Holidays and more-

It has been a busy, busy time since I last posted.  The big news is that it's holiday season!
We had a Halloween celebration here, complete with pumpkin carving.  Halloween isn't really big here, although candy and pumpkins were still on sale!


This is our jack-o-lantern. It's a moose if you can't tell!  Thanks to my flatmate Aisha for the photo!
We also had a Thanksgiving celebration last week, with all the fixings!  We didn't get the turkey until the morning of, so a few morning shower-takers were greeted with this:

Our turkey thawing in the bathroom sink.  It took a bit of work to get the giblets out, but it ended up delicious and right on schedule!

Digging in!  These photos are from my friend Caitlin.  That's my aforementioned flatmate Aisha in the photo above (hi Aisha!).
I also got to call home for Thanksgiving and say hello to my extended family!  It wasn't as good as seeing everyone in person, but I loved talking to everyone.  It made me much less homesick- skype has been a lifesaver this trip!
It is also Hanukkah this week!  Here's my makeshift menorah from Thanksgiving night.  Sunset is so early that they were actually out long before dinner.





We're getting ready for Christmas too.  The holiday spirit has been in swing for a couple of weeks here now.  We've decorated our kitchen, and have been making lots and lots of cookies (three batches so far, and one more planned tonight!).

That's our last pan of gingerbread, or 'pepperkake' in Norwegian.  'God jul' means Merry Christmas, and the other letters are our flatmates' initials.

Holidays are not the only thing going on around here!  It's also getting much colder, although we have still only had a tiny dusting of snow (about a week and a half ago).  We had a warm weekend before the cold set in, and went swimming in the fjord!  It was very cold indeed, but really invigorating!

Here's another picture of Aisha, warming back up after our dip.  For proof, those are our swimsuits drying in the sun next to her!

Just a nice picture of me post-swim.  It was such a beautiful day!

It got much colder after that though.  We had a week or so constantly below freezing, with temperatures in the teens.  I took this picture up at Sognsvann, the lake near our dorm.

There is a lake in this picture!  It was frozen all the way across, although not thick enough to stand on yet.  It's warmed up a bit since then, but there's no doubt that we're in full on winter now!

It hasn't all been fun and games of course.  I also had my first exam last night.  Exams here are a bit different because you only have one per year, and for most courses they count for almost your entire grade.  That makes them very structured and kind of stressful!  I'm pretty sure I passed though. I'll continue on in study mode for the next two weeks, and then there is only a week left before Mom, Dad, Kate and Paul get here!

We did unfortunately get some very sad news today; our dog Daisy died over the weekend.  We had her for about 12 years, and she was an amazing dog.  One of the worst parts of study abroad is that when things like this happen, it is really hard to not be home with your family.

Still, overall, this has been a very good month.  I'm sending my love to everyone!

It has been way too long since I last posted; time is flying here in Norway.  I've been making great progress in my classes and feeling more and more at home in Oslo.  I just wanted to post some pictures of everyday life here, since it's been brought to my attention that I mostly post about special events.

This is the view off our balcony about a week ago, at NOON!  The sun is low in the southern part of the sky pretty much all day now, which is a bit weird.  The days are still a pretty normal length though.  The fall colors here are beautiful, although most of them are starting to fall as it gets colder and colder.  It's been hovering around 4degC all week, and there is a forecast for a tiny bit of snow tomorrow.  Hopefully they're right!

This is the center of campus. 

This is a nice view in front of one of the main buildings, Georg Svedrups hus.  The humanities/social sciences library is in there.  The sciences library is in another building, and it is a really good place to study.

There are lots of stuffed animals in the biology building.  This is one of the more recognisable ones; the eagle fell off its perch a long time ago and apparently it has been down for so long it's just normal now.

Anyway, I also wanted to show some stuff we do at home.  We mostly eat on our own, but once every week or two we get together for a roommate dinner and make something nice together.  This week we made antipasti.  It was very fancy and very good!

 This is our student pub, Amatøren, on quiz night.  We have a quiz team with 5 or our 6 roommates on it.  Our last roommate is on a different team that he's been on for a long time now, so we couldn't poach him.  It works out well because if you have more than 5 on a team you start to lose points. The prize is 5 slips for free beer; we are saving ours for the end of the year so we can have a big free beer party.
Anyway, that's life here at the university!  I'll try and update sooner next time.

Random tidbits

It's been a while since I posted on here, which is weird because there has been quite a bit going on!  There's been some random things I've been meaning to post about but not gotten around here, so now y'all get a list instead of a normal post.

1)  Elections- The elections in Norway were on September 9th.  I'm still not up on the little details of the system, but I have figured out a bit.  Norway has a multiparty system; there are more than eight major parties.  These parties have formed into two major coalitions; liberal left and conservative right (bear in mind that the entire spectrum is still shifted to the left of the US).  However, many similar issues seem to be on the table; the conservatives want lower taxes and immigration, while the left (who were in power before the election) are more socially and fiscally liberal.  The multitude of parties means that voters can choose their "shade" of party more easily than they can in the US.  Anyway, the Labor Party (left) won the most votes, but their coalition was beat by the conservative coalition, meaning that Norway now has a conservative government and their coalition is the one to raise the new prime minister.  The right is now working to establish a government.  If they cannot do that, apparently the king steps in and asks the other coalition to form the government.  When I was talking to my room-mate about this stuff, he told me that this has actually happened before.  What's impressive is that the coalition that the king asked to take over actually wanted to get rid of the monarchy, and he asked them to form the government anyway.  That's some pretty good kinging, I think!  I'll let you guys know if that happens again this year.

2)  Cheese-  I told you this list was random.  I learned in Drobak that Norwegians have a surprisingly large variety of spreadable, squeezable cheese products.  These are often used for the openfaced sandwiches (smorbrod) that are popular here.  These cheeses come in little plastic containers (like cream cheese) or in tubes (like toothpaste).  There are also lots of flavors, like BaconCheese, VeggieCheese, ShrimpCheese, PepperoniCheese, and JalapenoCheese.  They taste pretty good when paired with other good stuff for those sandwiches.  In other wacky Drobak food news, I tasted horse for the first time down there too, in salami form.  It was just one of those packets of lunch meat you can get at the supermarket.  Its interesting; as soon as you start to think everything is normal in your new home, you get a new experience to remind you "Wow!  This really is a foreign place!"

3)  Classes-  Just a little update on classes; they're going well so far.  I've started my Glaciology course, and its going to be quite a challenge!  I'm keeping up though.  We have a big group presentation for Marine Benthic Ecology this week too; my first graded assignment!  I think it's going to go well.

Anyway, things have been good here.  A little homesickness is starting to kick in, but in general I feel very at home here in Oslo.  I really want some barbecue though!
Some pics from the last two weeks:
Oslo Culture Night:

We got to go to the top of City Hall.  It was a very long climb!  This is the bell cage.  They rang while we were up there.  Very loud indeed!

Here's a view of the fjord from the top of City Hall!  The tents down there are from a Food Festival.  This is the night of Yom Kippur; I got my pre-fast dinner from the festival.  It was great!

We also toured Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament!  This is the main meeting chamber for the parliament.  There are windows to the left that looks straight to the palace; apparently its so they can keep an eye on each other (symbolically at least).  Fun fact- Stortinget translates literally to "The Big Thing", even though that's not what it really means.  Town/village councils have been called "Ting"s since the Vikings, so it really means "The Big Council", which is much more impressive sounding.

Another picture of Oslo- it's down there by the water.  This was on a walk I took along the many, many trails through the forests around the city.

A selfie in the same place as the last photo.  It was a really beautiful day!  It has been getting colder fast this week; it really looks and feels like fall now.

Drøbak

Last week my Marine Benthic Ecology class took a week to go down the university's biological station in the fjord-side town of Drøbak, about 50 km down the fjord.  It is situated right on the water, which is amazing!

We stayed in Tollbuten, an old customs station that is now owned by the university.

It is the tan building on the left of this picture, which was taken from the work boat we were on to take some of our samples.  We stayed there all week.  The first three and a half days were spent doing field work in three different habitats; we collected lots of different critters from the fjord, than identified and counted them to look at species diversity.  We were in three different groups for this work, so each habitat got three samples taken from it.  We rearranged groups at the end of the week to work on synthesizing data for one of the habitats (I am in the soft bottom group).  We have a report on it at the end of the month.

I loved being in Drøbak.  It is a really adorable town, and it was amazing being right on the water.  We got to sit out on the pier and watch fish and jellyfish and other stuff out in the water.  Here's a really bad photo of some jellyfish; they came up to the pier when the water was cold. 

And a very pretty sunset out our back door.

And the boat we worked on, Bjørn Føyn.

It was an excellent trip, and very educational!  There is an amazing amount of life down there in the fjord! I also got to know my classmates much better.  It was a lot of fun and an amazing trip!

Starting School
    I started classes two weeks ago here at the University of Oslo.  My schedule has been rearranged somewhat, but now it is all settled in.  I am taking three courses now; Marine Benthic Ecology, Marine Environmental Issues, and Glaciology.  The glaciology course does not start for a few more weeks, then has more hours of lecture per week.  That's good, because I am using the time to read up on the subject.  I have had courses in the marine biology classes, and it looks like they're going to go very well.
    Classes here are set up a little differently then they are at home; there is more of an emphasis on at home work, and not all that much lecture.  I normally have 6-8 hours of lecture in a week, with the occasional lab.  However, there is the expectation that we will do quite a bit of outside work and research.  It is not more difficult than class at home, but the emphasis is a bit different, so it may take a little getting used to.
   One of the other different things is that some courses have field components.  Last week, we went to a biological station to do field work for Marine Benthic Ecology.

Åndalsnes

Since my courses don’t start until Monday, I took a solo side trip up north to Åndalsnes, Norway to see the mountains.  It was an awesome trip!

Monday:

                I took the 7 hour train ride up to Åndalsnes on Monday.  It was a fantastic way to see the country!   The last bit of the train ride is actually a famously scenic section called the Rauma Railway.  After leaving the train, I headed off down the road. Outside of town, I found a trail and headed up a mountain to find a camping spot.

On the train to Åndalsnes!

                                                               The trail up the mountain.

                 My first camping spot; a scenic overlook.  I turned out to only be about a fifth of the                                          way up the side of the mountain, which was very large and extraordinary steep. 

Tuesday:

          Tuesday was my big hiking day.  I went up Trollstigen (the Troll Road), which is Norway's second largest tourist destination.  I can certainly see why!  I headed up the road until I found start of the hiking trail, which used to be the road used to take livestock over the mountain.  It was a long day of excellent hiking.

A rainbow over the valley.  I hiked up from the far end of this!

Heading up the trail.

One of the two waterfalls in the valley.  You can see a bit of the visitor's center where I turned around up at the top.

The view from the top!  You can see the switchbacks of the Trollstigen road.  The hiking trail went up the slope on the left side of the photo.

I came back down the trail to these very picturesque woods and camped for the night.  I really like these woods; they look like something out of a fairy tale!

Wednesday and Thursday:

           After my long day of hiking, I was a bit worn out, so I took it slow for the last two days of my trip and headed back down the trail/road for Åndalsnes.  I caught the train back early on Friday from an amazing trip!

Oslo's First Impression

I have been in Norway for about two weeks now, and I am starting to get more familiar with the city of Oslo.  Although I still have not nearly seen the entire city, I am starting to get a feel for it and learn my way around.
Some things I like about Oslo:
Transportation-
     Oslo is an incredibly easy city to get around.  The public transport system is very good and makes it very quick to get around the city.  There is also very little traffic, so it is easy and safe to walk around.  When I was in London, I felt like the taxis were about to leap forward and hit me every time I crossed the street, but Oslo is not like that at all!  I spotted this on the T-bane (metro) the other day.  It made me smile.

                               I spotted this on the T-bane (metro) the other day.  It made me smile.

The Fjord-
     Oslo is right on  the water, which is fantastic!  One of my favourite areas of Oslo is the waterfront, which is quite picturesque.  I went down there just this morning and bought a whole fish off one of the boats!  I am also trying to learn how to properly fillet a fish.  I think I could use a little more practice!

                                        The waterfront as seen from the National Opera House.

                                                              Hanging out by the water.
The Architecture-
    Oslo has a very Scandinavian look that seems to be fairly distinct.  It is a very open city that is easy to navigate and very fun to be in!

                                                  One of the sculptures at Vigeland's Park.

                                                                     The royal palace.

I am excited to be discovering more and more about Oslo and the rest of Norway.  Next up, I'll post about my side trip up to the mountains!