I made it! I have successfully left the peace house and now am a member of the 
"Man House." Not sure why it's called the "Man House" but I think it's because we're hoping to have classy pre-parties with all the sensitive men...which of course Børge and I are.
Yes, Børge. This is him...my new roomie! Along with Børge, Rachel and Daniel helped the move-in and celebration process with some wine, cheese, and chocolate! 
We had a good time moving in and now I'm getting settled by quickly flinging my thesis material around the house. I can't wait to use the veranda and enjoy some free time in the sun...yeah. Maybe in June.
After almost surviving two years, I have finally made the decision to leave the Peace House. As of 5pm this evening, I will have a new apartment that I will share with one friend named Børge. My new place is very cozy with a fireplace and a huge porch overlooking the city and the mountains. An awesome place to come visit! So, if the Peace House has been detering you, feel welcomed to come visit now.
My new address is:
Kvamstykke 7
9009 Tromsø
Norway
I'll hopefully have pictures soon. Until then, time to finish packing and saying goodbye to the Peace House.
In Norway everyone is assigned a doctor as soon as they start living here. Part of the whole socialized medicine thing. You don't know who your doctor is when you get a letter with their name on it, and hopefully you never need to know. Today, however, after almost two years of anticipation, I met my Norwegian lege (doctor). ..and she was so cool! I had to go in to get a doctor's note that I was able to work and apply for a job. Dr. Warren back home was nice enough to send me a note on short notice, but when the deadline for applying was pushed back, I thought it was time to meet Dr. Cathrine Ditlefsen.
I walked to the third floor of a building on the busy street where I live, only about a 2 min walk from my house. I walked in and of course the walls are full of wood and old pictures of Tromsø from the late 1800's. The secretary sits in her office and instead of going up to the window, you walk into a tiny room, so you can close the door behind you and talk to the secretary in private. I didn't have much to say, so I just told her I was there. About 15 seconds later, Dr. Ditlefsen herself (no nurses) walked into the waiting room and called my name. Only in Norway could a doctor where jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, but she was very professional, kind, and your stereotypically attractive mid-30's Norwegian professional. She asked about my medical history, checked my blood pressure and breathing, and took my weight (63 kilos) and height (182 cm). I could imagine my sister being like her in about 8 years. I felt very proud because I did the whole thing in Norwegian, until then end when I had her write a letter in English, then I got to help her with her English.
Then I was sent for a blood test and urine sample, at which point I realized I had just gone to the bathroom before I left home. So there I am, standing in the Norwegian bathroom slamming Dixie cup shots of water waiting for it to flow through my body. After about 10 minutes which felt like 10 hours, I was able to turn it in and a few moments later they told me to go home, everything was fine.
So I guess I passed Dr. Ditlefsen's test and now can say that I know my doctor, and I highly recommend her! Plus, it was only $25. One of the only deals in Norway I think!
It's hard when you read the news as obsessively as I do to avoid constantly reading about bad things that happen. But, I could help but be affected by the latest story about the school shooting in Virginia. It is so preposterously awful and insane to imagine.
Although it is much different, it brought to mind memories of being at Luther College on September 11th. We watched all the shit happen on the tv, which was bad enough, but was worst was that there was a bomb threat soon after the planes crashed. Everyone was evacuated from the university, no one knew what was going on, and there was just this sense of being stunned.
It's this sense of not really knowing what is going on with all the violence I constantly read about and just being stunned by the latest news headline. It's also frustrating because the US is my home, and I would like to return there someday, but events like this just make me wonder if I want to go there because it's a good place or simply because it's where I was raised. I'd like it to be both, but the solitude (although overly romanticized in this moment) of Tromsø just seems so tempting when trying to escape something like this.
I hope people who are affected by this story are doing alright because I'm guessing it's a lot more difficult to avoid hearing about it over and over. I like to go out on some kind of wrap up line or positive not, but it's just time to leave the computer and think about something else.
My mom tipped me off to a travel blog of an American living in Malaysia who had the lifelong goal of visiting 30 countries before the age of 30. For a country to "count" in the contest, the following rules must be observed:
- Airport transfers or layovers do not count - you must leave the airport premises
- You must enjoy a meal, or other significant cultural experience in said country
- Preferably you will stay overnight in said country (but this rule can be waived in certain instances of desperation, such as my example of Liechtenstein, I mean, really, who wants to stay overnight in Liechtenstein?)
- Preferably the complete list will include countries from multiple continents
You can see the visited countries on this map.
create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands
I am back in the swing of things in Tromsø after returning from a meandering journey through Northern Europe for Easter. My friend Elisa and I had a great time wandering through the capital cities of Oslo, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin, and Copenhagen drinking coffee, taking photos, trying to stay warm, and enjoying random experiences while couchsurfing!
Couchsurfing may be my favorite concept/social project. Basically, you offer to host people visiting in a city where you live and in return can stay with people wherever you are! Elisa and I stayed the entire journey with a random collection of hosts who showed us the local ins and outs of the Euro capitals.
We officially started our journey in Oslo where we crashed with Hanne. Elisa got there in time to sleep, but before her arrival Hanne and I enjoyed ice cream on Karl Johans Gate. Yes, ice cream! It was a beautiful day and great to see Oslo in the summertime as the Of Montreal song goes. We headed out early Friday morn for....
Our first stay was with Timo, the 37 year old divorcé who was an experienced host and avid hockey fan. He treated us to tickets to a semi-final game that featured the local Helsinki team Jokerit winning! He also gave us the local bar tour along with a host of other couchsurfers, ultimately leading us into a gay kareoke bar after our original kareoke destination was full. Elisa and I also explored a nearby island and were treated to a day at a Finnish cabin thanks to Marjaana's parents!
From Helsinki we sailed across the Baltic to Tallinn for one afternoon in the beautifully ancient city. We stayed with Kaarel who was a 21 year old bartender taking time off from his cultural studies to improve his cultured/artsy image. He gave us a great walking tour of the old city and in the evening
insisted that he show us all the "alternative" bars in Tallinn. This included one bar with no sign and a single red light outside the door and a bar that was decorated with 1970's hair perm machines. It was a short and fun stay in Tallinn, even though we just slept on Kaarel's Persian rug.
After a flight to Berlin we met up with Cyril who was the 21 year old French/New Zealand host who was based in Berlin working for EasyJet. Berlin was my favorite city that had an amazing combination of new and old, local and international in everything...architecture, history, transportation, food, and style. Elisa and I had a great wandering tour past all the sites and down Karl Marx street where Soviet style apartment blocks lined the streets. We also explored Potsdam and had fun playing football, eating turkish and vietnamese food, and enjoying cheap drinks with Cyril and the other guy staying with Cyril at the time, Brian.
Elisa and I somehow managed to get the last tickets on a bus to Copenhagen and after an eventful trip arrived in Copenhagen where we were immediately greeted by our warm-hearted, body healing host, Marie. We spent our days in Copenhagen riding rented bikes all over the city, just like the locals! We saw the alternative community of Christiania, I bought 10 LP's for 50 kroner, and even got to play some ultimate frisbee! Marie was very generous and invited Elisa and I to her family's home for an "Easter Monday" dinner with ham and potatoes. We enjoyed the evening with her brother and parents after enduring a 45 min bike ride to the house. The rain and Marie's cozy house forced us to relax a bit more in Copenhagen. We left very early Tuesday morning and arrived back to sunny and snowy Tromsø!
It's great to surf Europe. Somehow the traveling makes it more exciting to come back and be in Tromsø. I think I'll stay put for a while finishing the thesis before plotting my next adventure, but I do have some couchsurfers coming my way already next week, so I too can be a paragraph in someone else's blog. Happy surfing everyone. Check back for more photos and videos soon (berlin and copenhagen forthcoming).
Oh, the fun never stops here on continental Europe. Today was another travel day as we headed from Berlin to Copenhagen. We were so thankful to have the tickets in the first place. Unlike the rest of our travels when we planned everything well in advanced, we decided to leave the transportation from Berlin to Copenhagen for the last minute. We didn´t know how long we would want to be in Berlin or if our housing Copenhagen would work out, so we left it up in the air. Once we started looking however it was like, duh, it is almost Easter so everyone was traveling.
We went to the bus station yesterday and got the last two seats on the 9.30 am bus going from Berlin to Copenhagen. And we barely made it. The trip from where we were living to the bus station had every snag imaginable. First we did not have enough money for the bus card, then when we did it was too large of bill and since everything was closed since it was Good Friday, we had to ask people to change it for us. Finally, after sprinting about 400 meters from the metro to the bus station, the bus driver said the bus was full, leaving Elisa and I as well as two other girls standing outside. We tried to argue, but he said he only had one seat. When he went to put some luggage under the bus I went on and told Elisa to sit in the open chair while I went to the second floor of the double decker bus to try to find somewhere. Fortunately, there actually was an open seat...unfortunately however, it was in between a group of 20 kids on a Danish swimming team.
They were maybe 12 years old and very hyper with little supervision, so they had a great time crawling around and enjoying the ride. The highlight of sitting in the midst of this madness (along with all my luggage) were the songs. I think they sang "Wouldn`t that be Sweet" by Gwen Stefani maybe 13 times, always shouting out the `woo hoo, woo hoo´probably because they didn´t understand the English. Other fun tunes included the Gummy Bears cartoon theme song, in Danish of course, as well as...Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Yes, `give me your colored coat´ Benjamin`s song and much more were being belted out by all the young swimmers, in Danish yet again. Who knew that Randy Grimsely could speak Danish? Oh no, not me. (or should I say, oh nei, ikke ham).
But despite all these adventures, Elisa and I have made it to our last destination in Copenhagen. We have a very nice host who picked us up at the bus station and we even have a bed at this stay! We will explore the city (and play ultimate!) until tuesday morning when we head back to the North Pole.
I wish everyone a Happy Easter! It`s my favorite holiday and always sad not to celebrate with family, but know I am thinking about you while checking out the Little Mermaid.
Red, and yellow and green and gold and blue.
Sitting in Berlin on the third stop on the Euro tour with my friend Elisa and it has been crazy. We have enjoyed a variety of unique experiences including hiking with Marjaana's parents around a lake, having a beer at a gay karoke bar, watching a helsinki playoff hockey game, climbing on the city walls of the old city of Tallinn, sleeping on a Persian rug, seeing Spanish people everywhere, navigating the berlin subway system, and taking a shower. max two. This crazy keyboard and the calling shower prevent me from elaborating, but i am having a great time. We will be here in berlin three days and then to copenhagen for easter. More updates in the future§/. insert exclaimation point because I cannot:
