A thousand apologies!

It's been forever since I even thought about updating this thing, and I guess that is due in part to the fact that I don't really feel like I'm "abroad" anymore. I guess you could say that England is in my blood; coming here feels a bit like coming home.

I do have photographs to post from my adventures mostly around Surrey, a trip into London, and a day return to Cambridge, but I'll have to pry them off my blackberry when it is feeling more cooperative; at the moment it has declared war on me and barely dials out on command, let alone gives up my photographs. It is a little surreal to me that this month has flown by as quickly as it has, but even more surreal that the past seven months have breezed past me at such speed. I still feel, in some ways, like I just left for Oslo yesterday--not as though I have spent the last half year there becoming an Akerhus kommune resident and local. And of course my time in England never seems to last as long as I want it to... something I will hopefully remedy here in the coming years with any luck. ;)

This is my last week of traveling abroad, at least for now. Tomorrow, I go to Winchester to visit my dear friend Von, and we'll take a daytrip down to Calais to bother the French and do a little bit of shopping for things I don't need. I'll probably write one more entry before going back to the US, but I think this blog is winding down at this point. Should I continue it when I get home? I might, if I do some traveling within the states.

Hadet bra. <3

Hello, 100th blog entry!

Now that that is over with, I'll quickly hit what I've been up to this week with bullet points:

• Aunt Jackie and I had a wander around Wisley, which is part of the National Trust here in England. Very beautiful gardens, and a lovely lunch on the patio; cool breeze, too.
• Drove down to Brighton with Uncle Pete on Wednesday, had a wander through the Lanes, enjoyed my first Cornish pasty since 2008 (!) and visited the same pub twice for comparatively cheap rosé and a pint.
• Went down to the stables to visit my cousin Tor's horse Tonto on two different occasions. The Surrey countryside is really something special, I've taken some photos on my blackberry and should upload them soon.
• Visited my cousin Gemma's new house, felt exceedingly domestic myself, should redecorate when I get home.
• Today I went with both Uncle Pete and Aunt Jackie up to Polesden Lacey, an estate that now belongs to the National Trust, but has a pretty fascinating history behind it. Mrs. Greville was the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy brewer who, when he passed away, had no other children to inherit his wealth. So he left her an absurd amount of money, and Polesden Lacey was the result of that money: gorgeous bit of property in the Surrey countryside, where she played hostess to royalty as well as foreign dignitaries including Woodrow Wilson. It's a bit sad, one of the curators was saying, that she didn't become a lady, and I'd like to look up more about her when I get the time.
• Took a drive through the countryside in my uncle's MG, blazing down the motorway with insufficient safety trappings. It was pretty exciting! (Please don't kill my uncle, Mum, Dad.)

Not sure what's on for tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll sort something out. I'm honestly enjoying just taking things as they come day by day; I'm enjoying the quality time with family.

Hei fra England.

It feels unreal, to me, that I'm not going back to my little corner of Oslo in Kringsjå, but I'm adjusting. I enjoy being back in England.

My last day in Oslo couldn't have been more perfect, however. I made a point of getting up early to finish tidying up my room, throwing the last of my rubbish into my two (stuffed beyond capacity) suitcases, then began the arduous journey from Kringsjå studentby to Oslo Sentralstasjon. It was quite an ordeal lugging both those heavy cases (one weighing 22 kilos, the other 32 kilos, I later discovered) uphill to the Kringsjå T-bane platform, and in retrospect I find it almost laughable the number of able-bodied people who walked past me without looking at me, much less offering to help. If I'd been in America, I later discussed with a friend at church, I would've had people tripping over themselves to help me, but Norway is a country full of very self-sufficient, independent people, so I wasn't bothered or offended. ...still, it would've been nice to have someone lend a hand.

And someone did! While on the train, I bumped into Mike--no, not Minnesota Mike, but Idaho Mike from St. Edmund's--who very kindly helped me transport my luggage to the storage lockers at central station. After that, we walked to church for my last service at St. Edmund's, where I said my goodbyes to all the parishioners; to Rev. Janet who has been so kind to me, to Shannon and Barbara who have been so good about letting me help out with the tea and coffee, to Trond who I only really started speaking to right towards the end of my stay here (sad!), to Geraldine... Honestly, the list goes on and on. Walking out of that church was so difficult for me, but I know I'll be back.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just going around the city. The day before, I'd taken line 3 to Mortensrud just out of curiosity (and found a very nice baguette shop), and so on Sunday I decided to revisit some of my favorite places throughout the city. I wandered down through Nationaltheatret basking in the sunshine and taking some photographs on my blackberry, since I'd already stowed my camera with my luggage, then headed up Karl Johans gate to the palace. I had quite a lot of time to kill before my flight, so I just... napped in the sunshine in the palace gardens, listening to my iPod and enjoying the sunshine.

My Flytog ride was a little emotional, though I managed to keep from crying--mostly because my luggage kept deciding to roll away from me, and I had to dive out of my seat on multiple occasions to try to stow it better. (The two Danes sitting in the seats across from mine chimed in helpful suggestions in Danish, but I think they were mostly just drunk and wanted a laugh at my expense. Meanies.) But that aside, my flight over was pretty nice and uneventful, and our pilot was pretty cheeky, describing our flight from Oslo to London Heathrow as "one hour and fifty-five minutes of action-packed excitement, starting with this riveting security film provided by BA for your entertainment. And safety as well, I suppose." (A bit paraphrased, but that's the gist of it.) I love flying BA. :)

Also: Sitting next to me on the plane was a young Norwegian boy with his grandmother; this was his first trip out of Norway, so when the plane started making its descent, I offered to switch places with him so he could get his first look at London. I think his grandmother really appreciated the gesture, and it tugged at my heart strings a little bit watching this kid, who was only a little older than I was when I had my first proper visit out of the US and back to England, gazing in awe out the window. Seemed fitting somehow.

Uncle Pete met me at the arrivals gate which was lovely, and I came home and crashed after staying up a bit talking with Aunt Jackie. Today we took a tour of Wisley Gardens, somewhere I will go back to later with my camera so I can photograph everything that stands still long enough, but tomorrow I plan to have a bit of a domestic day just doing laundry and getting myself settled into my room here for the next month. Truly, I am glad to be in England, but I don't expect this ache in my heart for Oslo is going to go away anytime soon. I fell in love with the city.

It's hard not to.

Norwegian wood, and some other thoughts.

I think Sognsvann is quickly becoming my most favorite corner of Oslo, even on cloudy days with plenty of overcast. With all the snow gone and the temperatures warming up, everything is gradually growing bright green; I spent a ridiculous amount of time just laying in the grass and moss quite a way's off the main path, listening to all the different natural sounds. It isn't that much different from what I'd hear on Monte Sano in Huntsville, actually; birds crying, wind in the trees, distant conversations, etc. And like Huntsville, it doesn't take very long at all to leave the heart of the city and find yourself sequestered away in a small, private corner of the wilderness. (Though I think I was less alone than I suspected at the time; I couldn't get a picture of it, but I think I glimpsed an elk near the dam.)

My final exams for my courses are coming up soon, and then my last trip with my friends here at the university. I think I've managed to see lots of new and exciting places this year; Glasgow in Scotland (even if it wasn't planned), Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Copenhagen in Denmark, the lovely Swedish countryside with all its massive wind turbines, idyllic "Gamle" Fredrikstad further south along Oslofjorden--and of course Oslo itself, a city I now feel I know as well as Huntsville, and love just as much. I still have plenty to see before I go home to Huntsville: a possible trip with my Norwegian classmates to Göteberg in Sweden next week, Bergen with Mike and Tim at the start of June, London with family, Winchester and Canterbury with Von, Norfolk with Alistair, a return to Cambridge for a day if I can swing it, and possibly a visit to my aunt and cousin in France. There's so much more to do, and though I'm sad I wasn't able to visit Helsinki or Stockholm, I know I'll find a way to visit both cities in the future.

I need to start thinking about what I am going to do with myself when I get back to Huntsville. I suppose the logical thing would be to start looking for a job, since by that point I will have my degree and be a university graduate (how scary is that?!). Do I want to move out and find my own place or continue living at home with my dad? What sort of job do I want? Do I want to start thinking about graduate school or delay those plans for a while? All these questions are swimming around in my head, and I can't really answer any of them until I am back stateside. The open-endedness of all my options is terrifying and exciting at the same time. I can, in fact, do whatever I want.

My day in Greater London

A snowy shot of the back garden this morning! Thoroughly caked with snow.

I got a mercifully slow start this morning, which was very nice; had tea with Aunt Jackie, took a nice bath that didn't involve slightly oily hotel shampoo, then drove up to Wimbledon with Uncle Peter to have lunch with my grandfather, Brian. This turned into a bit of an ordeal, just because my step-grandmother Colleen apparently needed someone to jump her car off, so we agreed to meet Colleen at the Telegraph (a pub near their house in Putney Heath, which she'd walk to) and then drive her back home to jump the car off afterwards. Lunch was nice, but it was sort of amusing, because we didn't actually need to jump the car off at all. Oh well! It was still a nice afternoon.

I had a good chat with Brian after lunch (which ended around 4pm actually); we talked about my grandmother, "Omi," his first wife before Colleen, because when I was young and when Omi was still able to answer all these questions, I... didn't think to ask them. How did she meet her first husband Wilhelm? What was their relationship like? How did she and Brian meet? These sorts of things. Fortunately Brian could answer some of them, and it was actually a really informative chat. He was doing some work for the British government after the war (Second World War, logically) and met Omi while she was working for the German rocket industry. I'm not sure what she was doing there, but at any rate that's how they met.

My cousins came by the house tonight! In fact, Tor is keeping me company in my room right now. :) Here are some pictures of the glorious event:

My Aunt Jackie and Uncle Peter, at dinnertime. We had to talk Peter into the picture, he was most unwilling.

My cousin Gemma and her boyfriend, Alex.

My cousin Victoria ("Tor") with her newly dyed red hair! She's silly. (And also finished off that whole bottle of wine all by herself, the goof.)

The family~! Aunt Jackie, Tor, myself, Uncle Pete, and Gemma. Alex kindly took the picture.

And Molly, the family cat! She demonstrates here her ability to keep me from properly sitting on my bed, barring my access to Olaf the macbook. Anyway, she's quite cuddly.

Tomorrow, I leave for Oslo at 7:20am from Heathrow, assuming there are no delays. Hopefully, I'll arrive at 10:30, make the train to Oslo Central, in time to meet the ESN Student Group, and will next make my update from my dorm room at Kringsjå studentby!

An update from Leatherhead!

Finally, I've made it to my uncle's house!

It's quite late right now and I'm very tired, so I won't regale you all with the awful details of how I got here; suffice to say, US Airways finally just stuck us all on coaches and we drove south through the British Isles until we got to Gatwick about two hours ago. Now I'm happily tucked away in the room I've got to myself here, with a cup of tea and just enough energy to post some photographs before I turn in.

I have to say, I made some wonderful friends while I was stuck in Scotland. Pictured to the left are three awesome folks who also got stranded with me in Glasgow; Angie, her lovely hubby Mike, and Kohi, a Toronto native studying abroad for a semester in South England. We became sort of a quartet over the course of the past two days, keeping each other company and making sure we all stayed relatively chipper and upbeat despite the circumstances. I took this picture this morning at the Glynhill Hotel right before we boarded the coaches that took us to Glasgow Airport... where, obviously, we did not make out connecting flight to Gatwick.

Here's one of us all together, but I look pretty goofy. And my scarf doesn't match!

We got on the road to London at around 1:00pm, and I took a few snapshots of the countryside out the coach window:

These are a bit small, so I might post bigger resolution images tomorrow. Unfortunately I was facing the wrong way in the coach and so couldn't get any shots of the mountains, but they reminded me a lot of the way the Appalachian foothills cradle the Tennessee Valley back home.

We stopped at a few very nice service stations, and while browsing for munchies, Kohi and I stumbled across the weirdest food dish I've encountered thus far:

Very weird.

And on that note, I'm going to finish off my cup of tea and crawl into bed. Good night!