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