January 18, 2018: Office time

I have an office! I have been working at home, but it’s sure nice to have a sunny cheerful place to sit with a desk, larger screen and keyboard, and a door. Best of all is having other people around to talk with, practice some Norwegian, learn from, and share ideas! I’ll come in to work here a few days per week.

Of course, Ted also has an office in his department but he hasn’t taken pictures. Maybe we can share that another time. He has been teaching a class for 2 weeks now and it is going well.

Ti-tusen takk til Kristine Lien Skog for connecting me with Ruralis–the Norwegian Institute for Rural and Regional Research. Heidi helped to set up an office for me and introduce me to everyone. I look forward to learning about all of the work that they do. There are many researchers and PhD students that work on natural resource issues such as agriculture and forestry economies, local and regional food, wildlife interactions with agriculture, climate change, and other topics. They have so many publications on the website that I haven’t been able to get up to speed, but I can see that we have a lot in common.

I am the “new Lillian” because I’m borrowing the office of another researcher who is abroad until the summer. All of the offices are basically the same. I like that space age chair, it’s good for my posture. Outside of my window on the first day there were all of these skiers playing games that looked like capture the flag and tag, looked exhausting! Our offices are above the gym, so there must have been some extra activities organized outside that day.

Everyone is amazing, welcoming, and kind. I’m “sporty” because I agreed to give a 1/2 hour seminar on my work tomorrow, followed by cake (regularly scheduled cake with the seminar, not just for me). Anders was also sporty when he went to band on his first weekend here. It’s a good use of the word!

We have this kitchen commons area that is across from my office. Everyone has a labelled space in the fridge, and they have everything–a dishwasher, a super fancy coffee machine that puts out espresso and hot chocolate, a regular coffee pot and tea pot, and a few snacks to share.

Everyone sits together and eats lunch every day, so I get to practice a little norsk. We can’t all fit in this kitchen area, so we go to a bigger room on the same floor that has long tables. Everyone from Ruralis makes space to sit together to eat and chat for about half an hour per day. It is a very friendly environment. There is one other American there who was happy to meet me because now she has more excuses to speak English, but she is married to a Norwegian so she has plenty of time to practice if she wants to!

A Norwegian Folk Dance institute is on the same floor of this building. The first time I came in, I followed some footsteps printed on the floor and it took me to their area first. They have these charming old photos of dance on the walls and hold classes.

I have about a 1/2 hour walk to work, which is very beautiful. I will post some pictures of that next.