Flowers and Knitting

It's really spring now! So many flowers, and so little ability to choose just one or two to take a picture of and post on the blog!

I meant to look up what they all are, but I at least know a few. We have crocuses, or croci?

And in more than just white and purple:

So fancy. And then this yellow one on campus:

And these purple ones that greet me when I walk back to my apartment:

I went for a long walk yesterday and found the first actual wild flowers in the forest and in the sunny patches in between. First there's a woodland anenome, similar to some species in Minnesota:

I thought these were like dandelions, but after looking at my Norwegian flower book called "Blomster", these are not even the same genus as dandelions, and they're called "hestehov" or "horse hooves". They sort of look like that, but since they grow in disturbed soil they are often on horse trails. Here they are in two angles:

And then I saw this rock in the woodland, and it looks like quartz coming out of it at the bottom:

And I found this moss that looked really cool--looks like it's about to flower:

Borel forest is so nice to lay down and roll around in (when not wet!) because of all the moss.

AND NOW...HOW TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENT TREES FROM QUITE A LONG WAY AWAY.

NO. 1: THE LARCH. THE LARCH.

AND NOW...

I have learned a basic knitting stitch from one of my German friends! I'm making a wrap-around scarf:

This is how it started, and now it's like this:

But I will need another ball of yarn. Preferably of the same kind, otherwise that would be a bit weird. I bought it in a big mall far away, but I think I might be able to go to Ski to get more.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Telemark to volunteer on a small organic farm, with goats, sheep and cows. I will probably bake bread, do more knitting, help on some building projects around, maybe help with the kids a bit. It's a family of a Norwegian husband, American wife, their kids, and another volunteer from Italy. It will hopefully be an interesting and fun experience for the spring break! Plus there's a National Park nearby. I will blog about it when I get back!

Kan du gå på ski i Ski?

The weather here has become unseasonably warm, like it has been all over the world this spring, and I can really feel the positive energy surge in everyone around me. My German friend Sophie and I went to the next town of Ski, that is a bit bigger than Ås (where I live) if only because of their big mall, the Storsenter:

Yes, there is a McDonalds. Not even Socialism can shield Norway from big American (or European, or Canadian, etc.) chains. Aside: I had a professor say in class the other day "Socialism is good, my friends." after he finished describing how much money students get for their master's and PhD work. I tend to agree, at least so far.

Before we went to the Storsenter, we decided to tour around the smaller shops nearby to see what else Ski has to offer. We walked into a very festive square filled with music and people, a lot of kids, and saw that there was a kid's ski race going on. A ski race in Ski you say?? Unheard of. But there it was:

The snow on the track was undoubtedly trucked in, as most of the snow had melted by this time. It's completely gone now, except in well-shaded valleys. My guess is this is an annual event, scheduled for a time of year there is usually snow...except not this year. But the kids looked great--they say that Norwegians are born wearing skis, and some of the little ones here were clearly better skiers than me.

A shot of the man-made snow track that is melting:

They even had entertainment--poor souls (probably well-paid though) in cartoony suits!

Of course Norway would have a bear, but a monkey? Who cares! They did some cute dances to Norwegian kid's songs.

After a bit of shopping, Sophie and I stopped at a nice little cafe, with some nice Norwegians who took our picture for us.

It was good coffee, and strong! I like it strong, but I forget that the normal Americano is more than enough here and ordered a "dobbelt" or double, and proceeded to talk Sophie's ear off about bison and a range of other subjects.

De har veldig god kaffe i Norge!

Insert pun about March and marching...

I was going to say "spring has sprung!" in my next entry, so soon after the winter wonderland post I just did, but...after a week and a half of very spring-like warm days, it has turned into winter again! Turns out Norway can be like Minnesota, where it never just gradually becomes spring again. Winter and spring like to spar with each other here too. It snowed all day today, and sideways! I actually biked in it, because in order to get all the way from campus to town where my Norwegian class is, from another class that always ends about five minutes late, I need my bike. It's a lovely bike I got for free, which I always try to say only positive things about in its presence because it's actually quite the opposite of "lovely". At least the tires are good for snow! There wasn't much snow on the ground though, just difficult to bike through when it blows right into your face.

I have been extra busy this semester, and I'm still debating whether I should drop a class. It's a lot to have 5 classes plus trying to prepare for my master's thesis, which may or may not be in Tanzania. And now I am on the International Student Union Board, which takes up some time that I didn't want to give away...but there was a need so I volunteered. We have fun campus events to try to integrate Norwegians and Internationals, so far with mixed success.

New this semester we have two Danish guys who moved into the vacant rooms in our flat. I call them our Danish Invasion. DI for short? Anyway, I was surprised that they can speak Danish to my Norwegian flatmates who in turn respond in Norwegian, and it works as long as they are patient and speak more slowly. I knew that about Swedish and Norwegian, but I thought Danish was more different. In writing it is more similar to Norwegian. It is really interesting to watch, but I never get to do it for long because they switch to English quickly when I'm around.

They are great guys. Really funny and not so shy like some Norwegians I've met. I tried making their type of rye bread, with not much success...but I will try again. They also sell the Danish kind of pickled herring at the store, made with a yellow curry. Very odd, and the only indigenously Danish aspect of that is the crazy idea to combine curry spices into pickled herring. It's actually really tasty, on crackers or the Danish rye bread.

I haven't taken any pictures lately, sadly. Once the weather gets nice I hope to rectify that, but I should also go somewhere more interesting than here.

That's all for now--hopefully more before two months pass!

Vinter Vonderland!

The first word in the title is actual Norwegian. The second is me having fun. Apologies to Norwegian readers!

Yay snow! Fresh powdery snow! How can I study when you're around?? *Jumps out window*

*Thump!* Just kidding. I walked out of the door like a normal person. So anyway, we were blessed with snow yesterday, and today was the perfect time to enjoy it. I went for a walk in the Nordskogen on campus, my favorite place since I got here. With the new snow, it was a whole new forest to explore. I even found a new path, since I was having fun following the only two other set of foot prints (one dog, one human) through the wild blueberries.

All those little plants the path is going through are Norwegian wild blueberries, or just "blåbær" in Norwegian. They're small, but very sweet when dried--I haven't tried them fresh yet since I got here just past their season.

Here's a closeup of them:

I also saw some cool fungus on the way:

Reminds me of this scene in Fern Gully. These are just the temperate climate winter version!

After following the small path back to the main trail, I went to the lookout spot I always visit on my walk.

Yep, it's winter now. And this is the light we have at 1:30 PM.

It usually doesn't look like almost sunset if there are no clouds, but the sun is very low all day, just traveling along the horizon to the Southeast to the horizon Southwest. We get pretty nice sunsets sometimes over the student housing buildings, not-so-aptly named "Pentagon".

Not THE Pentagon, just Pentagon, its bizarro Norwegian twin. If you're curious, it's just because there used to be 5 buildings here in a pentagon shape. Not very exciting.

And walking back I had to take yet another picture of the lone oak in the hay field.

I meant to post this earlier, but better late than never.

I saw these in the market and didn't buy one, but my roommate Ingrid did, and before she left for Christmas she said I could have it. They were kind of expensive for something they just taped a stensil on...or however they did it. Cute but kind of disturbing. Is this a new variety of apple?? That must be what they get up to in the mysterious Biotech building on campus.

My main goals for January are:

1. Find topics and possible sites for my master's thesis

2. Study Norwegian with two new books and watch Norwegian TV shows--I'm starting to find a few good ones--reality TV, for instance, is usually really simple (read: dumbed down) that I hate in English but in Norwegian is easy to follow and fun!

3. Go for walks in the forest--big check for that one today!

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!