Changes in Latitudes

[Pretty mornings walking past Bryggen to work] Not much has happened since the New Year besides for, what seems like, great job potential at the place I'm currently working (Sars Centre for Marine Molecular Biology). There is a full-time position opening up and they are hoping that I will be eligible  based on my visa requirements. I'll be handing in a new visa application tomorrow morning, so it will be a great birthday present if the police station can grant me temporary work permit while my new application gets processed. So that's happening.  I have gone back to Oslo a few times the last couple of months, and we actually haven't gone up to the cabin. We went to Tylldalen to visit Marius' grandmother who is currently in a recovery home. The weather in Tylldalen was beautiful and I managed to sneak out for a run, but no ski since our skis are at the cabin. Marius' grandmother has her ups and downs. She is always in high spirits and enjoys playing gam...

This weekend before we go back to work, we headed up to the cabin for skiing. I went running today to train for my race, but skiing was great yesterday! Today there was a sled dog race that went on the trails that we usually ski. There were 43 sled dog teams, some with only 8 dogs and others with as many as 16. Phones have great editing programs now. It looks like I had Marius' fancy camera! (Mom and Dad: he forgot to bring it and his new mono-/tri-pods to test it out...doh!!)

Last weekend Marius came to visit me in Bergen for the Light Festival. We were a little disappointed because there were not as many Christmas songs as the last time we went, but the fireworks at the end were still good. [Christmas atmosphere in Bergen] [Annual Bergen Light Festival/Tree-Lighting] [Beautiful sunrise on my way to work last week] Right now we are at the cabin in Synnfjell for our first ski weekend of the season with Tron and Rigmor. We also have Kajsa with us because her owners are in Copenhagen for the weekend, and they asked us to dog-sit (she is the old cocker spaniel). Marius' two younger cousins who live near Oslo are also up with us, and they like having Kajsa around but forget that she can't hear. [Kajsa likes to roll around in the snow whenever she gets the chance] Tron, Marius and I arrived to the cabin on Friday night. I woke up with Kajsa around 7:30. It was still dark and the moon was really bright. After a little breakfast we r...

We drove from Copenhagen to Oslo in one day; it's only 6 hours. While we were still in Denmark we found a grocery store to stock up on cheaper beer and some road snacks. But then the GPS took us the wrong way, and we found ourselves in line for the ferry from a city just north of Copenhagen to Helsingborg, Sweden. Instead of backtracking to the bridge, we decided to take the 20 minute ferry ride across. We obviously went way north! Six hours later we were back in Oslo. We took it easy the next day and walked around our neighborhood and up the river. It was good weather for a long walk. Rigmor had us over for dinner and served moose "gryte" (a stew) and "Troll krem" (troll cream = lingonberry, egg whites and sugar) for dessert. We still had some must-sees to cover in Oslo. Mainly the royal palace and ski jump/ski museum. We made it in time for the changing of the guard. Skis varied by region and were over 15 feet long back in the day! Dad...

The Bergen City Marathon officials have just released the course map, and I'm so excited! I'm continuing my marathon prep strong and steady, but I haven't been able to put in a solid long run since I arrived to Norway since we have gone skiing both weekends. Now that Marius and I are moved into our new place in an area of Oslo called Sagene, I will use this week to run around the area and explore a bit. Saturday I should run a half-marathon as fast as I can as part of my Garmin training plan. I've recently had some issues with both of my achilles from two different ski trips, so I am taking a break from skiing so much. Yesterday I did a 21 km ski trip with Marius, his parents, and the neighbors. Today the Engebrethsens are out on a shorter ski trip while I rest my heels. All this time thinking about the marathon has me tempted to sign up for the Oslo Marathon, which will take place September 20th. My goal is to run at least 5 marathons before I'm 30. Totally...

Yesterday the World Cup of sprint skiing was in Drammen - a short 30 minute train ride from Oslo. I wore my 2006 USA Torino Winter Games shirt and had my American flag. I can imagine there was another fellow patriot at the event, but I was not able to spot them in the sea of Norwegian flags. P.S. I have posted similar stuff on Facebook, so I'm sorry if this is a repeat. Anyways...I got there while the skiers were warming up. There were many familiar faces and names from the recent Olympics in Sochi, Russia. On the US squad, I saw the one and only Kikkan Randall warming up - definitely in the zone. She has won the world cup sprint title the last two years, so she is a fairly well known name in Norway. Also on the line up was Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell. Caldwell placed 6th overall in the sprint competition in Sochi. On the men's side, we had Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton. And of course, the Norwegians were ecstatic when they saw Marit Bjørgen and Therese Johaug -- and ...

After 3 nice months back home in "quarantine", I flew from Detroit to LaGuardia and spent my birthday with Carolyn in NYC before I flew to Norway that night. While waiting for my bag to arrive at the airport, I spotted Loudon Wainwright (the folk singer/actor) chowing down on some Chinese food in the foodcourt. I was too shy to go up and ask for a picture. The next day Carolyn led us to the famous Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village and had a nice huge slice of vanilla cake, and that night I flew to Bergen from JFK. I landed on the 24th and was greeted at the airport by Marius and Knut. I just tagged along with Marius' work stuff in the southern Norwegian town called Farsund the day after before we finally got to Oslo. I've had a whole week of birthday cakes! Mint chocolate at home, vanilla in NYC, and cheesecake in Oslo. Marius and I have been living with his parents since I got back, but we now have the keys to an apartment and will probably be moved in by th...

[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......

[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 po...

[Attempting skate skiing] [Marius is powering up the hill!] Had a good ski trip with Marius Saturday morning, and in the end we were visited by goats! We got home around noon and Marius liked the new regime of getting up early. He said he felt like he had already done very much with his day. We gave the apartment a good thorough cleaning and worked on the kitchen knowing that Sunday could be for relaxing and working on school/work stuff...but not really. [The goats at Totland ski loop - this year they had babies!] [Cozy Saturday night with knitting, tea, chocolate and raisins] This morning (Sunday) I woke up to make some coffee and grabbed a box cutter to collapse an empty box to be taken outside. I managed to slice my finger tip, so I reached up to grab an napkin for the blood, but woke up on the floor! There were some blood puddles and I let out a scream. I didn't know how long I was passed out for. Marius came running to the rescue! He wiped up the blood...