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.

Ytre Hvaler Nasjonalpark and Øystre Slidre

I let too much time go by and now I have an extra large update plus I'll be adding another short entry right after.

Ytre Hvaler

Starting with two weekends ago, I went with Unni, Finn Ove and Lill Nora to Ytre Hvaler Nasjonalpark, which is one of those Norwegian words I don't have to translate, right? "Ytre Hvaler" seems to translate to "Outer Whales". It's a cluster of islands that look like whales, and it's at the south end, or outer part of Norway. Most of the park is actually marine, with over 6,000 species and counting. On land, it's beautiful enough:



Those pines just grow right into and over the rocks. And:



See the little flag? Near and around the park they say there have been settlements since the Bronze Age. For Norway, that's between 1700 and 500 BCE...wow that's old! Thanks Wikipedia. And close up:



The coastline. I'm a big fan of little flowers and grasses growing out of rocks, and I got that in abundance here. I took a picture of every new plant I saw, especially the ones I could tell were related to the ones I knew back in Minnesota. Finn Ove asked me if I was going to take a picture of everything. Every plant, Finn, every plant. We swam at the beach:


And had dinner on a little charcoal grill. It was nice to be immersed in their Norwegian chatter and sometimes understand because of the context. My reading in Norwegian is still far above my listening comprehension because I still spend more time reading it than hearing it so far. But I'm studying and it's only a matter of time and commitment. While also keeping up with my primary studies. On this trip I learned a saying in Norwegian from Lill Nora: "Finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klar" which translates basically to "There is no bad weather, just bad preparation". Makes sense for Norway!

After dinner Lill Nora and I and their sweet sheltie Celine:



Went for a walk along the coast. As an aside, Celine is the best dog I've met in a while--she's super calm most of the time, but when you give her a plastic ball she kind of plays soccer with you. Unni calls her a guru or buddha dog because of her calm and very aware nature. She's also good at leaping from rock to rock--I think they told me her breed is from the coastal islands:



Other animals just like to pose on the rocks.



Humanae extensio I think they are called.

After a nice sunset we slept in a tent with 3 little rooms off of one big middle area. It was a nice tent and I slept pretty well. In the morning I went for a nice walk on the same coast, going farther in. There was some litter here and there, but I guess that's what happens to popular places. Actually, so far I'd say that compared to Minnesota, at least when it comes to State Parks and the like, I never saw litter like I do here. People will have a fire and leave debris, like cigarettes and plastic containers. I wish we could stop with the plastic, at least the vast proliferation thereof. All in all I had a great time camping, and I can say I went this summer unlike last year when I wasn't able to get people together or muster up the inspiration to go by myself. Thanks Unni. And Finn Ove for driving, and Lill Nora for the Norwegian lessons!

Øystre Slidre

For my class we took a two day trip to Øystre Slidre, northwest of Oslo in the mountains. The purpose of the trip was to see a farming research center, hear about goat farming from one of the local farmers, and climb a mountain to see a receding glacier. Our class has focused on climate change and primarily how farmers deal with the changes, and how economic policies affect environmental changes. Our professor interviewed many farmers in this region for her dissertation, so she had us take a trip here. For free!! This good life can't possibly last, but I'm hoping for more field work like it.

For the goat farm part I didn't take pictures, which is strange when I think about it. I was and am such a fan of goats, and it's part of my cultural ancestry, but on this trip they were all milked by machines so that one farmer could handle 100 goats to milk twice daily. That was different from when I came here when I was seven and even the little girl younger than me could milk them by hand. It's changed a lot in just 20 years--they said only a few people milk by hand anymore. Even with the increased mechanization the most farmers in this area still have to have a side job in something else, often in tourism.

The next day we climbed a mountain--two hours up and a little less than two hours down. It got pretty steep on the way up, and we were in a cloud:



The didn't really warn us about how difficult it would be. But we all handled it well and took enough breaks to recover. At the top it was cloudy still:



Eating lunch.

But we had a brief moment of clarity:



Where you can see the glacier. It was hard for me to tell where it receded, but our prof. said there is a gray area around it where more ice used to be. I saw more strange animals, lemmings mostly, and some that like to pose in front of vistas:



The way down was easier, and the sun was out so it was much warmer.



It was difficult to watch my step and enjoy the view at the same time. So it is good that cameras were invented.

Nothing like a mountain to make you feel small:



I practiced my Norwegian with the Norwegian students (and some with the non-Norwegian students) on the way up and down. Simple stuff like "Jeg liker fjellklatring!" "I like mountain climbing!" Learning a language is much like climbing a mountain. It just takes longer.

Skog og Fjord (forest and...fjord)

A few days ago these French people I know (one who lives with me and two female friends who are French) plus the Greek guy I also live with went for a walk through the woods on the NW end of campus. We were going towards the lake nearby, which is polluted by agricultural runoff; but it didn't turn out to be as interesting as the journey there. For example, it looks like this in the forest:


I think it's used by the Forestry Dept. for Silviculture studies and Forest Ecology. It's one of the healthiest forests I've ever seen. The forest floor is so spongy I can easily go barefoot. I was in awe. It was almost silent except for a very low hum of cars from the highway. I think that this forest will be a refuge of sorts for me this year and next year--a place to come and relax and remember what I'm studying for. Who.

I had a good time with the Frenchies and the Greek too. I said to one of them on the way out "I love you French people!" and he laughed. They are so nice. At least these are. There's so many accents around me I'm going to sound funny soon.

On Saturday, the next day I went with Harald, Ninni, Unni, her daughter and her daughter's friend, and of course the dog, all piled into Harald's boat on the Oslo Fjord. It seemed to struggle with so many passengers, but we managed to go quite a ways. We saw the city of Oslo's new opera house:


You can walk onto the roof! We also saw a lot of beautiful islands on the way, like this one:



And here we are on the struggling yet reliable boat:


Unni and I, and now Harald and Ninni:



At one point we reached a small cove next to an island, where Unni told me there were dolphins once who swam with the people there. Unni's daughter, Lill Nora, asked around if anyone would swim with her. I was not really feeling good about swimming because it was already kind of cold when it was cloudy, which it was intermittently throughout the day. But, I thought hey, this is Norway! Do as the Norskies do. As they say. So, to prove myself as a half-ish Norwegian decendant I jumped in the fjord and even snorkeled for 30 minutes:


Picture taken with Lill Nora's underwater camera. This is also from her camera--see if you can spot the crab:


Speaking of crabs, later on Lill Nora and her friend found a dead crab on the beach, and like the sweet girls they are, they made quite the elegant burial site for the little guy:



Unni said it was like watching them revert back to childhood--they are both twelve but have been straddling that line between adult and child lately. This day was about childhood for them:

They were so serious about it. It was wonderful. They named the crab Ludvig the 5th for some reason.

This wonderful day was finished with a delicious dinner and a walk with Unni at sunset with the dog, Selena. The sunset was nice and there was a full moon but I didn't get the moon, just the sunset:


Tomorrow is my first class. With great weekends like these I think I'll deal with studying just fine!

Rainy Day in Oslo

So much has happened that I want to share! I'll start with the afternoon/evening I spent with Unni, who has done so much for me so far I feel overwhelmed. The day we met at my dorm she took me to the nearby town of Drøbak, where there are cobblestone streets, old buildings and it's right along the Oslo fjord. We had typical Norwegian food for dinner, which was off their lunch menu but they were nice enough (or desperate enough for business) to serve it to us. Mine was splatter of sorts of different bread toppings like salmon, egg, ham, etc.:



Then we went to enjoy the fjord by laying in the sun on the grass and then jumping in the water, something I thought I'd never do in a fjord. I got used to it, but it was COLD!



I got my cell phone with Unni too, at a shopping mall in the town of Ski (pronounced like "she") so I got an iPhone, which I don't really need, but they didn't seem to have a cheaper plan....and all right, I like it. I've already texted my friend Finn Ove in Norwegian.

Yesterday was the day the whole group of new International students went to Oslo. And it was raining. All day. Luckily we were going to 2 museums and then were on our own, and once that happened the rain let up somewhat, and completely stopped by 5 pm.

In the morning we went to the Nobel Peace Museum, learning about Fridjof Nansen, who won it in 1922. He was a great explorer before that, going further North than anyone else at the time. And then he dedicated himself to feeding starving people in Russia. That's over-simplifying what he did but it's what I got out of our 45 minute tour. He's a Norwegian hero, and it shows by the silly cartoons they made of him simplifying his deeds for small children. My favorite was the one showing him flexing in the mirror and being in love with himself. Couldn't find that one online but you can see other cartoons here.

After our tour we walked around a bit near one of the ferry ports. I saw some sparrows and got really close to them, because they are more used to people. I remembered when I was seven in a cafe near Frogner Park (I think?) and a bird ate out of my hand. The birds were not fooled that I had food:


Their loss. Next we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum, where many really old, and some really really old, houses had been painstakingly rebuilt in this one location for posterity. In the first house, made in the 1600s, we were serenaded by Norwegian folk musicians.


Listening to her first song, a cappella, brought me very close to tears. It was a song about calling for her lost cow, which in those days (and now as well?) I think really would bring one to tears. Then they played hardanger (what he's holding) and danced as well.

Here are some of the houses from the outside. I titled this one "Wait, when am I now?"


It almost looks like the woman from the past is stepping into the older, yet modern woman. Note the grass roofs.

For dinner I met Sverre, who heard about from my dad's cousin Nancy, who is probably related to me somehow very distantly. He showed me where the bombing happened after we ate. I didn't want to take pictures at first, and I'm sure everyone reading this has seen some already, but here's what I took:


Roses adorning the fence that keeps people away from the Parliament building, seen in the background.


There were a lot of broken windows boarded up surrounding the area, but this one at a news building was particularly dramatic.


Finally the sea of roses outside Oslo's main church. Sverre told me there were so many at one point it was up to knee height. And people are still bringing them, but less than before. They have composted many of the first batch.

I guess I'll end this long entry with the tiger, or tigeren (as is his title), in front of the main Oslo station:

Behind him is a hotel being remodeled, not where any bombing occurred.

Norway

Well, here I am at last. Daughter of Norway is in Norway. The flight wasn't so long but I couldn't get much sleep. I watched some Icelandic shows on the plane and every announcement was in both English and Icelanic. Norwegian and Icelandic are similar, but I think they are more different than British and American English.

I'll start with some pictures of my dorm. I have my own room that I can lock with a key, and then I share a common area with kitchen, sitting room, toilet, and shower with 5 other people. I found out today that the reason we don't have 3 of our roommates yet is that they will be Norwegians and so they will come next week after the International student orientation events are over. Here is my room:


Close observers will note the sweet orange colored duffel bag from Gino. I was surprised to see one other orange colored bag of almost the same design at the baggage claim. The room is much tidier now after I finally put stuff away this morning. I was going to do it yesterday but I fell asleep almost immediately at 9 PM. Here is the view from my window:



It was a rare sunny day--others here have told me it's been raining a lot, and sure enough it's been raining almost the whole day today.


My building is called Børsen, with the unfortunate meaning "Stock Exchange". I thought I was in an Environmental school. Here is a view from outside:



We are on the second floor. So far it's me, a guy from Greece and a guy from France (Brittany). I of course told him about visiting my cousin in Nantes and spoke a little French at him. He took it in stride. They are both very nice and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

As promised, the sun really did set extremely late last night. Here it is after 9PM:

In midsummer it can be setting at 11 PM. I went out and appreciated the sun even though I was really tired. I went to a few places on campus and I walked to the grocery store, about a mile and a half away. The store clerk knew I wasn't Norwegian somehow--I'm still trying to figure out why. He was an Asian guy and probably spoke way better Norwegian than I.

In terms of classes and my major, I haven't heard much talk of ecology yet, but Norway as a whole is much more ecological than the states in some ways. They compost as well as recycle, and just looking at the country form the sky I could see many more forests than I usually see. I talked with a really interesting guy from the US about his travels to Nepal and Bhutan doing sustainable agriculture. Really cool.

Oh this is disgusting--I can barely stay awake! I guess that's all for now til my jetlag wears off!

Michigan 2011

Seeing as it's my last day of vacation in Michigan (if this was my journal there would be lots of stars and shine lines around that) I might as well finally blog about it. There will likely be overlap with Santini's entry but I've vowed not to look at hers until I'm done.

Highlights, in list form a la cousin Emily:

1. The beach. It sounds a bit cliche to say there is magic in the air here, but I've thought so for a long time. The weather was perfect the entire time since I got out of my car and stepped into the beach house. I said to the sky (weather gods?) as I was driving through the deluge of rain, "Ok, I'll take this now. As long as the rest of the time is sunny I'll take the rain now." And who knows, maybe it worked. Swimming was good, laying on the beach was hot but still good, and my now traditional jogs to the pier and back were also good. There wasn't a really wavy day like Nikki likes but I'll take the sun and be satisfied.

The view from the top of this thing is also great:

See:



2. The concert and going out on the town with Nancy and Brad. Nancy and Brad took me out to have a good time in Grand Haven, where we had some drinks, danced and played pool. I have never played pool so well before--I even made a shot where I bounced the ball off the side into a hole. Makes me want to play again someday.

The concert, Skillet and Theory of a Dead Man, were not really my style of music to begin with but I really got into Skillet's music and even a few songs of ToDM. Skillet is two men and two women in the main band with a guy on violin and a guy on cello for some songs. The sound was epic, and even though they're a Christian rock band they didn't rub your face in it. Plus being at a concert during sundown is pretty awesome. Nikki and T.J. and I all lived up to T.J.'s namesake and Totally Jammed out to the music.

3. The beach at night with Nikki. In the absence of Emmy, Nikki joined me on the beach this year. It was such a clear night with no moon, so the stars were especially bright. We saw the biggest shooting star I have ever seen down there, so much that Nikki asked if it was a firework. Sylvia said the next morning that it was Nature's firework. So true.

4. Breakfast of oatmeal, blueberries and raspberries. Yup.

5. In our trip to downtown Holland, Nikki and I aided the economy by buying books (one I certainly don't need--Tina Fey's book--but will provide me with entertainment I'm sure) and I bought the kids ice cream at that place that's also a chocolatier. We were provided with another kind of treat--there was a street magician performing outside down the street! We watched him make fun of the teenagers around him, steal a 20 dollar dill from one of them only to cut it out of a lime later on, make balls disappear under cups, turn into oranges and make a honeydew melon appear under his hat. We tipped him (with actual money) and then go the heck out of there before he could steal a twenty from us. Or made fun of us, or something. Definitely not an ordinary event!


On this last night I walked almost to the pier with this classy lady:



With whom I hope to be biking with again tomorrow morning. After I see the stars one more time tonight. She seems very healthy, robust even. That biking does wondrous things. Plus it's like flying.

The last sunset for me here was double:



But really last night's was the best, as it was so clear. Didn't get a picture of it. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Santini that night, as she was bundled up against the cold (hoodie pulled tight and everything) as we were waiting for the fireworks to start, for an adorable effect.

Going back to work is going to suck! And I'll be putting in my two week notice in a week and a half, so I'm nervous for that. I was hoping that we wouldn't have any company parties before I left, but we will be having one next weekend. At least I won't be putting in my notice before then--that would be awkward! Counting down to Norway...and when I get there, I will be blogging more often. An it fits with my blog name, finally.