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Published: October 25th 2009
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It's Sunday, one of my used to be favorite days of the week and I am back to the comforts on my little humble home in Hoglimyra. A part of me really wishes I was still out traveling, out occupying my mind, moving, doing stuff, seeing new things, taking pictures, wearing myself out walking all over a city, and just out doing. Instead, I'm being a bum now and writing this blog before I tackle my homework that I put off. Today has been a relatively nice morning so far though. I started it waking up on the train numerous times. Apparently in Europe, we set our clocks back today so at 3a.m., they stopped the train at one station and sat there for an hour to stay on schedule with the rest of the stations. Around 9:10a.m. we made it into Bodø. I rubbed my eyes, zipped my coat, grabbed my pack, and headed towards the busstorget.
Downtown was quiet and a little chilly with the light wind. The sun was peaking through some scattered clouds which gave it this gray hue. And there was some garbage and beer bottles lining the street from the Saturday night parties. I
My addition to the powerpoint: the Pacific Northwest
Only the top left corner picture is mine, the rest are copyrighted went over to the 711, one of the only things open on Søndag, and got a nice hot cup of tea and a croissant for breakfast. Then read some of my little book as I waited for the bus. As I was sitting in the Glasshuset to escape the cold, I thought of my adventure and how busy these past two weeks have been.
Well most of my time has been spent studying for the infamous Graduate Record Exam (the GRE). I've already taken it once and didn't do too well last February so I decided to study and take it again. I ended up having to register for the test here because my graduate school applications are due soon so I need better test scores right now. So I've been in seclusion, locked away studying for endless hours by myself. I read my GRE study book cover to cover, did three practice exams, memorized a bunch of words like solicitous, venerate, ostentatious, etc...you know all of those words that we all see and sort of know but can't readily define off the top of our heads. Unfortunately, none of it really seemed to matter except the word pedantic
My second addition: Alaska slide
Only the shot of the Mendenhall Glacier (top right) and the bottom right of the Tlingit totem poles and art (bottom left) are mine. The rest are copyrighted! (bookish, academic) which I actually knew from taking the first GRE. Ah well.
Nevertheless, I was excited at the start of this week when I knew it was almost time to take the test and that I was going to get out of town and see some new country. Actually, a lot of good things happened this week. Monday was the start of International week so Leslie, Destinee, and I (the only Americans in town) set up the American booth. We had a cool map of the states with the ISEP locations on it and printed off pictures of famous Americans like Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and many others. We also adopted the Australian, Shirley, since she had no table so she hung out with us and some of the Russians hung out with us and played cards! We also felt kind of priviledged as this is only the second year that ISEP has been in Bodø so we are the second year American students here in Norway. And it was a fun couple of hours with American music, interviews, answering questions about our country, and showing them a powerpoint which Destinee made. I
even made an Alaska slide with Sarah Palin that she threw in there also! Later that night, my GRE studying was interrupted (thankfully) and D and I went to eat homemade pizza with the Italian, Lucia, and the Russians, Anya and Elena. It was a lot of fun and the pizza was good, probably because it was made by an authentic Italian. And Anya showed us her Russian doll things where there is a smaller doll in each bigger one. It was very pretty. And she also showed us an instrument from her home area which I can't spell but it sounds like Yakutsk. And we rounded off the night with a French card game we've learned called "President or Asshole" which is played with these really cool, long French cards. I'm going to try to acquire some before I go home.
Food and cards has kind of become the tradition here. There's not a whole lot to do at night or on the weekends except go drink so we've been entertaining ourselves. The Russians taught us to make Vareniki and we introduced them to American pancakes. And on Mondays and Thursdays, there is rock climbing. All the days
in between are great days to play cards and just listen to music as the time passes!
The next event for international week was the International Food Party. On Wednesday night, D and I made some American potato salad and sweet tea. Then went and played some Twister with the Russians. And when we came back, our whole kitchen smelled like weird, hardboiled eggs. Ah well, at least it tasted good! Thursday was kind of a rush for me as I raced around packing, printing off maps, and then at 3:30pm, D and I went down to Akutten to help set up for the party. It started at 4p.m. (klokka fire) and it was so much fun. I helped serve and explain our dishes and stood by the South American woman and the African guy. And we all got to taste some amazing food. Like Destinee said, the quote of the night was, "Can you teach me how to make that?" We got to try crepes made by Marin, the French girl, French cheese, South American chicken and potatoes, African fried rice, authentic chocolate from Switzerland, quiche, Japanese sushi, awesome Nepal food with a bit of a kick, Pearl
balls from China, some Russian potato stew that was also kind of spicy, Russian pancakes, and some very good biscuit things. It was pretty amazing! And Peter, the British guy involved with the International Office, even sang us a song he wrote and played his harmonica. After things calmed down, I went and sat with the gang then walked back to Hog with Anya and Elena.
I finished some last minute packing then got a very pleasant surprise...the girls had put their plans on hold and came back up to Hog to walk me to the bus stop. So we played some cards and then around 7:30p.m., they all walked me to the bus stop. And they all stood with me in the cold until it came. And Libby gave me an øre which she swears is lucky and Nastya gave me her Russian penny which is pretty cool. And after getting hugs from all 7 of them, I boarded the bus and headed off on my first solo European adventure to Trondheim to take the GRE.
*To be continued in next blog: Tackling Trondheim!*
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