Changes in Latitudes

Today was the first of the final phases to completing my Masters degree. I have officially submitted my 59 page thesis titled: Schooling dynamics of summertime migrating Northeast Atlantic mackerel ( Scomber scombrus ) in the Norwegian Sea using multibeam sonar On July 1st I will present my project to an external sensor who will give me my final grade. I'm not finished with this project until after September. Now I need to write an application for travel funds for my trip to the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference (ASC) held in Reykjavik, Iceland this September. I will soon have my Master of Science in Marine Biology...assuming all goes smoothly, which I'm confident it will. [Cover page]

[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 winte...

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!

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]