Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

It’s a good thing Paul has taken over my blog lately 😉 as I haven’t had much to write about. Nothing much going on here, have mostly been working hard. A few days ago the Norfolk & Norwich Festival has started though, so I had to get out and enjoy that 🙂

Last night there was a performance by the Friches Theatre Urbain, a French street theatre group, performing Mephistomania, the story of Faust. In high school we covered this story in German literature, but I forgot most of it except that Faust sold his soul to the devil in return for something. The story was told in several parts and we had to follow the actors (on stilts!) through town. It was hard to follow as they spoke half in French, half in English (and it sometimes took me a while to realize they switched language again hehe) and we couldn’t always get near the performance either, it was really busy. We got a bit confused when they started talking about Helen of Troy and for a while we thought they were mixing up stories! But it turns out that she is actually part of the Faust story, as the personification of beauty.

Anyway… the performance was really spectacular with lots of fire and smoke effects. I enjoyed it a lot! Here are the photos I took…

It’s Bank Holiday weekend here, but I think I’ll have to work unfortunately. Never mind, I have a holiday coming up next week! I’m flying back to Tromso on Tuesday night, and then on to Longyearbyen on Thursday night to meet up with Paul for a few days. Very exciting 🙂

Today was such a beautiful day… temperatures over 20 degrees, a light breeze and lots of sunshine! After always needing several layers of clothing to go outside in Tromso, it’s such a luxury to just go out without even a coat! 🙂

I went to town with Karla and we decided that it was a waste to spend time in shops with such beautiful weather, so instead we went for a walk around the cathedral. All the trees are in blossom there, very pretty!

Of course we weren’t the only ones enjoying Spring time… 🙂

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so I’m happy we went out and enjoyed today!

It’s strange to think Paul is in such a different world now… scroll down for his pictures of a polar bear!

Hello!

I’ve been in Norwich for a week now, quite nice to be back and spend time with friends!

The things you do for a free breakfast… today if you cycled to university you got a free breakfast, but supply was limited and they started giving them out at 7:45. We were so keen that we actually got there at 7:45!! I don’t think I’ve ever been at uni that early 😉 It was nice though, a beautiful morning, we ate our breakfast outside. We saw a hot air balloon coming over the university as well…

I’ve been working very hard – sometimes I’m at uni for over 12 hours which is very unlike me 😉 But I am nearing the end of my funding faster than the end of my research… I’m trying to work as hard as I can so I can finish as soon as possible. I’m so ready to find a “real” job sometimes, I even went to an open day about becoming a primary school teacher. Scary stuff…

Anyway, when I finally left university today, I noticed that there was a very spectacular case of ground fog. This type of fog is called radiation fog occurring on very clear, still days at sunset. The layer of fog was really thin, less than a metre in places! I tried to take some photos, I had to use my backpack as a tripod so I was a bit limited but I am still happy with the result! You can see people in some of the photos, they are taken near the student accommodation and I was not the only one fascinated by the fog.

Paul also sent me more photos and stories from the Arctic. The internet connection on the ship is very slow, so I’ll put those online for him. Coming soon!