I finished my second full day back in Stavanger, and it has been marked by almost continuous nostalgia. I have been away this time five years, but this city, where I have spent a decade of my life, is the closest thing I have to a home. I have been “watching” myself and my reactions to things very closely and I have also tried to look around me with a much more critical eye. Overall, however, it feels great and very natural to be back here.
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Category: Personal
Claire: Stress types
Claire has a fun posting on different kinds of people as they approach deadlines. She included my own type:
The Avoider: Suddenly becomes very sociable and good at running errands when he/she should be working.
Hmm, I need to get a conference paper out by tomorrow, perhaps that explains all the short postings I’m making to this blog this morning.
Back in Europe
I’m sitting in the airport in Amsterdam, on my way to my hometown, Stavanger, Norway. I haven’t been back in Europe in five years and it feels great. Amsterdam’s airport looks pretty much the same I remember it as last time I passed through on my way back from Japan/Kuala Lumpur with my uncle Thomas.
This afternoon, I hadn’t been on the continent for more than ten minutes before I managed to make an ass of myself. I went to change a few dollars I had at the foreign exchange. I asked the exchange attendant, “Can I get Dutch Gilders or whatever they are called?” (Guilders — Thanks Kerim!)
She tilted her head slightly and gave me a warm smile, she was giving me that unmistakable, “What a cute stupid American,” look. She said, “We don’t have Dutch Gilders here.”
I was about to continue playing my part as the stupid American by responding, “What do you mean you don’t have Dutch Gilders? I’m in Dutchland, ain’t I?” Fortunately, however, she preemptively added, “Here in Europe we use Euros, would you like Euros?”
Doh! I knew that, really I did. Quick, I thought, is there any way I can change this from the “stupid American” routine to the, “smart and sassy, great sense of humor American who was really just joking” routine but nothing appropriate came to mind. As I stood there blushing, the beautiful south Asian bank clerk tried to console me in her flawless, but slightly Dutch accented English, “Hey, at least you know what country you’re in.”
I hope this is my last embarrassing experience for today. Prices seem higher than I remember, or perhaps it is just that dollars aren’t what they used to be. All the prices are more expensive than an equal number of dollars, even though dollars are worth less than a Euro. I paid the equivalent of $10 for a Chicken salad and a small sprite at McDonalds. That is more than even Japan.
Nukes and Cartoon Characters
I talked to Sayaka last night. She is busy with her Chinese language studies at ICLP. Last night her homework was to write two essays. The topics she chose I think well represents her uniquely balanced personality, which mixes an interest in security policy with one of the world’s more deeply philosophical cartoon characters. One of her essays was on Nuclear Weapons, the other on Doraemon.
Eating
I think this is unhealthy but I suspect I’m not the only one: Eating is such a nuisance! Here I am, with stuff to do, stuff I want to read and write, and then Wham! I get hungry. Often I don’t notice hunger until I get a little lightheaded or a headache but then I have to do one or more of these annoying things like 1) go to the grocery store for bread and/or supplies 2) make something, or 3) go somewhere and get food. What a distraction! It takes up hours of every day!
Ralph Luker on In Denial
Ralph Luker has a posting at Cliopatria on the book In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage.
I have a deep interest in arguments like the one put forward in the book Luker is discussing, which along with Coulter’s Treason, some recent criticism of Kerry’s opposition to Vietnam, and a long history of criticism of the left is something I think we can broadly define as “collaborationist critique” (I think I just made this term up). Yes, I am aware of the fact that, in one sentence, I have mixed a history book, a crazy polemicist’s ramblings, and political attacks on a candidate in election year. Collaborationist critique, or the branding of the left as traitors, anti-American, etc., especially through the focus on the connection between left wing Americans (and recently, Norwegian leftist politicians) and Communists, is an effective political attack in whatever form it may take. It is perhaps the most effective when it is wielded against academics, since the massive time and resources these intellectuals have personally put into their field makes it difficult to counter their scholarship directly without deploying your own researchers.
From my limited study so far, collaborationist critique comes in two often overlapping forms: the critique is generalized to make the claim that 1) the left is clearly lacking in “Patriotism” and is thus unfit to lead the nation, whose interests it will doubtlessly betray, and 2) the left is closely tied to international movements (Communism) or Evil men (Stalin) which are guilty of hideous crimes.
Continue reading Ralph Luker on In Denial
Time Travel Is Easy Postings
I have added a few articles to Claire’s history blog Time travel is easy: Interdisciplinary history for generation next.
- Discovering History
- Magical Musicians in China
- When Disaster Strikes
- Choice in History
- History and Tourism
Looking back at these articles, I guess they make me seem like I’m a bit of a grouchy anti-mainstream activist historian. I hereby blame Jai Kasturi, Professor Carol Gluck, my sixth grade teacher Don Andrews, and most of all, my mom.
Incidentally, Claire is looking for more people interested in posting on history related topics for younger readers.
Poets and Ninjas
My last day in Mie last Saturday was partly spent in the town of Ueno, part of the old Iga area. I have uploaded some pictures here. The town’s tourism board has maximized on Iga’s reputation for being the home of one of Japan’s famous ninja clans. Various city officials are dressed in black or pink ninja outfits, which sometimes mix strangely with their hats or white shoes. Signs are covered in throwing stars, there is a ninja udon noodle shop in the park, and I brought home some ninja throwing star cookies as a gift for a friend…
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Mie Bicycle Trip
I spent my first day here in Mie prefecture on a fun and fairly random bike ride with Hiroshi (I uploaded some pictures). It was a wonderful experience through some beautiful countryside. Lots of charming little villages, quiet and cool mountain roads, and vast dark green tea fields. Things didn’t wrap up quite the way we expected and we ended up coming home exhausted…by train.
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Refusing Eye Contact
Ok, there was this guy on the trains from 静岡 to 名古屋. He was a westerner, white, and had a big camping backpack like me. He was dressed to travel, like me. Yes, we were the only two westerners either of us had seen all afternoon. Yes, we were probably both too cheap to buy bullet train tickets and had therefore probably been riding all the same local trains a quarter of the way across Japan’s main island. However, for some reason I just didn’t want to make eye contact with him, and I didn’t want to do the usual “Gaijin nod” where the two, usually Western, guys (do women do this too?) meeting each other in a foreign place, in this case surrounded by Asians, nod knowingly to each other as if to say, “We are different. Here we are – how special we are.”
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