PTSD

Genealogy of a blog, part one.

Priya:

was going to write a long email and then realised that somehow i deleted it. typical. well, got here okay--the danes are v helpful in general and managed to get my stuff lugged about to and fro quite well (even on trains). everything is SO efficient and yet quite quaint--makes me want to stay here forever! buses run on time, trains get everywhere on time, it's brilliant!
have got email from home--just one saying that phone lines are open at specified times of the day. my sister wrote this rather vitriolic email about "rights" being taken away and how no one can even mention anything bad about the king now and i hope it wasn't censored by the big bad thought police. young'uns have so much idealism...

the uni is brilliant--rather like what i imagined phd studying to be like since we get our own computer/office and everybody else sits and talks about methodology/ontology/epistemology, etc . I guess it's good i'm here now since otherwise i'd have no clue about what they were talking about if i were here two years ago!

that's it for now. am meeting my supervisor here at 9am tomorrow (and so far i've been getting up at 930am so not sure how i'm going to do that!) and i really don't have anything to talk to him about since i realise i know so little about northern ireland. i'm hoping i can get away from that by saying that it's just my background stuff and nepal is my actual interest but not sure if i can do that. should have talked to WeberMan before coming over.
really it now. say hi to Patient Husband from me. in case you are wondering if i've become all danish and precise and prompt in my three days here let me tell you that i had a fine time laughing to myself when i found out that tourist buses (of which there are many around town) are called "turist farts"
i think the Pythons would have enjoyed that. too bad i don't have a camera so i could have taken pics :-)

Elizabeth:

hey, aren't you in denmark to get info on Ireland? Access to primary sources and everything? checking into the terrorist discourse? if you want, I can ship you 6-7 background sources--I've got half a shelf of Irish history left from my law school transitional justice period. Or you could look online--they've digitized a bunch of the official stuff from the last peace process, and there's all kinds of back stuff from the papers. of course you know all this (except the stack of books, I guess).

on time is overrated--I personally love the suspense of whether I'm going to make it to class, meetings, flights, etc. bc metro is running behind schedule. besides, when things run on time you have no excuse for missing appointments. an office, though--that's a perk. heard a long discussion of somebody's methodology this afternoon--not sure what the problem was, but very heated dispute. yesterday it was paczkis, which I personally find much more interesting.

talked to Anomie today--she was asking how you ended up in Denmark, so I of course passed along the info I had (except the internet photo thing, which I still find VERY amusing). Also told her about my current occupation ducking TechKnowledge. She's back for the duration, I guess. But I'm beginning to think that homeless is a rather common state for The University that shall not be Named grad students.

Am sending you a camera (as soon as you tell me the address...) so that appropriate photos can be sent back (posted to internet?) of funny Danish scenes and people. lack of a camera is no excuse.

glad to hear that you've heard from home. Nepal has, of course, rapidly dropped off the map here, but what do you expect? Keep me posted--and I'm sure (based on the FBI guys I've talked to) that there's no way to keep tabs on what everyone sends in their email. of course, if there is, the FBI isn't going to say so, are they? So maybe that's not so encouraging. Eh.

off to read some more phd apps (New list due tomorrow, followed by interminable committee meeting on Friday). I hate February. Go to Ireland, drink some beer, call it research. You're happy, your advisor's happy, the barman's happy. It's a win-win-win situation.

Priya:

hehe...just had a meeting with supervisor here, a rather scary danish man who talks like he is the english queen's husband but was told that my project is " very interesting but in its formative stage" (yes, i know that) but he seemed rather pleased with it. i didn't know anything at all so am quite sure he thinks all nepalis are total idiots. prob not a false thought. apparently i just go see him whenever i want and he seems to think i know more than i do, which is problematic. i really need to talk to WeberMan!

no, no visits to ireland, mainly because i need to send off my passport to get a new one as soon as i get my social security number here (which seems to take forever but then i'm on free health insurance after that! yay!) and i need a visa for everywhere. spent around 7$ paying for a pint (pints seem to be bigger though but that is probably my imagination telling me that a $7 pint should be bigger) of carlsberg yesterday and have decided there will be not much drinking here at all. prob a good thing.

would be good if you could send me a disposable cvs camera (digital?). i could pay you for it later :-)
don't worry about it though since, as you prob know, i am not a big photo taker.

the other thing i can't find here is a converter for the plug. the plugs here have two round holes (rather like nepal) so my american/aussie version does not fit. this means i have done no work on my huge, heavy laptop since i got here. and i am annoyed esp since i lugged it around. am going to go out today to try find a converter (apparently there MAY be shops in the city which sell it). so am sneaking out early today since shops close at 5pm here.

whose methodology were you discussing? i was trying to tell the bloke here that it is rather difficult doing weird discourse stuff in american uni since we are not big on that. though i think my talk with him was fairly useless since it just made me realise how little i know about my project!

overall, aalborg is rather fun. i think yous would like it. it's small enough to get about on foot everywhere but big enough that it's a city. the public transport being efficient is rather scary!

but, help me with this--why am i doing nepal and northern ireland? why northern ireland in particular since it appears to be a specific case of british-NI thing and not relatable to nepal now? eh? i don't know and i had nothing to say. i really know nothing. i am a total idiot who's being funded for being a total idiot. grrr.

well, enough self-pitying whingeing for now. i am sure more will follow. say hi to Patient Husband, as usual. yous should come visit me!!

Elizabeth:

re: adapter--you can also order one from Amazon (I love amazon. they just sent me a stack of new books on liberation theology so that I can use Farmer in my research.) prob wd also be good for background on ireland

camera will be on its way as soon as i have an address (hint hint)

didn't we talk about why Ireland at some point? I seem to remember something about the location not being the important thing, but rather the similar use of discourse and some repetition of terms and arguments? Maybe this was in the dean's class, or maybe after a chat with WeberMan? the impression I had was that the media today is doing very similar things with Nepal that the British did with Ireland, showing that the discourse could in fact be transposed onto seemingly unrelated conflicts with the same effects?

could be wrong, but I think that's accurate--I remember being interested (and TF paying attention) bc it was Ireland and bc I wish I cd use Foucault and discourse analysis without snickering.

if this is the point, then your issues with not knowing Ireland are solved--what you need to know are the tropes and repetitions between the two. or not. I think you were just flustered by scary dane

can't remember whose methodology was being discussed. there was great talk of survey research and "replication of results" and so I tuned out early. quant makes my eyes glaze over (but I love complex systems, which is all math and algorithms.) guess its bc quant is math lite, and TF should just be honest and call itself qual with percentages.

ps. my friend A sends this interesting tidbit: apparently, in Hungary, bus means F**K. she was greatly amused by turist farts. but then, who wouldn't be? gotta love translation.

Priya:

i loved it that you sent me the trivia at ri-ra invite to me too. yes, i would love to come but am too busy being rude and avoiding social occasions. went out wed night to weird student union place, where people sat around and played foosball. my flatmate, lovely woman, took these pics and i am sending them to yous though i know the thing will prob overload your comp. sorry in advance. the place, the brick building, is where i live and the second floor balcony (or half of it) is mine. apart from the loo, the room and kitchen are v nice.
anyway, on wed night, after the student union thing, i left early (had the 9am meeting with scary prof) but then found out my key does not work and had to wait outside in the rain for nearly half an hour until flatmate (thankfully) came back. felt like the only homeless person in denmark as i cowered until the awning of the door (which you can see in the pic--it's the door next to the DD sign) and people looked at me pityingly as they passed by.
tonight, there is a party at this german/british guy's place. he reminds me of IntLaw’s mate D and is also called D. i do not think i am going because i am too bored and not social enough and then i hve my first danish lesson. hehe.
thought the hungarian thing of A's was v funny. once i have a camera, i'll take a pic of turist farten and other relevant things including the HUGE burger king in the centre of the "quaint" city centre.
more later. oh, my address is

Priya
SPIRIT
Aalborg East, Denmark

btw, another amusing thing: postmen/women ride around on these little red bicycles around town. Is that not quaint?

oh, what is the irish web site with all the troubles stuff in it? just goes to show how little i know these things. though i must admit it was rather nice to tell the scary prof that i wasn't during comparisons and be immediately understood. phew. though i don't know what it is that i AM doing.

ps: we should write something. i really want to get something published (you already have) and feel like a slacker since i am the only one of us who has not. c'mon! think of a topic we could do together. i have lots of time to do that here esp when it gets warmer and i can stay at uni longer.

posted by Elizabeth @ 12:26 PM