The Journey Home

Well, I started the day out good because Odd and Lita made me a really good breakfast to send me off with. Then, I made sure I had packed everything I needed and we loaded up the car. They had decided to drive me to a bus stop a little farther away so that there would be less people on it. Once we saw the bus coming we started saying our goodbyes and it was pretty sad, but I know I'll visit them sometime in the near future when I go back to Norway. My bus ended up being about 20 minutes late getting to the airport, so I lost all of my shopping time. I did make my flight to Copenhagen though. I had about 45 minutes in the Copenhagen airport so I bought some lunch and went through the duty free shop and spotted Freia chocolate so I of course bought it. Then, I had an eight hour flight from Copenhagen to Toronto. When we landed in Toronto I had to go through customs and ended up having about an hour where I was able to just sit and actually check my phone and tell my parents I was okay. I had a two and a half hour flight to Winnipeg and it was easy sailing from there because it was just to pick up my luggage and sit in the car the entire way home. I am so exhausted though because I've been up for over 24 hours now and traveled for about 18 of those hours; it definitely feels nice to be home though. I'm going to miss Norway so much, it will probably take me awhile to adjust to life here again.

My Last Full Day in Norway! :(

Well this is it; I fly home tomorrow. I did't even do anything exciting today because I had to finish packing and clean the apartment; I did take some breaks though. Our yearbooks came today, so I went up to the school and got that (they are pretty nice yearbooks). Then, about a half hour later, Veronika and I went up to the store so I could load up on chocolate and get my dad his coffee. I also bought my last skolebrød and that was one of the saddest revelations I had today (I will never be able to go up to the store just to get skolebrød, I'll have to make it myself). After we got back I went back to my cleaning until about 7 when I went down to Veronika's apartment to have some of our left over pizza from yesterday. That is when Lita emailed me and said I should go to choir tonight for a little bit and say goodbye to everyone and she would come back and help me clean. So that's exactly what I did and she helped me clean the apartment before Colin came to check me out. Lita also offered to have me stay at her house for the night since I have to get up early and that way I could clean the apartment and just be totally done tonight. So after I checked out and all of my stuff was in the car I had to say goodbye to Veronika and Benedikte. That was really sad, I could have started crying, but I kept comforting myself with the fact that they are both going to UND next year so I'll see them in 3 months. When we got to Lita's house at about 11, we weighed my luggage and they were all right on the verge of being over weight, so I emptied a few things out that I don't necessarily need. Well I should probably go to bed now since I have to get up in 4 hours. I still can't believe I'm actually flying home tomorrow!

Syttende Mai!!! (2 Days)

Gratulere med dagen alle sammen!!!! Today Veronika and I went to Oslo for Syttende Mai so we had to leave on the 8:45 bus. She helped me put the silver on the bunad because I wasn't sure where it was supposed to go. I also had to wear 3 pairs of socks so the bunad shoes would fit, but I didn't care. We got to Oslo at 9:35 so we had 25 minutes to get to a good spot to watch the parade. So we made our way up Karl Johan's Gate (which is the main road leading up to the castle that the parade goes on). We found a spot fairly close to the entrance for the castle (maybe 1 block away). We watched about an hour and a half before deciding to just go up to the castle. Once you've seen an hour of the parade, you've pretty much seen it all except the Russ kids at the end. So we started making our way to the castle and it was so crowded we both felt like we were being molested by peoples' bags, flags, etc. Luckily, it only lasted about 10-15 minutes and we were free and at the top of the hill. So we found a good spot to take pictures and after our little photo-op we waved to the royal family and started heading back to the bus station. When we got there we bought some pølse (hot dogs, but they're a tradition to have on Syttende Mai) while we waited for the bus. After we got back to Moss I felt a little out of place because we didn't see a lot of people in bunads, but once we got closer to the mall more people were wearing them. We had decided to eat lunch/early supper at Solveig's Pizza and it was actually really good! The rest o the night we hung out in Veronika's apartment and while we were just sitting there, 7 Russ buses pulled up in our backyard and started blaring music. Thank God it only lasted an hour or so before they had their own little parade and the buses left. I stayed in the bunad until 8:30 when I couldn't handle the feeling of the wool on my legs anymore. Overall, spending Syttende Mai in Oslo was amazing and an unforgettable experience. Personally, I think it's a bigger celebration than the fourth in the states is.

Karl Johan's Gate looking up at the castle. 

We were on our way to finding a spot to stand.

Even the little kids dress up in bunads.

The beginning of the parade.

Part of the parade. I think this was the first group.

 School kids in the parade on the way to the castle.

Of course I took a picture of a baritone in one of the marching bands. 

Almost all of the baritones that were being played were silver.

After we finally broke through the crowd, this was the view of the castle.

The royal family. Left to right: Prince Haakon, Princess Mette Marit, Queen Sonja, and King Harald.

Here I am by the castle. Proof I wore a bunad and was really there!

My favorite picture of the day!

Of course Veronika and I took a couple selfies.

Another selfie. Once again Gratulere med dagen everyone!

Interesting Day (3 Days)

So today was an interesting day. It started out pretty sad when Natalie left and then Birgitte a couple hours later. Not long after Birgitte left, Lita showed up and her and Odd took me to the Rygge mall. She helped me find socks for my bunad and they brought me out to lunch. I ATE REINDEER!!!!!! Lita convinced me to try it and I did. I actually really liked it, it was good! It was just like a weird beef meatball kinda thing. I ate it all because it was that good. Lita forced me to try the meat with lingonberry jam, but I didn't like that very much. After that experience I bought a flag and pin for the parade tomorrow and they dropped me off at home. I cleaned the washing machine because I figured it is one less thing to clean Monday and I won't need it anymore. After I finished cleaning that I went down to Veronika's apartment and we hung out for awhile before heading to the store. We went to the store in the rain just to get some chocolate powder to make more brownies, plus we bought pop and ice cream to go with it. So when we got back, I went up to my apartment and got everything I needed for the brownies and everything I needed to sit in her apartment the rest of the night. So I started making the brownies and put them in the oven while we patiently waited for them to finish (we had decided that they would be our supper with the ice cream). This is when things took a turn for the worse. I checked the brownies and they weren't done yet so I decided to wait 2 minutes because it was still really runny on the inside. Well, the 2 minutes went by and I smelled a burnt kind of smell and I immediately went to the oven. When I opened the oven, smoke started pouring out and Veronika was running to the door to to try and get the smoke out of the apartment before the fire alarms went off. Just so you know, when the fire alarms go off, we only have so long to shut them off before the fire department comes, which we would get heavily fined for since there was no actual fire. Well, the alarms went off and we started panicking; we were opening windows, doors, and turning fans on. Veronika hurried up and called the fire department to tell them there was no fire and it was burnt food, but the operator was calm and proceeded to tell her that the food probably wouldn't taste good and didn't seem to be too worried about helping us out. She even asked how to shut the alarms off and the person couldn't figure out why they wouldn't go off, but Veronika figured out we needed a code only our maintenance man/go to person for our apartments (Colin). However, neither one of us had Colin's phone number, so Veronika ran next door to one of our teacher's apartments and his wife called Colin for us. He didn't seem to pleased with us when he came in to the apartment after he shut the alarm off. This whole fiasco lasted about 20 minutes and it was one of the most stressful things that has happened to us here in Norway. So our brownies got burnt, but luckily it was only the top layer, so we just cut that off and ate the rest. We spent the rest of the night just watching TV (we were watching different shows on our own computers, but we were together and not alone so that's all that mattered).

This was my reindeer meal. I ate everything but the vegetables.

Here was our burnt brownies :(

Natalie's Last Day (4 Days)

I'm so sad because today was Natalie and Birgitte's last day here! So, Veronika and I went to the grocery store at 1 to bring our pant in (I finally worked the pant machine!) and to buy supplies for tonight's movie night. We also bought Oreo ice cream cones and sat down and ate them before heading back to the apartment. When we got back, we sat outside for quite some time playing an "I Spy" type game. Then, we decided we should get ready for dinner because we were going to go out for one last group supper. Before we left though, Natalie made some banana bread and I made brownies, that way when we got back we could get into some comfy clothes and start watching the movie. Benedikte, Veronika, Natalie, and I went to Peppe's Pizza for supper and we ordered a BBQ Chicken (with avocado) pizza and a Pepper Steak pizza. I didn't care too much for either, but they were okay. After supper I went with Veronika up to the store so she could buy some snus and on our way back a deer ran right in front of us, but we weren't prepared so we didn't really get a good picture of it. Once we were back, Natalie and I "snuck" out of the apartment and went down to Veronika's apartment to watch the movie Blended. My God did we have food, at the end all three of us were so stuffed we felt nauseous. We had the pan of brownies, banana bread, strawberries, bananas, and chocolate to dip the strawberries and bananas in. It was so much fun! It was such a great "going away" party for Natalie. Plus, once the movie was done, we all kind of talked about our favorite memories together and we were laughing and having so much fun, especially Natalie she was laughing so much she almost sounded like a crazy woman.

Here was a group shot at Peppe's. Left to Right: Benedikte, me, Veronika, Natalie.

5 Days

I did not do much today, I pretty much sat in my room the entire day. I pretty much watched Netflix most of the day. However, I did spend about three hours working on a PowerPoint of the highlights of my trip, but it's still really long and I don't even have pictures from Syttende Mai on there yet! I also spent a good half hour tearing apart my suitcases that I just packed searching for my Proactiv because of course I ran out when I had figured I wouldn't so I packed my new one away already. Of course I had put it at the very bottom of the suitcase and on the side with all of my dishes, which I did not remember doing at all.

Group Dinner (6 Days)

I finished and submitted my last paper today so I am officially done with my first year of college and my time here at ACN. After I finished the paper I had just enough time to get ready for the group dinner we had tonight. It started at 4 and it consisted of some students performing, handing out awards (I got "Most likely to travel back to Norway"), speeches, and then of course dinner. It was a really good way to end this semester and it almost felt like a little graduation. We had lasagna (which I do not like whatsoever), salad, homemade bread (that was amazing), and then for dessert we had a Norwegian cake (I have no idea what kind it was, it was very different). The program lasted about 3 hours and I tried to avoid as many people as possible because I hate saying goodbye to people. When I got back to the apartment, I made myself some food before helping Natalie move all of her bags and boxes downstairs so her mom could load them up in the car. After that, I started packing more of my stuff. I think I spent about 3 hours packing. For the most part, I have everything packed except of course for some clothes and what I'll be using up until I leave. I pretty much filled my one huge suitcase to the max and my other suitcase is almost full so I feel like this will be cutting it awfully close as far as getting everything in my bags.

1 Week Left!

I had my last exam today in Global Physical Environment and when I finished I came home and worked on one of my papers for my Women and Children's Rights class and submitted that. Now I just have one paper left to go and I will officially be done with this semester. The rest of the night I spent talking to Natalie and just sitting in the kitchen not doing much. Natalie's mom comes tomorrow night/Thursday morning to pick up some of her stuff (she's flying home Saturday). So we talked about how crazy fast this semester went and how we can't believe it's already over.

8 Days

I didn't do much today. I went to the mall to go grocery shopping and I also bought a cute little sign that says "DRØM" which means dream in Norwegian. Then, I came back and studied for my Global Physical Environment exam tomorrow. Once I got tired of doing that I worked on one of my papers for my Women and Children's Rights class. Then I studied some more before talking to Natalie for a bit. After we had talked for awhile we both went to our rooms for the night and that was pretty much all I did today.

9 Days

I finally finished my film paper today! After I finished it, I cleaned the apartment and rewarded myself with Netflix for the rest of the day. It also occurred to me today that I just had my last weekend with Birgitte and Natalie. They both leave on Saturday morning. I can't believe how fast this has gone by!! I'm not ready to leave yet!

Day 2 of Moving (10 Days)

I thought I should write on here early so I didn't forget again. Natalie, Veronika, and I helped Lita and Odd pack up a trailer with all of the things Natalie and I had hauled down from the attic yesterday. After we had a trailer full, we drove over to the new house and unpacked it. Afterward, Odd bought us lunch at McDonald's because Solveig's Pizza didn't open until 2:30. So we went back to the old house and ate lunch before Natalie had to leave to meet up with a friend of hers that happened to be in Moss. So Veronika and I loaded up the trailer again and headed over to the new house, except this time Lita came with too and helped us unpack the trailer. We also emptied an entire room and brought everything upstairs and put it in the attic. After everything was unpacked, Lita showed us the balcony and around the house some before they drove us home. Lita and Odd were so thankful for our help they tried to give us money, but as soon as they took money out both Veronika and I basically jumped out of the car and refused to take it. Lita has done so much for me I could never take money from her! When I got back, Natalie's friend Nicolai was still here, so I talked to him for about 5-10 minutes before he had to go. I skyped with my parents and grandparents for a bit before working on my film paper. I still have about 3 and a half pages left to write on the paper, so hopefully I can come up with random things to fill in to finish up the paper. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow, so hopefully I can finish the paper up tomorrow.

Helping Lita Move (11 Days)

I just remembered that I forgot to write on my blog yesterday, so I'm going write what happened yesterday quick before I leave again. The day started pretty normal and I went to Coop to buy some groceries. I bought Grandiosa frozen pizza there, which is the biggest brand in Norway. Norway actually eats more frozen pizza per capita than any other country in the world! So I figured I better have one Grandiosa frozen pizza before I left and it was actually really good! After both Natalie had supper, we walked over to Lita's house to help her haul boxes up from the basement and down from the attic. Being as Lita's house is 4 stories, we got quite the workout. We hauled stuff up and down the stairs for 2 straight hours before taking a break. I think in total we were at her house for 3 and a half hours. We started with the living room completely empty and when we left there was only a little trail left to walk through. When we got back to the apartment, I stayed up for 3 hours working on finding interviews with the movie crew or anything I could use for my film paper. I think I found enough quotes and things to use that I should get close to being down once I sit down and write it. Well, Natalie, Veronika, and I are off to Lita's again to load everything from the living room onto a trailer and then unload it into the new house.

Last Day of Classes (12 Days)

Well, I had my last day of actual classes today, now it's just an exam next week and turning papers in. Of course the one day I show up to class without makeup on was the day they had a photographer come in to take pictures of all of us for the school's website. Besides taking pictures during class, I was somehow roped into taking pictures at Stallen with 3 other students. Those pictures were so inaccurate of what students really do in Stallen, they had us playing Monopoly and I was sitting very uncomfortably on the back of the couch. It was so awkward and i was overjoyed when they said they had enough pictures. I came back to the apartment and had some lunch before going to the mall to buy another big suitcase. Then, I tried to work on my paper, but I couldn't find any articles and became pretty frustrated and just gave up and went to my room. I watched about two and a half hours of YouTube videos of people playing piano and it really made me realize how much I missed playing. I even got a little emotional halfway through, but I'm going to blame it on the video because it was Elton John performing Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana's funeral.

I GOT A BUNAD! (13 Days)

Today was on of the most emotional days I have had on my entire trip! The beginning of the day was pretty boring for the most part, I just worked on my film paper (only 5 and a half more pages to go!) before I got ready to go to Samspillband. After Samspill was done, Lita, her daughter Mie, Bjørn (Samspill's director), and I went to Bjørn's mother-in-law's apartment. She is letting me borrow her daughter's bunad for Syttende Mai!!! She had two for me to choose from and I picked the one that most closely resembles the Rogaland bunad, but the Rogaland is much more beautiful than this one. I think I should probably explain bunads a little bit before I start talking about it anymore. A bunad is the traditional costume in Norway and each district has its own distinct bunad, so there are over 200 because you can get different variations of the same one too. There is also specific pieces of silver that go with each bunad. I should mention that you do not mix and match silver with different bunads or any part of a bunad with one from a different district. Now because there is one for every district, a person typically gets the one that they either live in or that their family is from. In my case, I have a chose with what one I could get (the Rogaland is the one I want though, which is the one from Stavanger). The bunad I am borrowing is not from any of the districts my family is from, but heck it's still a bunad to wear for Syttende Mai! The lady hand made this bunad, so it's very special and I'm very surprised she was so willing to let me borrow it without even knowing me. She also let me borrow the blouse that goes underneath the bunad (which is the wool dress part) and the wool cape incase it is cold. Besides the basics, she lent me her shoes, which are one size too big, but Lita said we would figure something out. On top of all of this, she actually gave me some of her silver to wear with it! I have the silver cufflinks and two brooches for it! Altogether this bunad most likely costs $3,000 (Lita said she thinks the few silver pieces I have cost around $1,500-$2,000). Bunads typically range from $1,000 (which is just the bunad, blouse, and shoes) up to $5,000 depending on which one you get and if it is handmade, special order or not. The silver jewelry and accessories cost more, especially the silver. There are even certain meanings behind the certain silver pieces, such as if the neck brooch was bigger and had more silver hanging from it, it meant your family was wealthier and of a higher status. Oh and there is even bunads for special occasions, such as wedding bunads, working bunads, and of course the normal "celebration" bunad that I have that is typically worn to baptisms, confirmations, weddings, etc. Honestly, I cannot believe I have a bunad in my possession right now and when I first tried it on I almost started crying, I didn't but I was on the verge. I'm actually really nervous about wearing it because it's worth so much money and I don't even own it or really know the family I'm borrowing it from. Anyway, enough rambling on about it, here are some pictures of it!

This is a full length picture of the bunad and blouse. Once again, all handmade and embroidered.

An up-close shot of the silver brooches and cufflinks.

Here I am wearing it! I put it back on when I got back to the apartment. I think the neck brooch is supposed to be higher, but I'm not 100% positive.

These are the shoes (and obviously not the correct socks).

14 Days

I honestly cannot wrap my head around the fact that exactly 2 weeks from now I will be home. It's crazy. Everything is happening so quick now, I know it's going to go by like the blink of an eye. Today even went by quickly, despite it being rainy and gloomy out (like it has been for a week now) because usually when it's rainy it seems like the day takes forever to get over. Veronika, Natalie, and I had our presentation today for our lab and I think it went well! I also had a meeting with my teacher about my film paper and he gave me some pointers on some topics to write about since I'm running out of ideas half way through. Natalie told me that she is going home right after school gets done now because her and Veronika were able to book appointments to get their visas for this Friday. So now I guess it'll just be me and Veronika for syttende mai. I'm so excited for tomorrow though because I might get a bunad for syttende mai!

15 Days

Today was actually pretty productive! I didn't start out the day very productive, but it got better as the day went on. Some how I was able to waste time until 1 this afternoon before I started on my film paper, which I didn't end up writing anything on. Then, I wrote up a "script" for my part of the presentation in Global Physical Environment tomorrow. Afterward, I forced myself to go out in the rain and get some groceries (which I think I bought enough to pretty much last the rest of my time here). When I got back, I decided to just stop trying on the film paper until I have my conference with the teacher tomorrow, so instead I worked on my business plan for Women and Children's Rights. I then had some supper and talked to Lita (we both decided to skip choir) and she said they bought a house and are moving on Friday! She also told me that Bjørn (the director of Samspill) is still willing to let me borrow a bunad for syttende mai!! He even said that his mother-in-law would fit it for me so alls I need to do is go with him to his mother-in-law's and pick one out! I'm so excited!!!! Plus, Natalie said that she will be staying for syttende mai, so Veronika, Natalie, and I will go to Oslo together for the parade. After that exciting news, I went back to working on my business plan before Natalie and I started on our comp paper. We worked on the comp paper for three and a half hours and almost finished it, but left a couple little sections for the other people in our group to write and finish up. Once we had finished that, Veronika came up to the apartment so we could practice going through our presentation for tomorrow. Oh and somewhere in here I studied for my communications exam that is tomorrow for about an hour.

16 Days

I attempted to work more on my paper for film today. I was only able to write about a page before I ran out of things to write about (I still have 9 more pages to write). Then, I cleaned my room and started packing. Later on I talked to Natalie about her date before Veronika came up. When Veronika came, we went over our presentation for Global Physical Environment. Then, we talked until we realized it was already 11 at night so she left and Natalie and I got ready for bed. 

17 Days

I was doing so good today with working on my film paper until I had supper. I had watched the film, read reviews, scholarly articles, and even interviews about the book and film before starting on my paper. I even wrote an outline before writing and I wrote about 4 pages before having supper. That's when it all went downhill because I gave myself a small break. At first I was just reading all about the royal baby (I think I read pretty much every major article about it even though they were all pretty much the same). Then, I started watching Netflix and that is what I did from 7 on. But hey, at least I started on the paper, so now I only have about 11 more pages to write. I also talked to Natalie for awhile today because she had a date tonight with a guy who lives about an 1 hour away (I think) from here.

18 More Days

I did finish my book today so now I just need to watch the movie and start on my 15 page paper; I can't wait. The countdown has officially started now. I talked to Andrea today and realized that I only have 18 days until I fly home. We didn't stop there though, she figured out it was only about 420 hours, but due to sleep, I would only be awake for approximately 277 hours. Putting the amount of time I have left into hours really makes it seem like it's right around the corner. 

School

Today I had one class and then a meeting with a teacher about a final project and that was it for the day! I spent the rest of the day rereading The Reader for my film class and I actually read half of it before I decided to take a "break" from it. My goal for tomorrow is to finish reading it and hopefully watch the movie again so I can start writing the paper.

Meetings Today

Well, we are truly almost done with the semester because today we had a meeting about moving out of our apartments and what needs to be done before we can check out. It is going to take a lot of time to get our apartment ready for check out as far as cleaning goes, but of course I am ultimately responsible in the end because I will be the last person checking out of the apartment. I also had a meeting with Becky (one of my teachers) about my final paper for her class and she also brought up how close we are to the end of the semester. After her meeting I went grocery shopping and when I came home and looked around my room and realized I should probably start packing up some of my stuff soon. I didn't really do much after my meetings today; I'm so stressed with all of the final papers I have to do, so I just sat surfing the internet most of the night. I plan on starting my two major papers this weekend and hopefully I stick to that plan.

We Made it Back!!!!

Well we made it back alive and unharmed! I'll just start from when we got on the plane in Munich. We boarded on time and the pilot came over the speaker and said they were just waiting for the last of the baggage to be loaded and to get clearance from the tower for take off. Well, after 20 minutes after we were supposed to depart, the pilot said that we had to wait 20 minutes because there was a thunderstorm directly over the airport. The 20 minutes passed and the pilot said we had to wait another 15 minutes and then we could take off, but he personally didn't believe the tower and thought we would be delayed longer. He eventually told us we were delayed an hour because of the storm so in reality we did not take off from Munich until 2 hours after we were supposed too. Neither Natalie or I slept the entire flight (we sat next to each other), but we did wash our faces and brush our teeth so we were at least ready for "bed" when we landed in Oslo. We landed around 1:05 and found some nice benches in the baggage claim area and sat there talking and laughing about the most random things (the sleep deprivation was starting to kick in). However, after about a 30-45 minutes some security guards came and told us we had to go through customs, but there were plenty of benches out there. So we found a little cafe with booths to sleep in, but we sat up and talked and sat on our phones for about and hour and half because neither of us felt tired. We both slept about an hour before waking up to go wait for our 4:45 bus. I bought some muffins at the one shop that was open while we waited inside for our bus. At 4:42 when the bus still wasn't there, we went outside and waited to make sure it didn't just drive by and leave us. We had just come from 70-75 degree weather so we obviously were not dressed or prepared for the 26 degree weather in Oslo (and in Moss). So while we were waiting we were dancing and doing weird things just to try and stay warm, but luckily the bus was only 5 minutes late so we didn't have wait too long. Natalie was able to sleep for 30 minutes on the bus while I was wide awake; then we had our 15 minute walk back to the apartment. It was still freezing outside and we were both so miserable, but we were so delirious from sleep deprivation that we were laughing the entire way back to the apartment. As soon as I stepped in the apartment at about 6:15 I put my pajamas on and went straight to bed. We had decided to just skip our morning classes and sleep, so I woke up at about 11:30 and got ready for my afternoon classes. Luckily my last class of the day only lasted until about 4 so I was able to come back and just sit and relax the rest of the night. It's sad to think that that was my last "trip" while I'm here; the last time I'll really go anywhere is on May 17th when Veronika and I go to Oslo to see the parade and everything.

Last Day in Munich

Since we didn't have any tours planned for today, we slept in and took our time packing and getting ready to go. We first went to The Body Shop so Natalie could get protein powder because she claims she needs to go on a diet to fit in her bunad. Afterward we took the metro to Marienplatz and started our day of shopping. The first store we went into there were some Norwegians in there and Natalie said the one guy was actually famous in Norway. The one guy said in Norwegian that he liked Natalie's shoes and she replied in Norwegian and he stood there stunned for a little bit before replying and he said something like wow what a small world. We moved on to the next store and I bought my two souvenirs (a weather house and clock made out of Black Forest wood). Then we walked around a bit and ran into the Norwegians again and said hi again. We walked around some more and bought some sandwiches for lunch before shopping some more. We actually both bought clothes at one store (I bought 3 pieces and Natalie bought 9). After that store we decided that was enough buying and we slowly worked our way toward the central train station. We took the train to the airport and arrived about 4 hours before our flight. So we just sat around the airport the entire time (this is also where I got my last German schnitzel); I'm actually still at the airport. Our flight lands at midnight in Oslo and then we have to wait 40 minutes for our bus to Moss, which means we will not be back to the apartment until 2. Tomorrow will be brutal because we also have class at 9 and we both don't get done until 5:30. Also, just a side note, after being in Germany I can definitely see that Norwegian came from the Germanic language. There are many words in German that look almost the same as Norwegian words. Also, I don't know why but I was expecting Germans to be somewhat bad at English, but everyone was really good and very fluent in English. Compared to France and Italy, Germans were 10 times better at English than either of the other two. 

Update: we are currently sleeping at the Oslo airport because there were thunderstorms in Munich. They delayed our flight 2 hours so we missed the last bus for the night. 

Dachau Concentration Camp

This trip is just not going our way whatsoever. Right before we were about to leave for our Dachau tour, I received an email saying that the tour was cancelled because our guide had stranger their ankle and they couldn't find a replacement. So Natalie and I decided to just going shopping today and go to Dachau tomorrow, but as it turns out stores are closed on Sunday's. So we watched the Glockenspiel go off at 11 and watched the figurines before heading to the train station. We decided to just go to Dachau on our own and go shopping tomorrow. We made it to Dachau really easily and even made it to the camp without getting lost. We toured the camp, including the museum, for a couple hours before heading back to the train station. Dachau was the first concentration camp established by the Nazis as a "political prisoner" camp. It was established on 1933 and liberated by the U.S. In 1945. It actually did hold political prisoners at first, but of course it held Jewish people, homosexuals, and even Norwegians (445). After our tour we headed back to the bus to get back to the town Dachua. When we got back to the train station and found our platform, we had missed the train back to München by one minute. We had to wait an hour for the next one, so we went to a backers we had seen on our walk to the station. I bought a strawberry dessert and Natalie got a raspberry cake thing. It was only a 10 minute ride back to München and we went back to our hotel for an hour. We found a restaurant close to our hotel that had Bavarian food and decided to go and try it out. It was amazing! I got authentic Bavarian schnitzel and Natalie got "Cordon Bleu" plus we got a fancy salad and fries. I love schnitzel! I even tried Natalie's, which was fried pork stuffed with ham and cheese, and it was also amazing! We both stuffed ourselves so much that we sat for almost 10 minutes before slowly walking back to our hotel. Then we spent the rest of the night just unwinding in the hotel. 

This is the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz. 

Here is more of a close up of the figurines that danced when it was 11 o'clock. 

This is Dachua. The building on the far right is the entrance to the camp and the building on the left was a maintenance building but is now the museum. 

These were some of the beds in one of the barracks. 

This was the "new" crematorium they had to build because they had too many bodies for the old one. 

This was the gas chamber. 

This was the old crematorium. 

This was my schnitzel that was amazing!!!

Here's Natalie's from the inside so you can see the ham and cheese inside too. 

Neuschwanstein Castle

Today we took a two hour train ride to the town of Füssen and then a ten minute bus ride to Schwangau. Natalie and I met a guy from New Mexico in our tour group who was really nice, we hung out with him the rest of the day. We first walked to Lake Schwangau where we also saw Hohenschwangau Castle (where King Ludwig II of Bavaria grew up). After our brief intro to King Ludwig and his life we got about five minutes to take pictures before setting out for our trek up the mountain to the castle. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the first viewpoint with gift shops. Then we heard some more history about King Ludwig before walking another five minutes up to the base of the castle. Then our guide gave us 15 minutes to buy souvenirs, use the bathroom, and take pictures before heading up to the castle for our tour. The guy Natalie and I were with bought us Bavarian pretzels because neither one of us had had one before. They were really good! The tour only took a half hour inside the castle itself and I feel like we barely saw any of the castle. However, we did get to see the cave that he had built. After the tour inside we walked even farther up the mountain to a bridge with an amazing view of the castle. Then we had to walk all the way back down the mountain to find our meeting point. Luckily we had about a half hour before our bus came so we decided to buy some food. We both decided to buy a bratwürstsemmel. It was literally just a huge sausage in what seemed like a hamburger bun. It was so good! After we finished we got back on the bus and started our journey back to München. Once we got back Abel (the guy from New Mexico) said that we had to see a beer hall/garden even if we didn't drink. So he brought us to Augustiner Brästuben. It was huge and definitely smelled like beer. We both took pictures and decided it was time to head back, but we stopped at a grocery store first so we could get some food. Then we ate some supper with Abel before parting ways and heading back to our hotel. 

Here is Lake Schwangau with some of the Bavarian Alps in the background. 

This was from Neuschwanstein looking at the lake, Hohenschwangau Castle (the yellow building) and the town below. 

There was just more of the valley below. 

Here it is! Neuschwanstein Castle! Disney's inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle. This was the view from the bridge. 

Of course we took a selfie with the castle in the background. 

The Augustiner Brästuben 

And the beer gardens there. 

Munich, Germany

Natalie and I left spent this morning and afternoon packing and getting ready to leave today. We left the apartment around 3:45 and headed to the bus stop to catch the bus to the Oslo airport. We had planned it so we would arrive and have an hour and a half in the airport to check in and go through security. Well, our bus ended up being a half hour late and took even longer than usual to get to the airport, which all led to us having 35 minutes to check in, go through security, and find our gate before we started to board. Of course Natalie was randomly picked to be patted down and my bin was pulled aside because they found something suspicious in it (no idea what because they didn't take anything out). Then our gate was way the heck on the other side of the airport, but we made it with enough time to use the bathroom and wait five minutes before they started boarding. The flight itself was actually pretty good (we took Norwegian air this time). Then when we got off the plane we took the train to the central station. Well, we actually missed the central station because it doesn't say central station anywhere, so we had to get off and figure out how to go back. Once we did that and got to the station we found a little food stand where we bought some food for tomorrow. Then we set out to find the metro line we needed to get on for our hotel. We asked one of the guards and he told us the wrong line so then we were totally turned around and angry because it was already 11. We finally found the right line on our own and got off at the right stop, but had no idea how to get to our hotel from the train station. We kinda wondered around a bit before actually figuring out the street signs. We successfully found our hotel without asking anyone for help! Tomorrow we have a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle.  

Getting Ready for Germany!

Well I had my Global Physical Environment exam today and I think I did pretty good on it; my teacher was a little surprised and upset that I only took 20 minutes to do it, but I have always been a quick test taker so I just said yes when he said 20 minutes in a very questioning voice. Afterward I had my Women and Children's Rights class and I actually enjoyed today's class. We watched a video of two Norwegian women, an American woman, and an American journalist have a discussion about the gender gap in Norway versus the U.S. After we watched the video we had an hour long discussion on the topic and it was really interesting to hear all of Norway's laws and regulations concerning gender equality and also just how Norwegians view women versus how Americans view women. It just made me want to move to Norway even more now. After I was done with class today I came back to the apartment and watched American Beauty and wrote my final communications paper on it. Then, Natalie and I bought our bus tickets to the Oslo airport (our return bus ticket is for 12:30 Monday night so we won't get back to our apartment until 2:30 Tuesday morning and we have class at 9 so neither one of us is looking forward to that). After we had bought our tickets I made some supper and then Veronika came up to work on our Global Physical Environment lab paper and powerpoint. We were actually able to finish it tonight so in total it only took us about three hours to write the entire paper (four pages). Then, we basically sat and talked until 10:30 and Natalie and Veronika started watching Paradise (I have no idea what it is about because it is all in Norwegian) and I started packing. i pretty much got everything packed except the things I will be using tomorrow before we leave.

Girls Night Again

Well I officially have an apartment for next year now! I went to the school today and scanned and emailed all of the paperwork for the apartment. Then I did some grocery shopping and came back to the apartment for a bit before going outside to join Natalie and Veronika. We were studying for our Global Physical Environment exam that is tomorrow. After about 2 hours of studying I went back inside and started working on my film paper. I actually finished it with perfect timing because Veronika and Benedikte came over for supper right after I had finished it. They made lasagna for supper so I made myself some spaghetti and then made some brownies for dessert. After supper we just sat around and talked for awhile. Then, Benedikte left so Natalie, Veronika, and I started studying for the exam again. We only studied for about 20 minutes before we were all too tired to even focus.

Not a Relaxing Day at all! (More Pictures from the Trip)

Usually when you come home from a vacation you want a day to wind down and relax, well today was definitely not one of those days. I had a full day of school, which included not really paying attention during my first class so I could read the newly assigned reading for a class later on that day, which we could have very well had a pop quiz in. Then, during our lunch break Natalie, Veronika, and I worked on our final project for the lab so I wasn't able to attempt to put things away or really do any other homework. Then, my comp class was very unproductive and the professor doesn't let us work on any other homework, so I basically sat there do nothing. Finally, I had film, which we watched the film Memento and talked about our final project, which turns out has to be 15-20 pages so that added quite a bit of stress to my life. On the bright side, Veronika said she'll be here after school is done so we plan on going to Oslo for Syttende Mai together! She was sad that I won't be able to see her bunad, but it will still be super fun to go with someone, especially someone who is Norwegian! Natalie and I also went through our pictures so I have a few more pictures that are Natalie's.

Venice, Italy

This was when we were lost and you can see by my face how happy I was to be absolutely lost.

This was inside the Vatican Museums. It was absolutely packed and you can see the excitement on my face to be there.

Homeward Bound

Well today was the last day of our vacation and we really didn't do much. We got up fairly early to check out and then walked down to the metro station by the Vatican and took that straight to Termini train station. We arrived at Termini in plenty of time, we actually had to wait 45 minutes before boarding our train. We went outside and sat in the sun for about a half hour before heading back in to get on the train. We had a 3 hour train ride from Rome to Milan, which neither of us was able sleep during. The countryside between Rome and Milan is actually very pretty; personally I didn't think the countryside between Milan to Venice and Venice to Rome was all that beautiful. Once we got to Milan we found the bus stop and took a bus out to the airport. Then, we went across the street to a huge shopping center and walked around there for about 3 hours. Natalie bought a lot of stuff while we were there whereas I bought lunch and my last gelato and that was it. After she had done enough shopping we went back to the airport and sat out in the sun for another hour before going inside to check in and go through security. Natalie had to get some liquor for her mom and some cosmetics in the duty free shop so we went in about 2 hours early and then just sat in the airport for another hour before boarding our flight. Then Lita picked us up at the airport and brought us back to our apartment. I am absolutely exhausted and am dreading getting up for a full day of classes tomorrow. 

Last Day in Rome

Sadly today was our last day in Rome, tomorrow morning we are taking the train to Milan. We started out the day by walking to Piazza Navona and walking around for awhile. We actually got two different caricatures done; the first one was so amazing, but the second one was pretty bad. Afterward we walked around and shopped a bit more. I actually found some gifts for some of my friends. Then we walked over to the Ancient Rome part of the city. When we got close to the Roman Forum, there were a bunch of people crowded around sitting on the hills and there was a mini stage set up and we saw people dressed a s gladiators so we figured we would sit and watch whatever show was going to happen. Well, 50 minutes went by without a show and we were both so annoyed we got up and left and just walked to the colosseum. We both agreed that we were a little disappointed in the colosseum so we took some pictures and left. We walked back to Piazza Navona and found a place to have some supper, I got spaghetti and she got lasagna. After supper we walked back to the hotel with a quick pit stop at the grocery store. We are both so tired of walking around that we agreed tomorrow we are just going to go the mall that is across the road from the airport (plus my arms and chest are super sunburnt so I don't want to be in the sun more than I have to). 

Piazza Navona

The Roman Forum from across the road

The Colosseum

Here is our good caricature. I'm on the right and Natalie is on the left. 

The Vatican

Well I don't even know what to say; I can finally cross the number one thing on my bucket list off: see the Vatican. I honestly don't know what to say about it because it was that amazing. I'll just start from the beginning of our day I guess. Luckily our hotel is about a 10 minute walk to the Vatican because our feet were still sore from yesterday. We first stopped at a shop Natalie wanted to go in to see if she could find a gift for her siblings and then we started making our way to St. Peter's Square. Luckily some guy stopped us and told us that the basilica was closed because the president of Italy was touring the basilica and Sistine chapel. He showed us the rates for the tour company he worked for and said everything was discounted because some of the sights were closed until later that afternoon. So we decided to do that and we are both really glad we did. Our tour started in the Vatican museums and as soon as we entered the museum, our guide said "Welcome to the smallest country in the world" and I could not believe I was there. The museums were absolutely packed and I could not handle it, at times I got a little claustrophobic. After the museums we were able to go into the Sistine Chapel because it had opened up early. They said that we couldn't take pictures inside, but I snuck a couple. Then the basilica opened up right after we entered the Sistine Chapel so we were able to go right in. When we got in St. Peter's Basilica, it wasn't too crowded yet because it had just opened up. We both just walked around in total awe because it was that beautiful. None of my pictures do it any justice of course, but it was amazing. After we had walked all around the basilica we went to a gift shop that looked like it had good quality gifts (it was also run by nuns so it looked much more trustworthy). Afterward we took some pictures in St. Peter's Square and then went and found a pizzeria and had some real Italian pizza. It was delicious! Then we did a little more shopping and bought some more gelato. We found a more local place to sit and buy the gelato (so it was actual gelato and not the tourist stuff). Then we headed back to our hotel with a quick pit stop at the grocery store first. 

This is the statue Michelangelo used as a model for the body of God in the Sistine Chapel. 

The Sistine Chapel looking at The Last Judgement. 

Part of the ceiling in the Sistine, the second picture down is the Creation of Adam. 

Our selfie inside the Sistine. 

This was a sculpture Michelangelo did when he was 23 and it took 11 months to do. A bishop commissioned it and did not approve of it because the Virgin Mary looked too young and bigger than Jesus. 

Inside the Basilica. 

The Swiss Guard

St. Peter's Square. 

Our pizza and a selfie while eating it.