This is going to be a very long one since I haven't written in a while. Enjoy :)

Now we are in Milan! But again, I will finish up Paris.

Paris is not the city you would imagine from Hollywood movies. There are nice parts, especially around the Eiffel tower, but most of it is downright ugly. I have never seen so many hobos in one place in my entire life, and these are some intense hobos… many of them have mattresses and blankets and cookware set up in permanent locations outside of fancy stores and restaurants and of course in the dirtier parts of town. Everywhere smells like pee, its really disgusting. But despite how incredibly awful the city was, we still had fun. Especially on Bastille day (French Independence day).

            Well, at least the night was fun. We woke up early to go to the parade, and I have seen my fair share of parades, some are very cool. But this one… well, we got there about half an hour before it was scheduled to start, and it started an hour and a half late. I don’t know how its possible to start a parade late that the entire country is watching on its independence day… but that is what happened. Good for us though, because we had spent an hour walking up and down the street looking for somewhere to stand… it was absolutely packed. Finally we found a McDonalds, and the only time I would ever go into a McDonalds is if I would get to exploit it for free… which we did, with a bunch of other people… we stood on chairs on the second floor and watched the parade from there- we had a better view than 95 percent of the people outside.  Well, when the parade finally started, they drove by a few tanks and then some more and then some more, for about 20 minutes. Then there was a very long pause, and people outside started leaving. One or two motorcycles went by. More time passed and more people left, and it became clear that the parade was over. Well I don’t know about you France, but the Memorial day parade on my suburban side street with firetrucks and girlscouts and bagpipers was more entertaining than that thing. France fail.

            That day we caught up on sleep, and at night we headed out to see the fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. We had passed a bridge the day before that had a really nice view of it all, which you can see in the pictures I took, so we set up there two hours before the fireworks. While we waited we did our homework, and by the time it was dark there was a huge crowd behind us and on the dock and walls to our side. The fireworks were really fun to watch, and it finally looked like the France from the movies. I listened to my ipod through most of it to set a good mood. Imagine the pictures I took set to your favorite song. Very nice. After it ended, me and Sarah found a restaurant where we got a midnight snack of cheese and chocolate cake while waiting for the crowd to disperse on the subways. When we finally did get to the subways, they were backed up for hours from a different crowd coming from a different set of fireworks. Not fun. We decided to walk back to our hotel from the Eiffel tower, which took three hours but was very nice and relaxing and we listened and sang to music for most of the time.

            There is only one more thing that is worth mentioning about France. Besides the ridiculous prices. Most of the people seemed to be going out of their way to break the stereotype that French people are rude and pompous. There are many times when something like this happened, but here is one example. The first time I ate in a restaurant, I was afraid to ask where the bathroom was because I expected, as everyone had told me would happen, that the French waiter would get angry that I was not French and could not speak French and would start yelling at me in French. So I looked around the corner for the bathroom, and as I turned back a French waiter held up a coin and said “bathroom?” and I said yes, and he gave me the coin and pointed downstairs and smiled. So I went and it was not a trap and I was very confused. So I figured that maybe French people are not so rude after all, and in fact, most are not. Seeing a rude, angry Frenchman was on my to-do list though, so I would have been disappointed if I did not meet at least one. And our whole group did, on one of our professional visits, a chubby middle aged Frenchman who was giving a lecture and a powerpoint kept getting angry at questions that we asked and fighting with the students. It was very funny and at points we all just had to laugh.

            So leaving France behind was not a big problem. Especially when the next destination is Italy. And even though we arrived via coach bus at 6 in the morning, we knew the second we woke up that Milan would be awesome. It was warm and sunny and the Italian language was all around on signs and posters and right next door to our hotel was a nice, big, inexpensive pizza restaurant. PIZZA! So we slept for an hour in the hotel lobby until we got our rooms, which are very nice! Also see pictures online. There are enormous windows that take up the entire wall and open completely… a huge lawsuit waiting to happen in America but really excellent here… and out the window we can see much of the city and the Swiss alps off in the distance. (We made a rest stop in a valley in the Swiss alps on the way here in the middle of the night. I had to ask someone if they were in fact mountains because it they were just ridiculously tall spots of darkness against the sky, and no mountains I’ve seen are that tall, so I didn’t think they could possibly be mountains. But apparently they were. Ski trip padre?) Well, after a good nap in our fancy hotel room, me and Sarah headed out to eat in that pizza shop that called to us with its smell as soon as we stepped outside the hotel. An entire pie and a drink here costs less than a bottle of water in Paris. Paris fail. The pizza was DELICIOUSSSSZZFISODUFOSDIF and I we’ll get some more soon.

            We took a cultural tour of Milan after that, which was a kind of lame tour because the guide was slow and spent an hour standing outside of the church, which we stayed at for an additional half an hour waiting for some of our group that was allowed to go inside to come back out… the fortunate ones whos shoulders were covered and whos shorts were below their knees. That excluded most of us, who were nonetheless dying of heat stroke outside. Our entire group got lemonade frosty drinks, and I think the 15 minutes it took me to finish mine and half of Sarahs were the most refreshing minutes of my life. 

            Finally they got out of the church, and we walked through the open air mall, which oxymoronically is both the largest and smallest mall I have ever seen. It seems like somebody got bored in the middle of making it, because it is extravagant and detailed and beautiful and tall and elegant, and appears to be enormous, but you can walk from one side of to the other in under a minute. See picture J. 

            The next day we went exploring and shopping and found some really interesting structures and stores, including the vegetable shop I took a picture of. Now I have been taking a lot of pictures in stores, so I am used to people yelling at me “No pictures!” in whatever foreign language they speak. But there were only a man and a woman in this store, watching us and talking to us, so I wanted to ask permission. So I asked, “Can I take a picture?” and the man said of course! And walked toward me and got behind a barrel that was in the middle of the store, so I thought that he thought I wanted him to be in the picture. So I said, “Can I just take a picture of this?” and he said, “Oh you want a picture! I thought you wanted a peach-a!” Apparently he was going to pick out a peach for me. Italians and their funny accents.

            Wait I forgot… after the cultural tour the day before, we stayed up late studying, because the next day was midterms! Which everyone else was getting all worked up about and as usual I was chillaxed and not even remotely worried. Most of the class was angry also that we had to memorize the map of Europe and when each country joined the EU, but I was pretty happy with that assignment because I’ve been wanting to brush up on my geography and now I know the name and location of all 20 to 30ish countries in Europe. Win! And of course, as I expected, the tests were quite easy. Not everybody thought so, but they are just being stupid.

            So about class again. The day generally goes like this. I set the alarm for half an hour after we have to wake up, because the time on my cell phone is wrong and I don’t know how to fix it. Sarah and I get ready for 20 minutes than go to breakfast for 20 minutes, where we are usually the first ones there besides our German teacher… but of course as we have learned so many times here, that is because Germans are inherently punctual and responsible. Then everyone else shows up, most bubbly and happy, with a few still groggy from staying out late drinking the night before. One of the boys, John, is particularly fun to say hi to because he responds in a very predictable way every time… for example “Morning, John.” “Morning.” “How are you today?” “Ehh. Shit. Stayed up till 4, we got stuck at a bar all night.” “That’s too bad.” Then he nods and smiles really widely. Its funny.

            Anyway, next we wait for the rest of the group to finish eating, Hervitz or somebody distributes 2 subway tickets to us, and we go off to school. At this point, the betting begins. Me and Sarah began these bets about a week ago, and they are becoming a popular past time among the rest of our group too. One of our teachers, Georges, pronounced George, is a fat and badly groomed human history encyclopedia. Bet number one is: what percent of his back will be covered in sweat by the time we get to class? One day when the bets were kind of low, we arrived and it was 0 percent! Until we realized that it was just an illusion… the entire back of his shirt was the same color not because it was sweat free, but because it was all soaked. So we all lost on that day. Bet number 2 is how many times will Hugo Hervitz lead us down a wrong turn? Its generally around 2. I don’t think we should follow him to class anymore.

            So we arrive to class and everybody is together for class number one, in which we learn about the European Union and the history of the countries we are in. This is usually taught by a guest speaker or Georges, who rambles on and on and on and stutters and cuts himself off when he talks, which I didn’t even know was possible. After we sit through that, the actually good classes begin, starting with marketing taught by Peter, and then cross cultural communications, also with him. He is far more interesting than Georges or the rest of the teachers, so it’s a good thing I got his classes. Sometimes Hugo or Georges will come in and distract us, and he’ll say what the rest of us are thinking, which gets to be entertaining. Georges, who loves to hear himself talk, will come in and say something like, “Can I make an observation,” and Peter will just say, “No.” It’s very funny. And the same with crazy lunatic Hugo, who came in the other day with his regular busy, crazy expression, and Peter just said sarcastically when he started distracting us, “Do you need to make an announcement?” and Hugo said no and left. So I enjoy these classes. And the material is interesting. The other teacher is Brain Butler, and he is super weird so I am glad I don’t have him either.

            After class we are free to go whenever and wherever we want. Which is usually back to the hotel to drop stuff off and get lunch.  Then we do whatever we want for the rest of the day and begin the cycle again tomorrow.

            More about Milan! Now, when I was in Paris, I though the French people were nice, and they were, but I guess I didn’t notice until I got here that there was something amiss… they weren’t friendly and outgoing. I have never seen such a friendly society in my life. Every waiter you get will ask you where you are from and how you like Milan and what you are doing here, with a huge smile on their face. They all speak excellent English but it is still fun to bust out the little Italian that I know and start and end sentences with Grazi!, and Prego!, and Chao! If you are walking around or just sitting and talking, especially at night, tons of people will just come over and start talking to you and being very friendly and asking about America and how you like Europe and telling you about their own adventures. We are going to make a country score chart, and Italy will get big points for being the friendliest and for having the greatest feeling of safety. Milan feels so safe! Paris did not even remotely feel safe, parts of it were very weird. But I feel like I could walk around here at 4 in the morning and people would be as normal and kind as they would be at 4 in the afternoon. ( I will not do that, but I’m just saying…) And of course the food is excellent, with cheap pasta and paninis and pizza on every corner.  It is fun to order food here, because we already know all the Italian words we need… Could I please have gnocchi al dente with pesto? (I ordered that off the menu yesterday, yessiree. It was good.)

            And today we have a free day, and me and Sarah were going to go to Tuscany or Switzerland, but by the time we found internet, or rather paid for it in the hotel, all we wanted to do was sleep. So we did. And today we are just going to chill. So here I am now, in a beautiful and brightly lit hotel room with the windows wide open, letting in a warm breeze, while I listen to relaxing foreign music that my computer is picking up from another macbook in a room next to mine. Live from Milan, its Saturday night!

New france pictures, a few more spain ones, and here is the link to Milan! 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283617&id=704420382&l=8f9bd89290

Will try to write more later.

France pictures link!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=280491&id=704420382&l=148e480a34

Barcelona and Paris

So after class, me and Sarah were planning on going off to the beach, when the 40 year old woman in our group asked if she would come with us and we were like ohhh, sure…    well that was interesting for about half an hour until we found out she wanted to go to a different beach than we did and she (fortunately) went her own way. So most of the rest of the group was off to go tour the empty soccer stadium for a few hours, we headed to the beach.  Which required navigating  through the Barcelona subways… actually quite easily. I  stopped at a pharmacy to get sun tan lotion. The farmacias aqui son arragend very differently. There is nothing but actual chemical health care products and drugs… no magazines, snacks, candy, or even deodorant or toothpaste. I have no idea where to get these things or detergent or anything else like that. Anyway, I couldn’t find the sun lotion until I realized they keep it all behind the counter, so I asked the cashier for it, and he asked me how strong, and I said 30. So he brought me two bottles, one spray on, one lotion, and asked which I would like. Seeking a bargain, I asked how much they were. One was 20 euros and the other 30. I think not. 40 bucks for sun lotion is a little steep. I just borrowed Sarah’s. (Which was 85 spf, fyi.) Next we stopped for lunch, and decided after reading the entire menu in English and halfway through again in Spanish, that we would just get icecream bars. And they were delicious.

La playa itself was extraordinarily crowded, so we decided to just walk along next to it instead of lay down our towels. We saw a bunch of interesting and crazy people.

It was like a self tour at a slow pace, much better than a guided tour. There are no clocks anywhere so everybody looses track of time here, which is just what we did.

My favorite part of the beach was the jungle gym Eiffel tower made of ropes. J That was quite fun to climb on.  Even though it was crowded, we took turns cooling off in the water, which was amazingly refreshing. Swimming would have been nice but I guess I’ll wait until I get to Greece.

We passed more cool street performers, this time a band was playing Bob Marley’s “no woman no cry.” Lo me gusta. We also passed a few more markets on the street, and on the way home stopped for a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.

We also saw, way on the hilltop and appearing very small, a perfect silhouette of a castle. We are not sure what it is exactly, but on the way home it was lit up and pretty so we will go check it out tomorrow. But by the time I post this, it will be today… since of course the internet is once again not working. Only in Europe…

 

 

 

Well now I am in Paris, but I will finish up talking about Barcelona. It was extremely fun! There was so much to do all of the time; we explored the part of town with the shops and narrow corridors. We went to the Picasso museum, went to a few well-know stores to see what they were like, such as the Corte Ingles, the largest department store here, with 9 stories. At the top was a cafeteria where we took pictures including the panoramic view. On our endless search for free internet access and curiosity about new parts of town, me and Sarah came to a beautiful 5 star hotel not to far from ours, but the location was much nicer. It had dim lights and high ceilings with columns, and everything was red and dark black, and the floors were marble. Even the halls to the rooms were pretty, and had “zen” glass rooms in the middle of each. On the top floor, where we got off in search of the pool, was a small restaurant area on the roof and a pool, and another beautiful view of the city. After we took a few pictures here, pretending that we were guests at the hotel, we went back to the lobby and found… two computers with internet! So we used those for quite a while.

The next day were our first “professional visits” and Sarah’s birthday. The first two visits are not really worth talking about… we toured the stock exchange building and a car factory, which could have potentially been cool but was not. The wine cellar and vineyard we went to, however, was really cool. The vineyard made me feel like I was in Italy even though I have never been there, and deep underground in the enormous cellars we took a “train” ride, which was fun and the architecture of the buildings above ground was amazing.

Later to celebrate Sarah’s birthday, me and her went to a reaaaallly nice Japanese restaurant, that was also reaaaaallly cheap. Which is very hard to find in Europe. The place was fancy and well decorated and had nice waiters and good food.

 

And on our final full day in Spain, we went to the Gaudi park, which was so pretty and fun to explore. I expected it to be nice and it turned out to be a lot nicer than I expected. The curvy benches were cool and a good photo op, and the Gaudi lizard is awesome up close. Check the Spain pictures link to see!

 

I guess I should talk about classes? Well, we are supposed to be taking 2, but there is a kind of surprise 3^rd class that everyone has to take in order to fill the credit hours, (I don’t know why they couldn’t just have made the 2 longer) on the European Union. Which I’m not too interested in. Marketing is a lot better because the teacher is cool and the subject is interesting, and I have the same teacher (a German named Peter… we call the teachers by their first names, as I have in so many different summer school programs) for Cross Cultural Communications, and that class is my favorite. It is basically a story telling and thinking outside of the box kind of class, and I think I’ve already learned plenty. Me and Sarah have also learned a lot on our own adventures that have nothing to do with the program. Most of the other kids here like to drink every single night, which has led to a few of them missing class more than once already… and its only been a week. But there are a few I really like, such as a few Egyptian girls and a few Americans and Brazilians… actually I like more of them than I dislike, but the ones I dislike are just more fun to talk about. J

 

So we took a long overnight bus ride from Barcelona to Paris. Most of it was uncomfortable but there were fun parts, such as when Hugo (the director) got on the microphone around midnight and said, in French, now we are in Paris! And we all shouted and cheered and looked out the window at the hills. We had a rest stop at some point during the night where we got off the bus and into the food-bathroom place, and it was really weird to see everything written in French. This was the first language I completely couldnt read: London was English, Norway looked like German, and I could understand most things in Spain. But all French words look different to me and I never thought I would wish that everything were written in Spanish. Le blublu fla fla flee ah hau hau. 

We arrived in the morning, over 4 hours before check in time to the hotel. Me and Sarah went out to eat again, and the first place we found was cheap and had a cheese sample platter… one thing on my to do list. I didn’t get it because I wanted to find one with more types of cheese, I like cheese! But I find a good one before I leave.

When we finally checked into the hotel, it was a bit of a disappointment (to the extent that I can be disappointed, because that doesn’t happen too easily) because the rooms are small and old and the refrigerator and a light don’t work, the hairdryer can only be used for 2 minutes at a time, there is no free internet, you cannot log on to websites like facebook or any email or anything that requires a password and username, and (I was told) all the showers in every room change pressure and temperature constantly from scalding hot to freezing cold. So I just left it on bath mode and ducked my head under there to wash my hair, which worked pretty well. Well, today we went on a “professional visit” again, which this time was definitely not a professional visit and we all found to be very sketchy because the two guide leaders were not associated with the businesses we were learning about and were badly dressed and badly groomed while the rest of us were in business casual.  But it was over soon enough and we broke off, checking out one of the nicer streets in Paris, with a 4 story Haagen-Dazs café, restaurants on the street with very tasty sounding food, one which we had dinner at, and there were many other nice and enormous stores.  I have two complaints though… 1, there is no such thing as free water in Europe. You cannot drink the tap water, so I have become used to stealing water from our free breakfasts and paying for it later in the day, so I thought I would order it with dinner, because it must be the cheapest drink on the menu and I was thirsty. When we got the bill, which was otherwise reasonable, the water was 6 euros! That is even more in dollars, I’m not sure what the conversion rate is now, but I will be sure to steal extra water from breakfast from now on. Also, we have been going food shopping for bread and cheese and fruit which has saved a whole lot of money on food. Anyway, my second complaint is that the drivers are scary and rude to pedestrians; one trucker inched closer and closer to our group as we were finishing crossing the street as if to say he would run us over if we didn’t hurry up. Otherwise, French people are a LOT friendlier than I expected so far. We’ll see if that holds up.

 

ill try to be writing more later. for now there are some new norway pictures up at the end of the album... the panoramics! check it http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7692170&l=ec8f24c11f&id=704420382

Barcelona Day 2

So after class, me and Sarah were planning on going off to the beach, when the 40 year old woman in our group asked if she would come with us and we were like ohhh, sure…    well that was interesting for about half an hour until we found out she wanted to go to a different beach than we did and she (fortunately) went her own way. So most of the rest of the group was off to go tour the empty soccer stadium for a few hours, we headed to the beach.  Which required navigating  through the Barcelona subways… actually quite easily. I  stopped at a pharmacy to get sun tan lotion. The farmacias aqui son arragend very differently. There is nothing but actual chemical health care products and drugs… no magazines, snacks, candy, or even deodorant or toothpaste. I have no idea where to get these things or detergent or anything else like that. Anyway, I couldn’t find the sun lotion until I realized they keep it all behind the counter, so I asked the cashier for it, and he asked me how strong, and I said 30. So he brought me two bottles, one spray on, one lotion, and asked which I would like. Seeking a bargain, I asked how much they were. One was 20 euros and the other 30. I think not. 40 bucks for sun lotion is a little steep. I just borrowed Sarah’s. (Which was 85 spf, fyi.) Next we stopped for lunch, and decided after reading the entire menu in English and halfway through again in Spanish, that we would just get icecream bars. And they were delicious.

La playa itself was extraordinarily crowded, so we decided to just walk along next to it instead of lay down our towels. We saw a bunch of interesting and crazy people.

It was like a self tour at a slow pace, much better than a guided tour. There are no clocks anywhere so everybody looses track of time here, which is just what we did.

My favorite part of the beach was the jungle gym Eiffel tower made of ropes. J That was quite fun to climb on.  Even though it was crowded, we took turns cooling off in the water, which was amazingly refreshing. Swimming would have been nice but I guess I’ll wait until I get to Greece.

We passed more cool street performers, this time a band was playing Bob Marley’s “no woman no cry.” Lo me gusta. We also passed a few more markets on the street, and on the way home stopped for a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.

We also saw, way on the hilltop and appearing very small, a perfect silhouette of a castle. We are not sure what it is exactly, but on the way home it was lit up and pretty so we will go check it out tomorrow. But by the time I post this, it will be today... or possibly tomorrow again… since of course the internet is once again not working. Only in Europe…

Oslo and Barcelona Day 1

Here is the link again to the Norway photos, with a few new pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=270842&id=704420382&l=58651d1a00

And here is the new link to the Barcelona photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=277092&id=704420382&l=5c53f09456

Oslo was very nice. Nora’s couch adopted me, as she said, and it was great staying at Nora’s apartment and going with her to all the nice parks. My favorite was one my mommy would have liked, with botanical gardens. Also, NORA MADE ME DESSERT FOR DINNER.. But its ok because it was just waffles, I would have made that myself at home and called it dinner, its not that much of a dessert. Norwegian waffles are flat and floppy, like pancakes, but taste so much better. And the texture is different.

I explored all the stores in Oslo, which are mostly the same as in the US and there are a lot of chains, like Zara and H&M, and some of the familiar fast food chains which I of course did not eat at. I did eat a whole lot of Norwegian chocolate though.  I told Nora that I would not eat any more chocolate, so of course she went out and bought me more delicious melkesjokolade, which was thinner than the regular kind and  even more melt in your mouthy.  On my last day in Oslo, I hung out with Nora and her boyfriend, who win the couple of the year award. They are so much fun and so silly!  So I had a very nice last night,  we walked around  in a path through the woods and in a part of town with really big  and fancy houses, and nobody around. It finally got dark out, which it hadn’t the entire time I’d been in Norway. White nights are cool but it gets hard to sleep. But I did for a while that night, then woke up at 5 with Nora, and rode the subway with me to the train station so I could catch a train to the airport and a flight to Barcelona. So ends my adventure in Norway.

Una vuelta a Barcelona? No hay mas aseintos, senorita!

Getting to Barcelona was another adventure. When I tried to check in, despite having a conformation number for my flight and printed proof of the email I received from the airport, it seemed that my flight was never approved and there was no more room on the flight to Barcelona that I had planned to take. Fortunately there are very, very few things that stress me out and missing international flights is not one of them.  The lady recommended that I either get on a 1500 dollar flight to Barcelona at a later time, or take a flight leaving in half an hour (did I have time to check in and get my baggage on the plane?) to Alacante, a city in Spain that I “might be able to catch a train to Barcelona” from. I opted for that one as it was a LOT less expensive, and trains are abundant in Europe, I was sure I’d find one. (My mom later told me that I could have called her and tried to work something out so they would give me the Barcelona flight for the price originally paid, but the flight to Alacante was boarding when I got there so I didn’t want to waste a minute making a decision that might not turn out well.) Well, on the plane I finally found a map of Europe, and unfortunately, Alacante was WAY south of Barcelona. But I arrived, bought a first class ticket on a train to Barcelona (I became very good at asking, “Donde esta la estacion de tren?” and a few other Spanish phrases that I whipped out of my inventory.)  and arrived at 10:30 at night at the hotel instead of 11:40 am. Oh well. I was told that I didn’t miss anything, and I was not the latest one to arrive. I had no roommate for the first two nights because she cancelled, but someone will move in with me today.

Barcelona is AMAZING!  At first  I was worried I wouldn’t find anyone I could be good friends with in this group,  I went to breakfast in the morning with everyone, and almost every girl was painted in makeup so thick that I wondered what their faces actually looked like; they were all wearing dresses with (I assume) expensive purses and lots of jewelry and were talking in that oh-my-god-did-you-hear-what-jason-said-last-night kind of way. I thought I might be able to be friends with the guys though, they are usually more normal. But after class I found two girls I really like, 1 of them, Sarah, is really fun and loves photography, and like me, read every single Nancy Drew book in elementary school and now reads sci fi. Today we are going to the beach to celebrate the 4^th of July after class.

Yesterday after class we got lunch and took a walking cultural tour. It was quite nice but a little slow, and it took us through this AMAZING part of the city with walls close to one another and the streets lines with cool shops and cafes and bakeries (yay bakeries) and when the tour was over me and Sarah and another girl Nicole went exploring here. We will surely go back. We saw some Gaudi architecture, also very cool, and many amazing street performers and flamingo and salsa dancers and a singing choir group, which I took a video of and will try to post the link to here later. For dinner we had tapas, mine was a “Bomba” (bomb,) a ball of potato and beef. We got a little bit of gelato later, mine was mango. We walked back to the hotel late, getting back at 11 because we walked way to far on the main street with all the market stands and performers, but it was really fun anyway. Finally, before bed, I tried to check my email and facebook, and of course, as seems to be the case so often in Europe, the internet was down. L Oh well. I finally found it, at the school, so here I am finally updating my blog and wishing everybody a happy fourth of July!!!!!

Norway Days 8 and 9

So we took the Norway in a Nutshell tour... and it was great! The tour started on a double decker ferry, with comfortable seats next to big windows where you could relax and read or listen to music while watching the fjords go by. But on the upper deck was where you could stand in the open air and sit in the sun and take pictures. Which I did a lot of. The fjords were big and beautiful and green, some snowcapped. The boat made a few stops by small towns in places that seemed very remote. At the final stop, we got off and read magazines for a few hours while waiting to catch the first train we would be taking.

This train ride was an hour long and took us through the fjords over a land route, so we were very close to them, and we took a 5 minute stop by a raging waterfall. I did take a picture. On the next leg of the journey, the final 6ish hour train ride, the view was different- we rode through an extremely remote part of Norway that I couldn't believe people actually lived in, the houses were few and far apart. Everything was snowy and icy and I can't imagine how these people got food. 

Then we arrived in Oslo! I actually like this city because it isn't too big. Now I am sitting in a bakery with wifi, near a bookstore where I bought a book yesterday. I thought it might be nice to read it if I went to the park again, which is how we spent the day yesterday. Marte came too. Me and Nora made necklaces and headdresses out of flowers and then we all stocked up on snacks to have a picnic on the grass. The park itself was very pretty, and since it was one of the sunniest days Oslo has seen for a long time, everyone keeps telling us how lucky we are. 

After the picnic we walked through the park some more to look at the statutes and fountains, and all the people with their disposable grills... everybody uses them! There are entire garbage bins, which are enormous, just for disposable grills. It seems pretty wasteful to me... but I was still wondering why we don't have them in America until I realized that on most camp areas and parks there are already real grills built everywhere... you just have to bring coal. 

Well the rest of the day we just relaxed at Nora's and played games. Nora is muy funny! :) LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Today she is at a wedding... so we will throw a wild party in her apartment while she is gone. 

Norway day 7

Of course the only day I'm allowed to sleep late I manage to be fully rested by 9 in the morning. But I guess that was nice, because I laid in bed for awhile and then watched House before going into town and exploring the old houses and buildings by the water. 

At 6, Christina picked up Nora from the airport, YAAAYYY and we all went to the top of a mountain (by gondola) where we had the best view of Norway so far. So I took a great panoramic picture, which I will put online as soon as I can...

Two things about Norway! Every single house I've stayed in... not one had a garbage in the bathroom. This confuses me. I usually like to throw out dirty tissues and hair from my brush. Now I just keep a small bag in my room for garbage because it's alot easier than hunting for the elusive garbage bin.

And, I have no idea why, and I have asked 3 different people who all insist it's a coincidence, but EVERYBODY (girls) in Bergen wears white pearl earrings. I would say about 80% of the girls with earrings have white pearls. So I have to put on a pair to fit in! 

Well, staying at Kristin's was very nice and relaxing, but tomorrow again I must wake up early for the Norway in a Nutshell tour... a 5 hour boat ride through the fjords and a beautiful train ride the rest of the way to Oslo. Tomorrow is supposed to be one of the few sunny days in ages! So there is a lot to look forward to.

Norway day 6

Today we took a 50 minute bus ride and an hour plane ride to Bergen, which both felt very short. But I was tired. Kristin met us at the airport with Tobias, who is adorable! Look at pictures for proof. 

So we went home first, where I was extremely excited to take a shower and blow dry my hair. I have had a ponytail for a week and it gets uncomfortable after a while. Then breakfast, the same Norwegian style we've gotten used to (I would call it a "light lunch") and then into town! Kristin took us to the outdoor seafood market, which was pretty cool, but a little icky, just because I don't like seafood, but it was fun to watch how excited Tobias got about the lobsters. And at the end of the seafood stands came the fruit stands, where we got fresh strawberries and cherries. 

Next we stopped to look at the boats, Tobais' favorite, and his favorite word. That is one more word now that I can say in Norwegian. BOOAAAAAAT. BOAAAAAT. BOAAT. 

We took a tram on a track to the top of one of the mountains, or hills, I'm not sure which to call them, but judge for yourself- I took pictures- and stopped for a while at the top to look at the view. Which was great. Hiking down was slightly less great, because it was a lot higher than it seemed. So it took awhile. And when we got back, I needed a nap.

We ended the day at a barbecue party to celebrate the summer solstice. Today each year in Bergen people get together for barbecues and light bonfires. We saw a few plumes of smoke from where we were on the mountain. The party was really nice, everyone was very friendly, the food was excellent and so was dessert... I was excited to discover that there is an actual ice cream flavor called lemon cheesecake, because those are my favorite flavors to mix together at coldstone and mash raspberries into, and everybody thinks I'm crazy until they try it. 

Now Kristin just told me I can sleep AS LATE AS I WANT. And this time, it will be past 10:00... :)    So now before bed I will watch some tv on my computer, maybe House...

Norway day 5

This one might be shorter because I am tired. 

It is lots of fun here in Trondheim with Hege! We walked through the town on foot, hitting all the major landmarks and the shops. Hege was our own personal tour guide, first taking us to the fortress, then for a step back in time to an old stone street, with pretty buildings and stores. Some of the cafes which were more open-air had blankets on each chair to use during cold weather.

We saw a two old cathedrals, a bike lift, stopped at a cafe for coffee and a Friday's-esque place for lunch, and hit many bookstores in search of the troll picture book I liked when I was little. We found it in Italian... but not English. But it was a good try.

I took lots of panoramic shots that I won't be able to put up until I download a free trial of photoshop, which probably won't be for a few weeks because I'd like to have it toward the end of my trip in Europe, and it only lasts 30 days. 

We ended the day with dessert before dinner (maybe that is a secret, shhhh) and watching Die Hard in the living room. Very nice! But now I must go to sleep because I'm waking up in six hours to travel to the airport. OH JOY!

:)

Norway Day 4

Today we ate another traditional breakfast at Christina's, then Ingrid whisked us off to the mountains for a hike. We spent about an hour climbing and looking at the view from the top, which was very pretty. There was cotton growing in some places, which I was excited to see because it reminded me of a page from my favorite Norwegian picture book about trolls that I used to read when I was little. And which I also can't find, so Hege says she will take me to the bookstore here in Trondheim tomorrow, because they will surely have it. 

At Ingrid's, we met her parents, who were very welcoming and her mom made us lunch, which was basically the same as every homemade breakfast and lunch we'd had so far... good, but I couldn't live on this for more than a few days, there are no spices and nothing is hot! (Well, she did serve warm elk meat, but I didn't want to eat it.) There are open sandwiches usually, with pieces of cheese, tomato, cucumber, and pepper. And always tea or coffee.

After an hour ride to Hege's, (Ingrid drove us again, she is so nice, driving us everywhere!) we all had dinner together, and I am way over-stuffed. Along with the bag of chocolate Christina gave me before I left, I will not be hungry for awhile.

And now we are at Hege's, and I'm very happy because we can relax all we want and we are just sitting around with the tv and our laptops and books and I don't have to run all over the place! And here is very pretty, it is an apartment that she decorated... I guess all the houses were decorated by the people living in them too, but this seems cooler because I will be living in something like it next semester. 

Keep checking the link from the last post, I will be putting on more pictures every day!

:)

Norway days 2 and 3

Yesterday and today were very very busy. Days 2 and 3 in Norway already! Yesterday we were still at Harriet's house, with her big and fun family. And I got to hold a baby! In the morning, we were allowed to sleep as late as we wanted (which apparently meant 10:00) and then we went to breakfast at Solvi's. This was the first breakfast I'd had, but I've had another since then and the traditional Norwegian breakfast seems to be cold bread or biscuits, with cheese and some other toppings, and juice, tea, and coffee. 

We went for a drive through town, which was a lot of fun and very pretty. We walked inside the biggest shopping center, which reminded me of Colorado and its cute stores, surrounded by the mountains, where it was also fun to just walk around and look at things. And I was excited because I have been looking for a cool-weather jacket in America for ages, and the first store I walk into in Norway I find the perfect one. 

Harriet and her husband showed me their pig farm, which smelled delightful. (not really.) I think they said they have over 1000 pigs... some were enormous. They almost looked like cows. After this field trip we played a lot with the kids, soccer and kick the can and other games. It was fun communicating with them since only some of them spoke very limited English, but they were eager to use the words they knew and I used the few words I knew, some that I had asked Harriet and Solvi to translate, and some that I knew because they are similar to German words. 

Later that day we had the "grillings," and Monica and Sigrid came to say hi. Monica came with her daughter Helena, and Sigrid stayed for hours to talk... she is getting married in two weeks! 

And the next day! Harriet's husband handed us off to Christina and her two boys. It was very fun to meet them! The older boy, Martin, knows English very well and was very excited to talk to us. We started off this leg of the trip looking at the work in an art gallery and sculptures in a park, and going to a small trinket shop that sold every color of handmade candles.

After lunch, we played "putball," which we were told is playing golf by kicking a football. We were very confused until lunch, when I realized that "football" actually meant "soccer ball." That made a little more sense. But it didn't make the sport any easier, especially when the 8th hole was played on a steeply upward sloping hill. We gave up on that one.

At night Christina's husband made us a delicious Thai dinner and focaccia bread, and we had Norwegian chocolate for dessert. Finally, after another trip with Ingrid to Hilda's house, we made it back to Christina's just in time to be told that tomorrow our day would start at 9:30. Therefore, I will go to sleep now and try to get in 8 solid hours and continue recovering from jetlag. 

Here is the link to the first set of Norway photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=270842&id=704420382&l=58651d1a00

Norway Day 1

Norway is amazing! It was far more exciting arriving here than London, because everyone was speaking Norwegian and we are clearly foreigners, as everyone else in the country has blond hair and blue eyes. Ingrid picked us up at the airport, extremely happy, and drove us to a ski lodge-style restaurant, which served excellent food from a menu of 8 items written in Norwegian. I ordered chicken over salad off the menu of course. And it was delicious. And I ate some of Harriet and Solvi's cheese samples. YUM brie and gorgonzola! There were also mini potatoes that were seasoned well that are apparently popular here. Harriet and Solvi were funny... we are all getting together tomorrow with Sigrid and Monica for some "grillings," as Harriet said, and Solvi translated this into "barbecue."

Next we stopped at a food store where I bought my favorite Norwegian chocolate bar. WIN! And I have some pretty Norwegian money now, my favorite coin has a hole in the middle. After another almost 2 hour drive through the beautiful rolling hills, with farms and fjords and rivers all along the way, we arrived at Harriet's house, which is also beautiful. I will be staying here for the night. Which is just like the day, as this time of year, the sun never sets in Trondheim.

London

Yesterday was day one, maybe, maybe day 2 with the time difference, I can't figure it out. On the 6 hour flight to London, I slept an hour and listened to music with my eyes closed for the rest of the time. But I wasn't tired when I landed... just excited. But even when I got out of the airport (which took over an hour because the passport line was so long,) exchanged 20 dollars for about half as many pounds, and took the underground to King's Cross, it still felt like I was in America because most people were speaking English, but there were plenty of foreigners, which I am used to from living in Miami. 

In London I walked around and looked at things,  ate lunch at a nice cafe in the park, visited one of the greatest museums in the world (so I'm told) where I was very excited to see the Rosetta Stone... which I'm thinking was a replica because everyone was allowed to touch it. And I took the token "Making a call in a red phone booth" photo. At night I visited the Tower of London and a nearby castle.

I don't think I could have stayed for more than a day though, because on this particular day the trees decided to release all of their pollen, which was large and yellow and each piece had a claw on the end, and even with sunglasses on and a scarf over my mouth, I choked on quite a few pieces and had to stop to get debris out of my eyes at least 10 times. 

Here is a link to see the rest of the pictures I took: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=269945&id=704420382&l=d3937d6efd