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--
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