My first semester at the University is almost over. I did not touch that much my research project, but I had a lot to do anyway.

I took three courses. The first was Category Theory, the “theory of arrows” as the professor defined it, or abstract mathematics for humans. The second was Norwegian Level 1, pretty self-explanatory. The third was Theory of Science and Ethics, an interesting course about possible ethical implications of scientific research. In the latter, I had to explain my research plan in about 300 words comprehensible by “a guy on the street.” It seemed trivial at the beginning, but believe me; it was not. In the end, I reached a good compromise between understandability and detail. Maybe I will upload it here as well, at least some of my friends will understand what I am doing. 🙂

I have also been teaching assistant for Programming II, a course about programming methodologies in Java. I was preparing the mandatory assignment and corresponding solutions, organising the students into groups, and last but not least administering a Subversion server, something that took so (too) much time. It was strange to be at the same time a student and a teaching assistant.

I had some little trip at least. During Easter, I visited Sognefjord and slept in Selseng, Sogn og Fjordane. I had and unforgettable experience there: a bath in an outdoor jacuzzi with 40 degrees (Celsius) in the water, and -20 degrees in the air… And to complete the magical atmosphere: clear sky, full moon, mountains covered by snow, beer, and excellent company. Almost a perfect night, thank you guys!

I have also been in Lindås, Nordhordaland, with the Department of Informatics. We had the research school there, a series of seminars mainly given by PhD candidates and post-docs. The social event was canoeing, and there I had the chance to try my new waterproof camera. Yes, the Canon EOS is great, but I wanted a point and shoot camera for extreme situations, so I bought a new Olympus 1030SW: waterproof, shockproof, crushproof, freezeproof… I can do almost everything with it! But I also bought two new Canon objectives, an EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 and an EF 50mm f/1.8, together with a new Sigma 530 flash and a Gorilla Pod SLR, just to avoid my reflex camera to become jealous. 🙂 You probably saw an improvement in the quality of the pictures, right? 😛

What else? Well, next Sunday I will hike all the seven mountains surrounding Bergen in one day. It is an annual event, called 7-fjellsturen (literally the seven mountains trip). I am exercising a bit more this week to be in shape for the event. Let’s see what happens.