Tom in Norway and beyond: 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 I think the mental picture I had was almost a century out of date.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.