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.

Something I thought of doing a while ago!

If you visit Oslo, you must...

• Have a kebab. And not just any kebab, but a kebab from the Majorstuen Kebab Shop. Hint hint: you get off the T-bane at Majorstuen to get there. ;D
• Visit Holmenkollen and admire the view of the fjord! It's beautiful in every season.
• Eat at least once at Peppe's Pizza. Pizza, if you didn't know, is actually more "traditionally Norwegian" these days than reindeer steak or whale meat.
• Walk the length of Akerselva--though I'd suggest doing that when the weather is relatively warm, otherwise you won't see much.
• Visit the harbor and admire the cross-eyed statue of FDR leading up to Akerslott.
• ...visit Akerslott!
• Go to either Waldemar's or the Evergreen for a night of drunken shenanigans with good friends, and on your way back home...
• ...stop by a Narvesen--Norway's answer to the 7/11--and have yourself a baconpølse. Honestly, those things will never taste quite as grand as they do while you're drunk.
• Get up early at least once and walk around Sognsvann lake before the sun has properly come up. You'll appreciate the view.
• Snakk litt norsk!

If you visit Huntsville, you must...

• Visit the Space & Rocket Center. Seriously, it's our main tourist attraction, you must go at least once!
• Wander up Monte Sano and spend an afternoon just exploring the trails. And, of course, visit the overlook.
• Go to Jamo's and enjoy a delicious gyro wrap!
• Buy very lousy ice cream at the floating kiosk at Ditto Landing by the Tennessee River.
• Head up to Burritt on the Mountain (the Burritt Museum) and admire our house composed entirely of straw! ...well, sort of. It's gorgeous, and if you're here during the summer, you should check the museum's schedule and see when/if there are any Shakespeare productions going on.
• Go on the Ghost Walk around downtown, I've heard it can be pretty creepy.
• ...actually, just go anywhere downtown. Especially to the historic district, just to admire the old antebellum houses and Constitution Village. If it's a hot summer afternoon, pop into Sam & Greg's for some pizza made from local Alabama ingredients and some gelato.
• And, since you're in the area, head down to Big Spring Park and enjoy the cherry blossoms if they're in bloom, or just entertain yourself staring at the horrifyingly gigantic koi in the pond.

Oslo and Huntsville folks, have I forgotten anything? :) Chime in!

Nå skal jeg "norske" for deg!

Hei, og god morgen! I dag skal jeg snakke litt om byen min.

Jeg kommer fra USA og bor i Nord-Alabama. Byen min er Huntsville, og det ligger bare sør for Tennessee. Det er hjem for meg. :) Universitetet mitt er også i Huntsville. Det heter "UAHuntsville." Der studerer jeg historie og engelsk litteratur, og også litt fransk. UAHuntsville er ikke så stort. Det har bare 7,400 studenter, og fikk i 1950.

Huntsville har en oppnavn! Det heter "Rocket City" på engelsk, fordi det har museet heter "U.S. Space and Rocket Center." Vi er kjempestolt av det! Også i Huntsville er en militaerbase heter "Redstone Arsenal." Vi har mange soldater i byen min.

I Huntsville er det mange steder å spise. Liker du indisk og gresk mat? Huntsville har mange indisk og gresk restauranter--og også meksikansk, naturlig. Faren min og jeg spiser meksikansk ofte. Favoritt restauranten vår er "El Mariachi." Mat deres are kjempegodt!

Liker du filmer? Huntsville har fem kinoer. Der kan du se mange filmen sammen med venner.

Liker du naturen? Du kan gå på Monte Sano, eller svømme i Tennessee elva. Vi også har mange byenparker hvor barna å spille.

Huntsville er veldig hyggelig byen. Hvis du reiser til USA, du må besøke byen min--og spiser mye meksikanskmat, selvfølgelig.

Takk skal du ha, vi ses!

--

(This is the very tidy version of what I will be reading out loud for my oral exam. Here's hoping I hit all my talking points!)

Helllo again, Oslo.

It's good to be back. :) But let me talk about Amsterdam for a bit.

My trip back was actually less exhausting that I'd originally suspected it would be, mostly because as soon as I got on the plane headed to Amsterdam, I popped some Advil PM and was asleep within minutes. I woke up when the plane touched down in Amsterdam, feeling just a little bit groggy but mostly quite rested, which gave me plenty of energy to explore the city until my 9pm departure for Oslo.

I took so many photographs in Amsterdam that if I tried to upload them all into this one blog entry, I'd probably have people threatening to dismember me via email or something. So I'll probably just post a few here and then publish the rest on Facebook. (In fact, that is just what I did. You can view the public album here.) Besides, from only a few photographs you can already get an idea of what Amsterdam is like--vibrantly energetic even given the overcast skies and rainy weather, packed with an incredibly diverse international population, riddled with tons of canals and bridges, and apparently a Mecca for cyclists everywhere. I nearly got hit by three different cyclists on three different occasions, which of course is my own fault; this city is very much set up for bike riding with tons of specially designed bike paths, though that doesn't keep vespas

off them, or the bikes off the footpaths or the main roads.

I explored three roads mainly: Damrak, part of which is pictured here, Rokin, which Damrak turns into, and Spui. I didn't have a huge amount of time on my hands to explore, actually, since a good deal of my time was spent sorting out what I would look at in the city, buying a train ticket, etc. Damrak sports an incredible amount of personality though, and affords a pretty fantastic view of Amsterdam central station if you feel like turning around to admire it (which I did, of course). There are tons of shops and restaurants, which is no surprise because this is a large city, after all, but I was surprised by the number of Argentinian places I saw while wandering around.

I thought about checking out the museums, possibly taking the canal tour, but I always tend to do better in these situations if I'm just allowed to set my own pace and given my own space to roam--so that is exactly what I did. My friend Richard suggested that I look at the Begijnhof, which was home to the beguines in the middle ages and now is home to the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam. It's hard to get away from the sounds of city life in Amsterdam; everywhere you go, you're bound to hear bike bells ringing, trams trundling along, vespa engines buzzing, people talking and laughing loudly, etc. But stepping inside the Begijnhof mutes the rest of city life. It's serene.

Its original purpose wasn't to serve as a convent in the traditional sense of the word, according to the information placard attached to the wall. The women who chose to live here were Catholic and viewed the completion of good works as essential to their faith, but found the vows that were required for nuns to be too stifling. I took this photograph from one of the other exit/entrances; I'd intended to take more, but photography and taking video footage wasn't allowed inside the courtyard. The people who live here want peace and quiet, and who am I to intrude on that?

I'm sad that I had so little time to spend in this city, and sadder still about the circumstances that brought me to it. Part of me wonders if I should be so grateful for this experience if, in order to have it, my grandmother had to pass away, but that is only in my more maudlin moments. I know that if my grandmother were alive to hear me thinking these thoughts, she'd shut me up immediately and tell me to enjoy all these opportunities, because this is exactly what she wanted for me. I'm going to do my best to honor her memory by throwing myself wholeheartedly into these adventures, and I refuse to have regrets.

And I am definitely, definitely going back to Amsterdam one day. :)

Thoughts before departure.

I pulled out of my driveway with enthusiasm yesterday morning, intent on running some necessary errands, and apparently it has been a little too long since I was last behind the wheel of my little Toyota Corolla. I hit the curb with enough force to cause my CD player to skip, something it hasn't done since... well, since I was learning to drive. I freaked out and got out of my car to make sure I hadn't done any serious damage to it, and thankfully there wasn't even any visible evidence of the little scuffle; only my pride was wounded. Suffice to say, I drove rather carefully around my neighborhood for a little bit, just to get back in the swing of things.

But yesterday was good, overall. I went out into Huntsville by myself in the morning and revisited a lot of my usual haunts; Bandito Burrito for lunch, Parkway Place to get two new pairs of jeans, etc. I visited with my mom, too, who took me to this adorable boutique on Whitesburg Drive that only recently opened up in Huntsville, and I ended up buying a shirt there as well. It was an unexpectedly expensive day to be honest, but I'm not worried about the money so much. Mom and I talked a lot, both about the things I'm doing in Oslo and about Nanny--my grandmother--which I think was very cathartic for both of us.

For me it is still very strange because it hasn't settled in my mind yet that she is actually gone; even saying goodbye at the funeral, even with the sense of peace and closure I felt leaving the cemetery, I don't feel the finality of it. I still expect to receive a phone call from her at any moment, with her familiar voice on the other end greeting me affectionately, "Well hello darlin', this is your grandmother." The timbre of her voice still resonates with me, though I suppose at some stage that will fade, too. Logically I know that is normal and to be expected. I just can't summon up any feelings about it right now. I'm numb.

But I am glad I did my best to enjoy my last full day in Huntsville before my departure this afternoon. I have a driving route that I take sometimes to clear my head, which takes me from where I live on the other side of Chapman Mountain, through Huntsville, over Cecil-Ashburne, and through the Hampton Cove area until I reach US72 heading towards Scottsboro. The view from Cecil-Ashburne really got to me today and I had to pull over just for a moment to lean against the guardrail and look at the valley and the few trees with green leaves on them before going on. I'm glad I did.

This afternoon, I will fly to Memphis, TN, and from Memphis to Amsterdam, where I have an eight or nine-hour layover in the airport. The current plan is to leave the airport and take the train into the city in order to explore for a little bit... so, hopefully I will get lots of sleep on the airplane across the Atlantic so that I won't be too exhausted by the time I arrive. I'll make sure to take some pictures with my cell phone either way; it's not every day you're in Amsterdam, after all.

Hopefully, the next update I make will be from my dorm room back in Kringsjaa. Hadet. <3

Southern hospitality.

You know you're at a wake in the South when you can't take two steps in either direction without tripping over a casserole dish. Or barbecue. Or sweet tea.

The service on Tuesday did what it was supposed to do, I suppose, in that it gathered together all of the people, both family and friends, who loved my grandmother. I was lucky that one of my dear friends from middle school, Jenny, offered to keep me company during the visitation, and afterwards my father was allowed to company me to the graveside service. I won't go into too many details describing the service or what my family and I were feeling, because I'm fairly certain most of that can be inferred, and because it also feels a little too personal to discuss openly in a blog. Suffice to say both the visitation and the funeral service itself gave me the necessary closure; I've said goodbye.

The wake was at my uncle's house immediately afterwards, and I stayed for several hours catching up with all of my family from Birmingham. They were all very curious about what I'm doing in Norway, and one of the prevailing questions was, "Do you think you'll stay? Do you think you'll come home?" At first it was fairly easy for me to respond with, "Yes, I'll come home," but since I have been home, I've felt this displaced sense of... it's hard to describe. Like my body is one place but the rest of me is still in the frozen north contemplating catching the 7:38 train from Kringsjaa to Forskningsparken, or walking around Sognsvann enjoying the cold mist and the quiet offered by the wilderness.

It has been surreal for me, recognizing how isolated I kept myself in my life here in Huntsville; not intentionally so much as through necessity. It's nothing like the life I've grown accustomed to in Oslo, and I think that is just a sign that going back to how things were before isn't an option, even if I do come back to Huntsville. But, as with all things, we'll just have to see what happens when the time comes.

"Vas are you zhinking about?"

Lots of things!

Small aspects of this trip that I hope I never forget:

• My morning commute from Kringsjå to Forskingsparken, and how my spirits feel lifted if I happen to sit on the side of the train facing the city center and the fjord. Oslo glows in the morning if it's a clear day; not much beats the reflection of the sun off the water in the harbor.
• Walking through Oslo S. with my iPod on, just moving through the crowd. And, similarly, walking through Oslo S. without my iPod on, trying to catch the bits and pieces of English interspersed with the Norwegian floating around. I like looking at the train arrivals and departures even though I have no intention of going anywhere, mostly to imagine going somewhere. I love the restless energy of Oslo S.
• Hot water. Thank God hot water hasn't been an issue. But honestly, I don't think I've ever appreciated hot showers quite this much before, and I doubt an explanation is necessary.
• Friends. I think this goes without saying since nearly every entry I've posted here has featured some discussion of the lovely people I spend all of my time around, but I want to write something for myself here so that I don't forget how much every single one of them mean to me. Elif was the first real friend I made here in Oslo; Mike and Ray give me that weekly dose of Americana that I think all Americans crave when away from home; Tim has been a grand partner in crime, even if I do tease him and Richard for "Dutching" when our group gets together; Julia has been a wonderful confidante, even if we don't see each other much; and I'm probably leaving out others, but this post could get tedious if I continue naming everyone. Suffice to say, I'm content with the company I keep, and I don't want to forget how they make me feel.
• Triumphant pub quiz near-victories.
• Mocking the really bad films and appreciating the good ones at Norwegian Film Night on Mondays.
• "Dørene lukkes. Neste stasjon..."
• Evergreen Tuesdays (even if this week we went on Wednesday, and will be going again tonight).
• The way a Narvesen hotdog somehow becomes the best thing in the whole world when one has had one too many glasses of wine, and never tastes quite the same while sober.
• Fire alarms. ...Okay, maybe I'd be all right with forgetting about the fire alarms.
• Sognsvann, both during the day and at night. I'd like to go back at night when it warms up a bit.

Some stuff I miss about Huntsville:

• Driving over Chapman Mountain every morning on my way to work, right about the time the sun is cresting the Appalachian foothills. I think that view, and the view of the green and yellow valley from Cecil-Ashburne, might give my view of the Oslo fjord and its sparkling waters a run for its money.
• UAH: Morton Hall and its many water spots on the ceiling tiles; perpetually incomplete Roberts Hall; routinely calling Frank Franz Hall by its old name, NCRH, because for me it will always be NCRH; pestering my professors during their office hours because they're there and I'm bored; the many missing overhead projector remotes that are always, always with Cindy, no matter how many times the professors check the lock boxes. Sigh.
• Afternoon adventures to Jamo's with Jennifer, Archie, Haley, Elizabeth, and whomever else we used to cram into my car, or Archie's car.
• The Honor's Lounge, and all that that entails. Honors students of the past and present, here's lookin' at you.
• Nights at the Nook spending money I don't have on (absolutely FANTASTIC) beer that I really don't need, and the inevitable two-hour sobering period in the parking lot that follows before I'm okay to drive home.
• DnD Wednesdays--and driving home afterwards with my windows rolled down so that I can blaze down the interstate at 70mph with the wind competing with my music to see who's really the loudest.
• The random explosions heard coming from the Arsenal that no one even bats an eyelash at anymore. Huntsville is Rocket City, after all.

That's all for now. :)

We're nearly there!

It's packing time! And boy, am I doing a lot of it.

I've sorted out the essentials: warm clothes (which will NOT be warm enough, I'll have to buy warmer stuff when I get there), snow appropriate boots, some bed linens and a pillow (since that isn't provided by the university housing), hats, scarves, my faithful gloves, plenty of warm, fluffy pajamas. The non-essentials (at least, not essential to my survival) have all been taken care of, too: the macbook, complete with adapters for any country I might find myself in, a Europe-compatible cell phone that I didn't ask for but my father thought would be necessary anyway, my sketch and drawing notebooks, my inking pens and my pencils. I'm still going through which few books I plan to take with me, and this is proving to be the hardest part of the process. There is so much I want to take with me, but so much of it would just be superfluous and provide extra clutter. Oh yes--the camera. Food tends to be something I don't pack to take with me, but I think taking some of my preferred teas along with me might stave off the inevitable homesickness that is bound to creep up on me when I'm least expecting it. So I'm including two of my favorite (and most sturdy) mugs, an equally sturdy teapot, and the chai I bought at India Festival this summer.

My carry-on luggage will consist of: the macbook, the sketchbook and pencils/pens, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, the blackberry, the passport, the wallet with necessary picture I.D., dollars, pounds and kroner. I thought about packing my DS Lite but have since decided that it might be better to just scrap bringing it altogether. I rarely if ever play it here, so what makes me think I'm going to play it in Norway, especially when I'll have a foreign country to explore? Then again, I did buy that frigging thing to use it, grumble grumble grumble whatever I don't need more video games. *grump*

Still left to do: contact my bank to remind them that I'll be in England for most of this week, then Norway by the weekend. I expect I won't ask them to recognize any other Scandinavian or mainland European countries just yet, since I don't know when/if I'll be in Sweden or Denmark. That entirely depends on how comfortable I feel traveling, and how soon.

Additionally, some of you know I am a (somewhat irregular) patron of the Church of the Nativity, Episcopal here in Huntsville. I'm relieved to say that I've found myself a new Anglican/Episcopal home for the duration of my stay in Oslo in St. Edmund's Anglican Church. I really like the sound of this place, not only because services are conducted in English, but also because the youth organization seems geared towards addressing the needs of international students. I think getting involved in St. Edmund's will be a good way for me to established a non-school community for myself while I'm in Oslo--and going to church always makes me feel better, so! :)

I've said most of my goodbyes to friends and family alike; Mum, her fiancee and I went to see Sherlock Holmes tonight and then dropped by Barnes & Noble afterwards for coffee/tea. I visited my grandmother, who has been in hospital since October, and was relieved to see that she is not only doing much better, but is going to be moved to a physical therapy center in Madison come Tuesday after she receives dialysis. So, the long and the short of it is, the new year is getting off to a grand start, and I feel confident about my departure.

I don't intend to update this journal any more while I'm here in the states. The next time you'll hear from me will be from South England as I kill some time with my relatives. As of January 9th, however, my adventure really begins.

14 days and counting!

Another quick update from Huntsville:

All the red tape paperwork has either been completed or begun, so at this point, I believe I am all set for departure. I have paid my deposit for my room in Oslo, I have started the visa application process (which does not, in fact, have to be completed in the United States, only begun), I have booked my flights and arranged to meet up with some other program students upon my arrival on the 9th. It looks like a go!

I'm already very bittersweet about leaving Huntsville since there is a possibility that I won't be coming home for quite a while; there really is nothing quite like leaving your home town to make you appreciate all the things that you've taken for granted all your life. The Parkway with its pointless overpass across from the cinema, driving over Chapman Mountain on 72 to get home after a long day on campus, my morning walk from the office at work to the ugly 60s style courthouse, evening dinners with friends at Jamo's (drinking cream sodas and munching down more pita bread and hummus than can possibly be healthy), Friday nights spent at the Nook enjoying Guinness and Paulsner, random visits out to my grandmother's house in Madison, and even the long and treacherous drive down to Birmingham during the holiday season... I know I'm going to miss all of this when I leave it, but I hope I can form the same kinds of bonds with Oslo as a city as I do with Huntsville.

Hopefully, it'll feel a little bit like home to me, too.

Norway in T minus 29 days...

Hello!

For my last semester as an undergraduate student enrolled at UAHuntsville, I've been accepted to study abroad at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo in Norway. According to the university website, it was established in 1811, before Norway gained its independence from Denmark, which I think is pretty cool. :D Over the past few weeks, I've been doing my best to get all of my affairs in order before departure; this included filling out a Declaration of Acceptance on the university website, applying for housing (the rental contract for which has now arrived in the mail--I'll be living in the Kringsjå student village!), applying for the visa, etc. It's turned out to be quite the exhausting process, especially while juggling a lot of responsibilities here at home, but I'm going to take a page out of my dear friend Jennifer's book, who is being an awesome Fulbright Scholar in Celle, Germany as we speak. This journal is intended to be a travel blog, not a personal diary, and so my personal whinging will stay out of it.

So, my travel itinerary at the moment: I'll leave Huntsville International Airport on January 5th for London, where I will spend a few days with my father's family in and around Wimbledon. Having family scattered across the globe is pretty nice, I'll go ahead and admit it; last year while Jennifer and I were in Germany for a university course, I was able to meet up with my paternal grandmother's family in former East Germany. It didn't seem to matter that I spoke no German and they spoke no English, because when you're family, somehow these things just sort themselves out. :) Anyway, I won't be going to Germany, at least not immediately, on this trip. On the 9th, I'll fly out of London and straight to Oslo, where the SiO people are supposedly going to meet me to help me get to my student village in the city.

I've been looking at some photographs of Oslo online while preparing for my trip, and it looks so strikingly modern in comparison to other European cities. Here are some photos nicked off Google:


This is actually an image of the University of Oslo itself. :) I'll be there soon!


Photograph of a longboat in the ship museum. I'll be all over that. :B


Norwegian flags!

I'm sure I'll post a few more entries while I'm here in Huntsville as I prepare to leave. Go ahead and bookmark this if you want to keep up with my adventuring.