It's back to the real world this week, and I'm realizing though that my "real world" here is pretty cool!
Saturday I kicked off my second year of peace studies by meeting the Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai (in the bright dress). She is a Kenyan woman who focuses on the connection between the environment and peace and she talked in the Peace Center to crowd of students and talked later in town to a huge audience of Norwegians. 
It was pretty crazy to just sit in this tiny auditorium in Tromsø, Norway with such an important difference-maker. Inspiring to see that you doing your thing and working hard sometimes equals big results.
Saturday night was also a blast as we had a double-header of birthday parties. Maaike (housemate from the Netherlands) bought toliet paper with me (at the request of the birthday girl) and we joined a group of peace students met to celebrate Silje's birthday. 
After some lively conversation, we eventually migrated to a birthday party for an American living in Tromsø named Jeremiah. Just when I was about to head home at a decent hour, Stian called and I joined him and his hometown boys for a nattspeil. I had a great time seeing everyone again and seeing the sun rise on Sunday morning!
Sunday was intense because it was Diplomacy Day! Stian and I now have playmates in the house who will play conquer the world games with us, so Mostopha joined Maaike, Stian, and I as we meticulously began dividing up Europe. Just when it looked like I might be able to assert my dominance, Maaike stabbed me in the back and won the game. Needless to say, there is no more trust in this house. We had a great time though, and have already played some Yahtzee and Settlers of Catan since. It was also a good activity for Stian. 
He had a little accident when his bike hit a rock in our driveway and went head first over his bike. He was left with a nice beauty mark and was definitely ready to hide in the house behind a boardgame instead of showing his battle scar!
The rest of this week has been diving into the thesis project. I'm now focusing a little more on if and why people give charity/aid to places that are far away rather than locally. We'll see how it goes! Besides transcribing and talking with my advisor, I also had the opportunity to meet the mayor of Hiroshima. He gave a lecture at the Peace Center as well talking about a movement he started in which cities basically request that their city be removed as targets for nuclear weapons. The hope is that with enough pressure from the local level that national governments will be forced to reduce and hopefully eliminate nuclear weapons. It was a little idealistic for me, but interesting and just refreshing to be thinking and learning on a daily basis again.
So life is back in motion. I'm having a great time with everyone here and although the weather is pretty gloomy, I'm finding plenty to do. The next big event is tomorrow night when Rachel (the other American in the peace program) and I make our musical debut singing "Killing the Blues" at an open mic concert in Driv. Off to play a bit and get ready to take Norway by storm!
I just got back to the university after taking a break to go for a run, and I literally felt like the guy in the Nike commercial who is stunned by a crazy new place, only able to say "I've never run this far." Today I got on the lighted ski trail and ran north on Tromsø island. Now I have rarely gone north, but I might have to do it more often after my exciting discoveries. Five minutes into the run I saw a big fenced off area and as I jogged by an albino raindeer raised its awkward head and just stared at me. I felt like I was on another planet. I didn't know there were raindeer on Tromsø island, let alone albino raindeer. I keep running, and heard a quack and looked to my right to discover a lake that I didn't know existed! A little further up the hill was a water/radio tower that looked like something used to contact the supernatural. I reached the top of a hill after burning my calves into the group, and had a beautiful view of Kvalsøya which is a big island between the ocean and Tromsø island. I had a beautiful view and just had to laugh. The only explaination was: I've never run this far.
More on the past couple of days soon...
It has only been two days and already I feel at home back in Tromsø! I hardly missed a beat upon arrival Wednesday night, and Tromsø didn't disappoint. I landed about 8.30pm Wednesday night after a delay in Oslo where I got to talk in Norwegian with a Norwegian about hunting in Finmark and how water affects the taste of beer. After that enlightenment, I sleptt almost the whole way to Tromsø and got by massive bag without a hitch. I hopped in a cab and started asking about how the weather was this summer, and started talking about how it was raining. Then the taxi driver turned to me and asked if I had a reflector on. How perfect! I, unfortunately, was not prepared with a reflector so he opened up his glove compartment where he had about 100 extra reflectors ripe for the taking. He gave me one and told me to put it on my coat immediately. So I safely returned to my house and took a big breath in a smelled the fish scented air. It's funny that I don't notice it when I live here, but when I've been gone and come back, it has such a distinct smell.
I was literally home for 30 minutes, just enough time to read a pile of rotting mail, before I headed down to the student pub Driv to meet up with old and new classmates. We had a great time talking and meeting everyone. We stayed until it closed and enjoyed the cold walk home in the rain. Perfect Tromsø weather!
Yesterday I headed to the university and saw a few more international friends and claimed a new desk in the reading room and dropped off some books. I did the monster shopping trip getting a hundred dollars worth of groceries and finally getting back to the house. When I came back, I finally met a few of my new housemates and they are great! Very fun and social. If we can figure out the dish washing we'll be great. So, now in the house we have 3 Norwegian guys: Stian who was here and two new guys named Andre and Andreas. I haven't talked to much to them. We also have two new girls in addition to Marjaana: Maaika from the Netherlands who is working on a master's thesis in fishery management and sociology and Ida who is studying to be the person who reads X-rays. Ida is very perky and happy with stereotypical Norwegian blonde hair and blue eyes. Plus, she has the unenviable task of living in Igor's old room! Maaika is very chill and is willing to sit in the kitchen with Stian and I and keep up with our ridiculous banter. Plus, she likes board games so I think we are busting out Diplomacy this weekend!
It should be a great year and a great house. I'm excited to get started, and no better way than doing some laundry! Ha det fra Norge!
I finally have a moment with internet so I am excited to write and say hi and that I made it to Switzerland! It was an eventful trip but it ended up working pretty well.
A friend from Oslo, Richard, picked me up from the airport in Oslo and I spent the night at their house which was beautiful. Lots of trees, Norwegian food and cheese, and a bed to crash on. They even took me to the airport the next morning for my flight. And, when I got on the plane I recognized this guy and girl. After we hit 30,000 ft. I walked back in the plane and sat down by them and started talking, and it turned out that it was the guy in charge of Bergen ultimate frisbee whom i had met when I went to an indoor frisbee tournament in Oslo last spring. He and his wife were going to an ultimate frisbee wedding of an ultimate player from italy in italy. pretty cool! so we talked a long time and we started sharing some ideas about ultimate in Tromsø. Basically, he is in the Norwegian sports organization which can give me a bunch of money if I can get a group of people playing. I might try to start a team at least once a week and go down to Oslo for one tournament in Dec and the one we went to. So, we'll see!
But I landed in Milano and John and I walked around there for the afternoon which was alright. Kind of just a big city. But we did see the fashion district with a ton of high class stores all along this huge block. There were men and women all in black waiting at every door to open the door for you. Pretty posh! We took the hour and a half train back to Lugano and went out that night to a city concert that was in the plaza downtown. We heard some good blues music and had some great wine and pasta!
Yesterday was fun. We got up and went to a town about an hour north in the mountains. There they were having a beach ultimate frisbee tournament! There is a river and next to one part of the river is a beach area where there is enough room for one field. It was gorgeous. You could see vineyards on the mountains surrounding us and a little swimming hole with lots of beautiful Swiss people jumping off of rocks into the water and sunning on the rocks. There were even a few topless Swiss women tanning unbashfully. We didn't get to play, but we met a lot of people that will be good contacts for John and will hopefully find him a team he can play with.
Today we've been chilling in town. I helped John move in a little more and we did a major grocery run so he has some food. Lugano is a beautiful town that reminds me a lot of Bergen, Norway with green mountains with houses dotting the slopes and a big body of water cutting through the mountains. Plus, it's pretty small and quaint and it feels safe, so I think John feels comfortable here. A good place to study and enjoy a new culture. And that's one thing that has surprised me, is the amount of Italian John will have to know to get by. Since English is the fourth language here after Italian, German, and French, very few people speak it. So I think John will be doing a lot of pointing and hopefully a lot of learning throughout his time in Lugano.
It's been good to be here with him a little bit. Now he's at class so I'm at his library finally checking the internet. He is supposed to have wireless access in his common room of his dorm, but it's pretty spotty. i'd say it works maybe 10% of the time, and i get way to click happy to actually read anything. But I think it's good because it will force him to get off the internet and out into the culture (I should work on that too).
Tonight he is having a meeting with a few of his study abroad compatriots who are also keen on traveling. They are getting together to try to gather information on the best places to travel and hopefully plan trips together. They are already planning on perhaps going to Amsterdam this weekend, so John has the opportunity to do that, and he also was asked to play at the Swiss Ultimate Frisbee National Championship game this weekend in Bern, Swtizerland. Pretty cool choices! I'll be sticking around until Wednesday morning when I head back to Norway and back to the academic life. In the meantime, I'm going to soak up this Southern European weather (in the 90's today with a ton of sun) and eat as much food and drink as much wine as possible!
Ciao from Franklin College in Lugano, Switzerland!
I am now comfortably sitting in the typically beautiful Norwegian apartment of my friends Kjersti and Richard. It's covered with wood from floor to ceiling and it is so korselig! I am very fortunate to have such great friends. Richard came and picked me up at the Oslo airport and brought me back to his house before he had to go back to work so I've been able to clean up, brush my teeth (with that mysterious liquid called toothpaste that i can't take on the plane), and have a little time away from a herd of frustrated travelers. Not a bad ending. Plus it's so great to be back in Norway. 
I stepped off the plane into cool, crisp Norwegian air and Richard and Kjersti's apartment is next to his father's farm where they grow wheat and oats and a rolling forest. So beautiful! It's also great just to get off the airplane and feel comfortable. Even though I'm far from being at home in Norway, it definitely is a comfortable place, both the people and the environment. After spending a few days in NYC, Oslo just feels like being in Brookings. Chill, comfortable, clean, safe, and a place I really enjoy being. I even sat outside on the porch for over an hour just reading and sitting the late hanging sun. It felt so great to be chilly and tranquil. I guess I'll shake the tranquility tomorrow when I hop on a 9.40am flight from Oslo to Italy and will catch up with my brother only about 12 hours late....
Even though it will work out fine, I feel like I failed a little bit. After the mechanical problems in Iceland, I went on the internet and tried to find a way to get to Switzerland before nightfall. I had a host of options, including flying from iceland to copenhagen instead of norway, then flying to zurich and taking the last train to arrive in lugano by 2am. Despite myriad of options, the Icelandic air people just weren't very creative. They said that since I had luggage they couldn't go into the luggage and get it to put it on a different flight. 
Come on people, we can't win the race with that attitude! So in the end, a new ticket from Oslo, but it's probably best that I get some rest and take a break from hectic travel.
I uploaded my photos so you can see my awesome time in Iceland. Just click on photos at the top of the page. Signing off from continental Europe. *sigh*
Oh travel. I am currently sitting in a place I have always wanted to visit: Reykjavik, Iceland. Unfortunately, all I can see is a vast expanse of emptiness surrounding the airport. That's right, I'm stuck at the gateway to Europe. I took a flight from New York last night to Oslo through Iceland. Unfortunately, when we got on the plane this morning in Iceland to take the short two hour flight to Oslo, our plane had technical difficulties and since we are at 66 degrees North in the middle of nowhere, the next flight out isn't until 4pm. Plus, the airport shuts down because they basically have two waves of flights, so all the stores are locked up and i'm just listening to a large group of Asian tourists playing an intense round of cards. It's actually kind of funny in a Ze Frank sort of way. Also, they keep giving us information like, "it might leave in two hours" so I can't even go to the Blue Lagoon to soak in a hot geyser. Well, on the plus side, Iceland's airport is the first one I have found that has FREE WIRELESS! Or as the sign above me is informing me: ϸrá∂laust net. It came it really handy to finally change my flight to Italy. That's also correct. I should be on a plane to Italy in about 20 minutes, but instead I got to bust out my dusty Norwegian cell phone and go through my phone book looking for someone to stay with. Fortunately, my friend and classmate Kjersti is in Oslo and is willing to help me out, so I'll crash at her place tonight and for $250 dollars head to Italy tomorrow at 9am. So, free ham sandwiches instead of pasta and pizza i guess.
But, it's all part of the amazing race and of course I've gotten to meet some interesting people b/c of the delay like a college kid from macalaster who worked for two summers at the Mack beer brewary in Tromsø and the Norwegian guy sitting next to me who works with metal smelting. I have to admit i wasn't quite brushed up on my norwegian words having to deal with minerals, but i was able to hold my own. So, as I withstand a weird mix of jet-lag and fatigue thanks to some homopathic pills called no-jet lag, i'm left to do the last sane thing i can do: take weird pictures. Enjoy. and I hope to see you on the continent soon.
Every year around this time, people of all walks of life (but mostly rural, middle class, white walks) take the religious-like journey to Parker to take part in one of South Dakota's great traditions: The Turner County Fair. The fair is a mix of agriculture, entertainment, food, family, political campaigning, photo taking, and good ole South Dakota fun. Personally, the Turner County Fair is a huge family reunion. Every year I walk to the old picnic table next to the chislic stand (chislic=cooked lamb on a stick). There at the table, my Grandpa Johnson holds court like the Don himself. 
All of the family on my mom's side comes so I get to see all the uncles and aunts and cousins, as well as family friends and other more distant relatives like the chislic owners themselves! It is a great chance to catch up and have some summer time fun. This year, like most years, started by throwing down as much chislic as possible. I took down 18 sticks before chasing them with a pork sandwich from the Lutheran Church food booth. While eating, we all do our best to sound knowledgable about agriculture. We talk about the drought or the flooding (it's never perfect you know) and the corn and the beans, and fortunately, Uncle Paul is kind enough not to make fun of my own lack of knowledge and to help me know what's going on at the family farm.
After a lot of great conversation, the young cousins finally drag us to the carnival area where we have close encounters with lots of scary looking Carnies and random rides and games.
Although it seems like we do fewer and fewer rides each year, I had fun watching the cousins almost puke on the Octopus ride, and did my best to display my weak abilities at Ski-Ball and Ski-Ball Horse-Racing. Fortunately, I think that all of our hard earned play eventually helps one of the cousins to win a huge stuffed tiger, or something that resembles a wild cat of some kind.
After the games and Carnies, it's time to grab some homemade ice cream, made by the Mennonites. Always large because it goes down like applesauce. Usually the ice cream is half-way gone by the time we finally squeeze onto a wooden bench for the night's true activity: VFW bingo.
VFW bingo is an amazing experience. Wood benches surround a rectangular area where members of the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) stand around and collect 25 cents for each bingo card someone is playing. The head honcho VFW member is the caller, while the "younger" more "inexperienced" VFW members continue their training for the glorious day when they can be a caller. 
Everyone squeezes onto these benches in hopes of getting bingo and winning the 10 dollar prize! Of course, the Johnson clan takes up about 1/4th of the bench space and usually turns the relatively tame game of bingo into a competative sport that far exceeds the World Series of Poker. People are shouting "YESSSSS!" every time they hit a number and everyone gets really angry if someone finally screams "Bingo!" and forces the game to start over again.
This year the Johnson clan, (which can be subsequently split into sub-clans such as the Blues, the Browns, the Paul Johnsons, the Meyers, and even the honorary Thompsons), cleaned up at the bingo table. Elliot, Jennifer, and I all won Bingo rounds, bringing in 10 dollars each. I was especially lucky because I won bingo at the same time as two other people. Usually, they would split the prize among the winner, but the VFW old boys club thought that dividing 10 three ways was difficult, so they let us all get the full award. 
After the regular bingo rounds finally draw to a close, the VFW ends the night with a bang: blackout! This is the variant of bingo in which every number on the card must be called to win. It not only requires luck, but also stamina. This year Brian demonstrated those characteristics. He perservered through over 5 minutes of numbers to come out victorious with the the $50 prize. On top of the that, the VFW men either miscounted or thought that Brian really needed the money because he was handed four 20 dollar bills! Boo yeah! We left the bingo table very satisfied having supported our troops in the best way I know how.
The Turner County Fair is a great summertime tradition, and I am happy I was attend this year. It's so much fun! It's interesting that when I take photos or stop and look at the fair objectively, how absolutely strange it really is. It looks like something from a generation gone-by where people gather together, (for free), to take time to eat unhealthy food without feeling guilty, to walk around looking at animals and 4-H awards, to play bingo with at least 3 and probably 4 different generations, to ride ridiculous rides run by even more ridiculous people, to spend wads of cash to win simple prizes that represent hurculean efforts, and to just enjoy time together. Parker's city slogan is "A Great Place to Live," but I think that on the week of the fair it should be "A Great Place to Lose Yourself" because that's what we do, and it's great.
