What Does the Fox Say?

I'll just jump right in.  Oh wait, that part comes later.

On Friday I went on a small excursion to Damplassen (a small plaza about ten minute's walk from campus) for my Norwegian class.  We were assigned groups and were instructed to perform various tasks on our way there (e.g. ask for directions to Damplassen).  It was a beautiful day and most of the activities were fun but I wonder how much progress I actually made with my Norwegian.  The trouble with working in groups is that often there's one person who's language skills are better and, thus, they dominate the conversation, leaving the rest of us to scratch our heads as to what was just said.  I realise it's mostly my fault for not speaking up but it's still frustrating when I can barely get a (horribly mispronounced) word in edgewise.  Okay, that's my rant for the week.

Royal Palace and Børre Bie

Because it was such a nice day, after class I went to the Royal Palace park to do some reading for fun; it was Friday after all.  I deserved a break.  Despite my insistence that I needed a break, I ended up working on a mini-project for my Norwegian class anyway.  For at least a couple days over the course of the summer school, each student in my class has to take one of the two class "pets" -- Børre or Birgitte Bie -- on adventures, document them, and then write a little snippet about each one in Norwegian.  It wasn't very difficult -- much less stressful than that mud I accidentally sat in -- but still constituted enough work for one day to take a nap before dinner.

Quartz!

After dinner, some friends and I took a ferry out to Gressholmen, an island in Oslo fjord.  We initially wanted to go out there to see the rabbits (Gressholmen was at one time famous for its large population of rabbits) but apparently the rabbits were all or mostly exterminated to protect the vegetation.  While on the island I caught sight of a fox running from a clump of bushes into the trees.  I didn't have time to ask it what it says but I imagine it would have said something like, "where did all the noms go?"  The island made up for the dead rabbits by being a geologic playground.  The sky started to cloud up soon after we arrived on the island but I was so busy looking at the rocks that I didn't really notice.  I think my friends were slightly annoyed with me by the end of our hike, but when you're as full to the brimstone with geology puns as I am, it was too gneiss of an opportunity to take for granite, of quartz.  (This is what one year of geology classes will do to a person.)

When we got back to Oslo, we celebrated the Fourth of July by going to McDonald's.  There's no better way to celebrate being an American abroad than with the salty, greasy, goodness of something that was originally from Belgium, was erroneously called "French", and was eventually abducted by the Americans.  It cost me 44 kroner ($7.20) for a small order of fries and a small McFlurry.  It was worth it.

On Saturday I made good on my promise to jump into the lake at Sognsvann.  I did more than jump into it; I dove into it, I swam in it, I inhaled it, quite literally, through my nose.  It was rather chilly at first but once I got used to the water it was really quite nice and refreshing.  It made me feel like a real Norwegian.


After a shower and dinner, I went to the ISS-cinema's showing of "Elling."  It was really good and very funny: a combination many films fail to achieve.  (Sorry for the terrible adjectives.  My brain's a little fried.)

Today (Sunday), I've mainly been studying for the midterms I have this week.  I can't believe I'm already almost halfway done with my six weeks here at ISS.  Whether it's good or bad, it's taken me this long to have to do laundry, mainly in preparation for my long weekend to London.  I'll try to post something before I leave because I know that once I'm in London I won't want to be taking the time to write a blog post.  Until then, thanks for reading!  Stay tuned.  - NLD