P.S. It's 12:42pm and . . .

it's not dark here. It's twilight. About an hour ago, I saw a white rabbit hopping through the bushes. I wasn't close enough to gauge how big it was. Saw reindeer today, too, or did I already say that.

Gonna work on this grant proposal and then to bed. We will be working tomorrow, beginning to discuss plans for next year's conference. Then, we're gonna look around. We may also get time to walk around the village and look through the shops.

Here in Guovdageiadnu

Hello everyone,
So, I arrived in Alta at 11am today and Kaisa met us at the airport. Turns out Nobuhle was on the same flight. From the airport, we drove around town - got a feel for their housing. They have ladders on their roof, which are there to give easy access to chimney sweeps since a lot of their winter heating comes from firewood. There are also these metal bars which are laid sideways on the edge of the roof, usually above a doorway, which keeps the snow and/or melting snow from falling down over the door and blocking it. Indigenous, huh?

Then, we went to the Alta Museum and looked around at the exhibits. They had a reconstructed sealskin boat, a wooden boat, "traditional" 18th century sledges, plus models of traditional Sami settlements, etc. Also, out on the grounds, they had petroflyphs - rock art - mostly of reindeer, but there were also beers, fishing boats and nets. Pretty cool stuff! The rock art was on boulders from a glacial moraines (I think they call it).

Afterwards, we headed south to Guovdageiadnu/Kautokeino (believe it or not, when you hear the two words pronounced side by side, you can tell that Kautokeino is the Norwegianization of Guovdageiadnu). We went up through a narrow river valley, on a narrow road, and saw waterfalls throughout, even waterfalls flowing over frozen waterfalls. That was cool. Once we got to the top of the plain, we eventually passed through some Sami villages - one village was the site of a very long protest against the building of a hydroelectric dam. I'll get you the name later. Then, we arrived in Guovdageiadnu and after esting and sending messages, I had dinner and a long conversation with Renee, Kaisa, and Puju. Renee is from Hawaii, Kaisa is our hostess, and Puju is from Greenland. Our conversation ranged from place names, to personal naming practices, to religions, to weather and climate change, to the history of colonization of indigenous peoples, to movies and websites, kids, etc.

All in all, a good day. A full day. I just talked to Eddie on the phone . . . he got into a little bit of trouble for talking too loud and cried. Made me feel guilty that I won't see him for a week (sigh). I do miss him and I wish that he and Scott could be here to experience this place with me.

We are planning to hold a conference here in Guovdageiadnu in 2010. Gonna start saving up for that so that they can join me. I'll keep you all updated as the week goes on!

A Global Multicultural Moment

I need to remember to tell my students another method for studying another culture - watching TV. So far, I've seen a couple of American shows and a movie, and some reality TV shows similar to the U.S. The one I'm watching now has a group of people reconstructing a garage for him to use I think as independent living quarters for a young man who can't walk and who lives in a wheelchair - sorta like Extreme Makeover-Home Edition. Then, earlier they had the Singin' Bee (complete with four background dancers wearing these skimpy black outfits with wings! I think I even have more rhythm than these dancers, although Scott may have a difference of opinion! LOL) in which contestants had to finish lines of a song, sorta like the Wayne Brady's "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" and Norway's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionnaire".

Also today was a women's rugby match (I think) and during a time out, they played the song from Zorba the Greek. It got me wondering, have they used this song all along? Or are they only now using it again after some Yolngu Aboriginal youth (the Chooky Dancers) from Australia made it popular again when they became a YouTube hit? If it's the latter, then it's truly a global moment. First, Zorba the Greek is a novel by a Greek author, which became a film directed by a Greek director but starred in by Anthony Quinn and it won several Academy Awards. These Australian Aboriginal youths made a dance to it, putting in their unique spin, and now a Norwegian women's rugby team are using it for inspiration.

Sitting in my hotel room in Oslo!

I've arrived! I've been here for almost 12 hours - got to my hotel about 10 or so hours ago. I didn't sleep much on the plane, so once I got to the hotel, I got ready for bed and tried to sleep. I think I did, but I woke up every couple of hours. Then, I showered and went to dinner. Figured out the internet connection, too. I can text friends via the internet, so I did some of that.

I considered taking the train into the city - my hotel is near the airport - but I decided that I'm too tired and wouldn't have the patience to wait for trains and other transport. So, I'm hanging out watching Norwegian TV, blogging, sending texts to Scott, Eddie and my folks, and resting. I'll probably go to sleep here within the next half hour.

I head to the airport at 7:30am Norwegian time - my flight to Alta is at 9am. My host, Kaisa Helander-Rautio (or is it Rautio-Helander?), will pick me up in Alta and from there, we drive 130km due south, I believe, to what Norwegians call Kautokeino and what the Sami call Guovdageiadnu. Other attendees are from South Africa and Hawaii and Greenland, in addition to Kaisa. I assume we'll have a chance to just hang around Alta and look around tomorrow and then we start planning this conference on Monday. Tuesday will be our day to go on an excursion to see Sami places and learn their Sami placenames.

I told Immigration what I was here for - to work on an indigenous placenames conference and then to learn Sami names and her reply was, "That language is dying. Hardly anyone speaks it anymore." And, then I said that I was working with a linguist and she said again that the language was dying.

From what I've seen - a few years ago during IASSA's conferene in Fairbanks - there were Sami there and it seems that the Sami are working really hard on language revitalization efforts and on Sami rights, in general. I got the impression that the Sami language was doing relatively well. I will find out for sure this week.

In the end, my first impression of this conversation with the Immigration lady was that the dominant society, again, tends to be so uninformed about the status of indigenous peoples and indigenous cultures within their own borders. Reminds me of a quote I have on my door from George W. Bush - a "Bushism" in which he claims the U.S. government "gave" or "granted" Native peoples sovereignty. Duh! My undergraduates knows that sovereignty is NOT something that is granted by another government - it's inherent.

Still a long way to go on indigenous rights, not just in the U.S., but here in Norway, too.

Sitting in the Newark Airport

I arrived in Newark a few hours ago. I think I'll be boarding in about an hour and will arrive in Oslo about 9am Oslo time - about midnight West Coast time. I think I will be able to get an early check-in at the hotel in Oslo and I plan to rest and try to take a nap.

Otherwise, I'm doing okay. Graded papers on the plane, watched two movies, and here at the airport, I've worked on a small internal grant proposal. I'll post an entry after my arrival in Oslo.

A couple of margaritas and . . .

I'm ready to go to Norway. I'd been feeling guilty about leaving - my son, for the most part, my partner, my students, etc. I've been feeling like I wanted to cancel and feeling guilty about leaving my son, my partner, my house, my cat, etc. But after two margaritas, I feel okay.

I must admit that I'm also looking forward to having time to myself for awhile. It feels weird, but as my partner Scott pointed out, I probably need to think just about me for awhile and not worry about anything else.

The break will do me good. I'm just not used to focusing just on me and I feel guilty and selfish for doing so.

Once I get on the plane, I'm sure I'll be fine ...

Relief Floods . . .

Okay, just got the result for the CA15-3. It's 18.4! Yay! That's LOWER than last month.

Here's the history:

Sept 2007 - 23 U/mL
Jan 2008 - 31 U/mL
Mar 2008 - 36 U/mL
June 2008 - 23 U/mL (started radiation that month)
Aug 2008 - 18 U/mL (week of August 4th)
Sept 2008 - 14.5 U/mL YAAAAAAY!!!
Oct 1 2008 - 19.6 U/mL
Oct 31 2008 - 15.3 U/mL
Nov 28 2008 - 19.5 U/mL
Dec 30 2008 - 16.0 U/mL
Jan 22 2009 - 15.4 U/mL
Mar 2 2009 - 17.8 U/mL
Apr 8 2009 - 19.6 U/mL
May 5 2009 - 18.4 U/mL

Remember that anything below 33 is considered normal.

Here's the history for the CEA:

1/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
3/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
6/2008 - 1.0 ng/mL
8/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL (need to double check this number, but it was in that 0.9 to 1.2 range)
9/2008 - 0.5 ng/mL
10/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
10/31/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
11/28/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
12/30/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL
3/2/2009 - 1.4 ng/mL
4/8/2009 - 1.6 ng/mL
5/5/2009 - 1.9 ng/mL

For the CEA, anything below 3.8 is considered normal!

Whew. Only now do I realize what a relief it is that the numbers are still staying relatively low. Big sigh.

My colleague, S., forwarded to me a research article about the CEA and CA15-3. According to this article from Feb 2008, they showed that the "predictive" value of the measures increase when they are used together. In addition, they showed that the two numbers have to be "elevated", which I think means above the thresholds of 33 for the CA15-3 and above 3.8 (or 2.5 or 5) for the CEA. Both of my numbers are below that "elevated" level.

Okay. I can sleep better tonight.

I also must admit to being disappointed that Allison Iraheta was voted off American Idol last night. I think she was great. This is the first year that I've watched it and I've been really impressed with this group. I'm even contemplating going to their Top 10 summer tour - starts in Portland on July 5th.