I like all seasons in their own peculiar ways. During the last years, summer has been Berlin–Germany–home in-between time. Work obligations and monetary restrictions did not allow for real holidays, so that July and August became a mix. A mingling of places: refreshing apartments so that they can be sublet once more without a bad conscience; reading and writing and applying for jobs and wrangling with deadlines; hanging out on balconies; visiting family and seeing friends and trying not to get caught up in obligations too much to not enjoy seeing all of these; enjoying Berlin nights; saying goodbye again to the place that you miss but do not want to miss, because this only makes things harder; riding the bicycle through warm summer fields; trying to keep an eye on expenses; looking out for good deals on necessary and not so necessary stuff; loving to be where you are right now, while trying to be looking forward to where you will be tomorrow, and not being too sad about where you left the day before… Tomorrow, I will let the wind will carry me back to Oslo.
Posts Tagged ‘oslo’
A change of air. Once more.
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009First conference in Oslo: Routes, Roads and Landscapes: Aesthetic Practices en route.
Friday, March 6th, 2009Time for some news regarding my new position in Oslo. First: the website of the project is finished and ready for you to browse. I have now changed all the institutional homepage
links on my website to the Routes project. I decided to take this step since I do not have a real personal page that I can easily update at the TU Darmstadt anymore.
Second: we (that is the participants of the routes project) have already come up with a conference which will take place in Oslo this fall: on September 24th/25th.
I am really looking forward to this conference, which we have just announced on the routes website. I am quite certain that the conference will be a success – we were very lucky in getting almost all the people we wanted on board for this event. We also have a call for papers, so feel free to submit an abstract.
Other than that, I hope that the routes conference will not overlap with my presentation at the Deutscher Geographentag… bad time scheduling by yours truly…
Starting a new season.
Friday, December 12th, 2008
I think clean white sheets on everything are nice way to start into a new environment. My work here in Oslo has not yet begun, but I feel welcome by all the people I have met so far and I am very much looking forward to the time I will spend here.
We’ll see how long it will be…
Bye bye Oslo.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
My two stays as a guest researcher in Oslo are coming to an end. The day after tomorrow I will fly back to Darmstadt, where I will move into a new apartment. It has been a good time. Not only have I been productive, I have also had the chance to get to know some very nice and stimulating people. As if that would not be enough, I have also been able to get rid of the problems with my lower back and my shoulders – over the course of the last months they have all but disappeared and I cannot say how relieved I am that life without pain is still possible. I will certainly pay attention to avoid getting into such a state again, even though I will miss the fine hikes through the Nordmarka, which certainly contributed to my recuperation.
Der Himmel über Oslo.
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Ich habe zwar noch kein Nordlicht gesehen, aber das war auch schon mal nicht von schlechten Eltern…
(Beide Bilder sind bis auf den Ausschnitt und etwas Kontrast nicht bearbeitet.)
Settling & lunsjing.
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Things are developing nicely. We moved into our very cozy new apartment, the nice weather still allowing us to have our dinner outside on the balcony in the late afternoon sun. I moved into my new office (in the building displayed to the left), where I could not only attach all my electronic devices and even get full network access without having to jump through hooks but also enjoy a nice view on one of the central campus plazas – with the Holmenkollen in the background! And I started to participate in the informal daily institute lunches (lunch is spelled lunsj in Norwegian), where I struggle myself through the Norwegian conversations – not overly successful yet, but I am working on it.
Digital Photography.
Friday, November 3rd, 2006I am really content with my new camera, a Canon EOS 400D. The image quality is most excellent, the amount of noise even at the maximum ISO value (1600) is quite small, it reacts almost instantaneously, and it offers a whole lot of interesting, useful, and even easily accessible settings. Photography has become even more fun!
Before buying this camera, I used my old Canon EOS 300 to make slides. After four to eigth months I would take all my new slides and scan them in a several day session using a high-resolution slide scanner (a Nikon 4000). Even with all the time and work that I invested during these scanning marathons, the image quality of the pictures taken by the 400D is just plain better, especially regarding noise. And that is not even considering the numerous usability advantages of digital cameras. The best thing is that I can still use the lens that I bought for my 300: a pretty good Canon EF 28-105 II USM. Not losing this investment is what finally convinced me of buying the 400D. The only disadvantage is that the 400D crops images at a 1.6 ratio. That means that all my pictures are effectively taken at a longer focal range – 28-105mm becomes 44.8-168mm. Because of this, it has become difficult to shoot interiors… I guess that means I will need to get a wide angle lens eventually.
The picture you see here is showing the limits even of this new camera: I wanted to shoot Oslo at night from the plane with which I arrived here the evening before yesterday. I particularly liked the scene because of the moonlight reflecting on the waters of the Oslofjord. However, planes are moving fast and even with ISO 1600 the camera needed a one second exposure time. Thus the result shown here.
University of Oslo’s Library.
Friday, October 6th, 2006
This is the place where I like to catch up with work. Bit by bit, in a quiet and relaxing atmosphere.
During the day there are people sitting at the desks, of course. But I did not want to shoot them with my brand new digital camera (more on that in one of the next posts), even though they tend to forget turning their mobile phones off.
Umzüge, Umzüge, Umzüge.
Monday, April 24th, 2006Besonders in der Aneinanderreihung ein unterhaltsames Wort. Weniger allerdings in der praktischen Ausführung. Selbst bis in Ausland verfolgen sie einen – gestern erst hier in Oslo beim Umzug geholfen. Und – Überraschung – mal wieder ganz nach Art des letzten oder besser nahezu einzigen Helfers in der Not. Wenn man schon sonst keinen Sport macht. Zumal das Wetter ganz famos war und Kerstin und ich nur schubweise (immer zur Anlieferung neuer Kartons) schuften mussten. Zwischendurch Zeit für Balkonien und poofen auffem Sofa.
Gut ist, dass hier ein normaler, wenn auch später Frühling durch die Lüfte flattert. Daheim scheint der Übergang ja mehr so vom Winter direkt in den Sommer zu gehen.
Gut ist auch, dass es sich derzeit ganz angenehm schreibt und ich zuversichtlich bin, meinen Einzelbeitrag für den von Lars und mir herausgegebenen Band noch hier in Oslo fertig zu stellen. Vielleicht schaffe ich es danach dann ja auch wieder, etwas fleißiger zu bloggen…
Schockschwerenot.
Sunday, February 26th, 2006Die Vorfreude steigt jeden Tag: bald geht es in die USA. Um in dieses Land gelassen zu werden, benötigt man einen Reisepass (von üblen Dingen wie dem Abnehmen von Fingerabdrücken und Irisscans wollen wir hier gar nicht erst reden). Ich bin natürlich schon seit längerem im Besitz eines solchen, habe ich doch für mein Auslandsjahr in Bloomington besorgen müssen. Reisepässe sind zehn Jahre gültig und ich war 1999 bis 2000 in Bloomington. Alles gut.
Alles gut? Nein! Wie mir wenige Minuten vor unserem Aufbruch nach Oslo in der letzten Woche auffiel, als ich der Unterhaltung halber einen Blick in meinen Reisepass (zur Einreise nach Norwegen braucht man nur einen Personalausweis) gewurfte, ist mir das Blut in den Adern gefroren. Der Ausweis ist im Frühling 2004 abgelaufen. Und es ist nach 18 Uhr. Ich fliege gleich nach Oslo. Da bleibe knapp zwei Wochen, fliege dann zurück nach Berlin um Wäsche zu Waschen und umzupacken und dann nach Chicago weiter zu düsen. Wo soll ich da einen Reisepass herzaubern? Schon etwas zittrig habe ich Olli um ein schnelles Hochfahren seines iBooks gebeten, um noch auf den letzten Drücker zu prüfen, ob ich in Berlin bleiben und dort alle Hebel in Gang setzen muss, um doch noch die lang ersehnte Reise antreten zu können, oder ob sich auch was in Oslo machen läßt. Einige Webseitenlektüren später entstand der Eindruck, dass es eine Chance gäbe, die Sache in Olso zu regeln. Also Riskio. Also Abflug.
Ein paar Tage später – Wochenende und Schlumpfigkeit meinerseits haben die Sache noch weiter verzögert – komme ich rennend drei Minuten nach Ende der offiziellen Öffnungszeiten bei der Deutschen Botschaft in Olso an und werde nach einigem Bitten und Flehen noch hineingelassen. Mit fürchterlich schlechten Automaten-Gangsterbildern ausgestattet. (Habe hier in Oslo keinen Scanner zur Hand, die Bilder werden zur allgemeinen Unterhaltung also später nachgereicht.) Die Auflagen zu Passbildern wurden verschärft, weshalb ich den schäbigen Fotoautomaten zweimal mit Kronen füttern musste. Aber die Mühe hat sich gelohnt. Ein paar Warteminuten und unschuldige Augenaufschläge später wird mein ganzer Krams (Passbilder, der abgelaufene Reisepass und eine in Berlin noch schnell eingesteckte Kopie der Abstammungsurkunde) mit gefälligem Gemurmel angenommen. Es müssen nur noch die Berliner Behörden um Bevollmächtigung ersucht werden. Uiuiui. Das wird an diesem Tag nix mehr, ich solle morgen doch vorbeikommen (möglichst etwas früher…). Das tue ich. Morgens, keine Wartenden im Konsularbereich der Botschaft und die Angestellten sind freundlich, ich nur milde konfus. Nach der Zahlung von 526 Norwegischen Kronen bin ich um einen Vorläufigen Reisepass reicher und um unwägbare Mengen von Seelenlast ärmer. Gute Güte. Aber ich muss sagen: Tipptopp, so nette Menschen in der Botschaft. Da fühlt man sich doch mal als Staatsbürger gut aufgehoben. Ausserdem rult es ja wohl, als Aussteller “Deutsche Botschaft Oslo” in seinem Pass stehen zu haben. Das war’s dann doch wert, nicht wahr?
Less gold, more snow.
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006That would be the Norway-motto for these days. The press laments the unexpectedly low number of gold medals won by Norwegian athletes in the Olympic Games so far. (About fourteen gold medals were expected, two have been won until day eleven.)
There is a recompensation though: Norway, or at least the Oslo region, has more snow than it had for many years. Everything is puffy and white and glistening. We already did two nordic skiing tours. The fist went on for almost three hours (we went from Sognsvann to Hammeren and even a bit further) and caused considerably sore muscles for the female participant of the trip. Yesterday, we were on our first night tour: we departed at 20:25 h and came back two hours later. Although we went uphill almost all of the time and although we raced back downhill later on, we only had one or two falls each and it seems as if the muscles don’t complain as much as they did three days before. Skiing at night is a fun experience, but one should not expect it to be a lonely experience: the electrically lighted cross-country ski run was still well-used – not as many people as there were last Saturday, but still a lot.
Freunde, Musik, Oslo.
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005Lars Saabye Christensen ist einer meiner zeitgenössischen Lieblingsautoren. Ich mag sowohl seine Kurzgeschichten als auch die Romane, die ich bisher gelesen habe. Hier möchte ich etwas zu Yesterday schreiben, einem seiner älteren Romane. Der Held der Geschichte ist ein Junge, der mit seinen Freunden, zwei großen Jugendlieben, Eltern, Lehrern und Nachbarn aufwächst. Die Sprache ist direkt, die Geschichte weitgehend chronologisch erzählt – das Thema, das sich durch den Roman zieht, wird im Titel angekündigt: die einzelnen Kapitel und Lebensabschnitte werden mit den damals veröffentlichten Liedern und Alben der Beatles parallelisiert. Dieser schöne Aufhänger wird nicht überreizt und behält seinen Charme, auch für Leute wie mich, die bisher eher wohlgesonnene Passivhörer der Beatles sind. Die Geschichten und Lebenswege kommen einem nah, rühren an und erinnern an Episoden aus der eigenen Vergangenheit. Das Lesen dieses Buches von Saabye Christensen ist ein schönes Erlebnis, viele Bilder sind bei mir hängen geblieben und bereichern meinen Alltag an den Tagen nach Yesterday.
Nature, Norway & no news.
Thursday, June 30th, 2005I am sorry to tell you that for the next two weeks I probably won’t be able to post entries to this blog. I will leave Oslo for Kristiansand tomorrow. Starting there, the Bornholdt familiy and yours truly will travel up the west coast of Norway for the next two weeks. I am looking forward to do some hiking, having good food, playing board and card games, reading novels, and working a tiny bit on my dissertation. And all of this offline. :)
Who’s mad, who’s good, who’s bad.
Thursday, December 9th, 2004Yes, the Universitet i Oslo also has it’s own film club – the Cinema Neuf (located in Chateau Neuf, of course). They have been showing a few Cassavetes films, and I was there when the presented A Woman Under the Influence. Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk are not the only actors that make this movie such a strong experience. However, they bear the burden of starring people living a life that is torn between conformity and the standards of normality as they are set by their neighbors and friends on the one hand, and living a life whose limits are defined by themselves, their desires, their bordering-on-the-pathological and bordering-on-brutal own standards and practices on the other hand. This never would be an easy task, it is even harder in a lower-class milieu in the US of A of the seventies. Watching this movie is a worthwhile thing to do – no mere passing of time in front of the screen…
IMDb entry
You can call me Confusious.
Friday, October 15th, 2004No, this is not the first sentence of a novel that I am writing. Though it would actually be a good first sentence. Why would I like this sentence but still not use it in a novel? Well, the first person who guesses correctly will be invited to a free beverage of her or his choice!
Instead of a famous novel I present you with a short anecdote from the daily affairs of yours truly. Currently I am in Oslo – in the train from the airport to Oslo, to be exact – and sitting in this train comes as a surprise to me. This morning I thought that I would instead be sitting in a train from the airport Berlin Schönefeld to my humble apartment in Prenzlauer Berg right now. Well, it seems that I got something about the today’s date wrong. As the check-in lady of Norwegian told me with a hearty laugh, my flight will be leaving tomorrow, not today. Seems I got something wrong about today’s date and the date written on my ticket. Fine, this is funny, and I like a good laugh. However, if the lady would have known how I came to Oslo she might have been even more amused, more amused by the exact same amount that I have been more frustrated…
The thing is, when I sat in the train to Berlin Schönefeld Thursday last week, I was a bit less relaxed than I am now, and would most certainly have refrained from writing down anecdotes. I was quite anxious instead. The Tram had been late before I entered the S-Bahn to the airport. The S-Bahn was delayed even more. Minutes were passing quite quickly, the train finally arrived, I was running to the airport with a big load on my back, arrived 30 minutes before take-off, and they did not let me check in anymore. No hearty laughs there. So, last week, I missed the flight that I was supposed to have taken. (I had to pay the full price for a new ticket the following day – Norwegian might be a cheap airline, but it certainly is not a very flexible airline.) This week I am a day to early. *sighs* What does this tell me? Traveling by train is better than traveling by plane. Another possible conclusion would be that it be more comfortable if I knew when to be where and what to do there instead of just drifting through life.
Sign of Life.
Sunday, July 25th, 2004Sorry for the long silence, and sorry for the coming continuation of same. Tomorrow I will leave with the rest of the Graduiertenkolleg for Manigot, France, where we will be workshopping the next week. After my return I will tell you more about the last week, about Spiderman 2 (which was ok but not better than the first one), and the German comedy (T)Raumschiff Surprise: Periode 1 (which was, as expected, really bad).
To explain my absence from the blogosphere: I had visitors, end of the semester action, and am coordinating Kerstin’s departure to Oslo, all of which did not leave much time for blogging…
Oslo – Europe’s warmest capital.
Monday, May 10th, 2004This morning Kerstin told me that VG, Norway’s popular yellow press newpaper, features a story in which we are told that last Sunday, temperatures in Oslo have been higher than in any other European capital. Awesome! Now, that’s something to celebrate! Wohooo!