What the heck is Informatics?

Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and the Internet,

I am very excited to announce that I will begin my studies for a master's at the University of Edinburgh this Fall! I will be pursuing a one-year master's in Informatics.

"So what the heck is Informatics?" you might ask. Well, if you were to take a guess you might say it's the study of information, and you'd be right. But there's quite a bit more to the definition than that, as I'll find out in full force this Fall. For those of you unwilling to spend a year selling your soul to professors and the suffusive glow of computer screens at 4:00 in the morning, I'll just boil down some of the main points from the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics website: Informatics is "The study of the structure, the behaviour, and the interactions of natural and engineered computational systems." It is concerned with the transformation and understanding of information through computation and communication, and it encompasses disciplines such as Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. For more information, you can go here or utilize a wonderful little thing called Google.

My studies will chiefly be concerned with the computation aspect, in which I will pursue a focus in either Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Machine Learning.

As I prepare for my journey to Edinburgh, completing all the necessary paperwork and packing my life into suitcases, I would like to thank everyone who has helped me reach this juncture in my life. First of all, my siblings for their encouragement, support, and unwavering enthusiasm for my decision to apply to the University of Edinburgh. Then, of course, my parents, who, once they got used to the idea of me pursing my postgraduate studies abroad, whole-heartedly support my decision. Also, for their love and raising me to be the person I am today, I am extremely grateful! Next, the rest of my family for their support, as well as my friends through the years with whom I've shared many wonderful memories! Finally, I would most sincerely like to thank all of my friends and professors from my four years at Western Washington University, particularly those in the Computer Science Department and Linguistics Program. I know that because of the learning and personal growth that happened at Western, I am prepared for this next stage of my life.

And you can follow it every step of the way right here on my blog, which will be my main method of updating and informing others of my time in Scotland and the many adventures to come.

Stay informed.  -NLD

The Traveler's Guide

Barely did I have time to recuperate from my trip to Norway and I was back out the door, with another adventure and another suitcase, albeit a much smaller one.

Just days after my return from Norway a friend from South Dakota came to visit me in Seattle.  My role as traveler was switched to role as traveler's guide.  I don't claim to be a Seattle expert; my knowledge is mediocre at best.  Multiple visits to Seattle over the years and now having Washington residency at least puts me slightly above the average tourist.  For guiding someone who was in Seattle for the first time, my limited knowledge was sufficient.  We only had five glorious day.  Go.

My friend, Jenna, arrived in Seattle a little after midnight on Saturday morning.  As late as it was for me and even later for Jenna (CST being two hours ahead of PST), I started off her Pacific Northwest experience with a Pop! (Goes the weasel).  It's a bit of a tradition for me to go to Jack in the Box and order a Breakfast Jack whenever out and about after midnight.  Also, since there aren't any Jack in the Boxes in South Dakota/Minnesota I thought it would be something for Jenna to experience.  Whether it was a good experience or bad experience for her, I can't really say; but I enjoyed my disgustingly delicious, greasy, breakfast sandwich whole-clogged-heartedly.

Originally, we intended to go to Mt. Rainier that first day but the thought of waking up early to drive there did not appeal to us.  So we enjoyed a lazy morning and then took the light rail into Seattle.  What better way to spend your first day in the Seattle area than actually in the city of Seattle?  We hit all the main sites: Pikes Place Market, the Waterfront, Pioneer Square, and the Space Needle.  Instead of going up into the Space Needle -- which is rather expensive -- we went for the cheaper and, in my opinion, much more impressive option of going up to the Sky View Observatory on the 73rd floor of Columbia Center.  It's even higher than the Space Needle and offers just as good of views of the city, sound, and surrounding mountains.  Unfortunately it was rather hazy that day so the extra height didn't make much difference.  Other highlights include but are not limited to Top Pot Donuts, Pacific Place, Seattle Center Fountain, and making fun of people crazy or stupid enough to try driving through Pike Place on a Saturday.  After our exciting day in Seattle we spent the evening playing a few casual, competitive rounds of mini-golf in Tukwila and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Kent before returning to my sister's house, which she was kind enough to let us use as our base of operations.

We got up bright and early the next day to make the two hour drive to Paradise, Mt. Rainier.  It was a good thing we didn't go on Saturday because Sunday ended up being a much better day for it.  The day was almost perfectly clear, warm but not too warm.  Rather than describe our hike up to Panorama Point in excruciating detail, I'll just use pictures... a lot of pictures.  Click on them if you want to view the full-size versions.

Marmot!

Baby Marmot!

Marmot on a steamroller!!!

Panorama Point

Buzz off you photobomber!

The clouds start rolling in as we descend

Ghost mountain

Exhausted from our three-hour hike, we were happy to simply drive back to my sister's house and enjoy a chill evening eating Red Robin and watching House Bunny.

On Monday we went up to stay at my mother's house for a few days.  Unable to just sit around for an entire afternoon, we all went to Deception pass to do a little hiking and take in the views.  Well, we probably could have just sat around all afternoon, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for somebody to make a decision about what they wanted to do, Jenna!  I make fun of her for it but it's all in good fun and I'm almost as indecisive as she is when I'm not acting as guide.  I like to think of it as easy-going rather than indecisive but it's all a matter of perspective.  You can say it doesn't matter what we do, you'll be happy with anything -- and maybe that's true -- but that isn't very helpful to the person trying to plan activities.  Sure, we as guides can plan certain must-see's or must-do's as a baseline but beyond that I think it's nice to mold the traveler's trip around their interests.  Not so easy when all you can get out of them is, "I don't care," or "It's up to you."  So if there's one thing you learn from this blog post it's this: when traveling, BE DECISIVE, both for your own sake and, if you have one, your guide's sake... please.

Tuesday I showed Jenna my school and took her around to some of my favourite places in Bellingham.  It was a very nice day and all the walking we did was good conditioning for Wednesday when I led Jenna on a death march to Oyster Dome.  Hiking and other outdoorsy activities are such a big part of my school's, Bellingham's, and the Pacific Northwest's identity that a trip to Washington wouldn't be complete without at least one harrowing hike.  Okay, it really wasn't that bad.  We managed to make the 6.5-mile round trip in just over four hours.  And that includes about half an hour at the top for lunch and admiring the scenery.

As a reward for completing the hike and not complaining too much, we went paddle boarding on Lake Whatcom.  Yay! More physical activity!  It wasn't the warmest of days but it was still a lot of fun.  I'd never paddle boarded before, either, so even as adventure guide I got to experience some new things.  It was a wonderful way to spend Jenna's last full day in Washington before having to take her back to the airport Thursday afternoon.

The five days went by way too quickly.  In a time when social media and empty statuses dominate interpersonal communication, those five days were a refreshing reminder of what it's like to be face-to-face with the person behind all those late-night rants, those amusing tweets, the occasional Snapchat.  As we all go our separate ways after high school, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay in close contact.  Those five days of showing Jenna around Seattle, catching up on new developments, reminiscing about old ones, and making new memories meant more to me than Facebook's entire net worth.  Traveling to see a high school friend -- even if it's not the sole purpose of a trip -- is a huge sacrifice, especially for poor college students and especially if that friend lives halfway across the country or further.  So when somebody makes the effort to visit you, not only does it show true friendship and caring, but it leaves everyone involved with a warm and fuzzy feeling.  I encourage everyone reading this to reach out to an old friend who you haven't seen in a long time but wish you would have stayed in better contact with.  Through Facebook, email, phone, traditional post, or any other method you can think of.  Who knows?  Maybe a trip will come out of it and at the very least maybe a conversation and a smile.

I'm so so glad Jenna came to visit me and I look forward to many more visits to and from her and many other friends, both old and new.  After all, that's part of what traveling is all about: meeting new people or old friends, creating closer bonds with them, fostering a world of understanding, peace, and warm and fuzzy feelings.

Satellites can only bring us so far.  Don't let all the copper wire get in the way of your traveling and maintaining the friendships that truly matter to you.

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This blog post got a little longer than I intended and a little more schmaltzy.  I hope, though, that the idealistic, sometimes overly sentimental parts do not detract or distract.  They're meant to add interest to my posts. 

Unless another friend comes to visit me or there's an unplanned trip in my near future, there will very likely not be another of these posts for quite some time.  I'm still working on a "The Many Styles of Packing (working title)" post but once that's finished there will be very little to talk about on this blog until my next big trip.  I hope to get back into posting regularly on my other blog but with a very busy school year approaching that's beginning to look more like a fool's hope.  At any rate, I'll try to keep things updated.  Stay tuned.  -NLD

Bare Begynnelsen

The beginning of the end of the beginning.

Tired from our drive, my father and I didn't do much when we got back to Oslo on Sunday night.  The relatives whose house we stayed in were away to their hytte.  We were two quiet people in a quiet house.  Not wanting to think about having to leave the next day, I did the only thing I could do: repack my suitcase and then go to bed.  Oh, the irony.

I woke up to the sound of rain on the window.  Throughout my stay in Norway I was incredibly lucky with the weather -- it only rained maybe six or seven times -- so how appropriate that on the day I leave it should be weather more typical of a Norwegian summer.  I'd like to think Norway was as sad to see me go as I was.  I laid in bed simply listening to the light pitter-patter of tears falling.

At 8:30 I finally rolled out of bed and into the shower.  The smell of bittersweet sadness would not wash away.  I brushed my teeth and then packed away my toothbrush, zipping my suitcase closed.  Breakfast was simple.  My father and I leaned against the edge of the counter, eating our poppy seed buns with cheese and butter in silence.  My heart was so heavy you could have weighed it like I weighed my suitcases.  Saying good-bye to an empty house was almost worse than having to say good-bye to all my relatives.  With nobody to say good-bye to, I knew I was saying good-bye to Norway.

We weren't sure how long it would take to get returning the rental car squared away so we left the house at 10:00, even though our flights didn't leave until a little after 14:00.  Returning the rental car ended up taking about a minute.  But I didn't mind being there so early.  We simply exchanged waiting in one place for waiting in another.  At least there were people to watch at Gardermoen Airport.

Printing my boarding pass and suitcase tag was extraordinarily easy at one of the kiosks but the system designed to be efficient did little good when the Icelandair baggage drop-off desk didn't open until two hours before my flight.  We ended up waiting about an hour before we could even get in line for security.  Once through, we sat down at one of the airport restaurants for a nice lunch before going our separate ways and ten hours on a plane.

My plane rides were rather dull.  I did some reading, watched a couple movies -- Argo and Singin' in the Rain -- and looked out the window as Norway and the last seven and a half weeks slipped out of sight at 528mph.  My plane left Oslo at 14:45 and I landed in Seattle at 17:55 thanks to the time difference.

As much as I'll miss Norway, it's good to be home.

This is it: the end of my journey to Norway.  But, as you just read, it ended two days ago.  So why am I still writing about it?  My time at ISS and travels through Norway (and Sweden, a little) will never leave me.  The people I met and the friends I made, the places I saw and the pictures I took, the knowledge I gained and the sleep I lost -- they are a part of me now.  No amount of time will ever take that away.  And this isn't really the end; it's only the end of the beginning.  There will be more trips to Norway, more trips to Sweden, more trips to Europe, more trips to countries I haven't yet visited, more trips around the sun.

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Thank you to everyone who has read my blog week after week and post after post.  It's been such a pleasure to write and I hope it has been just as much fun to read.  Maybe you even learned something.  I also hope that through reading my blog, if you didn't have one already, you have acquired a desire to travel, see everything and meet everyone this amazing world has to offer.

As is the nature of a travel blog, I won't be posting much when I'm not traveling.  I can guarantee, though, that there will be many more trips in my future and many more blog posts to accompany them.  Vi sees!  And... wait for it...
Stay tuned.  -NLD

You're Gonna Hear Me, Røros

Katy Perry stuck in your head now?  You're welcome.  (Even if Røros doesn't quite work phonetically)

It's strange for me to be still posting about my time in Norway even though I'm back home in Washington.  My last few days in Norway were a bit of a whirlwind so only now have I had time to write about those last few precious days.

My dad and I left Trondheim Friday morning accompanied by one of our cousins(?) and his wife.  They traveled with us as far as Singsås, where they showed us the old farm site my Norwegian ancestors lived on before immigrating to the United States.  We also visited the original Singsås church where some of my relatives are buried.  The surnames within the graveyard are an almost perfect copy of those in the graveyard at Singsas church near my hometown of Hendricks, MN -- or, rather, the names in Minnesota are an almost perfect replication of those in Norway.  It's interesting that those who came from the same area of Norway ended up settling in the same area of America.  I've never felt as close to my Norwegian heritage as I did when I stood on that farm site.  It was a defining moment in the history of who I am.

From Singås we traveled to Røros, where we stayed with another of our distant relatives.  Much like the family we'd stayed with in Trondheim, they, too, were wonderful, generous hosts, leading us on tours around town, taking us on a trip to their cabin, and, of course, serving a wide variety of delicious food.  (That sentence may have been a little comma heavy.)

We started off with a tour of Røros.  All the buildings in Røros are designed to look very old.  Some of them are actually very old, dating back to the 17th and 18th Centuries when Røros was a major mining town, but most are simply designed to look that way to preserve the old-timey feel.  Mining activity continued around Røros until 1977 as evidenced by the massive piles of slag on the edge of town.  I climbed the highest one but because somebody *cough* dad *cough* didn't take a picture of me standing triumphantly at the top, alas, I have no proof.

On Saturday they took us out to their hytte for a day of hiking, pellet guns, eating, and relaxation.  The hytte is on an island in the middle of Femund, Norway's third largest lake, so we had to take a boat to get to it.  The landscape surrounding the hytte was stunning and with no electricity or running water, it really felt like we were one with nature.  I felt so in tune with nature that I went swimming in the lake.  It was colder than Songsvann and colder than Oslo fjord but still just as refreshing.  We also went for a short hike to an old farmstead and bridge built by the Germans during World War II.  Unfortunately, the unending blueberries around the trail weren't quite ripe yet so I had to wait until we were back at the hytte for something more substantial to eat -- a stew traditionally served at weddings and funerals in Trøndelag.  Though it was one of the simplest meals, consisting only of potatoes, carrots, broth, and lamb meat, it was by far one of the tastiest.  After an entire day of taking in the best Norway has to offer, we had a pretty chill evening.  We ordered pizza and watched Armageddon with Norwegian subtitles.

The next day we had to leave for Oslo, but not before we toured the old Røros copper mine, smelting hut, and church.  It was about 5° C (41° F) down in the Copper mine so I brought a light jacket.  The smelting hut was interesting but the best part about it were all the elaborate models illustrating the mining processes.  They were engineering feats in and of themselves with working water wheels, pumps, and what must have been a million tiny pieces of lumber all fit together in intricate structures.  The Røros church was impressive but it was more just one of those things I went to just to see and be able to say I saw it.  It's amazing how much in that town depended on the copper mining industry.  Even the church has the copper mine's seal on it.

After a morning filled with activity and another excellent lunch, we finally had to say good-bye so we could make it to Oslo for our flights leaving the next day.  Apart from getting stuck in construction traffic for about an hour, it was an uneventful drive.  I even drove the second half of the trip but I made sure to switch the navigation system to English before doing so.  I kind of missed the German voice, though.

There isn't much more to say.  I'll be writing one more post describing my flights home and summarizing my entire time in Norway.  Stay tuned.  -NLD