Vimsete

I got back from Lund late last night. All in all, it was worth the effort, though it was by no means the best conference I've ever been to. It's a little sad that the best connections I made were with the people I already work with, but I suppose it's not a bad idea to strengthen the network I already have. I found out about an absolutely perfect job opening that has unfortunately already been filled: research consultant at the National Library. Apparently it's a 50% research 50% consultant position where you help other people with their research. OMG I would have loved that. But now that I know, I can follow along in case a similar position opens up in the future.

Otherwise, I felt my paper went relatively well. I think a lot of people realized there was a gap in their knowledge regarding the text, period, and themes I talked about, so that was good, but it certainly wasn't anything groundbreaking. The best paper I head was from one of our PhD students, who talked about Lars Ramberg's Liberté, which was selected to decorate the interpretive museum at Eidsvoll (home of the Norwegian constitution). I hadn't heard about the furor that this work produced (it was later deselected), and I found both the work itself and the debate really thought-provoking. But other than that one paper, there was very little else that got me excited.

I almost missed my flight home. I got a late start from Lund (too busy socializing!), then the train I was taking to the Copenhagen airport had technical problems, so we had to get off and wait for a new one. I made it to the airport 30 minutes before the flight, but amazingly was able to check in (hand baggage only, thankfully), make it through security and get a seat at the gate. Yay Copenhagen airport. I could have never done it in the US. When I got off the bus in Oslo and walked to the ferry I was pleasantly surprised to find a huge music festival on the water. It was a little disorienting at first, since nearly all of the hundreds of people milling around were Pakistani, but quite cool. I felt like I'd been transported to Karachi for a moment. It was actually just the MELAfestival, which was something I knew nothing about before stumbling upon it.

This morning E, KE and I walked down to the marina and mucked about in our boat. We had to bail it and scrub it down some and KE tried to get the motor going. It starts, but cuts out pretty randomly, which isn't a good thing when motors are concerned. It was a beautiful summer morning though, and it was fascinating to see all the stinging jelly fish in the water. This is a record year for them.

Hey, have you tried the Battleground God game, which is a test to see if your professed beliefs are consistent? Pretty interesting quiz.

Oooh, I just discovered this site where you can make maps of where you've been:


visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States


visited 14 states (6.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Clearly I need to work on the southern hemisphere!