Norsk Folkemuseum, February 16, 2011 Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo
Vigeland Sculpture Park
Lillehammer, Thon Hotel Skeikampen
Sunday, February 20, 2011
pics from Oslo and Lillehammer
The Viking Museum
Norsk Folkemuseum, February 16, 2011 Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo
Vigeland Sculpture Park
Lillehammer, Thon Hotel Skeikampen
Norsk Folkemuseum, February 16, 2011 Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo
Vigeland Sculpture Park
Lillehammer, Thon Hotel Skeikampen
Friday, February 18, 2011
Oslo to Lillehammer
Hi All,
On Wednesday we flew to Oslo for meetings with Fulbright and our ski trip to Lillehammer. On the bus to the Viking Museum Wednesday afternoon we met a satellite salesman for Lockheed Martin, who remained with us during the afternoon and evening and kindly answered the boys' questions about commercial satellites. Upon entering the Viking Museum, we faced the prow of the Oseberg ship sweeping to the ceiling; the grace of its design belying the Vikings' marauding mission. The oaken ships in the museum were so well preserved because they also served as burial chambers in the blue clay near Oslo. In preparation for the afterlife, men and women of high rank were buried with weaving and agricultural tools, gold and silver (which had been pillaged long ago), sleds, and cooking utensils.
Next, while Bill went to a lecture on global warming at the American embassy, we went to see the art deco Gustav Vigeland sculpture park in Oslo. Male and female figures, babies, old men and women carved out of granite line the boulevard culminating in the central obelisk of intertwining figures. We all touched the shiny bronze fist of Vigeland's petulant baby stamping his foot in protest.
On Thursday, Bill took the boys to the National Museum and I went to hear the ten-minute reports of the Fulbright participants' projects. Some of the many topics that fascinated me--passive houses that require no outside heating source, preservationist rhetoric based on human rights rather than intrinsic rights logic, the eugenics movement in Norway where approximately 44,000 people were sterilized over a 40 year period, and Friluftsbarnehagen, or the outdoor classroom mandated by the Norwegian government for all Norwegian children.
That evening we had a dinner of hors d'oeuvres at the ambassadors residence, a mansion west of the city center. When I returned to our hotel I walked through an outdoor black metal concert and was so eager to get away from what sounded like amplified belching lions that I took a wrong turn and ended up in the parliament building.
Now we are in Lillehammer where Mark and Walter had their first downhill skiing lesson! It's a lovely resort with swimming, iceskating, cross-country skiing.
Update: Mark and Walter love downhill skiing, andthey are quickly becoming pretty good at it. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Dan, Mark and Walter would like to come and see you for a skiing adventure.
Mom and Dad went cross country and we were both comically hopeless, ending up on our backs, skis in the air, flailing like Gregor in "The Metamorphosis."
I'll post pics when we return home.
Yours,
Martha et al.
On Wednesday we flew to Oslo for meetings with Fulbright and our ski trip to Lillehammer. On the bus to the Viking Museum Wednesday afternoon we met a satellite salesman for Lockheed Martin, who remained with us during the afternoon and evening and kindly answered the boys' questions about commercial satellites. Upon entering the Viking Museum, we faced the prow of the Oseberg ship sweeping to the ceiling; the grace of its design belying the Vikings' marauding mission. The oaken ships in the museum were so well preserved because they also served as burial chambers in the blue clay near Oslo. In preparation for the afterlife, men and women of high rank were buried with weaving and agricultural tools, gold and silver (which had been pillaged long ago), sleds, and cooking utensils.
Next, while Bill went to a lecture on global warming at the American embassy, we went to see the art deco Gustav Vigeland sculpture park in Oslo. Male and female figures, babies, old men and women carved out of granite line the boulevard culminating in the central obelisk of intertwining figures. We all touched the shiny bronze fist of Vigeland's petulant baby stamping his foot in protest.
On Thursday, Bill took the boys to the National Museum and I went to hear the ten-minute reports of the Fulbright participants' projects. Some of the many topics that fascinated me--passive houses that require no outside heating source, preservationist rhetoric based on human rights rather than intrinsic rights logic, the eugenics movement in Norway where approximately 44,000 people were sterilized over a 40 year period, and Friluftsbarnehagen, or the outdoor classroom mandated by the Norwegian government for all Norwegian children.
That evening we had a dinner of hors d'oeuvres at the ambassadors residence, a mansion west of the city center. When I returned to our hotel I walked through an outdoor black metal concert and was so eager to get away from what sounded like amplified belching lions that I took a wrong turn and ended up in the parliament building.
Now we are in Lillehammer where Mark and Walter had their first downhill skiing lesson! It's a lovely resort with swimming, iceskating, cross-country skiing.
Update: Mark and Walter love downhill skiing, andthey are quickly becoming pretty good at it. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Dan, Mark and Walter would like to come and see you for a skiing adventure.
Mom and Dad went cross country and we were both comically hopeless, ending up on our backs, skis in the air, flailing like Gregor in "The Metamorphosis."
I'll post pics when we return home.
Yours,
Martha et al.
Arctic pics from the Arctic Chair, Mark Hermanson
Hi All, We're on the bus to Lillehammer and Mark Hermanson, the Fulbright Arctic Chair, who is stationed in Svalbard, shared these photos he took in the Northeast Barents Sea in April-May 2009.
Near Hornsund
Northeast Barents Sea. Lance research vessel. Experimental oil burn. After adding oil to the water to measure how the oil decomposed, researchers set the oil on fire.
Near Hornsund
Northeast Barents Sea. Lance research vessel. Experimental oil burn. After adding oil to the water to measure how the oil decomposed, researchers set the oil on fire.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sondre Bratland and AnnBjørg Lien
Hi All,
Thought you might like this. Sondre Bratland is one of the foremost folk singers in Norway.
Cheers,
Martha
Thought you might like this. Sondre Bratland is one of the foremost folk singers in Norway.
Cheers,
Martha
Sunday, February 13, 2011
skjære
I have grown fond of the Norwegian magpies, or skjæres, who swoop and perch among the scattered evergreens I walk past on my way to work. I like their royal blue, black and white contrast. I'm afraid I can't take credit for the pic. Here's the URL http://www.photosight.org/photo.php?photoid=58865
Saturday evening
Had a lovely evening Saturday at the home of one of my colleagues, Anne Karin, and her husband Sigmund Ro, who recently retired from teaching American studies. He showed us a DVD of clips from Norwegian ski races dating from the 1930s to the present and described how skiing helped forge Norwegian national identity; the king of Norway skied in these races in the same gear as the locals.
Sigmund's grandfather had come to the U.S. in the 1880s, tried farming in northern Minnesota, but, when grain prices plummeted in the 1880s, he struggled, and returned home to Norway, declaring, so the story goes, that America was all toil and little reward. Examples of his grandmother's lovely rosemaling appeared throughout the house.
We leave for Oslo on Wednesday for a series of Fulbright lectures and then to Lillehammer on Friday for skiing.
Men venleg helsing,
Martha and Bill
Sigmund's grandfather had come to the U.S. in the 1880s, tried farming in northern Minnesota, but, when grain prices plummeted in the 1880s, he struggled, and returned home to Norway, declaring, so the story goes, that America was all toil and little reward. Examples of his grandmother's lovely rosemaling appeared throughout the house.
We leave for Oslo on Wednesday for a series of Fulbright lectures and then to Lillehammer on Friday for skiing.
Men venleg helsing,
Martha and Bill
Friday, February 11, 2011
Words without Borders
Hi All,
One of my colleagues, Agnes, has published Norwegian to English translations for Words Without Borders, a website devoted to international literature. She raved about the work of Kjell Askildsen, whose story "The Dogs in Thessaloniki," she has translated.
Here's a link to the website and a story by Kjell Askildsen.
http://wordswithoutborders.org
http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/the-dogs-in-thessaloniki
Had my dentist appointment today. Norwegians pay cash for dental appointments, hence most Norwegians only visit a dentist once a year, and the dentist him or herself does the cleaning.
Cheers,
Martha
One of my colleagues, Agnes, has published Norwegian to English translations for Words Without Borders, a website devoted to international literature. She raved about the work of Kjell Askildsen, whose story "The Dogs in Thessaloniki," she has translated.
Here's a link to the website and a story by Kjell Askildsen.
http://wordswithoutborders.org
http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/the-dogs-in-thessaloniki
Had my dentist appointment today. Norwegians pay cash for dental appointments, hence most Norwegians only visit a dentist once a year, and the dentist him or herself does the cleaning.
Cheers,
Martha
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