Viva....

I was having lunch the other day with a couple friends and we were discussing the upcoming trip. They pointed out that I was flying back to the states on a Thursday and asked why I thought I should stop traveling once my flight landed in Austin. I was assured that if I kept going and flew from Austin on to Vegas, a reception of folks would be there to say, "Welcome Back to the states."

The plan was made. And now I, along with 4 others, will be spending the weekend in scenic Las Vegas before this whole odyssey comes to a close. After all, where better to recover from jet lag than leaning over a Craps table with a free cocktail in hand. :)

Oslo Hotel & My Itinerary

I just booked the hotel that I'll be staying in for a night in Oslo, Norway.

http://www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-gardermoen-norway-NO070

That said, I thought I'd spell out my itinerary a bit (for my own head as well as y'all):

August 8 at 10:30 a.m. — Flight Leaves Austin (fly through New York and Oslo to Bodo).

August 9 at 12:15 p.m. — Arrive in Bodo

August 10 — Take a coastal steamer ship out to the Lofoten Islands and attend Qcamp.

August 15 at 2:25 p.m. — Flight leaves Bodo, going to Oslo.

August 15 at 3:55 p.m. — Arrive in Oslo and spend the night.

August 16 at 10:30 a.m. — Flight leaves Oslo for Amsterdam.

August 16 at 12:20 p.m. — Arrive in Amsterdam.

August 20 at 10:10 a.m. — Depart Amsterdam

August 20 at 1:30 p.m. — Arrive in Houston (gotta love the travel time illusion provided by time zones).

From Houston?? <> :)

Notes, Directions, and Advice

A few nights ago the UT students attending qualitative camp met at the home of Dr. Stephens, one of our professors and trip leads. She has been to Norway a few times as a guest instructor and gave us background information about where we are going and advice for the trip. Below are bullets taken from my notes and advice from Brittany, a fellow student who is in Norway ahead of the group conducting independent research related to her dissertation. (If you are interested in checking out her blog, check out: http://steveandbrit.wordpress.com. The bullets below are in no special order and are essentially stream-of-consciousness notes about the coming trip:

• The style of the day will be very casual. Jeans and long sleeves at best. We were told several times that we really don't need to bring anything other than super-casual clothes, we just won't have an occasion to wear them.
• It's critical that we limit ourselves to carry on luggage and not check anything. Our professor practically guaranteed that we will either miss our connecting flights and/or arrive without our luggage if we try to check something through. Apparently there are points where we need to clear customs and would have to retrieve our own luggage and re-check it before catching a connecting flight. Most of us have an hour between flights at some point and can't expect to make it if we don't have all of our luggage in hand.
• It rains quite a bit where we're going, so "bring a rain jacket" we were told. As far as umbrellas go, we can bring one, but most people in this area simply don't use umbrellas for the most part.
• There is a mountain in the center of the island. We will have opportunities to do some mountain climbing. We were told to be prepared because this is a physically challenging experience.
• On that note, we were told that the people there are physically fit and active. Also, that people are light eaters and if we are used to eating heartily, we will have a hungry period of adjustment.
• Apparently. many of the people of Norway are hearty drinkers and this is a part of the culture. We were told that if we are invited to take part in a drinking contest, we should think twice. And if we accept the challenge, we should not expect to win or even put up much of a challenge. (The part of me that LOVES to rise to challenge may need to be kept in close check on this trip. On that note, we should expect a beer/wine/drink to cost between $10-$15. (whooo!)
• I will need to buy a converter (white, dual switch Hi/Low voltage), particularly for my computer. But we were cautioned to not buy one at Wal-Mart. A couple folks reported that concerters bought from there have somehow decided to fry themselves.
• The pace of life is much slower and people are more relaxed and understated. Apparently a fairly typical American style of fast-paced talking with a lot of animated speech and gestures will be way out of the norm. Chill...relax...be mellow are the watchwords of the day.
• Apparently, many other countries assign a pin code to credit cards. Many places will ask for a PIN code when we try to use our credit cards. It seems that it often works if you explain that American cards don't have pin codes, but I sould avoid situations where a credit card is the only form of cash I have handy, just in case.
• We are invited to bring a swim suit because the hotel has a hot tub!!! On that note, we were also told that a cultural difference is that people tend to be less modest than in the U.S. (apparently this extends to swim wear) and that sex is much more common and casual topic of conversation than in the States.
• Common footwear that is different from the States is a pair of Birkenstocks with socks.
• There will only be a scant few hours of dusk/dark at night. At midnight, the sky in Lofoten will look like the sky in Texas at 8 p.m. That is, the first signs of dusk. That said, we were cautioned that it will be very easy to be engaged in conversations and not even realize that it is past midnight or 1 in the morning.

We also talked about the academic side of things.

• We will each have time to present our paper to the group. We are strongly encouraged to prepare a paper related to a research topic that we are working through and figuring out for future work. This will be an opportunity to brainstorm and have our thinking challenged on ideas we are working through. It will be vastly better to bring something in a rough and more embryonic stage of thinking rather than something polished and more finalized.
• From the time we're on the boat heading to the island and beyond we will have a chance to practice different qualitative methods of data collection.
• Although some students will have had classes on qualitative methods already, others will be at the beginning of their academic career and this will be a first exposure to these methods.
• We will have an opportunity to learn how PhD programs in other countries work. For example, in Norway, I am told, the students follow something akin to an apprenticeship model, rather than the individually-driven classroom-style of the U.S.
• We will have ample opportunities to talk to other students and professors about our ideas and research directions. So, be prepared to describe our work and engage in discussion and debate that will challenge our thinking and stretch our ideas. Likewise, we need to be prepared to provide this feedback and challenge for the others.

That's the collection of notes, directions, and advice for now.

More to come,

--Tom

Booked a room in Amsterdam

So, I arrive in Amsterdam on the 16th and leave for the US on the 20th. This gives me 4 nights in Amsterdam, during which time I will be staying at the Hotel Artemis. Here is a photo of the hotel and a link to their web site. Ultimately, I decided to go more upscale on the Amsterdam Hotel because I want to have a comfortable base of operations and a reliable concierge service as I execute my days of tourism.

http://www.artemisamsterdam.com/

students of 7 nationalities

I got the list of the 21 students participating in qualitative camp this year. We represent 8 different nationalities, which are:

1.) China

2.) Iceland

3) Norway

4) Pakistan

5) Russia

6) USA

7) Malaysia

8) Trinidad and Tobago

It should be noted that some students are representing multiple nationalities (Iceland/USA for example).

Cool!!

T--

Time is flying

The time of departure is drawing close. It's about 2 weeks until the trip. The above photo is a picture of the islands where we will be staying from the vantage of a mountain that is part of the island. The group of UT students going on the trip met recently over dinner and drinks and I learned a lot about what to expect and what I need to do to prepare for the trip. I'll make a post shortly about what we learned. In the meantime, I want to share an e-mail (and the above photo) that were recently sent to the students about the trip. And it's in this e-mail that I have confirmed that the paper I need to prepare is due on August 1st.

Dear all

Time is flying, and soon we'll be together at Qcamp 2009. I have attached the list of participants, included room preference. Please indicate if you would like a single room (those of you with a ? in the last column) ASAP. Note that the cost for this is 200 NOK per night.

Also, any dietary request - please let me know. The kitchen usually has other alternatives, so just talk with Roger and Liv (the owners) when we get there.

Please bring some good hiking shoes, or at least some good running shoes. There is a good mountain close by that we usually hike, and you don't want to miss that (see attached picture). Also, there is a wooden hot tub, and we might fire that one up, so bring some swim gear.

Be aware that the internet connection has not been very good at the hotel. I'll bring a computer (with my own line) but do not expect any heavy internet use during the week.

While the weather is normally very good, across the fjord to the islands, please bring sea-sickness pills if you have experienced getting ill on a ship before. (the ship is big, but the rolling waves get to me at times as well :-) )

We start the program on board the ship at 2pm sharp. Please be there at least 30 minutes prior to get you ticket and check-in. You can store your luggage in the conference room, and I will have a key to this room. Please bring a notepad. Note: the boat does not leave the harbor until 3 pm. I also suggest that you eat a big lunch before getting on the ship. We'll serve coffee and a light snack on the ship, but the next meal will not be until we get to the hotel at about 10pm. You can also buy food on the ship at own cost.

More last minute info will follow later, including an updated program. I'll be sending out proposal/paper on August 2nd, the day after your deadline. Please let me know if you have any questions.

See you soon,

Jan

Readings, Papers, and Presentations

I received a series of e-mails with background readings on qualitative theory attached that we are to read before arriving at the event in Norway. I printed them out 2-sided and had them coil-bound with a durable cover. The articles ended up making two volumes. So, I've got a fair amount of reading to get through in the near future.

Most of the students attending took qualitative research methods with Professor Browning this last spring. I recently got an e-mail from Professor Browning with whom I've taken a couple of classes and is also one of the coordinators of the event. He writes:

I'm having the qual students present the papers they wrote for the spring qual course. Since this scheme does not work for you, what would you like to present and get feedback on in Norway? It could be a proposal for a qual project, for example. Let me know.

At the moment, I am looking over the papers I've written in the last two years that relate to my main research interest and thinking about the best way to present a paper and get feedback from the other participants that will help me with my future work, particularly around my dissertation. FYI, my main research interest right now is on physical space and the affect a physical environment plays on organizational and group communication, particularly in this era of instant electronic communication.

So, bottom line, I've got a lot of reading, thinking and prep work to do between now and August 8.

Cheers,

T--

Maybe not exactly in real time...

I got an e-mail from Jan-Oddvar Sørnes, Ph.D who is the Vice-Dean and an Associate Professor at the Bodø Graduate School of Business at Bodø University. He is also one of the primary coordinators of the qualitative camp. He writes:

I've received a question about Wifi access at Camp. The answer is yes, there is one, but in our experience it has been very unstable. So, expect the worse, and be happily surprised if things have improved. In any case, I'll have my cell connection that you can use.

So, I may be recording blog entries, but only updating them as internet access is available.

Stay tuned,

--Tom

Tom is going to Norway

Hi everybody,

OK, here's the deal. I am going to spend the bulk of August 2009 in Norway. Many of the people I tell this story to tell me that I must keep a blog on this trip. It will serve as a diary of the experience and give friends and family a way to follow along on the details of the trip in something resembling real-time. Fair enough. Here's the back story.

I was recently invited to attend a week-long camp for PhD students. Our focus will be to learn more about how to conduct qualitative research, particularly in cultures that are foreign to us. There will be 21 students attending, representing 7 different nationalities.

The Government / University of Norway is picking up most of the tab in the form of a scholarship. This covers the round-trip flight from the U.S. as well as most of my room, board, and travel expenses. On August 8, 2009 I fly out of Austin to Bodo (pronounced boo-dah) Norway. There I will spend a day recovering from jet lag and then travel by coastal steamer ship in the Norwegian Sea to an island in Lotofen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofoten_islands). I believe the primary industry on the island is cod fishing. We will spend a week presenting papers, learning more about qualitative research practices, and also learning more about the nature and culture of PhD programs in other nations.

Once we complete this experience, we will return to Bodo, where I will travel by plane to Oslo. I will spend about 20 hours in Oslo and then travel by plane again to Amsterdam. I will then spend time in and around Amsterdam until it is time to travel back to the U.S. I will then arrive in Austin on the 20th of August.

As I said, my plan is to use this blog space to track the highlights of the trip, post photos, etc. A key part of some types of qualitative research is to journal and record one's observations. I imagine I will be keeping a much more intensive record of the trip and my experiences, but I doubt I'll use this space for that as I think it would bog down the site and make it unmanageable for those who want the briefer highlights of the trip. If you are interested in reading the more intense stuff, let me know and I can forward you those files separately.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post more as I get closer to travel time.

Cheers,

T--

Success

Success! All 3 objectives are met. That means it is time to actually start populating this blog with content. Soon, more to come.

T--

Testing Testing... Is this thing on?

OK, with a cracking of knuckles and a shake of my head I am making an attempt at figuring out the logistics of starting and maintaining a blog. This is not real content, yet. This is pre-content. Primordial content if you will. It is the biologically active ooze from which my content will later emerge.

This is the first test. My objectives are:

1) Create a blog space.

2) Enter text that is accessible by others.

3) Upload 3 images that are also accessible by others.

To test this third objective, I'll wander over to my iPhoto library and select 3 benign images that are good for testing. Let's see, pictures of pets are always a crowd pleaser...

processing...

Cat

Cat (to the side of image)

Dog

Another Cat

OK, that was a bit awkward to manage, but they seem to all be here. Getting the hang of inserting images.

Well, that's it for this entry. Now to sign off and see if this entry remains intact or fades into nonexistence.

T--