Way Overdue: Spain, Easter, Most of the Month of April, and Exams!

Wow, my last post was like a month ago, which is totally crazy to me. I somehow have neglected my blog for an entire month, and for that I apologize. I’m clearly not responsible enough for this! And seriously, how did a month go by?! Yikes.

Spain

So anyway, as I mentioned in my last blog post, I spent nine awesome days in Spain! In lieu of a super detailed account, I am going to just give some highlights of my favorite experiences in each city. My (900+) photos on FB should be able to fill you in on any other details that you might want to know. Otherwise leave me a comment and I’ll probably respond to it within the next month ;).

Days 1-3: Barcelona

Barcelona was great—such a beautiful city in a beautiful location; right on the Mediterranean Sea. One of the things that I forgot about Barcelona is that it is Catalonia, so Catalyn is the main language that is spoken there. Speaking Spanish usually ended up with people responding to me in English, which ended up being a recurring theme during my trip. *sigh*

These are the highlights from my time there (not really in any particular order):

• La Sagrada Família; seriously the coolest church I’ll probably ever see. Massive and awe-inspiring. This was my favorite attraction in all of Barcelona, and among the top things that I have seen in any of my traveling.
• La Catedral; beautiful cathedral
• Museu Picasso; art museum for Pablo Picasso—I enjoyed it, but art museums aren’t my favorite
• Montjuïc; very cool park on the hillside—very great views of the sunset and of Barcelona’s cityscape
• Hiking on the hillside by a castle; great views of the sea and of the city
• Església De Santa Maria Del Mar; another cool church
• La Boqueria; HUGE marketplace off of La Rambla (below); I went here for lunch one day and realized how rusty my Spanish skills were
• La Rambla; very long pedestrian street with shops, cafes, etc.
• Walking along the waterfront and beaches
• Getting my first-ever haircut by someone other than my mom (who is a cosmetologist); not as scary as I had expected and it was desperately needed, haha

Days 4-6: Madrid

On the morning of Day 4, I took the AVE (high-speed train) from Barcelona to Madrid. The train ride itself was a trip highlight for me because I love trains and infrastructure, so I was nerding out a little bit, haha. The train’s top speed was 306km/h (190mph!!!), and it only took 2 hours and 45 minutes to travel the 621km (386miles) from Barcelona to Madrid. Mind. Blown. Rail travel in Europe is fantastic! And it was very cool to see the scenery change throughout the journey.

Highlights from my time in Madrid (some of the descriptions were copied from a tourism website; plagiarism is unintentional):

• Plaza Mayor; very cool enclosed plaza with cafes and unique architecture
• Templo de Debod; An authentic 2nd Century BC Egyptian temple in the middle of Madrid; the temple was closing when I got there, but I caught a great view of a beautiful sunset, so no complaints on my end!
• Casa de Campo; HUGE park right to the east of Madrid; I spent an afternoon hiking here, which was a very welcome break from the urban scenery that I had been seeing; great views of the mountains that are near Madrid and some very cool nature
• Madrid Cathedral. Very beautiful cathedral right across from the royal palace; lots of natural light and very serene
• Plaza de Oriente. Beautiful square located in front of the Royal Palace.
• Royal Palace. Huge royal palace (apparently the biggest in Europe), very interesting to see, although royal palaces all seem very similar to me at this point, haha; awesome collection historical of weapons and armor in the armory
• The Rastro Flea Market; GIANT market in the streets of Madrid; I remember learning about this in high school Spanish class, so I figured I would check it out; so many different vendors, I almost couldn’t believe it; I didn’t end up buying anything (I’m not a big souvenir guy), but it was cool to see so many people enjoying the Sunday morning in this market
• Parque del Buen Retiro; park right in the middle of the city; I liked it, but it was super crowded and dirty when I went in the daytime—it was more enjoyable at night (I’m probably just a park snob)
• Gran Vía. Long pedestrian street near the hostel I stayed in; lots of shops and cafes
• Randomly meeting another American (not uncommon at all) in my hostel and going out with her for a night of tapas and drinks! Part of the fun of solo traveling is meeting new people, and I’m glad that I had a chance to meet new people that way. Later that night, we ran into a girl from Minnesota and a guy from Wisconsin in the same bar within 5 minutes of each other. That was a little bizarre—it’s a small world!
• Hanging out with my friend Chloe and her family! This was a definite highlight of my time in Madrid. My friend Chloe is studying abroad in Seville and her family was coming to visit her, so she was meeting them in Madrid. So we met up the day before they got there and hung out. It was so nice to see a friend from home, and we had a lot of fun exploring Madrid. Her family arrived the next day and they were kind enough to let me do some more touring of Madrid with them. They even bought me churros and (a steak!) dinner—talk about generous people! 🙂 Her family reminded me a lot of my own family, which was very welcome, even though it made me pretty homesick!

Days 7-8: Seville

I also took the AVE to Seville (Sevilla in Spanish). Not as fast as the one from Barcelona to Madrid, but still faster than any other train in the United States. (*cries*) I should mention here that I was in Seville at the height of Semana Santa (Holy Week). For Holy Week, different brotherhood organizations from local churches organize MASSIVE processions in the street with wooden floats of Mary and Jesus (carried by people). The processions are a very important cultural tradition for Spanish people, and it was really interesting to see them from an outside perspective. Although to be totally honest, I got a little annoyed by the processions when I was trying to go specific places. The streets of Seville are super narrow and very confusing, and I would often walk down a street and run into another street that was either packed with people or closed off due to the celebrations. But it was still a good time in Seville!

Highlights of Seville:

• Plaza de España; huge plaza with a fountain, canals, and really cool architecture; I went on a walking tour that stopped through here, and I wish that I had gone back here to see more of it!
• Maria Luisa Park very cool urban park (apparently the only park near the city center) near the plaze
• Las Setas; very weird honeycomb/waffle shaped sculpture/awning/observation deck (look at my photos—it’s impossible to explain without seeing picture of it); very cool views of Seville and the surrounding area from the top of it!
• Real Alcázar de Sevilla; I almost didn’t go here because I have been to a lot of royal palaces throughout my travels and many of them seem really similar to me, but I decided to go here after the recommendation of another American traveler who I met in Spain; This place was incredible! So much unique architecture, massive gardens, ponds, etc. It was a definite highlight of Seville. I spent almost an entire afternoon here, and it was well worth the admission price (student discounts FTW!).

Day 9: Málaga

I took a train from Seville to Málaga early in the morning on the 9^th day. It was still dark when I finally got to the train station (after getting lost in the streets of Seville for a worrisome amount of time—almost missed my train!). Only having one day in Málaga (and not knowing much of anything about the city), I planned on using the day for relaxing and hanging out at the beach. And that is exactly what I did. I spent most of the afternoon at the beach. I swam in the ocean for the first time ever (for about 5 minutes, because the water was super cold). But I mostly laid out on the beach and enjoyed the day, even though it got cloudy and was cooler than in Madrid or Seville (both of which were HOT, especially coming from Norway). My Irish skin burned to a crisp when I fell asleep on the beach (even though it was cloudy—darn solar radiation!), which was not fun at all. Yes, I had sunscreen, but I couldn’t reach my back so I didn’t bother applying it. Solo traveler probs, I guess. *sigh* After my time at the beach was up, I went back to the hostel and walked around the city a bit. I went to a very cool castle/garden at the top of a very tall hill, which offered some great views of the city and the sea. I wanted to go into the castle, but I had somehow left my wallet at the hostel, so I couldn’t get in. Oh, well! I spent the evening relaxing and getting ready for my long day of traveling back to Oslo the next day, which went off without issue.

Easter

I spent Easter by myself in Oslo. A lot of the day I spent on Hangouts calls talking with my family; I even got to experience a bit of the annual Schwarz Family Croquet Game/Fight, which was highly entertaining. It was fun to talk to my family, but video chat isn’t the same as being there. And I definitely missed out on some great food. I went to Easter Mass in Oslo (which was in English) that night and it ended up being a pretty uneventful day.

Most of the Month of April

So it’s almost the end of April, which is totally crazy (I’m going home in like a month!). I have spent most of April finishing up readings for classes and getting organized for exams (which start tomorrow/technically today—shit!). I’ve also been running a lot more, ramping up for this summer. (The trails of Oslo have destroyed my trail running shoes. And my huge feet mean that I am making do with what I have for the rest of time here, because I haven’t seen my size in any stores.) And I would be lying if I didn’t say that my Netflix addiction has been out in full force—thankfully I have managed to tone it down now that I am entering into the beginning of the end…

Exams

My exams begin in about 9 hours (yikes!). I have a take-home exam that becomes available tomorrow, which I have two weeks to complete. And then a few days before that exam is due, I have a written exam (on May 6^th). And my last exam is a paper that is due on May 18^th (although I want to finish it before then). So right now is really the beginning of the end, as I will be spending most of my remaining time in Norway on my exams (which make up all of my grade, so the need to do well is very real). Not really sure when I will be updating my blog next, but I will make an effort (for real this time).

As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS

Copenhagen and Berlin

Well, shit. It’s definitely been much more than a week since I last posted. It turns out that traveling almost constantly while being a student is harder than it sounds. (I’ll try to post once a week from here on out, but don’t take it personally if I forget! I’ll keep doing bi-weekly posts at the bare minimum.) I’ve been spending most of the time that I’ve not been traveling over the past three weeks catching up on readings and working on assignments, doing summer internship hunting/interviewing, and trying to get settled back into things here in Oslo. (As I basically have been all over the place for the past few weeks.) Since my last post, I have been in Denmark, Sweden (only for 3 hours, but I’m counting it anyway!), and Germany with my sister, Laura. It was so great to have her over here in Europe with me, and I am so blessed that she was able to visit and travel with me! I have been feeling very homesick lately, and she helped me feel much better in that regard (at least temporarily). I just recently uploaded my pictures of Copenhagen (with a few pictures from the brief amount of time we spent in Sweden, haha) and Berlin to Facebook. Links are my Photos page! I’m not going to be as detailed with travel descriptions for this post because I have new episodes of “House of Cards” to watch on Netflix yet. 😉 Also, Laura promised that she would write a guest blog post, which I am sure will be more detailed and engaging than what I have to say. Look forward to that soon!

17 February 2015-21 February 2015: Copenhagen, Denmark!

Laura got to Copenhagen one day before I did, so she was able to get familiarized with the city a little quicker than I was. After being a total idiot on several fronts in the airport (I somehow ended up going through passport control twice when I didn’t need to go through it at all and then I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the airport, haha), I finally got myself a ticket to the central train station to meet Laura and head to the hotel.

My initial impressions of Copenhagen were that it is very similar to Oslo, albeit much busier and much grimier. Also, there were bikes EVERYWHERE! I loved that aspect the most. So many bikes! It was fantastic. We actually decided to rent bikes for two days while we were there so that we could explore the city better and not have to rely on the public transportation (which I found very disappointing and very expensive compared to Oslo). Biking around the city was definitely a highlight of the trip. Copenhagen has excellent cycling infrastructure (makes Minneapolis/St. Paul look like a total joke), and it was great to have the freedom to bike around. I contacted my buddy Alex who had studied abroad in Copenhagen for some advice on what to see, and he asked a girl he knew who was from there for some suggestions; she sent a huge list, so it was awesome to have some local insight into what to see!

Highlights:

• Biking around
• Seeing the Danish crown jewels in the treasury and the surrounding palace
• The Round Tower (a tower on a church that had a very cool observation deck)
• Having to run to find an ATM after learning that the restaurant we just ate at didn’t accept cards
• Amagerfælled, a really cool park that we biked through
• The Danish Museum, which was overwhelming with history
• Taking the train across the sea to Malmö, Sweden for dinner and the most expensive drink I have ever purchased (on accident—I don’t want to talk about how much it was, ugh!)
• Kastellet, a really unique star-shaped fortress

21 February 2015-24 February 2015: Back to Oslo for School, Then Back to Traveling

Laura heads to Berlin while I head back to Oslo for reading and classes. (She had more fun than I did.) After class on Tuesday, I head to the airport and fly to Berlin. As part of my ongoing theme of being an idiot in airports, I naturally somehow buy a 35EUR public transit pass on accident for my 3.5 days in Berlin. (Man, I’m scared to check my online banking—traveling is so expensive! Especially when you’re as stupid as I am.) After a brief stressful period wherein my phone (which had my directions on it) almost died in a country where I can speak like 5 phrases in the native language (one of which is asshole-ish and another is part of a family joke that would be weird to explain), I managed to find Laura and meet up with her at a Vietnamese restaurant. After eating, we went to a grocery store, where I consequentially FREAKED OUT at how inexpensive everything was. Norway is a super expensive country, so I loved being in Germany, which was the cheapest country that I have been to so far.

25 February 2015-28 February 2015: Berlin, Germany!

After an uncomfortable night’s sleep in our bizarre hotel/hostel, we got to work in exploring Berlin. (Seriously, our hotel was weird and frustrating in many ways. It was cheap, so it was super popular among German teenagers on field trips, so that was really strange. And there was no WiFi in the room, which was so annoying.) As Laura had already been there for almost 3 full days before me, we had prioritized attractions/places to visit to maximize our remaining time together. Laura is really directionally-savvy, and she had a great understanding of the new places we were in during the time we spent traveling, which saved a lot of time. We spent much of our time on my first full day there at the Jewish Museum, which outlines Jewish history in Germany and Europe from its beginnings to the present. I found much of the museum to be incredibly sobering (like much of Berlin’s history), as Jewish peoples in Germany were decimated by the Holocaust. Berlin has such an interesting history, and I am glad that I was able to get to see a decent amount of it through museums and historic sites (although there is so much to see there that it would be impossible to see it all).

My second full day was spend walking around through the Tiergarten (an awesome and huge park near the city center and the capitol), visiting more historic sites and museums, and GOING TO THE DECEMBERISTS IN CONCERT!!! Ever since I knew that I was going to be in Europe during The Decemberists’ 2015 European Tour, I had planned on seeing them in concert. They are one of my favorite bands and I actually was able to talk Laura (who also loves them and introduced them to me) into changing her trip dates to align for when they were going to be in Berlin. Unfortunately, we both somehow were expecting the other person to buy the tickets and the concert sold out by the time that I finally went to buy the tickets. After months of Craigslist-searching, Facebook event posting, and whining, we realized that the situation might be hopeless. We decided to go to the venue before the show started to try to get some last-minute tickets. After standing around like desperate idiots for over an hour and another frantic ATM run on my part (which was much more intense and panicky than in Denmark, lol), we managed to get two tickets to the show! We were literally freaking out to the point that it weirded out the men who had sold the tickets to us, but we didn’t care. We got into the show and enjoyed the hell out of it! It was my favorite part of the trip, and it was one of the best concerts that I have ever been to. The next morning I said goodbye to Laura (:(), who headed back home to Minnesota, and explored some more of Berlin by myself.

Highlights:

• The beautiful weather! (At one point is was 50F/10C, which felt incredible! Not that Oslo is cold compared to MN, but warm weather is so invigorating after winter)
• The Tiergarten (We had a picnic there and I also went for a run there the evening that Laura left, which was very cool!)
• The Jewish Museum
• The Topography of Terrors (exhibit/museum on the atrocities committed by the Nazi SS)
• Berlin Victory Column (cool statue/observatory with a great view of the city)
• Brandenburg Gate
• The Decemberists!!!
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (and the museum, which was heart-wrenching)
• All of the history that I was able to experience and learn about
• Downloading the series finale (:() of “Parks and Recreation” on my phone in a McDonald’s because the hotel WiFi was awful
• How cheap everything was compared to Oslo

It was a great time traveling with Laura, and Copenhagen and Berlin are very cool cities that I am glad to have been able to experience! As I mentioned, Laura promised a guest post to my blog, so look for that soon!

I might go to Tromsø, Norway tomorrow (the uncertainty stems from an ongoing logistical disaster that I don’t want to talk about) for the weekend, so I might have that to report on next time. Otherwise, I will be writing about time spent in Oslo for next time. As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS

Exploring Norway with My Sister!

Hello everyone! For once I am not kidding when I say that this is going to be a quick post. I’m leaving for the airport in 7 hours and I haven’t packed anything yet, so it would irresponsible for me to do otherwise. Naturally, I made up for my written brevity with an insane amount of pictures on Facebook. So, without further ado:

My sister Laura came to Norway to visit me, as I mentioned at the end of my last blog post! After meeting her at the train station on Wednesday, I managed to force her into overcoming her jetlag by doing tourist things throughout Oslo for the day. After I showed her UiO’s campus, we explored Vigelandsparken (a really interesting sculpture park), went to the Viking Ship Museum, explored Akershus (an old fortress), walked on the roof of the Oslo Opera House, and more. I finally let Laura go to bed at 8:30PM; she had been awake for like 30+ hours, so props to her!

On Thursday we went on a fjord cruise at Nærøyfjord, located near the Bergen Railway. What an incredible day! The railway from Oslo to Bergen runs through a mountainous region of Norway, so the scenery is amazing. It made the 5 hour train ride seem to go by much quicker (although the train was so comfortable that it didn’t really matter anyway). We took a bus from Voss to Flam (the railway which we were supposed from Myrdal to take had technical issues, unfortunately) where the fjord tour began. I am not exaggerating when I say that the fjord landscape is the most beautiful natural landscape I have ever seen. It felt almost magical–my inner nature lover and environmentalist were losing it over the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and jagged rock faces. Look at my pictures, but the pictures don’t do it justice. If you ever get the opportunity to do a fjord cruise, DO IT! Simply incredible.

After the fjord cruise ended (much too soon for our liking), we headed back to Voss on a bus to catch the train to Bergen. We checked into our hostel and ate some dinner and had some drinks at a local pub. We went to bed early, ready to explore our few hours Bergen the next morning.

We spent the morning exploring Bergen. Situated on the edge of the mountains on Norway’s west coast, Bergen is beautiful. We took the Fløibanen (a train thingy) up the mountain to catch a few of the city from the mountainside. Great views! We went down from the mountain and used our remaining time to explore a fortress, check out some shops, and buy some fresh fish from a super friendly fisherman at the Bergen Fish Market. We even got to sample whale meat! We only had until noon before we headed back to Oslo on the Bergen Railway, but we managed to see a decent amount of sites in Bergen and it was great time.

On Saturday we went sledding at a toboggan run (Korketrekkeren) in Oslo, which was fantastic. The run is 2km long and descends 255m. Both ends are near subway stops, so you can just ride the subway back to the top! It was so much fun, but felt incredibly dangerous (and as someone with a history of sledding accidents, I was slightly concerned). But we managed to escape with only some bruises and soreness the next day. Totally worth it!

On Sunday we went to the National Gallery and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design. I enjoyed both, although art museums aren’t my favorite. We saw several paintings by Edvard Munch, one of Norway’s most famous painters, which was really cool. The design museum had a ridiculous amount of chairs on display–evidently chairs are a common thing to redesign. I also took Laura to Sognsvann, a local lake with skiing and walking trails. It’s one of my favorite places in Olso, so it was cool to be able to show that to her!

Earlier today (technically yesterday because now it’s after midnight *sigh*), Laura flew to Copenhagen, where she is continuing her northern European adventure. Having class today, I stuck around in Oslo to get some stuff done (obviously I procrastinated on all of it, and here we are!). Because it’s “winter reading week”, I have tomorrow and the rest of the week off, which is great for being able to explore Copenhagen (I’m there until Saturday morning). I better start packing. I have to leave for the airport in 6.5 hours now and I need to at least attempt to sleep! Another update about Denmark’s adventures after Saturday! Thanks for reading!

-TJS

3-ish Days in London!

Hey all! Sorry for taking so long to get this post together. I’m doing a lot of traveling over the coming weeks (and consequentially not having much time to spend on school stuff), so I have been busy working to get myself caught up/ahead in my classes so that I am not freaking out come the end of February when the traveling pauses (until I book another few trips, haha). So without further ado, here is my rundown of my time in London. Check out my album on Facebook if you want to follow along with this chronological account.

Day 1

My journey began at 08:12 (yes, I planned down to the minute) in the morning on 4 Feb 15. I left my room with my handy traveling backpack (which is just a backpacking backpack that is slightly larger than a typical school backpack; in hindsight, I probably didn’t need to buy it, but whatever, I own it now, so I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it) on my back, ready for adventure. I got my tickets for insanely cheap ($22 roundtrip!), so naturally they weren’t going to be through easy-to-access airports. So instead of taking the 20-ish minute airport express train to the main Oslo airport, I had to take a regional train to Rygge Airport, located about an hour south of Oslo. This didn’t prove to be that big of a deal, and I managed to get some reading done on the train, helping me feel better about going to London in the middle of the week, haha.

The flight was uneventful and also super empty, so I had an entire row to myself, which is not a bad thing when you’re two meters (6ft, 7in) tall! I arrived at “London” Standsted Airport on time—London is in quotes because the airport is essentially two hours away from Central London, which proved to be a giant time suck; oh, well, I got a super good deal, so I’ll stop whining now. After spending an entire hour in the passport control line, I waited for my bus to Central London for another 45 minutes or so. After an hour and 45 minutes on a bus, I was finally in Central London (and also very annoyed with how much time I had spent waiting and traveling). I found my way to the London Underground (my inner public transit enthusiast was freaking out) and headed to my hostel for check-in.

After checking in, I decided to get some food and drink at the hostel bar. Having not eaten anything since breakfast—airport food is too expensive—I quickly became quite buzzed in the bar, which was unintended… Oops! I had more fun at the bar than I expected (blame it on the cider), meeting fellow travelers and talking to the bartender about London. I headed back to my room and made an attack plan for the next day, when I would actually be out and about in the city. Lucking out as the only person in my 4-bed hostel room, I slept excellently.

(As I’m writing this, I am realizing that I am providing way too much detail. Having other stuff to get done yet tonight, I don’t have time for this; the accounts of Days 2-4 are going to be shorter, probably.)

Day 2

I started out my day with a free walking tour by Undiscovered London, some group that organizes events for travelers that I found out about through my hostel. I went into the tour with really low expectations, but I am happy to say that the tour was excellent. The tour guide really knew what she was talking about and I was able to a lot of the main sites in a compact amount of time. It was definitely worth more than free, so I had no qualms in tipping the tour guide when we finished it.

The tour started out near Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guards was happening as we walked by on the tour, so I got to see some of that. I thought that it was kinda cool, but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to see it. I got to see people wearing weird traditional uniforms on horses with swords though, so the novelty factor was pretty high, haha. The tour went through several important/significant areas of London’s history, which were cool to learn about. The tour ended at the Houses of Parliament, so I decided to walk around the riverfront of the River Thames for a while.

From the riverfront, I went to the Tube (subway) and headed to the Tower of London. Having a small budget for this entire trip, I decided against going inside the actual fortress/castle, because it was equivalent to like 25USD (and I could see enough of it from the outside to be satisfied). I decided to get some fish ‘n chips for lunch to have some true English food. As I sat down to take a picture of my meal (and then obviously eat it), a bird immediately proceeded to shit on me. Thankfully it was a small amount that narrowly missed my food and that I was able to clean up with napkins. But either way, I was very annoyed. Damn birds!

After walking around the Tower of London, I walked across the Tower Bridge (which is really cool-looking and pretty iconic of London). From there, I headed back to the Tube again (I spent a lot of time riding the London Underground everywhere during my visit), this time heading for the British Museum. The British Museum is really cool! There is an insane amount of items on their collection—you could be there for days and you still wouldn’t see everything. I only had an hour and a half, so I was able to see very little of the collection, which was lame, but I still saw a lot of cool things and learned a lot in my time there, so it’s all good.

After the British Museum I headed back to the hostel to charge my phone and to get ready for the night. I signed up for a pub crawl (organized through the same organization that did the walking tour) with some of the people I met on the walking tour earlier that day. We went to five different pubs throughout London’s Camden area. In general, I was a little disappointed with the pubs that we went to. I had experienced better nightlife in both Minnesota and Norway, which really surprised me. But I still managed to have a great time with the great people whom I had met that day, so I’m really glad that I decided to do it! I’m also really glad that I left when I did, because I made the last train of the night that connected with another train that I needed to take with seconds to spare (it was at the platform with open doors when I got down to the platform!). Lots of stressful running took place, and I ended up making my connecting train with 3 minutes to spare. In retrospect, it was comical, but only because I made both trains. If I would have missed those trains, I would have had to spend like 100USD on a taxi, which would have not been comical at all!

Day 3

Day 3 was basically my last day in London. I had made a plan to attend several (free) museums (and one art gallery), so I spent the day executing that plan. I started the day at the Natural History Museum. They have an awesome collection of dinosaur fossils that was really cool to see. Overall, I think that this was my favorite museum of the trip, despite the groups of screaming schoolchildren that I kept trying to get away from. After the Natural History Museum, I went to the Science Museum. My favorite part of the Science Museum was their “Information Age” exhibit, which looked at the progression of modern information technology. I was excited to see some computers from Control Data Corporation, a company for which my dad used to work! The museum map indicated that they had an exhibit on agriculture, but I was unable to find it, as it appeared a temporary art show going on had closed that part of the museum. Not cool. But overall it was a really interesting place to go! After the Science Museum, I took a series of trains (I got really good at navigating the trains during my time in London) to the National Maritime Museum. I enjoyed learning about British colonization and the role that the sea had in that colonization. I especially liked learning about the ridiculous amount of money that people in the 1700s spend on common spices like pepper. Very cool! After the Maritime Museum, I went to the National Gallery. I’m not the biggest fan of art galleries, but they have a really diverse collection from many different time periods, so I ended up spending more time there than I had planned. After that, I walked around Central London near the river for a while to take in some views of the city at night. I finally headed back to the hostel, exhausted from a long day of exploring!

Day 4

Day 4 was pretty much a reverse of Day 1. Got up early, woke everyone up in my hostel room packing my stuff up (sorry!), took the subway to the bus station, bus to the airport, etc. Nothing hugely significant, except a got a cold, which sucks. But oh, well. I’m getting better now, so it’s not a huge deal.

So that was my London trip; I had a great time, and I am excited for my future travels here in Europe! Speaking of which, my sister Laura is currently waiting at the Newark Airport to board a flight to Oslo to visit me! We have a lot planned and also a lot not planned (which is actually pretty fun for traveling, I’ve discovered). Over the next two weeks, we will be exploring Oslo, going on a fjord cruise, going to Copenhagen, and going to Berlin! Oh, and I’m managing to fit all of my classes in there too (not skipping a single one)!

On a much more serious note: I’m really glad that Laura is coming to visit right now, because my uncle and godfather passed away early this morning after fighting cancer for several years. He was a great person; incredibly kind and full of life. I have been blessed to have known him. Rest in peace, Uncle Jim. I’m certainly going to miss you! While I am sad to be unable to attend the funeral, I’m glad that my sister will be here in Norway with me. Being with family makes sorrowful situations like these much more bearable. Thinking about and praying for you, Jim! Sincere condolences to my Aunt Sheila and the Eickman family.

Another post to come before I leave for Copenhagen on Tuesday morning…

Thank you for reading.

-TJS

More Exploring, Norwegian Academics, and Free Time

Whoops, I forgot to write that follow-up post regarding the content that I had originally written about and then lost in my previous post… Sorry, y’all. I’ve been busy settling into my life here in Norway, and despite the fact that my phone has been constantly reminding me every few hours for the past week (which is so annoying—why do I do that to myself?) to write that follow-up post, I have not done that. Oh, well. You can’t miss what you’ve never known, so there… But I will be talking about most of that stuff in this post anyway, so you’ll know, ‘ya know?

But anyway, enough of that:

Yesterday marked two full weeks since I have been in Norway. Wow. Part of me finds that difficult to believe, but another part of me is surprised by how confident I am in my surroundings for only having been here for 15-ish days. Most of this confidence probably stems from how much exploring of the city I have been doing in my free time. Norwegian universities have a different way of conducting their courses (compared to US universities), so I basically have a ridiculous amount of free time on a weekly basis. (More on the course structure later in this post; keep reading.) I’ve been using this free time to get out and explore my surroundings. I’ve gone running (and accidentally discovered some beautiful forest trails!), walked around an outdoor sculpture garden, explored Oslo’s waterfront, hiked around an awesome lake, and explored Oslo’s incredible public transportation network. Earlier today I saw an incredible sunset over the Oslo Fjord from on top of a hill, which was incredible! (It’s the featured image on this post; check out the rest of my photos to see more.) And tomorrow I am picking up the cross-country skis that I am renting for the season from the student athletic organization, so I will be able to explore the outdoors like a true Norwegian! Seriously, SO MANY people ski here (and they use public transportation to get to the ski runs too, which is awesome)—I’m excited to have another way to get to know my surroundings while exercising.

Getting back to the academics that I briefly mentioned earlier: for a Norwegian student, 30 credits is typical for a full-time load. Each course is usually 10 credits, so most people take 3 courses (and that’s what I am doing). These credits will convert to 15 standard credits back home at UMN, so it’s equivalent to a pretty typical semester for me, at least in terms of credits earned. However, that’s where the typical part ends. (I mean, obviously this semester isn’t typical for me: I’m 4000+ miles away from home and on a different continent in a different country. Duh.) Norwegian universities are based heavily in independent learning, so there is only one lecture a week for most courses. And then there are a lot of assigned readings (which I’m told are not like in the US where you can usually get away without doing them). There is also no homework in the sense that I am used to. Course grades are based entirely (high stakes, much?!) on a written final exam, a semester paper, or a take-home exam. I have all three of those grading methods between my three courses, so I will get a good sense of Norwegian examination protocol.

So because of this, I only have three classes (and one seminar for one of my courses) once each a week. And my schedule is very compact, so I only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays here… Which is totally insane and not at all what I am used to. At UMN I always have class at least Monday through Thursday, and usually (but not always) on Fridays. Going from five days of class per week down to two has been really weird to adjust to, and I know that it will take discipline and effort on my part to be an effective student in the face of so much free time. But it also brings up an important question: What am doing to do with my free time?

It’s an interesting situation, to say the least. Obviously I am going to be spending a decent amount of this free time on learning the material via the assigned readings. But when I finish those each week, my options are wide open. Which is awesomely terrifying. I hope to spend a lot of this free time outdoors, enjoying Norway’s natural beauty via outdoor recreation. I am also planning on doing a decent amount of traveling throughout Europe—I already have flights booked for Denmark and Germany in February when my sister, Laura, comes to visit! (And I also might go to London next week, which would pretty awesome!) And knowing me, I will also be spending some of this free time watching Netflix. (Lame, I know.)

On a final note, I just realized that I talked about my academics but failed to tell y’all about the courses I am taking. (*facepalm*) As I mentioned, I’m taking three courses. I’m an environmental sciences, policy, and management (ESPM!) major, so naturally the course that I am most excited about is “Environment and Society”. This course will be analyzing the environmental science and the issues around this science from an international, human geographic perspective. Much of my coursework has focused on the scientific aspect of the environment, so I am really excited to be apply to apply this knowledge to view these truly global issues from a global, geographic lens. The two other courses that I am enrolled in aren’t really directly related to my ESPM major, but they count toward the liberal education requirements that I need to graduate from UMN anyway, so it’s cool that I can take them here. These courses are “Norwegian Music for International Students” and “Norwegian Life and Society”. The music course is not music-theory-based, so I am glad about that! And the life and society course will help me to learn about and more completely understand the culture that I am immersing myself in for the next 4 months. It should be an interesting semester, and all three classes have been going well so far!

Well, that’s all for now! There will be another post coming your way within the next seven days. (Heh, that rhymed. :P) Thanks for reading, and check out my photos if you haven’t seen them yet and would like to!

-TJS