Train Trips and a Glimpse of Winter

I've been trying to write a coherent paragraph for the past 5 minutes, and decided I can't introduce everything I've done  since my last post and still make it understandable. So, no thesis statement here, I'm just going to jump right in.

The week before last was Høstferie, or fall break, so i had no school. I spent the week sleeping, eating, running and shopping, in that order. Pretty great way to spend a week! I don't have much exciting to say about it, but I'll post some pictures I took while wandering around on a sunny afternoon:

Random cute mailbox...they have a lot of original ones like this here

Gorgeous day.....before the snow came

The next Monday I took the train across Norway, to Hamar, which is about an hour and a half away from Oslo. It was really neat to get a perspective on the landscape between Bergen and Oslo, as I've only flown between the two before.

The only picture I managed to get of the fjords, as we darted in and out of tunnels on the bus

Up above the trees going through the mountains - so barren!

I met Abby, an exchange student from Wisconsin, and we took the bus to a small town called Løten. I stayed with her host family for the night, and we had moose stew with flatbread and tyttebær jam for dinner. We had some sort of chocolate jello with vanilla sauce for dessert, it brought back memories of language camp! The next day we biked to Løten Lys, a candle factory. It was a jumble of rooms and displays that I can only describe as completely random. A cave with a fake crocodile, polar bear scene, factory, massage chair that clamps your legs so you can't move, various dining tables covered in candles, christmas scenes, stuffed animals....
We spent the time in a really mature fashion; taking pictures with star candles for eyes, posing with the polar bears....you get the picture. Unfortunately all the pictures are on her camera, so you get these:

These are candles! Pretty sure I would never burn it if I bought it

Not really worth putting up, but I thought this was funny! Crazy massage chair that clamps your calves in, in a candle factory,,,

We biked back to her place, then walked back into town so I could catch the bus back to Hamar. We realized we were late, so started running, which isn't easy with a full backpack; I was getting pushed up and down more than going forward. Halfway down the street the bus passed us, and I must have looked so ridiculous bouncing along that the bus driver stopped in the middle of the street and let me get on.

I met Sonja in Hamar, and stayed at her relative's place until Friday. Some highlights, because again point form requires far less effort than trying to compose sentences:

-Running along Lake Mjøsa (the biggest lake in Norway) in the sun

-Buying a container of crunchy Nugatti (think nutella mixed with toffee and crunchiness with just the right amount of salt), sitting in a cafe in the mall and feasting

-Evening pasta, carrot and nugatti feasts, prompting Olav to say that we eat too much....possibly true :P

-Finding pink rollerskiis in a sports store 

-Eating Rømmegrøt (sour cream porridge) for the first and hopefully last time. A thick custard of sour cream, milk and flour, which would be fine as a small amount of sauce with something else, but an entire bowl of it was overwhelming! You sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on it, and if you're a true norwegian, a giant glob of butter (typical). It was like eating a bowl of cheese sauce/cheese cake filling/glue. Definitely a new experience! 

-Cheap jeans on sale!

We got a few strange looks...

On Friday we took the train back to Arna, and simultaneously traveled from fall into winter. There was increasingly more snow as we went up through the mountains, it was a huge change from five days before. There was four languages going on at once in our section of the train; I could listen to german and french passengers, speak english, and read and listen to norwegian.  I find it interesting taking the train as opposed to the greyhound bus in Canada. On the bus you stop for smoke breaks and washroom breaks, but the train just keeps on going. There's a tiny washroom on board, and you have no other choice if you have to go. The train stops briefly at each station, but if you're not standing there ready to get on, you'll miss it. I reached page 100 of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in Norwegian on the train ride, an accomplishment I'm proud of :) Now, for more pictures:

Looks like the arctic...

Along the way

The highest station the train goes through between Oslo and Bergen

There was still snow by the water when we came into Arna, and we decided to walk home from the train station rather than pay 25 kr for the bus. This morning we went up Arna Nipa, and climbed up into so much snow! We've had the shoe dryers in our runners all day and they still aren't dry. It was gorgeous up there, sunny with fluffy dry snow. And what happens when Sonja and Lauren go, well....anywhere? Jump shots of course!

Snøøøøøø

As if I don't have enough pictures of this view....here's another!

....of course

When we got back, Tord and Helene had just returned from a funeral in northern Norway, and we ate spaghetti at 2 pm. I'm not sure if this was meant to be lunch or dinner; the eating schedule here still confuses me.

I just finished another norwegian scrabble game with my host family, with me and Sonja working together as a team. She's picking up norwegian really fast, understanding and speaking way more than I did after 9 days in Norway, even if she doesn't think so :P

I think that sums up my past two weeks in Norway, during which I reached the two month mark! Lots of cooking, eating, exercising, shopping and adventuring; life is good! I also got my personnummer this week, so I can finally set up a bank account here, buy a bus card, and actually be a registered student at school. Speaking of school, I'll be starting again this week, after 2 weeks off. I can't believe it's October 24th already...2 months and a day until Christmas! Although apparently they open presents on Christmas Eve here, rather than the next morning. They already have Christmas stuff in the stores here, I keep hearing about different Christmas traditions, and can't wait to experience a norwegian Christmas.

....But now I'm getting way ahead of myself, and I'm also done with my ramblings for the night, although I guess it's morning now.

I'll leave you with a nice snowy picture that makes it seem much closer to Christmas:

Don't know what I'm gonna write about in this post yet....

I just wrote the title for this post (which is pretty appropriate I think) and then my pinky finger hit some specific key just as my other hand slipped and pressed another one, and the window I was writing this in closed. That's probably a sign that I shouldn't write this post, as I don't have much to say. But oh well, I'm gonna fight it and keep writing anyways.

Well. I finally vaccumed my room the other day, so when I lay on the carpet like I am now, I don't get covered in hair and dirt and unidentifiable bits of trees.

Speaking of unidentifiable bits of trees, the other evening I was really bored, and decided to take my camera and go for a walk, just for something to do. It was around 6:15 when I left, and after a few minutes I decided it would be really neat to be at the top of Arna Nipa for the sunset. I started going up, and I guess I'll put in some pictures to make this somewhat readable. It's strange how when you break up chunks of boring writing with pictures, or even spaces, it makes it easier to read, even though it's longer. It's like some kind of uphill salmon stream, like the ones with lots of flat benches so they can get over dams. I have no idea where that simile came from...it's not all that relevant...ok, it's not relevant at all. oh well. Anyways, pictures.

A section of trail

So when I got about half way up, I started stressing that the sun would be gone by the time I got to the top. The casual stroll then turned into powerwalking, as I realized it takes longer to walk somewhere then it does to run. Big surprise.

Nooo....I have to beat the sun!

I won the race though; the sun was definitely still there at the top. I guess it was more the sunset I wanted, than the sun itself. Regardless, I took some pictures.

After I'd taken pictures of  the full 360 degree view, I got to that point where everything is so beautiful, but you don't know what to do about it. Then I remembered that my camera had self timer....

I took a few of me standing still, but my instinctual need to take jump shots EVERYWHERE...on ferries, on top of mountains, off concrete blocks, in my basement, off the rock wall, at the Whitehorse airport (sonja haha), on skis..etc........won out.
If anyone was up there watching, enjoying a sunset snack ( alliteration, anyone?), they would have had an interesting and ridiculous show to watch. A girl sprinting frantically up to a rock, jumping off awkwardly, then running back. Again, and again. And again. And again. Through all this, I managed to get maybe two where I was actually in the air. Apparently I'm not too good at judging which high speed beep on my camera means JUMP.

I try....

...and I try.

And sometimes get lucky :)

Through all this, it never really occurred to me that after the sunset....it gets dark.  By the time I was halfway down it was really hard to see, and being really intelligent, I decided to run faster. I flat out sprinted anything flat or uphill, and calmed down a bit on the steeper downhill parts. I still managed to slip and slide down a slippery root, and land smack my side. I now have a nice big bruise on one side of my butt to match my scar from rollerskiing last fall...lovely.

When I got to the first set of houses, I decided there was no way I was going down any more trails in the dark, so I took the road back. This added on an extra 20 or so minutes of running.

So much for a short relaxing walk...

When I got home I realized that the inside of my jacket was plastered with bits of lichen from when I fell....and that's how I got bits of tree all over the floor of my room.  Oh, and random little happy fact, I dropped my cell phone at the top of the hike, and it came apart, and when I put it back together the camera worked again. yay :)

Soo...that was my adventure.

Random things I've noticed here after 7 weeks:

• They like their butter and cream. I thought I used a lot of butter/margarine on bread at home, but here they use it as an actual layer! Like how I would use peanut butter! A bun slathered with butter dipped into fish soup (made with lots of cream of course)..yummm

• On the food topic, they like to display the food. Bread/buns go in lined baskets for breakfast, not just a loaf of bread thrown on the table with a knife stuck in it. 

• Sooo many people ride scooters to school! 

• Telling time: if it's..say...1:20, you can say ti på halv to, which translates as ten before half two. I think it's really strange to use the number two when it's only just past one o'clock. Makes it seem much later than it really is. 

• I've gone grocery shopping twice in the past few days, just to the store down the road. Some kinds of food are actually reasonably priced! Bulk buns were 2 kr, or about 30 cents each, and a bag of muesli that would'be been about 5 dollars at home, was 3! I don't know why I found that exciting, because it wasn't even my money, but it's nice to know the prices aren't ALL crazy...even if most of them are.

• For dinner the other night we had grøtt, which I probably spelled wrong. It's porridge made from rice, that you eat with raisins, cinnamon, sugar, and of course butter. Evelyn (my host grandma) added cream and almonds to it, and it became riskrem for dessert the next night, with concentrated juice to pour on top. Sooo good. Apparently grøtt is what they put out for Santa here, instead of milk and cookies.

• They do this gasping thing, where they say "yeah", but while inhaling. It seems to be more adults that do it. At first I thought it was just something my family did, but the topic came up at language camp. We all had stories about freaking out the first time we heard it, it can sound like something is really wrong, when really they're just agreeing, or filling the space. 

Looks like most of my observations this time are about food...typical. I think I should challenge myself to eat a meal without some form of cheese and/or bread. I don't think it's possible, it's just too good :) 

Oh, and it has been sunny for an ENTIRE WEEK here! Every time I look outside I get a little shock, it's so gorgeous, although I better not get used to it.

Well...congratulations salmon, you made it to the top of the dam. Herreguddd that's a strange thing to say....I'm not even completely sure these salmon ladders exist.

Some pretty trees because i have a blank space to fill and don't know how to get rid of it.

Same as above...pretty sure there's some leprechauns in there.