A day in the life...

In every post, I have some experience or adventure to describe. However, in between all of those museums and activities we students have a daily routine. We go to class at 9:15 and get done at 1:15 so there isn't alot of sleeping in! It the afternoon, we either go on a visit as a class. We visited the Parliament last week. This week we have visited the police academy and the courthouse. This picture is the inside of the parlaiment. Otherwise, the afternoons have been spent walking around and shopping (even though I haven't been buying anything. 25% sales tax? NO THANKS!) Yesterday, some friends and I went to walk around Vigeland Park (naked statue park) after our visit to the police academy. Little did we know there was still a tour-we had just listened to a presentation. The woman presenting was drinking a small glass of beer during it-interesting. We skipped the tour! Kind of embarassing, but the professor wasn't mad. The guys on the trip usually play basketball in the afternoon. When evening comes, either everyone sits around and uses the internet (like I am tonight!) or-more frequently-everyone drinks offsale and plays cards until arould 11 or 12 and then goes to the bar. Sometimes we go to a Norwegian student's apartment for a BBQ. I try to buy some offsale whenever I am in the grocery store after learning that it is not available after 6 pm. The only thing you can buy after 6 pm is non-intoxicating "near beer". NO THANKS! There is no smoking allowed in bars here which I love. It really helps reduce laundry loads which is good since it costs around 2 or 3 dollars to wash and the same to dry.

The student complex where we live is known in Oslo for being less than ideal. It consists of several houses situated around courtyards. It is by a river that is known as a place where people go to buy and sell drugs. The students we meet usually react with sympathy or horror when they find out we are living here. It's not really that bad-I don't have a problem with our rooms-actually I like it! It has huge windows and a nice view. However, the landings and elevator area are usually dirty-especially on weekends. The outside area is usually littered too, but there are frequently maintenance people cleaning up trash outside. I'm glad I only have to live here for a few weeks. Here is a picture of the landing by the elevator. It reminds me of an inner city project (not that I've ever seen one except in movies!)

A point of interest about Norway is that no one has screens on windows. There are no bugs here! You could leave the window open all day and there would not be an insect in sight. However, there might be a dirty pidgeon or seagul flapping around! Hopefully that never happens.

This picture is taken out of my window at around 10:30 pm. The second one was taken about 20 minutes later. There is still 3 more weeks before the longest day of the year!

This is a picture of us students in our classroom that was taken one of the first days.

That's all for now. I am going on a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark this weekend-it is a long weekend because of Pentecost. We are taking a ferry ship and staying in a hotel! A room that has carpet and a TV will be like heaven! It is suprisingly affordable and I can't wait. I'll write more about that later.