I can almost see the 'on second thought' that flashed into the mind of this artist after writing the little 415881040 Call me (heart).

She would have stepped back to review the legibility of her offer, before realizing that... perhaps her cry for love would be taken more seriously if she wrote it (not only) AGAIN, but also MUCH BIGGER.

Or perhaps, she didn't receive any calls from the first note, so came to the conclusion that her advertising needed to intensify...

Regardless, perhaps I should call this number and find out...

Aurora and Jannaurora

Ah, aurora and a self timing shutter speed. How much fun can a girl possibly have all by herself?

No Brakes, No Ipod vs. Brakes, Ipod

I certainly have a hangover from my time spent in new-agey, hippy Whitehorse and Vancouver. It is the third day of my juice fast, and yesterday, to supplement my enlightenment I went to an expensive tea store and bought two types of tea - one called pleasure, the other clarity. Incidentally pleasure is purple and clarity is green, I find that funny, but perhaps that is because I am a bit loony.
It is 6:30 in the morning, or to practice the norskkurs a little, it is halv sju i morn. I am going to ramp up the new-agey, hippy enlightenment and have a little yoga session soon, since the sun just is starting to creep into the sky.
Yesterday I had a little ipod crisis, a little materiality sneaking into and tinging all this clarity that I am having, since I had lost the pod for a few days. But then I found it at the bottom of my laundry basket, put it on, turned it on, and cycled into the centrum at full volume with almost no brakes on the bike at all. Definitely it was time for some maintenance and tender loving care for good, sweet G-Force Orion.
The centrum was quite busy, and I met a friend for coffee. Coffee, which incidentally is not a very good addition to a fast, but because my motto for myself and everyone is 'do whatever you like, whenever you like': the coffee didn't break any rules, or at least I just shifted my fast-policy a little. After a nice chat about jazz and facebook, we wandered around the centrum... this is when we stumbled upon the expensive tea shop, and where I purchased both pleasure and clarity.
Etterpå, (or finally) I bid him a fond farewell; he went off to Svalbard and I went to the outdoor stores where I pursued the other Vancouver-y fetish of gear coveting. Now I have a nice flowery chalk bag, and some new boots.
But now I return to the ipod crisis, I was half way home when it abruptly and rudely stopped working. There were a few thoughts that sprung to my mind, the first was that I had just been listening to a schlocky pop song and that the ipod must be rebelling against it, the second was that it was funny that I had thought that I had lost it, but then I found it, and all of a sudden it was broken. Is it better to lose something or break something?
As I rode past the local grocery store, I saw that my lovely housemate Samuel's bike was parked outside. I went in to say hello, he immediately scrutinized my backpack and said, "How much room do you have in there?" So I got to relive the Klondike gold rush a little by slogging a thousand pounds of milk, butter, and flour up the hill to the house. Hmm, but he likes to bake bread and share it around, and that is a good type of housemate to have. If he wants to continue doing that, then I will continue hefting groceries from time to time.
At home I saw that my handy-dandy Yukon Mac dealer was online, and after about one second he had the answer to fix the ipod, which is now neither broken or lost. A much better outcome than my earlier options presented. And we fixed the brakes on my bike too. I am taking the signs of the appearance of the pleasure and clarity tea, the found and repaired ipod, and the adjusted brakes, as evidence of my nascent enlightenment. Oh, and the appearance of the new chalk bag just adds evidence to this theory.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Oh, and Ørndalen Art Council now has pictures up of the entries for the competition... here...

Glowing sun and gentle light yesterday, fluttery snow obscuring the sky today. Weather is so beautiful in its changeability.

Visiting parents are arriving soon, I hope that they will enjoy the homestay that I have arranged. I don't have to worry about whether there will be aurora during their trip, thank goodness, because Vanderhoof receives its fair share. Now that I think about it, I should arrange a visit to see some reindeer, and I hope that we will circulate through all of these museums that I haven't had a chance to visit as yet.

After reviewing some thoughts from the Arctic Discourses conference, I find I am interested in the relation between the driving force of the past and the present interacting in ways that create what is unfolding. I suppose it is sort of a conflict based idea with precedence on the thoughts that meet from these temporal spaces. hmm.

~~~

These photos are from a few weeks ago, and are of a snowshoe trip , with the exception of the last one which is of a funny nachtspiel with a salmagundi of germans.

What are the names of the five continents? Did you know that N and S America are one continent, and that Antarctica doesn't make the cut? Well that is what I learned after playing Geografi with my friend Sabine...

Mariana is a volunteer, but surely is a priceless soul at the international student cafe, Bodega.


This is a funny picture that needs no explanation...

Arctic Discourses 2008 has been pretty time consuming over the last two weeks, but perhaps there are few better ways to consume time...

Sammi man performing a yoik at the reception for the Arctic Discourses conference.

The Sami building at UiT, what a well designed gathering area.

The conference participants enjoyed a fine dinner in this swanky residence. Ah, to rub shoulders with the glitterati of Tromsø. These rooms are within the Mack Brewery, and we were served soup, of all things, for dinner. With nerves of steel I nonchalantly enjoyed my soup in the midst of all of these Persian rugs and decadent furnishings.


A little evening dance with a mysterious white stranger.

Speeches in the Ølhallen, or beerhall, with other conference participants.

Tromsø is on an island called Tromsøya.

It was stickily sunny today, the snowdrifts were sparking, my eyes were hurting. Everywhere that the sun cast its brightness, the light seemed to adhere. One of those days where memories of any other type of light and shadow is erased. A day where I inevitably leave the house in a fluster, poorly dressed, and vividly ready for little adventures. Hence, a perfect reconnaissance day for circumnavigating Tromsøya. Up until today I had not been to the northernmost, nor southernmost, points of the island.

It is not a very big island, but I am a fan of dramatics... so off I set on my mighty adventure, or most might say my little cycle ride.

I went north first, so as to get the shadowy part of the cycle out of the way. Cycle paths are lacking on the islands north roads, but it is made up for by psychopathic bus and truck drivers. That part of the trip was a little horrifying.

Then I went south, toward the sun, which I met about half way down the island.

I got a little cold, but conveniently there was a supershopping centre there. I did some grocery shopping.

After the shopping centre the bike paths recommence, so around the south end of the island I went, and back north toward the centre (or centrum), where I enjoyed a very nice cup of coffee, and I bought some very nice woolly tights (which, incidentally, I put on then and there because I was really cold since the sun had gone down).

That is about it, now I am home, and warmer.










Meanwhile,

my two friends

were summiting this...

aw shucks...