Til lykke med dagen!

Today is the Norwegian National Day. Unfortunately I always missed the celebrations in Longyearbyen.

Dad and Sigga came and went and we miss them. We had a great time and even took them to the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. We also had the lamb that they brought with them... it was incredibly delicious. So are the pepper-sweets they brought. And I'm currently reading "Draumalandið" and like it a lot. The next visitor, my dear mother, will be here shortly and I'm already planning activities for us. Having visitors is such a fabulous way to spend time! Consider yourself welcome.

The weekend was spent in Delaware visiting Shan's mother. As you remember, her apartment suffered smoke damage recently when another apartment in her building caught fire. They're cleaning the mess now and it seems Charlotte got incredibly lucky, with very little damage that thorough cleaning can't fix. That's so great.

Since last post I have also been notified that I got, fortunately, one of the five grants I had applied for to do fieldwork in the Philippines for my thesis research next winter. My joy over the news was augmented by the fact that I got the largest grant I applied for and I got more money than I asked for! Spennó spennó and I'm going to the Philippines for 3-4 weeks in January. Yay!

In the meantime, I have to process my samples from Hawaii. Currently I'm rigging a vacuum system in a lab on the other side of campus... and nothing works! That's of course not strictly true but I'm having some persistent problems that I haven't been able to work around yet. Annoying. But, what else is new??

I have also been forewarned that I might find myself being the only grad student physically present in my lab next winter. Now that sounds just awful.