TUNTREET
HOME OFFICE EVERY DAY
Aleksander Mæland Munkejord Translator
Ragne Kyllingstad Journalist
We’ve had a ban on visits for weeks, and the climbing hall has been closed for about fifteen years, I think. A friend just told me (over zoom, of course) that she believes no generation of students know the Åsmåsan, Nordskogen, Pentagonskogen(sigh), Syverud and the rest of the groves around the university, as well as we do. For academics and university educated pencil-pushers, the home-office is no new phenomenon. But we have empirical evidence that NMBU-students like it the most with crammed lecture halls and sour thermos-coffee at Sørhellinga. What do the students do when the entire university relocates into their tiny dorm rooms?
In what I can reveal is actually my own old room at Pentagon 1, we find Nisha Jha. She is an international student and came to Ås roughly two months ago. From her desk she can see all of Pentagon. She has decorated her office with art and memories from home. They say every house has its smell, except one’s own. But Nisha can describe in detail how her room smells: “[…] canvas, papers, acrylic colors, poster colors and gel pens. And also, I have my small corner of temple, where I have incense sticks. So when you enter my room, you can see happy me with art goodies scattered and also the chocolate wrappers”. The image in the windowsill behind the PC is also homemade. It represents her vision for the year: northern lights and ice cream in hand.
At Eivind Toft’s place we find three screens, two brass colored wind instruments and a homemade pull up-bar. Each element represents a key part of Eivind’s pandemic-affected day-to-day life. Between the Zoom-lectures he can get a good blowout on the tuba, and as he says: “People would have frowned if I did that in a reading room at TF.” There’s always something good in a situation. Eivind can report of great skiing conditions in Drøbak, which for him has been a natural breather from the studies. 20 Utgåve 02 Årgang 76
