Choir camp

This weekend Olle and the other choir members went to choir camp (körinternat) close to Husum about one hour's drive south of Umeå. We arrived around 10 in the morning, had some coffee and then the singing began. We started with the full choir, but later during the day we split in order to let the men and women practice their own voices.
The dinner consisted of fermented herring, which was a first time for me.
Around six the cans with the fish were opened outside, and the smell could be felt from a long distance.
But, the smell was diminished a lot when we started to skin the fish at 7:30. The taste was interesting, not so bad, but it is an acquired taste. I had two herrings (and a lot of potatoes) which was enough for this time.
Since we are a choir, there were also a lot of singing during the night. Unfortunately I don't know that many of the "old" songs (the choir started 1997), but this is something I will learn eventually.

A lot of people seemed quite tired "the day after", but 9:30 we were back in business again.
We practiced until lunch, after that followed cleaning of the cottages and common areas that we had used. It really felt good to sing through the whole repertoire that we are going to perform next March. There is still a lot of work left, but at least you recognize the songs next time you see them. It was also nice to have the opportunity to get to know some of the choir members a little bit better, during the two hours of practice every week there isn't a lot of time left for socializing.

Not a perfect seminar

During three days a group of Japanese researchers as well as some German researchers, are visiting Umeå. The days have been filled with seminars, to inform each others about our ongoing research, maybe we can create even more promising collaboration in the future. It's hard to have energy to listen all the days, when you are not used to it.
Thursday afternoon Maria had a twenty minute presentation of some of her work. Which meant she stayed late at work Wednesday afternoon to do the last changes. Except that the pointer stopped working, and the whole presentation freezed for some long seconds (with success she stayed cool, on the outside), Maria passed the presentation at least. As usual, afterwards you find out how you could have made it better.
In the evening she joined the tour of our facilities for the guest, anyway she hasn't been in the lab too long, so especially the plant growing facilities are still new to her. Growing trees is somehow different from growing smaller flowers, take longer time as well. Thereafter followed a dinner of nice dishes with local taste.

Walks in Strömbäck-Kont

For today's walk we drove a little south to Strömbäck-Kont Nature Reserve, it was time to show the coastline for our guests. Not so much of archipelago around here, but at least we had a chance to see the water. The weather was nice, with sun and only calm winds.


In the forest we enjoyed a nice lake and a lot of lingonberries, like here among the juniper ("en") bushes.










The trees were enjoyable to watch as well, some of the older (dead) ones were covered with usnea ("skägglav"), others were grow places for fungus.






Tonight we went to bed earlier, since our guests plan to leave around 7 am Monday morning.

Around the Vindeln rapids

After lunch we drove to Vindeln to show the rivers of Norrland for our guests. We parked the car to take a shorter walk, at least we thought so.





But the area was so nice, so we continued over a bridge and the other bridge didn't seem so far away. Anyway it took longer time than planned, so the "fika" (coffee and some buns/cake) tasted delicious when finally came back to the car.

Looking around you, there were clear signs of the fall being on the way. Some trees started to turn into yellow, otherwise the whole spectrum of fall colors are not here yet.



On our way we passed the longer Renforsen and Degerforsen shortly after. Around the rapids we saw several traces from the time when timber were transported on the river.




When we came back home it was high time for dinner, today we decided to serve stir fry chicken. Maria's parents liked this course, even if it was more unusual food for them.

Farmers Market also here

After breakfast we went downtown, to show Maria's parents that part of the city.
We also passed the Farmers Market ("Bondens egen marknad"), which is arranged during Saturdays in August-September. Hard to compare with Farmers market in Madison (WI/USA), which we have been used to, this one was much smaller. But at least there were several sellers of seasonal harvest, as well as other traditional food (one seller even made the flat bread oven fresh).


The colorful cauliflowers and unusual broccoli were a delight for the eye.

Our first visit from the South

It took most of the Thursday for Maria's parents to drive up to Umeå (over 11 hours). Not much more than time to show the apartment, before it was time to arrange the extra bed for our guests. Good we've some free floor in the office, even if the mattress made it hard to reach the office table.

Friday was a quite day, since Maria was at work. After lunch we all met at Gammlia, to take a walk around the old houses. Unfortunately, the museum is closed for the season so we couldn't enter the houses. When passing the part with classical Lapp cots, we noticed more had been built up this summer.
In the evening we went for a walk after dinner.

Nice Tuesday evening

As in the spring Olle is away for choir singing during Tuesday evenings.
So after work Maria has started to go to IKSU, the big sport center here in Umeå. She like to get really tired at Aqua power (one of the harder group water exercises) and afterward she reward herself with some time in the steam sauna. When coming home to the apartment, she has another hour for herself before Olle comes back.

Two interviews with two different consultant firms

Olle interviewed with two different consultant firms in four days: Last Friday and today. The interesting thing was that the client company that they think I am suitable for is the same in both cases. That company cannot employ anyone itself due to employment rules (you have to search for employees within the company first), but apparently you can consult at them anyway. It will be interesting to see which company that calls back first, if any.

Universum Science Center

For the last night at the conference (we will leave Thursday, the conference end Friday) we joined a tour to Universum Science Center, with the whole evening sponsored by one of the large companies having their mass spectrometry factory in town.
The whole building is filled with interactive exhibits. More than 250 stations invite the visitors on a fascinating journey through the topics Mankind, Earth and Cosmos. Time to play/explore like a kid again :-)

A paus needed

Going to seminars all day long is really tiring, so today Maria skipped some seminars and walked in the nearby park instead.





Within the park a nice-looking hotel were placed, not a choice for me though (double price compared to were Maria stayed). A little further in the park Maria saw another cute house, probable an old farm or so. At that moment she didn't know she were going to have a really good tree-meal dinner in the evening. Good though she didn't had to pay, some nice salesmen invited us (we have bought an expensive instrument from them).








In the afternoon Maria sneaked from the poster session, for a (last) walk downtown. Today she walked closer to the river. There were some old sailing ships, nowadays restaurants.






As well as some other party boats.

IMSC 2009

Visiting the International Mass Spectrometry Conference meant long days. The first seminar started already 8 in the morning, and followed by a poster session. You needed to study the list of poster titles in advance, since it's impossible to look at all the 400 posters, which were changed to new ones in the middle of the week.
Then 10am-12pm were seminar session with five different seminars in parallel. All again make a choice which ones will be the most interesting, not too easy. People were constant on the move between the lecture halls.
During the lunch breaks Maria went for another seminar hold by some of the sponsor companies. The motivation to go there, except hearing about the newest instrument on the market, was that the listeners got a lunch bag (sandwiches, water, fruit = free lunch).
The afternoon followed with another 5-parallel-seminar session (2-4 pm) and another poster session.

Learning Organic Mass Spectrometry

During both Saturday and Sunday Maria went to a short-course to learn how to interpret mass spectrometry spectra of different organic compounds. Unfortunately, the focus of were more on the old way of fragmentation, which is not the same in newer instruments.
During the first coffee break Maria started to talk to two English students (from different labs) joining the same course. They were alone as well for the day, their bosses would arrive later. We went for lunch together, as well as dinner in the evening. We ended up meeting some other Englishmen, from coworking labs to the other students, and went to a pub together with them. Food and local beers were paid by their boss, so just to enjoy the evening, which didn't end until after midnight.

Sunday afternoon the mass spectrometry conference (the main reason of the Bremen trip) started with plenary seminars. Afterwards, there were a welcome reception with some small food and free beer/wine.

Downtown Hansestadt Bremen

The city center is focused around the Town Hall erected 600 years ago, with the facade added in the 17th century.
Today it host the Ratskeller in Bremen, with more than 600 wines - all exclusively German.







In front of the hall is the Market Square with the famous Roland statue, the city's protector, being a symbol of trading rights and fredom since 1404.









Nearby were also St. Peter's Cathedral, with some parts over 1200 years old.








The bronze statue of the famous Bremen Town musicians (from Grimm Brother's fairy tale) were smaller than Maria expected.
Deutche bank house, and some other old ones.

Böttcherstrasse was a nice pedestrian area with some nice pubs.










Another nice area is Bremen's oldest district, the Schnoor quarter, earlier fishermen's houses (from 17th and 18th centruries) but nowadays a lot of cafés and art galleries.






The photos are a combination of Maria's walks Friday and Tuesday afternoons, as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings.

A week trip to Bremen

Most of this Friday Maria spent on the way to Bremen in Germany. Sweden-Germany might not seems like a long trip, but Maria needed three different flights to go from northern Sweden to a smaller town in Germany. Today she flew via Münich, before closing in to Bremen city. Good she had a nice book to read, since she traveled a day before her colleague.
Arriving in Bremen Maria took the tram to the central station, and from there she had just a few minutes of walk.
After checking in at the hotel (a small, but clean room), she went for a walk downtown. Nice to leave the jacket behind as well as using sandals, not what you do nowadays back in Umeå.

Enjoying the craft exhibition

The craft exhibition "Självklart - 100 år med Västerbotten läns hemslöjdsförening" (Eng.: "Of course - 100 years with the home craft association of Västerbotten county") ends early September, so today we decided to visit it again. When we were here during the opening day, there were so many people all over the place, but today we were almost alone. You can't do others than envy the handy people working with natural material.