Back in the USA

Sorry for the delay in writing this!  Totally said I was going to do this a day after landing in the states, but now it’s been three days.  Oh well, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint! 

Oh America, my home.  I have returned to the west coast after being in Norway for just about three and a half months.  I’ve said this in so many entries before, but I can’t emphasize enough how quickly time passed.  My departure from Oslo felt a little sudden, like my goodbyes and packing were all in a whirlwind.  Now, the living fantasy of my European semester is over and I’m back in the real world.  I’ve of course missed aspects of America, some of which I’ve cashed in on right away, which aside from seeing my family have been mostly food oriented (Girl Scout cookies!  Steak!  Fast food!).  Other than being lazy on my couch, which only in part is due to jet lag, I’ve had to jump into responsibilities on my to do list including apartment hunting and stuff for my summer job.

All that said, this post is dedicated to reflecting on Norway one more time for this blog!  I started off with this online travel journal with my first impressions, and am now concluding with my final insights.  Here are some things about Norway that make me laugh, caused me anguish, and are all unforgettable:

• PRICES! They have been mentioned several times in this blog, and were always something to be aware of. I only ate out like four times in Oslo, and obviously went out for every meal when in Bergen.  As one of my other posts pointed out, buying clothes weighed less on my conscience than buying food or beer.
• Norway’s laws on alcohol, the topic of conversation second to prices.
• You have to bag your own groceries in Norway even at clerk lines, and pay for bags if you don’t bring them.
• Most grocery stores are closed on Sundays, primarily for labor law reasons.  Actually almost nothing is open on Sundays.  Except museums surprisingly
• Public transportation in Oslo is awesome
• The sun doesn’t really start shinning until late March, and even then the sky can be a tease
• Norwegian water is delicious (I passed by the town of Voss on the Bergen train!)
• Gravel removal was just starting as I left earlier this week (the country uses gravel instead of salting roads and sidewalks for snow and ice)
• The prides of Norway (aka the things that dominate souvenir stores): cheese/cheese related items, moose, polar bears (that don’t even live in the country), trolls, and Vikings.
• Politics!  Norway has multiple parties!  With youth branches!  And lots of NGOs!
• Education on the university level: state involvement, “go ahead, get a Master’s”, and not much school swag (no apparel in the bookstore).

For a funny video on these same insights and more, check this out, it’s pretty much Norway in a nutshell for foreigners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrLu4MmMCSE

Anyways, studying in Norway for my semester abroad was everything I hoped for and more.  I went extreme sledding, braved the cold, travel around Europe, had great flat mates, was a volunteer bartender, interned for an NGO, wrote a thesis, had classes and field seminars with a cool group of Americans, and made friends that I adore dearly.  But the main thing that Norway gave me was a good look at myself.  Reflection and growth were the two most important things I got from being abroad, and all I can say is, thank you Norway and everyone that was a part of my adventure.  I miss you, and will see you again sometime down the road.  Even the prices won’t keep me away :)

Ha Det, Tusen Takk Norge

This is my final log post for this travel blog, and tomorrow I will post a “back in America” entry.  I was sitting in Oslo Airport when I started writing this and now I’m in Iceland for my layover.  Today is quite bittersweet.  While I have missing home and am happy to go back to my family and friends, Norway has been some of the best months of my life.  And now it’s time to write about my last week.

Tuesday:  Free Cone Day!  Ben and Jerry’s is wonderfully international.  Anyways, my last day of class meant presenting my ISP to the HECUA group.  That was a little nerve-wracking but I’m glad I got to talk about what I’d been working on all semester.  After that Power Point, we had a final class discussion to finish off my academic time in Norway.  To celebrate the end of term, my professor had us over for a great potluck dinner.

Wednesday:  A shift at Queer Youth that was spent making a blog for my boss and then I had dinner with two of my friends that were going to be gone over the weekend.  Spaghetti with two fellow political science majors made for a good night.

Thursday:  This was a day that was school work oriented for the last time in Oslo since I had to finish up the final draft of my ISP to turn in the next morning.  I also had my last flat mate dinner with very tasty wok. 

Friday:  Such a full Friday!  I submitted my ISP to my professor (whoohoo!) and then headed to Queer Youth for my last shift.  QY is having their general assembly next week which meant a lot of printing and folder filling for me.  Ashild got a delicious carrot cake for my last day interning and I also got a card and gift.  After saying goodbye to Queer Youth, I went out to dinner with Oliver and then we went to work at Uglebo for my seventh and final shift bartending.  With a great group of coworkers, the hours went by quickly and the after party went until five.  I already greatly miss both my places of work this semester.  Queer Youth and Uglebo were two very cool parts of my experience in Oslo.

Saturday:  Two concluding actions to my time in Norway were what this day was dedicated to: picking up souvenirs and having a farewell party.  Both these things went very well and I am so happy with how great a sendoff I got with lots of people I’m so blessed to call friends on Saturday night.

Sunday:  Last full day in Oslo.  Deeds of the day were packing and socializing with lunch out, a group dinner in, and one final trip to Bla.  Capped off the night with a movie in Erica’s room.

This blog post turned out to be a pretty short one.  I’m finding this entry a little difficult to write, as leaving is still sinking in even though I’ve already taken one of two flights to get back to the states today.  But, as mentioned above, I’ll be writing again tomorrow, so whatever I haven’t thought to add here I’ll put in tomorrow.  Anyways, to finish off this last week log, Norway has a piece of my heart, and here are some last photos of my time there.

Even Oslo isn’t cold enough to say no to free ice cream

Not the best picture of me, but this is the last photo of the HECUA group

Best carrot cake of my life

Wearing a hat means party time

The room I made a home in Norway

There and Back: Bergen Style

Today marks the start of my last full week in Oslo… WOW.  Being abroad in Europe has really flown by, it’s hard to believe.  Anyways, to get to how the first bit of April went for me, I’ll get right to reporting now.  

Between Tuesday and Thursday I was in school mode, especially concerning my ISP.  I had other assignments as well, but writing up the rough draft of my paper was the most time consuming activity of these three days.  I turned in my draft Thursday morning and before then was visited by a pair of care package fairies to cheer me on Wednesday as I sat at my computer.  Red Bull and chocolate sure are good motivators.  Like I said, emailed off the draft Thursday morning, then had some classes.  Thursday night meant relief from my school work of the week so I made my way over to Uglebo for a special band night and socialized the night away in blissful celebration to end a tough week.

Moving onto the weekend, I went to Bergen!  During my time here in Norway, I definitely wanted to see more of the country than Oslo so I made my way over to the west coast for three days.  I hopped on the earliest train Friday morning with my pal Oliver and we made the seven hour trip to Norway’s second largest city.  The Oslo to Bergen line has the reputation of being one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, and that reputation did not disappoint! 

After arriving and checking into the Bergen YMCA as our hostel, we wandered around downtown Friday afternoon.  Bergen has quite a lot of character, and many more restaurant options than Oslo.  Eating out is a treat, and since I was on a sort of holiday, I took advantage to have a weekend of food!  After a great dinner, I fell asleep for 12 hours, ha.

As for Saturday, Oliver and I had our only full day in Bergen.  We spent it going to art museums, doing souvenir shopping, and of course spending plenty of money on delicious food.  Then on Sunday in between more great food for breakfast and a late lunch, we went up to the mountainside of Bergen via the Fløibanen Funicular to get a great view of the city.  The harbor is such an awesome sight high up and street level.  All in all, Bergen was wonderful!  So glad I got to see more of beautiful Norway before leaving in a week. 

Ahh, only one or two more blog posts depending on how I decide to write.  Thanks for all you readers that have followed me the whole time, are sporadic skimmers, or are just taking a look at my blog for the first time!  Below are some pics from Bergen.  Til I write again, cheers from Norway!

  

Bryggen, the main historical strip

  

A burger in Bergen! So tasty

The view from the roof or the Bergen YMCA

Life at the top with Bergen harbor as my backdrop

Living History

Happy April everyone!  I hope all of you that celebrate Easter had a lovely one yesterday, I sure did.  Since my last post, I’ve been to Berlin with my sister and upon returning to Oslo had a visit from a fellow USFer.  Germany was marvelous, as was having two familiar faces around.  Here’s the lowdown of my week:

Tuesday: I had class, so my sister went off on her own to see a good number of museums around the city.  Then she and I met up with a friend to go out to dinner.  Eating out at a restaurant in Oslo took a visit from my sister to happen.  Getting food instead of cooking is not cheap.  Took full advantage of this rare occasion.  After dinner we headed back for tea and then I had to get some sleep to get up early for my flight!

Wednesday: BERLIN!!!  This city has been on my bucket list for years and finally going was the experience of a lifetime.  As the title of this week’s post goes, I felt the history all around me.  We made our way to Plus Berlin Hostel to check in after I managed to take a nice nap on the plane.  Plus Berlin is a frickin’ amazing hostel; it’s so huge and nice!  And the main reason I chose to book it was its location: Plus Berlin is about three blocks away from the largest remaining section of the wall.  And after dropping off our luggage, the wall was the first thing we went to.  Like I said, a check off on the bucket list.  Walking the wall was surreal.

After my stroll along the wall, my sister and I went out to dinner and then tucked in pretty early.

Thursday: Museum day!  We went to six different Berlin sights:

·         The Anne Frank Exhibit

·         The National Gallery

·         The Berliner Dom

·         The German History Museum

·         The Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie

·         The Jewish Museum

It was a tourism packed day and I loved every minute of it.  

Friday: Shopping day, Good Friday style.  A lot of stores and restaurants were closed on our third and final full day in Germany.  But first we started off our day at the German Parliament.  With an easy online registration, we were able to go up to the glass dome for free, yay!  With this visit, I’ve been to three parliaments while in Europe.  I’m quite a happy Politics major.  Anyways, as for the consumerism part of the day, we luckily went to Alexanderplatz which is a big square right by the Berlin TV Tower.  There were rows of booths filled with artisan crafts, souvenirs, and food.  There were plenty of people milling around as well, they must have had the same idea of shopping on Good Friday as we did.  The best place in Alexanderplatz for me was the beer garden!  Glad I got to one before leaving Germany.  I sipped a glass mug of hot red wine, which was great since the weather the whole time we were in Berlin was stormy and even colder than Oslo.  Apparently this winter is the coldest Germany has experienced since 1891… oh well.  After having wine at the beer garden, ha, and a little shopping at the booths, including a great jewelry one, we headed back to eat at the hostel where I made sure to have a pint of Berliner Pilsner.  We went to bed early for our flights the next morning.

Saturday: Used the shuttle service through Plus Berlin to get to Tegel Airport around 4:30am since my sister’s flight to the states departed around six.  Our stay at Plus Berlin was awesome, if anyone is planning on going to Berlin, I highly recommend this hostel.  Anyways, I got on my flight at 8:20am and got to Oslo at about ten, then stayed in international arrivals to pick up Katherine just around eleven.  She’s my friend from SF who is studying in London this spring (I visited her on my UK trip in February, and now it was her turn to come up to Norway!).

I took Katherine up to Sogn and after settling her in at the student village we headed downtown to do a loop of the city.  We hit up Aker Brygge, Oslo’s main pier, and then Akershus Castle.  Then the Opera House Roof and back down Karl Johans gate to get back on the T Bane.  We had a quick dinner and then headed to my friend Heidi’s place for a house party.
 

Sunday:  Easter!  We made sure to get some museums in for Katherine so we met up with a friend of mine and the three of us made the holiday an art day with the Munch Museum and National Gallery.  Then we grabbed a late lunch at one of the open coffee shops.  After that, I had to get back to my room to work on a paper but the others went out to Sognsvann, a lake near my student village.  It must have been beautiful on a gorgeous day like this one, I was envious. 

I worked on my essay for a bit and then there was an Easter dinner with a two of my roommates and their friends and after food my pair of friends of the day and I headed out to BLÅ for some Oslo night life.  

Today (Monday):  With today being Katherine’s last day in Oslo, we got in two more plans.  First we went to the Opera House for a free concert with a group of friends.  Something free… in Oslo… best thing ever!  The pianist and violinist were both great, and it’s cool that I’ve now been on the roof of the Opera House as well as inside of it.  After some wonderful live music, the group of us headed back for a fun belated Easter brunch at one of my friend’s kitchen in Sogn, concluding Katherine’s time in Oslo.  She got great three days of weather, it was so sunny!

To wrap up this week, below are pictures from Berlin and a couple from Oslo!  Bergen will be the highlight of my next post!

A great new memory

Inside the Berliner Dom

Checkpoint Charlie

The glass dome

 A chilly day outside Parliament

Hot red wine, yum

Akershus Castle

Concert at the Opera House