Back again!

So, the adventure is over. We are back in Copenhagen. Time for a very short status.

The kids were the reason for doing the trip. So that they could experience what it is like to live in another country, specifically the one that their father comes from and keeps talking about. Not seeing it as visitors but actually being part of, going to school, making friends, etc.. In this respect, the adventure has been a moderate success.

My daughter has been very happy with her class and the teachers and is a bit concerned about going back to the relative chaos of her school in Denmark. She has got a few good friends in the Faroes, but they didn't see each other that much after school.

My son entered a very problematic class in the Faroes. As one of his teachers put it: "It's a train with a lot of heavy wagons but no locomotive". Most of the boys shared none of his interests. They would rather fight, smoke cigarettes and stay away from school. He had to motivate the girls to play soccer with him in the breaks. The rumour has it that he was rather popular with the girls. He made friends with a few of the boys, though. Their preferred activities were a bit too adult to our taste: they would stay out until 1 a.m. in the weekends, just wandering around where the action was in Torshavn's night-life. One, maybe saner, interest that he started cultivating, was playing diabolo. He actually became quite proficient in it.

They both conclude that the stay has been rather boring. They were very happy that half an hour after they arrived home, they were surrounded with loads of friends. Immediately they were immersed in play. It was as if my son was suddenly a two or three years younger.

My wife had a rather nice time. Rather relaxed, working remotely from home, realising that it really makes a difference not having to spend an additional hour a day on transport and that it is quite pleasant to be able to concentrate on your work without all the quarrel, meetings, etc. that accompanies work in the present day.

I, myself had a really nice work during the stay. I will blog more on that later. What was rather stressful (actually very much indeed) was the situation with my parents. A lot of energy went into worries, hospital meetings, phone calls and consoling talks. My father finally got the diagnosis Alzheimer's Disease, so that is quite terminal: he has a limited number of years left and is only going to get worse. Currently he has difficulty with names and persons, mixing up his children with his siblings and my mother with his long deceased mother. It's tough to witness, although probably worse for us, his family, than for him: he is generally in a fine mood.

As a family, we have had a time where we have been unusually close, due to the kids staying more at home than they normally do. We have had a lot of talks, seen a lot of DVD's and played cards. We even started in a bridge club. Let's see if we'll continue with that in Denmark.

The intention of this blog was for it to be just a travel blog, as the name implies. So now would be the time to let it wither. However, I have the feeling that I will tie up a few knots before putting it to sleep. About my job, for instance. I'm starting on a new job here in Denmark on Monday, so I might feel like saying a word about that too. At the moment I am a bit divided on the subject of my own blogging future. Should I have more than one blog, one for each subject? Do I need to keep it as anonymous as I've kept it here? For the near future: stay tuned!

Starling conversation

I've always wondered whether birds' singing is a musical or artistic activity or is it actually a form of communication?

Most birds have a number of sounds that are used for warning or advertising some kind of emotional state: aggression, affection, etc. Many birds use sound - often singing - to mark their territory. The singing can be monotonous or - as is the case with for instance the blackbird - varied and pleasing for the human ear. Is there informational content in the singing or is it purely aesthetics, maybe as a selling point in the competition for sexual partners?

The blackbird's singing seems to have an aesthetics and territorial function. Its role in mating I know nothing about. With starlings it seems to be quite different. First of all, starlings are social beings, so territoriality is not of interest. The 'singing' is very varied, but contains so many noisy elements that humans rarely perceive of it as being pleasing, many not seeing it as singing at all.

If you listen to it carefully, though, it seems that a lot is going on. Actually it sounds like a communication is going on.

A week ago, that is, one morning between Christmas and new year, I was awake but still in bed in our rented house in the center of Torshavn. There was a little gathering of starlings outside the bedroom window. They were chatting along, some flying to and from the little 'meeting'. Starlings are great imitators and suddenly I heard the sound of first an oystercatcher and soon after a whimbrel. These two birds are common in the Faroes during summer but don't stay for the winter. I couldn't help but interpret the exchange as a conversation along these lines:

"Hey, haven't you noticed that the day has grown a little bit longer?"
"Yeah, soon it'll be spring and the other birds will be arriving."
"The oystercatchers."
"And later the whimbrels."
"I'm looking forward to it!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
...