Sakha Republic

Posted on 19/05/2011 by Ingeborg

There are many things you learn when doing a master degree and not all of them have to do with your thesis per se. Not just that you turn into a google wizard or anything, but today I realized that I should learn the Cyrillic alphabet. And that I need to know more of current Russian geography than I do. The reason is this, my supervisor went to Russia in March to collect samples from the herbaria in Moscow and Leningrad for me and for other projects. In our herbarium here in Trondheim all specimen tags are in English and all the newly collected material is digitalized. This is because we exchange specimens with people from all over the world and then there is no use having it all in Norwegian as well as English. But this is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world. In Russia, for instance, a lot of the specimens are only in Russian (and sometimes only in Cyrillic) and then you need to translate. My supervisor has just taken pictures of all the labels, numbered the pictures and the samples and will now give it all to me, so I can translate the labels… I would never have thought that I needed to know the Cyrillic alphabet studying biology…

Today I was trying to locate my samples on a map of Russia with all the regions on it. But while trying to find all the locations I realized I know nothing of Russian geography. I could not place anything North or East of Georgia and the Ural mountains. So, since I am studying for exams, I did a tour of wikipedia on Russia and the Russian regions…

The result? I now have a favorite Russian region:

Sakha (Yakutsk) Republic

(disclaimer, everything is from wikipedia)

– it lies in the Far Eastern area (they actually call it that), sometimes included in the area Siberia.

– it has almost 1 million inhabitants, but because it is just a tiny bit smaller than India (!) the population density is 0,31.

– it is the largest sub-national governing body by area in the world.

– it is named after the Sakha people who settled there almost 700 years ago.

– As wikipedia so elegantly puts it: “Yakutia’s remoteness, even compared to the rest of Siberia, made it a place of exile of choice for both Czarist and Communist governments of Russia.”

– mineral exploitation is what feeds people there (as in the whole of the Northern Russia).

– there are two main roads, but neither has asphalt (because of permafrost), only clay cover.

– the “official” religion is Russian Orthodox, but as none of the priests want to live outside the capital, people mostly have no faith or believe in shamanism.

– the republic has 3 time zones.

– it has mountains of more than 3000 m.

– it contains the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere.

– the capital of more than 200 000 has no road connection every winter. The only real means of transport is by water or by air.

It sounds like a wonderful place. They have volcanoes as well. And border the Arctic Ocean. I have to go there sometime. It seems the only real means of transportation in Russia East of Ural is the railway. I should try it sometime.

Famous

Posted on 18/05/2011 by Ingeborg

So Monday I was speaking to my brother on Skype and he said that he was driving his car someplace later that day. Somebody had called the 2CV club and wondered if anyone would like to hire out their car for an evening. When this happens (it actually happens a couple of times a year) they usually pass them on to my father. This is both because we live close to Oslo, we have three 2CVs (!) and because my father has a flexible shedule so he usually has time to do things like these. Once he was in Dagbladet (one of the largest nation wide news papers in Norway) being interviewd because they wanted someone with a French car 😉 So this time they wanted a car and my father send them pictures of the ones we have, and they wanted my brother’s car. He said he got 500 NOK for it and was happy. To me he only said it was a PR-gig of some sort, he didn’t say it was this party (you can see a snippet of the car here as well).

So it was Petter Stordalen who wanted my brother’s car at his party so people could be photographed in front of it 😛 I died a little when I saw it. But then I remembered that someone wanted to borrow my car for a short movie just before Easter, but then I hadn’t taken her out yet.

So, this is his car. Its name is Gassen (male goose in Norwegian).

My mother bought herself a 2CV this spring, so now we own 4 😛 My father has an orange and white one (Spot), I have a red and white one (Dolly), Bror has a white one with stripes as you can see (Gassen) and my mother has bough one that is all yellow. I don’t think it has a name yet.

This summer we are all going to a big 2CV festival-thing in Salbris, France, just South of Paris. I think at least three of our cars are driving down.I think it will take me 6 days from Trondheim… But more of that later 🙂

Søttnemai

Posted on 18/05/2011 by Ingeborg

(17. May)

Jeg satt for det meste på lesesalen igår, fordi jeg egentlig ikke hadde tid til å ikke lese. Utpå ettermiddagen ble jeg kidnappet, så det ble ikke kjempemasse lesing, men litt. Her er noen gode sitater fra igår:

“Ønsker alle en tørr dag. Måtte dine pølser aldri være ihjelkokt og isen holde seg på pinnen.”

“ah.. endelig er den her, dagen hvor togene går presis! :D”

“For Norge, Kjæmpers Fedreland, Vi denne Skaal vil tømme.”

“Hurra for den eneste dagen der korpsmusikk virkelig klinger bra:)”

“17. mai i Ski

kl 6-12; 7 grader, 1,2-3,6 mm nedbør; svak vind, 3 m/s fra sør-sørvest

kl 12-18; 12 grader; 1,4-4,8 mm nedbør; lett bris, 5 m/s fra nordvest

gleder meg til å spise is jeg.”

“Natt til 17.mai og fullmåne! It’s going to be a busy night!”

“Ser utover folkehav i rødt, hvitt blått, brunt, blekt, bunad, sari, hijab, miniskjørt og musikkorps og blir helt sikker på at dette integreringsprosjektet går.”

Og apropos, jeg vet ikke om jeg noen gang har vært så lykkelig som jeg er nå.

Trekløver-Gilwell

Posted on 16/05/2011 by Ingeborg

En av de tingene jeg er mest fornøyd med å ha fått til dette semesteret er at jeg fikk gjort ferdig Trekløver-Gilwell-treningen. Det så aldri ut som om jeg ikke kom til å få det til, men det er et stort ledelseskurs og jeg er veldig glad for at jeg har fullført det. Så nå ser jeg sånn ut i speidersammenheng:

Bildet er tatt på Blåhaug 30 min etter at jeg fikk utdelt skjerfet og perlene. De er begge to, sammen med en sølvknapp, bevisene på at jeg har tatt kurset. Alle speidere i hele verden som tar denne treningen får sånt skjerf og sånne perler, så man kjenner hverandre igjen også i internasjonal sammenheng. Det skal bli morsomt å dra på samling for alle som driver med roverprogram på nasjonalt nivå i november med sånt skjerf 🙂

Blomst!

Posted on 16/05/2011 by Ingeborg

Se hva jeg fikk igår! Jeg er en sånn som aldri har hatt en yndlingsfarge, yndlingsrett eller noe annet slikt, men etter å ha sittet unaturlig mye på flybusser og annen sånt og sett på hav av hvitveis fant jeg ut at hvitveis egentlig er yndlingsblomsten min. Jeg er veldig glad i blomster, men får blomster veldig sjelden, men sånn er det jo med mange. Men igår så fikk jeg en stor bukett med hvitveis da jeg kom på middag 🙂

Tusen takk!

Det er noe helt spesielt med hvitveis (eller kvitsymre som den også heter). Den er vår og varmt og solskinn og blomstereng. <3

Shoe love on a Sunday

Posted on 15/05/2011 by Ingeborg

When you are all alone in the office on a Sunday and you have lunch brake, you need to do something. And www.vogue.co.uk is always pleased to help pass your time.

Today I was inspired by their 50 best shoes of the season-list. So I chose my favorite 8 out of it. I am clearly longing for colour, heels and some edge, yet not too much. Had I only had 300£ to spare for a pare of shoes, all would be well… I won’t include the names of all the designers, since it is more for inspiration, but I recommend vogue.co.uk 🙂

These are the classical satin pumps I have been looking for for more than two years. So close, yet so far.

One of Tori Burches famous ballerina pumps. I need a pair of bright pink shoes!

Perfect sandals for a summer dress or to dress up a pair of shorts and a plain shirt for a BBQ party.

The cutest sandals.

These are so cool! Though, but elegant and a wonderful colour. Love them.

These are the other pair of pumps I have been looking for, the pair of perfect red pumps. I wonder if I’ll ever find them. Of whell, I’ll just have to keep searching (maybe it will help when I actually have time to go shopping).

I love the shape of these. They really give an edge to any outfit and the blue is so pretty.

The ultimate power sandals for summer.

This was on one of their Cannes shopping list and I fell in love instantly. I have said before that I have a starting crush on Jil Sander and this is just my shade of choral (anyone how has seen me the last six months will agree) and it would be a perfect second black tie dress. But it costs 1335£ so I will not think of it again (only dream of it).

I promise myself that when I’m finished studying, I will buy something intensely beautiful and overprized for myself with my first salary.

Flyreiser

Posted on 14/05/2011 by Ingeborg

Til å være speider og biologistudent er jeg ikke spesielt miljøvennlig. Jeg resirkulerer, legger ikke igjen søppel i naturen og sykler alle steder, men jeg flyr skrekkelig mye. Man slipper visstnok ut 132kg CO2 for å fly tur-retur Trondheim-Oslo (tall fra SAS). Nå har jeg hatt 17 enkeltreiser med fly hittil i 2011. Jeg har ennå minimum 4 igjen før jeg tar sommerferie i juli. Det betyr at jeg vil slippe ut minimum:

132 kg CO2 * 21 = 2772 kg CO2 på 6 måneder.

(Og dette regner da ikke med buss, båt og annet jeg turer rundt i.)

Ingeborgs reiseplan vår 2011:

27.1: møte i Oslo

25.-27.2: møte på Ingelsrud (Kongsvinger)

15.3: møte i Oslo

1.-3.4: Roverløft på Ingelsrud

15.4: tur til Oslo

17.4: Oslo til Frankfurt

26.4: Frankfurt til Trondheim

29.4-1.5: oppfølgingshelg i Oslo

7.-11.5: tur til Oslo og møte

I tillegg skulle jeg hatt et møte til i Oslo i april (12.), men jeg orket ikke mer reising i april, så jeg tok det på Skype.

Det som kommer:

11.-13.6: NM i speiding i Moss

17.-19.6: møte på Hvaler

Til høsten har jeg 8 tur-retur reiser med fly på planen hittil… Så får vi se hvor mange enkeltreiser det blir av det. Det er ikke alltid det er praktisk å bo i Trondheim, for å si det sånn.

Miljæbevisst får jeg nok bli i et annet liv.

How to survive:

Posted on 13/05/2011 by Ingeborg

8.30-11.30: work on master thesis. Mostly lab work.
11.30-12.00: lunch.
12.00-16.00: study for exams (still have three to go).
16.00-16.30: eat. Try to make dinner at home and heat it at the office.
16.30-20.30: study for exams.
20.30-23.00: free time. Scout responsibilities, SiT Service, friends, work out, work, other.

This is my plan. This is how my life will be until the 26. May. That’s two weeks. It should work. It has to work. After that I only have the master thesis and work left. I’m sure if that will be better or worse…

Today dinner is penne, one tomato, half a pepper, a small onion, an egg and basil.

When I die of boredom I read a chapter of Pride and Prejudice in Google Books. Love the concept. And I love the book as well 🙂 I’ve seen the mini series and the movie so many times that I picture it while reading. And I am really impressed by how true the films are to the story. Jane Austen is wonderful at capturing people and has this fantastic dry humor.

I miss my camera. But now the weather forecast says rain for more than a week, so it’s not the worst thing to have to be indoors and study.

BBQ + champagne = <3

Posted on 11/05/2011 by Ingeborg

I had a BBQ party on monday for all my friends in Oslo. At least those who had time to party on a monday in the middle of the exam period 😉 It was lovely. I miss them. The pictures are from Ellen (she made the cake as well. She is wonderful). She takes beautiful pictures.

So this is the terrace of my parents house in Bærum. There is a view, but right now there are too many trees. But the terrace is still my favorite place in the whole house.

Cake! It tasted delicious.

This is Tone and I. I love her. Once she lived in Trondheim, but then she deserted me 🙁 She now lives with Ola. But knows Arabic. Important fact.

This is Ola. He owns a fez. And has a real job. And he makes very good food. And likes port. There are many good things about Ola.

Sara was my main reason to come to Oslo. I visited her in Horten where she studies. The friday before she had just gotten a permanent position in a bank. Growing up! Congrats! I love your dress btw 😉 And your smile.

We had champagne! (I am now broke…) My favorite drink in the whole world.

Happy happy Ingeborg

Emil and I have known each other since we were 10 years or something and sang solos together at a school concert. He is one of my oldest friends. And plays the guitar. Good quality 😉

Nils must have said something funny. I love both his and her expression 🙂

I loved the evening. Afterwards we went inside and had port and talked. I should definitely do this more often. But now I have three exams and three exercises and only three weeks. I am startnig to be a *little* stressed.

Statistics nerd

Posted on 09/05/2011 by Ingeborg

I am such a statistics nerd. After meeting exiting new people in Germany this Easter, one of my fellow biologists (who is from Slovenia) send me a link from this site with statistical probability distribution plushies (kosedyr). They are wonderful! I spent some time at the site and they have everything! I am definitely going to get something from there (just need to decide what…).

This is a pattern with the two kinds of errors in statistics. Type 1 is when you reject the null hypothesis when it is actually true. Type 2 is when you don’t reject the null hypothesis even though it is wrong (yes, I have this on an exam next week…)

This is a plushie of the student t-distribution. There are many more of them, and I can’t decide which I like most…

I love this poster. Almost all of the words are part of my everyday life and is my syllabus in one or more courses this semester… Talk to me next semester and it will be everything I know…

This is just a wonderful pun. When you estimate something in statistics you give it the ^ to indicate that it is just an estimated value, not the true one. And naturally it is called hat. So this is a p hat hat 😉

I know it is uncommon for a biologist to love statistics, but it is wonderful. Today I am going to really understand approximate Bayesian computation (ABC for short). And to study for my exams, of course 😉

Butterflies

Posted on 06/05/2011 by Ingeborg

I have loads of butterflies in my stomach. There are so many things that I am looking forward to this weekend that I almost can’t concentrate. I have this constant happy grin on my face 🙂

BTW: I have handed in my camera, so all pictures will be lent from others for a while. I will try to make others take pictures so I get some of them out here.

Dining alone

Posted on 05/05/2011 by Ingeborg

I’m not really afraid of being on my own. I prefer traveling alone for instance. And I need a dinner or two a week alone, just to have some peace and quiet. I have this discussion with a friend about drinking alone. He thinks that to drink alone is something only alcoholics do, and therefore that others shouldn’t. My philosophy is that when you are single, live alone and like to drink alcohol for it’s own sake (not to get drunk, but because it tastes good), then you have to drink alone every now and then.

To drink or eat alone is seen as something you don’t do, mostly because it is a social thing and doing it alone usually implies that you don’t have anyone to do it with. Many I know have never gone to a café alone. They have never sat alone at a bar. Many who travel for business travel alone, but they usually have a computer or book to hide behind. And if you’re just having a coffee then a book counts as “someone”.

The next step is to do the same, just without the book. No excuse. You’re just you, all alone. Yesterday I went to a restaurant all alone. I had no book or computer. I had my iPod, but that was just because it was noisy and I didn’t want a part in the next table’s conversation. The funny thing is that I didn’t feel alone at all. I managed to just send one text and other than that I just sat there. Looked at the people around me and contemplated my life.

Maybe this works for me because I’m so seldom alone. I have meetings, dinner dates and trips all the time. For almost two weeks this easter I shared a room with 7 other girls and we were 80 people in the dining hall. This weekend we were 20 people at the cabin trip and for the next week I won’t have dinner alone a single time. So every time I’m actually alone with my dinner I treasure the feeling.

What do you think when you see someone alone at a restaurant? Or at a café? Have you ever dared do it yourself? Would you ever travel alone? My father has told me about once when he was 16 he went hiking in the mountains all alone with a tent for a week. Ever since he told me I have wished to do the same. I haven’t done it yet, but that’s only because I have so many people to see that I haven’t had a whole week to myself yet. I couldn’t be alone forever, I’d have to know that I could share my experiences when I come back home. Or that I’d meet someone while traveling, but I like to do the actual trip alone. To be just me.

Sol

Posted on 04/05/2011 by Ingeborg

Greit, idag har jeg juksa. Jeg har aldri gjort det før, men jeg tror nok jeg kommer til å gjøre det igjen. Juksa, sa du? Jo, idag har jeg tatt sol for første gang i mitt liv. Jeg er kanskje i eldste laget til å debudere i en solseng, men jeg har egentlig alltid synes at brunfargen min skal være “ekte” og komme fra ekte utendørsopphold.

Jeg er ikke helt sikker på hvorfor jeg plutselig ombestemte meg, men jeg tror det har litt å gjøre med at jeg har innsett at det er mulig med en gyllen middelvei når det kommer til sol. Man trenger ikke bli nøttebrun og rynkete, men kan gi seg selv en liten soldose og jevn ikke-snøblind-farge om man vil. Og så er det en annen ting, nemlig at da jeg var i Tyskland nå i påska så ble jeg egentlig ganske brun. Og da jeg kom tilbake til Trondheim og kjente hvor kaldt det var her, så innså jeg at jeg nok ikke kom til å ha på meg bikini utendørs på en god måned. I hvert fall ikke etter å ha vært forkjøla i en uke… Og da innså jeg at jeg kom til å miste all fargen min ganske raskt. Det hadde vært så varmt og fint i Tyskland og jeg ville ikke gi slipp på det ennå. Så da fikk jeg en venninne til å introdusere meg for sol.

Og jeg må si at selv om det kostet penger (64kr for 16 min), så var det 16 minutter i himmelen, 16 minutter på stranda i Spania, på terrassen i Oslo, det var 16 minutter med sommer i Trondheim med sine 13 grader og lett skydekke. Jeg tror nok jeg skal tilbake til den solsengen, men kanskje ikke med en gang. Først må jeg se hvor solbrent jeg er imorgen…

Om jeg bare får til denne eksamenslesingen så kommer dette til å bli en spesielt god uke. Idag er det roverombudsmøte, imorgen skal jeg på middag til Joakim, fredag er det kulturstyremiddag (og jeg har ikke kamera som fungerer 🙁 ), lørdag skal jeg til Horten på besøk til Sara, søndag blir det champagne med Erik i Oslo, mandag skal jeg har grilling og champagne på terrassen i Bærum for alle vennene mine hjemme og tirsdag er det Komité Speiding møte. Og så er det plutselig langt ut i neste uke og veldig mye nærmere alle disse eksamnene. Skitt fiske!

Idag:

Posted on 02/05/2011 by Ingeborg

– hvitløksbaguett med fersk tomat, gulost og skivet kylling med paprika/ hvitløk/ grovmalt salt og pepper

– 2,5 time på Skype med den andre siden av jorda

– klesvask

– en halv dorull som snørrepapir

– en hel kioskroman

– drømmer om Sør-Amerika, Bali, Borneo og Java

– innvielse av nye skinnsko fra Vagabond

– Trekløver-Gilwell skjerfet er hengt i skapet og diplomet på veggen

Så skal vi se hvor strukturert jeg klarer å være framover. Først må kameraet mitt på reparasjon. Som enten krever en lang gåtur eller å reparere sykkelen min. Og så bare tenke på det forrerste problemet først og ignorere alle problemene som venter i kø etter det.

Sick :(

Posted on 27/04/2011 by Ingeborg

So I have again this semester, suddenly got ill and had to rearrange my whole schedule. 🙁 So instead of having the final exam today I had blocked sinuses (bihuler), a fever and a sore throat. No fun. Luckily my professor said that I should just tell him when I’m better and we’ll set a new date. But I’m still sick. My entire head hurts and I have no-one to look after me. Definitely the worst thing about being single and living away from home. Having to cook for yourself when you are ill.

I hope I will be better tomorrow, because I still have two exercises I need to do this week. And then it is all the lab work and the work at the herbarium. The 26th of May, I will have no more exams, only master thesis lab work and work-work. Good times!

Heaven

Posted on 26/04/2011 by Ingeborg

Just as a comment to a post on my old blog:

I am obviously not the only tetris fan in the world 🙂

Summer

Posted on 25/04/2011 by Ingeborg

I have now spent a week 1,5 hours south of Frankfurt, Germany and the whole time we have had 27 Celsius and no wind every day. It has been like a summer holiday instead of Easter. Magic.

I am sunburned everywhere, back, nose, shoulders, arms and hope my tan will last till it gets warm enough in Trondheim to show some skin… I went shopping for dresses and am the proud owner of three new ones. I will try to get pictures, but for now I’ll just say that they are all short, one choral summer dress, a white tube cocktail one and a champagne colored short gala dress which is now number one on my daring dresses list. I love it. Them.

I have walked around in as little as possible for a week now and am not looking forward to Trondheim and it’s 15 degrees… I’m just hoping that the leaves have sprung, at least a little, and that the flowers have come. Because in Frankfurt the magnolia ended it’s blossom last week and all the trees are flowering.

But even so, I’m a bit homesick. It’ll be good to come home to my own house and to finish this semester. I have a lot to do the rest of this week and after that my time will be shared between studying for exams, lab work for my master and museum work. And then I’ll have holiday one time in july, I think.

Warm and sunny hugs from Germany.

Sun!

Posted on 17/04/2011 by Ingeborg

It’s not that many day ago that I posted pictures of the last snow and yesterday I spent a couple of hours on the veranda enjoying the sun with bare legs and a hat to give me shade. Things are happening so quickly now, flowers are popping up everywhere and the sun just keeps shining and shining.

I went to the opera yesterday, to hear a little concert with some of the academic choirs from Oslo and Trondheim. They had the concert out on the roof (which is a normal spot for a concert, actually) and it was just wonderful. The sun was shining, I met a lot of old acquaintances and had some wonderful red wine on the terrace. And then we went home and had sushi and champagne as a night snack. I love being home. Good food, good weather and good people.

Tonight I’ll be going to Germany and then there won’t be any blogging going on. And my camera is broken, but I haven’t had time to get it fixed, so I won’t have any pictures for a while. But here are some randoms for you:

I have done this myself, eaten very cheap food to be able to buy Vogue.

I’d really like these boots from Guiseppe Zanotti, but they are, as always, a tiny bit out of my league…

The t-shirt for me, right now.

I LOVE this bracelet/cuff, it is a giant fly! A perfect combination of biology and fashion 🙂

Tumblr

Posted on 16/04/2011 by Ingeborg

Jeg har en god tilbyder av internetthumor for tiden, det merkes:

Fin

Helt fantastisk

Antennebytting i ARK

Posted on 15/04/2011 by Ingeborg

For en liten stund siden var jeg med ARK (Akademisk Radioklubb) og byttet ut to antenner på Samfundet. Det var nydelig lys, så jeg løp rundt og tok bilder når jeg ikke jobba. Det er vakkert på toppen av Samfundet. Se!