My fieldwork is over.

My fieldwork is over. My stay in Seattle is over(for now). It's kind of sad.. My report is done, though I had to stay up all night to finish it. I miss Seattle already.

When I came home to Harstad these guys were waiting for me outside my house:

Me and my cousin (and my sister) went hiking one day.. Just so you can see what Northern Norway look like:

Bingo and Baseball

In my last fieldwork day I introduced my roommate Tiffany to the wonderful world of the Norwegian Americans. We went to the spaghetti and meatball dinner at the Leif Erikson Hall, and then we played bingo.

My friend Randi and Jerry was there to.

I had no idea that bingo had that many rules, they needed an A4 page just to explain the rules, and even after that I didn't understand it all. Luckily Tiffany understood. So now I'm an expert and ready to join my grandmother for bingo when I get home.

we also got these nice expert-playing-bingo-ink. I was thinking about taking it home with me as a present for my grandmother, but then I realized with my luck it will empty itself inside my bag during the flight home. So I'll just find something else for her.

As a part of my real-american-experience me, Tiffany and Anton went to a baseball game.

I didn't knew that much about baseball, but again Tiffany was there to explain to me (I don't know what to do when I go back to Norway and she will not be there to explain things to me). So after the 5th inning I had learned the most important rules and a lot of new words.

...

i was supposed to be done with my rapport. i'm not done with my rapport. what a surprise.. it was a good try though. 17 pages. only seven pages left until i'm done. the problem is that i don't really know what to write on those last pages. or, two of them i know, the last five i don't. i think i'll just take a break now from writing. start again next week. read through it all again. i have to deliver my rapport august 1, so there is still time. no worries.

viking days at the nordic heritage museum will do me good! to think about something else this weekend. though i will probably have to tell people that i have only two weeks left here. not even two weeks. under two weeks. 12 days. that makes me sad. but i try not to think about that. i just try to have as much fun as i can these last days.

Ah, the ups and downs of fieldwork!

explodingdog.com

I'm back to my old writing-a-paper-habits. I do everything but the actual writing. I clean the kitchen, I go for a walk, I drink coffee, whenever my house mates walk by my room I talk to them instead of writing. Transcribing interviews is not fun, being forced to listen to my own voice is like torture. I did not know I sounded that stupid, and I am seriously thinking about stop talking. One of my interviews is in Norwegian, and I discovered that I like my voice better in English than in Norwegian. A good excuse to move back here, so that my voice can sound better (and so that I can celebrate midsummer in Norway Park again). 

My plan is to finish writing my report before July 15, so that I can have some vacation before I go back home. Also so I don't become a stressed unpleasant person just before I go home. I don't have to be done with my interviews, because my rapport is only 25 pages, and it will not be room for all of them.

This weekend I'm just going to relax with Seattle International Beer Festival, and experience 4th of July. Hopefully next week will be a good week for writing!?

I'm jes goin' home..

I'm back to "work". After a lovely week with a visit from Monica.

She was lucky enough to come just in time to hear my favorite choir perform. I thought we sounded pretty good, and their Norwegian was flawless. But what els can you expect when I'm the teacher?

The real reason why we had the concert was because the Ultima Thule choir came all the way from Tromsø just to sing with us. Here we are on stage all of us; the Norwegian Ladies Chorus, The Norwegian Male Chorus and Ultima Thule.
Together with the ladies from Tromsø, we performed Going Home by Anonin Dvorak, and I felt kind of sad. "Mother's there expecting me, Father's waiting to. Lots of folks gathered there, all the friends I knew". I almost started crying, but I didn't. Though I think maybe the song is about dying in stead of going home..

The next day we visited Space Needle, I don't think you can go to Seattle and not visit Space Needle. The view was amazing. Even though there was some clouds we could still see Mount Rainier in the background. And of course, we had to take tourist pictures;

 

For the weekend, Julie the conductor of my favorite choir had invited me and Monica up to Norway park for midsummer. Norway Park is the place where the Norwegian American has their cabin. When we walked in, it was just like coming in to a typical Norwegian cabin. It was very nice. 

They had a HUGE bonfire 

Nice people;

(Because of my lack of photo taking skills I had to make this black and white so the weird colors would not show) This is Barb, Victoria, Julie and Kari. The nicest people ever!


And I was very happy because I found a string of lights to put around my neck. 

Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over - except when they are different.

I'm OK now. Starting the interviews was just what I needed to start climbing the mountain again. I am so happy with the people I chose to interview. Even after just three interviews I already got information that I would never have discover if I didn't interview exactly those people. I must admit I was terribly nervous before the first interviews, but people love talking about themselves, so it really is no problem. I still need to work on my finding-the-right-question-at-the-right-time-skill, but I guess after a little practice that will come to. Now I'm just looking forward to doing more interviews!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

“The way to do fieldwork is never to come up for air until it is all over.”

explodingdog

It is enough now. I'm bored. I want to go home. I want to stay here forever. The fieldwork feeling is not fun anymore. After Syttende Mai I haven't done much fieldwork. No field notes, no visits to the Leif Ericson Lodge, no nothing. I feel like all the energy has run out. It's the fieldwork ups and downs, and I think I'm in the bottom, it can just just go one way now I guess. I'm starting my interviews tomorrow. Finally. I'm scared. I find it to be a strange situation. It is a situation I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with, and I don't like that feeling. Luckily I'm starting with the director of my chorus, and it is good to start with some one I trust.

I've learned a lot about my self these past four months; that I'm not capable to work on my own, I need someone in the background pushing me; independent work is not for me, I need someone who expect med to be certain places at a certain time or I will not be there. I guess it is all things that I knew before, but didn't want to admit. Well there you have it!