NORDUnet Conference in Norway
[Written 12 October 2012]
Last year, when I was still in a mood to say ‘yes’ to most everything, I agreed to be on the ‘Program Committee‘ of the 27th NORDUnet Conference, to be held in Oslo on 18-20 September 2012, serving as the ‘Icelandic delegate’. (NORDUnet is: “a joint collaboration by the 5 Nordic National Research and Education Networks in Denmark (Forskningsnettet), Finland (Funet), Iceland (RHnet), Norway (Uninett) and Sweden (SUNET) and operates a world-class Nordic and International network and eInfrastructure service for the Nordic research and educational community.”)
I am of course pretty clueless about both networks and eInfrastructure, but probably know more than the average Joanne, so I figured I’d say yes and see what would happen. Mostly I got to meet interesting and pretty cool people, read over a few abstracts, but most importantly, travel for free twice to Oslo, and once to Copenhagen, neither of which I’d ever visited before!
Anyway, fast forward a year from saying yes, and the conference itself was about to begin. One of my duties as an organizer was to ‘chair’ a couple of sessions (The Data Deluge, and Campus Issues 1) so to Oslo I went. (Being a ‘chair’ means you introduce the next speaker, and then watch the clock and tell them when time is running out. That’s it.)
Monday 17 September 2012
For a span of 24 hours Finnur was in England and I was in Norway, and the kids were in Iceland! Thank goodness for grandparents!! 🙂
Driving into the central part of Oslo. Pretty!
A closer look at those funky high-rises that are being built by the waterfront.
Most of downtown Oslo looks more like this though.
My hotel room! I stayed at Rica Holberg Hotel (again), since it was 10 steps away from the conference venue.
The room was just right. Thankfully they got my email and put me in a quiet room that faced the inner courtyard of the hotel, and not the front because trams run continually past the hotel, and they’re not all that quiet!
Toilet and sink and…
… bathtub! Last time I only had a shower. 🙂 Also, the bathroom floor was heated, mmmm… 🙂
Tuesday 18 September 2012
The first session of the conference in the big lecture hall. I sat through the keynotes, then there was a break, then I chaired my first session, then there was lunch, and then I went back to my hotel room and slept like a log for two hours!
After my nap I decided to go for a shopping trip, not because Oslo is so cheap (it’s not!!) but because they have a greater selection than stores in Iceland do, and I was in desperate need of pregnancy clothes. On the way to the shopping street, I passed a few pretty buildings. Here’s the palace.
Here’s a house that’s being renovated. 🙂
Small pond squeezed in between two streets.
Obligatory picture of a statue with a bird sitting on top of its head.
The Grand Hotel.
I pretty much walked my feet off (my heel is still not quite good after I injured it while running earlier this summer) but had to stop to marvel at this awesome double rainbow!
The other half of the rainbow. 🙂
Shortly after I returned to the hotel, it was time to attend a reception at the Oslo City Hall.
The insides are huge, and there are murals covering just about every single wall!
Some conference attendees. The two people that run RHnet in Iceland were there, so I had some people to chat to. 🙂
A mural with lots of naked people. I still curse the US for instilling in me a ‘oh-my-god, there are naked people on display’ attitude!
Apparently the painter was unhappy with the location of this door, which is why the little boy is sticking his tongue out at it!
We were taken on a tour around the building, and our tour-guide gave us a great insight into the story that surrounded the building of the building (it’s all Norwegian) and how it was impacted by WWII.
After the tour, I walked back to the hotel, grabbing a sandwich on the way because reception food isn’t really filling!
Wednesday 19 September 2012
The second conference day started with a couple of keynotes (Mr. Huston is a great speaker!), then there was a short break, then I chaired my second session, then there was lunch, then I slept like a log for two hours, then there was a coffee break, and then there was the last session slot of the day. This is from one of the ‘lightning talks‘.
After the last session I went back to my hotel to relax a bit, before heading out again, this time to a ‘Gala Dinner’ at the Gamle Logen.
Trying to find a seat next to a friendly face. I was successful, and had nice people to talk to. 🙂
Pretty setting.
The ‘entertainment’ was a Norwegian opera singer and piano accompaniment performing four songs. I became intimately familiar with the decorations in the ceiling, and missed having a data plan on my phone, and was very happy not to be any closer to the stage. The guy was loud!
On the walk back, I stopped again at a shop to get ’emergency’ snack food (water, orange juice, yogurt) for the night and morning ahead. There is nothing I hate more than waking up at 5 am, feeling hungry (thank you pregnancy), and having no food. I was somewhat surprised to find this Icelandic chocolate bar on sale though!!
Thursday 20 September 2012
I had an early morning flight back to Iceland, so I missed the last couple of conference sessions. Here’s my SAS plane!
When I was boarding, I had a small brain meltdown. When I’d checked in, I’d selected a seat that looked like it was at the very front of the plane, but was in fact 2E. When I boarded I didn’t realize the first row was business class, and just sat down there, in 1E. And was instantly sorry, because my butt and thighs barely fit in the seat, and the armrests were solid, i.e. they would not move. When a flight attendant pointed out to me that I was in the wrong seat, the guy whose seat it was was all ‘Hey no problem, stay where you are’ but the flight attendant insisted because of the difference in service for the two rows. So I moved one seat back, and breathed a huge sigh of relief because not only were the armrests now skinnier (and the whole seat thus just that extra bit wider), but I could raise the left one ever so slightly, making the flight home much more bearable. Remind me not to ask for the front row ever again (and yes, go on a diet, but that’s not really an option right now…).
Vatnajökull (The Glacier of Lakes), being obscured by frost on the window.
I arrived home around lunchtime, ate lunch and took a nap. Later that afternoon Bjarki’s daycare had an ‘autumn celebration’. I painted this ‘Spiderman’ look on Bjarki, which then became all the rage with his friends. It was pretty funny.
Soup with vegetables grown by the daycare. It was really good! 🙂
Further proof I was in Oslo! 🙂
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