Changes in Latitudes

This year I have happily logged nearly 450 miles in preparation for my fourth half-marathon, which will be in Madrid on March 29th. I have put in 15 solid weeks of dedicated training in hopes of setting a new personal best. To date, my best time for 21 km (13.1 miles) is 1:47, but I'm aiming for a sub-1:45! A couple of weeks ago I set a personal best in the 10k.. 45 minutes and 25 seconds. I bet if it had been a race then I could have shaved off more time. I've been running 6 days a week. Occasionally this is twice a day, but only in the last couple of weeks when the sun has been shining and the days have gotten longer. Being in Bergen has made my training really enjoyable since we haven't had many days below freezing to create ice obstacles for me. I don't mind cold temps, but ice is not fun. I haven't signed up for a marathon yet, but I will have to choose between Amsterdam and Oslo if I want to reach my goal of at least 5 full marathons before I'm 30. An...

[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!!)

It meant a lot to me that Marius came with me to Michigan for Christmas this year! Our bags were stuffed with presents when we departed Bergen/Oslo on the 13th at 6am bound for Detroit. When we arrived Marius greeted everyone working at the airport with a Merry Christmas, which spread a lot of smiles. Unfortunately, some of our gifts were confiscated...apparently all meat is prohibited from entering the US unless it has been boiled and sealed in a metal container. Sounded a lot like spam. So our gift of Norwegian smoked ham and lam sausage was given in spirit. At least the other gifts made it through! [Upon arrival at DTW] [Marius cutting down the tree] Mom and Dad picked us up on time and we were tired. We had a hard time adjusting to the time zone since our flight just made us awake for the day, but after three days we were adjusted. We picked out our tree the day after arriving and Marius was given the task to cut it down after a fair amount of time of comparing several...

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...

But only temporarily, as of yet. In the beginning of the month I took the train from Oslo to Bergen. It was a beautiful trip cross-country ascending to over 1000m above sea level and back down again. My friend Knut said that I could stay at his place until an apartment was available to rent. I picked up the key from his mom, dropped off my things, and went back downtown to go to my Norwegian course. He was out of town for the week for work, and my first day of work was not until the following Monday. So I used the next five days reacquainting myself with Bergen....mainly by running around my old neighborhood. On Monday (Nov 10) I started my new (tempoary) part time job at UniResarch Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology...UniSars for short. Technically I am called a "research technician", but I'm more like a glorified dishwasher at the moment. I made sure to tell the researchers that I am more than capable to help them if they need an extra pa...

Marius turned 29 last week! And sticking to tradition, he got his 3rd annual birthday pumpkin. We took it over to Tron and Rigmor's to show them (and grandma) a little taste of Halloween.  We didn't have scary music, but Grandma Oddny was interested in the carving and seed baking procedures. But once we showed her pictures that people posted on Facebook of the decorations and costumes she quickly "ba humbuged" the holiday saying "Uff, Americans" and waving her hand down. hahaha  Well, Halloween is still getting more and more popular each year. There's significantly more Halloween activity in Oslo than in Bergen. I even saw trick-or-treaters! (None came to our apartment nor the Engebrethsen's house though) I baked Marius a chocolate cake, and of course it had to be a scary cake! Marius tried to give Rigmor a little scare I also was contacted for an interview with a research group called Bioforsk. They work primarily with...