USA

E and I are off to the US today for a quick trip to visit my dad, his wife, and to celebrate my Grannie's 95th birthday. I'm a little nervous, but excited for the trip.

I just got an email from my alma mater explaining that my favorite professor is retiring after having taught for 49 years. I think he almost single-handedly saved me from dropping out of college. He's such a great teacher...

Klagemur

I'm afraid this is going to be a whingy post. I have come down with a cold, and woke up this morning with an excruciatingly painful crick in my neck on top of the headache and sore throat. What's more, I'm pretty sure poor E has gotten sick too--he was coughing during the night. All this just as KE is finally getting over his cold. Too bad.

I'm also irritated as I am after every class I teach this term. I have one student who is so domineering and rude that s/he ruins the entire class for me every time. What's worse, other (non-native speaker) students have told me they have a hard time understanding this (native speaker) person's English--so not only does the student monopolize class time in a manner that I find rude, but does so in a way that the other students can't even understand. I won't go into details, but it all just leaves me frustrated and angry.

Things are progressing really slowly with the stripy sweater for E, and I'm getting absolutely no work done. I'm sure stress over the fact that I'm not writing is the reason behind my neck pain--my tension always goes to my neck. It will take weeks for it to go away too, which is a real bummer, especially since yesterday was the first morning that the pavement was icy. I'm dreading another winter of walking on ice--I totally stiffen up, which is the worst thing you can do to maintain balance. It is the one thing I dislike most about living in Norway.

Let's see here, desperately searching for the positives this week... I feel like I'm connecting well with my colleagues, there are two interesting lectures to go to today, I made yummy macaroni and cheese on Tuesday, E loves steamed broccoli, my gray mittens are great to wear, I managed to turn in my tax form so that they'll stop taking 50% of my wages (I should have turned it in back in January!) and I set up an appointment at the eye doctor's to get a vision test that I need in order to get my Norwegian driver's license...

I re-read André Bjerke's De dødes tjern. I hadn't realized that it was set during World War II. Other than the dates, there is no indication that the action takes place during war time. Weird. I also finished reading Camilla Collett's Amtmandens Døttre. I was a bit disappointed to see that there was no further mention of setrer or hytter in part two of the book, but there is enough in part one to build a conference paper on.

I also read Henrik Anker Bjerregaard's Et Fjeldeventyr from 1825. I had never heard of it before I saw a reference to it last week. It is the first Norwegian play (i.e. play written in Dano-Norwegian after 1814 with explicitly Norwegian characters and setting) and boy is it bad! It's a musical comedy and apparently it was wildly popular right up into the twentieth century. Henrik Wergeland wrote an epilogue, Henrik Ibsen wrote a prologue, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson reworked it, and Arne Garborg translated it to nynorsk. Having read it, I find it kind of shocking that these guys found it so compelling. It is fascinating in terms of cultural history, and may even fit into my cabin project, though, so it was well worth reading.

Norsk på norsk

Friday I had my first day of teaching the seminar on early modern literature. There was a mountain of technical and logistical stuff to work out in addition to frantic cramming of the material itself. Then suddenly the class started and there I was, teaching Norwegian literature to Norwegian students in Norway, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do. It was a little surreal, but I finished the first class meeting with the overall impression that I have exactly the same strengths and weaknesses as a teacher in Norwegian that I do in English. That's good news in one way (i.e. that I'm not exponentially worse), but a bit demoralizing in another way.

I'm really anxious for a term off from teaching, just so I can regroup and restrategize my teaching (apologies for the military references!). I was really pleased with my space/place seminar last term, and would like to rebuild my teaching along those lines. For this class, I have more or less just thrown myself into it without the reflection and preparation that I would have liked, so I'll just have to grit my teeth and get through it the best I can.

I have neglected to mention in other posts that I joined my first knitting "challenge" on Ravelry: the National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon for 2009. It seems insane when one writes it out like that, but it's not as bad as it seems, since one can include UFOs (Ravelry lingo for "unfinished objects"). I have three unfinished sweaters that will count. The organizers of the challenge also include vests and even "shrugs" (lame!) in the competition, but not children's sweaters. That rule seems ridiculous to me, since a size 6 boy's sweater in fingering weight yarn entails far more knitting than a woman's shrug in bulky yarn, so I may allow myself to include the unfinished sweater for E that also languishes.

The bluish-greenish-gray raglan sweater I'm working on has been a little slow, but I basically knit all day yesterday (ouch, my hands and wrists ache a bit this morning), and am now well past the point where the arms are joined to the body. Since the sweater is knitted in a ribbed pattern it looks ridiculously tiny (the ribbing pulls it together), and I'm a bit worried that blocking it won't stretch it out enough to fit my rather generous figure. I can also tell that I didn't buy enough yarn, and will have to pick up at least one more ball--argh. Thankfully the yarn wasn't too expensive, so I won't feel bad if it's not something I wear all the time. It's just that I really need wearable sweaters right now, and am loathe to buy them, so I want to be done quickly and have it fit nicely...