Hi guys! Sorry for not updating since two fridays ago, there has been too much going on, and when I have had time, the computer lab was closed. I'm currently writing a bigger, better update, but first I have to figure out what is wrong with my camera/my pictures. My account at photobucket insists that half of them are sideways, even though I rotated them on the camera itself.. I'm so bad with technology, hah. :)

Update:
Note: I uploaded all my pictures and half disappeared, so although I had 200 pictures for you..Most are not there, so I am really sorry, but there's nothing visual to look at this time. Maybe I can find them on the computer some other time.

Okay guys! I think I ended last friday with the ISS party. It's within walking distance of the school and it's no wonder people are showing up to the 8:15 AM class hungover. You could walk back when it closes at 3:00 AM because it's still light out and if it was a warm day, still pretty comfortable out. The music was, well, your regular american hip-hop bar/club, and after dancing for a bit, Joanne and I headed back with Sabine (So-bee-nah - from Austria, I think that's how she spells her name). We arrived back at the dorms at about 1:30 and set the alarm for 6:45 because we had to get up early the next morning for our weekend excursion at the Oslo Fjord.

I woke up with a headache (I didn't drink the previous night) and figured it'd go away after I ate. It didn't, but I had not brought along any tylenol, so though the trip was fun, I felt a little cranky since the sunlight hurt my eyes and my sunglasses were not that strong. Note to self: Always bring some tylenol!

The bus was a doube-decker one. I've never had the chance to sit on the upper level so Joanne and I picked out some seats (sadly the front ones were all taken) and at 8:30, we were off. A few hours later, we arrived at Tønsberg (I think they said it's the oldest town in Norway, I can't remember). There was half a viking ship. Yep, only half of one. We walked up a hill for a great view of the old castle (well, the ruins anyway) and took a look at the view. It was gorgeous. It was all countryside with so much green, and the water was so blue!

We then walked to the small downtown and toured around that for a bit. There were more old and restored buildings that were amazing, and ruins of old churches inside the city that were not built over, but were not kept as best as they could have been. I also had a picture of the statue of the Norwegian Princess Kristina, who I guess the town residents like naming their daughters for.

We saw the new library, which was meant to look like water as the front was all glass, and the roof was shaped to look like waves rolling in. Then we went to the harbor to the bridge. I think I saw jellyfish (I had pictures of these little guys too! and of the bridge opening!)! As the bridge went up, all these tall boats and yachts that were waiting to pass started up and raced through - another picture sadly lost on the computer. :( We then were given time to explore, so I ate ice cream. Then we had to leave. Hah.

We went to the Whaling Museum in Sandefjord which I'm sure is a very nice place to go and learn, but the building was WAY too small to accomodate all of us, there was no ventilation, and we could barely hear/understand the tour guide. Sadly, I was extremely happy to get out of there. There was an awesome map of Iceland I wish I could have looked at longer. It was from oh, one of the earlier centuries and all around the island were sea creatures, hairy whales with huge teeth sent from Hell that hunted men. Nice!

After that, our group walked to the ferry for a 2.5 hour ferry ride into Sweden. I wasn't expecting a cruise ship type boat to take us over. Had more pictures.....argh. We boarded and right away were escorted to the free buffet! I ate what I could, there was a lot of seafood and I'm not a fan. I'm sure the dessert would have been well-liked (and deserved!), but everyone kept going back for more and it kept disappearing! So: cruise ships cook good desserts!

About 2.5 hours later we arrived in Strømstad. The itinerary said "19:30 Arrive in Strømstad. We leave immediately." So we got off the ship, got right back on the tour bus and got out of Sweden. We thought it was hilarious when the girls who were our guides on this trip meant to say, "Look out the windows because we're in Sweden!" but it came out as, "Watch out, we're in Sweden!". :) They then corrected themselves (through all the giggling).

There was a really, really cool bridge that I managed to get a really good picture of..So I'll sigh and say, "I'll show you later" if I can get it. It was awesome. Totally.

We headed to Begby to see the 3000 year old stone carvings. They were far out in the country in the middle of nowhere on someones farm. Have I mentioned how pretty the countryside is? Anyway, so obviously these carvings are old and very faded, and yes, they will be hard to see, which is why professionals go out and paint them red so we can see them. Unfortunately, I think my roommate and I were the only ones who took them seriously. It hurt after awhile to see everyone walking all over the rocks and carvings, sitting on them, smoking cigarettes, so, we headed back to the bus.

We drove to Fredrikstad where our Rica City Hotel was unknowingly waiting for us. We got there at 9:20 (ten minutes before we were supposed to be there) but apparently they were not ready for us. We sat around in a tiny room, all 50 of us with our arms full, and waited until a little after 11:00 to each be allowed to go to our rooms. I think there was a bit of a lack of preparation for this part (I think the guides were new, too, since they seemed almost as confused!). Starving, ornery, and exhausted, Joanne and I walked to the McDonalds down the street and had some food. We could only afford french fries, but they were darn good fries at midnight!

The beds were so comfortable and so were the pillows. I never mentioned that the beds here are actually like the cots we have at home with the light metal frames and the pillows are so thin that I wake up with neck and back aches each day. :( But the hotal beds?! Wonderful! If I could have fit those into my bags, I would have. :D The breakfast was a good break from the daily toast as well. I had about five waffles among many other things. :)

We checked out at 8:30 and went to set our bags on the bus. We walked over to the river Glomma, apparently the longest river in Norway, were ferried across, and landed in the fortified city of Fredrikstad. It was a very cute little island of a town inside a big wall. We had lunch at noon at the restaurant Majorstuen, which didn't look that good, but tasted very nice anyway. I think it was something like sliced and diced pork with potatoes and a salad? Anyway, our tour guides forgot we had to leave at 1:00 so halfway through our meal we got the "Uh oh! Our ferry leaves in five minutes and it's across the town!" so all that good food...was left behind. We missed the ferry, and here's the kicker, got the next one a half hour later. Bah!

We ferried across, got in the bus and headed to Drømstad. We had a few minutes before our next ferry took us to the island with Oscarsborg Fortress, which I think is one of my favorites I've seen yet. It was last used for fighting in the second world war but I think the last military personnel left in 2002 and it was opened for tourism. I had lots of pictures of this, I think you will enjoy them as much as I do when/if I can get them up.

We hopped back on the bus and came back to the dorms only a half hour late on sunday at 6:30. Still in time for dinner! Overall, I would say the weekend was okay. There were so many neat things going on that I think it was too much for one time, which isn't a bad thing, but the overwhelming nature of it all sort of took part of the experience away.

On monday we started week 2 of classes. I got good grades on my quizzes, yea! Other than that, the day was 'one of those days' and nothing worth mentioning happened.

Tuesday was the guided tour at the Munch Museum with the professor of the Norwegian art courses here at the ISS. It was 40 NOK to get in but was nice to look around in and very comfortable. The temperature was controlled for the art pieces - air conditioned I should say. :) Joanne and I stayed after until 5 looking around. I watched a video on how they repaired the damage done to the Scream and Madonna paintings that were stolen a few years back and found with tears and smudges. Wow was it a painstaking process to get them back in good shape! Glueing each strand of thread of the canvas together one at a time. But the work was good because when I looked at them both, I didn't notice anything with my untrained eyes.

On wednesday there was a guided tour along the Aker River in Oslo, which was pretty fun. The tour guide was an old english man with really dry humor and you really had to listen to be able to hear and understand him. Totally cool. We went around the river and to important buildings in the history of Oslo and there were some beautiful waterfalls. I think in one of my pictures I was able to get a rainbow that showed in the mist. After the tour, the guide took whoever wanted to go to his favorite beer gardens. I decided to just come back to the dorms because I had signed up to do laundry.

Tuesday morning I handwashed clothes for the first time in our tiny sink so I'd only have to do one load in the basement. For the directions being entirely in another language and there being no pictures, I did quite well! It still baffles me that for 375+ students, they've got only five washers and four dryers. Then again, there is a sign up list we must put our names on in a time slot to wash clothes, usually a week before you'd like to do it.

After laundry on wednesday, Joanne and I headed downtown (I haven't been mentioning it but just about every night we go downtown to find more stuff in our Oslo City Guides, partly because we're curious and partly because if I don't exhaust myself, I have really bad troubles going to sleep before 4 am). There are some cool clubs I would like to check out. I only wish that it didn't cost $30 to get in most!

I think what we need to find next is some place that is open and serves food late at night. The supper here at the dorms is from 5:30 til 7:00 and I'm starving again by 11:00. Since we don't have access to anything, not even a microwave, I really would to know where I can just go to get something warm, or even a pre-made sandwich. Yum!

Thursday (sorry I'm glossing over these days, so much happened that when I wrote things down in my paper-journal, there wasn't much, so I'm only mentioning the big events, like washing laundry by hand.) was my first field trip for my history class to the Historical Museum. We met at the Blindern metro station and caught a 1:45 subway to downtown. The free entry into the museum was pretty nice, but again there was a lack of space and ventilation for all the students. There were a lot of artifacts, though, so I wouldn't mind going back there on my own time to explore those, as well as the galleries that I skipped over (shhh!) to go race outside for some fresh air.

After that, Joanne and I met up at Youngstorget to find some thrift stores/second-hand clothing stores. I only brought a lot of basic/necessary clothing and it's getting boring when you can't put on something else that's not a 'normal' outfit. So we visited quite a few stores but it's too bad that even the second-hand clothes were too expensive. There was so much cute stuff, too! So I'm stuck with my wardrobe. I guess it's not too bad because my suitcases were packed full when I got here and I'd have no way of fitting them in for the ride back! I don't think I'll want to wear fives layer when I return, either.
(There's the option of sending something back but to even mail a single letter, it's 11 NOK (roughly $2.20)-ouch!)

That night was the Norwegian Cultural Evening with a number of performers, including the ISS choral group (I guess one of the students formed this and about 30 people signed up!), a Same who does joik chanting (WOW), and a woman who was at the first ever ISS in the summer of 1947, as well as students who prepared their own little Norwegian songs. My only wish is that people would remember to both turn off their cell phones and to not talk during performances. After the show we got a free taste of Norwegian traditional foods. Not bad - the really flat paper-thin bread was my favorite. We got back to the room at 11:30 and had so much homework to do yet, but managed quite well.

Friday was the 4th of July and those who I talk to every day who know I'm from America wished me a happy Fourth, which was sort of odd. I heard that there was a celebration down in Vigeland Park but when Joanne and I went, there were no celebrations visibly taking place. So instead, we went to the big fountain I showed in those other pictures, took off our socks and shoes, rolled up our shorts and waded in the fountain. That was a lot of fun! I wanted to go swimming! I still want to go swimming!

Then we had a nice walk through the neighboring cemetery which I'd like to explore further. There were so many trees it was nice in the shade, but was real pretty, too. Didn't find the old chapel, though. It was getting hot that day, I'd say it got to be over 80, so when we got back to our room, we were hot and tired. I read and Joanne surfed the internet on her computer, but we both at some point accidentally dozed off and slept right through dinner!

We went downtown to find the places mentioned in the 'dirt cheap' section of our guides and ended up wanting pizza at Hells Kitchen, which is said to serve the best pizza in Oslo. Well all right then, we'll put that to the test! But we walked around Møllergate many times and couldn't find it. We asked directions but no one seemed to be familiar with the area. About two hours later we threw our arms up in the air in defeat and went to this restaurant/venue called The Villa to eat. We asked to see a menu and at the top, it said "Hells Kitchen Pizza". There was a moment of silence before the world started to move again. :)

So we sat down, got some pizza, and although it was really good, I wouldn't call it the best. The pizza was so thin, less than a half an inch, that although we split it so we each got half the pizza, I was still a little hungry after. But I didn't want to spend any more money. The Villa is one of the clubs I would like to go to one night. Though I think the age limit is 23, I'm not sure. Anyway, we sat downtown for another hour before heading back around 11:30.

This weekend was very exciting, but I must go and do homework and catch dinner, so I will try my best to get in here tomorrow to tell you all about it, with pictures! I hope all is well and that everyone had a good 4th of July!

I figured out how to upload pictures and post them, and this entry is very picture heavy. I'm struggling with LJs "lj-cut" option, so if you see the html for it anywhere, I'll hopefully do better next time. I wrote everything and posted all the pictures, then tried the lj-cut and everything went out of whack and for the longest time I couldn't fix the whole thing. Uh oh! But I think I might have fixed it a little? I hope hope hope that it looks okay for you now, so enjoy!

( Click for everything! )

I've started up this journal as a way to document the things that I do, save pictures, and be able to look back on this experience clearly (my handwriting is terrible), as well as share it with others who are interested.  My hopes are to travel to many places in this lifetime and thus to keep this journal going whenever I do go somewhere interesting.  Wisconsin and Illinois do not apply.

I'm currently on my first experience abroad, in Oslo, Norway.  I'll be here for six weeks, until August 1st, attending the International Summer School (the ISS) at the University of Oslo.  Some facts we learned about this summers attendance:

There are:
- 590 students are attending the ISS
- 73 countries represented
- many ages, the youngest student being 17 and the oldest being 73

Also learned:  Oslo has recently become the most expensive city in the world.  I knew I had expensive taste; apparently it applies for travel, too!

To recap the last few days, My flight left Milwaukee at 1:00 PM on thursday the 19th and I think I arrived at Newark around 3:45 PM (2:30 PM WI time), an hour early.  My plane in Newark was supposed to depart at 7:50 PM but we didn't move until about 9:00.  The wait was more uncomfortable than I was anticipating.  I was not aware that I got motion sickness from flying but as soon as we left Milwaukee I got a very bad headache and felt very queasy for the entire trip.  After landing, both subsided a tad and I was able to call home and talk to my parents before I lost complete service/coverage on my cell phone.

I made the bad choice of eating at A&W in the airport - as soon as we took off, once again and this time on a 7 hour overnight flight, I felt even worse.  The women next to me, Janet, was extremely kind and let me look out the window next to her until I felt too sick.  We then chatted quite a bit, and she told me all about Norway, her life in New York, and offered me much advice.  I think I managed 15 minutes of sleep on the plane: I missed the ending of "27 Dresses" but was awake by the time the next movie was in, "Lucky You".  By the time we landed, at exactly 10:10, I was feeling a bit better.

I got my first passport stamp at Gardermoen Airport!  I picked up my bags, got money exchanged (ouch!) and somehow got myself a ticket for the airport train (cannot remember the name) and made it onto the correct train.  It was about a 30 minute ride to the Oslo Centralstation, where I got very, very lost.  I asked a man in a uniform where I was supposed to go for the subway and he pointed me in the right direction - the opposite way I was headed.  Once down two flights of escalators, yours truly, again, got confused. But I recognized a face in the crowd!  No, not someone I knew but someone who I had seen waiting for the same flight as me back in Newark.  I approached him and it turned out we were headed to the same place!

Ken is his name, and we managed to figure out the ticket machine and got on T-Bane 3.  We missed the Blindern stop (where the dorms are) and at the next one, had to get out, go down the stairs, under the tracks, and up on the other platform to turn ourselves around.  We arrived at the school in one piece, though, got checked in, and went off to unpack.

The dorms are beautiful.  They were built I believe around 1925 and look it.  They are yellow and gorgeous, with red and pink rose bushes between each window.  Between the two dorm buildings is a big courtyard with a small fountain, and there are always people willing to chat.  I really like it here - absolutely nothing like the concrete drabness of Sandburg halls!  The campus itself is like a little town.  There is a post office, pharmacy, restaraunt, grocery store, bookstore, bank, etc..  In most places, where it is not grass or an actual road, the ground is all cobblestone, including the huge courtyard in the middle of the campus.  I get a kick just walking over it!  I don't think I've seen any tar/blacktop yet, but then, if it's not cobblestones, I'm rarely looking at the ground.

Yesterday morning was registration, the standing in line for an hour for 4 minutes of registering.  My roommate Joanne (from Lincolnshire, England) and I took a mid-afternoon nap (my jet lag is horrible) because it seems to be that no matter what country you are in, waiting in line is exhausting.  We woke up in time for the school's orientation meeting in the library.

After that, we went to the subway, bought me a monthly pass that I can use on all public transportation for NOK 720 (approx. $140) and took the subway in an attempt to get to downtown Oslo to Karl Johan's Gate.  We made it safely, after getting on and realizing 3 stops later that we were, in fact, heading in the wrong direction.  After arriving downtown and getting off the subway, we continued to walk - only realizing a little later that we were going the wrong way, on the wrong road.  Once again, we turned around, cut through the beaituful and peaceful palace gardens, and saw infront of us, beyond the courtyard with an imposing statue of Karl Johan on a galliant steed, the correct street.  Karl Johans Gate is apparently the most well-known street in Oslo.  It stretches from the Royal Palace to the Centralstation and has hundreds of shops, and many street artists and vendors.

There were many shops, fountains, restaraunts, vendors and performers to look at.  The side streets were filled, too.  There were two street artists who use spray paint to paint very pretty pictures.  I've seen this before in downtown Madison and have one picture, but these were so much more intricate and detailed.  It took more than ten minutes to make an image, so we didn't stay around for too long.  They cost NOK 200, though, so we'll see if I've got any money left at the end of the trip for one.

We opened up our city guides, turned to the food section, and observed the 'dirt-cheap' page.  There were four places to eat listed and we decided on a Thai-Viet/Far-East place.  We ended up at "Tastes of the Far East", a Thai-Viet/Far-East restaraunt, but not the one we were searching for.  Still though, we each spent less than $20 on the meal - quite a deal in the most expensive city!

We went to bed around 11 PM last night but I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me.  There is a 7 hour time difference so when I try to go to bed at 11, it's really only 4 PM for the rest of you in Wisconsin and I was feeling it.  I think I managed to sleep by 4 AM or so.  We got up at 9:00, went to breakfast, went to the dorm meeting to learn how to not trash the place, and then I came here to try and update this for the first time.

This afternoon, the school has set up an "Oslo sightseeing tour" with a few busses, one that has a Norwegian guide and the rest with English.  I am very excited to go on this!  We will go see (not go inside but look at) the Viking Ship Museum, the park with all the statues (I promise to have names for all these locations and destinations later!) and some other place.  There's just so much going on and so much to remember that I can't yet keep everything straight.

I'd like to try and post pictures, but I have only taken about 8 and the digital camera likes to think its batteries run low after 3 pictures, so there won't be as many as I'd like.  But I did bring my film camera and many rolls of film, so I should have a lot to scan in at a later date.

One more thing:  I'm typing on a Norwegian keyboard and it is very similar yet very different to ours in the US.  There are extra letters and therefore extra keys in places I expect to find, for example, quotation marks.  They have Å/å, Ø/ø and Æ/æ and € and µ.  Sorry if there are massive amounts of typos!  Hope everyone is doing well back home! :)