Spring gave way to summer, even in Oslo. Many things happened, and I did not update my weblog for a while. The time has now come to briefly summarise the past months, for those of you who are interested in hearing what we have been up to. Pictures will follow later.
In May, we went to the Netherlands, where I presented a paper at a conference on religion and violence. The conference was interesting and thought-provoking. I enjoyed visiting my former university, and catching up with some old friends and acquaintances. Naturally, we also visited my family, and we spent a day cycling in the lovely green countryside of Groningen. Time went fast, however, and I did not have time to meet everybody I would have liked to meet, let alone spend enough time with those I did meet - as regrettable as inevitable, I guess, and no doubt very recognisable to those of you who live in a different country from most of their friends and relatives.
It was good to visit the Netherlands, but it was equally good to leave and return to Norway. Like any place, it has its shortcomings (high prices, for instance), but for the time being I feel quite at home here. Frankly, I much prefer it to my crowded home country, whose current political climate I despise. After returning to Oslo, I finished an article on different conceptions of Shinto, which will be published in a Dutch history journal (forthcoming). I also wrote a short essay on millenarianism (see previous post), loosely based on my conference paper, for the weblog of my research network.
Meanwhile, the city got more and more colourful, especially on sunny days. Oslo is surrounded by forests, lakes, a fjord and islands - a wonderful variety of green and blue, waiting to be discovered. We spent several lazy weekend afternoons in the forest and the fjord. The city itself is also full of nature: fragrant flowers, busy birds and impressive trees fill the spaces between buildings, and remind city-dwellers of their ancestral countryside. It is as if they are fully aware of the fact that spring and summer are short, and live their lives as intensely as possible during the few months they can. Those Japanese who claim their country is the best place to fully appreciate the beauty of seasonal differences have never been to Northern Europe.
In early June, I took a week off, and we went on holiday. We visited the city that had occupied the first place in my cities-I-want-to-visit-list for several years: Barcelona. As we did not only want to visit the city, but also spend some time at the beach, we decided to go camping. Unfortunately, the first couple of days, we were not very lucky with the weather. But after a while it got better, and we enjoyed some nice days with sangria, camping food and detective novels. We would not have minded staying longer.
Barcelona was fantastic. We visited the Sagrada Familia, which was even more beautiful than I had expected, especially the interior. We also went to the Fundació Joan Miró and Gaudi's Parc Güell, both of which are fascinating places that I wholeheartedly recommend, despite the latter's tourist crowds. We saw the peaceful protests at Plaça de Catalunya, full of banners with creative anti-capitalist slogans and full of tents, where today's hippies teach each other the principles of computer piracy. And we made long city walks, for the only way to get to know a city is to walk through her streets. Walking, after all, is a way to acquire knowledge; a form of spatial storytelling, as Michel de Certeau once wrote. For walkers, few cities are as rewarding as Barcelona.
Soon after I came back from Barcelona, I made a short weekend trip to London. A friend had invited me to attend a mutual friend's bachelor party, and as I could get a ridiculously cheap flight ticket I decided to take the opportunity to visit the city where I used to live. It was very good to catch up with old friends, and to walk through the streets of London. I had not been back since I handed in my MA thesis in September 2008, and I was happy to find out that the city had changed very little. I did notice that I have changed quite a bit though, these past couple of years. Nevertheless, several people asked me for directions, so I must have still looked like a local.
I visited my old university library, and a couple of bookstores. It was raining, but I could not resist the temptation to walk around Bloomsbury. I felt happily nostalgic. Walking can be an act of discovery, but it can also be an act of remembering. In this case, it was the latter. Best of all, of course, I finally had the chance to meet some of my old friends, whom I had not seen for two or three years. It was a happy reunion.
Back in Oslo, I continued my work. I read a number of primary and secondary sources relevant for my research project. I looked at some contemporary social anthropological theories on the construction of space, nature and the environment. I am now working on a short essay on Shinto environmentalist ideology, a critical analysis of some of the texts I have read so far. I am also busy making plans and preparing the next stage of my research.
At the end of August, I will attend a big international Japanese studies conference in Tallinn. When I come back, we will have to leave our current apartment, as we are not allowed to live here longer than one year - so we have no choice but to look for another place, and move. Soon thereafter, in September, I will go to Kyoto for a period of three months in order to conduct fieldwork research (interview people, attend events, collect materials), which is of great importance for my research project. My better half, meanwhile, is waiting for the results of her MA application. It is an exciting time, with many uncertainties, and we are not likely to get bored anytime soon.
Fortunately, whenever we feel stressed, we can leave our apartment and walk out of the city, right into the forest. If we walk for about half an hour, we reach Sognsvann. Sognsvann is a lovely little lake, surrounded by trees. It is a popular place, and there are always people, but it never gets too crowded. The lake looks different every time we visit her, depending on the weather, the season and the time of the day. One can walk around her in half an hour or so, and there are several places to sit, take a rest, talk or meditate. Sognsvann, in short, is the place to go to when there are too many unorganised thoughts in your head. We are lucky we live near her.
We are lucky anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment