Changes in Latitudes

This year has been great but now I'm ready for more! Bring on 2013!! I got a great new pair of running shoes and a water tight jacket for rain running. And those shoes didn't come from Santa (Rigmor & Tron) for nothin'! Marius and I will go to Lisbon at the end of March and I'm signed up for the Lisbon Half Marathon. I also got a blender (from Bestemor Odny) to fuel up for my runs with smoothies (out of the Sparkpeople cookbook from Marius). The slippers from Mom and Dad are super comfy for post-run relaxing...not to mention I'll wear my 'made in Detroit' shirt on race day! Maybe this year with all of the yarn I have I can actually make that raglan sweater! I am looking forward to submitting my thesis and finding a job. Let's hope that 2013 brings good news on the job front! [My sweet new shoes for winter running - now the snow needs to come back]

Carolyn arrived on Dec 18th and the next day she and I went to the Pepperkakerbyen (Gingerbread City) before the 8 hour drive to Oslo. The Engebrethsens have given us a wonderful Christmas with such nice gifts, food and skiing! [Marius and I made cookies to bring with us.] [Playing in Frogner Park - it was quite cold!] [We saw a free Christmas concert at Oslo Domkirke with Norway's Donkeyboy] [We watched "The Mistress and the Butler" and "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" before decorating the tree] [Skyping family on Christmas Eve] [The Engebrethsens] [Socks that I made for Carolyn for Christmas]

[The decorations at Covent Garden] Marius and I took a long weekend in London to see Carolyn, do some Christmas shopping and see London's version of Christmas spirit. We stayed in a little sudio style room in the Bloomsbury area of London, very close to where Carolyn is living. It was a really nice little place that was quiet and central.  We went around to the different shopping areas that we didn't see much of last year: Covent Garden, Portabello Road and Brick Lane. And of course there was plenty of mulled wine sampling and eating. As well as a Christmas concert put on by Clare College Cambridge. Now we're looking forward to Carolyn's visit beginning on Tuesday night! [Giant reindeer and barrel tree at Covent Garden] [Beer/mulled wine at various pubs] [Breakfast near our place while planning our shopping strategy]

Finished my Norwegian exams and now feelin' good for Christmas! Just one meeting with my supervisors before the trip to London to visit Carolyn. This year went by so frickin' fast! [And it's a sonar image - so appropriate!] [The English version if you prefer]

[Out in the city] Thursday we were greeted with temperatures below freezing and a constant, slow snowfall through Friday night. The city was very festive, and just in time! Today was the Bergen Light Festival. Marius and I went to the city and took some photos with his new camera and had some hot cocoa at Baker Brun at Bryggen before the tree lighting ceremony. 30 minutes after the tree was lit was a fireworks display, and everyone holds torches. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season! [Hot chocolate and pastries at Baker Brun] [Torches lit with a beautiful mountain view in the snow]  [Fireworks after songs and lighting the tree]

This week I finished the not so exciting job of scrutinizing sonar! Now I can begin with some statistics to see what these mackerel were doing in 2010. My supervisors are also very excited that the project is progressing to the next phase so that they can be a bit more involved. [My sonar transects in NW, NE, SW and SE Atlantic/Norwegian Sea] In the meantime, I did some more holiday decorating and have been preparing for my Norwegian exam. One of my supervisors wants me to hold a little presentation for them only in Norwegian! That should be interesting haha [kjøleskap snømann]

Nah. It's after Thanksgiving and we will only get to enjoy them until Dec. 13th because we'll be going to visit Carolyn right before spending Christmas in Oslo. This morning I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and no rain! So I'm looking forward to a nice light jog around the neighborhood. No, the other walls in our apartment are not painted green. Although, that would have been a very funny surprise for Marius when he gets home tomorrow!

Nothing really big has been happening - so that's why there haven't been any posts in a while. I have been working on my thesis, as usual, but finally finished with cleaning the sonar data, so now I can move onto the exciting part - seeing what the fish are actually doing! [New carpet and fixed couch!] In the meantime, Marius and I got a new rug for the living room - fluffier and bigger to protect the floors from the pointy couch legs. We also got a new cabinet from IKEA to put the aquarium on -- woohoo exciting! (haha). We are excited for our little trip to London in December. We will officially be among a group of Norwegians that go to London for their shopping - very fancy! I bought the three of us tickets to hear Clare College Cambridge Christmas choir concert. What a cozy way to get into the Christmas spirit! [The penguins are right next door to one of the other IMR buildings, so I ate lunch with them today]

[Halloween in Landås] We got two pumpkins again this year and carved them today. We did one more decorative with lots of holes; an idea I saw on Treehugger.com and the other was traditional style by Marius' imagination. [So much concentration!] [Using power tools to git-er-done!] [Got creative even without the stencils and little knives] [My modern decorative pumpkin]

When you decide to "stop" by IKEA, make sure you have the entire day set aside only for IKEA activities. Today, Marius and I went with the idea of just buying a reading lamp for the livingroom. We didn't decide on a lamp, but instead brought home a tv table and shoe cabinet. The assembly, re-arranging and cleaning took 7 hours. We are very happy with the result!!  [I did help for most of it, but  I was also designated picture taker!] [Completed 'entertainment station'  with sliding red doors] ["skoskap"- shoe cupboard that I put together myself!] 

[A look down the ski jump] [old ski poles with different functions] This weekend I went to Oslo to spend some time with Marius and his parents. When I arrived on Friday, Marius and I baked two loaves of cranberry walnut bread as a thank you for flying me out. Saturday morning we woke up to snow! It was snowing! What?! Marius started whistling "Deck the Halls" -- way too early!! We took a little day trip to Holmenkolen ski jump and went to the Ski museum. Nothing much to it, but when you're Norwegian all you think about is skiing all year, so the snow earlier that morning was quite fitting. Believe it or not, there is interesting history with skis; maybe I'm becoming more Norwegian now. Sunday was another morning of a little snow, however, followed by rain. After looking at some apartments that  Marius wants to buy to rent out to students, we went to the new modern art museum in Oslo at Aker Brygge. There was a warning when you walk in: "Some of the exh...

[Foto: Leif Nøttestad] ICES recommends lower catch quota for the next year. (link) From the abundance estimations of mackerel, herring and other pelagic fish species, the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended that the quota for fishing mackerel be reduced by about 100 000 tonnes; and over 200 000 tonnes for herring. Over the past ten years there has been a significant decrease in zooplankton in this region of the Atlantic, which is the primary food source of migrating pelagic fish. It is believed that because of the way in which mackerel feed during their summer migration (passive filter-feeding), they out-compete herring in overlapping regions. This competition ultimately leads to a depletion of resources...yada yada yada. If fishing continues at the pace it was set for this year, then the scientists at the Institute of Marine Research believe that a collapse in the mackerel and herring stocks is possible. This is another reason why my thes...

[Northeast Atlantic mackerel] As you know, I am writing my thesis on mackerel behavior in the Northeast Atlantic/Norwegian Sea. I held a presentation yesterday about where I am at with my work, and the final comment from my supervisors was that I need to speed up the data processing/cleaning if I want to meet my goal of having that finished before Christmas. I have been going through 100+ GB of sonar data (the process is called "scrutinizing" in acoustic jargon). It has been interesting so far. I am looking a little into vessel avoidance. This work is very tedious at the moment. Staring at the computer for 9 hours a day is not my cup of tea, but if I can get through the data fast I can enjoy Christmas time without worrying about getting behind on my project. [Fall in Bergen last week] So, nothing overly exciting has been happening. I won't be running Stoltzen Opp this year because I was only given 10 days notice to prepare and I would rather beat my time n...

While spring is arriving in Auckland, NZ, fall is making its arrival in Bergen. The rain has increased, the temperature has dropped to a chilly 11C and some yellow color is in the trees. This weekend we have been given clear blue skies and fresh, crisp fall air! We took advantage of it yesterday and took a hike up Lyderhorn and today we have to do some yard work before the rain visits us for the rest of the season.

[Introduction to AE 2012 led by Bergen  men's choir] This week I was hired as a "conference assistant" for the Academia Europaea conference 2012 in Bergen. It is a 3 day event of workshops, lectures and discussions of various disciplines: business, psychology, climate and environment, policy, etc. William Miller from the University of Michigan gave a talk today in the psychology session, and tomorrow I will get to sit in on some of the biology lectures. [Concert at Troldhaugen.] The perks of this gig have of course been creating potential networks, free food and some extra spending money! However, today was a bonus with a special performance of Norwegian master pieces (works of Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull) by two of Norway's most talented musicians, violinist Henning Kraggerud and pianist Håvard Gimse. What a treat! The venue is amazing, with a window from the stage looking out over the small cabin where Greig wrote many of his pieces and the water. ...

[Sprinting through the finish line!] Finished my first half marathon today in 2 hours and 7 minutes! Proud of myself for killing my goal of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Though I did not finish in the top half of competitors, I was very happy with myself and now I have a new goal to work towards --- less than 2 hours! Two time Olympic gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie was there to kick off the run as well! Overalll, it was a good run and I really impressed myself with how much I can stick to something. [Gebrselassie handing out awards to the kids] [Starting out pretty good] [All smiles at 16 kilometers]