Tentative Spring Break Plans

1. 16 March: Fly from Oslo to Ediburgh, Scotland to visit my friend Megan

2. 16 March-18 March: Edinburgh

Take the train from Edinburgh to Paris, arrive in Paris at 2PM

3. 19 March- 21 March: Paris

Take the train from Paris to Southern Germany

4. 22 March: Dachau, Munich, and Nuremberg

Take the train from either Munich or Nuremberg to North-Eastern Germany

5-6. 23 March: Wittenberg and Berlin

Take the train from Berlin to Malmö, Sweden. Then from Malmö back to Oslo.

These plans all depend timing the trains right, so if things don't go as planned I'll have to cut out Southern Germany or North-Eastern Germany.

So Just How Expensive Is Norway Anyway?

I guess the title is pretty self explanatory, so lets find out how much I'm paying for things here in Norway!! Just keep in mind that most of the food I buy is store brand ... so its the cheapest and least tasty. Couple things to point out: 1) NOK= Norwegian Kroner a.k.a. the Norwegian currency 2) I'll put the Norwegian translation underneath the item so you can learn some Norwegian at the same time! 3) When listing prices, instead of putting a period before writing the change, Europeans use a comma. So something that is one dollar and fifty cents would be written 1,50 . If I didn't know about this before I left home I would have thought they forgot a zero at the end and it was really supposed to be fifteen hundred dollars.

Monthly Transportation Card___NOK430,00__$81.13
Studentkort

• This isn't a bad price for a month's worth of transportation. This is just the student price though, the regular adult price is NOK730,00 or $137.74. I usually spend $60 on gas each month, then if you add insurance, registration, and repairs it comes out pretty even. Plus I don't add wear and tear on my car!

Set of 3 Pots____________NOK75,00____$14.15
Gryte

• This was also a real good deal, since all the other pots were going for NOK120 - NOK300 or $22.64 - $56.61

Hairdryer_____________NOK99,00____$18.68
Hårtørrer

• This was the cheapest hairdryer I could find, it may not seem that expensive considering how long they usually last, but this really should have been a $5.00 hairdryer because it doesn't work that great

Set of 3 Tupperware containers_NOK29,00__$5.47

Measuring Bowl_________NOK29,00_____$5.47
Litermål

Laundry Soap(2L=.5gallon)_NOK25,90____$4.89
Tøymykner

Load of Laundry_________NOK10,00____$1.89

Calendar______________NOK94,00____$17.74
Kalender

Postcard______________NOK6,00-10,00__$1.10-1.89
Prospektkort

Stamp (letter)__________NOK21,00_____$3.96
Frimerke

Stamp (postcard)_______NOK11,00_____$2.08
Frimerke

DVD (new release)_______NOK200-250__$37.74-47.17

ATM Fee_____________NOK5,30______$1.00

Birthday Card_________NOK24,00_____$4.53
Fødseldagkort

English-Norwegian/Norwegian-English Translation Book
NOK 175.00___$33.02
Engelsk/Norsk skoleordbok (or school word book)

• Most of the translation books were only English-Norwegian or Norwegian-English, it was hard to find one that went both ways. Its not a very extensive book, so sometimes I'm left to guess what something means, but the coolest part about it is that it has a Calvin and Hobbs comic strip every couple of pages.

Spiral Notebook_______NOK25,00____$7.72
Spiralblokk

Candy bar___________NOK7,90_____$1.44

Sandwich Bread_______NOK25,90____$4.89
Sandwichbrød

Eggs(1dozen)_________NOK20,90____$3.94

Milk ______________NOK11,40/L__$8.14/gallon
Ekstra Lett melk (fortified with vitamin D beacause of the little amount of sun light)

Norvegia(1kg=2.2lbs)___NOK68,90____$13.00

• This is a white cheese, is less mild than cheddar, and is used in place of cheddar
• Cheddar cheese is a very rare commodity, I've only found it in one store and I don't remember exactly, but it was going to be about $6.00 for 0.5lb

Gudbrandsdalsost(1kg)__NOK54,00___$10.19

• This is a brown cheese that is a bit sweet and is used mostly on bread or waffles

Lettuce_____________NOK12,19___$2.30

Potatoes(1,5kg=3.3lbs)__NOK19,50__$3.68

Apples______________NOK19,00/kg__$1.63/lb
Eple

Oranges_____________NOK17,46/kg__$1.50/lb
Appelsin

Chicken(fresh, 240g=.5lb)_NOK44,50___$8.40
Kylling

Ground Beef(400g=.88lbs)_NOK35,00__$6.60
Kjøttdeig

Hot Dogs (18count)____NOK22,00____$4.15

Frozen Pizza_________NOK16,00-38,00__$3.02-7.17

Can of Corn__________NOK6,00-13,00__$1.13-2.45
Mais

Sugar(1kg=2.2lbs)_____NOK13,40____$2.45
Sukker

Jello_______________NOK9,90_____$1.81
Gelé

Corn Flakes_________NOK14,50_____$2.74

Cheerios___________NOK26,00_____$4.91

Rice(2kg=4.4lbs)______NOK12,80-20,00__$2.42-3.77
Ris

Spaghetti Sauce_______NOK9,90____$1.87
Pastasaus

Spaghetti Noodles_____NOK8,00____$1.51

Macaroni___________NOK8,90____$1.68
Makaroni

Soup______________NOK5,90____$1.11
Suppe

• Powdered soup is very common here, why I don't know, but Campbell's soup is only sold in one store and is NOK19,90 or $3.75 a can.

Strawberry Jelly______________NOK13,90____$2.62
Jordbærsyltetøy

Peanut Butter_______NOK18,90____$3.57

Chips_____________NOK15,50____$2.92

• Lays Potato Chips are called Maarrud and they have a salt and pepper flavor which are paprika good. Another type of chip is paprika, which is also pretty good. But no salt and vinager :(

Shampoo(.5L=17oz)___NOK7,00_____$1.32
Herbal Essence(340ml=11.5oz)_NOK38,00__$1.17

Ziploc Bags(15count)__NOK23,00____$4.34

Toilet Paper________NOK11,90____$2.25
Taolettpapir

Paper Towel________NOK13,90____$2.62
Tøkerrull

• The name brand toilet paper and paper towels are more than double the price of the store brand ... and let me just note that store brand toilet paper is nothing like Charmin

Gasoline___________NOK12,06/L__$8.61/gallon
and we complain about $3.00/gallon (I'm note sure if this price is right, the last time I saw the price for gas was a few weeks ago, but its close)

McDonald's
Hamburger(the normal $0.79 one)__NOK18,00__$3.40
Medium Fry________NOK24,00____$4.53

T.G.I.Fridays:
Hamburger_________NOK120,00+__$22.64

• Basically I never eat out and how I miss eating Hamburgers!!

Grocery stores (in order of cheapest to most expensive):
REMA 1000, Kiwi, Rimi, Meny, ICA, BunnPris
ICA and Meny typically have bigger stores, which means they have a wider variety of food (like Campbell's and cheddar cheese) and are more expensive so they can import the rarer foods.

Well, hope this sums up what my shopping experience is like.

The University Tour

Tour of my Apartment

Please feel free to leave comments on any of the posts. Tell me what you think or ideas and stuff you want to hear about.

Strange Things and Lessons Learned

Since I've been here 2.5 weeks I thought I would talk about differences between Norway and the U.S. and some things that are just plain weird. Of course they're only weird to me, but to the people who live here, everything we do back home is probably just as weird.

1. Paper or Plastic? First of all grocery stores here are very small compared to the U.S. and instead of a bag boy asking if you want paper or plastic, the cashier asks you if you want a bag, charges 70 øre for the bag (which is the equivalent of about $0.12), and then you bag the groceries yourself. It took me a about a week and half before I learned this one, so now I take my own bag when I go shopping.

2. Cars Of there are the normal brands: Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, Honda, etc.. But who would have ever guessed that the U.S. made Ford, Jeep and Chevrolet in foreign countries? Not me! One thing you don't see here is big SUV, especially Hummers, and boy what a nice change of pace it is too.

3. 7-11 One thing that blew me away more than Ford and Chevy, is the amount of 7-11's here (there are approx. 200 7-11s in Oslo). It's almost like the amount of Starbucks or McDonald's that we have back home! The only difference is, they're expensive!! It cost about $5 for two taquitos...oh and here McDonald's doesn't have a dollar menu either (a $0.79 hamburger at home is $3.00 here!). :(

4. Taxi Please! Now I'm sure we're all familiar with the yellow taxis with advertisements plastered all over them. Well, not here. Norwegians go for the classier approach ... a ride in a Mercedes Benz. Now hows that for style! It's not just Norway either, London was the same way. Even the big 12-seater taxi buses are Mercedes!!!

5. Winter Time Now we all see (and laugh at) the girls in Southern California who wear big jackets, Ugg boots (or even flip flops), and mini-skirts (of all things) in the middle of winter, when its 50 degrees out, pouring rain and are complaining because they are freezing. Well, they wear skirts in Norway too, except here it really is freezing outside and they do it with a slightly different purpose, which isn't to draw attention to themselves. Most of the girls I've seen wearing this style clothing aren't wearing mini-skirts, rather knee length or a little shorter type of skirt (with some kind of thick tights or nylons) on a more professional basis, whether it be for work or special outing. Whatever the reason is it makes me feel like such a wimp, because here I am with my long pants, a double layer of socks, jacket, heavy coat, gloves and something on my head and still standing there shivering because its colder than I'd ever like to know about.

6. Education and Money Its funny because in the U.S. you usually hear parents saying that they should start putting money away for little Johnny's college tuition 5 years before he is ever born, right? Well, that's one thing that Norwegians don't have to worry about. Free education is the way for them, yes that means k-12, college, graduate school; you name it, the government pays for it. However, the higher you go in the education system, the more competative it gets. Now I'm only making a guess here, but it's probably something like the competition of getting into Yale or Harvard and could possibly be even higher. Hows that for a worry free life? You know I shouldn't forget to mention that taxes on regular stuff like laundry soap and clothing are a bit steep...hows 25% sound? But don't worry, its only 14% on food. A whole lot more than 7.75% in California isn't it? I'm guessing that's why Norway (and Scandinavia itself) come off to be so darn expensive. While we're on the subject of shopping and money, one thing I do like about their system is that when you see a price for something on the shelf, the tax is already included. You don't have to worry about adding in a couple of extra Kroner (the Norwegian currency) for tax like we do in the U.S.

7. Keeping Up With The Jones' A week ago I went to a church service led by the chaplains of the university in the Royal Palace Chapel and afterward we all went for coffee at a cafe near the Palace. While we were sitting there I was talking with one of the chaplains and she was telling me different things about Norway. We were talking about cars and I mentioned something about how nice it was not to see any a Hummers around, because at home Hummers are a symbol of how much money you have more than anything else. And she said that people here don't go around flaunting their money by buying fancy cars or big expensive boats, but maybe they live in the nicer part of town or own a cabin in some other part of Norway as a vacation house. They just don't go trowing their money around like they are king of the world and if they do, they pretty much get slapped in the face by their peers. So there really is no "keeping up with the Jones'" here in Norway and I think that's pretty cool. Basically, everybody is their own Jones' and they only have themselves to keep up with.

8. One last thing I want to add is about the sun. Every time I see the sun out I get so excited because I think that it won't be as cold outside and I don't have to wear my big coat, just a couple of small jackets will do. Well, I'm wrong, the sun means nothing!! Except the fact that there are no clouds in the sky. Even though the sun may be out shinning its bright sunny face, its really just out to get me, because then I go outside, with my less than usual protection against the cold, and end up coming home barely being able to move my bright red face nor my bright red fingers. So just remember, even though the sun is out in January and at home that means pants and a light jacket it is not the same for Norway. Also, it could be the fact that there is no more snow on the ground that is playing tricks on my mind, but that is a task to uncover tomorrow.

The view from my window (Jan. 6)

It's Snowing!!! (Jan. 12)

More Pictures

First Weekend in Norway (3 Jan- 6 Jan)

Well, being in a new country has its ups and downs. Of course there's a language barrier, but it's all very new to me (especially the snow), so its more ups than downs. The hardest part when I arrived was figuring out how to get where I needed to get to, because I'm so used to someone being at the airport to pick me up and not needing to take the train here and the subway there. Anyways, when I finally arrived at Kringsjå (my student village) I got to choose which apartment I wanted, now one thing you have to understand about student housing in Norway is that they can share apartments with guys and girls. Some apartments are shared between two people and others are shared between eight. The ones I got to choose from were two person apartments and all had males already living in them, so my choices weren't the best, but of course I chose the one in the building with the yellow windows!! After getting all unpacked the next day and shopping for a couple days of food, I met some people from the U.S. and went museum hopping with them that Saturday. First, we went to Vikingskipshuset, or The Viking Ship Museum which housed two Viking ships, the Gokstad and the Oseberg. After gazing at these massive ships, wondering what it would have been like to travel the seas in such simple ships, we walked up the road a bit to the Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History). Since it had started snowing we decided to come back another day when the weather would be nicer and when we would have more time to walk around. Then we rode the bus down to the edge of the water and went to the Kon-Tiki Museum which displays Thor Heyerdahl's expeditions to Polynesia and Easter Island. He was studying the Polynesians' origins, guessing that they sailed from Peru to Polynesia on rafts. Since he couldn't prove this was true he decided to make the journey himself and if he could make it in a raft, then the Polynesians could have too. He used this same principle (if you can't prove it, do it yourself) in studying the mystery of the statues on Easter Island. After our museum tours we walked around downtown, went to the store to buy more food and went back home. I'm not used to wearing so many layers when I go outside yet, I feel like a big ball of laundry that's waiting to be folded and put away. The sun setting at 3:45pm still gets to me too, it makes it seem as if I should be going to bed at 6pm. Well that's all for now!

Pictures from London

London

After my 10 hour flight from LAX, 2 hour rendezvous at the airport (customs, baggage claim and left baggage) and 1 hour subway into the city, I finally made it to my hostel; which provided a cheap bed, warm shower, noisy street, gross breakfast, but most of all a beautiful city and a place to lay my head at night. I only had one day to see everything in London so I wasn't able to spend much time in any one place, which was good because I wasn't able to spend a lot of money. First off I went to the US Embassy (which was the largest of all the other countries), then walked the wrong direction to the British Museum and stopped there to see the Rosetta Stone for Uncle Rick. The stone contains a decree written in Greek, Demotic, and Egyptian Hieroglyphics and was used to translated the Hieroglyphics on the pyramids and Egyptian artifacts into Greek. After my brief stop at the the museum (which was free, by the way) I made my way to St. Paul's Cathedral, which you might know from the song "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a bag)" from the movie Mary Poppins. It was very big and apparently you can get a very nice view of the city from the top of the dome, however it was pretty cloudy so I didn't want to spend to go up. Next I made my way to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, which were both my favorite. The Tower of London was a fortress built in 1078 and is equipped with a high wall and moat (filled with grass today) for protection. It looked a bit out of place to see an old castle in the middle of the city, but was also really cool because it's not something you see everyday in the U.S.. Then I walked across Tower Bridge, found a cool little side street made of cobblestones and walked back across the bridge to continue on my way towards Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Now, in every movie I've seen that Big Ben has ever been in (mainly Peter Pan and National Lampoon's European Vacation) it looks rather large, but don't be confused it would only stretch goal post to goal post (if laid down flat) on any football field. Doesn't seem very tall does it, but then again, neither is the Statue of Liberty. Right next to Westminster Abbey was a smaller church, St Margaret's Church, (with really cool sundials) that buried people in the walls, like a mausoleum. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be sitting in church, lean against the wall and the see the words "Here lies Sir Larry beheaded for robbing his neighbor" inscribed on the wall, talk about creepy (I guess it would keep people from stealing though). Then I walked through St James Park to Buckingham Palace and lucky for me the queen was home. I didn't stay too long because the sun was beginning to set and I had to wake up at 2AM to catch my shuttle to the airport. So I went to the Norwegian Embassy to get a map of Oslo, had dinner at Subway, packed my bag and went to sleep. My shuttle came about 15 minutes early so the driver gave me a quick tour of London, which was really cool because I didn't get to see any of it at night. We drove past Hyde Park (which is like Central Park, just smaller), the Marble Arch (moved from the entrance of Buckingham Palace because the queen didn't like it), Piccadilly Circus (like Time Square), Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Hilton to pick up another family and finally the airport. All in all London was very nice, I probably could have spent a whole week there, but Norway was waiting my arrival...