Norway, Here I Come!

A few months ago, I was asked to co-chair a session entitled "Indigenous Cultures" for the Arctic Science Summit Week, to be held in Bergen, Norway from March 24-26. I agreed to do it . . . I figured that it would be a great opportunity for me to network with others, particularly European colleagues who might be working with indigenous Arctic peoples elsewhere. Most of my own research has been centered in Alaska.

Then, my surgery was scheduled - wasn't sure if I'd be recovered enough to go, but things look promising at this point. My plastic surgeon, when he found out that I was planning to go, suggested that I take someone along to help carry my luggage. Wasn't sure who I might ask, but then Scott was laid off, so he agreed to go, but then he needed to find someone for his daughter to stay with. That finally got settled in the past couple of days.

I had a couple of other deadlines to meet, but I finished those up and was finally finally finally able to look into travel arrangements. Most of the websites I looked into today stated that round trip airfare from Portland to Bergen were running anywhere from $1800 to $3000 per person round trip. I thought about using miles for Scott but it was gonna cost $1000. Finally (yes again), I saw that Scandanavian Airlines had a sale from Seattle to Bergen - and I was able to book two adults, round trip, for $1500 total!! Woo hoo! So, I booked it! I figured Scott and I can drive to Seattle.

Whew. I'm glad that's settled. It's been hanging over me for several weeks. Tomorrow, I book the hotel room. Yippee!