started on that side of the bridge before we ran into the city along the road that paralleled the water. The startline was packed and it took me over a minute and a half just to cross the start. I had to weave through people to get in front of the slower ones, but managed to get up to the 1:45 pace leader. There were runners who had the task of maintaining a certain pace with a balloon tied around their waist so that runners knew how fast they were going.  I maintained a 5 min/km pace and finished in 1 hour and 49 minutes (according to the clock) -- 1 hour 47 minutes according to the chip. I was very proud of my time and glad I got up for my morning 5k, and out for my evening 10k. I came in 79th out of 562 in my group. Next year I would like to run my first full marathon. My hips and heels were very stiff after the run, and Marius and I thought a better option for touring Lisbon was to take the metro to the Oceanarium for a relaxing day with the fishes. We got back to Norway the next day and have been enjoying some Easter skiing, thesis writing, coffee, and good food. The sun is shining, but today I have to sit inside and write my thesis.

[The race finished at the monastery in Belem]

Happy Easter..God Påske!

[Portugal by food: pastries, coffee, beer, octopus rice, sheep cheese]