So I’ve been in Bergen for a couple of days now. As mentioned moments ago, I’m in love. So then, my last few days, in point form:
The next morning in Oslo, I rose early (ish) and went for a coffee, seen below. Aren’t European cities cute? This isn’t even a good neighborhood, it was just the closest café to my hostel. I had a great tasting pastry. I also tasted the legendary eyewatering Norwegian PRICES! That tiny cappuccino and roll (check out my pen for reference) cost me $10. This is 100% normal in Norway. At these prices, it should be easy to lose weight on this trip!
The epic train ride, supposedly the most beautiful in the world: decent, but I failed to black out from it taking my breath away. I think the people who gush about it so much must live in Nebraska. A British Columbian (*raises hand*) has seen better mountains than that. That said, it was pretty, and the train was plush and super relaxing. I talked the whole time with Tim, a student going to school near Bergen. He taught me tons about the culture, several expressions in Norwegian, and was happy to practice his English with me. He says he’s taken the train trip 10 times before and never had a fun conversation like we had (more on this later). All in all, a great trip. I’m glad I chose the train instead of the plane, even though it took seven hours instead of one. Enjoy some photos:
The first pretty little town I saw from the train. Drammen, I think
Gaining a little elevation, losing a little warmth . . .
This was impossibly bright. The whole train was squinting badly! Even my camera darkened the image. Believe it or not, both close and distant mountains are in this shot. As always, click on pic for a large version.
Getting closer to our destination, beyond the mountain pass
Arrival in Bergen. Expectations: 1. meet with professor who would then escort us to our living arrangements a few convenient blocks away, within walking distance of one of the great little cities of the world 2. get cozy in my own dormitory apartment 3. review the orientation package to get a nice feel for what to expect, where to go, and etc. 4 fire up the wireless internet in my room to Skype my sweetie. Reality: 1. meet with professor who gave us our room keys, showed us where the train was ($5 each direction), told us to get off on the second to last stop (over 3 miles away, in a tiny, soporific suburb) where we would see the dorm, and instructed us to show up at school the next morning at 10am, where he would let us in, having given us the instructions, “Walk up the hill and turn right, and it’s right there in the red brick building, all told just a couple of blocks.” (more on this later, too) 2. Five minutes after getting off the train, finally found the dorm building (building style: 70’s Communist Chic), then got cozy in my room in a 2-room flat with my new roommate Nick, a compact refrigerator, two electric burners, a sink, and a tiny bathroom.. 3. reviewed no orientation package, as the professor’s prior instructions were it. 4. Logged on to the network . . . which gave no internet access. Sigh.
Nick and I went to the corner grocer (one of three businesses in the neighborhood, including the used car dealer and a gardening store) to fill the minifridge with yummy food for the next week or so. Got two small plastic bags’ worth (including paper towels, paper plates, plastic forks, cups, dish soap, etc.) for about $120. Eek! Lesson number two on Norway prices: EVERYTHING costs double –or more than double – what it does back home. I knew to expect high prices, even very high prices, but to me, that means 50% higher prices. I really needed to recalibrate my gouge-o-meter!
We got some fun food items: lefse (look it up if you don’t know), caviar in a tube, pickled herring, eggs ($8 a dozen, and those were the cheap ones), and kyllarpostei (mystery meat paste, woo!). We forewent the skinke-flavored margarine, as hard of a choice as that was. Needing some shaving cream, we grabbed the can with the funniest name and lowest price: it looked like a shaving cream can and the generic label simply read, “Barber Skum”. We had to try it. It turned out to be ordinary shaving cream, thankfully, and I really don’t feel too much like scum when using it.
Nice and tired from three nights in a row of little to no sleep, I was thrilled to drop into my bed at midnight and fall asleep with no problem at all, which was a relief, as I feared a little jet lag might get in the way. Three hours later, a hundred students just outside our window treated everyone to some rousing songs, whooping, laughter, and exuberant exaltation at the top of their lungs. I learned the next day that it was a year-end toga party. Then, when that noise finally abated a little, and I regained a little hope of sleep reclaiming me, the train would stop every once in a while and unload some more vocal revelers returning from town. I never did return to sleep. The good news: I learned that it starts to get light here at around 4am in mid May. Betcha didn’t know that.
The view out my window. Communist Chic style not shown.
First Day of Class The two-block walk to school from the train took over 30 minutes. Suffice it to say the hill was more substantial than described, and turning right yielded several red brick buildings. Ours was the one at the far end of the street. Which you couldn’t see until you walked halfway down the street. We never would have found it had we not asked half a dozen people for directions and finally stumbled upon a law student on her way to meet her study group.
See the red brick building? Neither did we.
The school itself is just a marvelous, beautiful building on the side of a hill, facing the water. It has gorgeous glass ceilings, huge windows, and is very spacious (as seen in a couple of photos below, which don’t do it justice). I am ready to transfer and finish my studies in Bergen! Awesomely, our classroom happens to be the only room in the building (it seems) with no natural light. And there’s no power to plug in my laptop. Pen and paper notes it is!
I have about 15 classmates, only 2 of us not from Hamline, the Minnesota school facilitating the program. We also have a small handful of foreign students dropping in for some classes. We have one professor right now (the one mentioned above, who is Hamline faculty), with others joining us soon, including about half a dozen local guest lecturers, which excites me. Our first class, which we have attended for about 4 hours each of the past 2 days, is International Negotiations. So far it’s been great and is actually teaching me neat stuff about negotiating for even little things like purchases. Each day we have role-played and it’s been cool / fun.
Finally found it! Doesn't look like much because this is the back door.
And the front door
And inside. These pics show just a fraction. This is a large, lovely school.
I have about 15 classmates, only 2 of us not from Hamline, the Minnesota school facilitating the program. We also have a small handful of foreign students dropping in for some classes. We have one professor right now (the one mentioned above, who is Hamline faculty), with others joining us soon, including about half a dozen local guest lecturers, which excites me. Our first class, which we have attended for about 4 hours each of the past 2 days, is International Negotiations. So far it’s been great and is actually teaching me neat stuff about negotiating for even little things like purchases. Each day we have role-played and it’s been cool / fun.
After the day was done, I took a nap at about 4, awoke briefly at about midnight, then slept again until 6:30. Ahhhh…..sweet relief from sleeplessness. The next day, I also napped for 5 hours after returning “home”.
Around town and miscellaneous et ceteras. It’s been cold all the time (high 40’s, hitting 50 briefly) and rainy most of the time. But as I mentioned before, I love it here. The past two mornings, I have braved the AM chill to go for a jog, and it has been awesome. My first run, I was so stoked to be in Norway that the moist, cool air was like a shot of adrenaline, and I didn’t even tire when running uphill for ten minutes. At the top of one of said hills was a famous local “Stave Church” (look up the Fantoft Stave Chuch if you’re interested . . . I will bring my camera someday to take a picture to share), a Norwegian cultural icon. It was situated among trees and ferns on a rugged rocky hilltop. Sensational. My run left me on a huge natural high all morning. I’ve been running 3 to 6 days a week since last Fall, and I can honestly say that this was my most enjoyable run all year. I felt on top of the world. I only saw three other people the whole time, each of them walking along bundled up in raincoats, which made it seem even more like the run was my own private gift from God. I ran for half an hour and felt like I could have continued forever, but I needed to shower and get to class.
Not the stave church. This is just a neat bell tower I saw when I ran past a random old church. I should look into it more, the church really looks ancient. Yes, I was running through a graveyard when I took this pic (for exercise, not to escape the undead).
A neat little lane I found while running. Notice the ferns and greenery. At over 60 degrees north, this is quite a feat! Norway has the Gulf Stream to thank for this.
Norwegians don’t talk to strangers. It’s been interesting sitting on a packed but silent commuter train. I knew to expect this somewhat, but it’s still a little unsettling at first. I asked the Swede in class if people would be offended if I struck up conversations with them. He replied, “If someone talks to you on the bus, they’re either a lunatic or a rapist,” but then he assured me that, as a foreigner, I would be forgiven for overstepping this cultural boundary. He said that he traveled to Italy, where nobody is shy, and upon returning to Scandinavia he tried to strike up more conversations with people. Even though they’re weirded out by it, he says, in the long run, most people are happy that somebody wants to talk to them even though none of them is willing to be the first to go. I find this amusing and slightly profound. Just another reason I love traveling and learning about others.
Norwegians also close every store, save restaurants and corner stores, on Sundays. This was a problem for me because on Saturday, thinking my poor wife really deserved to hear from me to learn that I was alive, I bought a pay-as-you-go cellular phone (you guessed it, double the price, or $60). What I did NOT do on Saturday was make a test call from said phone. Needless to say, I need to take it back to the store and have them get it up and running. Lesson learned :(
Trying to find internet has been so tough. Amazingly, they actually have wireless internet on the train. Except just like in the dorm, I can connect but I can’t get actual web pages to load! Grr... Finally, today I found a café with working wireless! And because it’s Sunday, they closed 45 minutes after I got there. Marvelous.
So this all brings me to Sunday night, where I am typing up to send out the next time I make it back to the internet café.In a nutshell, so far it’s been mildly challenging, fairly bewildering, and tremendously rewarding. Stay tuned to this station.
Some random Bergen pics:
Some random Bergen pics:
Using prime downtown real estate for a lake park? Classy.
Bergen doesn't exactly burst with energy on cold, damp Saturdays at 930am
