Hi again! Shall we hop on a train to Brumunddal, Norway? Brumunddal is a small town near Lillehammer, which is famous for hosting the winter olympics in 1994. While visiting my friend there we took a stroll through Hamar, the biggest town in the area. It was fun and much nicer weather than when I was there the last time, in November! We spent the rest of the weekend hanging at my friend's house, taking walks, and catching up (I hadn't seen her in a year and a half). I also got to practice my norwegian with her parents, who were not as comfortable with english. It was a lovely weekend, and of course too short.
The next week I had fun going out for sushi and a movie with my summer school friends, and on Friday enjoyed a wonderful "International Cultural Evening." Every summer the summer school organizes an evening where students put on performances, make food, and run stands about their countries. I made chocolate chip cookie bars (I couldn't find any chocolate chips in the stores, though, so I used M&M-type-candies) and enjoyed trying food from all over the world. During the show I performed the "thriller dance" with a group of Americans, then had fun watching the other acts--there were a lot of dances, some in beautiful traditional costumes, and some singing.
That weekend my friends and I headed up to Holmenkollen, a huge ski jump on a hill in Oslo. It's Norway's top tourist destination and impressed me much more than I was expecting! We got to take an elevator to the top of the jump,a dn rode a "ski simulator" which I'm sure felt much different than the real thing, but was still entertaining. Afterwards we hiked all the way down from Holmenkollen to Sognsvann, a lake near campus. Despite the rain, it was a beautiful hike and I filled up on berries! Sweet, juicy, tiny wild strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries (the strawberries were smaller than the raspberries!)
Later that weekend I took a trip by myself to the Oslo folk museum, which was similar to Skansen in Stockholm--lots of historic buildings had been moved there, including a magnificent wooden stave church. I also got to see some great folk dancing, to the tune of a nickelharpa (awesome instrument) this time. I took a nice stroll through Oslo afterwards, and realized that despite its small population, there is a lot of wonderful Oslo to see.
Then came my last week of classes! It was quite sad, because I had made many good friends, and I really enjoyed going to class every day. I think I learned a bit too! I took my exam at the end of the week (quite easy) and celebrated the end of school with the arrival of my parents and a trip with my friends to an island in Oslo harbor. That was a magical experience, because we ended up taking cover in a ruined monastery during a wonderfully dramatic thunderstorm. Ruins and thunderstorms may be two of my favorite things. Hot chocolate afterwards complemented the afternoon perfectly.
That night we had the summer school going away party, with speeches, photos, cake, and dancing. It was lots of fun, but so sad to say goodbye to my friends and the University of Oslo. After a little bit of sleep, I packed up my things, said my goodbyes, and took the metro with my parents to their hotel. There began another adventure.....
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