contra dancing in Denmark

My love of folk dancing started with contra dancing. All the talking I do about the goodness of contra is already toned down so that I don't scare people by my over-enthusiasm. So if you were already thinking that I had a crazy huge amount of enthusiasm for contra dance, it is really probably ten times larger.

That said, it is a shame that there is no contra dancing in Sweden. But luckily for me, there is in our near neighbor, Denmark. Although I guess I use 'near' somewhat loosely.

Several weekends ago there was a full weekend of dance, so Greg and I finally made the trip to join the fun. We traveled by train, which I love infinitely more than flying. Train travel is just so nice. (Although I learned that the Monday after we returned there was a train derailment south of Stockholm, which had caused a lot of issues and delays, so we lucked out that it didn't happen before/during our trip.)

Here are a few photos from around the web:

Greg and I with one of the callers. (source)

The band from the US; they are completely amazing. (source)

General merriment. (I'm actually way in the back of this one.) (source)

belated quick takes

- 1 -

This week I didn't write any quick takes ahead of time. I also just spent 24 hours not opening my computer. Super crazy, but awfully nice.

- 2 -

Now I am in Colorado. We arrived in time for a tasty breakfast yesterday from this hipster place.

- 3 -

Contra dancing 'at altitude' is super intense. Doing a hambo when you haven't acclimated to this altitude is sort of insane. Greg and I had probably one of our best hambos ever, but it totally wiped me out.



I stole this photo from Malory. I'm in there. Where's Waldo? Can you see me?

- 4 -

Malory is a super great host and made us a delicious dinner. Her two dogs are not super great hosts though. Apparently they just don't like it when two strangers come into their home and expect to be friends? Wallace was easy enough to win over. Play with him for two seconds, and he is convinced you are on his side.

Argyle is a different story. I just woke up, but he hasn't seen me yet. I'm pretty sure he will bark at me for five minutes because he's forgotten that there were other people in his house.

In all fairness, Greg managed to make friends with Argyle. But I'm sure he will get barked at when he is first spotted this morning as well.

- 5 -

Today is cake baking day! Malory is making Alli's wedding cakes and they are going to be amazing!

- 6 -

Sodium lauryl sulfate strikes again!



Seriously, I need to get this stuff out of my life. Ruining my orange juice!

- 7 -

I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately (aside from work-related reading, that is). I've slowly but surely gotten myself into Walden, and I'm convinced there is no better book to read while trying to make decisions about what 'stuff' that has been sitting in your apartment, unused for nine months, is really worth keeping. I've donated tons of clothing to the thrift store, and I don't think I'm finished yet.

We do have plenty of things that we will need to put in storage, but I'm doing the best I can to minimize it. Not bad, not bad.

----- The End -----

And Jen has more!

Two unexpected thoughts on contra dancing

This weekend I had the luxury of attending two contra dances. Saturday was my local dance, and Sunday was the Brattleboro dance. Each dance brought me one unexpected though.

On Saturday, a woman came to the dance who either had a mental disability or was on a lot of drugs. I never tried to talk with her or the man she was with, so I really don't know which one it was. All I know is that her mental cognizance was lacking. Severely. I honestly am not sure if she was aware that she was dancing.

The contra community is definitely different than any other community I have been a part of, or even seen or heard of. There is a sense of welcoming and openness to all that I think is very very rare in today's society. The usual joke is along the lines of: If you know the difference between your right and left, that will help, but it isn't necessary! And the community exhibits so much tolerance of every person who comes to dance. (Obviously there are exceptions, but the less tolerant people are also outside of the usual community-aspect of contra.) Every person who goes contra dancing learned it by going to a dance and having others help them out along the way. Most people are really encouraging of new people because they know what it was like. We've all been there.

But this begs the question: Is there actually some sort of requirement of mental cognizance required for contra dancing? The strange thing was, it was actually fairly 'easy' to dance with this woman as a neighbor. She didn't really move much, and for the one dance that she was my neighbor, it just worked out that the other three of us in our little group could essentially dance around her, and complete all the moves with the appropriate timing. She definitely was not a hindrance to the dance, but at the same time, she was certainly not an asset.

In the same evening, I danced with a man (self-described as middle-aged and over-weight) who came to the dance for the first time after hearing about them for a long time. He was not the quickest about picking things up, but he was having a Blast. In a later dance I was his neighbor, and he made the comment, "I keep getting lost! But I'm still smiling, so I think I'm doing it right!" Exactly! The fact is, he was having a great time, and even though we weren't doing the dance with a lot of precision, we were having a fun time dancing with him. And he was picking up on various aspects of the dance, so it was good to see him making progress, and then to realize that he was making progress. So often he started many dances as a bit of a hindrance to the precision of the dance, but generally that diminished as he started to pick up on what was going on, while at the same time, the smiles and fun he contributed were certainly an asset.

Also in the same evening, I danced with a woman who must be grouped in the category of 'perpetual beginner'. This is the person that has been going to contra dances regularly for a year or more, but still just doesn't get it. It was actually incredibly challenging to dance with her. Since she has been to so many contra dances, she feels confident that she is doing the right thing, when in actuality, she often was not. For example, sometimes she would just start walking off in the wrong direction, and she would get so far away that it was hard to get her back into the right place. At the same time, you could also tell that she was sometimes unsure of where she should be going. She would always have a death-grip when you were holding hands, and it was hard to get her to let go of your hand. And if she was not holding someone's hand, she would start following the closest person who was moving somewhere. Needless to say, I had to somewhat alter some of the dance, so that we could get to where we needed to be. And until I had figured that out, the dance was turning into a disaster. So here is a type of person that it is really hard to get through to, who is often a hindrance to the dance, but can (on occasion) learn parts of the dance or at least smile a little and enjoy parts of the dance.

And I suppose I could go on and on about difference instances of people who are challenging to dance with for one reason or another. And I really think the contra community as a whole values the fact that all are welcome. But should an exception be made for a person who has no mental cognizance? I think if a person was totally drunk, I would definitely not ask them to dance, and probably get frustrated that they knowingly put themselves in a state that makes them unable to 'play by the rules' so to say. But what if this woman didn't have a choice in her state? What if she has a serious mental disability? I guess it would have been interesting to talk to the man who brought her. She didn't show any outward signs that the dance was enriching her life (like smiling, for instance). And perhaps the man knew that she was enjoying herself, and her life was being enriched. If that was the case, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a rare case of close interaction with other people. But from the outside looking in, it looked like a standing person with a blank face that we all moved around. In all the other cases of challenging dancers, I still (most) always felt like I was dancing with someone. With this woman, it never felt like that, and it seemed to never have the option to feel like that. My opinion on this might seem rude, but if no ones lives are being enriched by this person's presence, I don't really think it is appropriate for her to be there. I write the previous statement with care, because it is possible that her presence was enriching her own life, and I just wasn't aware of it. Or maybe it was the man's life being enriched, by being able to do this seemingly normal thing in life, when he might be living a life that is typically very far from normal.

Anyhow, enough on that. On to my second unexpected thought on contra dancing. I realized after the Brattleboro dance that the other people who show up to dance greatly influence my perception of a dance. Up to this point, I had kind of assumed that if you get a good enough caller and band, the dance will be awesome, no matter who shows up. But I learned that this is just not so. Last night I had the privilege of dancing to (seriously) some of the absolute best music and calling. Both were beyond amazing and beyond description with words. However, a good enough portion of the other dancers were just not particularly fun for me to dance with. It didn't even matter if I had a good partner who I enjoyed dancing with, because so much of contra involves neighbors and dancing with the whole group. It is actually kind of surprising that the musicians and caller could keep their energy going strong throughout the night. Usually the dancers and musicians and caller feed off of one another, so if the dancers don't have much energy it is hard for the musicians and caller to keep their energy.

It is still kind of mind-boggling, that if someone asked, 'how was the Brattleboro dance?', I'd have to say "the music and calling were out of this world! but the dance, it was 'meh'."

Love of Contra

Recently I polled my facebook friends with the prompt:

Friends who love contra dancing:
Please tell me one (short) reason Why you love contra dancing.
(I am fine with repeats if your top reason is already posted.)

I didn't get a very strong response, but the responses I got were great and much appreciated. This is what they were:

 It's such a joyous thing to do!

spinning/twirling

Dancing with you and all the nice people who like dancing!

‎"There is something just so RIGHT about it" Testimonial from Ted via. Peggy Pegster

 I was particularly excited about the last one, because Ted was a great dancer who was always at all the dances. He died (unexpectedly) of a heart attack in the spring. And I totally agree with him that there is something just so Right about it. I've been trying to think of a concise way of describing why I love contra. This is what I've come up with: 

It is an incredibly enjoyable way to connect with people of all ages in a healthy and logical way.

Follow-Up and Re-Cap and Open-Question

I know this isn't quite the same as seeing Greg and I wearing the matching Arizona outfits, but this is the sneak preview. I told Greg's mother the story of going to the dance and bidding on the outfits. I think I validated any questions she might have had about my sanity.
:)
But just look how happy I was within moments after finding out I won them!!

Also, to clarify, the wedding I was taken to when I was forced into the dance circle while sitting on my chair was not a wedding for anyone I knew. My cousin had taken me along to either a friend of her family's wedding or a family member on her other side of the family. Probably the fact that these were all strangers (aside from my cousin and aunt and uncle), had something to do with me not enjoying the circumstances.

Anyhow, onward!

This weekend, Greg and I went shopping, which is not something I have spent much time doing in the real world lately. I basically do all of my shopping online. It is a much more pleasant experience for me that way, with the exception of being able to try things on. In Tilton, NH there is a fairly large outlet mall, which I had heard much about, but had never been to. This is fairly close to Greg's mother's house, so we made a trip of it.

I ended up buying six things! (I think.) I think Greg got seven, so he won. Actually, no, I got seven. And spent less, so I win!

All in all it was a good time shopping. Usually I get pretty stressed out being in stores with other people. I always have people being incredibly rude to me (generally other shoppers, not the people who work in the stores), which I'd much rather just walk away from than deal with. I'm perfectly happy with online shopping, so why bother with these people? Greg actually reminded me of how this ties into the the book Love & Responsibility (written by Blessed John Paul II, before he was Blessed and before he was pope). Our society seems to be tending toward egoism, in which everyone acts in ways that are dictated only by self-interest. I mean, the shopping mall example is kind of wimpy, but it is true. If I am standing in front of a rack that a lady wants to look at, she will just stand right up against me to get to the rack, instead of patiently waiting the whole 8 seconds that I probably would have stood there.

Hmm, so now I get to thinking more about Utilitarianism. I think it makes sense that utilitarianism doesn't really work in its ideal form, that it always leads to egoism. But is contra dancing a true example of utilitarianism that actually works?

Yellow skirts are for twirling

Hooray for a summertime contra dance! My local dance has gone on summer vacation, so now when I want to dance I must travel. Last night Greg and I made the trek down to Brattleboro for their spectacular dance. The music and calling were so spectacular.



Don't pay attention to the fact that I'm not actually doing what the other people are... despite the fact that this is supposed to be all choreographed and whatnot. Also, I might look like I'm about to smack that guy, but it is really just dancing. I promise.



That is a photo of Greg's blurred shorts and my blurred skirt in the foreground. The two gents in the background were visiting from Australia. These are my kind of people -- finding a contra dance in every place they go.

Contra Dance Calling

I just did a quick review of former posts, and it seems I have yet to blog about calling contra dances. I guess it goes without saying that I am incredibly passionate about contra dancing. Sarah and I always talk about "the contra spirit" which basically entails all the good things involved with contra dancing.

So, about a year ago, I started going to a workshop led by David Millstone for learning to call contra dances. My intention in joining was to not actually call dances, but just to learn the mechanics of how calling works, and how the dances work. Well somehow, it managed to be arranged that I would call one single dance at one of the dance sessions that David runs. It was a bit nerve-wrecking, largely because that involves me, on a stage, with a microphone, in front of a large group of people (>50). But despite the nerves and the shaky voice (and not properly lining people up at the start, so the instruction before music started fell apart completely the first time), it was fun! And it worked! It was some sort of great feat of communication, to see if I could get this whole hall of people (or at least a large portion of them) all coordinated up.

So anyhow, David has helped me along, and it has been great to have him as my mentor. I could not ask for anything better really. I have now called a few individual dances. I have also met dozens of other callers, some of whom are starting to remember my name as well, and even offering me guest calling spots if I ever attend a dance they are calling! Plus! I got my copy of Tony Parkes' book autographed!



I was very glad to see the new edition released, since it is nearly impossible to find a copy of the original edition. You can purchase your own copy from Beth and Tony here. I think they said you can also buy the book from Amazon.

The other thing I recently learned about was an online listserv for contra dance callers. I joined up, and from looking at the archives it seems to be a good resource for keeping in touch with other callers, both for asking questions or sharing useful information. I learned from the latest post that there are people who write software to be able to organize dances and program evenings, and then check the dances to make sure there is not too much repetition from one to the next. It is really quite amazing, but also not free. So my new long term goal is to write my own. I haven't done a ton of programming, but with Greg's help, we can make it happen. The plan is to make it freeware that will work on any operating system.

The future looks bright!

so much contra dancing

Lately it seems that my only activity during waking hours that is not work is contra dancing. I like it a lot. In October I got to go to one of the twelve hour long dances. And since it was so long, we took a break in the middle to check out the pumpkin festival. And since it was so long, I also did not attempt to dance every dance, and as a result I have a few pictures and videos. The dance was the Fall Ball in the Peterborough town hall, which has a balcony that overlooks the dance floor, which is where these shots are taken from.

My Life's Ultimate Passion

Contra dancing is the thing in life that I am most passionate about. I don't know if I have ever loved a thing so much. Last night Brandon and I drove up to Montpelier for their regular contra dance. The caller was Nils Fredlund (who is possibly one of the best callers ever and sometimes plays his trombone with the band) and the band was Atlantic Crossing (who played phenomenally). Apparently Atlantic Crossing got their name because one of the fiddle players lived in New England, and one of the fiddle players lived in England, so when they played together one of them had to cross the Atlantic. Then they got married, and he moved here, so the name is not quite so accurate anymore.

In comparison to the Norwich contra dances, the Montpelier dance is in a smaller hall and has more people show up. Also, I think the average age is much younger, and they are more lively and energetic and not as much about traditional New England folk dance, like Norwich can tend to be. Don't get me wrong, I love my local Norwich dance, but I just love the Montpelier dance in a different way. It is fun to see a lot of the same faces in both places too. And despite the fact that I have not been sleeping enough lately, my tiredness will never keep me from dancing every dance. Contra makes me feel alive to the point of keeping me awake for hours after the dance has ended. Perhaps it has something to do with the sense of community established in a contra dance.

Plus the other highlight of the Montpelier dance was seeing some of my old favorites who I hadn't yet run into since my return from the North. One is Miss Bailey, who is my 5 year old little contra buddy. At the break we sat on the floor and talked about Pirate Booty and this pirate movie she really likes. When we were sitting there chatting this other little girl came up and started chatting with us too. Her name was Maya and she is 9, but she will be turning 10 soon. We share the same birthday. Also her skirt was from Bangladesh, where her stepfather has built homes for poor children where they can get food, shelter, clothing, and education. He has built homes in Nepal and two other places also, and Maya has visited each of the places once, except for Bangladesh where she went twice. Also, she is home schooled, so missing school to travel to these places is not even an issue. Even the kids I meet at contra are some of the most fascinating people around.

Then I danced a dance with Bailey, which was a little challenging, but tons of fun. She has been contra dancing for longer than I have, so she knows what all the moves mean, but she just needs you to remind her what to do and when, and to make sure she is in the right place. The great thing about contra is that it just repeats, so by the end of it I would say, "it's your turn to do a star!" and she would come back and say "now its YOUR turn to do a star!" which was really cute. Plus most people get a kick out of dancing with her, so she inspires a lot of smiles. Unfortunately, I think some people thought she was my daughter because she usually only dances with her dad (who is one of the men who prefers dancing in a skirt). It was worth it though, because I just never see any kids these days, so it was good to get my kid-fix and my contra-fix all at the same time.

All-in-all it was a spectacular time, and I don't know why but I always manage to have way more fun than I ever thought was possible. Plus on the way home I learned about the musical highway which I think is amazing.

Making the Most of Fairbanks

Okay, so here is a quick update of what has been going on here. Our last night of the February launch window was March 4, and we were out for winds the entire night, and were not able to launch into the amazing aurora we were seeing.


Here is a super awesome photo of me in front of some aurora taken by Mike Nicolls. That was not March 4, but the level of amazing was comparable.

So now we have to wait until the March launch window. This does not start until March 15. The main reason we have to have some days in between windows is to avoid the moon. Right now the moon is very bright so we lose all of our ground optics.

I had big plans to take a short vacation in Denver, for the purpose of visiting friends and getting out of Fairbanks. Well that didn't work out so well, because the University of Alaska Fairbanks has spring break this week and every single flight out of this state is oversold and ridiculously expensive.

Now my plan is to just stay in Fairbanks during this break. It works out really conveniently that there is this Plasma Entry and Transport workshop going on next week. So basically I can go listen to some bigshots in my field of study talk about what they do, and that should be really beneficial for me.

Today and yesterday I have spent my time realizing just how introverted I actually am. I have had two days all to myself and I am feeling completely re-energized, which is great. I have this plan to check out the coffee shops in Fairbanks to find the best one for sitting and reading. Usually we just go to a drive through coffee hut, because we didn't have time for the luxury of sitting and reading. Today I went to the Alaska Coffee Roasting Co, and I finally feel at home in Fairbanks. Not only do they sell my favorite coffee (only the beans, they won't brew it for me) but they also make the most delicious vanilla latte. Sidenote: I had been doing really well with just drinking coffee and avoiding fancy specialty coffee beverages, but it seems that Fairbanks does not support that type of behavior. Every single coffee place only makes good espresso beverages and has really horrible brewed coffee. It is strange, but that is how it is.

Also, yesterday I saved $.50 per gallon on gas because of all the groceries we have purchased from the Safeway. I bet you guys are glad I shared that one huh? I heard this statistic that on average, every blog has just one reader. I know that at least my mom and my aunt are reading this, so I am totally beating the odds.

Second to lastly, it snowed maybe ten inches yesterday so Fairbanks is beautiful and snow covered! It is really quite lovely!

And lastly, there is a contra dance tonight, and I am definitely going. Should be fun!

3 weeks and 3 degrees

**new note:
Blogger still won't let me upload photos, so I'm putting the photos on my site and just linking to them. Unfortunately I didn't rotate the photos before uploading them and doing so with html code is not trivial. You can, if it is any consolation, click on the image to view a larger size.

I have gotten way behind on blogging! I keep meaning to write all these things, but I just never got to it, so here I go, with a potentially huge post.

Okay.
As of today I have been in Alaska for three weeks. It doesn't seem like it has been this long, because I haven't really seen three weeks worth of this place. I can find my way around town easily enough, which I guess is indicative of three weeks, but it could just be because I'm "like a duck". There are still a few things I'd like to do in town though before I leave. At the University of Fairbanks there is a Museum of the North which is apparently quite good. There is also a museum with a lot of native history of Alaska in Pioneer Park, which I've been to, but haven't fully explored. More on that later. Also, there are the Chena Hot Springs, which are apparently the thing to do. Also they have an ice museum at the hot springs which has an ice bar and martini glasses carved out of ice. We are switching to a night schedule now, so I can check out museums in the morning before we leave, but the hot springs won't happen unless we are required to take a day off. And by we I mean NASA, because they are not allowed to work 14 or more consecutive days without special permission.

A view from the TM building at sunset.

The rocket progress and plans for future progress are always very fluid. The tasks are listed by day, but the days always change. Some (most) things take way longer than expected, and some go much more quickly than expected. The beginning of this week showed remarkable progress. On Monday we got the entire payload all built up. This is a huge step. On Tuesday morning all of the pyros got installed and in the afternoon we did the roll out test. This involves wrapping the payload in blankets to keep it warm in the -18 degree F temps so that we can make sure telemetry sees the rocket. Currently we are waiting on the v-band that connects the experiment payload to the rocket motors. This piece is very important and somehow never made its way to Alaska. Oh and now I just found out that the trailer used to transport one of the motors has an expired certification. Who knows what that means.

Erik with the subpayloads.

The front end of the payload with the main payload experiment section and also the two PFFs stowed.

Lifting the nosecone and forward subpayload to mate with the main payload.

Lifting the entire payload to made with the aft subpayload.

Full payload experiment (mtv angle style).

Lowering the payload to be put on the tractor for transport to the launch pad.

The launch rail with the first two stages of our four stage motor, the Talos and Taurus.

The BUTTON! That is right, in the middle of the photo. Two keys (which are kept in a lock box), and then push the button and away we go!

The payload all wrapped up in blankets to keep it warm outside.

Technically our launch window was supposed to start tonight, but that is not going to happen because of these various issues. We were hoping to be ready on thursday but friday is probably a more realistic start. And the space weather is not too interesting until friday, so I guess that is alright. For those of you interested I'll list a few of the webpages I check regularly for space weather predictions.
Space Weather
Which is a very dense page, but also very informative.
Space Weather Now
This page is a little more specific, so it is a little easier to quickly get good info. Basically it tells us about the solar wind, which is the cause of all the interesting aurora we are looking for. So if the solar wind increases in speed and density that is good. If there are any geomagnetic storms that is really good. If the auroral oval expands down to Alaska that is really really good.
Poker Flat MSP
This is a meridian scanning photometer plot. Basically this shows an image of the aurora overhead. Good nights look like this. Dull nights look like this (that red dot is the moon I think). And cloudy nights (also bad) look like this.
AK Magnetometer Chain
This shows magnetometers in Alaska from north to south. Lots of wiggles mean lots of current and activity and good aurora. We like lots of wiggles.
And finally,
Carrington Rotation
This plot is really good actually. The sun makes a complete rotation in about 28 days, so if we see good activity, it is quite likely that 28 days later we will see it again. So on this plot each row is 28 days, so you can see that the peaks in the plotted value (kp index) are mostly lined up in columns. For example, I look at this plot and might suggest our best days will be February 15, 22, 27, and March 3.

Enough of that now. Time for non rocket things.

On friday night I got to go to a contra dance! It was pretty amazing. The AK contra experience is very different from the NH/VT contra. The caller was not quite as experienced, so some of the dances just fell apart and we had to start new ones. No one really minded though, so at least the contra communities are equally laid back about things. Also, the very last contra of the night was a really good one, and I think it is the favorite among the locals because they all knew it, which was tons of fun.

After I got back from contra, I took Hanna to pick up a large box of her camera equipment that was being shipped. I don't really know why we were picking up this huge box at midnight. It seemed a little shady, but hey, we needed these cameras. So we went to this place. Got this huge box, which just barely fit in the trunk of our Rav4. Also, they loaded it in the car with a forklift. Then we were on our own to unload it. We had to drop it off at the university. On the drive over I asked Hanna if she was going to try to drive a forklift if we could find one, and she replied deviously, "Maaybe." Well we ended up finding a cart that was only a few inches shorter than the trunk, so we just shoved the thing out onto this cart. It was quite the operation.



Then on sunday we had a range day off. Saturday was a very very long and stressful day. I don't even remember what happened, but it was bad. We have been eating all of our meals at the Chatanika Lodge which basically makes any variety of fried food you could ask for. So we thought on our day off it would be good to cook a delicious meal. And I said "I can make lasagna!" And Steve said "oooo well I ALSO have a very good lasagna." And that was when the PFRR Lasagna Bakeoff of 2009 was born. Mind you, Steve has been making lasagna for longer than I have been alive, so this was a pretty big challenge. So the challenge started with a trip to the thrift stores of Fairbanks to find baking pans and possibly another big pot, since our kitchens are not fully stocked. Also, Steve needed a blender. Well only one of the three thrift stores was open, and it had no baking pans. So we had to go with the disposable aluminum foil pan things. Kristina and I hosted the event, since we have the biggest apartment with a living room and a kitchen table. All of the cooking happened there as well, which was pretty intense. The competition was HIGH. At one point we realized we were missing a few things, so Erik had to quickly run to the grocery store for supplies. We ended up inviting maybe 50 people because we didn't want to leave anyone out. I think about half of them showed up. It was a very fun time. And best of all, you can now say you are the proud friend/family member of an award winning lasagna maker!

Cooking!

In other exciting news, Erik bought Settlers of Catan which is probably my most favorite game of all time. It is meant to be played with 3 or 4 people, but it is possible to play with just two also. We played two games before the bakeoff started and I won them both, which is not typical for me. Also, the second game was beautifully symmetric so I took a picture.



I think the final thing I want to post is a few pictures from the lodge (where we eat every day). These are just some fascinating things that I've seen there. The place has a lot of fascinating things, but these really stood out and I couldn't help but taking pictures.


quite friendly...