the start of summer holidays
Jun. 29th, 2012 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaOne of the nice things about living in Sweden is the fact that summer holidays are normal, for all walks of life. As a Uni employee I don't actually have to formally book my time off, so long as the colleagues with which I am working know when I am and am not available. Therefore I am just meshing my time off with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar's schedule, more or less, since he does have to formally book his time off.
He started his summer holiday last week, just before our MidSummer dance performance (ok, so the link is actually to a photo from the weekend before, when he and I were both performing--for midsummer he ran sound for one of the stages, so didn't dance himself, but it gives the idea nonetheless). We took the weekend to just relax, visit some friends, and not do much, other than making some progress on my nålbinding.
Monday I went in to work in the morning because I had a meeting with the woman in the grants office who helped me with a grant application earlier in the year. The grant wasn't approved, so we discussed the feedback that I got from the application and how to do better next time. She also gave me a list of other grants I might apply for later. Tuesday and Wednesday morning were lazy days (well, I did do a bit of uni work while curled up in my nice comfy recliner, but not a huge amount). The work was primarily inspired by seeing a link to a really useful web-tool for determining the percentage of each of the minerals in a rock based on having the computer count the number of pixels in an image that are a certain colour. One clicks on a grain, and the computer highlights everything that is that colour. Then one uses a slider to tell the computer if it can be more or less generous in its definition of what is or is not "that colour" until one feels like it is highlighting only the mineral of interest. Much fun, and quite useful. Sometimes. Other times there is more than one mineral that happens to be more or less the same colour, and it isn't as helpful, though one can at least determine that the two of them together are X% of the rock, which is a start.
Wednesday we did the 45 min drive south tolord_kjar's parent's house, in part so we could see his sister, who is up visiting from southern Sweden. Thursday we hung out with the family and also checked out the tent his parents have, to see if we wanted to borrow it. It was smaller than I wanted, and a bit old, so we popped into Piteå to go tent shopping. I had been hoping to buy a proper geodesic dome tent--the sort that has three different poles that all cross one another. I had one when I did my field work in the Brooks Range for my master's but didn't bring it with me when I moved to California. While it might yet be possible to get it back, that would involve flying over there to get it, which is so not cost effective. Sadly, the one outdoor (primarily fishing and hunting) store in Piteå didn't have those sorts of tents, so we had to content ourselves with a four-man dome of the sort with two crossing poles for the tent itself, and a third pole that extends the rain fly to create an entry room outside of the tent. This one is just tall enough for me to stand up in, but he is too tall. However, this means that I can do my yoga in the tent out of reach of mosquitoes.
Thursday evening he, his sister, and I drove another hour or so south to attend a "Styrdans" in Skellefteå. The term styr, in this context, means to lead, so styrdans is couples dance where one person leads and the other follows. It was a fun evening, since I love dancing, but not so much fun as Swedish Folk Dancing. Styrdans, at least in this part of Sweden, seems to be popular with an older crowd.lord_kjar and his sister were probably the youngest people there who weren't part of the band, and I was younger than most of the other dancers. However, this also means that most people were fairly good at dancing. I have his sister's word for that. I mostly danced with my sweetie, and occassionally would dance by myself while he danced with his sister, but she found many other partners to dance with. At this particular venue they have a large sign on the wall that lights up the word "damer" when it is the ladies turn to ask someone to dance, and "herrar" when it is the men's turn to ask someone to dance (so that both get an equal number of chances to select their next partner). Apparently it is customary to dance two dances with the person one asks, and then go on to a new partner. I didn't see any pairs of women or pairs of men dancing, and I was the only person I saw who danced without a partner.
Why didn't I ask someone when the siblings were dancing? At least in part because I am shy around strangers, and the fact that while getting much better my Swedish still isn't great probably didn't hurt, either. Why didn't I give someone else the opportunity to ask me to dance? Why should I wait, if I dance on my own I will have fun...
We had a lovely drive home after the dance, enjoying the long northern sunset--the sun was just down a bit after midnight when we left, and the sky was finally losing its pink sunset colour when we got home a bit after 1:00. It is interesting to note that it loses all trace of the pink a bit before it pinks up with sunrise. I love living this close to the Arctic Circle.
Today we came home, stopping in the city center on the way to run some errands. I managed to get an apt at the eye doc for only an hour after we checked in to see if they had any, so I now have a piece of paper from them saying that I see well enough to be allowed to get a driver's licence. Now we just need someone from the motor vehicles department to answer the phone so that we can get my name onto the system so that we can use the internet to fill in the form to get a learning permit so that I can finally turn in the "good eyes" report. While waiting for the exam we accomplished a variety of other things, and even checked out another outdoor equipment store to find out if the proper geodesic dome tents still exist. They do, but they cost more than twice what we paid for ours, so for now I am content. We will see if I still feel this way after we have slept in the tent.
After errands I spent the rest of the day cooking food to take with us to Norway and packing and organizing stuff. It is now pushing midnight, and we are pretty much done. The plan from here is to get a nap and then hit the road. We will head to Lofoten, Norway, where we will relax, enjoy being in the mountains, perhaps do a bit of hiking, and visit the viking museum. We could spend a couple of days, or perhaps four or five. We do want to get back here soon enough to work on some projects before our local Medieval Days event, which starts the 11th. I do not expect to have internet access while in Norway, unless we find a campground that offers free wireless (do that do that?), so don't look for any news from me until we return.
After that event our vacation time for the summer will be over and it will be back to work...
lord_kjar's schedule, more or less, since he does have to formally book his time off.He started his summer holiday last week, just before our MidSummer dance performance (ok, so the link is actually to a photo from the weekend before, when he and I were both performing--for midsummer he ran sound for one of the stages, so didn't dance himself, but it gives the idea nonetheless). We took the weekend to just relax, visit some friends, and not do much, other than making some progress on my nålbinding.
Monday I went in to work in the morning because I had a meeting with the woman in the grants office who helped me with a grant application earlier in the year. The grant wasn't approved, so we discussed the feedback that I got from the application and how to do better next time. She also gave me a list of other grants I might apply for later. Tuesday and Wednesday morning were lazy days (well, I did do a bit of uni work while curled up in my nice comfy recliner, but not a huge amount). The work was primarily inspired by seeing a link to a really useful web-tool for determining the percentage of each of the minerals in a rock based on having the computer count the number of pixels in an image that are a certain colour. One clicks on a grain, and the computer highlights everything that is that colour. Then one uses a slider to tell the computer if it can be more or less generous in its definition of what is or is not "that colour" until one feels like it is highlighting only the mineral of interest. Much fun, and quite useful. Sometimes. Other times there is more than one mineral that happens to be more or less the same colour, and it isn't as helpful, though one can at least determine that the two of them together are X% of the rock, which is a start.
Wednesday we did the 45 min drive south to
lord_kjar's parent's house, in part so we could see his sister, who is up visiting from southern Sweden. Thursday we hung out with the family and also checked out the tent his parents have, to see if we wanted to borrow it. It was smaller than I wanted, and a bit old, so we popped into Piteå to go tent shopping. I had been hoping to buy a proper geodesic dome tent--the sort that has three different poles that all cross one another. I had one when I did my field work in the Brooks Range for my master's but didn't bring it with me when I moved to California. While it might yet be possible to get it back, that would involve flying over there to get it, which is so not cost effective. Sadly, the one outdoor (primarily fishing and hunting) store in Piteå didn't have those sorts of tents, so we had to content ourselves with a four-man dome of the sort with two crossing poles for the tent itself, and a third pole that extends the rain fly to create an entry room outside of the tent. This one is just tall enough for me to stand up in, but he is too tall. However, this means that I can do my yoga in the tent out of reach of mosquitoes.Thursday evening he, his sister, and I drove another hour or so south to attend a "Styrdans" in Skellefteå. The term styr, in this context, means to lead, so styrdans is couples dance where one person leads and the other follows. It was a fun evening, since I love dancing, but not so much fun as Swedish Folk Dancing. Styrdans, at least in this part of Sweden, seems to be popular with an older crowd.
lord_kjar and his sister were probably the youngest people there who weren't part of the band, and I was younger than most of the other dancers. However, this also means that most people were fairly good at dancing. I have his sister's word for that. I mostly danced with my sweetie, and occassionally would dance by myself while he danced with his sister, but she found many other partners to dance with. At this particular venue they have a large sign on the wall that lights up the word "damer" when it is the ladies turn to ask someone to dance, and "herrar" when it is the men's turn to ask someone to dance (so that both get an equal number of chances to select their next partner). Apparently it is customary to dance two dances with the person one asks, and then go on to a new partner. I didn't see any pairs of women or pairs of men dancing, and I was the only person I saw who danced without a partner. Why didn't I ask someone when the siblings were dancing? At least in part because I am shy around strangers, and the fact that while getting much better my Swedish still isn't great probably didn't hurt, either. Why didn't I give someone else the opportunity to ask me to dance? Why should I wait, if I dance on my own I will have fun...
We had a lovely drive home after the dance, enjoying the long northern sunset--the sun was just down a bit after midnight when we left, and the sky was finally losing its pink sunset colour when we got home a bit after 1:00. It is interesting to note that it loses all trace of the pink a bit before it pinks up with sunrise. I love living this close to the Arctic Circle.
Today we came home, stopping in the city center on the way to run some errands. I managed to get an apt at the eye doc for only an hour after we checked in to see if they had any, so I now have a piece of paper from them saying that I see well enough to be allowed to get a driver's licence. Now we just need someone from the motor vehicles department to answer the phone so that we can get my name onto the system so that we can use the internet to fill in the form to get a learning permit so that I can finally turn in the "good eyes" report. While waiting for the exam we accomplished a variety of other things, and even checked out another outdoor equipment store to find out if the proper geodesic dome tents still exist. They do, but they cost more than twice what we paid for ours, so for now I am content. We will see if I still feel this way after we have slept in the tent.
After errands I spent the rest of the day cooking food to take with us to Norway and packing and organizing stuff. It is now pushing midnight, and we are pretty much done. The plan from here is to get a nap and then hit the road. We will head to Lofoten, Norway, where we will relax, enjoy being in the mountains, perhaps do a bit of hiking, and visit the viking museum. We could spend a couple of days, or perhaps four or five. We do want to get back here soon enough to work on some projects before our local Medieval Days event, which starts the 11th. I do not expect to have internet access while in Norway, unless we find a campground that offers free wireless (do that do that?), so don't look for any news from me until we return.
After that event our vacation time for the summer will be over and it will be back to work...