Dr. Ross Piper and a quarter life crisis

I've been social for 26 hours (except at night), and in the end, I tried to fall asleep inside Adam's cardboard knight helmet at The Cambrian. "Why on earth?" do you say. "Because," I answer, "because sometimes life hands you oranges. And we all know I love 'em oranges."

Wednesday Dr. Ross Piper came to our Advanced Invertebrate Zoology class as a guest lecturer. At first I didn't really notice him, because Dr. Roger Santer, Dr. David Wilcockson and Dr. Helen Marshall were all there, and I was sure we'd get yelled at for not being interactive enough in class (I'm one of the few to raise my hand, despite my not-too-perfect English). Honestly, my pulse speeded when Roger walked up to me, Emily and Tom, but he just sat down right behind us.
  Turned out they had just come to listen to Ross. He told us not to focus solemnly on the fluffy vertebrates, but to appreciate the rest of the animal kingdom as well. Now, this ain't new for me, as I've had two entomology modules back home in Norway, and have come to love insects and chelicerates (spiderlike animals). I enjoyed the lecture and especially the part when he told us about his trip to Burma/Myanmar in corporation with BBC and The Smithsonian Institution. After all, I love to travel, and it got me thinking about the insects and gigant jumping spiders we saw in Tanzania.

The next morning I had a look through my inbox. This is often a dreaded duty, as I'm on the mailing list of approximately 10 societies, and have to go through even more mails every day. First, I had gotten a mail from the International Office. It was about a travel magazine called Exploration, who were looking for people to write for them. I swallowed the bait the moment I realized that this meant I could get the opportunity to follow my dreams; writing and showing people the wonders out in the world. The last was the reason I got into photographing to begin with, I wanted to take pictures of those small things people often overlook. The mail felt like sent from heaven, as I'm going through my quarter life crisis and trying to figure out what on earth to do with my life.

But further down, I had gotten a mail from David and Roger. They asked me if I wanted to help doing an interview with Ross, which would be taped and used to promote the zoology scheme and the invertebrates module.
  At first I though "Okey, they've gotten the wrong person. Come on, they want someone who's British. They don't even know who I am. Well, okey, so they probably do because of that time I talked a bit too loud to Tom about my huge, but lovely, butt during a practical, and David overheared it, and that I'm always raising my hand in ethology, which seems to make Roger happy." But as it turned out, they did want me!
  So I freaked out a bit. I mean, come on, two great mails in one day, who wouldn't freak out.
  And then I decided that the review in Understanding Biological Research would have to wait, and started researching. Turns out Ross has his own blog, which was really interesting. I also realized that I had actually watched Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom. I remembered Truls (one of my house mates back home, and huge entomology fan) and me eating dinner in front of the TV, watching one of the episodes. I also borrowed his book "Animal Earth. The Amazing Diversity of Living Creatures" from the Hugh Owen library (Mum, can you write this on my wishlist, next "Den Store Mumiboka" and a new music stand?)
  In the evening I once again got to listen to a lecture of Ross, as he was telling NatureSoc about his trip to Burma. The room was stuffed with interested students, some of them who had come to the same lecture last year. (I'm using the word lecture here, as I can't really come up with a better English word for it). Afterwards, we all left for The Cambrian, included Ross. I tagged along, thinking this would be a great opportunity to get more relaxed around him before the interview the following morning. Sometimes you need a reminder that even authors and teachers are human (which I should know by now, as my parents are/were teachers). Even the great Zorro joined us, though it turned out that underneath the mask, there was just another nature loving student.

I woke up the following morning feeling more like being one with my bed than getting up. No, I was not hangover, I've actually never had a hangover in my life (thank you Ole André Sivertsen, author of the book "Bakrus - en røff guide til dagen derpå"). But after I started uni I have often struggled with restless nights.
  Then I bought myself a huge coffee, which made me rather shaky, but awake, before walking up to David's office.
  And then it was on.
  Have you ever tried sitting next to a well know biologist, high on coffee and low on sleep, trying to read aloud a series of questions in a language which is not your mother language, while being taped.
  Well, I have.
  And it's a kick.
But despite me shaking and whispering more than talking, it all worked out! The questions were all great, composed out of questions from the students and some David himself had written down, and Ross answered them all in great depth and with a lot more confidence and humor than myself.

Thanks, David, for the picture!

After lunch, Ross held yet another lecture for us, this time focusing it on scientific writing. Now, I've done creative writing for one year at Buskerud Folkehøgskule, and the word scientific writing sometimes gives me a slight shutter. But this lecture made me think of it in a whole new way. Scientific writing ain't only lab reports, written half hearted and graded, it can be a lot more. He showed us a page on National Geographic, called Phenomena, were there are scientists and some just interested people, who blog about nature and new discoveries.
  This was more mind blowing for me than you'd expect.Honestly, I've never really thought much about this aspect of scientific writing.

I was more or less asleep during dinner, but my brain was working hard. I must have looked very weird, eating my stuffed bell pepper and seemingly glaring at it.
  Ida's head:
"There are people writing out there . Not all of them are writing prosa, but not all those who don't write boring text books. Some write really interesting stuff, doing the exact thing I want to do: making people appreciate the world around them. Some write about travelling, like in Exploration. Some write about being outside, like in Harvest. Some write about the new discoveries in science, like in Phenomena. I don't need a master in Natural Based Tourism back home, taking a bunch of economy classes I won't like, in order to show people the wonders of nature. I can, but I don't need to. Perhaps I can do the thing I love, writing? Maybe I should try to get into the Writer's School in Bø next year after all?"
 
It has been a couple of very social days, going to the pub with NatureSoc and Tae Kwon-Do, drinking tea with Jo and eating dinner with Chris. Tonight I'm going to Emily to watch Ouran High School Host Club. But right now I'm all alone in my room, doing one of the things I love; writing.

I suppose it's about time I write in this book, which I got from a colleague at States Vegvesen this summer to help me figure out what to do with my life.