50/50

Tonight I had dinner with one of the curators from the Greenlandic National Museum and Archives. He is married to one of the top politicians in Greenland, a very well traveled and knowledgeable woman, so we had an interesting conversation about the American military and the financial situation in Iceland. It occurred to me that several other curators I know are also married to politicians, if not to other academics. So the curators intermediary role, between politics and research, manifests itself even in the curator's personal life. 

Well, my technologies woes in Greenland continue. My camera batteries died, which means I cannot upload the groovy pictures I took. Which is probably just as well, since it costs me 2 DKK a minute to use the internet, just about. Yes, I am looking forward to being home, in Iceland. 

There have been a series of earthquakes over the last few days on Reykjanes peninsula, most of them centered near Grindavik, and felt all over the peninsula, up to Reykjavik, and even over to Hvollsvollur on the south coast.  This of course has got me worried, worried about the museum. To take an exhibition made at the Smithsonian, which used the most sophisticated printing techniques, the most secure case construction, the best practice exhibition design, etc., and put it here, well, let's just say it has increased my appreciation for the amazing skill of the professionals at the Smithsonian.  One particular demonstration of exhibition bravado and skill comes in how the objects are displayed within the cases. Many museums, most in fact, put objects on shelves, sometimes with a little something to hold them up at an angle, but often nothing at all, often just laying on a shelf. Well, not the good folks at the Smithsonian. Nope. Instead, every artifact was carefully examined with th...

Last night my parents skyped me in my hotel here in Nuuk (one other benefit of skype, a person can be reached anywhere!). I was telling them that I had no idea what the conversion rate was, but that since my lunch cost 72 Danish Kroner, and my hotel room 1400 DK per night, either my lunch was the deal of the century, or my hotel room was way too expensive. Checked on it just a bit ago, and yeppers, lunch was normal priced, and my hotel room is ridiculous. The reason for this is it is the only hotel in Nuuk, a town of 17,000. There is a youth hostile outside of town, but very far from the museum. So, looks like I'll be making the best of my hotel room. At least it has a flat screen TV...

Things in Greenland are gearing up for a party weekend. Monday is a holiday , and Tuesday is election day here , so all the politicians are hosting rallies. As I walked past the grocery store, I saw people strolling out with tons of beer and liquor. I myself do not plan to join in the festivities. All I want to do is cozy up and do nothing. 

I am in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. This does not seem as exotic to me as it seems to be to other people, since well, I have been to Greenland before. But then I was in South Greenland, in Eiriksfjord; the cruise ship I was lecturing on stopped there. Between Nuuk and South Greenland is a good 500 kilometers of basically nothing, and that was the same way in the Norse period, two settlements hundreds of miles apart, and yet having regular interaction with one another. There is also a third area of Greenland that is inhabited, East Greenland. Although I have never been there, I have heard it has its own language really and the people are quite different.  What I have started to notice though is that there is a pretty good connection between East Greenland and Nuuk, regular flights back and forth for instance. What is a little less clear to me is the relationship between East Greenland and South Greenland. There are no historic ties there, and there is no political necessity for a li...

I'm here at the airport, came super early since I was dropping off my Swedish colleague, whose flight was at 8am. My flight to Greenland is not until 9:45. To be at the airport when all the other passengers have departed is an awkward situation, all the staff people that work in the shops and coffee places are looking at me like I am some idiot that missed her flight. This impression was not improved by the hotspot refusing to let me sign in from my own computer. I asked three people how to fix that, none of them had any offers of help. Finally got that figured out on my own, only to discover I had left my plug converter--from American (my Mac is born in the USA!) over to Icelandic--was left at home.  OK, so I go to Elko to buy a plug converter. They only sell huge multipacks of converters; waste of money but otherwise not so bad, since I am not sure what type of plus they use in Greenland anyhow. But guess what? The Mac design of a plug is too wide to fit into the adapter from Elk...

When I straightened up my desk this evening, even though it was mostly piling up the papers strewn everywhere into one pile, I did also take a moment to arrange my books to stand up next to the computer. And then I remembered to grab packaging material for the artifacts, and print out all I would need for my trip. I decided it was þokkaleg to do so. And now I feel ready to go. 

My favorite thing about the Blue Lagoon is how completely anonymous I feel in there. Everyone is floating around neck deep in water, so all you see is everyone's head. That head is then obscured by a thick layer of steam, so that it is hard to see even the people closest to you. And if you can see them, half of them have white stuff smeared all over their faces anyhow, so they are basically unrecognizable. So I have gotten in the habit of just deciding on a meeting time outside of the pool when I go there with people, instead of assuming I will be able to find them in the water.  

The stone was installed today, and it did not crack in half!! Oh my goodness, what a huge relief! 1200 year old limestone artifact, could totally have happened. And my three carpenters did such a good job really carefully putting in in place, that the Swedish courier basically decided we are bonified, even after it came to light that I had requested, and received, two spear heads, when in fact I had only designed the case for one. There is no way to get around that, I simply did not take enough time with it, was not careful enough about double checking. He had told me one was not available, but he had also told me he was suggesting an alternative. Anyhow, somehow this got confused in my head, so this afternoon was spent completely redesigning the case, and tomorrow we will install the weapons.  The courier was so nice though, he said he'd been at far less well organized installations. I am not sure I believe him, but then I have never fooled myself into thinking I am an amazingly o...

Last night when Palmer saw me on Skype, he got so excited, just yelled out, "hi mom!" and then started talking and talking. It is so amazing how completely sweet he is. All his teachers comment on it, how he looks them right in the eye and totally engages.  Man, it will be wonderful to have him here with me this summer. 

Well, at least the stone arrived without getting caught up in customs, or stuck in the door, or dropped.  And I actually think, though I could be completely deceiving myself, I actually think two people I work with went, "wow, she isn't just a hyper flakey b*tch. She actually knows what she is doing." I think it was just a temporary fleeting thought, but I swore I saw some remote glimmer of that in their eyes.  All in all, not such a bad day. I even seem to be a bit happy, though I am too tired to know for sure. 

I was talking to my mom last night, about how bad I am at all this local politics stuff. And she suggested that I just assume the people here in town want to help me, are in fact rather asking, "What can I do to help?".  There are actually some things they could help with, but even just knowing that they would like to help, helps a lot. 

As an aside, it should generally be considered that any meeting that needs to be delayed by an hour is best rescheduled for another day. When the person is less busy and not just squeezing you in between a bunch of other things. But no, instead me and a lady from Reykjavik today tried to work around the schedule of the sound guy, and that ended up meaning that I drove into the city for no reason.  It did however give me a chance to walk around Perlan. And then drive past Smaralind.  From Perlan, as one soaks in the beautiful views from Reykjanes to Akranes, admiring the mountains and the clouds and the ocean, one cannot also help but notice how completely ridiculously out of place the 30 story black glass high rise is that is now, I guess, completed along Saebraut, Reykjavik. A few blocks down from the lovely white cement building where Gorbachev and Reagan met, across the street from some really nice public art, there looms this thing plucked right out of Wichita. I had to turn away f...

This weekend in the United States is Memorial Day weekend, which is supposed to be a time to honor those who died in military service, but instead, because of the timing of it, has become the symbolic beginning of summer. People go camping, go to the beach, it is the weekend people look forward to all winter long. Always filled with good times and barbeques.  Here in Iceland, Thursday was a holiday, the day Christ ascended to the heavens. Most people took Thursday and Friday off, not only here in Iceland but also in Sweden (I happen to know because a Swedish colleague is coming on Tuesday night - with some artifacts - and we had to get it all arranged on Wednesday!).  But still it seems to me that Icelanders are celebrating this weekend, because a long holiday is always something to look forward to. 

I need very much to go to the grocery store; I do not even have coffee anymore, although thank goodness there was some instant in the back of the cabinet. So that should be on my list.  The problem is, I never write lists when I go to the grocery store, really I don't. I just drive over there, and see what is available, see what looks fresh, what is on sale, what is on the shelves that was not there before, and then figure out while I'm cruising the aisles what I want to buy. Sometimes, this means that I get home and go Doh! I forgot toilet paper or something else equally crucial. But on the plus side, this means I am continually surprised, by what is on the conveyor belt, what I unload when I get home, and what is actually in my refrigerator. Suits me very well, since of course the main point is I will not starve. 

Leaving the airport today, I saw the big new billboard, with a picture of Gunnar's ship, the name Viking World, and then the slogan, 'Five Minutes'. I know the idea here is that we are only 5 minutes from the airport, but a museum professional such as myself would rather hope that people devote a good hour or two to discovering all we have to offer, taking their time. Once the outside area is done, three hours would not be out of the question at all. Come explore our world is rather more what I would like it to say. 

It turns out just about everything that I think should only take me a day is taking me three or four days. Which means I still have a lot of work to do. 

OK, here are a few photos from my trip. Really hardly does the Big Apple justice.  They also uploaded in reverse order. So, starting from the bottom, that was the first night I arrived. New York is really great at night. Then there was the army of taxis at Central Park South and 7th. I was really trying to take a picture of the building at the far corner. Then I noticed the clothing shop at that same corner - the most gorgeous men's shirts I think I have seen in a long time. Walking along Central Park South, I wandered past a cool fine art dealer - the bell hops at the fancy buildings next door were not pleased I had taken a picture of the display - guess that is gouche. And now back at JFK, where an Icelandic rock band has made themselves cozy on their equipment, beer in hand, while waiting to check in, same as me (well, except the beer in hand sitting on my equipment playing poker details). 

I was so overjoyed yesterday at lunch that I almost grabbed the hand of the gentlemen sitting next to me, and then remembered I had just met him, so that might be weird. But our other luncheon companion, Tom McGovern, had started telling me about his find from Hofstaðir two summers ago, I guess it was. Woops, I am tearing up now writing about it.  Tom is a scientist, all about core samples for precise long-term measurements, bar graphs, and data data data. When I first met him, a fresh eyed assistant curator babbling on about the sagas and Iceland, I got the feeling he did not think my scholarship would have much to contribute to his scholarship. But he was always very friendly, and it was cool to go visit the site he has been working on in Northern Iceland, near Lake Myvatn, which I did some summers back.  Yesterday at lunch Tom was talking about collaborative projects, ways basically that we could get an extra research agenda through linking it with the public outreach potential of m...