Snow, Weekend Fun, Exams and Christmas

I've had my computer back to working order for a few weeks now, but then final exams were upon me and I let the blogging slide for a bit...now there's too much to say! And on Christmas Eve. I said Merry Christmas Eve to my brother, and my dad called from upstairs "and Merry Christmas Adam!" and I didn't get the reference...I thought my dad was just late in wishing my brother and Merry Christmas.

Going way back to before my computer was in the shop, and maybe even around the time of my last entry, there was an amazing amount of fog in Ås, followed by frost:



This one reminded me of prairie grasses. They usually mow the grasses down but not anymore now that it's winter. I'm allowed to like European grasses now that I'm in Europe. They belong here, and do they ever stay green forever! As long as they have enough moisture, even below zero temperatures don't faze them. I told some friends of my roommate JB (all French) how when the snow melts in Minnesota there's brown grass. They were surprised.

A couple of weeks before final exams I had a great two weekends--one with some cool people from school, and one with an old friend of my mom's who showed her and then us the ancestral farms in Aurland.

First the weekend in Kobberhaughytta. I have a crazy new friend from Canada, Kristi, who invited me and a group of people up to a lodge in the mountains of Nordmarka where she works on the weekends. Nordmarka is one of the forest preserves with cross country skiing, hiking and a series of small cabins and lodges people can stay in while they ski or hike from place to place.


Kristi is quite the host, and her and some of her coworkers cooked us gourmet meals and entertained us. We sang songs and did some "skits" about our countries for each other. Kristi, I and Ruben (from Colombia), being from the Americas, did a hip hop song. It was stupid but funny. The other groups, like from Greece, Slovakia, France and Norway, did actual folksongs from their country. Not to say that hip hop is not American folk music in some cases...but this was one of the pop ones that is exported to every other country and played in clubs.

In the morning, I went for a walk around the lake nearby.


Later, in the light, which is about as light as it got:



There was a tour for kids, where there are informational signs and a quiz at the bottom. I liked this one the best:

It's about the two plants pictured, which have been around since the dinosaurs. The question is, "What dinosaur eats plants?" I think everyone can tell it is not answer X, but I don't think there's any kids reading my blog...is there? Anyway, it's fun practice for my Norwegian.

The next night we relaxed more, but then I and three of the Norwegians got it in our heads that we should jump in the lake after a sauna, like in the polar bear club. There was a thin layer of ice on the lake at the time, but not at the shore so no holes in the ice were needed. We were just on the edge of winter. Still a bit crazy, and the first time for two of us. Here's where we jumped in, in the light:


Doesn't look as cold as it was! Then we ran back to the sauna muddy and cold and laughing as hard as we were able. It's not so scary now--maybe I will try again in the real winter!

I spent the next weekend at Unni Ø.'s place, the friend of my mom's who showed her around Aurland. She lives north of Oslo and I had two nice dinners with her and her husband.


It was a delicious quiche! Made more delicious by the wonderful company.

We also toured around her town, and saw a fakkeltog (torchlight procession). They have fakkeltogs in winter often, because it's so dark so early.



This one was for the first Sunday of Advent, which is the day they light a candle for happiness the first week, then the second week for longing, then for hope, then for peace. They start four weekends before Christmas. It was totally new to me, so if anyone reading is like "duh!" then I apologize.

While studying for exams, we finally got some real snow. It was really sudden, with big fat flakes that collected in just over an hour, and made everything white for the first time. I wasn't quite quick enough to catch it while still light, but you'll see the rock outside my door in this one.



On another weekend I went with the same group from the Kobberhaughytta to Oslo for the Christmas markets.



We ended up doing a lot, including ice skating, and joining another fakkeltog, this time for peace. We followed the torch-bearing crowd to the Parliament building, where we were graced with the presence of the three women who just won the Nobel Peace Prize. They waved to us out of their Grand Hotel, but my pictures were not very good of them.

Here's the hotel:


And then of them, after I improved the lighting in the picture:


Then we got to the Christmas market and I saw this nice snow castle, even though it's kind of small with the lack of snow:


After the market we went to a pub to watch the football match, thankfully not choosing here:

I doubt they play the right kind of football here. When we got to the pub Kristi and I just gossiped and didn't pay attention to the match, except to see the awesome first goal of Madrid on Barcelona. Then we went dancing until way too late and slept in a friend's place in the city. Good weekend!

I finished my exams just before my dad and bro came, and though I think I did well I am not sure about their system here. I will get my grades in January. I was always the first one done, as the only native speaker of English in the room, but my answers were not necessarily better than anyone else's. They gave us 3 hours for each exam, with cute elderly local Norwegians monitoring us who I think were not always informed that many of us taking the test couldn't speak Norwegian. Thankfully they adjusted and the tests went smoothly.

Now that my dad and bro are here, we've been to Oslo a couple of times to see the sights, and today I'm going to go back to enjoying Christmas. We'll have lutefisk with bacon and kjøttkaker (meat balls) with vegetables. My roommates are all gone for the holiday so I think we'll take over my little kitchen and make it smell like Christmas dinner.

Når er det Mørketid (Now it's the dark time)

In Norway between October and January it becomes the dark time, or dark period. The sun is "up" (at least it's sort of light) at 10 AM and down again by 3:30 PM at the darkest time. I should clarify that this is true in the southern parts, whereas the northern parts are darker even longer. Us International students were told to get plenty of vitamin D and omega 3 fatty acid from cod liver oil, fortunately in pill form now. Unfortunately, much of the oil they use comes from fish in Peru, and the factories making the pills are polluting the local people. I don't know what percent of the oil is harvested in Norway, but the general assumption here is that most of it comes from Norway. Peru and Chile produce over 55 percent of all the fish meal and fish oil on the market now, and the fish meal is used primarily in fish farming...and I also eat the delicious farmed salmon that is clearly colored pink with beta carotene...yum.

I have no computer right now because my charger stopped working. It looked like it had been burned or melted, and I blame the cheap converter I bought at Wal Mart and myself for not buying a proper plug for Norway. It's at an Apple service center now in Oslo, but in the meantime I have the fancy computers on campus to use. Surprisingly, the world has not stopped turning because I no longer have my own computer.

I can't put my pictures on the blog this time but I found some good ones online. Here is the oak tree that all the students who live in the student housing area must pass to get to campus, so I think it has become an icon of sorts for us:

From: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/19882621

There is not yet snow on the ground, so this picture is not accurate to right now but I'm sure we will have snow, or snø, soon. I saw it on the cover of one of the tabloids, so it must be true.

I have a lot of studying left to do before my 4 final tests, which are supposed to take something like 3 hours each and count for between 60 and 100 percent of our grades. I guess that's how they do it here. Not going to succumb to the pressure! I'm feeling good right now because we just finished a huge term paper a day before the deadline, so clearly it is time to blog.

I don't know if this is true broadly in Norway, but I am impressed and a bit humbled by the speed with which cars stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Maybe it's partly due to our particular crosswalks next to the school that a lot of students use, and of course we are all the future.

I am not so impressed with the amount of litter I see daily around campus. It makes me feel like all of these Norwegian kids are spoiled brats, who have had it easy in the high standard of living under socialism. I know that's not true, but I did meet one kid (18 or so?) who introduced himself in Norwegian to my Norwegian roommate as, "the Prince". Let me just spend a couple of sentences on this guy, because it is amazing. He wears a red (possibly velvet) robe and slippers around their place, with his hair slicked back, like a 50s movie star. He and his friends have hired a professional DJ with a club-sized speaker that I can feel the vibrations from in my room, several floors away, almost every weekend since I got here. They may have finally buckled down now, because I haven't heard it the last couple of weekends.

I don't think that a 28 year old masters student should be sharing a building with 18-20 year olds who just want to get their party on, but that is my world this year. Next year I will likely have to move anyway, and I'm looking forward to it even though I know it will likely be more expensive than now, and now is expensive! How did I go from a giant house shared with 2 people for 300 a month to a tiny cubicle with common area shared with 6 for over 500 a month?
Oh well.

My Norwegian is getting better now, I think. I at least understand most of what I need in the store, train station and around town, but unlike with Japanese my written comprehension is much better that my listening conprehension. I'm hoping to improve the situation this January, when I will possibly visit relative/help out on a farm/hang out with Unni and Lill Nora. Plans are still in a nebulous state.

I wish I had a cute cat picture to end with, but instead I'll end with a cute Norwegian moose:

From: http://anniekatec.blogspot.com/2010/11/heavy-metals-may-influence-moose-health.html

Okay, in finding this picture I saw this ridiculous article:

"Norway's Moose Population in Trouble for Belching
The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year -- equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey." From: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,501145,00.html

I ate some moose stew last weekend so I guess I helped avert climate change. Go me!

Campus Tour and After, Lunsj

After almost over three months of being here, I will finally give you a tour of my campus and some surrounding areas. So come along and follow me, let's go for a walk around the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, or as it's known to the locals Universitetet for miljø-og biovitenskap.

It's fall now, almost winter, so most of the trees are bare but just last week we still had some color.


The rows of small yellow trees are part of the campus apple orchard, from where I got the apples for the giant apple pie I made a few weeks ago. This hillside also has a pretty good view, but it gets better up the hill from the church. I don't go up there much except on my jogs.



We have a nice book store, or Bok Smia as it says on the sign. It's not cheap but it's close, and sort of looks like a farm building that they maybe used as such when the university was first founded. It is still very much an agricultural university, but with newer departments in the environmental, developmental and ecological disciplines.



Here's our Agricultural Museum, that I haven't been in since the first day but I always see the Ås locals hanging out here. It's like the Sunday meeting spot after church or something. Inside there are exhibits of Norway's agricultural past, including milking parlours, some of the first machinery, and even a replica of the spoiled first son's room, who was treated specially because he would take over the farm one day. In my jetlagged state that first week I fell asleep during the movie they played for us at the end of the tour.

Across from the Landbruks (Agricultural) Museum, there's the school duck pond.


You may notice the little house on the island. The UMB fraternity, the Hankatter (Tom Cats in English) have a tradition of keeping it painted red and white. I'm not sure if they do anything but party and watch this house to make sure no one paints it different for long. Others try, but very soon it is back to red and white.

Next we have the student center, SiT (student informasjons torg).




This is where I got my health care coverag figured out and teared up, and before that actually cried in Vilma's, one of the school's administrators, office. What is up with this building and me and crying. Oh, they have a cafeteria on the top floor with the most delicious pastries, I almost cried it was so good.

Across from that is my department's building, Noragric (I forget what it is in Norwegian! And I can't find it on the website..) which is the Department of International Environmental and Development Studies.



The master is split into Env. and Devel. studies. Haha mine's first in the title!



As I said, it's and agricultural university primarily. One of my roommates and another friend are in the horse training and breeding program. These people might just be locals though.

I have many classes in this building, the Tower Building. Not sure what the tower part is about. It is five floors of hard core economics, including my Political Economy class. And for some reason my Socio-Ecological Resilience class.

Nearby there are some really nice boreal forest fragments, maintained by the campus and local organizations. I took a walk in a new one last weekend, and was pleasantly surprised by this hand-drawn diagram of the geological history of this area:


So there was an iceberg here! In the picture it's the "isbre". After this picture is nice forest walk with many trees labelled. No English but I can figure out more things now that I know more words. There's a lot of campfire spots I see in the forests here.





People just feel free to use whatever forest area is around. Socialism.

And that's the end of my UMB special magic campus tour extravaganza! Hope you enjoyed it. I'll just finish with another food item I've been enjoying recently, the smørbrød, or open-faced sandwiches:


I put mayo, smoked salmon, cucumbers, and hard boiled egg over some whole grain brød, I mean bread. The one in back has kaviar from a tube, seen in a previous entry.


It's part of this complete lunsj, with tea and broccoli and mackerel paste salad, also from a tube. The mackerel, not the broccoli. It's good, I swear!

Cruise to Copenhagen

There is no way I can keep up with the NaBloPoMo festivities, but I will at least try to blog more often then I have. Things have been piling up! But not the snow yet, so that's good.

Last weekend was one of the International Student Union's biggest events: The Booze Cruise to Copenhagen!!


The basic plan is take a giant cruise ship to Copenhagen over night, get really drunk (I didn't get that drunk--just enough to have a good time!), and then spend the day in Copenhagen hungover, then get on the boat again and do it all one more time and then you're back in Norway, sleepy and maybe hungover again. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it was actually quite fun since I didn't over do it like some people, and they had a good DJ on the boat.



My roomies in our cramped room. One Canadian, one Norwegian, one Italian and one American. see if you can guess which is which. A clue: the American is not pictured. The Norwegian is not the blonde this time--she's on the right but I think she dyes her hair to be not blonde.



This was one of the views as we shipped off. See you in about 36 hours, Oslo!

In Copenhagen itself, there's a lot more old architecture than in Oslo, but other than that not much different. The language differences were weird, since I've been learning Norwegian, so a lot of words were familiar but just looked like they were spelled wrong. For example, in Norwegian "fruit" is "frukt", but in Danish it's "frugt". And "water" is "vann" in Norwegian and "vand" in Danish. It is similarly strange like this in Sweden.

Some pictures from around the city:



I love when birds perch on dramatic statues. I'd almost suggest we make a theme out of it on the blogs, what do you think? I have a somewhat unfair advantage, perhaps, being in Europe.




The human element. Love those red boots.



Here's Copenhagen's Occupy movement. They had a sign that says: "Trees don't grow on money". Clever, and mostly true. In a literal sense anyway. In another sense, I got paid to plant trees, so does that count as trees growing on money?



Some vines of awesome colors growing up a building. Not sure how it got that way, but I like it.




The entrance to Krisitana (sp?) district, where police don't bother to go, and no one paves the roads...it's an alternative community, where they burn certain plants recreationally. Pictures aren't allowed inside, seemingly the only rule other than maybe some hippy stuff like "love everyone".



Ah, the sun. Maybe the best thing about Copenhagen is they had sun on this day, where Norway has been cloudy for several days.

After one more night of dancing, I was able to get up and face Oslo. As we slowly passed the islands and houses I was able to take my time and appreciate where I am. The Way to the North.



I survived. To get coffee. Norwegian coffee is strong, just like I like it. More on food and daily life in the next entry!

Occupy Wall Street and Fall Days

I've been paying a lot of attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. I think the best coverage has been by Democracy Now!, which is a well-rounded news source in general but they have really been great on this movement. I was asked in class, as the only American, how I felt and thought about it. I am very happy that people are finally voicing the frustrations that have been building up, and also it's finally about systemic change rather than just one or two smaller problems. I heard from another German friend of mine that there was going to be a similar protest in Oslo today in solidarity with the U.S. and other demonstrations around the world. The demonstration was small, just over a hundred people, man of whom voiced their concerns and many planned to camp in the park in front of the parliament building. I watched the news story about it and I and my German friend Theresa were caught on camera in a blink-and-you-missed it clip. You can see it here between the time 2.48 and 3.54 and I appear on the left of the screen for a second at 3.32 next to Theresa in the red jacket. We really didn't do much besides practice our Norwegian listening skills, try to chant along, and pick up some fliers. I think that there were fewer people at this demonstration than in most countries because Norway is richer and better at distributing wealth than other countries, so most people are generally happy. Even with the small numbers it made the news. I liked the Robin Hood costumes people wore, and remembered that I had said to someone recently that we need a modern Robin Hood in this financial crisis. Some others clearly had the same idea!

Aside from all that, it's fall in Norway and quickly now becoming winter. This semester is going to get crazy busy with three term papers due at almost the same time, the Latin Dance class, getting involved with the International Food Festival planning committee, Norwegian class, and laughing at my roommate JB's antics. Like calling aces in the card deck "asses". And pretending to be a monkey during a pop song that said "Ooh ooh ooh" in it. Good times. I went to Oslo last weekend too, another beautiful fall day.


On the same day I passed this amusing store sign, which usually doesn't happen in Norway because they have such good English.




They seemed to have a lot of Norwegian sweaters in the window, but I don't think they have many tractors in there. I could be wrong though!

The wheat harvest is in, and the grass for hay has been cut a final time it seems, since it has now begun to frost over in the morning. I should take a picture of that but it's so much a part of my daily surroundings that I haven't thought of it until now. I've started wearing my winter jacket, which seems a bit early but I guess this isn't Minnesota anymore. I'm getting better at Norwegian I think, but it seems to be moving slower than Japanese because I'm hanging out with the French and the Germans and the other internationals more than the Norwegians lately. The most Norwegian I speak is when I teach the other international students, but I wish I had someone to correct me. I think it's just a matter of time, like for many things in this world.

Wild Harvest and Latin Dance Night

With the heavy rain these past few weeks there has been an abundance of mushrooms growing in the forests here in Ås. I have been lucky enough to have a roommate who knows which ones are edible, and we have harvested porcini, pied de mutton (lamb's feet) and chantrelles, among other varieties, but these were the most abundant. JB, short for Jean-Baptiste, is pictured above holding what I think is called a golden chantrelle. Last week we picked the last of the year's good mushrooms, a more brown-looking variety of chantrelle:



I had it in my casserole/stirfry I always make nowadays: chantrelles, carrots, onions, broccoli and garlic with jasmine rice, and salt and pepper. For my choice of protein I like it with egg and/or cheese, or mackerel, or smoked salmon, or deli slices of pork that are so good here. The chantrelles taste great, with the added bonus of higher than average potassium.

My other successful culinary experiment this week was a giant apple pie:


It's an oven pan with higher than normal sides. I did a wheat crust, used "Summer Red" apples that are ripe in Norway now, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Summer Red are some of the best tasting apples I've ever had in my life, no exaggeration. They are tangy enough for pies too, and though I was worried about attempting a pie of this size (9 apples!) it turned out wonderful. I told my roommates, who devoured it, that it was the taste of fall in Minnesota. The apples were from the campus orchard, one of the perks of going to an agricultural school. So I guess not really a "wild" harvest in this case, but a great harvest nonetheless. I also got to learn some spices in Norwegian in the process. For some reason they don't use the English names! Nutmeg is muskatnøtt, ginger is ingefær, and cinnamon is like the French word, kanel.

Last Tuesday was our first Latin dance lesson for the year. I hope it catches on! We had a great showing to start--40 plus people, but you never know if they will all stick with it. I help teach it with 4 other people either form Spain, Mexico or Colombia. Makes me wish I spoke Spanish but they are patient with my American egotistical ways. We have fun anyway.


Look at those smiling faces! We really had a good first lesson, but I was exhausted afterward. As if I had taught everyone by myself or something. I hope that eventually when people get pretty good we can have a Latin dance social event. That's what I'm leading up to in my mind anyway. We will try it out this semester and see how it goes--most of the other teachers except for me and the guy from Columbia are leaving after that anyway since their plan was to be here only one semester. And the class itself is mostly international students, many of whom won't be here that long either. Latin dancing is popular enough that I think it will be sustained by incoming students. Someone already ripped down the poster I put up advertising it, but that's just drunk Norwegian kids. They did that to all the posters. And apparently their wont is to throw their compost garbage off the balcony on the street. I know it's not all Norwegians, but some of them are really giving me a bad impression. And some of them are giving me a wonderful impression, so that shows how much you can really generalize about people.

Tha last of the nice days...?

It has been raining here a lot. In Ås, nearby Oslo, further north, and probably other areas of Norway. A few people, mainly professors, have told us students that the last two or three summers were among the wettest summers on record. So I have taken to spending time outside as much as I can when it's sunny out.

It was nice today, and so my German neighbor Sophie and I decided to go to Oslo on the bus, which has cheaper tickets for students and takes the same amount of time. We didn't do a lot--mostly walked around in the sun. We passed this river in the morning:


Clearly not overflowing at all. The ducks at least seemed happy about it.

Sophie wanted to find an Asian market, and it took a bit of wandering but after the iffy directions from a tipsy Norwegian guy we found it:



A bit disappointing for me because there were no drinks like coconut or mango juice, and not a lot of selection. I'd say it's passable for Norway. Asian markets are probably a newer thing for them. The name is not a typo--that is actually "supermarket" in Norwegian.

We took our treats to the nearby botanical/natural history museum park, with a pretty good view.

On the top in the distance is the newly built ski jump. Why would someone want to ski down a structure you can see from this far away. I guess the answer might be, why not?

I really like Sophie. She is nothing like the German stereotype I've been given through television and other media, proving once again that basing your worldview off of TV is at best mistaken, and at worse problematic. Is catastrophic too strong? Anyway, Sophie is laid back, vegetarian, really friendly and laughs a whole lot. She doesn't even mind that my idiot self wants her to say "There's a bat in my pants" in German because I think it is so funny and cute. There's a backstory to that but it's not very interesting. She laughed along but I won't stretch my luck with that.

We walked towards the main station and I wanted to climb to the top of the opera house, which it built slanted on the sides so that you can easily walk up.



At the top. At this point the sky had already clouded over getting ready for the rain that is falling late tonight.

The last thing we did was have a coffee at a really old looking brick cafe called the Carousel near the main station. You can drink coffee and watch all the weirdos go by. I mean, tourists and Norwegians. Observe them in their natural habitat, following their keen instincts towards a good deal in an expensive market.

I've been studying Norwegian when I can, and using it on people in stores and my Norwegian roommates with some success. The pronunciation is very hard, mostly because of the vowels and the rolled "r". I asked for a quick lesson with my roommate Ingrid,which will hopefully become a semi-regular thing. She is so selfless at 18 years old I can't believe it sometimes. I learned that people with different dialects in Norway are often (if not all the time) spoken to each other, and they understand just fine. It seems to me anyway--most of the time I listen and and it's just loopy gibberish to me and one word in 500 I understand. Anyway, Ingrid told me there are three different sounding "r's" in Norway, and each of my three roommates has a different one. Lucky! Maybe...seems like a lot for me to tackle this early, but it's good to get my ear attuned to at least some of the differences.

And then I spend a lot of time with French students. Someone actually said "bonjour" to me in passing, because they thought I was French because I am always with the French groups. So in listening to French a lot, that language memory from being in French class many years in grade school and Jr. High wants to come out too. My French roommate and I took another "walk to zee lake" the other day and though I mostly helped him with English we spoke in French a bit too. I am going to be so confused! I can't wait.

About Norwegian Food

I've heard Norwegians don't care about eating well as much as they do about eating cheaply. Organic here is pricey as it is in the States, a sad result of our strange economy. Anyway, I wanted to share some interesting food items I've come across.

The first is the tube thing. Cheese, cheese flavored with seafood or bacon, and caviar (and other things as well?) come in tubes:


Good ol' cod eggs with sugar and salt...it's good on crackers, bread, on eggs and pretty much anything else. And it's pink. Probably not naturally.

Norwegians know that all kids love liver pate. But just in case you forgot this brand reminds you how to make your kids happy:



The two make for a great afternoon snack. Even adults love it!




Clearly this picture should be next in line for their label.

Another amusing discovery was the character Mr. Melk, appearing on Tine Melk's milk cartons. Or cartoons.

They have different ones. This one has a cute (read: lame) poem to teach me Norwegian, I mean it might be there for their add campaign. I love how even though Mr. Melk talks about Facebook on this message, he himself chooses to write on parchment with a quill. At shirtless o'clock. Very nice. Nice try, anyway--I'm sticking to soy.