Meyer-Kaiser lab

The Norwegian Royal Palace in Oslo The sight-seeing part of my weekend began with a walk from Ingeborg's mom's apartment to the royal palace. We stopped in at various shops to look around, then headed to Slottsparken (Palace Park). When we approached the royal palace, Ingeborg had to point it out to me because I otherwise wouldn't have recognized it as a house of royalty. It was quite an unassuming building - plain, even - and it occurred to me that I've seen museums more conspicuous and lavishly decorated. Ingeborg explained that since Norway was ruled by Denmark for so many years and afterwards unified with Sweden, the royal family of Norway is not nearly as rich as some other monarchies. Today, they live so much like normal people, she said, that she didn't see a real point in maintaining the monarchy. I have to admit that I agree. Henrik Ibsen's signature outside the Ibsen Museum in Oslo Later in the day, we passed the Ibsen Museum, located in t...

One of the things that traveling abroad has changed about me is that I am now very comfortable being a guest. It started when I lived in Germany, because I was constantly being invited to friends' homes. In fact, part of my strategy to see the country was making friends with people who had grown up in interesting places and then hoping they would invite me to their hometown. The plan worked splendidly. I think the key to being a good guest is openness. I've gradually become comfortable in a variety of arrangements, whether I'm sleeping on the floor or a queen bed in the guest room. There's a delicate balance to be found whereby I accept my hosts' offers without being greedy, participate in a conversation without being either domineering or too shy, and remain comfortably myself while taking part in the lives of those around me. It would be inaccurate to say I always find this balance, but I'm definitely much closer than I was in 2011. This weekend, my friend...

"Create like a god; command like a king; work like a slave." - Constantin Brancusi My data analysis is taking shape, and at the same time, I myself am being molded. I definitely feel different than when I arrived in Stavanger. I've shared with you before that my life in Norway is a lot simpler than in Oregon. Most of that is because I have only one occupation here, and that is my science. In Oregon, my attention was divided between teaching violin lessons, participating in dance classes, mentoring undergraduates, and helping out my fellow grad students when nobody else would. A number of things in Oregon made my life complicated, and every single one of them disappeared when I came to Norway. It's more than that, though. I could have moved anywhere in the world and gotten away from my hectic schedule. I feel Norway shaping me, molding me, nurturing me. It happened when I arrived at IRIS and was shown into my office - my very own office. It's huge! It hap...

"Brancusi is the Einstein of art." - Craig Raine One of the best life decisions I ever made was taking two semesters of Modern Art during my first year of college. The first semester was a comprehensive overview of art aesthetics in middle Europe during the 16th-19th centuries, and the second semester focused on 20th century art movements in Europe and North America. Together, these two courses revolutionized my view of music, of literature, of art, of the world. "Fish" by Constatin Brancusi. Photographed by me at Tate Modern, London, 2013. Probably my second-favorite 20th-century artist is Constantin Brancusi, a Romanian scupltor who spent most of his career in Paris. (In case you're wondering, my first-favorite artist is American composer Philip Glass.) Brancusi's sculptures are characteristically simple, capturing only the essential elements of an object rather than its intricate details. Please, if you are not familiar with Brancusi's work, ...

"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him." Jeremiah 18:4 It's finally coming together. My data analysis is taking shape, and gosh darn, does this feel good. Andrew and I met last week to discuss my progress on the data, and we ended up deciding exactly which results to report. I am ready to start writing the long-awaited and ever-important Draft 1. In some ways, it feels like it's taken a long time to get to this point, but really, I know the analysis went at lightning speed. Probably the most important thing I've learned from Andrew so far is the value of graphing the raw data and examining it for interesting patterns, rather than just charging ahead with some complicated analysis that will leave you confused. Andrew's also shown me how to brainstorm a number of interesting tangents, pursue each, but only focus on the ones that pan out. Not every idea ...

After a fantastic and enlightening week at work, I had a visitor for the weekend! My friend, Ann-Kristin, came to Stavanger from Oslo, where she is studying. Ann-Kristin and I met in 2012 when I was living in Bremerhaven, Germany. When she noticed on Facebook that I was back in Europe and living in Norway, she wrote me a message to say she was in Oslo and that we should meet up. It was great to have a German friend around and to show off my new city! We took a sightseeing tour through Lysefjorden, just east of Stavanger. Lysefjorden is incredibly long and thin, and it's famous for its steep-sided rock walls. The most famous rock formation in Lysefjorden is known as Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). I thought this was quite a weird name, but after seeing the square rock formation poised high above the fjord, I'll tell you it actually looks like a pulpit! Along the way, we saw countless spectacular fjord views, quaint homes nestled in the rugged landscape, and even a waterfall! Check...

Some day, when I am a famous Nobel Laureate, my biographer will read this blog. They will brag to their biographer friends about how easy their job is documenting my life. They will wonder how anyone wrote a biography before the era of deeply personal and detailed online confessions. They will draft a passage like this for inclusion in my biography: "Though brief, Kirstin Meyer's stint in Stavanger, Norway had a disproportionate impact on the development of her career. It was during this period that she learned how to communicate with colleagues and build professional relationships. She gained confidence and maturity, and she learned how to handle herself in relaxed social situations with colleagues. On her personal and detailed blog, Meyer cites several examples of dinners hosted by her supervisor in Stavanger, Andrew Sweetman. It was during long evenings at Sweetman's table that Meyer became comfortable floating between social and scientific conversation topics, and ...