Hello everyone!
Yes, I'm still here... Most of my writing energy lately has gone into getting my MA prjoect finished, and I finally got it sent off a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty happy with it, and it feels great to have the MA completely finished so I can focus more on other things.
It was an interesting experience to hold the thing in my hands - having had a few copies printed up - after it having been just a Word file on my computer for so long. It felt so much more real to have it printed on 200-odd bits of paper than just glowing on the screen. I suppose I have a vague notion at the back of my head that when it's on the computer it could just disappear into the ether for no apparant reason - that basically, it's just a load of ones and zeros that could just as easily forget what they were and revert to a meaningless, primordial jumble again.
But before I got the project finished, I had to go back to England to do my last exam. This was a three day take-home paper, where I was given an English text to translate into Norwegian. I also had to write a commentary on the translation. The text was pretty challenging, and was technical rather than literary, which is not my preference. With literary translation, you are relying on your poetic intuition to tell you how to translate a particular word or phrase, grappling with the languages involved in order to preserve the style, tone and spark of literary magic that infuses the original. With technical translation, you simply have to research documents in the target language about the same subject, to find out what kind of terminology they employ. The text I had to translate was about social care services, and I spent many an hour those three days trawling through Norwegian government websites trying to figure out how on earth you say "social policy", "policymaker", or "third-tier junior minister" in Norwegian. So, not the most creative of tasks - but I was happy with the translation in the end, and the fact that it was a rather challenging text gave me the opportunity to show off my skills a bit...
I'd travelled to England a few days before the exam in order to have time to catch up with friends in Cambridge. I had a pretty hectic social schedule for those days, but I managed to see almost everyone I'd wanted to spend some time with, and it was great to see all my friends again. After the exam, I went up to Scotland to see my family for a few days, which was really nice. My brother had just come back from a seven-week trip to China and Tibet, so it was great to see him again and hear all about his experiences there (despite being deeply jealous!) The four of us took a day trip down to Samye Ling, a Tibetan Centre and Monastery in the Borders, a little north of Dumfries. It's been there for quite a while now and was, I believe, the first Tibetan Centre established in the West. It's named after the famous Samye Monastery in Tibet, which was founded by the Indian yogi Padmasambhava (known in Tibet as Guru Rinpoché) who established Buddhism in Tibet. I've been down there quite a few times, and I always love going back. It's got a really strong, peaceful, Dharmic atmosphere. And a tea shop.
After a lovely few days in Edinburgh, I headed back home via Prestwick Airport and the charms of Ryanair. Prestwick was a bit of a nightmare due to all the hightened security and it being rather a small airport with limited resources - and then of course there was the two hour bus journey from "Oslo" Torp Airport to the city - but still, one shouldn't complain... At any rate, it was good to be back home and to crack on with the project and the job-hunting.
The job-hunting is still continuing, with successes and failures along the way. I now have 2 part-time jobs which together give me enough income after tax to pay for the basic stuff such as rent and food and going to the movies. My first teaching job is 2 evenings a week, on an 8-week contract. I have one class of people who are more or less beginners, and a conversation class with relatively advanced students. I'm really enjoying the teaching and finding it challenging and stimulating.
My other job is a permanent post, working one day a week for a group called NOAH, who promote Animal Rights in Norway. Over the last year, I have been seriously considering becoming politically active again, after having had a long break from any form of political activism. As a teenager, I was active in a political party in Scotland, which was pretty much the main focus of my life. Although I still have no desire to engage with party politics again, I felt I wanted to be involved with some kind of idealistic political movement again - and the Animal Rights movement was the obvious candidate for me. So when I saw on NOAH's website that they were looking to employ people, I took it as a sign and applied... I'll be doing some general office work (answering the phone, replying to e-mails, paying bills etc.), but my main focus will be on Fundraising. NOAH have never had anyone really focus on fundraising before, so it feels like an area where I'll be able to contribute a lot. I got "Fundraising for Dummies" in the post from Amazon yesterday, and I'm really excited about getting stuck in!
Otherwise, although I haven't given up yet, my hopes for getting a permanent position as an English teacher are diminishing somewhat. I'm thinking seriously about just setting up my own website to get private students, as well as being active in trying to get work as a substitute teacher and doing some freelance translation. The prospect of basically starting my own wee business and being self-employed fills me with something kind of halfway between excitement and anxiety...
I think summer's definitely over - we've had a couple of nice sunny days recently, but they're pretty few and far between now, and there's a slight autumnal sharpness in the air. (I really like the word autumnal - say it to yourself a couple of times. See what I mean?)
Lastly, I'm rather chuffed that I'm now a top 500 reviewer on Amazon.co.uk, so if you want to read any of my opinionated ravings about films, just go to
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/ANR07ZLJW2A7Z/202-7607847-8106205Alternatively, if you just search for "David Welsh" in quotation marks on Google, my Amazon profile's the 3rd or 4th site that comes up. (Also, if you like my reviews, you can vote for them, which will help bump me still further up the rankings - or if you think they're rubbish, you can vote against them to drag me down...)
Peace and Love,
David
Settling In
Well, I've had rather an exciting week.
The weather's been a bit temperamental, alternating between glorious sunshine and blue skies, and rain - with little middle ground. I'm starting to feel a bit more settled in, making some new friends and reconnecting more with old ones. The Oslo Jazz Festival's on at the moment, and I've been to see a couple of performances. The first was a Jazz and Poetry evening, with two of Norway's leading poets, Lars Saabye Christiansen and Jan Erik Vold performing their poetry along with a jazz band. I went with my friend Gunaketu, who first introduced me to Vold's poetry. As you might know, for my MA project I'm translating a collection of Vold's poetry,
Someone Called Abel Ek, into English, so it was quite a thrill to see the man himself. He's in his late sixties now, but he just exuded bright joyful creative energy. Here's one of the poems from
Abel Ek I've translated, to give you a wee taste. (Asbjørnsen is well known in Norway for his work collecting and recording Norwegian folk tales.)
ABEL, WHILST THE WINTER TURNS
I walk wearing my beloved's
scarf and think
about voices
that don't
get here, I
sit on the top of Sankthanshaugen and see
the March light
over the city, together with
a three-quarter full moon
I see
the winter turn
over the roofs and steeples, a boat glides into
the fjord, the smoke from Slemmestad
rises
and I breathe warmly inside the double scarf
you left
me - everything we
try
to say, that doesn't get here, doesn't get here
in time, doesn't
get here in the way we'd hoped
it would
get
here. Whilst we carry on
talking, carry on
being silent, like an ambulance of silence, the A&E
for what we wanted
to say, where is it - and
what sort of
cross is it marked with: red
blue
or black? the snow on the ground
was white
when it fell and Asbjørnsen, with cane in hand
stares out towards
the pine grove and the merry
horn-blowers
in painted copper, tuba
round the neck - and further below: the city
chaos and joy, chaos and a
warm cup of cocoa here and there
like a plaster
on
what? the cop who presses the ring
into the finger bone
of someone who's
protesting, protesting that some old trees
should be able to stay where they
are, the punishment is pain until you faint
so that the link of the people trying to protect the trees
can be broken and people know
where it
belongs - that's the way it goes
here on Tellus, old
staring
satellite, you knew that didn't you.
On Friday I went to another concert in the Jazz Festival with some friends, in a kind of big cafe/pub in the city centre. And who should be sitting at a table there, but the man himself! I screwed up the courage to go and introduce myself and tell him that I was translating some of his work, and it was a real thrill to meet him. He gave me his address, so I'm going to send him the translation once it's finished...
Apart from that, I've been to see a few movies. The first was a Norwegian film called "High School Teacher Pedersen", which is based on a very famous Norwegian novel with the somewhat more elaborate title of "High School Teacher Pedersen's Story of the Great Political Awakening which has Afflicted our Land." It's about a High School teacher who tells his class about his involvement with the Norwegian Communist Party in the 1970's,and an extra-marital affair he had with one of his comrades. I haven't read the novel yet, but the film was really excellent - a beautiful portrayal of idealism and love that is gradually undermined and disintegrates.
The second was "Lonesome Jim", directed by Steve Buscemi. This is an ultra-low budget movie about a man in his late 20's who ends up moving from the big city back to his parents' house in the sticks in Indiana because he's broke and has nowhere else to go. The film basically follows his stuggle with the meaninglessness of existence in a charming but honest way. Lastly, this evening I went to see "The Squid and the Whale", which is a semi-autobiographical film about the break-up of a family. It's quite dark, but quite funny too and I thought it struck a really good balance between being too bleak and too flippant.
So all in all, I'm starting to feel a bit more settled in. I don't have a job yet, but hopefully that'll sort itself out in the next few weeks. There's several places that have said they'll likely give me work if they get enough students signing up to their courses, so I just have to wait for a couple of weeks and see what happens...
I started writing a kind of reflective piece to post here a few days ago, but after sitting writing for about 40 minutes, it suddenly disappeared from the screen without trace. (That'll teach me to save regularly...) Anyway, I decided just to regard that as the first draft, so the finished item will be along in a little while.
I think that's about all there is for the moment...
Peace and Love,
David
PS Check out my friend Vidyavajra's article about working in a Crematorium. It's at
http://fwbo-news.org/features.html
I've Arrived!
Well, I'm finally here! On Thursday, I swapped grey English skies for clear blue Norwegian ones. The three weeks since my last post have been really hectic (I do incidentally hope to get into the habit of posting a bit more often!)
I finished the CELTA course on 28th July, and whilst I really enjoyed the course, I was ready for it to be over. I was starting to feel a bit worn down by the end... My last few days in Cambridge were pretty full as well. Packing up all my stuff into boxes and getting it into Windhorse and stacked onto a pallet was about two full days work. Afer that, there were plenty of wee niggly practical things to do in the last two or three days, and then suddenly it was 5am on Thursday morning and time to go for my flight...
The journey went smoothly, and there was a lovely surprise waiting for me at the airport. I'd arranged to meet Gunaketu back at the Buddhist Centre, big he'd come to meet me and was stading there grinning and waving a big Buddhist flag... We went to IKEA a bit later and I bought some shelves and a desk for my little room. I've got space for all my books and DVDs now, and I'm really pleased with the way the room's laid out. I think I've managed to make maximum use of the space without it feeling cramped. Gunaketu went on retreat on Friday, and is away for a week. Bente, who I'm living with at the Buddhist Centre, was away on retreat until Monday evening so I had a few days on my own. I had plenty of things to get done, getting information about the various bureaucratic things I need to do to get my residence permit, open a bank account etc. I've got a Norwegian mobile now, so if anyone wants the number just e-mail me. I think sending texts internationally isn't too expensive, so the odd wee message would be nice ;)
I met up with my friend Simen on Saturday and also got to meet his fiance Inger for the first time. I met Simen at the European Youth Parliament about 6 years ago, and we've managed to stay in touch since. He's in Oslo for the next few weeks, but then he's going to live in London! (Oh, the irony...) Anyway, it's nice to have another good friend around for my first few weeks here at least.
The last couple of days have been pretty focussed on looking for work. I've registered with a couple of temp agencies, and have been going round language schools and adult education centres introducing myself and giving out my CV. Most places just say they'll keep my CV on file and contact me if they need more teachers, but I've got a couple of interviews lined up in the next few days, and a few more places on my list I haven't visited yet. Once I've exhausted all the language schools, I'll start on the Upper Secondary Schools, and see if they can give me some work as a teaching assistant or substitute. I'm finding being unemployed a bit stressful generally, as I'm basically living on my overdraft at the moment, but hey - life would be boring if it was too straightforward...
I've managed a bit of relaxation though - sitting out on the balcony in the evenings reading has been lovely. I've started on a big thick history of China that was recommended my friend Maitiu which I'm really enjoying. I've also spent a bit of time at some of my favorite places in Oslo. On Thursday evening I went down to the harbour and sat and had a drink by the water (well, ON the water really, there's an outdoor cafe on a sort of big raft) and listened to some live music. I haven't been up to Frognerseteren yet, but I'll do that at the weekend. (Frognerseteren's at the top of one of the hills surrounding the city, and you get fantastic views up there.)
Hmm, well I think that's about it for the moment. Hope you're all well, and I'll do my best to write again soon!
Much Love,
David
Learning to Teach
Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven't written anything for a couple of weeks, but I've been pretty busy with my CELTA (teacher training) course - and the Cambridge Film Festival! I'm now just over halfway through the CELTA course, and it's going very well. I'm learning a lot, enjoying the process very much and getting good feedback on my teaching. They get you teaching real students from Day 2 of the course, and the structure is basically that you get theoretical input in the morning and then you're either teaching or observing other students teach in the afternoons. All our teaching is observed by the trainers and we get detailed written feedback on every lesson we do, which is really helpful. The other students are lovely, and there's a really nice atmosphere on the course. I've even been doing a bit of meditation teaching at lunchtimes by popular demand, which I've been enjoying.
But neither hell, high water nor CELTA courses could keep me away from the Cambridge Film Festival, and I got to 8 films over the 10 days of the festival. Almost all the films I saw were really excellent, so it's hard to pick a favourite - but if I had to choose, it'd probably be
The Science of Sleep, the new film from Michel Gondry (
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsburg. Like
Eternal Sunshine, The Science of Sleep is an exploration of romantic love and the nature of consciousness, and the plot weaves effortlessly between the main character's dreams and his reality, delicately blurring the edges as it goes. I imagine it'll be at an arts cinema near you in the not-too-distant future, so make sure you don't miss it. Last year, I ended up seeing a lot of Japanese anime at the festival, and spent several months afterwards exploring the genre more deeply. This year, half of the films I ended up seeing were Chinese, and I have a sense I'll be exploring Chinese cinema in the coming months. I'm already a big fan of the Hong Kongese director Wong Kar-Wai, but I now have several other excellent Chinese directors I need to investigate...
Whenever I watch a few films in a certain language, I enevitably start wanting to learn that language - so unsurprisingly my enthusiasm for Chinese has been building up over the last couple of weeks... As many of you will know, I want to become a Buddhist translator, and translate Buddhist texts into English and Norwegian. The four main Buddhist scriptural languages are Sanskrit, Pali (basically a dialect of Sanskrit), Tibetan and Chinese, so I decided a while ago that one of my main projects for the next few years would be to learn these four (well, three and a half, really) languages. I'm hoping to start a BA in Chinese with Sanskrit as my minor next autumn at the University of Oslo, so I'm focussing on Pali and Tibetan at the moment. That's quite enough to be getting on with really, but I've still had to restrain myself in the bookshops from getting Chinese textbooks... (I've ordered a big fat history of China from Amazon though, which should keep me going for a while!)
Hopefully I'll be able to find a Tibetan in Oslo who wants to improve their English and can help me with my Tibetan in exchange for some free English lessons. Pali's a bit more straightforward as it's a literary language (ie I'm only learning how to read it, not speak or write) and I've already gone through the basics over the last six months with a couple of Buddhist friends in Cambridge who are learning it as well.
I can hardly believe that it's just over two weeks until I move to Oslo. I'm so focussed on the CELTA course and living in Oslo still seems so unreal that I can't really look forward to it... But anyway, I have a feeling that the next couple of weeks are going to pass pretty quickly and I'm sure it'll start sinking in once I actually get there.
Well, I've got a lesson to prepare for tomorrow so I'd better go...
Peace and Love,
David
Leaving
Well, Friday was my last day at Windhorse, where I've been working since October 2003 and marks the beginning of the end of my time in Cambridge. The day before I left, there was the traditional Windhorse send-off celebration at the 3.15 tea-break with cake and my brothers in my team rejoicing in my merits. For those of you who don't know, "rejoicing in merits" is a really beautiful Buddhist practice where people take a few minutes each to talk about the qualities in a person that they most appreciate. Having your merits rejoiced in is delightful, moving and uncomfortable all at once. You feel very exposed and vulnerable, but very appreciated and cared for at the same time.
I don't really feel sad about leaving Windhorse. I've really enjoyed and benefitted from the time I've spent working there, but it feels like the right time to move on and I'm very much looking forward to the next stage of my life in Oslo. Also, the main thing I've valued about Windhorse is the friendships I've made there, and I'm not leaving those friendships behind. I'll see my friends there less often, but I will still see them and stay in contact with them and hold them in my heart.
But there are other aspects of Windhorse that I've benefitted from that I
will be leaving behind. I think that just spending so much time around other Buddhists, people who are striving to live their lives in accordance with spiritual values, constantly to challenge themselves and grow, has had an effect on me and helped me grow and mature in the time I've worked there. The wonderful thing about the set-up in Cambridge is its completeness - you live and work and socialise with people who share your values and aspirations. No doubt that sounds insular and cultish to some, but if you want to prioritise spiritual practice, it's a very effective way of doing it.
My life in Oslo will be quite different, and I will be spending a much greater proportion of my life not in direct contact with the Sangha (Buddhist community.) I will be living with a Buddhist friend who's also preparing for ordination though, which I'm very pleased about! I'm confident that I'll be able to continue to grow and mature as a person, and as a Buddhist practitioner, in the circumstances I'm moving to, but it is going to mean a significant reduction in my "support network", which it's important for me to be aware of.
My CELTA (Cambridge Certificate of English Language Teaching for Adults) course starts a week tomorrow, and so I'm going to be spending next week doing some reading and studying in preparation. I'm very much looking forward to the course - it's going to be pretty intensive and challenging, but I think it's the kind of challenge that's well within my capabilities and that will bring out the best in me. I think that because it's so intensive, the time's going to go by pretty quickly, and it'll soon be days rather than weeks until my one-way flight on August 3rd!
There are lots of niggling, and often expensive practicalities associated with emigrating and with starting a new career - things I have to do before I go, and things I have to do when I get there - so I'm trying to keep it all in mind without getting overwhelmed by it all. The main thing I have to arrange before I leave is getting all my stuff packed up and shipped to Oslo (which is looking like it's going to cost about £300, eek!) I've also been looking into getting a website set up to advertise my services as a language teacher to the good citizens of Oslo, and it turns out that ain't going to be cheap either. Oh well, what are overdrafts for, eh ;)
(As you might have guessed, I'm a little anxious about all this stuff, but I'm sure it'll all work out ok in the end.)
As per my last post, I very much enjoyed
Thank You For Smoking and
Babette's Feast, the latter of which entirely deserves its reputation as a masterpiece. I didn't go and see
Down in the Valley again in the end, but I hope it's not too long before it comes out on DVD! I went to see this year's Palme d'Or winner,
The Wind That Shakes The Barley today with my friend Padmavyuha. I enjoyed it as a historical drama, it's well-made but not really all that exceptional from an artistic point of view. I've seen four of Loach's films now, and his latest certainly isn't his best. (Another slightly political decision from the Cannes jury methinks.)
Ho hum, I think that'll do for now. Do leave a comment or send me an e-mail or something so I know whether anyone's reading this stuff...
Behave yourselves,
Love David x
Down in the Valley
I've had a pretty chilled out Saturday - spent the morning writing a draft of my CV and studying Go, then went to the movies in the afternoon. If you don't already know me, I'm a total film nerd, and generally quite snotty about the kind of films I'll deign to watch. I don't go to the movies all that much - it's more expensive to buy a cinema ticket and some popcorn than to buy an average DVD these days, so I'll only go if it's something pretty special. There seems to be a rash of films on at the cinema at the moment that I've just got to see though, so this afternoon it was the new Edward Norton flick
Down in the Valley.
To be honest, I'm such a fan of Ed Norton that I'd happily pay good money to see him eating a tin of beans, and his latest film doesn't disappoint. It's an impressive effort by a first time director and, although it has its imperfections as a film, there's something unquantifiable about it that lifts it above its flaws and makes it more than the sum of its parts. Occasionally when I see a film at the cinema, I leave in a strongly elevated state of mind - deeply calm, still, joyful and present, like coming out of a really good meditation. There are only a few films that have had this sort of effect on me, and they're all films that have remained very close to my heart:
Mulholland Drive, Natalie, Code 46 and
Before Sunrise. I had the same kind of experience of sublimity today when I came out of
Down in the Valley, which was quite unexpected. I felt that the beginning of the film was outstanding and that it got a bit weaker towards the middle and the end, but it had obviously affected me deeply nevertheless.
I've already got my tickets for
Thank you for Smoking and
Babette's Feast, both of which I'm going to see tomorrow, and I'll probably see
Down in the Valley again on Monday or Tuesday and let it sink in a bit more.
Photo of me...
Here's a picture of me :)
Welcome to Blogland...
Hi everyone,
Well, it's 7 weeks and counting until I'm off to sunny Oslo, and I've been giving some thought to how I can best stay in touch with the people in Cambridge I'll be leaving behind, as well as other friends and family members in Edinburgh and further afield that I don't see as much of as I'd like. And then inspiration struck - why not write a blog! That way people can just log on and check up on me whenever thay have the time and the inclination.
The name of the blog refers to the city where I will be making my home for the foreseeable future - Oslo (
Ás-ló in Old Norse) translates as "field of the Gods". The name of the city was for many years Christiania, after King Christian of Denmark, who had the city rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1624 and modestly named it after himself. In 1925, fed up with the name of their city providing a constant reminder of their 400-odd years of Danish subjegation, the citizens of the city reclaimed its old pagan name, Oslo.
