(norway)
its been a really long time since i've written here on my blog. a LOT has happened since, what? 2007? i dunno but i won't bore you with the details. mostly i am here to write about europe because i've already been here for 6 weeks and haven't really posted anything. I have a thing where i really need to be sitting in a proper chair at a desk or else my brain doesn't work quite properly, maybe its a blood circulation thing. so thats my weird excuse.
First of all, a funny thing happens on the internet when you travel to different countries.....yr internet actually goes to those different countries too. its hard to tell, and you wouldn't suspect it, but then all your banner adds are in a different lanuage, and google is all in italian or norwegian or german,and maybe a few at once: like, right now my google is in Norwegian, but my myspace banner ads are still in Italian, and my gmail banner ads are in German. and they even have different aesthetics....different targets. its like, the internet is VIRTUAL, and yet, LOCALIZED. kind of like the human soul.
OK. i have to start backwards i think? does that seem like the most (il)logical way? not even from today, because i started writing this last week but didn't post it. so, HERE:
BERGEN. FEB 1st SUNDAY.
today we went for hot chocolate (sjokolade) at cafe oper(a)? Ingeborg and her friend Annika (i think this is how one would spell it?) She is studying architecture. she is proposing a project for a town center to engage and build community...through building a library and an area to fish? once i start thinking about architecture i think its quite fascinating. how design truly does shape all of our experiences, and can shape our feelings and behaviors. she is taking it more easy this semester, and only working for 8-4 and really WORKING, has an office. then at home she listening to podcasts and watching dvds. this is because she got sick last...year...? it seems like norwegians are really into perfecting leisure and the balance of that with work. well, all europeans i guess are a little more in touch with this, i think. i've met a few students and really surprised they aren't forever working on homework. it seems like i always was, but maybe i wasn't after all.
coming down the stairs in the cafe there was an old man hunched over , sitting on the stairs putting sugar into his coffee, which was on the floor. we said, why won't he sit at a table? Annika said his name was Otto. everyone knew who he was, he chose to be homless. he went out every morning to pick up old bread and such to feed the birds of the town with. there was an interview with him on the local radio station. he said he liked that he was huntched over because that means he could always be looking at the sidewalk to pick up things. here is his bike:
then Ole and I made curry and hung out. His dad was in the norwegian army and he stayed in los vegas during the summer when he was ten, his dad was doing a sort of NATO training.
then i mostly stayed in. thought about my performance and what i am not really happy with, kinda getting bummed out but telling myself well then i at least will keep pushing myself forward.
SATURDAY January the 31st.
Ingeborg pointed out that this day is the last day of january 2009 that will EVER happen. its already been 10 days since my birthday. the party this nigth was nice. FIncken is a great space, up stairs...there was great art up. mounted heads of imaginary colorful beasts. a manequin with human hair on her legs and abdomen like a pan creature. raindrops tear drops dripping off the walls.
(a too dark picture, but you can get the idea)i got to project my video on white mini-blinds....perfection!
people were so nice....DJ Ingebling played telepathe's Michael as the first song and also the last song of the night. dj cyper puppy 007 , sad boy/sad girl, siri all played some great jamms. really scandinavian dance music pumpers. i feel like my beats sort of wilt in comparison, but maybe there's no camparing. people either like things that are familiar, or that are different, or both??? oh, can't think that way for too long. had a hot dog wrapped in bacon with dried onions and potatoe salad on it. pretty amazing until the very very last bite, when i sort of figured out what it was i was eating.
we walked around in the day. i love bergen. we tried to find a photocopier. i am noticing everyone says "hi!" as a greeting....which i haven't heard in europe yet really. i love norwegian candy, and also soda pop. the real norwegian kind.
FRIDAY Jan 30th.
didn't miss my flight! the instant i got into the Bergen airport, i was reminded on minnesota...there were like 100 old people hanging out in the airport, and they all dressed liek old people in minnesota. all sitting around kind of bored, kind of just enjoying their coffee, kind of bad ass. reminded me of people from my church growing up. The bus into Bergen was a beautiful ride, perfectly late afternoon sunny. beautifl ponds and cliffs, and moss, and trees, and volvos, and houses with roof tiles like fish scales or like japanese houses. The Bus driver had a funny curled moustache, perfect for him. i like the quiet intense intelligence beaming from a lot of the people here. i feel like when you live in a land so seemingly perfect, of course you are going to have some sort of quietly confident sense of superiority. i feel happy and also sort of dirty for how happy i am to be in scandinavia and thinking its so perfect. Ingeborg was there waiting for me at the bus station...nice! so happy to be here. like ...i FINALLY made it to fairytale motherland! so funny.
we walked to Ole's house where we were staying. and met him on the street (its like olympia, you just run into everyone everywhere.) we went to a cozy birthday party. met a couple form canada whose going to art school in Bergen. made me excited to maybe go to school here too? listening to Norwegian. reading it and figuring out the vowels. wanting to learn norwegian, or swedish maybe...so add it to the list along with german, italian, and dutch maybe. i think this is my preferred way of learning lanuages...maybe 5 all at once, and just little bits, so it would take me forever to be fluent, but then once i am, BAMM! i got 7 languages at my disposal!
Ingeborg led me down these tiny streets with tiny wooden houses, right in the middle of the city. so cute! so charming. this is how it use to be, all over norway. sorry that i don't have pictures of that , but try googling "charming little wooden houses of Bergen and see what comes up??. Then, we went to see the set of Kenneth's play...its amazing! i have pictures....
the chairs are where the audience sits. the action happens all around, the white backdrop is a projection screen where surveillance like video of the two main characters was shown. then the scaffolding, and etc, became the house where the characters lived (a jail, detention center? it was a russian play about two russian boys.) This is from Ingeborg's description. i really wished i could have seen it, but i didn't have enough money. things be EXPENSIVE here in norway, what with their socialist leaning taxes and all.
theater in general is exciting to me here in europe. for some, maybe its a little too multi-media and un-fourth wall, my friend Kyoko who is an actor in Antwerpen, says that its almost more radical in europe (or at least Antwerpen) to stage a piece in a traditional manner. but to a shelted american, its all very amazing...its like i made it to the fiary tale lande where everything i think is possible with performance is happening, and maybe more normative...like i am coming to the planet i am really from, and always dreamt exsisted but never knew for sure if it did, heard rumors...
WELL i have to go get ready for a show. more pictures and stories soon. if yr into that sort of thing.
