Winter is Here!!

Hey All,

So the past two weeks have flown by!! I rented a koia (small cabin) with a bunch of friends up in the mountains 3 weekends ago. We had perfect fall weather up there!! Only 7 of us went up on Friday and there were 3 other people renting spaces that night as well. Then, at about 11pm, the other 5 people in our group showed up. The cabin was built for about 10 people. So it was quite a cozy night. There were people sleeping everywhere. On Saturday a bunch of us went for a short hike while others went fishing. Unfortunately I had to spend a couple hours that afternoon studying for a midterm, but I still got to enjoy the hike. That night we played a sick game of capture the flag. We played in an empty field on some farmer’s land. There were clouds so there was absolutely no natural light. We made some oil lamps out of glass spaghetti sauce jars and biodiesel from Martin's car. We placed the 3 lanterns at the boundary line between both sides. We played from about 11:30-2am, and it was intense!! There were some awesome collisions and wipeouts! It made any Tower capture the flag game I've ever played seem like practice (and those were pretty intense). We didn't go to bed until 7am the next day, so Sunday was pretty slow. We did go hang out by the coast for awhile though.

I took a midterm the next Wednesday in my Separations class. It went ok.... I made a really stupid mistake that I'm still giving myself a hard time for. Let's just say that the part I was missing was starring me right in face.

The next weekend I spent here in Trondheim. I'd had a 5th flat mate for about 6 days. A German guy, Max, that lived in the flat last fall came back to visit for awhile. We threw a party on Saturday night to bring together old and new faces. Good times, but I've heard the song American Women by Lenny Kravitz about 4 times to many. For some reason everyone got a huge kick out of the song, because there actually was an American woman there.

Winter came last week. Thursday night it snowed about 5". Unlike some places, (...cough.. cough... Colorado...) the snow is not expected to melt in the next week. The temperature has consistently been around freezing. It's humid though, so it feels a whole lot colder. About another inch came down Sunday evening.

I haven't had to walk to school in the snow yet, because I got a free bus card that's good through the end of October. A friend's girlfriend bought a month-long card while she was here for 3 weeks. So he gave me the card to use for the rest of the month. I just had to put my picture on it and make it look like the company had stamped my picture. Works like a charm.

On Saturday I went rowing on Nidelva (the main river through town) with some other girls. We took out a 4 person boat. It was fun, but sort of slow because one of them had never 'sweep' rowed before. That night, I was supposed to go out with some of them, but I accidentally made myself sick. So, all the sauce here goes bad really, really fast. You're supposed to use spaghetti sauce within 3 days of opening the jar. I guess that just goes to show that they don't pack their food full of preservatives here. Anyways, I put some Uncle Ben's Tikkal sauce on some food. I didn't notice the mold on the rim of the jar until after I did so. There were no chunks of mold in my food though, so I ate it anyways. It had definitely gone bad. That's expected though since I opened the jar about 1.5 months ago. I got quite the stomach ache, so I just laid in bed and watched old O.C. re-runs.

Winter's not so bad yet. (The picture on the left was taken at 5:30pm on Sunday). I went for an amazing run today! Soren and I ran up on the ski trails in the woods behind the Dragvoll campus. We ran on a narrow path of packed snow that had been made by other skiers and runners. It was dark, but the trails are lightened in the winter time. There were still times that we were in the dark though. Thank goodness for trail runners with good traction! Running up snowy hills in anything else would not have been fun! It was picture perfect at times. I wish I had my camera.

Hope ya'll have a wonderful Halloween! I can honestly say I miss it!

Sunrise: 7:47am
Sunset: 4:16pm

Daily Life

Hey All!!

So the past two weeks have been very normal (at least I think they're normal). I've stayed here in Trondheim busily working on school projects and hanging out with friends. Midterms are right now, but I have only one actual test. The 'midterm' for my statistics class was voluntary. I don't think I can actually call it a 'midterm.' It was more like: show up and we'll give you some questions to work on; you can do them if you want, or just take the sheet and leave kind of test. Nonetheless, I forced myself to go just to see how much of the material I really knew. I have a midterm in Separations next Wednesday, and this one counts for 20% of my final grade (that's about how much the finals are worth at CU).

Today I'm leaving on a trip with some friends. We've rented a koia (small cabin) just outside the city. 6 or 7 of us are heading up today (Friday), and the remaining 5 or 6 will join us tomorrow. Even though I have to study for my exam there, I'm still looking forward to getting out of the city. The weather has been getting wetter and wetter every week, so I suspect that there will some rain this weekend. Then maybe I'll be more motivated to get some studying done.

Differences I've Noticed Here: (despite that everything is expensive)

Grocery Stores: They're smaller. Not allowed (by law) to be open on Sundays if they're bigger than a kiosk. You have to pay extra for plastic bags at the checkout. You always bag your own groceries. Don't sell beer past 8pm on weekdays.

Alcohol: Expensive. Hard liquor can only be bought from special stores (Vinnmonopolet). There's only a couple of places in Trondheim. At the grocery store, it is perfectly acceptable to rip open a 6 pack and only take as many as you'd like (ie you don't have to buy all 6 if you don't want).

Buses: There are signs that say: "Don't eat ice cream, hot dogs, or chips." So is pizza ok? Still a mystery to me.

Norwegian etiquette: Bring your own. If someone invites you to a party, they provide fridge space, but you provide your own drinks.

Term: vorspeil. In the US, we say 'pregame'. It's when friends get together to share some drinks before going out on the town. Vorspeil is actually a German word that means foreplay.

Smoking: Not allowed inside any public buildings. Not in restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. Good for asthmatics like myself.

Sunrise: 7:56am
Sunset: 6:12pm

More to come when I get back. Hope you have a very 'lucky' Friday the 13th. Take Care!!

Julie

P.S. Rusty: your "bad-ass personal e-mail" is coming after I finish my midterm.