Dreaming of Life After the Dissertation

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences

I’ve barely been outside my apartment this past week, except for regular visits to Java House around the corner for caffeine intake. Oh, and a much needed break with for a very nice dinner yesterday at Kramerbooks with Mr. M, during which I had my first glass of wine in three weeks. Needless to say, I ordered a second glass! With eleven days to my dissertation deadline, I’m unlikely to get out again in a while. I have, however, started to dream about post-dissertation life. This paper has been with me for so long – I started gathering literature for it back in June – and with all the work lately, I haven’t had a single day off since I went to Montenegro in mid September. So what am I dreaming of? Sleeping in, reading fiction, watching movies, taking long walks, and preparing for the holiday season!

Post-it Creativity

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, On Agriculture and Food, On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences

All I’ve done these past few days is writing, on reports and my dissertation. Well, with a small exception of a coffee at Le Pain Quotidien with Mr. M on Saturday. (Or coffee and LPQ’s lemon tart – one of my favorites sweets!) The dissertation is slowly but surely starting to get some structure, although it is far from in the shape it ought to be at this point. I guess that is my curse – I am always late with things. Regardless, it has been interesting working with it and I have learned a lot about nutrition transition, and managed to develop some of my own theories around the topic. Here is where it was at an early stage:

Energizing and Strengthening or Just Insane?

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life

I took a dance class yesterday for the first time in over a month. It was great as always – dancing makes me happy and energized! Most of the time anyway. I have had kind of a love-hate relationship with ballet for a while. Taking up ballet after 15 years made me realize how much I had missed dancing but also that I am not at the level where I was in my early 20s. But the class yesterday went well, which meant feeling strong and gracious – almost weightless. Today, I am paying for it, of course, and especially my feet hurt here and there. I browsed around to see how to get rid of the pain and came across an article in the Guardian describing foot injuries among ballet dancers. The article told stories of bleeding feet, toenails falling off, and dancers performing night after night with fractured feet. And when I read the article, I couldn’t help asking myself if dancing ballet really is that wonderful, or if it’s just insane?

The Swan Lake is apparently the most painful ballet to dance for a female dancer’s feet.

Research and Reports Trump Blogging

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences

I know, I am not a very responsible blogger and I’m afraid it won’t get any better for a while. During the entire month of September, I traveled around Europe for work, a wedding, and a quick visit to Stockholm, and even though that should have given ample of material for blog posts, I’ve been buried in work since I got back from the road trip in mid August. Apart from the two projects that I worked on while in Europe in September, I am finalizing the two reports from my Central Asia trip in May/June, and my Food Policy MSc dissertation is due by end October. So blogging has unfortunately been down prioritized and will continue to be so for the next three weeks. I hope to have more time and inspiration from November to write all about my research on nutrition transition. Or about my travels perhaps? Until then, enjoy October – autumn’s beautiful month here in Washington DC!

Travels

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, My Travels

As I mentioned in my last post, I just began a smaller tour around Europe. This time, I’m combining a short holiday in Moldova for my friend’s wedding with work-related travel to Montenegro and Macedonia, and two weeks of tele commuting from Stockholm. I might also have a shorter stay in Romania next week. And on the way over from the U.S. on Monday, I had a six-hour stop in Copenhagen so I went into the city and had coffee with lovely Camilla. It was great as always to see her. While traveling is fun in itself, the best thing with this trip is definitely that I get to see so many of my friends!

Lovely Camilla and cool interior at the Copenhagen Airport

With Fall in the Air

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, My Travels

Ever since I was a kid, I always thought of fall as the beginning of the year. Fall was when school started, a new beginning after a summer of long sunny days and freedom. When we were supposed to draw a circular calendar with the different holidays around the year, I draw mine upside down according to my teacher because I placed mid-summer at the top of the circle and Christmas at the bottom. But I still see the year like that. It is after the summer that I have new energy to make plans and that I’m inspired to learn and sign up for new courses. This is probably partially because I grew up in Sweden, where the dark winters can be quite exhausting and where especially our mental energy starts running on reserves in late December. But regardless of country, the habit is still in me.

Inspired by the rain and shifting colors of the trees in DC, last weekend was therefore been one of planning and scheduling. It might sound boring but in my experience, it is the best way of doing fun things around the year. Once work gets into its normal rythm (and especially now when I am also doing grad-school studies at the same time), I know that I will not make big plans or initiate projects. No, it is better to schedule now already to make sure I do it. Hence, the plans for this fall includes a couple of weekends visits to different places on the East Coast, one bigger trip somewhere in the Latin American/Caribbean region later this fall, a photography workshop (I’m hoping it will result in better photos here on the blog in the future), and of course dance classes and the Swedish Song Group. But first a month’s stay in Europe for both vacation and work. After a few hour connection stop in Copenhagen where I had coffee with Camilla, I arrived in Stockholm yesterday afternoon and will continue to Moldova tomorrow for my friend’s wedding. But more on that later. Also, there will probably be more work-related travel for me in December again. So a quite few things to look forward to this fall, despite the summer person that I am!

Stockholm, my first and last stop on this six-country trip

California Dreaming

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life

The rain is poring today and I put on my slippers this morning when I got out of bed this morning. The air has been chillier these past few days and I have turned off my ceiling fans now and then. Does this mean that fall is here? This song has been in my head since I came back from California, I think it will be my soundtrack for this winter!

New York Afterthoughts

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, My Travels

I am back in Washington DC since a few days, and it is difficult to believe that I just spent a whole month up in New York. Time passed so quickly. Too quickly! I really loved my routine up there, with studies at the Mid-Manhattan Library on 42nd and 5th, lunches in Bryant Park, ballet classes for Finis Jhung at the Ailey Extension, weekend brunches at Dizzy’s, and drinks at local outdoor bars. It was also so nice to have Tesse here in the U.S. for such long time and that so many of my friends (some which I hadn’t seen in years) passed through New York while I was there.

I wrote a little less on my book than I though I would, went to fewer museums than I had planned, shopped less than I ever thought possible in New York, and spent a lot less time with my favorite Brooklynite than I had hoped. On the other hand, I took the time to just take in everything around me in this amazing city, to spend quality time with my close friends, and to get energized and inspired to do new things. Slowly but surely, I started writing more on my book, sketching on new ideas, and making new plans for this fall. While not immediately deviating from my usual New York favorites, little by little, I started exploring new areas and finding new places on Manhattan and in Brooklyn.

When I finally got on the bus back to Washington, the fact that my home was in DC and not in New York almost didn’t feel real. After a few weeks out traveling, I normally long to get back to my apartment here, but even the prospect of being in my own place seemed a little empty after having shared a flat for a month with Tesse. However, now that I am back, I actually kind of like being here. Washington is really calm and clean compared to New York, and since I have lots of school and work to focus on right now, a more limited social and cultural scene is not necessarily a bad thing. And with lots of money left on my New York subway card and with one of my dresses still hanging in Jenny’s closet, it will probably not be too long before I go up there again. But before that, there are a couple (or possibly four) other trips on my agenda. More on that later…

Rainy Shopping Day with the Usual Outcome

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences

Even before Sex and the City, New York was inevitably connected with fashion and shopping. Hence, since we hadn’t done much shopping so far, we decided to head over to SoHo to check out the stores there today. Once there, it was already past noon and we were all very hungry so we went directly to Cafe Gitane for lunch. When we were finally ready to hit the shops, the rain started poring. All my inspiration vanished, and even after 2.5 hours of walking around in stores, I came home with the usual: a pile of books and cupcakes. I think I must be the most hopeless shopper – I should probably just give it up entirely!

At the Library

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Åsa Giertz under My life, On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences

I am at the library today again after taking the day off yesterday. I was kind of tempted to take the day off today too, but when looking at my schedule for the next couple of months, I realize that it will be a quite hectic period as it is without me falling behind on my dissertation writing. Besides, the Mid-Manhattan Library where I sit is a place worth visiting in itself, if only for people watching. With AC, free wifi, armchairs and rest rooms, it attracts all sorts of people. (I have to admit that I started bringing earplugs since one man, who prefers the same floor as me, seems to bring his imaginary friend to the library with whom he engages in long conversations…) Right now I’m in the process of doing the literature review on nutrition transition, so the work is very interesting.

When in Boston a few weeks ago, I bought a couple of books on how to write dissertations, in order to be better prepared. Both are really useful, but one is called Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation (Glatthorn and Joyner, 2005), which to me is typical American: It isn’t enough to just write a dissertation and what you learn in the process, it has to be award winning! Anyway, the book is very good.

Food and the World

by Åsa Giertz

Category Archives: My life