A little video about my recent Norway trip.  The Great Kattan has done it again, thanks Alex!

Lately I've been feeling a bit like a little pink shrimp about to be thrown into a pot of boiling seawater.  After quite a few months of wishing and waiting and planning umpteen million different plans A and B all the way to Z and back again, now the time of chaos is upon us.  And don't get me wrong, chaos can be fun, but when the heat is turned up and maybe another unknown/unplanned/hardship falls into the pot things can seem a little frightful.  In past months, we could feel the hot salty water licking our feet, and now, we are submerged.  Its sink or swim.  Luckily, I think I'm a pretty good swimmer.

More on life changes to come...  In the meantime, I thought I would show you a few more photos from Norway.  And what does one do when thou has caught half a ton of shrimp?  When the research, the studying, the learning of crustaceans has passed, one must feast.  And feast we did.  The crew set up a boiler on the deck of the boat, threw in some seawater, added a bit more salt for taste, dumped in freshly caught shrimps and voila dinner served.  Never have I eaten more shrimp, nor more delicious shrimp.

While in Norway, we spent most of our time out at sea.  Our vessel, the Trygve Braarud (named after a famous Norwegian botanist) served as our floating classroom.  Thanks to her skilled crew, we were able to steam around the Oslofjord deploying plankton nets, fish trawls, and a number of fancy sensors that measure light, salinity, depth, and chlorophyll content to name a few. If you have ever been on a boat, you probably know that there is a direct correlation between the comfort of the journey and the skill level of the captain and crew.  You can have a very rough and rocky ride with tangled nets and chaos, or you can have smooth day at sea with loads of fish caught to stock your freezer and belly.  Needless to say, those of the Viking nation know what they are doing.  Our days at sea were pure bliss.

Drøbak is the cute little town that served as our jumping off point for our excursions in the Oslofjord.  I had not be out of Saudi Arabia since January so I felt a bit overwhelmed by the color and freshness of Norway.  Apparently, weather at the end of April in southern Norway can bring anything from blizzards to sunbathing, but we were luckily blessed with mostly sunny skies and cool breezes.  Growing up in the temperate Midwest I dreaded the cold hard winters, but I'll say that after almost four years of living in one of the hottest places on earth, I have a newfound appreciation for lower temps and the struggles of seasonality.  When the weather hardly changes, just from sunny and hot to sunny and really really hot, one day blends too easily into the next.  You forget to stop and feel the sun warm your face when you know it will be there everyday waiting to burn you.  So, needless to day, I was quite overjoyed to return the the higher latitudes.  My soul was craving some spring.

I said that I just returned from Norway and you might be wondering what the heck I was doing there.  And while I did do many things there, one thing I was most certainly not doing was vacationing.  Kudos to you if you take a vacation in Scandinavia but travel enthusiasts be warned, its gonna cost you.  Before we left, we were told that Norway is a very expensive country, at least for those not making a normal Norwegian salary, but this message didn't hit home until I bought a bottle of water and it cost me over five dollars!  Pretty insane.

But I was lucky enough to be sent (with about 20 other students) to Norway by my university.  Talk about a nice field trip.  So, at the end of April, we packed up our bags and followed our favorite Viking Professor to his home country to learn about high latitude marine ecosystems and how they differ from the Red Sea.  We had a glorious time.

I arrived safe and sound back to Saudi-land yesterday after a glorious week in Norway.  Things here have gotten busier than ever but there is a lot of excitement yet to come, just a few weeks away!  

Hopefully I'll get around to sharing some more photos and stories of Norway soon!