It's been a few days. Let's go over the highlights.
Norsk jus students!
Wednesday night we attended a little social event put on by a group of law students at the university. There were about 8 students (all girls, oddly) who fed us
lefse and sweets as we all sat around a table talking law, America, Norway, and the like. It was super fun and so nice to meet some local students. Everyone was totally sweet and it was a blast to ask about cultural things, Norwegian law things, and the like. One thing we talked about is how Norwegians don't really sue people for things, and there is little personal injury work available for attorneys. Interestingly, that very day I had already noticed that Norwegians must not be very litigious, as when I was walking around town I noticed many public stairways in horrible, dangerous states of disrepair. In the USA, lawyers would have set up cameras to catch people tripping on the stairs just so they could sue the city. In Norway, they just tell people to watch where they're going. I like it.
Meaningful Trivia
Thursday night, we were invited to join some of the local law students at the student center / bar thingy for trivia night. I tend to do okay at trivia, so I was excited to check it out. Sadly, my team failed to benefit from my knowledge, as I had a hard time answering, "How many sections are there in the Norwegian Criminal Code?" Neither did I know who was the most famous Norwegian soccer player and four of the teams he has played for. It was still fun to sit in on their socializing.
After trivia, a contingent went out to "The Pier", a bar / restaurant area--on a pier, as one might imagine. The really cool part was: Thursday night was student night; you needed a student ID to get in. Thankfully, they accepted California student IDs :) So here we were, hanging out with our new Norwegian friends at a totally central spot (in the middle of the amazingly scenic and happening downtown harbor) which would normally be tainted with tourists, but it was all locals plus a tiny handful of us quasi-exchange students. We hung out for quite a while, socializing and getting loud, laughing, and even learning a dirty expression in Norwegian (hey, I didn't ask to learn it, they just told me to repeat it and then they laughed so hard that I put two and two together).
The point is, that night really helped me feel
included. As a foreigner who knows precious little about the town, the language, and the culture, it just felt
wonderful to be hanging out with locals, having a good time, and not feeling like an outsider. It has been rather strange feeling so much like a fish out of water; Thursday night was a gift, and it helped me very much to relax and quit scowling on the inside.
Wheels!
This weekend the best thing happened: I actually got a great deal on a rental car! It was totally a gift from God, as my friends tried to find a similar deal and came out empty-handed. I got a
super car, a brand new Volvo V70 station wagon (trust me, it's an awesome car: large, safe, comfy, leather interior, smooth ride, quiet, just awesome) including unlimited miles (usually you only get the first 100km included) from Friday afternoon until Monday morning for only 1100
kroner (a little over $200). This was the last car they had, and I got it with no advance notice (usually car rental companies here require 2 days' notice, for whatever reason, and usually prices start at about $150/day for a tiny 2-door ultra-compact car, not a full-sized luxury-ish wagon).
So I finally got to drive in Europe! This is actually a big deal for me, as I am a real car enthusiast. I'll spare you the details of what driving here is like, but I'll share with you where I drove:
Saturday, I found somewhere on the map that looked interesting and just went for it all by myself. It was awesome. I took as many tiny, obscure side roads as I could, and was rewarded with awesome scenes. I saw lakeside villages, forests galore, a tiny national park, a fjord, and, of course, sheep! I went to the coast (I mean, it's all coast here, pretty much, but I actually went as far west as I could and found a spot that jutted out into the North Sea) and stood looking out to the horizon for as long as I dared. That amounted to
several seconds, perhaps even minutes, before I started shivering and had to head back into my toasty car (it's been an unusually cold May, we're told, and it's also been rather windy lately).
The point is, I was out EXPLORING, my favoritest thing in the world! Lukey heading out and seeing new stuff. Gosh, I love it.
Enjoy some pictures:
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| My two trips. Click for full size. I labelled some parts to correspond with the photos that follow. |
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| The Bergen Boogey Wagon's plate. For some reason, I like seeing the flag on the plate. The rest of the EU has only the circle of stars, yawn. |
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| Close to point "A" on the map. |
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| More fjordiness |
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| Sheeps!! |
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| Look how green it is at 60 degrees North! For the record, the road here is twice as wide as normal (for a country road) because there's a widened spot for cars to pull aside to let oncoming traffic pass. |
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| This is at point "B" on the map. I am facing the North Sea. See the wee ferry on the left? It's going to a small town on a nearby island, beyond which the next land is Scotland. |
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| Everywhere, people's mailboxes are protected by these little shelters. I just like the rocky backdrop behind this one. Still at "B" |
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| Postcard pic. Point "B" |
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| Same area, just decided to throw in a pic of my awesome wheels. So quiet, comfy, and enjoyable to drive. It has a diesel motor and got 45 mpg. |
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| This is a mere 2 miles inland from the barren, rocky area (point "B") that you saw in the last few pics. Look how quickly it greens up! I suspect the cold ocean air and / or salt spray have something to do with this. |
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| And this is only another 2 or 3 miles inland. I never expected Norway to be so lush. |
Sunday, I headed out with 3 law student passengers on a massive Fjord Exploration Journey! We drove up to
Sognefjorden, the national treasure of Norway. It's something like 150 miles long, a vast, gorgeous inlet of seawater penetrating deep into the land, lined with voraciously verdant treed hills / mountains reaching from the water to the sky (it's also the background picture of this blog). We drove for almost 10 hours straight, took 3 ferry trips, drove through a 5-mile long tunnel (among many others), stopped the car a hundred times to take pictures, and, best of all, saw more sheep! It really was a trip of a lifetime. Even though it rained 3/4 of the time, it was epic in so many ways. I've seen some awesome natural sights in my life, and I'm decidedly skeptical when I hear hype about how great tourist sights are, but I'm thrilled to report that this fjord lived up to the hype. It really was that awesome. We were all on a natural high for a good part of the trip. One of the best parts was that, for a fraction of the cost of going on a guided "Norway in a Nutshell" tour, we had our own "Norway in a Volvo" tour; instead of being in an awkward group of tourists, we had the whole country at our disposal. We
owned that fjord, baby! It was epic.
Pics of Day Two:
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| There were waterfalls everywhere |
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| Took a little detour (Point"C") from the main highway and were rewarded with a beautiful hidden valley complete with farms, streams, waterfalls, a fjord of course, and general awesomeness |
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| Said hidden valley ("C") |
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| The Sognefjord! Notice the lovely rain |
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| Itsy bitsy town on the fjord |
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| This is the spot where my recent Facebook picture was taken. Notice I had not yet scared away the sheep. Point "D" |
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| We saw so many awesome spots like this we ceased to stop the car to take pictures |
RATS! MY COMPUTER'S BATTERIWS ARE RUNNING OUT! I WILL POST MORE AS SOON AS I CAN. I HAVE LOTS OF GREAT PICS
So. That's what I've been up to the past few days (plus attending some lectures that I won't bore you with. Norwegian Administrative Law, anyone? I thought not).
