"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"

The bags are (almost) packed, I'm cramming in some last-minute Norwegian, and tomorrow I take off for Norway.  Yesterday's convocation represented the last of a series of "endings" in my life - really a sort of denouement, as I had already made my peace with Kingston.  God willing, tomorrow will mark the first of some exciting "beginnings."  Check out where I'm going on the map!  It's some 70 degrees north of the equator: a city of 50,000 known as Tromso.

I've heard two nicknames for Tromso: The "Gateway to the Arctic" and the "Paris of the North."   Combining the two monickers, one might be tempted to visualize it as Montreal after last year's ice storm!

Martin Hansen, the first AutoSim employee I've been in touch with, pointed me to the Destination: Tromso website, which paints a beautiful (if a bit tourist-oriented) picture of Tromso.   Tromso is the northernmost everything in the world.  So let's get it out of the way quickly - I know it's going to be a bit chilly.  Today's a toasty 29 degrees Celsuis here in Toronto.  IAESTE chum Liz-Iren has been enjoying Tromso's "great summer weather," which the Internet reports is a steady 8-11 degrees Celsius!  So, I get to exchange the heat for two months of midnight sun and the northern lights!  Can't be bad.

I understand that "Paris of the North" refers to the fact that over the past couple of hundred years, tromsoevaeringene ("Tromso Residents", according to endearing tromsoevaeringene Linda Bennett) have been influenced by Parisian culture.  I hear word of exciting nightlife, which I'll have to report on in later articles.  Imagine stumbling out of Clark Hall Pub at Queen's at 2:00AM on a Saturday morning, and seeing the sun still up!  Crazy!

It sounds like Autosim is going to be an exciting place to work.  I certainly didn't expect to be offered such an exciting job at such a cool company!  There are about a half-dozen employees working at AutoSim, and I can't help but visualize it like Fry's delivery service on Futurama.  (Imagine a Norwegian Bender!)  I asked Martin why they were located at Tromso, and he replied simply that's where he was born!  Sounds like a good enough reason to me.  I get the feeling Tromso inspires loyalty.  Like da family.  I'm going to be a part of da family.

The work I'll be doing will be an excellent lead-up to Synthetic Characters at MIT's Media Lab next year.  I've read Martin's thesis - or "diplome" - which deals with artificial intelligence for automobiles in a driving simulator.  I'm behind the eight-ball already - Martin's heard about Legend of the Greasepole and suggested I could do "something like that" to spruce up the AI they have implemented.   I'm going to be torn between wanting to work on such an exciting project, and wanting to explore Scandinavia.  Hooray, flex hours!

I owe my Dad tusen takk (literally, a thousand thanks) for the loan of a digital camera.  It's a Nikon Coolpix 900, which is even sweeter than the Coolpix 300 that we used for Greasepole. As soon as I get a chance I'll post pictures here.