Other highlights from Henningsvaer

Hey Rachel, you might not want to read this post. It's got a whale-related paragraph that may make you uncomfortable.

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And now let me take a moment to explain this to everyone else. My colleague Rachel asked me to not eat any whale while I was in Norway. I compromised and said that I wouldn't tell her if I had. So, that said, really if you are uncomfortable reading about a whale ship and a description of what whale tastes like, you may want to skip that paragraph. :)

So, other Highlights from Henningsvaer...

Mountain Climbing

One of the days we were able to end early and take the afternoon / evening (these are arbitrary terms since it's almost perpetually light out this time of year here). On this day, a group of us went out and climbed a nearby mountain. Gotta say, that experience was wonderful and it beat the tar out of me. It turns out that Norwegians make it a nearly weekly activity to go climbing. It is a testament to their athletic nature and the terrain that presents climbing opportunities at every turn. And, my definition of a "path" is very different from the local interpretation. It seemed that, if you can get from point A to B then the route you took, by definition, is a path. Don't get me wrong. I say this with a smile. I had a fabulous time and the scenery was breathtaking, but whooo.... Halfway up the mountain is a small mountain lake and an edge of the rock face that looks out over the water and the village below. I decided that this would be my "top" and while most of the others kept climbing I relaxed by the lake, took photos, and enjoyed the moment. As I relaxed I watched the group climb progressively higher on terrain that grew steadily steeper and was very very content with my decision to chill. Shortly, three of the Norwegian students and my buddy Naddy came by. We hung out for awhile waiting for the others to return until it grew steadily chillier and started to rain. We decided that the time had come to climb back down (also a challenging experience) and hike back to our hotel.

The Lighthouse

On our last day, we went for a short walk to a nearby light house. Once again we were climbing over tall rocks and a bit of terrain to get there. The scenery was beautiful and I got a good shot of a rainbow and took a panoramic shot that included Antonina (from Russia) that I am particularly happy about.

Music Night

One evening, one of our professors (Larry Browning) borrowed the electric guitar of the innkeepers son. He and my buddy Naddy (with Fei Wei --China-- on kazoo) put on an excellent impromtu performance. Larry is a country singer / guitar player (with the song 8-minute ride now on iTunes) and Naddy is the lead singer for a local reggae band (playing Tuesday night August 25th at Momo's). So it was a fun show and a great relaxed pub experience.

Gotta love the sauna and hot tub

One evening, the innkeeper opened up the sauna for us. It was a fun night of carousing where we all got to know each other quite a bit better. One highlight was when several folks from the group ran over to the dock across from our hotel and jumped into the water for a quick swim.

But, the night after got back from the climb/hike we got to lounge in the hot tub. The tub was heated by a wood fire, so controlling the water temperature is a bit of an art form. A highlight was when groups from different nationalities sung their national anthems. Nadia from russia started off with some encouragement and sang her song beautifully with backup provided by the Norwegians. We also got to hear 3 or 4 traditional Norwegian songs. Naddy sang us the anthem of Trinidad and Tobago, again beautifully done. And finally, we Americans stumbled and hiccuped our way through the Star Spangled Banner. It was a treat to explain to the group the "Play Ball" are the lesser known last two words of our anthem.

The Whale Ship

During one of our morning sessions, Jan (one of the Norwegian professors) came in to say that if we had not ever seen a whaling ship, there was one coming in to dock. It had successfully caught a whale that was part of a school of around 200 whales that they heard about earlier that morning. So, we paused so that we could all go see the ship. The whale was in the hold of the ship and had already been butchered (I'm guessing this is the correct term) and prepared for unloading. I did get a few pictures of the ship and looking down into the hold. I ended up having whale 4 times on this trip. In a cream soup, on pizza, whale steak off the grill, and prepared in a sushi-like style (CLIFF & BILL: Disregard my earlier description of whale. That was based only on the soup and my description is very different now, particularly after the steak and sushi). I'd say whale has a taste that's different from other things I've had. It's hard to compare it to something else. It's a red meat like beef that is wetter and tastes like it came from the ocean. It is also a little oilier than beef and has a slight flavor that is part of the mix that I'd have to compare to liver.

Cloudberries and Aquavit

Turns out there is a local berry that Cliff read about called a cloudberry (klodbaer). It is has the shape and texture of a raspberry, except it's jucier and has a taste that falls between an orange and a nectarine. We had this served with whipped cream on a thin pancake for dinner one evening -- delicious. I also discovered during my time a spiced spirit called aquavit. If I read the label correctly, it seemed like it was 45% alcohol by volume. Whew. It was tasty stuff that always seemed to make me fuzzier the next morning. I guess I'd have to compare it to a strong, more high-end, smoother version of spiced rum.

Well, those are some of the highlights from Henningsvaer. There are more stories and adventures. But, I hope this gives you a flavor of the trip. Our trip ended with a prop plane ride back to Bod0, where we stayed the night and then left the next morning for Oslo. Once in Oslo, I stayed the night and left the next morning for Amsterdam. Amsterdam is phase 2 of this 3-phase trip and where the blog will pick up next.

Skal!!!

T--

Time to get down to business

We spent a fantastic week in Henningsvaer. Our mornings would include a series of lectures / presentations on various qualitative research methodologies. Each professor took time on one of the mornings to do this. There were also student presentations on methodology topics. We were then divided into two smaller groups in the afternoons, where we took turns presenting a paper describing our latest thinking on each of our research projects. The group then provided criticism and feedback designed to challenge a person's thinking and strengthen their research plan.

Our days started at 9 a.m. and we finished by 4 p.m. This was followed by an optional group activity / free time and then dinner. The late evening was spent celebrating and carousing and then dragging bleary-eyed into the next day's session. The group activities and late night carousing are where some of the more entertaining stories live, but I thought at least one blog entry should be dedicated to the primary purpose of the trip. I will say that this event was very helpful for me and it pushed me to break through some blocks I had about knowing what my next steps should be. So, a valuable trip indeed.

Below are a few photos of scenic Henningsvaer, specifically around where we stayed and had our week-long conference.

T--

A bit of photographic evidence that we did spend a good chunk of our time engaged in sessions. :)

Three of the students we got to know on this trip. From left to right you have Antonina (Russia), Karl (Norway), and Asef (sp?) (Pakistan).

I don't have my list of students with me so I'm guessing on the spelling of Asef's name -- apologies if I got it wrong -- Asef, by the way, is a fabulous chef and used the kitchen one evening to prepare a spicy dish that was fantastic and shared it with the group. Mmmm....

This was on the deck right outside of our meeting room when we were on a short break. Gorgeous.

Yup, we really were in Henningsvaer. :)

The building on the left is our inn and the building on the right is where we met every morning at 9 to dive into the work.

Permission to come aboard?

After touring the school at Bod0 and grabbing a quick lunch, we all loaded into a bus that took us to the docks. The time had arrived for us to travel to the island of Henningsvaer, which is part of the Lofoten Islands. On the island we attended a week-long camp where we got feedback on our research plans and got a crash course is several qualitative research methods. To get to camp, we were told that we would take a 4-hour ride on a coastal steamer. I think the mental picture I had was almost a century out of date. I was picturing a small boat where everyone dressed in wool coats and thick warm caps, the men had 3-days growth of beard stubble, and the traveling was rugged. Imagine the quick reorientation I had when we pulled up and saw a large 7-deck cruise ship named the Kong Harald. I had time to take a few photos outside of the ship and then we boarded and were on our way.

Once aboard we went fairly directly to a small conference / meeting room where we got to meet the other students going to camp. We truly were an internationally diverse group of students with a range of research interests and we were all in varied places along our path of becoming academicians. After an orientation and introductions, we had a short lesson on how to collect field notes. We were then given the assignment to take our notebooks and in groups of 3 to 4 and collect observational data that will help us to better understand the simple question, “What is happening on board the ship?” Jan (the Norwegian professor) explained that the task may seem light or even banal, but that it will give us exposure and practice collecting field data that we can then later think about how one would code, catalog, and interpret. I have to wonder what all of the others on the ship thought of over 20 people roaming the ship with pen and paper continually looking around and writing things down. J

One of the more memorable moments was when we had to pause our exercise and return to the meeting room so that a member of the crew could give us our safety lecture, which taught us how to find and operate the life jackets and life boats. The name of the cruise line is Hurtigruten. He gave us the history of the Hurtigrueten cruise lines and I had to silently giggle every time he said, “Hurigruten,” because, with his accent, he kept reminding me of the sound of the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. Later I confirmed that several other American students were having the same thought.

In addition to the academic side of the experience, we also had time to play tourist. We even had a stop at the island Slovaer (sp?) where we had a few minutes to stretch our legs a bit. I got to pop by the bar and enjoy a Norwegian beer and I got to eat ice cream on the deck of a cruise ship north of the Arctic circle.

I have attached a few photos from the cruise experience below.

The Kong Harald getting ready to sail. The distortion in the picture is because I used the panoramic feature to get the whole ship in the picture.

A view from the back of the boat

Gotta love the view of the sky and water from a cruise ship

Hi! It's me enjoying the summer air in the Arctic.

Our safety lecture with life jacket demo.

A 360-degree panoramic that I took while we were docked at Slovaer (sp?)

And so it begins

From 12:30a to 3:30a, I was wide-awake. I was i-chatting with my friend Bill, who suggested that I should try to get some sleep. It was good advice. I managed to get back to sleep until 7:30a. I went downstairs and joined my colleagues from U.T. for breakfast. There was a buffet of wide ranging foods that I wasn’t sure how to approach, so I held back, watched, and replicated the actions of two hungry teenage boys. There were many loaves of various multigrain breads, marmalades and jams. I also had an assortment of crackers with different spreads including caviar (served in a toothpaste-like tube), pickled herring, shrimp spread, and what I think is a salmon-paste.

After breakfast, our group was picked up by a group of 3 taxis and delivered to the School of Business at Bod0. We were given a tour of campus and each of us was given an “official” business school hoodie as a gift. After the tour, we used an empty classroom and officially met for the first time and started to get down to business. We were encouraged to look for opportunities to explore and form research collaborations with other international students. I got the impression that there may be financial and institutional support available for U.S. students to spend a semester abroad, living in Norway, working on a research collaboration. Oooh, that would be fun. I’ll keep my eyes open and see what happens. We had a quick lunch in the school cafeteria, the highlight of which was a waffle with a sweet goat cheese spread.

The group of UT Students posing in the Bod0 School of Business

(The blonde dude next to me is Jan (pronounced "Yan", our host)

My friend Kerk and Professor Larry in the cafeteria

The Business School (love the emphasis on natural light)

Our group getting a guided tour of the school.

It's the little things

Got sleep... That's better. The bad news is that it's 1 a.m. and I'm wide awake. So, I thought I'd bring the blog up to date while I have the opportunity and a window of internet access. I realize the challenge is that every moment is filled with new discoveries and observations that it's hard to succinctly capture the experience in this format. That said, I think a series of stream-of-consciousness bullets of the highlights is the best way to go...

It was a looo-o-o-o-ooong series of flights. But there were highlights of the trip, like...

• Having a pint at the Guiness Pub in the Newark airport watching a Yankees Boston game and sharing a table with loud and excited Yankees fans. When I left, the Yankees were up 3-0 at the top of the 8th :)
• I found a currency exchange station across from the gate where my flight to Oslo boarded. So, I managed to get Kroner (Norwegian currency) before leaving the States.
• At the gate, waiting for the flight to board, is when the dominant language being spoken around me shifted from English.

I'm happy to report I managed my first experience in an international airport where English is not the primary language well. From the moment I got off the plane I was struck by the little things (to reference Pulp Fiction)...

• The Norwegian airports don't have carpet. In fact that seems to be true almost everywhere. Everything is open spaces with a lot of natural light with hardwood floors and tile.
• The airport snack and magazine stand had fresh fruit and vegetables available and it was no big deal. A welcome difference from the preserved and packaged land of the States.
• Should have slept more on the plane, but once we flew into daylight (even though I was conditioned to think of it as the middle of the night) I was awke, up and full of vim & vigor.

It's been rainy / foggy so far. The temps have been (I'm guessing) in the 50s. I met several classmates in the Oslo airport and we were met by another student who has been here (and will be at the camp as a Fellow, I believe) and we got a ride to our hotel. They drive on the right side in Norway, but it was interesting to look over at the driver's side and see a speedometer in kilometers. The nice thing is that I bet that car could do close to 200 easily. :)

I'm loving our hotel.

• Again, hard wood floors.
• The complimentary coffee comes from a cool machine that grinds and makes fresh (and strong!) coffee. Not the in-a-pot on-a-burner complimentary coffee you see in the States.
• It took me a LONG time to figure out how to turn on the lights in my room. It turns out there is a slot where you have to insert your electronic key card in order to make the lights work. That way, as you take your card when you leave the room, you won't leave lights on unnecessarily. I spent some time unpacking in the dark using the light from my iPhone until I figured that out. :)

Four of us then spent the afternoon walking around the area near our hotel, trying to stave off sleep as long as possible. Highlights included...

• Grabbing a bite at a local eatery. We ordered what we thought was a light meal for the four of us, but by the time the food arrived, it looked like we had enough to feed 8-10 hungry people. Whoops. :) Looks like we need more practice with this.
• The culture does indeed seem to be quiet and reserved. In the restaurant, everyone was eating very quietly and speaking in soft tones. There weren't the typical American TVs or piped-in music playing that we're accustomed to. We were all self-conscious as we talked in our usual "eating out in a group" levels of volume and realized how much we stood out from the rest of the crowd. It was very peaceful as we adjusted, but different. If this continues to be the norm, it will take time to adjust from the sensation that one is eating in the library.
• I did a double-take when I went to the restroom. I saw the male / female icon on the door, which to my experience means there is a second set of 2 doors on the other side, or it's a 1-person capacity restroom. Nope. Not in this case. :) Just a truly unisex, multi-user restroom. When in Rome... :)
• Our hotel is right on the water where there is a marina.
• Physical activity is very common here. One doesn't have to avoid 100+ degree temperatures, for starters. :) There was a constant flow of individuals and families out walking and biking around.
• I had fun going into and navigating a couple of the little shops that were open (imagine a small store that is part drug store, part convenience store, except fresh food and produce is more dominant than anything packaged and preserved).

One of my fellow students said that Bod0 (where we are staying tonight) has a population of about 40,000 and the island where we are going for camp has a population of about 500.

And on that note, I'm going to take another crack at getting a bit more sleep. But, I leave you with an amalgam of some of the photos taken so far. Some may lack a bit of context without reading the entry above. (I'm thinking of the photo of all of the food that arrived at our table and the photo of the fresh produce at the airport, for example). Also, on the note of photos:

• I have a feature on my iPhone that lets me take panoramic photos (thanks Rob Czysz!) I attached a couple here and will take more. Note that, thanks to the magic of Panoramic photos, all 4 of us appear in the same photo- We each took turns standing in the space of the next shot in the series. My favorite part is that Kerk & Naddy weren't actually standing next to each other in real-time. The magic of photography. :)
• The other folks you see in the photos are typically fellow students. Conversely, they also took photos of me. We'll send each other our photos. So, I'll eventually have and post Tom photos here as well.

Group Panoramic Shot

Panoramic shout in front of our hotel

A lot of food. :)

Produce at the Airport

Oslo Airport

It's a bit cold and rainy today. :)

Arrival

I am happy to report that I have arrived. I am in Bod0, Norway where I will stay the night. Tomorrow morning we travel to the Lofoten Islands and camp begins. It is 6:15p here (11:15a in Austin) and I am falling asleep at my keyboard. I am trying to get over jet lag and staying up as late as I can before I crash, but I think I am about to give up the ghost and crash. So, I'll wait to make a more coherent post until after I've had a few hours of shut-eye. In the meantime, attached are 4 quick photos I snapped when walking around my outside my hotel with 3 of my classmates.

Cheers,

T--

I

Wheels up in 11 hours

A quick note to say that I am busily packing and getting ready. Internet access for parts of the trip (especially the first part) will intermittent at best. I'll keep entries and post them when I'm able.

T--