Swing Swing!

Tonight I went to a free dance lesson--Rock Step Swing!! It was so fun! This week the dance organization is offering free classes at night. I was a little skeptical about going, but it ended up being really enjoyable and not as hard as I was expecting.  It ended up being probably 20 guys and a couple more girls. We all stood in a big circle with our partners (which we switched every few minutes or so). I met a lot of people. The instructors were two students and they were really funny and quite good at instructing. I was impressed by how much I picked up in those two hours (even though girls don't really have it too bad-we just have to follow our men). I am thinking about taking the actual class. It will be on Tuesday nights for a number of weeks. The problem is that on top of the membership fee you have to have a membership to the fitness center on campus, which I was not planning on getting.. You can buy special passes to use the gym those certain days but it wouldn't be worth it. So now I have to decide how bad I want to take this class. I think it would be a great thing for me. I would meet a lot of new people, up my confidence level, get some exercise once a week, and learn to dance (a real dance!). Any suggestions? The membership for the dance group is about 60 dollars and the gym is close to 150 for the whole semester and about 30 for each use if I didn't get a membership. It just sounds like a lot of money to be dropping just so  I can take a dance class (and of course use the gym a few times).

Otherwise today was pretty uneventful. I had my family/gender class this morning. That class is going to be a semi-tough one to get through. The professor just reads directly from her notes and it's not thrilling information in the first place. Right now it's a lot of talk about policies the Nordic countries have in place concerning childcare. In itself it's awesome-they have such an interesting system. And while not all of the Nordic Welfare states function in the same way, they basically all have public childcare which the state or other municipalities provide for children from ages 0 to 5. Most also have "Cash for Care" policies that provide parents with money to stay at home and care for their children or pay for private childcare services. We talked about a study that came out recently which claimed that spending a majority of one's childhood in daycare did not lead to behavioral problems. My professor totally dismissed the article simply because it is so obvious for Norwegians that childcare is not harmful, but actually beneficial. While there is some debate about whether or not it is best for the child to be cared for at home, the majority of men and women entrust their children to public childcare services without another thought. Most of the Nordic countries also have something called the "Daddy Quota" which is paternity leave for fathers that is "use it or lose it." In Norway fathers get 12 weeks of this type of paternity leave! And it's even more interesting to think of what these policies do in terms of gender equality (some are even caused by shift in gender relations). I'll save that for another time though...

The rest of the week looks like it will be a bit busier. Tomorrow I have a few errands to run and a "learning to knit" class at night-with free waffles! Friday we have deemed a "study day" and plan to be in the library for most of the day. Friday I also plan to try my hand at cooking chicken for a chicken ranch pasta recipe I found online. Saturday Sarah and I have plans to go to a museum and I may do a bit of shopping around for some things I need.

I have not mentioned it yet, but I signed up to go on a week long trip to Northern Norway! We have a day and a half bus ride and we will be staying in cottages/hostels for four nights. While we are there we will meet native Sami people, visit an ice hotel, and hopefully see the Northern Lights!! I'm excited, though not for the cold. I have realized that I don't like it to be over freezing here. Yes, I love the warmer temperature, but everything getting melty here is not good for anyone. There is wet slush everywhere and it is no fun to walk in :( Plus, when it freezes again every single pathway is going to a deathtrap.  So part of me wishes it won't stay warm much longer so we can just get back to normal. I can't believe I just said that.

Well I guess it's time for me to say good night. Talk to you all soon. Thanks again for following :)

Winter Wonderland

First announcement: I slipped and fell for the very first time today! I'm not mad about it and I am perfectly fine physically (just a little wet from the snow). Honestly, I am amazed that it has not happened before. I was just thinking to myself that it wasn't that slippery with the snow covering everything. I thought too soon I guess.

It's a winter wonderland here in Kringsja today. All of the trees are covered with a layer of snow. It's absolutely beautiful. And it's warm today again! I couldn't believe how nice it felt yesterday. I put my long johns on out of habit and actually got hot walking around campus!! Today felt pretty similar to yesterday. I could definitely get used to this.

I also got my residence permit today! I am officially legal for my stay :)

I had my language class this morning. You don't realize how tired you get until it's noon and you're done. The class goes by fairly quickly but learning language isn't easy and having class at 8:15 am doesn't help either. Today we practiced saying what we will do after class or over the weekend. We also worked on talking about traveling. So thus far I know how to introduce myself, and tell people where I am from and what language I speak. I can say what I would like to do in the future. And I can ask people how they are and give a few answers. And then there's all that vocab we learned too. I still have to listen pretty hard when my professor speaks, but I am definitely improving.

Last night I went with Lara to see a historical drama about a rebellion in Northern Norway by the native Sami people. It was a good movie, but depressing and I really wanted to slap a few of the characters.

Today I need to finish some homework, and then I think I am going to a free dance lesson later. Should be fun. I'm really feeling a nap right now, but we'll see..

Nasjonalmuseet, Family Dinner, and a Movie

Today Lara and I went to the National Art Gallery in Oslo. It's free to everyone on Sundays (yeah man!) so we decided today was as good as any other Sunday to see what it's all about. The prime exhibit there is Edvard Munch's The Scream. Like I said before, I am not a huge art person. I take pleasure in the ability to view what other people have created, I appreciate it, but I am by no means an educated art viewer nor does my interest go any further than that. The national museum had quite a few works by Munch, though there is also a museum specifically dedicated to Munch in Oslo so not too many. There were also a few Picasso paintings, and some Manet and Monet. Mostly it was Norwegian artists that I had never heard of, except for maybe Johan Christian Dahl. The museum was set up so that each room was a different era of painting. It was smaller than I expected, only one floor of artwork, about 26 rooms. It took Lara and I about an hour to get through, though it could have taken us much more time if we were avid art followers.

It's been snowing for most of the day today. Walking around in the city is a little rough because there is slush everywhere but otherwise it's kind of nice. It's supposed to be in the positive degrees (C) this week, which is great, except the snow is probably going to melt and then refreeze into more ice later :(.  

I have been working on my language homework today and am basically done for Tuesday. I always feel like I understand it in class and for most of my homework but then when I get to class the next day I get nervous.

Family Dinner Night was fabulous! We made lasagna (with spinach instead of meat) and it was deeeeelicious. And with garlic bread on the side-simply amazing. My belly is still happy, even hours later. After dinner we watched a Norwegian film called Troubled Waters. There wasn't much action; it was more of an emotional film but it was good. It was the story of a man who was released from prison after serving a sentence for the murder of a young boy that he was charged with when he was young. Basically he ends up playing the organ for a church and meeting a woman who has a son very similar to the boy whose death he had a hand in. They start a relationship and everything is going pretty well until the dead boy's mother recognizes him and causes a whole bunch of havoc.  It was in Norwegian but the subtitles were in English and I didn't think that affected the quality of the movie whatsoever.  We started the movie in building 14 but about 30 minutes in the fire alarm went off, so we moved into my building.

Tomorrow I am participating in a short psych study for a fellow student-something to do with the reaction to pictures.. I have my Norwegian Society course in the evening and then I might be going to a free dance class after (boogie woogie!). Should be a pretty good day.

Night all.

Fresh Snow and Norwegian Sweaters :)

I went outside this morning to discover a fresh layer of snow. Nothing like at home, only a few inches, but enough to cover all of the icy paths. It was kind of refreshing. I was starting to miss snow at home. It snowed "pretty snow" pretty much all day today-big flakes coming down ever so slowly.

The most exciting news today-I bought two Norwegian sweaters!! Thank you to the Sticek family for my Christmas presents :)  Sarah, Lara and I went to a second hand store called "UFF." It was a pretty big store and had quite a bit of clothes, everything from snow pants to nightgowns to traditional skirts. (And a nice selection of heavy woolen sweaters) Before I came to Norway I had planned on purchasing an authentic sweater like these. They are pretty pricey new, but good quality so I was glad that we found some used. Lara also found two that she fancied and Sarah one. Overall we were very pleased with our purchases. The sweater that I am wearing in the first picture is more of a dark teal color and the second is more of a gray.

Let's see..what else did I do today.. Got a whole lot of groceries, then realized I was out of milk and had to go back.. I just made some scalloped potatoes to eat for dinner too. We'll see how they turned out later.

Yesterday we had a movie night with Lara, Sarah and Joschka. At Lara's request we watched The Apartment (1960). I don't watch too many old movies, but I thought it was pretty entertaining. It was a little long but had some funny parts. Pretty scandalous for an old movie, in my mind. But it was the start of the 60's I guess.

Sunday we are planning to have a family dinner and a movie night. Lasagna :) (by family I am referring to Lara, Sarah, Joschka and I). Sarah is taking a Norwegian film class so we are going to watch one of the films for her class. I'm excited!

Yesterday

Yesterday was another beautiful day weather-wise. It was sunny, clear and not unbearably cold. I took a walk around the lake today-just as gorgeous as the last time.

I had my second language class. I would consider it a success. It wasn't as confusing  as the first class and I feel as though I am improving.

For lunch  I made potato wedges. So good.

Today one of the student societies is having free cookies and coffee/tea so Lara, Sarah and I are going to that and then heading to IKEA to pick up a few things. I am going to try my hardest not to buy anything unnecessary. What I really need is some sort of baking pan. I'm think about maybe just buying a loaf pan because I shouldn't need something too big but now I'm thinking maybe I will buy a regular sized baking pan in case I cook something bigger for the rest of the week. I would also like to buy a drinking glass since I either use my mug or water bottle to put drinks in but I'm thinking I could probably survive on that too.

So.. there was an electrician working in our kitchen yesterday. I thought he simply put in a new light but he actually installed a timer for the light. It is INCREDIBLY annoying. I'm not exaggerating when I say the light goes out every two minutes. It went out twice during one song playing on my ipod when I was trying to rewrite my notes for class. So every two minutes I had to wave my hands around to try to catch the sensor. 

Another Sunny Day in the Neighborhood

For some reason my hands decided they were going to rebel and become extremely dry and irritated. I'm thinking it's all the coming in and out of the cold air, and the hot water from dish washing and showering that did it. Anyway I only brought a tiny bit of lotion with me, so I had to go out and buy some today. The 7 kr lotion was sold out of course so I had to buy one for 30 that was only a bit bigger. Anyway, my hands are thankful, though not 100 % again.

I also discovered that I am not drinking enough water here. I was rudely awoken at 6:45 this morning to a bothersome cramp in my calf. Instead of getting through one water bottle I have gone through two today. I decided that I also shouldn't be a lazy bum anymore. While there aren't much options for exercising besides walking (or running outside) or spending money to join the gym or rent skis, I took to my old tricks of in-room workouts. I had a couple different workouts pinned to my Health board on Pinterest so I tried one of those. It wasn't anything spectacular but if I can do that and throw a couple walks into my week I can make it through until it gets warm enough to run outside.

Today was a really nice day. Clear and Sunny, though pretty cold. I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean. It may have actually been warmer here than some places at home. I heard it was in the negatives this morning in Elmira. Here it was probably in the single digits only. Even though clear days usually mean colder weather, they are so much cheerier. I'm looking out my window at the moon right now. The sky is four or five shades darker than sky blue and the moon is nearly full so it makes for a pretty awesome view.

I had my first class for Family, Gender and the Welfare State today. I think it will be a bit more challenging than I anticipated. At least until I get things figured out. The professor's English is a bit difficult to understand (I can't imagine how my non-native English classmates are doing) and she talks quite a bit faster than the professor in my other class. Sometimes she uses phrases that are not something a native english speaker would say and it takes me a minute to figure it out. Also, during the lecture she was simply reading word for word off of her notes so it was even harder to understand because she was never really talking to us (if that makes sense). When she did divert from her notes, it was clear that she was very interested in the subject and is probably a very good lecturer. We talked about some technical terms today about welfare states and their policies towards families. I don't have a very good background in that stuff so I guess I will have to try to get a lot out of the reading. Luckily this class at least gives us which chapters and articles we are supposed to be reading for each class. Some don't even do that. I found out the seminars (there are only three) are optional but recommended. Not sure if that is the same for all classes with seminars or not.

I bought the language book today. The book is about 200 pgs and cost 440 NOK (about $80). I also purchased the compendium for the Gender class (articles that are not found free online through the database) and that ended up costing 89 NOK ($16ish). So not too bad. I am going to hold out and hope I can keep taking my Norwegian Society book out of the library or find someone to sell it to me for less. So I may only be spending about 100 bucks on books. Wouldn't that be great?

I also did my first homework assignment. We had to do exercises from a chapter in our language book. It wasn't too hard. I am both excited and nervous about this class. I think it will be a great experience by the end, but definitely not an easy road.

I moved around the furniture in my room last night. It took me about four moves but I think I have everything settled finally. My bed is still where it was but I moved my desk further to the left, all the way against the wall and put the comfy chair in the corner on the same side as my bed so that I can still use the lamp from the desk to read in my chair. My big shelf is now directly next to my bed and is the first thing you encounter when you walk in. I'm half of one of the shelves for a night stand since I moved the coffee table to the wall where the shelf used to be. I'm not sure why but I think it feels homier.

Sarah, Lara and I are going to a free Jazz concert tonight. I have no idea who it is that is coming. I just saw was a post on facebook about it. Gotta take advantage of those free activities ;)

First Language Class and Potato Soup

My day started early today (definitely not bright). I was angrily awoken by my alarm at 7am to get up for class.  Mind you, I am a morning person at home and would rather not sleep past 9 on most days, but Norway is a bit of  a different story. It just feels slower here. Perhaps that's because I haven't really had much to do yet as far as routine, but we will see.. 

Anyway, my first class went well. We had four "lessons" today. A lesson here is about 45 minutes I take it. After that we get a fifteen minute break. I like it that way. It breaks it up more. I had to leave today after the third lesson because I had an appointment at the police station. Everything went smoothly with that. They will be sending me my residence permit in the mail within 10 days (I hope). 

The language class looks like it's going to be pretty intensive-way more intensive than any language course I have ever taken. The teacher started the first lesson speaking Norwegian! I know, what did you expect? She asked someone her name and luckily she knew what she wanted and everyone else just followed suit. I learned how to say my name, where I am from, what language I speak and a bunch of other phrases that I can't really remember. We also had to spell our names using the names of the letters of the alphabet. Not too difficult, but different. The last thing I did in class was we each had to interview two different people and then introduce one to the class. That was nice because we got to know some people and also got to practice our Norwegian. 

Okay so here's how you say "my name is.."  "Jeg heter Allison." (It sounds more like Yai hat-ay but don't quote me on that). Jeg kommer fra USA "I come from the USA" (Yai comme fra oo es ah).

I thought I was going to get the book for the class at half the price from someone's friend, but she decided she wanted to keep studying Norwegian (who knew!) and thus keep the book. So I'll have to go spend 440 NOK at the bookstore unless I can find it before tomorrow. Our professor assigned us some exercises and I hear she checks all the homework, not that I would ever skip out on it. I think our professor is one of the tougher ones, but that is probably a good thing. I heard one of my friends gets chocolate in every class.

As the title mentions, I tried my hand at potato soup today. I found a very simple recipe online (butter, milk, flour, onion, salt and pepper) and it turned out pretty well. Not as good as my mother's famous ham and potato soup of course, but definitely worth eating again. I have about four servings left and I think I am sharing with Lara and Sarah tonight. Sarah made apple pie last night :) I did burn some of the bottom of it though. Not quite sure when that happened, but it did-and pretty badly, so I am letting it soak for a while. Otherwise it turned out very well. And I ate some of my applesauce with it for lunch. So good.

I think now I'm going to do some reading for my Family, Gender and the Welfare State class tomorrow. Enjoy your day! (for some of you in WNY a very snowy day). 

Yay for Homemade Applesauce!

Last night I spent quite a few hours online looking up recipes and trying to figure out what would be easy (and hopefully affordable) to cook here. Today my task was applesauce which seems to be completely absent from grocery stores. In Europe I think it is more of a dessert than something you eat with a meal. Anyway,  I headed to the market to buy some apples (and oranges). Homemade applesauce is so easy to make! I couldn't believe it-and how good it turned out! I am very proud of it (if you can't tell) and I think I told at least six different people about it. Thanks to Claire Ariglio I also had the pleasure of enjoying tomato salad today (also soooo good!) since my tomatoes needed to be used up. Tomorrow I plan on attempting some creamy potato soup which I can hopefully eat for a few days.

(Applesauce and the French Toast I had for dinner last night)

Even though sometimes I hate that I have to cook, today I have just been simmering with excitement all day thinking about all of the foods I want to try to make.

Any suggestions or tips from you all would be fabulous! I am basically an amateur at everything to do with cooking, so any advice anyone wishes to offer would be greatly appreciated. At request, Alice Cunningham (via Sara Cunningham) generously donated her "Spaghetti Pie" recipe and I can't wait to try it! My main problem with recipes here is that meat is pretty expensive and I don't want to have to buy a ton of ingredients if I am only going to use them a few times.

Onto another subject. I went to the second class of Norwegian Life and Society. It was a bit more interesting than last Monday but still just an overview of Norway's history from the 1800's onward. I would have much more interested if we actually went into depth about anything. Afterward I attended an informational meeting about the special events put on by international student group. They do things like a cabin trip, museum tours, World Cup ski jump tickets, island hopping in June, scavenger hunt in May, etc.. Most things are free or at a reduced price to students. They also do coffee hour on Fridays (free coffee, tea and biscuits!)  They show a Norwegian film (with English subtitles) every Monday night. I would have stayed tonight but I did not bring any food with me so I would have spent two hours being hungry and I wasn't in the mood to do that.

Tomorrow I have my first language course at 8:15 am! It's going to be hard to get up for that. And then I have an appointment to register with the police at 11:45 so I have to miss a bit of my first class (not happy about that but what can ya do..).  I suppose I'll go get my things together for tomorrow and hopefully spend some time with Sarah tonight since I have not seen her much today.

Flea Market Excursion

Today I was invited to go with Max (from PA) to a flea market of sorts. It was fairly small, maybe only 10 stands but I think it might get quite a bit larger as it gets into the warmer months. Supposedly it is open every Sunday. There were quite a few interesting things: some furniture, fancy silverware, cameras from the 1950's, hats, quite a bit of old plates and such, etc.. etc... One of the neatest places had some stuff from WWII. They had some army clothes, a couple gas masks, some pamphlets, old newspapers, a couple photographs. It really neat if you're into history. I myself was drawn to the old newspapers. They ranged from about 1940 to 1945 from what I saw and were mostly Norwegian, but there were a couple in English too. With some help from the woman running the stand, I found a paper from February 13, 1941. There is an article about "English Help" both from Britain and the U.S. and a smaller one talking about comments Roosevelt made about standing by the British. Anyway, I thought it was really neat and it cost me about 5 bucks so I thought I made out well. Here are a few pictures highlighting the articles I talked about:

This afternoon we are supposed to be having a floor meeting to meet everyone and discuss kitchen upkeep, etc.. I think right now my plan is to try to find something interesting to make for dinner. Any suggestions?

Class Schedule

Here's what my class schedule looks like for this semester:

Norwegian Life and Society  

• Lecture: Mon 4:15-6:00
• Classes End: April 29
• Final Exam: May 8

Family, Gender, and the Welfare State

• Lecture: Wed 10:15-12:00
• Seminar: Mon 10:15-12:00 (3 throughout the semester)
• Classes End: April 10
• Final Exam: May 21

Introduction to Norwegian Language-60 Hours

• Tuesday 8:15-12:00
• Thursday 9:15-12:00
• Classes End: March 21
• Final Exam: March 22

*There is not much guidance on what should be done outside of class. Some syllabuses have a reading schedule and others do not. It is up to you to determine what you need for the class. There do not seem to be many homework assignments either. For a couple of the classes, there is a mandatory paper that must be approved in order to sit for the final exam. From what I can see it is all based on how you do on the final (a little nerve-wracking in my opinion). Of course, I have only been to one of my classes so far. I guess I will have to see how the first week goes. Wish me luck :)

A Night with a Kebab in Oslo

Here's the short story of the beginning of our journey to Paris:

We hit a few complications with our early flight. Our flight our was set to leave at 6:50 and the train to the airport set to depart at 3:56. It takes about an hour to get to the airport we were set to fly out of. The biggest problem was that on a Tuesday night there are no night buses and therefore no public transportation after 12:30 am. So Sarah and I decided to take the metro to the central station at 12:30 and just hang out (and maybe sleep for a few hours before our train left). I had luckily taken a three hour nap before we left, but Sarah had not. Right as Sarah was about to lay down in the central station a security guard starting rounding people up, telling us the station was closing until 3:30 that morning. At this point it is about 1:30. We have two hours before we need to be back for our train and no way to get back to our village except to spend $60 for a taxi. Uh oh.

We inquired with one of the security guards and he told us the bus station was open 24/7. Good. So we walk over to the bus station, only to discover the automatic doors stop at 12:30. We searched for another door for a while, asked a few people, but we just ended up back at that same revolving door that wouldn't open. One woman who was particularly nice informed us that bars are open until 3:30 and as long as we were inside by 3:00 we could hang out in there. I was all for spending $10 on a beer if it meant we were out from the cold and not paying $120 for a taxi service. It ended up that on our way back to the bar from the bus station we stopped in a fast-food type shop that sold kebabs, wraps, sandwiches. The guy working told us they were open until 4:00. Perfect.

So Sarah and I split a kebab (90 kroner for that and a drink-$16ish) and played cards for an hour and a half. Or at least we tried (Sarah kept nodding off).  This is a picture of our kebab. It's some kind of pita type bread with meat, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes (and other possibilities) with some kind of sauce. It's really good when it's warm, but after an hour not so much.

We ended up leaving around 3:30, meeting a very nice Norwegian man in the train station who rode the train with us (and helped us translate the Norwegian announcements), and making it to the airport perfectly fine. I started to fall asleep a few times on the train, and was feeling pretty tired at the airport. Sarah and I were both asleep before the plane took off, and only woke up for take off, when they turned the lights on (which was very confusing) and when they announced we were about to land. And then we both slept most of the hour and a half bus ride into the city after we arrived. We made it through the day pretty well, but when it was time for bed I was asleep before the lights were even turned off (maybe a minute later).

As we were beginning our descent to the Paris airport, the sun was just starting to rise, which was beautiful.  Overall, everything turned out okay. It was a pretty good story to tell our friends when we got back too. 

Oui! Oui!

I could not feel any better about my trip to Paris this weekend. Sarah and I keep saying how much of a success it was, especially since we planned it the two days before we left. Besides being a bit chilly (-5 C the coldest it's been this year-of course when we come!), the weather was gorgeous. Sunny all day the first day we arrived and most of the second.

We had only a small list of attractions we hoped to see, since we were not sure how long everything would take. In reality, we saw three of the four in the first day. When we arrived we headed for the Notre Dame Cathedral after grabbing lunch at a cafe (more on food later). The Cathedral is monstrous! It is hard to imagine anyone building something so grand today, let alone 850 years ago (this year is its 850th anniversary by the way). It's just one of the those places where you stand in the same spot for five minutes, just looking at everything. Three of those minutes were spent with my neck craned toward the magnificent ceilings and glass windows. Incredible!  We walked around from there. Notre Dame is right near the river and we happened to stumble upon the Paris "Love Locks." For those of you who have never heard of this, it was originally supposed to be for two people who loved each other. They would write their names on a lock, attach it to the fence on the bridge and throw the key into the river as a symbol of their undying love. Now I think it is not only for lovers, but friends do it as well. It is such an interesting thing to stumble upon though. It's fun to imagine all of the people whose locks reside there.

From here we checked into our hostel, which happened to be smack dab in the middle of China town. Every kind of Chinese restaurant you can imagine. Whole chickens hanging from the windows, chicken feet, Pig ears on display, etc.. While our hostel wasn't in the best part of town, it was very nice and Sarah and I were really happy with our luck. The building had just been redone, so the rooms were nicely decorated and looked as though they had just been painted recently. They offered a free breakfast consisting of coffee/tea, cereal and croissants/baguettes.  And the showers were hot! I was so very thankful for that. It was one of those showers where you had to keep pushing the button in order to keep it going, but I would take that over a luke warm shower any day. We stayed in a room with four other people: two French girls who didn't speak much English, a boy and another girl (can't remember where she is from). They all seemed nice, but we hardly saw each other except at night and for a few minutes in the morning.

It's funny how small the world really is. My parents and I always encounter this when we travel. We meet someone on the plane who knows so and so or is from here or there. Connections. At the hostel I met one man who is originally from Bosnia? and just got done studying at University of Rochester. (Not a big sports guy so no connections there). I also met a woman who lives in Palm Harbor, Fla and may be moving to New York next year. There was another woman from Virginia there promoting an exchange program with her university (no real connection there except an American, but very nice lady). At one of our restaurants we also met a woman from Canada who gave us two tickets for the metro that she was not using. Nice people everywhere!

The metro was very easy to figure out. There were a few times we got turned around in the stations, but I thought the informational signs there were very helpful. It was smellier and dirtier than the metro here in Oslo and there was considerably less space in the train cars, but not bad at all.

The afternoon of the first day we went to the Louvre. The courtyard you walk into with the glass pyramid is truly amazing. We got there just as the moon was coming up. A perfect crescent, so beautiful. I'm a little ashamed to say we only spent about an hour there. We had a couple things we wanted to see and by the time we did that, we were pooped (more about how much sleep we got later). The Mona Lisa is situated in a large room on one of the walls, protected by glass unlike the other paintings. It is considerably smaller than I thought it would be, not very big at all. Since it was later and not tourist season, there was not much of a line to see her, so we got pretty close. I'm glad I got to see it, but it wasn't particularly amazing to me. We also saw some of Michelangelo's work, some Greek statues, the headless angel, etc.. The building itself is huge and magnificent and beautiful. I find myself particularly enthralled with the decorated ceilings of places like these.

The buildings are so different in Paris compared to the U.S. and to Norway. The typical Parisian buildings with the fancy gated windows and balconies are everywhere!

We were able to see the Eiffel Tower lit up that night from a distance and walked in its direction looking for a spot for dinner. It's more than lit up though, it actually sparkles. It is much nicer to look at at night than during the day time. The next day we walked all the way up to it.  I can see how the French might have thought it was ugly when it was originally built. It is very industrial looking up close and not situated in a particularly scenic area. Anyway, I am glad to say I've seen it now. It is magnificent but nothing too exciting in my mind.

The second day we did a TON of walking. It was a beautiful sunny day and I am glad we did. We started at the Arc de Triomphe, which again is very grand. It's amazing to think that these things have been around for centuries. There wasn't much to do but stare at it, so we did that for a few minutes and decided to walk down one of the main streets. Here we were drawn in by the Swarovski crystal store where the stairs were the most sparkly stairs I have ever seen in my life! We also stopped into a McDonald's to check it out. The McCafe section was completely separate and had a lot of good looking desserts. The menu was considerably smaller and used the word, "Royal" a lot. There were also what looked like automated kiosks for ordering food. We saw that the Grand Palace was on our route so we continued walking, stopping at an auction house with pretty doors along the way. We didn't go in the Grand Palace or the Petite Palace, just walked by. Straight ahead was the Hotel de Invalides, somewhere we did spend some time in. It was originally built by Louis XIV as a residence for injured soldiers and war veterans. We spent quite a bit of time here and didn't make it through the whole of it. One of the most interesting parts in my opinion was a section that displayed armor and weapons starting around the 13th and 14th centuries. There was also a World War I & II hall, as well as a Cathedral and hall where Napoleon's tomb resides.

I was in need of a rest by the time we were done and instead of buying a snack at a stand and continuing our walk, we opted to sit in a restaurant. We each ordered a banana crepe and hot chocolate. MmmmMmm..  From here we walked toward the Eiffel Tower and after headed toward a free museum called Carnavalet that the Canadian woman had told us about. It was set in two large, gorgeous townhouses, and it was dedicated to the history of Paris. Each section of the house displayed a different century, staring with the 16th. The rooms were beautiful. Some of them looked more like a cake decoration than wallpaper. On the way back to our hostel that night we bought some sweets to share later-macaroons, some kind of chocolate/coffee desert, and elephant ears. We met up with Sarah's friend from her university who is studying in Paris this semester for a cheap dinner later.

In our brilliancy, we found a farmer's type market the next morning after we had checked out and bought some brie cheese and later a baguette to share for lunch before our plane took off.

The food was probably the best part. The bread there is to die for. Basically each meal came with baguettes and they are so good! Ever been to Panera Bread? They give you  baguettes that are always quite good with your meal but these are ten times better!. All you Panera fans think about that... I didn't eat much cheese while I was there, except for what we bought the last day and I did not drink any wine. I'm not too concerned about it though. The food was so awesome (and expensive) that there was really no need.

One observation I made about Paris is that things are either grand or very petite. All of the monuments we went to seemed to be at a lavish scale, but many of the rest of Paris seemed to be squeezed into a small space. Some of the sidewalks seemed to be made for one lane of traffic only, and the restaurants gave you no personal space whatsoever. At one we sat at a very tiny table for two with another two men at a similar table six inches from us. This served to be a problem at the first restaurant we went to. Not more than an hour or two in Paris and I knocked over a glass (which consequently shattered).

Although Paris wasn't particularly high on my list of places to go, I was very glad we did go. I had a great time and would go back some day. It's got to be gorgeous in the spring and summertime. First I must check some more things off my list though.

You're probably exhausted from reading all of that. My hands are starting to hurt me. I have a bit to tell about some of the bumps we encountered (specifically on the first night) but I will save that for another post.

Off to Paris!

In a few minutes I will be off to central station to spend a few hours waiting for a train that will take Sarah and me to the Rygge airport for our flight to Paris. Not ideal timing, but it works. I took a three and a half hour nap, so hopefully that will get me through until Wednesday night  if I can't pick up any more hours on the way ;). I may or may not have access to the internet, so I probably won't be blogging much over the next few days. Wish me luck! This will be country number 6 in my archives :)

Guess What!

I'm going to Paris tomorrow!

It was kind of a last minute decision. Sarah and I both do not have class again until next Monday so we wanted to do some traveling before the semester really got going. Paris was one of the cheapest flights so we decided to take a couple days to spend there.

My lovely cousin Heidi was also kind enough to book my flight to London during March (21-29). I am so very excited to spend a week with her!

Just wanted to share with you all :)

And a big hello to all of my family who will be around this week. I'm sorry I missed you all. Sending my love <3

And the Semester Begins!

Today I am declaring the first day of being a "real" student here at UiO.  Today I will have my first class, Norwegian Life and Society. I have been stressed about my class schedule the past few days because I wanted to free up my fridays for traveling. Yeah, yeah school comes first. Whatever. But I am in Europe and I knew if I had a class on friday it would severly hinder my ability to travel and to do so cheaply. The problem was that there are not very many classes that will transfer back to Elmira as sociology credits. I had it narrowed down to the few classes and planned to get up early this morning and come to campus to see if I could find someone to help me sort things out. No need. I woke up with the obvious answer (further confirmed by my advisor-thanks Dr. Shephard!) that I should take the Norwegian Society course since that will fit nicely into my pregrad internship I plan to start while I am here. So yay problem solved! And now since I do not have another class until Monday of next week, I think Sarah and I are looking to planning a trip tonight.

May I say that it is very annoying typing on Norwegian keyboards because the symbols are all in different places and there are extra letters in places where symbols usually are.

So you have probably figured out I am on campus now. I decided to come buy a book for the class I have today but the bookstore is out. Luckily the library keeps some copies on hand. You can take them out for two weeks at a time and if no one wants to use them, you can renew them for another two weeks. For my Family Gender class I only need parts of books for a couple weeks so hopefully I can just rely on that option. The rest of the class requires reading from articles, all of which are free online. The only bad thing is I will probably have to read them off a computer screen because we only get so many free prints. (Shout out to Elmira for free printing)  When you check out books at the main library, you do not even need to see a person. They have a touch screen kiosk where you scan your card and place the book on some sort of sensor (no scanning necessary) and it automatically knows what book you have and checks it out for you. Brilliant! Each department building has a small library too and that is where I had to go to get my Norwegian Society book.

On a less scholarly note, today is the first real snowfall I have seen in Oslo. It is the kind of snow I refer to as magic snow because it floats straight down, ever so slowly. It is almost as if it is suspended in the air. Luckily there is not much wind here. That would be brutal! It is freeeeeezing again today. Online the temperature says -10 C for Oslo. This morning I had it timed perfectly so I would not have to wait more than two minutes for the train to campus and it was late! (the first time since I have been here). I waited almost 20 minutes. There was some kind of technical problem because when it did finally come it was on the wrong side of the tracks and everyone had to walk to the other side of the platform to board.

Wish me luck at my first class at UiO, exciting stuff!

January 11 & 12 (Friday/Saturday)

Let me quickly update you on the past couple of days.

Saturday Sarah and I decided to go down to the water and visit the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. It's basically a stone castle built around 1300 CE to defend Norway from its enemies.

For a small price we were able to walk through the castle into the various rooms. Much of the castle has been restored over the years, but there was one section dubbed "the daredevil" where you could see the original stonework meeting the brick that was added later. 

On the same campus sat the Norwegian Resistance Museum. It was interesting to spend time in because I was not accustomed to the role Norway played in WWII. The museum went through Germany's invasion of Norway and what resistance Norway offered against it. If you didn't know, Germany was convinced that the British were planning to attack them via Norway. This is one reason Hitler was so concerned with its occupation. Norway was one of the three sites that Great Britain considered, along with France and North Africa.  One of the most interesting things was looking at all of the secret ways the Norwegians had to transport things. One display case featured a can of meat in which some meat had been taken out in the center and used to hold secret messages and film containers. A loaf of bread might be used for the same purpose. We were also able to look at a number of the resistance newspapers printed.

These are some pictures by the water right next to the castle.

And these are a couple pictures from yesterday when we went skiing. That's Sarah and Joschka in the top picture (hopefully they don't mind I put this up here). I was really trying to get a picture of everyone with their skis on the metro, but it is kind of hard to see. It is very common to see people in cold weather gear with their skis riding the metro, especially if you ride line 1 on the weekend. You can ride up the mountain, ski or toboggan back down and ride it back up. Everyone goes over the weekend. There were toddlers skiing yesterday.

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Let's see..what did I do Friday? Ah yes, I slept in a bit and took a bus tour around the city. The tour guide was a student and was not quite as involved as I would have liked, but it was a nice ride and she handed out a really useful little booklet of places to go and see in Oslo. We ended up stopping for a photo break at the place with the giant skill hill. I was glad that I had gone there before because I thought we got a better experience walking all the way through it.

There was a coffee hour (free tea and coffee) at Chateau Nuef, the place where the student society is based where we had trivia night last week. Some of the student organizations were there recruiting. And we got free pizza! Any free food here is the best because everything is so expensive! There was so much pizza left we ended up taking about half a pizza home with us and eating it later that night. Even better. We came back to the same place later that night for a dance party. It was really fun and only slightly resembled a club in America. There was a lot more space between dancers (if you know what I mean) and guys actually danced, and danced well! One student was trying to get me to swing dance and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing which confused him a little. I guess everyone in Europe knows how to swing? Anyway, it was a ton of fun. The music wasn't that great, but the people were so that made it a great night.
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A few more things about yesterday. Disregard anything I said about it being cold before because yesterday was definitely the coldest it has been yet. Last night traveling to the club and back was awful. It is just that cold that you can't escape. It was certainly further into the negatives than I have been experienced in a while. I was commenting to Sarah yesterday how at home there is no way I would be out in that cold, let alone stand and wait for the train for 10 minutes in it. I guess that's called adaption.