First Post!

Current Weather: 19 degrees and snowing.

Hey everyone! I thought I'd start a blog so that you can all keep up on whats going on here in Norway. Go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006543&l=e68a3&id=1172700378 to see the pictures, it should work even if you don't have a facebook.

I only have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, so today was the beginning of my first five day weekend. As I understand it the Norwegian higher education system is a lot more laid back than ours. The semesters are much longer but classes meet a lot less often and some of the classes have "reading periods" of about a month where they don't meet. For my British Studies class we have a field trip in the Spring... TO BRITAIN! The school even pays for some of it.

My friend Anna (international student from Canada) and I went to Driv (the student-run cafe/bar/nightclub/restaurant in the city center) last night to see a concert. It was really fun and our Norwegian friends introduced us to EVEN MORE new Norwegian friends with difficult names to pronounce. We caught the last bus home by a matter of only like five minutes, so we were pretty proud of ourselves.

Today I slept in and then cleaned the apartment a little. At noon when it was fairly bright I went for a run. 5 miles! It was ROUGH especially at the end. Living on the top of a mountain is nice for views, but hard for running. I ran down to the shore and then around the tip of the island. It was 19 degrees F and blowing snow, but how many people can say they've ran outside in January 217 miles north of the arctic circle? Don't worry though, I wore my yellow reflective bib.