One of the first ski jumpers of the day, it may even have been a test / trial jumper.

Me and my 2 Swedish friends Rasmus and Peter - at the end of a cold day watching backhoppning

The final score. Note that the American is 58 out of 59. The other guy messed up pretty badly on style.

Heie Heie Heie

Despite numerous suspicions that I don’t actually work, I do. Okay, I don’t actually work, I’m just getting paid to learn right now. I’m in my 5th week now of START school, and life is actually taking the form of a “normal” life. I realized that these 8 weeks in Norway are the longest that I have been anywhere since I left Vietnam last June. I have a regular “work week”. I go to school at the Oslo Training Center which is in the same building as the Schlumberger / WesternGeco Oslo Technology Center, where they think up all the new technology to keep WesternGeco ahead of everyone else.

I’ve been learning a lot (a lot) about computers that is really useful no matter where I am. Unix and I are now much better friends, I understand networks, and I think I can set up, configure, run, and possibly even trouble shoot most of our software and hardware on board. This week we are focusing on our newest seismic technology, Q. It's special because using Q you can go back to reservoirs that are already in production, re-shoot seismic there, and monitor the well.

I also have exams every week, so I feel like Susan, my room mate from Princeton who is at medical school now and must take a massive exam every other week. I’m 100% sure her exams are much more difficult than mine, but I still spend a good part of Sunday studying (okay well not this past weekend, since it was my birthday, but hey).

Instead of studying this weekend I went to the world cup ski jumping event (backhoppning in Swedish). The day started with a blue sky. It had snowed and sleeted the night before, so the run was too slow, so they had to postpone the initial combined event and put chemicals on the jump. I realized that this was my first international sporting event that I had ever been to. The real event started though with a large marching band at the very top of the slope. I was just waiting for one of the band members to slip. Then skiers with each represented country’s flag skied down the slope and then it was time to start. The skiers jump from those with the worst standings to those with the best. Therefore, the American jumped first. I kid you not, after he jumped and landed everyone laughed because it was such a short jump. However soon I was surrounded by Norwegians shouting “heie heie heie” (cheer cheer cheer) and ringing their cow bells and Poles shouting “lec lec” (fly fly). Poles dominated the audience, because the current best ski jumper is a polish guy. Unfortunately he was last to jump and by that point the winds had picked up and he did pretty badly, which led to the canceling of the last round. A really cool way to spend my birthday weekend though.

Skiing in the Nordmarka

There is a reason for waxless skis. Someone told me to use the wrong wax and 50m into skiing I had a snowball superglued to the bottom of my ski. Getting the sticky gooeying wax off is not fun.

This is the biathlon World Cup. In the middle left hand side of the photo you can see a line of yellow and black. Just below those are the targets for shooting. Just in front of that is the penatly circle for people who missed shots.

Sledding Hill Attempt

Today I tried to go to the sledding hill. This past week has been pretty rainy, but I was hoping the higher elevation would have protected it. I took the train up and brought along some crampons along as well, so I could go hiking if plan A failed. I’ve learned to pay attention where lots of people get on and off on the train – it usually means that something is going on or there is something good there. Lots and lots of people were getting on the train today and then they all pushed their way off at the Holmenkollen stop – the ski jump from the 1952 Olympics. Hmm, I made a mental note.

I got to the last stop and took one look at the sledding hill – pure ice. I had already told myself it was a No Go if it was icy. 2 weeks ago a woman had severely injured her spine on this sled run and it was snowy then, so the ice was no good, especially given the number of turns that the run has. I walked down the hill to a stua (restaurant / cabin where you go to buy warm food after skiing) to see what was going on. The hill down was the sledding hill, so I almost killed myself in that icy covered process, but eventually made it to the stua, where I could look out over Oslo, the surrounding hills, and the encroaching fjords. I stepped inside to ask what was going on, because I thought I could just barely make out the sound of a crowd in the distance. A boy working there said – yes it’s the biathlon down at Holmenkollen – just walk 500 meters down the road. So down I went (more like a kilometer), but I found the crowd and then I found the hill that was free to watch from (as opposed to the stands where you have to pay). Who cares if its below freezing? People bring their foam sleeping pads to sit on, they bring small makeshift grills to make hot dogs on – its like a picnic. No, actually its not even “like” a picnic, it is one.

The men’s event started 12 minutes after I got there and I found 2 Norwegian guys to explain what was going on. Don’t laugh and say “silly Laura it’s skiing and shooting” yes, I know, but do you know what happens when people miss? They have to go around this small circle and do penalty laps for every missed shot.

In the competition everyone does a total of 5 longs laps and then they shoot after the first 4. Each time they shoot they have to hit 5 targets. Twice they shoot standing up and twice laying on the ground. The start times were based on their results in a race on Thursday. A French guy was in first, then a German, then a Russian, then the Norwegian. The Norwegian pulled into a neck and neck race on the 4th lap with the German. Then in the final round of shooting the German missed 2 shots and had to take 2 penalty laps. This ensured the Norwegian win!

And that’s what happens when the sledding hill is icy.

Snow Treasure

I sat in the curved part of the U of desks in Mrs. Galloway’s third grade class during the middle part of the year. Every morning we had SSR – sustained silent reading and that U- is where I sat for a week or two of mornings reading Snow Treasure.

Small little details about the book have stuck with me. The cover has 2 children on sleds and a purple border. I strongly remember not wanting the book to end. And I remember wanting to be the kids in the book. A few days before I left for Norway in February, I flashed on the book again and went to the library and then to the children’s desk to find the book. These are the details that I told her to help me find the book (I could not remember the title at the time). I told the librarian, “it’s a book about Norwegian children who put gold on the sleds to hide it from the Nazis. And it has a purple cover.” She typed in a few words into her data base / search catalogue and then asked “is it Snow Treasure?” Yes! I went to the children’s section to find it.

That night I read half the book – The premise is based on a real rumor (never to have actually been confirmed). The book is based on a story about children saving the Norwegian gold from Nazi hands, just as they are invading the country. It’s amazing because the book was actually published in 1942 while Norway was still occupied. That aside, as I read this book again a month ago, it talks about how the children ride on their sleds with the gold – down from their houses, past the German soldiers (who smile and let the children pass) and down the hill for perhaps half an hour. The problem I had reading it was that when I think sled ride, I think a quick 10 – 15 second ride (if I am lucky) down a hill. How could the children have actually sledded for 30 minutes (or even longer).

Ahhh – but they can. And children proved this to me last weekend. I went up to Nordmarka (north forest), which is a greenspace / park just north of oslo (if you take the subway line 1 and get off at any of the last 5 stops, you are in the Nordmarka). My intention was to go cross country skiing and get off at the very last stop. About 5 stops from the end, suddenly 10 kids with sleds got on the train. Hmmm. They stayed on the train to the end with me and jumped off the train, plopped down their sleds and they were off. I asked someone – where do they go?

To the bottom – was the response.

Well – how far is that?

Its about 15 minutes and it ends at a subway stop, so everyone just hops back one.

AMAZING. A sled run that I later found out runs for 2 km, drops 250 meters, and the translation of its name from Norwegian is “the corkscrew”. It was also the bobsled run for the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics.

So much for my doubts about the book. Now I really know why I wanted to be the kids in the story - a 30 minute sled ride, must be fun.

Any books that you have remembered recently from when you were younger?

I forgot to add this picture a while ago. It's from when I was doing offshore survival / helicopter escape training down in New Orleans. here I am in my helicopter!

This is the view from the walk that I went on the first day I arrived in Norway.

The left photo is of me driving the workboat. The right photo is of me working the arms of the boat (via the remote on my hands) in order to pick up the cables from the water. (don't forget you can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want)

One of the boats we were working on. We were working in beautiful fjords around Kristansund.

Norway

Here is an entry from my journal from my first day in Norway:

Yes it is Valentine’s Day. And here I am in Norway. Norway is meeting and exceeding my expectations so far. After all the hype I was worried that it would be dreary, not cute, no mountains. BUT. There are mountains, there is snow, it is beautiful out, the sea is right there. Buildings are cute. It’s a mix of all my passions and ideals. I love boats. There is water. I have seen more than 3 or 4 beautiful wooden boats in the harbor. I love mountains. There are mountains and rocks everywhere. The rocks and hills define the town and looking into the not so far distance I felt like I was in Anchorage looking at the Chugach Mountains at one point. Small compact town. In terms of city planning I have always said that I would rather live in a small house or apartment in town and near work rather than live in a larger house more in the countryside. The benefits of not driving to work far outweigh for me the benefits of driving. Here though, the houses are small and close – as they should be! Also while the town is cute, its not overly cute to the point where it is a tourist town that only has cafés and boutiques. Instead it is a real town. There are normal stores lining the streets. There is industry – ships are tied up right in town – large tankers and fishing vessels.

Today after I got to town and dropped my stuff at the hotel, I went for a walk. First point of note is that there are many people walking around town. (I also later saw that gas I about $7 a gallon, helping to explain this, although I think it goes much deeper into their culture. It hovers around freezing and people sit outside at street side cafes with blankets over them). This walking though, is in strong contrast to Vietnam where people could not understand why I would walk anywhere – I mean why not just take a motor bike? I walked for about 10 minutes and ended up on a trail through pine trees. Along the trail I passed a reservoir where kids were skating. The trail wound around and I soon stood atop a bluff looking out on the ocean, and off to the mountains. Snow covered mountains to be exact. I LOVED IT. Then I found my way back down and around to the rocky beach and I just watched the sun play off the mountains, the houses, and the bridge in the distance. Just as I had hoped.

Also of note. For some reason I have always wanted to actually see my own bags loaded onto the airplane. I know that at least once (and perhaps a few times), I have watched the people loading intently for perhaps 10 minutes, in hopes of seeing my own bag. Yesterday in New York City, I just happened to look out the window and there was my blue backpack, oh then followed by my black duffel.

Everyone keeps asking about my room on board. Here are 2 pictures. I shared with a polish girl, Anna, but we were on different shifts, so we were never in the room at the same time. if you look closely you can see Puff on my bed (my stuffed animal)

Muddy Creek Falls up at Deep Creek Lake - this was the snow and winter I was dreaming about on the boat and finally got. It was my first snow since May 2005.

The beach where we were in India

End of School - End of Shift

The last few days I felt like I was back in an elementary school classroom days before school lets out – desks have to be cleaned, blackboards washed, personal belongings taken home. On board Emerald the days before crew change– we cleaned the floors, finished up odd jobs, cleaned the tools, the bird shack, and created a detailed description of all the specifications for the job contract that the client kept changing. The 9-year-old child's pent up anticipation of summer holiday also struck the crew. Knowing that in a few days they would be on land, have beers in their hands and soon be on airplanes to see their families, brought smiles across their faces. The last few shifts seemed to take forever – we still were not shooting. Over the course of the week we would proceed south until the noise on the hydrophones was too much and then turn around north again. Only once did this work for us and we managed to shoot one line. Every other attempt was aborted.

Crew change lasted 2 days – because the helicopter flights were long enough that the pilots would run out of flight hours in one day. Suited up with my ear phones and life jacket, I boarded the first chopper out to Trivandrum - a town at the very tip of India (take a look on the map). For me, it was like taking a flight to another time zone. My midnight to noon working hours had to readjust to the rhythms of a normal human day (only to readjust 5 days later when flying to the States).

By 1 pm the second day, the off signers were onshore and the on signers were off shore. I and 4 other crew members headed 20 km down the coast to a beach where we hung out for a few days. I was amazed at how tired my body actually was after working 12 hours days 7 days a week for 5 weeks straight – that’s 84 hour weeks – or 2 plus work weeks in one.

Now I’m back in the states for a bit – until feb 13th when I leave for 2 months in Norway. I'll be in Norway for more training so that I actually know how to look for oil, as opposed to some great pretending.

What I do

If you click on the link to this Canadian oil company, they have a great animation on their homepage that shows what I do. Click on it and you can see a boat pulling a cable. There are guns located very near to the boat, that go off about every 10-15 seconds. On the cables there are hundreds of receivers (or hydrophones), that pick up or "hear" the sound of the guns. The receivers hear the direct sound, but also the sound that bounces off of the ocean bottom, and off of geological layers below the surface. The result is the black and white picture / diagram that you can also see in the animation. One difference though between the animation and us, is that we have 8 cables and not one.

Me watching the sunset on a quick stop during one of the many hikes that extended well into the evening along the AT (a new and improved version of this picture, thanks to Jeff)