Back to Olso

Hey Everyone! I made it back to Oslo safe and sound! It was a beautiful day today in both countries (after quite a bit of crappy weather in England). My trip was great! I had a wonderful time with Heidi and her family. I am happy to be home now though. My pictures are up on facebook and labeled for the most part. I will be working on my blog in the next few days, but I also have some schoolwork to do, so don't hold your breath for them to be done tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter :)

Quick One (but important nonetheless)!

Look what Dan and Anna Crowell sent me!!!! Looks like we'll be having a "Maple Night" in the near future ;) The Canadians will love that.

 Also, after family dinner on Monday I attempted to make my mother's famous chocolate chip cookies (see below). I didn't have a mixer, but I had basically all of the same ingredients (the shortening and brown sugar were a little different). Anyway, they turned out pretty well...tasted very similar, but the texture was off and we had to press them before baking, otherwise they wouldn't flatten. Everyone enjoyed them though :)

Tomorrow morning I have my Norwegian language final. That's why this will be short and sweet because I am off to study after. Tomorrow night I leave for London!! I will be staying with my lovely cousin Heidi Crowell for a week :) I am so very excited for that. Should be an awesome time!

Other than that, it's still snowy and cold here in Norway. Yesterday was blustery, but today is the sun is shining! Happy Spring!

Oh, one more thing: If anyone see Gram Mee let her know I received her most recent letter. Lovely as always :)

Holmenkollen Ski Championship and The Rest of the Week

Friday Sarah, Lara, Micah and I went to the first day of the Skiing World Cup at Holmenkollen (the place with the big ski jump). We were under the impression there would be many people there since it was free to get in that day, but there weren't at all. It was pretty snowy that day too. We got to see the Men's Nordic Combined which is where the competitors do a ski jump and later compete in a cross country race depending on how well they did in the jump. It was pretty cool to watch (and they played some good music that Sarah and I took full advantage of by dancing to keep ourselves warm). The very best part of the day came at the very end though. Sarah and I were waiting for Micah and Lara in the food building and we must have looked pitiful. It was so cold outside, we were just thrilled to be indoors. Anyway, one of the food stand guys from a bakery came over with a cinnamon roll and a boller (a big roll). He didn't say anything, just held the plate out to us. I have no idea why he decided to do that, and I never will but it made our days. We wanted to express our thanks to him so we offered him a pin of the Canadian flag that Sarah had on her jacket (I pretended I was from Canada too). Things like that just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Let's see..what happened the rest of the week? Wednesday night I went to a free dance. Anyone from the swing classes could go. It was at the athletic center and basically they just played swing music all night. It was nice because I got to work on everything I'd learned so far. I'm impressed with how much I have learned. Next week starts the Rock Step 2 class. I'm excited about it!! And Tuesday after class is another party! Should be a great night.

Thursday I had my oral presentation for Norwegian language class. I thought I did very well. It was one of the first presentations that I was actually excited about doing. I talked about my "family" in Kringsja, so I had a picture of each person and went through where each person is from, what they study, where they have traveled, etc.. Friday is my final exam...I'm pretty nervous about it. 

Last night I had people over to my kitchen. Joschka's dad is in town so we got to meet him which was great! He seemed very nice. Not great with English, but that didn't matter. It ended up being a really, really fun night. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people I know here. I am soooo lucky!

It snowed again Friday, so it still looks very much like winter here. I expect it will pretty far into April, as well. I don't mind. I'd rather not go through the melting part of the year yet anyway.

I have so much to do this week, lots of school work and preparing to go to England Friday to meet up with Heidi Crowell! Ah I can't wait!!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Another Tuesday

I can't believe how fast time is going! It's already almost halfway through March. That means only three and a half months until I am home again. Wowza. To be honest, I have no real desire to come home. That being said, I can't wait to see all of you when I do. There are a lot of homey things that I do miss (just not quite enough to want to come home just yet).

Today was a pretty normal Tuesday: language class, waffles, homework, dance. This week is my week to clean the kitchen so I did some of that also. Next week is my last week of language class. Hard to imagine eh? This Thursday (as in two days from today) I have my oral presentation which I need to pass in order to take the final exam. I am not worried about it. Presentations are always nerve wracking, but I know I will make mistakes in this one and that's okay. My presentation is about my "family" in Kringsja (Sarah, Joschka, Lara, Micah). Basically I just introduce each person and say a bit about him/her. My written final exam is next Friday. That makes me a little more nervous. There are a lot of things to remember as far as grammar goes, so I hope I do okay in that regard.

Dance was fun tonight. Sarah and I missed last week's lesson, but I didn't feel too behind. We learned a couple different dips tonight and something that makes me feel like an airplane where you lean forward and put your arms out to the side while your partner holds under your arms. You do a lot more supporting yourself than I would have thought. I liked that because it makes me nervous trusting some of the guys in our class who are unsure of themselves. I am getting much better at following their lead though. It makes me sad that when I come home I will not be able to dance like I did here. I don't know anyone who actually knows how to swing dance, or even dance in a way that resembles REAL dancing. There's gotta be some kind of organization that has a swing dance night somewhere, but probably not anywhere close to where I will be.

Sarah and I booked a flight to Amsterdam in May (21-24). Sarah has a friend there who we may be able to stay with, and we have received advice from numerous people on what to see and do (Thanks Donna!).  More exciting news--another Sara (Cunningham) is coming to Oslo to visit me!!! And we are traveling to Italy together in June!!!! You have no idea how thrilled I am that she is coming!!! So, if anyone has any advice on traveling in Italy, feel free to share. We plan to go to the Tuscany area for several days (Florenca, Pisa, Lucca, small towns) and then on to Rome and Vatican City for a couple days. We have also considered Venice, Milan, Naples, but we are certainly up for more suggestions.

Tomorrow should be a fairly busy day too. Sarah and I are going to Pilates in the morning, then Gender/Family Class and later Seminar for the same class. I will probably spend the rest of the day preparing my presentation for Norwegian class. There is a quiz (trivia) at the pub in Kringsja at night too, so we may go to that as well. I don't think I mentioned that Sarah and I went to yoga on Monday. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, which probably means I need to do it more. I think I would like to try to keep doing that and pilates each week. I haven't had time for much other workout activities. I've been on a few walks. My foot still hurts from Barcelona though, so I'm waiting (and hoping) for that to feel better soon.

That's all I have time for today. Time for a shower and bed. Good night all.

Barcelona!

I have not yet decided whether I'm going to break this up into days like I did for the Lapland trip or if I will try to squeeze it all into one. The latter might get rather long. If you haven't already checked them out, all of my pictures from the trip are on Facebook. All of my pictures from my trip so far are public so everyone should be able to look at them. Of course there will be pictures to go along with my blog, as well.

Let's see...Barcelona was a good trip overall. We hit a few bumps along the way, but it ended up being very enjoyable. We were supposed to only be there a couple days, but it turned into five days after missing our flight out Saturday night. It was a very silly mistake on our part and that day was very frustrating for us. I don't know what I would have done without Sarah with me. I'm very proud of us for the way we handled things, and it was actually nice to spend a couple more days in the city.

Saturday and Sunday were both beautiful out..15 degrees and sunny (for all of you in the US that's 59F!) There were a lot of Spanish people still in their heavy coats, but we took the liberty of shedding some layers. It was so nice! The other days were kind of gloomy-rain off and on, but still not too bad. The only time the weather was awful was when we got in Thursday night. We stepped out of the airport and it looked like hurricane footage! The wind was making the palm trees bend (did you know there are palm trees in barcelona? and orange trees!), and it was pouring.

Barcelona felt kind of like Florida to me. I think it was the palm trees and the warmth (compared to Norway). Besides being warm weather-wise, I felt as though the atmosphere in the city was warmer than in Oslo. The people were certainly more talkative, sometimes annoyingly more talkative.

The first day (Friday) we spent time in three museums since we knew it was supposed to be rainy. We decided we needed to go to the Picasso museum. I wasn't impressed at all. It just seemed very boring and unimportant for such an highly regarded artist. What was interesting was to see Picasso's earlier works. Whenever I think of Picasso I think crazy abstract shapes and distorted faces, but he actually made some very nice-looking paintings of people and places. Another cool thing was there was one room dedicated to the paintings he made based on one particular painting and all of them were just a different interpretation of that one painting. These were more of the Picasso style I had in my head. We also visited a museum about the history of Catalunya (Catalonia). It was pretty interesting, but not overly impressive. It was only until recently I learned that Catalunya is almost like a separate country in Spain. All of the people are very proud of their heritage. It would be something to look up in your free time. The third museum we went to was about the history of Barcelona. This one was my absolute favorite. You took an elevator underground and came out at an excavation site of the old Roman city ruins from the first century BC to maybe the eighth century AD? It was so interesting!! We got free audio guides and they were very helpful pointing out what each part was, but it was pretty obvious at some points. We walked through what used to be a laundry place, a wine making place, a church like building, a place where they make some sort of seafood. You could see the trough like structures that served as plumbing. It seemed very intact to me, and just thinking that years and years and years ago that area was alive with people was just so cool to think about. The museum didn't end there though. There were other places around the city you could see, too. We didn't get to very many, but on one of our walks we stumbled upon an old watchtower from the city, and also the ruins of a monastery.

In these two pictures you can see the "pipes" (the long line of rocks on top of the trough)

Dice

The thing that looks like a cracked egg was used to cook seafood in. The wine making facility had something very similar, too.

Pillars

During our wanderings on Friday we stumbled upon a shop with handmade masks. Sarah bought one and it's gorgeous. Anyway, the woman who worked there was very nice and recommended a cafe for lunch. It was very small, four or five tables and a tiny kitchen. I guess it used to be an old bar and an Italian couple bought it and turned it into a cafe. We got a really good deal for lunch. We bought got different types of ham and cheese sandwiches (so good!), a drink, dessert and a coffee drink for 8 or 9 euros. Everything was delicious! For dessert Sarah got a piece of lemon cake with the biggest stack of meringue I had ever seen and I tried a cake made with nutella and beer. Interesting. The hot chocolate there is totally different. They call it "drinking chocolate" and it is much thicker than normal hot chocolate, almost too thick. It is much better for dipping. On Monday we got churros and chocolate. Churros are fritters (taste like fried dough) and are very good to dip in chocolate. 

The cafe we went to was also next to a market that was filled with fruits, veggies, fish, meat, cheese, and sweets! There was also a big market on the walking street called La Rambla. Our hostel was right off of that street. On the last day we bought natural fruit juice from there and it was so good!

Friday night we went out for dinner and then to a local Flamenco show. For dinner we ordered tapas (appetizers) and paella (a local rice dish). I found out that I love croquettes and that snails aren't too bad either! We sat outside and there were these heat lamps that made it just perfect :)

The Flamenco show was not that great. It was the third show of the night and the performers just looked bored.. And I was falling asleep (I gotta stop doing that). The most interesting part was after the show two of the performer's kids came out and danced and sang.

We met four Italians at our hostel that night and they taught us how to play "Scopa!" (some kind of Italian card game). One of them spoke English pretty well and so we talked to him the most. The others may have understood more than they let on, but I don't think they felt comfortable having a full on conversation. Either way, they were really fun. We went out to dinner with them the night we missed our flight. I was glad we had someone to meet up with because it would have been an awful way to end the day by going to bed in an unfamiliar hostel after missing our flight.  

At our hostel we also met a French student and a Finnish student. I love meeting new people! All of the desk workers at the hostel were really cool. My favorite was Rodry though (we called him "dreads" because we didn't know his name for the longest time). He is from Chile, and is so nice! And very laid back. He showed us around to a couple of bars Monday night. One reminded me of The Rainforest Cafe. 

The two days when we had nice weather we went to the Antonio Gaudi attractions. Gaudi is a famous artist/architect (who also may have been a bit crazy). His influence is all over Barcelona. On Sunday morning we went on a walking tour that was all about Gaudi. We saw three houses he had built, as well as his masterpiece..the Sagrada Familia (means Sacred Family). It's a huuuuuuuuuge (and unfinished) Basilica. Simply amazing! Construction began in the 1880's and it is still an unfinished work. Gaudi left drawings behind because he probably knew it would not be completed in his lifetime. Some of them were destroyed so it may not be exactly what he envisioned, but pretty close to it. The building project is funded with donations, the church is not allowed to contribute so that is one reason it is taking so long. It's interesting to see the original stonework and the new parts. It is truly magnificent. We did not get the opportunity to go inside, but that is supposed to be amazing too, even if it is unfinished. On each side there are stories being told with the carvings and statues placed on the building. One side is dedicated to Jesus Christ's birth, one to his death, one to the Old Testament..  Gaudi also liked to include nature or organic things in his work, so at the tops of the tower there are what looks like fruits and vegetables.

The pictures above are of Sagrada Familia, though not a great representation. The ones below are the three houses we visited built by Gaudi.

We also visited Park Guell, which has Gaudi influence as well. We had to climb a huge hill/mountain to get up there first though-7 escalators, 230 some stairs in total. Boy that was a workout, and we did it twice!! While we were there the second time, we climbed another big hill/mountain. The view was absolutely breathtaking! It had to be one of the highest points in Barcelona. You could see all of the parts of the city, including the ones we had not been to or seen yet. It was just a high to be up there. Definitely one of my favorites, if not my favorite part of the trip.

This is from the top of the hill, but still not quite there yet..

We also went down to the beach on one of our last days. The water was really rough and it was windy out so it wasn't particularly enjoyable, but it was still nice to see.

What was probably the nicest part about Barcelona was just walking around the streets and exploring. It seemed like everyday we stumbled upon so many beautiful things, especially the old buildings. I would love to go back to Barcelona when the weather is a bit nicer, but I would definitely recommend visiting.

Language is such a funny thing. I felt so much more comfortable in Spain than I did in say France just from the few years of Spanish that I had taken. It was almost more fun because the whole time I was trying to figure out what things and people were saying and trying to see how much Spanish I could recall. I was pretty impressed with myself. Another funny thing, I found myself searching for the Spanish words and all I could pull out was Norwegian words. Isn't that awesome?! My mind is beginning to think in Norwegian!!!

I'm sorry this was so long. Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. I will leave you now with a few more pictures from the trip. Enjoy!