Concerning Winter

On Monday I attended a very fascinating lecture about winter. We had a guest lecturer from Montréal – and he specializes in the images of north, winter and arctic! I had very high expectations and I’m glad to say they were exceeded. I was thrilled about the topic and the new points of view professor Chartier introduced. He discussed winter and nordicity as cultural, social and aesthetic phenomena instead of merely defining them as something climate-related. What struck me the most was the way Chartier talked about winter as something we adapt to, something exceptional, something that disturbs our routines and everyday life – especially since winter and north are often defined by people to whom they seem exotic.

There’s one particular thing about the presentation that keeps bothering me: winter is seen as an inconvenience, something socially and practically troublesome. From my perspective it’s always been the other way around. Summer is the time of year I need to adapt to, winter and autumn feel normal and natural to me. I do like all of our four seasons but the cold ones suit me best. The only inconvenience I see is the excessive effort I must put my poor car through when it’s -25C° and the road both looks and feels like a glacier.

Be it as it may, I’m really enjoying this time of year and looking forward to the long dark of polar night.

P.S. The lecture made me think about Svalbard and the wonderful trip there last year. Man, it was great...

Break thy pen, thou fool!

Right.

I took an exam today. Nothing special about that, it just felt strange. Or crap, actually.

I’ve been studying political philosophy this summer, just one course but I didn’t have time to do more since I can study properly only on weekends (otherwise I’m working 8.30–16.30; in Finland we have ridiculously long summer breaks during which I usually work). Today I took the exam and it was horrible, for heaven’s sake! No, wait… I got that reversed, the exam was fine but I was horrible. I sucked and the grade I’ll have will just determine how much. The things I forgot were so obvious, so self-evident. My head is like a sieve, everything I put there goes through. For instance, I forgot to define freedom when writing about Alexis de Tocqueville’s liberalism and theories concerning democracy. Freedom. A word that most likely is in the top three when listing important concepts and ideas the book presents. Summer well spent, I’d say. I hate Fridays right now.

Another thing came to my mind. Being in the classroom felt very odd, the entire campus area did. I haven’t been there during the summer break, perhaps that’s the reason. Be that as it may, I’m scared. I’m actually scared. I love our university but somehow I feel I don’t actually belong there anymore. It’s frightening since school and learning environments in general have always been the only places I feel home at – apart from nature and Scotland of course. I’ve never truly felt deep connection, most of the time I feel sort of disconnected. Studying has always been my anchor and pride, what if I’ll lose it? What if I don’t deserve to study at the university anymore?

Yep. I hate Fridays. Begone, thou foul day!