Update

I've officially been home for 19 days. It seems so weird to think that just 20 days ago I was in Oslo, walking around Sognsvann lake. Weird I tell ya. I miss Norway, but not the way I thought I would. I almost feel like I never left. Then again, there are certain things that keep cropping up that I notice are different. I thought I would feel stressed about being away from Norway, at least at first. The day I left I was anxious and had numerous occasions where I just wanted to run back to Kringsja. But after that...no culture shock, hardly any jet lag.  It was certainly unexpected. My experience feels less real than I thought it would. It's scary how it can feel like that. It's not like it faded away either. It was just like all of a sudden I was home and doing home stuff not in Norway doing Norway stuff.

There are so many times when I talk about it though..."When I was in Norway.." "Ever since I've been back..." "Sarah Ferguson...." And whenever anyone asks I'm quick to tell them Norway was and is still my favorite place and that it is the best experience of my life so far.

Two nights ago I got to swing dance again for the first time since I've been back. I was on a high from it still when I got to work Wednesday. I went to Buffalo (an hour plus drive). There was a mini lesson which happened to be almost exactly what I had learned while in Oslo. The instructors were nowhere near as good (or funny) as my great Norwegian instructors, but I knew what I was doing of course. I danced with several guys who knew what they were doing, and I even taught one of them a new move! (sliding doors, flirt, and the longer one out of sliding doors) Sara and Amanda came with me and I was so proud of them! They both danced with just about as many people as I did, and I think they had a pretty good time ;)  I definitely want to go again. Hopefully I can get some more recruits! Every time we rotated partners I wanted to say "Takk for dansen" though-and I did a couple times :p

One thing I realized being home is that I don't want to stay in this area. Before I knew I wanted to go away to experience other things, but now I just want to get out. As many good things there are to say about small towns, it seems like the not-so-good ones are more magnified. Especially the gossip. That's all anyone ever does here! (Is it just here? Or is everyone in America a gossip?)  I have noticed myself unconsciously not telling stories that other people had told me because it's just GOSSIP!! I don't want people to be up in my business and I don't want to know everything about other people either.

Another thing I do is say "nei" a lot here. I'm not sure if anyone notices though. No one ever says anything about it. I know Sara knows what I'm saying but I feel like everyone else maybe just thinks I misspoke. Sometimes I say "eh" too but not pronounced enough for people to make fun of me for sounding Canadian.

I'm also proud to say I am still regularly eating my brown cheese! I've gotten a lot of people to try it since I've been home and everyone has liked it! I was so impressed. I did injure myself with the cheese slicer the other day, but that was the only bad thing that's ever happened related to brown cheese.

I'm hoping this post wasn't too unorganized. I'm not feeling very focused right now, so on that note. Until next time..

Last Days

My last week in Oslo was pretty rainy. Like I said, Monday and Tuesday were nice days but Wednesday rained almost all day long. Thursday rained a lot, a little Friday, and a good chunk of Saturday. Friday was nice most of the day though, and Saturday afternoon/night turned out great.

I met up with Johanne Friday afternoon. She had an errand to run that required us to go back to her apartment, so I got to see where she lives. I was really happy about this. I haven't really gotten to see how any Norwegians my age live except in Kringsja. The apartment she's living in right now is really small, but SO cute! I had a great time with her. We got ice cream downtown, stumbled upon a gay pride festival, and hung out at one her favorite places, a bar/coffee shop and music shop called "Bare Jazz."

I met up with Kristbjorn and Eivind that night. Another great time. Took a walk to Sognsvann, got bit by some mosquitoes (oh wait, that was mostly Eivind :p), just hung out. That night I was trying to stay up for the sunrise so we stayed out quite late. I did stay up until the time I was supposed to, but it was cloudy and really cold out (10 C!) so I decided to just go to bed. 

My last day (Saturday) was spent mostly just cleaning and packing. I had a bit of trouble packing at first, but it worked out okay. It poured in the morning. Luckily I made  it to Kiwi to buy my brown cheese before that happened ;). Around 5 pm it cleared up and the sun came out. I was so excited about that and took the liberty to go for a walk. I think this was really my "goodbye" walk. It's funny how I never get bored on my walks. I just find myself thinking about so many things and all of a sudden I'm halfway around the lake. I took my time with this walk, enjoying the scenery and the feel. This time my mind found itself filled with thoughts of gratitude and appreciation for my time in Norway and for the people I met. I took time to say a "thank you" to Sognsvann, to Oslo, to Norway in general for the great experience.

I was trying to think of how to compare my love for the U.S. with my love for Norway. I decided that I love the U.S. like I would love a family member. At first I loved it because I was told to, because I was born here, just like you originally love your family because well...they're your family. But now, I love the U.S. because it is my home, because it is familiar to me and because it is in many ways (but not all of course), a great place to live. Norway on the other hand, I would compare to meeting a new "old" friend. I think of my relationship with Sarah kind of like this. First you meet someone and you don't know them so you need to get to know them, but the more you do you realize they feel like an old friend to you. You just fit together. I feel that way with Norway. It was new and took a bit of adjusting, but something inside me just feels like it is an "old friend" to me, someplace that I won't be able to set aside. 

I will return to Norway. I know that. I can feel it. It may take some years, it may be in a completely different context, but I'll be back eventually.  When I think of my time there, I am hit with a rush of memories: people, places, dances. It has been the best experience of my life. With that being said, I hope to have many more "best" experiences. Oslo (and Norway in general of course) will always have a place in my heart. Takk for alt Norge. Ha det bra!

The Long Trip Home

On Sunday my day started at 3:30 am. I'd gotten about two hours of sleep. I walked to Sognsvann with the hope of finally getting to watch the sunrise-and I DID get to see it. It was pretty cloudy when I walked over and still cloudy when I got there, but there were two decent chunks of sky that were visible in the East. I stood there for about 15 minutes watching the sky get lighter and lighter. Then, I decided to start my walk around. It was an awesome walk. Every time I got to a place where I could see that part of the sky it was different. At one point I had a very good idea exactly where the sun was because the clouds behind it were so vibrantly pink and orange. Needless to say I never actually saw the sun, but the sky made up for it. It took me a little over an hour to make it back home. I stopped a lot. I was trying to take in everything I could, knowing that it might be years before I could see a sunrise at 3:50 am again. I stopped at my favorite place, the dock on the opposite side of the lake. I couldn't sit because the dock was soaked from the rain but I just stood there and stared out at everything. It was just me and Sognsvann and the Oslo sun, newly awake. The left side of the lake was covered by a thick sheet of puffy grey clouds, while on the right side of the sky there were wisps of pink and orange clouds on a backdrop of baby blue sky, and these were reflected in the water. Such a contrast.

When I finally made it back home I took my time eating and getting everything ready to leave. I left Kringsja around 7:15 am. I had sort of said "goodbye" the day before so the fact that I was sweating like a pig because of carrying my bags didn't really interrupt the fact that I was leaving for the last time. I am very very happy that I was able to leave on a sunny day.

Overall no major problems flying home. There were some minor worrisome details with the flights, but no problems with security/customs. My brown cheese made it! At Newark they were cancelling and delaying departures due to weather so my flight was delayed a bit, but only by a half hour or so.

There were a couple times when I wanted to turn around and run back to Kringsja. At the Oslo airport the majority of people at my gate were Norwegian but there were so many Americans and they were all talking how Americans talk and I just wanted that to be put on hold. Newark was crazy. Loud and lots of people. As soon as I got there some guy mouthed off to one of the airport workers and the worker stormed off, spouting something about how she doesn't know why she even tries to help. There were a lot of people complaining about the wait to recheck our bags. And yes, it did take forever but it was just very stressful. You wouldn't see Norwegians complaining that loudly at least :p

My parents met me at the airport and it was SO great to see them. Everything felt way too normal though. It felt like I wasn't seeing them for the first time in six months, or riding in the car or walking around my house. Everything just felt familiar.  Even seeing Sean felt familiar. Same kind of thing with my parents. I was SO happy to see him, but everything after just felt normal.

One thing that was different was how DARK it gets here. I'm hoping that will help my adjusting-ya know, so my body knows when to fall asleep. I slept GREAT last night and I was up by 7:30 this morning. I guess it makes sense though. I was up for almost 36 hours with only about 5 hours of sleep.

I think I will get a bit overwhelmed by all the people who want to talk to me/see me. I spent a good twenty minutes texting/facebooking people before I got out of bed this morning. I'm glad I have two months to say hi to everyone again :p Some people only come home for a couple weeks.

Sean is coming over for breakfast today. I have an eye appointment this afternoon and then car shopping! Should be a good first day back.  Though it's only 8:30 am and I'm already sweating...hey, summer.

Things you should know about Norway

These are just preliminaries. There will be more...

1. This is number one for a reason. Norway is the most beautiful country I have ever been to. You just can't get away from it. Even in Oslo (the capital city mind you..) there are beautiful places almost everywhere. Sognsvann lake is one of my favorites.  What's great is that I have only been to see a very small portion of the country and if the capital city is this beautiful, the rest of the country has to be amazing.
2. Pay attention to the sunset in the winter. It is the most beautiful I have ever seen and you are able to catch it almost everyday because it happens so early.
3. Norwegians love nature. Skis are perfectly acceptable to take on the metro, or anywhere else for that matter. If you're not outside enjoying a nice day, there is something wrong with you. Also, children should learn to ski ASAP (that way their parents don't have to drag them around in a sled all the time). In kindergartens children sleep outside in the spring/summer and take tons of field trips.
4. Babies in Norway go everywhere and are extremely well protected. The strollers have heavy duty wheels-built for endurance and stability. And the babies...well, there's so much padding in there that if they did tip over, they would be a-okay. 
5. It's more confusing when it's light so late than it was when it was dark so early.
6. Brown cheese is great. Give it time. And whoever came up with the cheese slicer was a genius (yet another form of Norwegian moderation).
7. Norway offers parents nearly a year off to split when their child is young. Fathers get 12 weeks all to themselves (use it or lose it). The normal vacation period workers get is four weeks and that's from the start-no working your way up.
8. All the Norwegians I've met are extremely friendly, but don't expect anyone to voluntarily sit by you on the metro.
9. Norwegians eat kaviar and mayonaise out of a tube. They also eat a lot of fish. A Norwegian breakfast consists of buttered bread and various fish spreads, among other things.
10. Norwegians like their free time, so basically everything is closed on Sundays (including most grocery stores). It's frustrating for International students, especially for holidays we didn't know existed. There was one time where grocery stores either were not open or were reduced hours fri-mon (Friday was National Day, Saturday was reduced hours and both Sunday and Monday were holidays so everything was closed). 
11. Norwegians seem to be very trusting. For example when you buy a student ticket to something they do not always ask to see your ID and when you ride the metro you only have to validate your ticket the first time you use it (if you have a monthly pass for example). You don't need it to get through a barricade or anything, so it's very easy to play the system. Also, Norwegian children seem to be trusted to be by themselves quite a bit. I've seen kids that are pretty young riding the metro by themselves. I trust people more in Norway.

Coffee with a friend and more..

Today I was happy to meet up with one of the ladies I went to Ulvik with earlier this year, Tone Grete. I am so lucky to have met so many wonderful people on my trip, her included. We had a very nice chat and she even got me a small key chain as a memento. See below :) (Moose)

I started sorting through some of my things to start packing, and I cleaned the bathroom and some of my closet. It was rainy again today. Yesterday it rained from noon until I went to bed and I when I woke up it was raining again. I'm hoping for at least one more nice day before I leave. Tone Grete says this is what it was like last summer-raining off and on a little everyday. It's very inconvenient if you want to plan to do anything outdoors. 

Not sure if I mentioned this but I plan to continue my blog at least into the first couple weeks I am back. I am very interested in what sort of culture shock I will find myself faced with, and I am thinking there will be many things that I notice that I could not have seen before as I make my re-entry into American culture. I'd like to document it as much as possible. I am expecting some culture shock, definitely. Since I have been here I feel as though I have become separated from the "American" way of life. I think one thing that demonstrates this is how easy it has become  to pick out Americans who is American here and on my travels. I am separate enough that I can see that. I think of myself in a weird sort of limbo, still American of course but a little more Norwegian than I started and a little bit less grounded. One thing I expect to have trouble with is sliding back into the role I used to play in my life. Here in Norway I did not come in with a role. No one knew who I was, no one expected anything from me, and living with international students especially, there were no specific set of norms to follow. I am wondering if I will feel restricted when I come home. Not only will I be coming back into "normal" life, into a set of norms that I once followed and will again be expected to follow, but these norms are complied in the goings on of a small town. As much as I miss home and I look forward to the familiarity I will find there, I am worried that I may not fit. As I'm rereading this, it might sound like I'm saying that I don't want to come home or am simply setting my little town aside. That is not true at all. I am so very excited to come home and see my family and my friends, and drive around Amish country, and get a Duper doughnut, and just be home. But like I said, I think my "role" will have changed, even just slightly and I am very interested to see what comes out of that shift. 

One thing I am disappointed about is that I never met anyone from Buffalo! Next time I travel I am bringing a buffalo shirt or hat or something because I know they're out there!  

For any of you that are wondering, my flight is due to arrive in Buffalo on Sunday night at 6:50. 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday I had a full day-lots of walking. I started at Oslo City Hall. They offer free guided tours everyday during the summer and I thought I should take advantage. The inside is beautiful. There are a lot of great paintings. In one room every inch of the wall and ceiling is painted. It's kind of overwhelming because you feel like you're in some sort of jungle, but also really neat.

After the city hall tour I walked around Akker Brygge, which is down by the docks where I dance on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer. I didn't realize it went further down, so I explored all the way to the end and found a very small "beach" there.

Next I took a bus to the center of Grunnerlokka because that was one of the places I wanted to walk around in. I had only been to the flea market there on Sundays and one bar. I ended up just wandering around. I think I got quite a ways away from the main part. I followed the river that the club Bla is located on and eventually ended back up where I started. I had the intention of stopping in a cafe but that didn't happen. I got frozen yogurt at 7-Eleven later though :) I walked from Grunnerlokka all the way back to central station. I thought about just going home but I ended up taking the t-bane to Majorstuen and walking to Vigelandsparken. I had only seen it in the winter and it was quite a bit different. Way more people, greener. I think I almost liked it better in the winter. The statues had more meaning, I think. I explored a little bit of the park and walked down some streets I'd never been on and then at about 16:30 I decided I was pooped and needed to go home.

For some reason the internet isn't working right now and my spotty wifi was being very efficient last night so I spent most of Monday night watching Jera pack. She and her husband left around noon yesterday. I'm very sad to see them go. We spent a lot of time together this past week, mostly just hanging out in the kitchen. I hope to be able to visit them someday. Jera's masters program next takes her to Germany and from there who knows..maybe they will stay in Germany, maybe they will come back to Norway or go to Slovenia where Jera's from.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to visit the islands I had missed last week: Gressholmen and Lidoya. They were obviously less popular. Lidoya had a lot of summer houses on it. It would be a cute place to stay. Gressholmen was grassy and woody. There was one cafe/shop and some people swimming. I just walked through both the islands and caught the next ferry. Last night I went to the open swing dance at Akker Brygge. I reeeeeeally wish I had brought my camera. I never do because usually I don't have any pockets and things tend to get stolen if you bring a bag. It's just such an awesome thing to watch. A couple groups put on a show during the free dance even. And I still don't have a video of me dancing. There were more guys than girls last night so I danced for basically the whole two hours. It was a ton of fun. I danced with the old crazy guy again. Boy that guy is awesome.  I have no idea what kind of dancing we were doing but I was hopping up and down and twisting with whatever he was doing. After the dance I went with some of the dancers to an Irish pub. I talked with a Filipino guy who has been living in Norway for 8 or 10 years now. It was interesting because his perspective was both foreign and Norwegian. We shared some stories from Kringsja because he used to live there too. He told me that it took him a year to learn the language and only three years to adopt the Norwegian sing-song rhythm. It seems like he fits in very well now.

Today it looked like it would rain but I didn't want to start the day cooped up in my room, so I decided to ride the T-bane. I took line 1 which is the line with the big ski jump. I had never been all the way to the end so that's what I did-took it all the way up the mountain. The scenery is awesome going up. You can see basically the whole downtown area. It started raining on the way back down and is still raining now. It's cold too. Yesterday and Monday were pretty warm. I am still dreading the weather back home. I really don't think I'll be able to handle the heat.

It's so weird that there's only a few of us in our flat. Right now I am the only one here because the Norwegian guy and his girlfriend are at work and so is my roommate. It's nice in a way, but also kind of lonely.

Lastly, I would like to wish my wonderful mother a very happy birthday today. I wish I could be home to celebrate, but I guess four days isn't too long :) Have a great day, Mom!

 City Hall (above and below)

 Super Moon at Sognsvann!

An Unexpected Morning

Today I planned to do some island hopping in the Olso fjord, but I had a bit of an unexpected obstacle this morning. I went for a run around Sognsvann like I have been doing the past few mornings (more about this later). I thought my roommate had left for work, but like always I put a note on the door saying not to lock the door to our suite because I only bring my access card to get in the building. Well, I came back about an hour later and what-da-ya-know....locked. So begins my adventure: I went to the SiO office and it was going to cost 250kr to call the caretaker to unlock my room. Not doing that. I message Remi on facebook (because why would roommates ever exchange phone numbers?) and waited for a response. Jera (my flatmate) and her husband were having breakfast with a friend so I ate some cornmeal stuff with yogurt (surprisingly tasty) with them and just hung out for a while. Finally I decided I would go to campus to look for Remi. I knew what building he worked in and that he was doing an internship on fish, but nothing else. A good start, I thought. Alex, Jera's husband, decided he wanted to go for a walk so he came too. Luckily he had just met Remi the other day and could add some information to mine. For example, Remi is studying the development of the fish, cod specifically. We ended up only having to ask three people to help. A woman with a slightly British accent was the most helpful and pointed us to exactly the right area of the building. From there on it was luck. We happened to walk past an open door and see Remi sitting there. I think he was surprised and a little worried when he saw me, and I think he felt badly for locking me out. An honest mistake. I was just happy to have a key so I could go shower! (which I haven't done yet...hey, this story needed to get told)  I really like Jera's husband (just so ya'll know his name is actually Alejandro-how cool is that?!) We had some good conversation during our outing. I think he enjoyed himself. He got to see some of campus and get some nice outdoor pictures.

I think a shower is in order before I continue. Hold tight.

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In other news:

Last night I went to Akker Brygge to dance. I'm not sure if I explained how this works. Basically if you were an outsider you would be walking along the docks and suddenly run into a bunch of people standing around watching about 15 couples swing dancing. We get a lot of people that stop and watch, and they often applaud after the songs. There are some really great swing dancers that come. I love watching the older people dance. It's so awesome to think that most of them have been dancing since they were younger and continue to find joy in dancing. I would like to be like that when I'm older. Actually last night I danced with a couple of those older people. There is this one guy who is always there. You can't help but watch him. He goes craaaazy. Hopping around and kicking his feet up and throwing his hands up and just making all kinds of faces. It just looks fun. He seems like quite a character-he's got a tattoo that stretches across his chest (not sure of what). I know because he always wears his shirt with half the buttons undone. Anyway, he asked me to dance and all I know is rock step. I think he was doing some Lindy Hop but the rest may have been made up. Anyway, I danced with him twice and it was a ton of fun. I had a little trouble following at first but after a while I just decided to stop trying to figure out what he was doing and just go with it. The other older guy I have no idea what kind of dance he was doing-much slower and no hopping. He was even harder to follow but he was doing a pretty good job of leading. There was another old man that was very good. He was fun to watch too. I didn't dance with him though. Another exciting bit of news: I learned the basics to Lindy Hop last night thanks to an American named Alex who is visiting his parents (who are living in Norway for who knows what) over the summer. I was so excited. I even danced a couple of dances. We mostly just did the basic steps but I think I did quite well. Now when I get home I won't be starting from scratch when I learn Lindy. I plan to try to go to Buffalo on Tuesday nights to dance and I would LOVE for anyone  and everyone to come with. You don't need any experience, nor do you need a partner (Thank goodness because my boyfriend refuses :p). From what I've read it's a half hour mini lesson and then just a free dance.

Not much more to tell...I had a nice run this morning. My legs were pretty sore but I got it done. Whenever I run here, not just Sognsvann but anywhere in Norway, I get distracted. Sometimes it ends up being a walk because I decide to explore somewhere new. Other times I just get distracted by beautiful things. Today it was the ducklings. I have seen them the past three days and they are just as mesmerizingly (sorry  for bad spelling) cute every time. I also have been stopping at a dock that is basically the halfway point in my run. It's on the opposite side of the lake so even if there are people at the lake, there usually aren't many there and I've been running pretty early so it has been really empty. I just stand on the dock for a few minutes staring out at the lake, watching the ripples come towards me, breathing in the Norwegian air. It's one of those moments you could make last forever.

I'm not sure what I will make of my day today. I'll probably head downtown later. I broke my sunglasses yesterday so I think I'll have to buy a new pair. I don't think I can last for 11 more days without any. Jera has invited me to eat lunch with her. She's making something with buckwheat? Sounds..interesting. And I'm sure it will be good. She always makes tasty things.

Ha det bra!

Some Pictures and a bit of reflection

 These pictures are from 10pm last night in Kringsja. The clouds looked really neat and the sky was an orangey color on top of the blue.

 This is from my walk to Sognsvann around 11:30 last night. It was absolutely perfect except for one thing: mosquitoes. I have so many bites!

 The picture above is from my wallk back to my room after visiting Lara around 1 am.

 This morning I made pancakes. We used some of my maple syrup (I still have some more left) and topped it off with bananas and strawberries. We sat out on the porch and ate. It was gorgeous out (a bit sunny as you can see from the photo of Lara). It was a great last breakfast with Lara. She just left on the T-bane about fifteen minutes ago. I'm going to miss her a ton. I enjoyed my time immensely with everyone here. It's so strange that we're not still together. I have a feeling I will see some of them again though (the important ones) so as much as I feel pretty down about it right now, I'm so happy to have known all of these incredible people.

Thinking about all of the people I've met over the course of my stay here, I realize that it really is about the people you're with. Yes, I love Norway for what it is as a country and there are of course other aspects that are equally important. On the other hand though, it was the people I met that really made it a worthwhile experience...the family, the dancers, my flatmates, EVERYONE. I am so incredibly blessed to have made such great connections here.  It's so crazy to think that all of these strangers can come together over a short period like we did. And even though this may be a special case (all of us international students living together in close quarters), it gives me hope that wherever I go in life, there will always be great people to be met, friends to be made, and good times to be had.

One last family UNO, Goodbye to Micah, Beautiful Day

Last night we got the family together (Lara Micah KB and I) one last time. We played some UNO, and ate some chocolate chip cookies I had made earlier that day. It was really fun. Lara kicked our butts in the beginning with a four game winning streak, but then it even itself out a little. Today was Micah's last day. Lara and I met him for "goodbye" tea this afternoon. One positive: Micah donated his vanilla yogurt to me, along with some tortillas and sun dried tomatoes. If I haven't mentioned it before, the yogurt is INCREDIBLE here, so it was a slight understatement to say I was very happy to inherit it. Lara leaves tomorrow. We're going to meet up once more before she leaves to do something similar (though I think she has a bit more food to donate). I put off going to Kiwi today for just that reason. I did go to Gronland though. I was missing fruits and vegetables badly. Now my fridge is filled-strawberries, nectarines, apples, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, onions...ahhhh yesss.

I also don't think I mentioned that I got A's on my last two exams (if I did, I'm really sorry). I was so happy when I found out because I didn't know what to expect from the grading system and I knew of some friends who thought they did really well on exams and ended up getting poor grades.

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Just got back from one last walk around Sognsvann lake with Lara. It will be a sad day when I take my last walk. That's one thing I'm going to miss for sure.  It was the perfect time to go. We walked in the shade most of the time so not too hot, the sun still blazing in the sky and maybe a few more people than I would have liked, but not overly crowded. The water looked beautiful....dark blue except where the sun glared white across the ripples. We saw some baby ducks (I saw them earlier this morning on my run too). So small and fuzzy. The mom would dive under the water and a few seconds later two of the babies would too. One only put its head in but the other when all the way down.

Now to make some dinner with the veggies I got today!

 This morning before I left for my run...a little before 7:00

 Reading outside...18:30

 Coming back from Sognsvann...20:00

Just wanted to show how light it gets in my kitchen...quite difficult (and hot!) cooking dinner with the sun blazing in the window.

Rome

We were lucky when we booked our Rome hostel and got into a three-bed dorm. The first night we shared the room with a helpful guy from Colombia, the second night a girl from Scotland, and the third night we had the room to ourselves. It ended up being around the corner from reception in another building and had a pretty big kitchen. The downside was you could only cook dinner from 19:30 on. Seriously? We were right next to a grocery store, so that was nice too.

The first day we arrived we walked to a Santa Maria church not far from our hostel. It was grand, as most churches are. We also walked  down to the Colosseum and bought tickets for the next day. Later we walked down to the Vittoriano monument. It was pretty fantastic looking. Right next to it are some old ruins that we didn't ever really get the story on, too. It seemed like in Rome you couldn't turn a corner without seeing an old building or church or ruins. That night we got gelato at the same place Michelle Obama took her girls when they were in Rome (we found it online when we were looking up gelato places). It was very good gelato and the workers were very friendly (and joksters). I socialized a bit that night with some people staying in the hostel. I met a man who is from Philadelphia (family originally from southern India) who met a woman in Sweden and is now trying to get a "green card" of sorts to live there. He explained that it was taking much longer than both of them expected. He was in Italy because they had met in Europe (not Sweden) to celebrate their daughter's birthday and now he was just traveling. 

The next morning we went first to the Colosseum and then to the Roman Forum. It was very hot that day and we got tired pretty quickly. The Colosseum was really cool, just to be inside it. It wasn't quite as big as I had imagined, but awesome just the same. What was neat was that you could see all the structures that were beneath the floor of the Colosseum (I'm not sure what was down there..rooms? cells?). You couldn't go down there though. Only tour groups. The Roman Forum was awesome too, probably more so in my opinion. It was basically the center of Rome. It was a very large area where long ago was where there were markets and temples and court houses and much more. There are tons of ruins. You can see various temples, including where Julius Caesar's body was burned. You follow the Forum up to Capital Hill where the City Hall in Rome sits today. Even though we were tired we walked to the Pantheon after lunch. The Pantheon is one of the best preserved buildings, and it looked completely intact to me. The walls, the floor, everything looked like it could have been built only a hundred years ago, not a thousand. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain. This was much bigger than expected, and quite beautiful. There were a ton of people there. That was basically the end of that day. We were plum tuckered out after that, not to mention hot and sweaty so we went home to shower and nap.

We had an extra day in Rome so we decided to make the next day a daytrip. We both really wanted to see Pompeii, so we decided to check it out. It took about three hours to get there. You had to first take a train to Naples and then go to a different train station to take a train to Pompeii. It's amazing how well  preserved that place is. It is of course all somewhat in ruins, but it is easy to tell what was what. I had my Rick Steves audioguide playing. We only stayed about three hours. You could easily spend the whole day there. On our map there was a trail listed as the 2 hour tour or the whole day tour. We followed the 2 hour path and saw basically all of the different buildings and the important things. We missed some other houses and temples and the amphitheater, but I felt as though we got just enough of Pompeii. One thing I thought was really interesting was in the streets there were stones that were higher up so that everyday when they flooded the roads (to clean them), the pedestrians could still walk without getting wet. The number of stones also indicated whether it was a one way street, two way street, etc.. According to Rick Steves the chariots all had standard sized axles to straddle these stones. They even had a pedestrian street with stones raised even higher so chariots couldn't come through.  The bathhouse was also pretty cool. We saw one of the best preserved houses, but we couldn't go inside. There were a lot of roads that were closed now that we learned used to be open to the public. We saw some taverns, and a brothel which was pretty interesting. It was a smallish building with about four rooms partitioned by stone walls and they each had a very recognizable stone bed (even a stone pillow). There were also some lewd paintings on the walls appropriate to its function. Another very interesting aspect was the plaster casts of the people of Pompeii. It's really neat in a morbid kind of way.

On our last day we took care of some business in the morning-checking out, mailing post cards (which took forever!), and buying a ticket for the bus to the airport. Then we made our way to Vatican City. I knew it was small, but when you are able to walk around the walls and see just how small it really is, it's quite amazing that it's actually it's own state.  We walked into the plaza with St. Peter's, but we didn't go inside the church. The line was humongous and so was the line to the museum so we decided it wasn't important enough to us to wait. Instead we got some yummy four cheese pizza. :) We made our way to a castle of sorts and then got some tasty gelato. 

That night we slept in the airport because we had an early flight the next morning. The airport we flew out of was very small since we were flying Ryanair. Only the arrivals lounge was open all night. It consisted of a fairly large room with about six metal chairs (taken by the time we arrived) and a whole lot of floor space. There was also a stand for selling bus tickets and a cafe. I had read online to stake out a spot behind the vending machines,so that's exactly what we did. The two stands and the vending machine created a nice little corner that was fairly dark and not that big. I was pleased with our selection, and it was just us back there until about midnight when it seemed like a lot more people came in. It was funny, for how many people that were there (there were quite a lot), it all of a sudden got quiet at about 12:30 and everyone just went to sleep. It was silent when I woke up around 2am. I got two good hours of sleep and then the floor was just too hard and cold. Because of this, I slept great on the airplane, was asleep before we stopped ascending. 

I would like to take a short amount of time to rant about the street signs in Europe (Italy in particular). The street signs in Europe seem to rarely be on signs like we have in the U.S. They tend to be carved into the sides of buildings. However, they are not available at all intersections, and not even all big intersections where you would expect a street sign. Thus, it was particularly hard to navigate, in Rome especially. Another tiny rant: whenever anyone gives me directions and says something like, it's easy you'll see it right away. I NEVER see it right away. I spend about ten minutes wandering around where it's supposed to be and either give up, ask someone else, or  maybe find it eventually. Maybe it's just me, but ask Sara because it felt like we were doing things right. 

Overall I would say a solid trip to Italy. It was a good amount of time I think. I was ready to come back to Norway (Sara too) by the time it was over. Italy is a nice place, but I wouldn't ever choose to live there. If I go back, it will be to the south or to visit an Italian friend of mine. 

This concludes my last major trip in my tour of Europe. There are still many, MANY places I would like to go, but I think I've got a good start. I know one thing, I am sick of feeling like a tourist. I realize that I must do many of the touristy things to experience the cities I visit, but I look forward to the day when I can just go to a country as a traveler visiting friends, instead of a broke student constantly looking at a map. 

For now I will take the last fifteen days and enjoy the time I have left in the city I have come to refer to as "home," in a country that I can say I love.