Back to Work!

No time to blog now - just a note to say I'm back to work and I'll fill in the details when I have a free moment!

Auntie Anne!

I just became an aunt for the first time!! My sister had a baby boy yesterday, while I was on the plane traveling back from Norway! The announcement came via text message with the above picture attached. ;) Originally I had planned to be in Chicago today for a photography conference, but will instead be getting ready to head to Detroit early so that I can spend some time time with my brand new nephew and his first-time parents! At this point I haven't heard as to whether a name has been chosen, but I'm sure you'll hear more about him in the future!

I have lots and lots of pictures from Norway, plus a lot of client images that I can't wait to share with you! Stay tuned! I'm wading through the 288 emails in my inbox right now!

Bergen Interactive Music Conference

Previously, when I would join Alex for international music conferences, I was an active participant- engaged in the educational research and international implementations of curriculum and ideas. This year I took a less active approach, and only attended a few bits of the actual conference.

Even though my body wasn't quite ready to wake up for Alex's 8:30 am presentation, I made it and was happy to be there right up front cheering on my hubby.


Since I was already hanging out with the conference group, I joined them to see a performance dedicated to mid/high school students at Greig Hall, named after the famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.


We made our way into what must have been the basement of the hall where hundreds of students were already gathering.


Sondre Lerche was the featured musician, who seems to be quite popular here in Norway. He's a great songwriter, and when he stopped the show to break up a fight happening in the audience among the students, I gained a lot of respect for him as an artist.


We followed with lunch at Macumba Cafe: Social Club..


... loved the interior design, and the food was equally fabulous!


The next day of the conference we joined the local Grieg Academy (college) students
for a presentation of traditional Indian music...


As you can see, we were all very intrigued...


Music is one of those things that simply cannot be captured in an image alone, so I took a few video clips of their performance to share with you. The experience in person was very meditative and transcendent, which is hard to capture in a few seconds of video. In any case, click play to watch, and more importantly, listen...


Magne, who is an amazing music educator and innovator as well as the main organizer of this conference, is the person who brought all of these people together to share their music, as well as making it possible for Alex and I to attend.



After the performance, the group received traditional Norwegian fishing hats as a gift... which reminds me... I need to get a picture of Alex in his hat too. ;)


As they were putting their instruments away, I wanted to get a close up of this instrument. The intricacy of the carvings is absolutely amazing.


What I didn't blog about were the other research presentations and interesting ideas from the other conference presenters, but I figured that probably wasn't the most intriguing aspect for my blog readers, so hopefully what I did blog about was interesting to you. ;) If you are interested, and can read Norwegian, you can visit the BIMUC Blog.

Should my next post be about Bergenfest or sightseeing? You decide! Click on the poll below to vote!