Socialising and a-socialising

People that you have to consider as a living background, without meeting everyone as a human.

Groups where you know only a few, and want to say hello to them - but are somewhat obliged to
participate smalltalk with the whole group - or worse; chat about things everybody else knows and is interested in but you have no clue neither interest.

People you have to talk to because you know them a bit and it would be rude not to talk - but you have nothing interesting to say. Neither do they. The cold weather in Finnmark is not a topic that lasts very long.

Workmates that welcome you back and whose company can be just great fun and productive brainstorming sitting on the floor in between boxes of field-equipment, drawing graphs on a piece of paper. "Making research on the grass-root level. " But also workmates that you disagree with who should do what and whose responsibility some mistakes are.

And finally, friends that you have a lot to talk to - and they listen, having interesting things to talk about as well.

Returning from fieldwork was a social event. It always takes some acclimatisation this way. Seems to be a lot easier to get used to be a lot alone and with only a few people, than to get used to big crowds and more complex social situations... Interestingly, when being in a small group far from the rest of humankind, I do not miss other people. No, having an almost constant presence of a small group, I miss more solitude.