Silly Norwegians

Well, yesterday before my math class started one of the other students commented on how "very hot" the weather was outside. The high yesterday was only 43 degrees so when I heard him say this I couldn't help but start laughing. Since I've pretty much gotten used to the coldness here, it did seem a bit warm yesterday, but definitely not "very hot." I can only wait to hear what he says the weather is like in the summer...maybe I'll hear "it's scorching" or something to that affect.

Skiing Again!

I went skiing again today with two girls from Australia and one from Wisconsin. I think I’m getting better, though I still have trouble with balance and going down hills. I fell more this time, but they were all intentional because we went down quite a few hills that were too steep for me and one fall I bent my pole a bit, so hopefully I’ll be able to bend it back. Also, we were going down one hill that wasn’t steep at all, but the snow was a little choppy because it’s been melting, so I ended up doing the splits down the hill and then lost my balance in the end. Even though the splits were pretty scary, it was fun once it was over and done with.

BOO NASA!!

It is currently 4:57AM on Thursday morning and me and my friend Nick, from Minnesota, just got back from Sognsvann Lake where we attempted to see the lunar eclipse. NASA predicted that it would be visable in North America and in Europe, but aparently because Norway is so far north they forgot that it was part of Europe too. So, I'm blaming NASA for my lack of a lunar eclipse, even though it was a bit cloudy we should have been able to a glow in the sky because the clouds weren't that thick. Hope you took pictures of it for me in North America.

Norwegian Cooking Class

This past weekend I went to a cooking class to learn how to cook simple and cheap Norwegian food from grad students studying nutrition. We used the kitchen of the school cafeteria, which was by far the coolest kitchen I’ve ever seen. They had racks of about 50 spring form pans, huge mixing vats that had propellers at the bottom to mix automatically mix the food for you and an electronic scale like the ones from a chemistry lab. We split up into three different groups, my group made Norwegian pizza, the other group made vegetable soup and the grad students made Norwegian waffles. We used pita bread for the dough; tomatoes, tomato paste, kidney beans, onions, and garlic for the sauce; and cheese, ham, green peppers, and olives for the toppings. It was probably the strangest pizza I’ve ever eaten, but surprisingly not that bad (even with the beans). The vegetable soup was also really good; it was the first time I’ve had fresh veggies since I got here. We finished off with Norwegian waffles, which are thinner that regular waffles and a lot less crispy. So they are more like pancake-waffles and go really well with jelly and brown cheese or jelly and sour cream (also strange, but tasty). Brown cheese is made from goat’s milk, the same way that regular cheese from goat’s milk is made, just stirred longer and tastes awful by itself but really good with breads and jelly (it basically counteracts for the sweetness of jelly). Waffles in Norway aren’t a breakfast food like we’re used to, but a snack usually with coffee of tea and are very, very popular as an after church snack. I think the one thing Norwegians consume more than coffee (which is drunk here more than any other country in the world), fish or bread is waffles. We did get to try a typical Norwegian breakfast too: breads with different types of spreads, like mackerel in tomato sauce, caviar (that came in a toothpaste looking tube), and chicken from a can (Norwegian spam). They were all really good and you couldn’t tell that the caviar was fish eggs, it just looked like mashed up meat. Other types of toppings for breads are crab or shrimp salad; a chocolate spread, kind of like peanut butter, only chocolaty; or even a boiled egg maybe with some kind of fish from a can. It was all really, really good and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much food in one sitting; other than Thanksgiving of course. I think my favorite part of the class, besides it being FREE, was the kitchen. So many cool gadgets to play with and the fact that I can say that I’ve cooked lunch in an industrial sized kitchen, which reminds me of the “Man’s Kitchen” built for Tool Time from the TV show Home Improvement (with Tim Allen), it was screaming “More Power!”

Pictures:

2 Hours, 15 Waffle Irons and 600 Hundred Waffles Later

This past weekend I also went to Nordmarkskapellet, which is a chapel in the middle of the forest. It is 6 km from Frognerseteren (at the end of same T-Bane (subway) line that #6 Holmenkollen is on from the map of Oslo) to help out the 75th anniversary celebration of the chapel. So after my cooking class I drove up with Alv Holme, the brother of Børge Holme who was in charge of the celebration, and on the way there we saw a moose strolling through some farms, now you can’t tell by this picture because, of course, I forgot to turn the flash off, but there really is a moose there. So we made it to the chapel and I even though I made sure I packed PJs to sleep in, I didn’t think to bring a sleeping bag or blanket (luckily they had extras). I guess I didn’t get enough cooking from the cooking class because some how I volunteered myself to help cook dinner. After I began cooking I asked what I was cooking, but the lady in charge of dinner wasn’t very fluent in English, so she said I was making a “Spanish Dish.” Later I found out it was a stew/casserole; it was soupy with pieces of chicken in it and got poured on top of rice. So after my three course meal from the cooking class I had 1.5 servings of the Spanish thing. Of course I couldn’t not try it, even though I wasn’t hungry, I did make it after all and I don’t get meat very often (especially free meat, I bought six pieces (750g or l.65 lbs) of chicken a few weeks ago for $12.96 and that was on sale too, but it was boneless-skinless, so of course it’ll be more expensive). So the next morning I had Norwegian breakfast (bread with chocolate, cream cheese, boiled egg, …), I don’t know how I was even able to make room for it because I was still full from dinner. Then we had a flag raising ceremony and everyone sang the Norwegian National Anthem. Then we began making waffles out of the batter we prepared the night before. Børge said they were expecting 300 people (which is about how many showed up) so we were going to make 600 waffles. Since, I’ve never made waffles before I decided that now would as good a time as any to learn, so I grabbed some batter and made about 100 waffles. As you can see by the title, we had 15 waffle irons (I had three) and we finished in two hours, so that is 1 waffle very 12 seconds. You’d think that I’d be sick of waffles, but of course after the church service I had three waffles with jelly and brown cheese plus a piece of cake with marzipan frosting (though after the marzipan, I couldn’t eat another bite). The church service was led by the Prime Minister from two years ago, Kjell Magne Bondevik. It was all in Norwegian, but I had a friend from the Christian Union I’m a part of translate for me. However, I did sing along to the songs. After the service we had waffles and cake, Børge interviewed some people involved with the chapel throughout the years and we watched a movie about the chapel that was made in 1969. All in all, it was a really nice weekend, but the best part (besides becoming an expert waffle maker) came on the way home. I walked back to the T-bane station at Frognerseteren with two others who walked in; we walked right past Tryvannsstua, which was the down-hill slope that I almost fell over while skiing a few weeks ago. It really wasn’t all that big, but was really steep. Since it was late in the afternoon we got to walk during sunset and by the time we got to the T-Bane station we got a really nice view of Oslo and the Oslo Fjord at dusk. It is probably one of the best spots to get an aerial view of the city.

Pictures from the weekend:


Walking to Frognerseteren:

Tryvannsstua:

Riding the T-Bane:

Still Riding the T-Bane:

My first ski adventure!!

Well, I've decided to rent cross country skis for the whole season and last Friday was my first time trying them out (also the first time skiing ever). It was very fun and very tiring. The hardest part was going up hill and instead of skiing I had to walk on the edge of my skis so the front ends were pointed out. There were some parts when I thought I was going to go down the hill backwards because my arms and legs hurt so much, but then I was reminded by one of my American friends that I went with: What goes up, must go down. So I kept going and going and going until we finally reached the top and after a while we crossed paths the down hill ski path. I went down part of it, but then the down hill path looked like it went straight off a cliff (but it was really just a super steep hill) and the cross country path went off to the right. But since cross country skis aren't made for stopping very well I had to fall before I got to the edge of the cliff of else I would have gone over. So, as we made our way down the not so steep hill I took off the skis and walked so I could rest a little and so I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to stop. Then we got to the bottom of the hill and I skied the rest of the way. Although we had to dash across another down hill slope while snowboarders and skiers were racing down past us. I didn't care if I got hit I just didn't want to start sliding down the hill because it was so foggy you couldn't even see the bottom. But I did make it across, and it was mostly flat with a little bit of a slope down. The very last part was up again, but it wasn't so bad this time. We spent a total of two hours skiing, but because I was so slow it was probably more like an hours worth of skiing.

My two American friends who helped me.


Part that I walked down.


Probably about 2-3 feet of snow still at Frognerseteren.


Path just at the end of our journey.


The three of us while waiting for the T-Bane (subway).

It was so foggy!!

Sami People's Day

This is late in coming, but better late than never. Basically, the Sami are nomads living in tepees and following the reindeer migration. Last Wednesay was Sami People's Day in Norway, I know nothing about and it is only celebrated in the North becuase that is where the Sami live. So, here's some info, which I got from The Norway Post:

The Nordic Sami Council decided in 1992 to celebrate a joint Sami National Day, and the first was celebrated on February 6th 1993. It marks the date of the first Sami National Convention in Trondheim in 1917. This was the first time the Sami gathered around common interests, across national Nordic boundries. After 100 years of "Norwegianization", Sami spokesmen started working for a recognition of Sami culture, language and Sami rights around the turn of the century. The Sami language is again used in local schools, and a Sami Parliament has been established in Norway. The Sami are alsocampaigning for first rights to natural resources in their region. The Sami anthem and flag were approved at a Nordic Sami Convention in 1986. The Sami National Day on February 6th has been made official flag day in Norway, and the Sami flag is flown on all official buildings, alone or alongside the Norwegian flag. Around 40,000 Samis live in Norway, 20,000 in Sweden and 7,000 in Finland. In addition, an estimated 2,000 live in Russia.

Pictures of the Day

Hill of houses looking from Ullevål Stadion towards Kringsjå


Taken on the T-Bane (subway), the tall buildings in the background is where I live


A river leading into Sognsvann Lake and melting the ice


First day of sun in a week!!


The island in the middle of the lake. Yes, I walked across the lake to the island!! Can you believe it, I've walked across water (just don't tell anyone that it was under 6 inches of snow and probably just as much ice).

Fjellbirkeland/Kringsjå Studentby (student village)

I live in Fjellbirkeland Studentby, which shares the same village as Kringsjå, so I usually just say that I live in Kringsjå (although I think Fjellbirkeland is whole lot more fun to say...you should try it: f-j-e-l-l-b-i-r-k-e-l-a-n-d), plus not many people know where Fjellbirkeland is, so I end up saying that its in Kringsjå anyway. Living in the outskirts of town definately has its perks: more trees, less people, and closer to the lake and hiking trails. Another perk is that Kringsjå is 10-20 feet higher (in elevation) than the city center, which is part of the reason I think Oslo feels like a mountain town. Being higher in elevation means one thing: MORE SNOW!! If it is raining in the city center, it may be snowing in Kringsjå. But also, if it is snowing in Kringsjå there is no way to know what it is doing in the city center. Here's what a day in Kringsjå would look like if you were here.

It's probably important that you know know where you are going, so take this map along with to guide the way:

This is the view of Kringsjå from the T-Bane (subway) station (taken weeks ago before the last snow storm came through)

I'm not sure what this building is, but I'm guessing maybe a convenience store.

This is my building, #58. Note the yellow around the windows.

Cool tree next to my building. It makes me feel like Christmas.

Another cool tree, I really do think that snow makes everything look 150% better (especially things that look dead)!

Rock with a plaque of some guys face, don't know who though. Looking towards Kringsjå and away from Fjellbirkeland.

On my way to towards the T-Bane, but looking at my building (after the one with blue windows that's on the very left) and others in Fjellbirkeland.


Stairs up to the parking lot, looking towards the T-Bane.


At the top of the stairs (the building on the right is where I do my laundry)


Car in the parking lot with 6-7 inches of snow on top.


Looking down at the Kiwi (grocery store), Posten (the post office), and my postboks (mail box).


Closer look at the Kiwi, Posten (inside the Kiwi), and my postboks (just left of the Kiwi)

Looking back up at the other side of the Kiwi

These bikes also have 6-7 inches of snow on them, might be kind of hard to take a ride today.


To the right (but not in the picture) is the reception and look out is more residences in Kringsjå.


Looking away from Fjellbirkeland towards the reception, also looking at the same clearing as in the previous picture, just from a different angle.

Picnic benches one building away from me...I'm beginning to really like the snow, but only when there is a lot of it.

Just more buildings in Kringsjå

Looking towards the rest of Kringsjå. The small building in the middle is the student reception. The taller one's on either side are residences.


Two of the playgrounds for the nursery schools in Kringsjå. Its very strange because the student villages are supposed to be only for students at the University, but I guess there are enough people who have kids to need 5 nursery schools in one student village. I guess those in graduate programs could have kids, its still odd to see small kids in a student village.

The sports school up the road towards the lake.

Oslo og Sognsvann

The Royal Palace

Even though Oslo is the oldest Nordic Capital (more than 1000 years old), most of the buildings downtown don't seem that old. The oldest part of the city (that I know of) is maybe Akershus Slott (Akershus Castle) which was built in 1290. Everything else is probably about 200-300 years old. After being in Oslo for a while I tend to forget that this is the capital of Norway, its more like part city and part mountain town. The downtown area is pretty busy everyday of the week except Sundays and consists mostly of the area surrounding the blue dots on the T-Bane(subway) route from the picture on the previous post. Karl Johans Gate is one of the main streets in town:

Here's the view of it from the Royal Palace looking towards the city center. The road may look red but its actually tiny pebbles spread along the street so that you don't slip on the melting snow. A truck that looks like a street sweeper goes up and down the streets after each snow fall and shoots out the pebbles. In the outskirts of town (like where I live) a tractor will plow the roads and then spread the pebbles (kind of like how farmers spread their seed). A tractor will also come trough on the sidewalks, but instead of spreading pebbles, it spreads salt which lowers the temperature that the melting snow will freeze at. (There's your chemistry lesson for the day). Most of streets surrounding Karl Johans Gate are business type of buildings, but further out you get the more residential it becomes. There are two main shopping malls in the city center where you can find just about anything (even a grocery store). However, all the stores are specialty stores (ie. electronics, hardware, shoes, sporting goods, books, etc.), there is no such thing as Target or Walmart here. There are only two stores that go above and beyond the specialty store status, IKEA (pronounced E-key-a not eye-key-a) and Clas Ohlson. Of course we all know what IKEA is, but I'm guessing you've never heard of Clas Ohlson. It is probably the closest thing to Walmart in Norway, the difference is that it doesn't sell clothes or food, but carries most everything else.
This is another view of the beginning of the dowtown area, just one stop from the University. I must have taken this picture on a weekday, because Sundays are pretty dead. Even though 85% of the population are clasified Christians, only a small portion of these people actively attend church. Most people go skiing on Sundays or just stay home because there is nothing else to do; all the stores are closed. There may be the occasional Navarsen (like 7-11) or café open, but everything else is shutdown. Grocery stores even stop selling alcohol at 6pm on Saturday nights, which some of my international friends found to be extremely inconvenient the first weekend here, but I think its pretty cool. I'm sure this tradition originated from resting on the Sabbath and has been kept around to have one day where you can't do anything, but stay home with the family (or go skiing). I wish stores in the U.S. would be closed on Sundays, good thing we have places like Chick-fil-a around that find this to be an important tradition. Of course this is just one of many things that I like about Oslo. My favorite thing, by far, is Sognsvann Lake just 10 minutes down the road from me. Here is two views of the lake: the one on the right is of the island, but since its there is about a foot of snow on top of the ice you can't tell, and the other is from the dock looking out across the lake. Both of these pictures were taken on pretty foggy days, but I don't know why one looks blue and the other looks grey. I think it may be because the blue one was right at sunset and the other was a couple hours before sunset, but thats just a guess. It takes me about 1.5 hours to walk around the lake, of course this includes stopping to take pictures along the way, dogding puddles from melting snow and walking to and from my room. I'm going to make it my goal to walk there once a day for the rest of the semester. The main reason I want to do this is #1 it gets me out of my room and #2 I want to make a time lapsed video of pictures taken each day from different spots around the lake to see the change from winter to spring to summer, which I'll put together and post once I get back home. This is one of my favorite pictures taken on my walk the other day, it might be a little difficult to have a picnic right now, maybe in a few months.

Here's another view of the path. Most of the snow on the path has turned to mush since Sunday, so it doesn't look as nice anymore.

Okay, one last picture. Oh how I just love seeing the snow on the trees!! It looks so much better than the fake flocking we can get on our Christmas trees.

Map of Oslo

*this isn't a complete map of Oslo, just the part that I spend most of my time in*

The city of Oslo is contained within all the red lines in the map above, the red lines separate the different neighborhoods of the city. The orange lines are the routes for the T-Bane, which is the underground or subway, the black dots on the routes are the above-ground stops, and the blue dots are the underground stops. It may be called the underground, but only 5 stops are actually underground, strange isn't it? It's actually very nice that way because I'm able to see most of the city that I'd miss if I were underground.

1. Sognsvann Lake


2. Krinsjå Studentby: the student village where I live


3. Sogn Studentby: where most the international students live


4. Ullevål Stadion: where the national soccer team plays


5. Universitetet i Oslo: the main university campus


6. Holmenkollen Ski Jump: 30 min. ride from the city to the ski jump


7. Vigelandsparken: Sculpture park displaying the work of Gustav Vigeland


8. Norsk folkemuseet: Norwegian Folk Museum


9. Vikingskiphuset: Viking Ship Museum


10. Kon-Tiki Museum: See the "First weekend in Norway" blog for more info.


11. American Lutheran Church


12. Royal Palace, National Theater, Original University Buildings, and Karl Johans Gate: Karl Johans Gate is mostly a pedestrian walking street lined with shops that leads from the Royal Palace to Oslo S, which is the main subway/train/bus station


13. Akershus Slott og Festning: Akershus Castle/Fortress

Fastelavenssøndag and the American Lutheran Church

This past Sunday was Fastelavenssøndag here in Norway. Basically, it is the celebration of the last Sunday before the season of Lent begins. Though, the only way it is celebrated is to eat Fastelavensboller, which is a roll/bun/biscuit with whipped cream in the middle. It’s kind of like a donut from Kripsy Kreme, but not as tasty because Americans like to make everything sweeter or with lots of spices and Norwegians like to take out the spice or sweetness. So, my Fastelavensboller was a semi-hard biscuit with tasteless whipped cream, but some of the other Fastelavenbollers looked better (that's what I get for waiting until most of them were gone!).

For the past two weeks I've been going to the American Lutheran Church (the week before that I went to a church service in Royal Palace Church!). The church was founded in 1958 because of the vast number of Americans in Norway after WWII that wanted to have an American Church in Oslo. Today, the congregation is mostly an international crowd, because it is one of the few churches in town that holds services in English. The average Sunday attendance is probably between 80 and 115 and it’s kinda nice to see the American Flag every week up by the pulpit, what a nice comfort from home! The pastor is from the Pacific Northwest (I'm guessing Washington or Oregon), I don't know how long he's been in Norway, but I do know he was once a pastor in Germany. I like the church for the most part, it has the traditional liturgy that you'd expect from a Lutheran Church, you know the "Lord be with you" "And also with you." Here’s just a few more thoughts about the church: I’m sure most of you at Crown of Life think we have a small choir. Well this church really doesn’t have any choir, it’s just a group of people who get together an hour before the service to practice a few songs. The first week it was seven people, including the pastor who doubled as the guitarist and another man who also played the banjo (which was kinda cool), but this past week there was only five people. For being small they sound pretty good though. One thing I like about it being an American Church is that the American Flag is up by the pulpit, it’s a very nice thing to see every week. It’s weird what type of things you take for granted and never think its something you’d miss until you don’t have it anymore (like the American Flag or the size of paper, which I’ll save for another day). Well, while proof-reading this blog I noticed I may be getting a little long-winded as well, so I’ll return tomorrow with what the city of Oslo is like…

The Biggest Snowflakes In The World!!!!

This is what it looked like when I woke up today. I'm pretty sure these are the biggest snowflakes in the world, and they say that everything's bigger in Texas, well I guess they've never been to Norway!!

Here's a picture so you can see, up close, just how big they were...

I think there is about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground right now and it is suposed to snow throughout the night, so we should have a lot more by morning. It is so exciting, all I want to do is stare out the window and watch it (must be because I'm from California or something). What a great way to start Febraury!!! The only problem with the snow, or rain for that matter, is that it melts on my glasses and makes them hard to see through. Another problem is that whenever I walk in a building or get on the T-Bane (subway) my glasses fog up, because when I'm outside they get cold and then I walk inside and its like an instant sauna in front of my face. I'm not sure which is worse, wet glasses or foggy glasses...maybe I should have gone with contacts!