Alt må ende...

Merry Christmas everyone!!

First, I would like to thank all of you for sticking with my blog this semester. I hope reading about my Norway experiences was half as entertaining for you, as the actuality was for me!

I am currently sitting in Hamburg, Germany at the home of my host family, the Duschas, with whom I lived in 2004 and 2005. It has been exactly two and a half years since I left here, and it feels like it was just last year I was going to school at GymBo and cruising through town on the U-Bahn. My semester in Norway was up and over in a flurry. Even though we spent a whole week saying good-bye, it feels like I never got to properly draw everything that happened to a close. Then again, after a semester like that, how can you? Someday, perhaps, I will go back to Hamar just like I am doing now in Hamburg, and it will still be a home to me...almost as if I never left.

I have been trying to take a break from the internet lately (particularly facebook.) to sit back and enjoy my time here with my host family. I apologize for neglecting the blog! Most of the reason I haven't written, is because I cannot for the LIFE of me figure out how to save pictures off the internet without the right-click button on a mouse. My mouse is packed away in an unreachable location, and this darn macbook mouse only has one button. If anyone knows how to get the right-click functions to pop up so I can get some pictures on here, let me know! There are many to be added!!

In the flurry of taking finals, packing up, and saying good-bye, I did not get to squeeze in a blog about our last hurrah, that is, the Nobel Peace Prize CNN interview and Torch-light ceremony. (!!!)

We went into Oslo on Monday, Dec. 10 to attend the CNN interview with the Laureates and see the parade. It was really surreal, I must say. If you say the interview on TV...I was there!! The back of my head even showed up on screen several times :-)

It was really interesting to listen to the interview and see the Laureates live. I even showed up on TV!! The back of my head...in the audience...how cool is that?!

Tuesday night, we watched the Nobel Prize concert on TV. It was strange to think that the interview we watched at the city hall had been on TV just like that. It made me feel all worldly and important ;-)

Here is just a little clip of the interview from the CNN website (click on the year 2007):

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/12/06/nobel.interviews/index.html


I know you are all dying to see some pictures. My pictures actually didn't turn out very well, because the zoom on my camera wasn't that great, but my roommate has a fabulous camera, so I should be able to nab some of her pictures.
I apologize again for my technical dysfunctionality.

The Saturday before the big Nobel prize bash, we had a nice Christmas party with the group. It was really fun and relaxing and kind of sad to know it was the last time we'd all be able to get to together like that.
I've got some nice group pictures, to be added later...

Tuesday I checked out of the apartment and went to my friend Henriette's house for the evening. On Wednesday morning I took the train to the Oslo airport to fly to Hamburg.

Interesting story...I checked in my bags for the flight plenty early (I had about 2 hours) and went right through security. I had to of course take out my lap top to be scanned, walk through, beep, remove my shoes, walk through again, no problems, I put my shoes back on, grabbed my bag, and went on my way.

I bought a nice little yogurt for breakfast in one of the shops, and went and sat down near my gate to eat my breakfast. About half way through eating the yogurt, I realized I opened my backpack to grab a magazine, and realized that...uh...oops...I forgot to grab my laptop!!!
So, with half-eaten yogurt in hand, I ran back to the gate and asked 3 different security people if there was a laptop left behind until they finally directed me to this little office where lost items were...and in some kind of miracle that would only happen in the Oslo airport, the guy came out with my laptop in hand. I almost peed myself I was so relieved.

That was my last little adventure in Norway.

2 hours later I was in Hamburg, luggage in tow, ready for the next adventure.

And here I am! I've been catching up with old friends and enjoying time with my host family...its almost as if I never left. I even have the same room here with the same bed and same sheets.

The next three days promise lots of German Christmas food, cookies, drinks, etc.
It almost feels like all I've done here is eat Christmas cookies and lots of brötchen--I think I'm going to be more than ready for season's eatings to be over.

But, in the mean time I'll keep enjoying myself :)

I wish everyone the best over the holidays...stay safe, keep warm, be blessed!


God Jul!

Love, Chelsea

Up Next...

I just ACED my oral exam on my case study in Democracy and Development!! And by ACED, I mean, I totally blew my profs out of the water with my intuitive genius.

Well..Ok, maybe it wasn't that exciting, but I definitely got a solid A on my project/presentation on the Ondao Mobile Schools and I feel really good about.

I also feel good about the fact that I'M DONE WITH FINALS! This is the earliest I will ever be able to say that...December 5th and all done? CRAZY.

So, you may be asking yourself, what is Chelsea doing for the next week? Well, ask no more! Here you will find all the answers to your questions about the season finale of "Chelsea's Exciting Norwegian Adventures"

Tonight: Taco Tuesday (on a Wednesday) with the PLU group: makeshift Mexican food and fiesta!

Tomorrow: Initiate project Pack-my-Junk-into-2-Suitcases

Friday: Final class with course evaluations and handing in materials...probably a stop at the Kebab shop afterwards. Mmmmm.

Saturday: Julefest!! Christmas party with the gang: Pepparkaker, Juleøl, Hot Toddies, and good friends!

Sunday: Farewell Dinner with Inger and Alexandra (our Profs) @ Inger's place.

Monday: OSLO!! This is the the Grand Finale!! We are meeting up in Oslo to go to the International Cultural Museum, shop around down town, and finally: to Meet up for the Nobel Torch Light ceremony and CNN interview with Al Gore, the recipient of the Nobel Peace prize!!
We actually received our tickets!! It's going to be INCREDIBLE!!


Wednesday I'll fly to Germany for a nice Christmas break and more exciting adventures.

So stay tuned!

Snø!

After being shut up in my room for the last 4 days typing this paper, I am ALMOST done. I've got 18 pages of pure genius, I just have to come up with a brilliant conclusion and create the 'works cited' page.
But I've decided to take a break, because honestly, I feel bad about neglecting my avid readers. And I was feeling rather inspired by the beautiful blanket of SNOW outside!!

Today we had our final lecture of the semester, that ended ...bittersweetly, to say the least. No, really.
The final lecture was supposed to be yesterday, but our lecturer, Steinar, from the Nansen Academy was in Yugoslavia the past several days and couldn't get back because of weather. However, he was back today, so we met with him at noon. Well, he lectured for about 15 minutes, before he decided he really couldn't go on, and we ended up having to call an ambulance to come get him because he was having some sort of problem with his throat.
Kind of frightening...SO, we waited until the situation was taken care of, finished up what we had been discussing, and went outside and had a HUGE snow fight!!!
It was a blast!!! Our Namibian friends who have never really seen snow in their lives were out playing with us as well, that was pretty exciting.


After we were all worn out and smothered in snow, we decided to walk down the the Kebab shop for Kebabs and burgers. It was a fabulous afternoon--especially after having been cooped up in my apartment or the library for the last week or so type-type-typing away at this paper.
I have to say, despite the tediousness of this job, I am quite proud of myself for having produced a full twenty page case study. Well, almost, anyway. Tomorrow at 15:00 I won't have to look at it again for a long time. Oh the anticipation!

Well, I should probably get back to that. A solid hour or two and I shall be finished!!

BTW: Sunday afternoon is the start of the Christmas season here in Hamar, and there is a big celebration going on down town. So be prepared on Sunday to read a bit about that!

Thanksgiving i Norge?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!


We had a nice group get-together yesterday for Thanksgiving. It was the perfect day for it, too. We woke up to a nice blanket of snow over everything. It felt just like a holiday break - except all the stores were open.

We decided to get together at one of the apartments where 3 members of the group are staying. I headed over around 11 to help with the dinner preparations and to hang out with whoever happened to be there. Julie, Nacole and I were the only ones there. So we got to do the honors of stuffing the turkey and sticking it in the oven. I am quite proud of how we did. Our turkey not only looked delicious, it tasted fabulous, too! (I should mention that it was a 7kg turkey (15lbs) and it cost an equivalent of $75 US dollars. Nacole's mother informed us over Skype that she bought a 16lb turkey for about $16 dollars in Washington.)

I also made cranberry sauce (technically it was Lingonberry sauce. That gave it a little Norwegian flair.) We also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits, rolls, and apple pie for desert. As more people arrived, so did more food. We had SOOO much food, it was ridiculous. But it was worth it. It was delicious, and the night was a lot of fun.


We were planning to have dinner around 7PM, because some of our group had traveled to Copenhagen/Amsterdam/Hamburg and missed a connection back to Oslo, and instead of arriving on Wednesday, they didn't arrive back until Thursday night.
Always an adventure.


It was a lot of fun to have a holiday, when no one else was having one. It still feels like Thanksgiving break, so I'm using that as an excuse not to work on my 20 page case study, which is becoming more and more daunting by the day.

In less than two weeks, I will be completely finished with my projects and finals, and free to roam about the continent! On December 10, we were scheduled to attend the Nobel Peace Prize torch light parade and press conference with the recipient in Oslo. Although, since Al Gore was the recipient this year, no one can get tickets to the press conference anymore except people with a close relationship to Al Gore. We are all a little bit upset about this, since the students on this program have been attending every year. Now, just because its some American politician we can't get in. We are still planning on attending the torch light parade, even if we can't get tickets into the press conference.

And that will be the last event of our program! On December 12, I am flying to Hamburg to spend the holidays with my host family from the year I spent in Germany.

It's all coming so soon! I can hardly believe it.

Dialogue, anyone?

The weather today is utterly dismal.
The sun has now reached the point where sunrise fades directly into sunset within about 2-3 hours. It's a very interesting experience; kind of fun, to be perfectly honest.
However, there are days like today when the clouds take over, and it's as if the sun never rises and it remains gray and dismal for a few hours before shifting into darkness. Kind of like Tacoma, actually, only colder.

Today, while I was walking home it seemed to grow colder and colder. By the time I reached my apartment, my I couldn't feel my face or wiggle my nose. I had to smile, because it reminded me of being in Iowa again.

Anyway, the reason I was writing, is because we had a very interesting lecture today, that I thought I would share. I think it gives some good insight to the "Norwegianapproach"...

Our lecturer was Steinar Bryn from the Nansen Dialogue Academy in Lillehammer, Norway. The Nansen Dialogue Network consists of Dialogue centers in the Balkans and in Norway, that are supposed to act as places for people who are involved in conflict in the Balkans to meet each other, hear each other, and have meaningful dialogue about their side of the conflict.

It was really interesting to hear Steinar talk about conflict in general, and the purpose or role of dialogue in creating sustainable peace. He used Kosovo and Albania as the main examples of his case, but he even related using dialogue in relationships between friends or spouses.

Now, I'm not the kind of person who listens to a lecturer and takes everything they say and makes it my own. I very much believe in critical thinking and weighing the arguments. However, in doing so with Steinar's presentation, I discovered that his arguments were simply the articulation of ways of approaching life in general that I have valued and tried to come to terms with on my own throughout my teenage years. He talked about a lot of examples and situations where dialogue can/could be an effective and positive approach, and it made a whole lot of sense to me.

I think it was best summed up in the model he gave us at the end of the lecture, a comparison of dialogue vs. debate (which is so popular in our society, I think.):

Characteristics of Debate:
-Purpose is to convince the other that you are right.
-in order to achieve this, you talk
-You act as a hunter: looking for and pointing out the weak arguments. This makes the other feel insecure
-You act as a moral judge: looking for mistakes, pointing out that the other is wrong. ( I really liked the example he gave for this one: Person A says: "I'm afraid of dogs." Person B: "Oh that's ridiculous, dogs are so friendly." [End dialog]
Versus: Person A: "I'm afraid of dogs." Person B: "Really? All dogs? Or just big dogs? Or Barking dogs? etc.[dialog continues..])
-You defend your position against everything; he pointed out how we have a culture where we don't allow for mistakes, so its more common for people to try to defend themselves, rather than saying "I screwed up."

Characteristics of Dialogue:
-Purpose is to understand the other.
-in order to achieve this you must actively listen, asking good questions to help the person open up.
-you have to have self-discipline to bite your tongue if you hear a weak argument, something wrong, or if they are lying. It's not about them telling the correct truth; its about hearing what they say and understanding why they would say it.
(The example he gave was: A woman from 'Group A' says, "well 'Group B' soldiers came and said if we didn't get out they'd kill us, so we fled." When perhaps 'Group B' soldiers didn't come and threaten them, rather in truth 'Group A' just felt afraid that the next day they would come, or she wanted to make the 'B' side seem more vicious than her side, etc. )
-In the end, you should come to a point of tolerance--but REAL tolerance. Tolerance, as Steinar described it, is when you actually oppose someone or their views, actions, etc., but you recognize their right to be as they are.
-In the end, change of your stance or opinion can be a positive thing.


I thought that was really relevant and practical. Feel free to disagree or call me naive, but I think it is the way to achieve sustainable peace/good relations. I mean, it does take more time than just coming up with a solution. But if both parties feel very strongly that they are RIGHT, then debate doesn't really do any good--they just walk away hating each other more, rather than having heard, understood and appreciating the other side.
Which I guess is ok, if it doesn't effect anyone but you. But what if its a couple with children? Or two entire countries that have to live next to each other?

Another thing that struck me during the lecture:

I had to chuckle when he said "If you treat people according to how they are, you will only make them worse, if you treat them according to their potential, they will act according to their potential." He was talking about how you can apply that to students, and to countries who are trying to achieve peace.

I'm quite certain I've heard the same thing from my mother several times.
I think one day I will write a book about how the worlds problems can be solved by my mother's wise little lectures.

I actually thought of an example of where this worked: for those of you who have seen the film "Freedom Writers" or heard of the Freedom Writers Foundation..I think Erin Gruwell used this philosophy as well.

It was a really superb lecture, in my opinion. I was very intrigued, and just had to share!

I think you must admit...this is more interesting than pictures, right? It's the heart of something very unique to Norway...Think about it...

November...

Hei Everyone!
I really MUST apologize. I can't believe it's been over a week; this is really quite inexcusable, but I hope you can forgive me!

Bergen was a beautiful city! The drive there was very miserable, because I got sick on the bus about two hours in, leaving a good six hours of suffering. Once we arrived, and I crashed in the hostel, I was fine. No problems.





(Sorry the pictures are tiny, I got them from a friend...silly me forgot to pack the camera...)

Saturday was really the only day we got to walk around and such. We went to the aquarium and the Edvard Grieg Museum. (He was a famous Norwegian Composer from the late 19th century). The museum was located at his house, which was REALLY cool. When he built it, it was out in the countryside on a quiet fjord. Today there have been many many houses built up around that area. It was a mixture of very fancy furniture and natural looking walls and surroundings. I wanted it. The view and the water front were especially appealing.

The aquarium as pretty sad. I've DEFINITELY seen better (Seattle, Vancouver, etc.)
We watched the penguins fight over nests for a good three quarters of an hour. It was moderately entertaining.

After that, we went into the city and had a bite to eat, and walked around the down-town area. We went into a shopping center and some little gift stores, you know, the usual.

Then we all went and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and stopped and had coffee at a little shop after dinner.

To end the evening, we went back to the hostel, where a bunch of us played some word games and just hung out like the bunch of kids that we are.

The trip back the next day was INCREDIBLE. I bought some motion-sickness meds before we left, so I felt much better on the way back. I think the amazing scenery would have distracted me anyway. There were mountains and tunnels and cute little towns...well...just look at the pictures:








In the mean time, I've been work, work, working! I took care of registering for classes next semester: Human Rights, the Anthropology of Development, Global Perspectives, and Archeology. (I've decided to try and squeeze in the Anthropology major as my compliment to Global Studies)


I've been working on my case study on the Ondao Mobile Schools quit vehemently, in addition to keeping up with my class on Conflict and Dialogue and working at NAMAS. Today Joe and I filled, addressed, and stamped a HUGE pile of envelops.

The weather here in Norway is also starting to show symptoms of winter. In Eleverum as we were walking to the Namibiahuset, it started to snow. And surprisingly enough as we left there was a nice layer of white frosting the ground.

The last few evenings, around 3:00pm, I've caught glimpses of lovely winter sunsets out my window. Yesterday, I got fed up with just seeing them out my window and decided to take a break from homework and go down to the lake to see just how beautiful they are. Definitely did NOT regret that decision. I think I'll be taking breaks every afternoon for that from now on!






It's surprising and saddening to realize that we've only got one month left here in Hamar. Today I finally submitted myself to the fact that I will have to leave eventually, and purchased my ticket to Hamburg for December 12...which will be another grand adventure of it's own!

Until then, though, I am going to slow down and take time to drink in the afternoon sunsets, and the clear night skies, fellowship with my friends, and the Norwegian lifestyle altogether.

Happy Halloween!

Hei hei!

Alright, here's the deal: I completely forgot that we are going to Bergen this weekend!! The schools is sponsering a trip for all the international students to travel to Bergen for the weekend, and do some sight-seeing!
Bergen is on the west coast, among the many fjords. It should be BEAUTIFUL!
So, be expecting lots of pictures! That should make up for the lack there-of lately...

Yesterday we were in Oslo once again.
This time we visited the Hedmark elected members of parliament. That was pretty cool--there are 3 of them: one from the socialist-left party (Karin), one from the labour party (Annette--she's only 28!), and one from the conservative party (Gunnar).

They had some interesting things to say because they are all on different committees.
The rep from the labour party was on the foreign relations and aide committee, and she apparently just got back from Namibia and Angola, which was pretty neat. The Norwegian government is apparently doing some development work with their governments on the fisheries there.

Karin and Annette had some interesting things to say about poverty. Karin emphasized the difference between poverty in Norway (what I say to that: HA, yeah right) and poverty in Africa, or other "third world" locations. She says the difference is that in Norway its more of a social exclusion, because the standard of living is so high and without money you can't participate in society, though you may be able to afford to eat, rather than a matter of living in a place where everyone is excruciatingly poor, and can barely survive, etc. It was a nice socialist perspective..and I probably can't say it quite as eloquently as she did, because I thought it was a bit of a stretch in the first place to claim that there are "impoverished" people in Norway.

The conservative guy, Gunnar, was on the education and church committee, and he informed us that there is debate in the parliament about the continuance of the State church. It is such a long tradition, and it is integrated into the Norwegian constitution, so it is incredibly difficult to get rid of it. They are also worried about what will happen to the old churches in Norway if they separate the Lutheran church from the state. However, he said that the society is no longer a "Christian" society as such, and the views of the society toward having a state church are changing.

So it was an interesting day.

After that lecture, we went to the Supreme Court, and got to talk to one of the justices. Um. It was...cool...maybe...if you're pre-law.
I think the only interesting part about that, to me, was the fact that we were actually able to go into the high courts and talk to a SUPREME COURT JUSTICE. It was ridiculous! I mean, he was a cute little old Norwegian man, very intelligent and such...just not my cup of tea.
I was considering law school for a while there, for international and human rights law...But if I have to suffer through lectures like that day in and day out, I think I'll shrivel up and die before the end of the first semester.

So it was pretty cool that we got to meet with the Norwegian "government".

Halloween tomorrow? Some have asked me if they celebrate Halloween here...I think the Norwegians have discovered the economic impact of Halloween, so they have adopted it into the culture a bit. ;-) The youth have also discovered that Halloween is another excuse to party, so it has definitely been adopted by the college-aged Norwegian population.

There are two nights worth of...festivities, shall we say, planned in our apartment complex. I am anticipating no sleep due to excessive volume from upstairs.
Some friends and I are planning to get cider and candy and watch scary movies at their place, which should be fun :)

So Happy Halloween everyone!

I'll post pictures from Bergen at the end of the weekend!

Shopping, NAMAS, and Student Life in General...

Uff-da...its been a while.
I'm sorry to say, I haven't got any new pictures, unfortunately. Though, I have had some very interesting experiences I think I'll just share a bit.

Let me start by going back to last weekend...

Sunday my Norwegian Friend Henny (Henriette), her Fiancée, Tony, and I drove just across the border to Sweden, to go shopping for more reasonable prices than one finds in Norway. It was a really great idea. Right after crossing the border, there is a large EuroCash store, that has groceries and other items for low prices and large quantities (kind of like the Swedish version of Target, in a way).

It was fantastic! The Swedish kroner is worth less than the Norwegian kroner, so the prices on many items, though many were the "same", were in fact a bit cheaper. (USD=6.4SEK, USD=5.4NOK)
I bought a lot of meat (chicken, sausages, Swedish meatballs :^) ) because it was much cheaper than buying it in Norway, and also a Kg of Spaghetti, because it was also ridiculously inexpensive. So I guess I'll be dining on Spaghetti and Swedish meatballs for the next couple of weeks.

Tony informed me that Norwegians all go to Sweden to buy meat, beer, and porno. Because beer and pornography are extremely heavily taxed in Norway, and meat is just all around expensive.
So there we were in Sweden to buy meat, beer, and...crap we forgot to get the porno.
Oh well; guess we'll have to do without.

We did however, go into the added on CANDY store. There was an entire extra store added on to this super-store with rows and rows of bins full of candy. You could walk in, grab a little plastic bag and a scooper, and wade through the ocean of candy, filling your bag with all your hearts desires--milk chocolates, dark chocolates, chocolate covered raisins, white chocolate hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, nougats, licorice of all flavors, chocolate oranges, marshmallows, you name it, it was there-- then bring the bag up to the counter and pay for it by the kilo.
It was INCREDIBLE! Like trick-or-treating, only you get to pick the good candies (and you have to pay for it.) I spent around 60 SEK. It was fun :-)

THEN we went to the "huge" mall. It was fairly good sized for a European shopping center, I must admit, but Henny and I both chuckled when Tony called it "huge." There were probably about 15-20 stores in the whole thing. Henny and I hit up H&M (a Swedish clothing company, very popular in Europe) Where I managed to Scandinavify my wardrobe a bit. The Scandinavian women are very into boots. EVERYBODY wears them. Literally. The stores were filled with them. So I decided to integrate/conform to the culture and buy a pair.
They're chic. I'm satisfied.
It was a girl's dream day...shopping and chocolate.

We headed back to Norway around 12 noon, and masses of automobiles from Norway were streaming across the border to go shopping in Sweden. (It is especially busy on Sunday, because nothing is open in Norway on Sunday). So we were lucky to beat the crowd.

Henny and Tony invited me to dinner with them, so I actually got to enjoy someone else's cooking. I think I've been living off my own for tooo long. Let's just say my cooking skills have much to be desired.
(Dad tells me I should go live with Aunt Judy to "learn how its done" ;-) )

It was a really nice weekend. We ended it by chatting over mochas in a cute little coffee shop in downtown Hamar--a tucked away little place that I didn't even know existed. I love places like that.

Monday was typical: class, boredom, reading, procrastinating, a bit more reading, wishing it wasn't Monday...

Tuesday was another interesting day at NAMAS.
We headed out extra early to go to a high school that was doing a fund-raiser for NAMAS. Apparently, there is a program in Norway, where the students get 130,000NOK to donate to an organization of their choice. They choose the organization, do some work with them, and then donate their money to them--it's a way of getting kids aware of the volunteer sector of society. In many past years, NAMAS has been the organization they choose. It's really great, too, because any money the NAMAS receives from donors, Norad (the Norwegian Aid agency) will triple. So instead of 130,000 NOK, NAMAS will get 390,000 NOK to use toward its projects.

As a sort of thank you, and promotional excursion for their program, NAMAS sponsored two particularly famous Namibian musicians to come and perform at their high school. It was really neat; their music was cool; very relaxed and fun. Svein, the director, gave a bit of information about NAMAS and their internship possibilities and such, which was all in Norwegian but I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL. I was shocked. I turned to Joe and said, "Ok, so this is what he said..." and Joe looked at me with this weird look of confusion and awe. "How did you get all that?? That's crazy."
I don't even know. It all of a sudden just clicked...
I couldn't say everything he said in Norwegian, but I definitely understood every single part of the speech. So I have been encouraged to continue using my Norwegian now that I realize I understand quite a lot..and it's been going well. I've even plowed through 2.5 chapters of Harry Potter og de Vises Stein in the last couple of days. Yeah Norsk!

Afterward, we headed back to the Namibiahuset to get back to work on our work for the Angola project.
We have been assigned to work on the Programme Plan that should be sent to Norad, so they know what NAMAS is doing and whether they want to continue giving aid. Of course they will give aid for this project, and of course OUR draft of the Programme plan won't be sent in, but it is really practical hands-on stuff that if we were part of a team at NAMAS, we would be doing; I'm learning a lot from this stuff. And some of our information or ideas might even be relevant for the team that is working on this project so that is actually pretty motivating.

I have also decided to work on the Ondao mobile school project as a case study for our Democracy and Development course, so all this work is relevant for that case as well. I met with my professor today to consult about this case study project, and she was very excited about me doing it. She encouraged me to go to Namibia...I might just have to. So watch out..this blog could be changing faces in about year or so ;-).


Anyway...we ended up spending the afternoon talking with the musicians and their friend. It was SO interesting. They were talking all about the insane poverty in Botswana and other parts of southern Africa, and about the out-of-control crime in South Africa. It was so interesting, especially to hear it from their point of view. There was one point where they were making jokes about how you could save yourself if you got car-jacked in South Africa. It was one of those experiences where it was sad that it was funny...
What really struck me was that the one musician from Botswana asked, "why us?" And no one really has an answer to that, do they? But this guy was looking at Joe and me--two young Americans--and pointing, you guys could change it, you know. You can find the answers (to questions like, how do you get corrupt governments to be transparent in their spending? How do you help people who are too hungry and poor to think rationally and help themselves?, etc.) He wasy saying, you Americans you have the money and the power you're young, you could change it!
Hm. Kind of threw a big one at us there.

But how do you walk away from that kind of conversation--with good people, real people, people just like you--and pretend like it's nothing? Just sigh and say, O well? I can't do it. It could just have well been me and my family living in horrifying conditions; but it wasn't, and now I've got an advantage, and with it a responsibility to my fellow human beings. And that's important to recognize.

So needless to say, this internship is definitely showing me a lot of really amazing things.

On Thursday evening, an anthropologist who did some work in the Kunene region (where the Ondao Mobile School project is located) came in to NAMAS and gave a lecture on the research he did on the people there.

There is apparently a really interesting history from that region--a sort of age-long conflict between different sections of the tribes--that isn't documented at all because of their oral tradition. So he is really the first outsider to be confronted with this history, and he told us about it, which was neat.
It was also very relevant, because these people who have always been in conflict with each other are the same people who NAMAS is trying to work with in the building of these schools. A lot of other development projects have failed in that region, not because of lack of financial support or effort, but because of the local people's attitudes toward each other and conflicts about who will support what. So it is really lucky in a way that this project has been successful, without them having known about this conflict to begin with.

(I don't know if that makes sense without knowing the context of the project or how NGO development projects work, but I'll just pretend like you know what I'm talking about and that it's all just as clear and interesting to you as it is to me. )

So that's what's new over here.
Sorry I haven't been very good at keeping up with the blog lately...This field study and case study business are keeping me well occupied, as well as the fact that I've realized I'm only going to be here for 6 more weeks and I want to do as much as I can in the area before then!!
This weekend I went out to a pub with some of the group on Thursday (Thursday is kind of like the Norwegian student's Friday, because there are rarely classes on Friday), and went Bowling with Tony and Henny on Saturday--which was a bit of a culture shock for me: for 2 games (about an hour) it was 118NOK per person ($22)....quite a big difference from the Spencer Bowl $2 per game...

I will try my darnedest to post the next one sooner AND have new pictures!!
So until then...ha det bra!

NAMAS: First day of field study

Bright and early yesterday morning, I started my field study at the Namibia Association of Norway (NAMAS) Namibiahuset in Eleverum.

(I described this organization in an earlier post. For more information see Monday, September 3 entitled: Elverum; or check out the English page of their website listed under LINKS on the right-hand side.)

It was incredible!

Actually, when I describe what I did, it probably sounds pretty boring to the unknowing lummox: I spent 6 hours sitting at a table with my colleague, reading through an 18 page draft of a project summary and Terms of Reference looking for holes in the information.

But as a matter of fact, it was SO fun!

First when we arrived in the morning we spent about half and hour perusing the NAMAS website (listed in LINKS on the right), getting ourselves moderately informed about their four major projects.

Then, Svein, the managing director of the Namibiahuset in Elverum, presented us information about their newest endeavor: expanding the Ondao Mobile School, which currently exists in the Kunene Region of Namibia, on the North-western border, across the river into Angola.

The people who live on that side of the river in Angola are of the same ethnic background and have a very similar nomadic culture to the Ovahimba people in Namibia who are currently using the Ondao Mobile School.

These people have very little access to school, because of their nomadic culture and limited resources, such as roads, electricity, etc.
They heard about the Mobile schools in Namibia and about a year ago requested that NAMAS help them to extend that same system into Angola.

In September, a team from NAMAS went to this region in Angola for their first excursion to evaluate the situation and possibility of initiating this project. Before they went, they drew up a Terms of Reference for this first excursion.

[A terms of reference is kind of a road map for going through with a project. According to Wikipedia:
Creating a detailed Terms of Reference is critical to the success of the project, as it defines the project:

* Vision, objectives, scope and deliverables (i.e. what has to be achieved)
* Stakeholders, roles and responsibilities (i.e. who will take part in it)
* Resource, financial and quality plans (i.e. how it will be achieved)
* Work breakdown structure and schedule (i.e. when it will be achieved) ]

So Svein presented us with their Terms of Reference for this step of the Project and their information and conclusions that had been drawn during the 5 day excursion in September. Our task was to match up the information with their Terms of Reference and see if there were any holes in the information--questions that had gone unanswered.

It was SO great! Neither Joe, my fellow intern, nor I had ever done anything with a development project before, and weren't really sure how one went about working with and initiating projects so this was THE BEST learning tool we could have ever asked for. Furthermore, we were actually doing something RELEVANT! It wasn't just..."Read through this and do it for a grade." It was actually meaningful; we were using our own critical thinking and careful consideration on something that might actually be VALID--something that might even, despite our inexperience in development work, be used toward something really good.

I can't even describe how exciting that is and how good that makes me feel!!

I'm really interested to hear what Svein has to say about our input tomorrow. :)
I think these next 6 weeks (I'll be working Tuesdays and Thursdays until November 22) could be the most rewarding of the whole semester!



On an entirely different note: I am currently looking out my window and glancing at my clock and noticing that the two can't possibly be corresponding. And yet...they are. It feels like it should be about 5:50PM, but it's only 2:50PM. The days are RAPIDLY getting shorter. My goodness. Looking at this statistically:

A week after arrival in Hamar:
Sunrise August 25: 4:52AM
Sunset August 25: 7:42PM


And today:
Sunrise October 17: 6:59AM
Sunset October 17: 5:01PM

I can only imagine what it will be like in a month!

But until then, I think I'll enjoy the daylight while I can...

Euro-trip

After 5 long days of a Euro-traveling extravaganza, I am back in Hamar!

and excited, exausted, smelly from traveling, and so on...

Since it would take me about 10 days to write about all 5 days, (and because my dad has informed me that all anyone cares about are the pictures anyway...*eh-hem*) I'm going to try to stick to the basic highlights of the trip:

6:00 Sunday morning, my travel buddy, Bryanna ( *above* also my roommate here in Hamar) and I took the train from Hamar to the Gardermoen airport, where we passed through check-in and security quite smoothly and by 8:30 were flying off to Berlin.

Upon arrival in Berlin we navigated our way with our internet directions to the hostel that I found online...we were students on a budget and it sounded like a good deal. This is where we ended up:
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Despite its questionable name, it was really quite nice--friendly enough and clean. We were in a room with two other girls, one from France, another from Poland. The girl from France was busy looking for an apartment in Berlin, staying at the SleepCheap until she found one. I wouldn't have wanted to be in that situation. The best/worst part about this hostel was that the mattresses on the bed were on these metal springy things that were REALLY loud. You couldn't even shift your body a centimeter without it making a sound similar to that of a dying rhinoceros. It was actually quite scary waking up in the middle of the night thinking a teradactyl is coming after me and really, the girl across the room was just rolling over.
We've all been there right?

Besides the beds, our Berlin experience was really great...we covered almost all of the tourist attractions in 2 days! ( It helped that I have been there already 3 times.)

After checking into the hostel and dumping our packs, we headed out for some food...aka Döner! Of all the things in Germany that I love, Döner is definitely up there at the top (no offense to all my German friends and family that I love--Döner just has something special ;-) )

What is Döner? Well, according to the Wikipedia definition:

"Döner Kebab, which literally means "turning roast", is the name given to a Turkish dish made with lamb (or mutton), beef, chicken or falafel. It is the origin of other similar Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes such as shawarma and gyros. A version developed to suit German tastes by Turkish immigrants in Berlin has become one of the world's most popular fast food dishes."

According to the Chelsea Linsley definition:

"Döner is the best thing that ever happend to Berlin." (You know, next to the tearing down of the wall, reunification, the end of the Cold War, the establishment of the Bundestag, things like that...)

In any case, I was incredibly excited to have Döner again, and after having one we were ready to start the touring process. Sunday afternoon we went to the Reichstag (Capital Building), Alexander Platz: the location of the TV tower, Berliner Cathedral, and some main shopping and tourist districts down town.

Some pictures from Sunday in Berlin:














Sunday night we sat in a little Dunken Donuts café and had hot drinks and muffins. It was really lovely.

From there we went to the national Jewish Monument; a large park with uneven ground and large stone columns to make you feel a bit lost. It's a neat monument, and was even cooler at night.





Monday Morning, we set out early to get breakfast at a local grocery store, then headed down the street to see Charlottenburg Castle, built in the early 1700s.

From there we set out to the Jewish Museum. I have been there three times now, but every time I go there, I learn something new, and find something really inspiring. It is very interestingly built--even the architecture has specific meaning.
One room was supposed to be a memorial room and it has a floor with all these big metal faces and the artist intended for people to walk on them, and when you do that they make these really loud clangy noises that echo throughout the whole open space. It's pretty powerful.
Its got to be one of my all time favorite museuems.

After the Museum we set out to find a new synagogue that was supposedly recently restored. We didnt find the one we were looking for exactly, but we did find one that had been fully restored in the 1980s after having been completely obliterated in Kristallnacht. It is a huge beautiful building located right in the middle of a more urban district next to other really tall plain buildings. Its very interesting looking, and probably says something about the crowded urban situation in Berlin.

After that we checked out Check point Charlie, a famous crossing point from East to West Berlin. We searched out a piece of the wall that is near there, but didnt find it; so we went to the East Side Gallery instead. The East Side Gallery is a large extended piece of the wall near the East Main Train Station, that has been painted by artists and graffiti and has all kinds of messages, pictures, etc.




A little bit from the Gallery:







Tuesday Morning we departed from Berlin, and headed down the Freiburg--A completely different German setting.
Freiburg is locatd in the Southwest corner of Germany, on the border of France and Switzerland. (Located not far from Basel, the city on the corner, from where we flew back to Scandinavia).

Some pictures of Freiburg:





My friend Matt Palmquist is studying in Freiburg this semester, and we were intending on meeting him. Unfortunately we had cell phone issues (darn technology! *shakes fist*) so we didnt actually get ahold of him until Thursday morning. We had a good time anyway.

Tuesday night when we arrived, we checked in at our camp site. Yes, camp site. It was located on the edge of Freiburg, right on the edge of the Black forest/mountains. I brought my tent and we intended to have some good outdoors experiences in the black forest. Well...we certainly did.
We had my tent, but we didnt actually have sleeping bags...so we brought all of our warm clothes and some fleece blankets and froze our arsches off in the 40˚F nights. It was HORRIBLE. The worst nights of sleep I've had in my life, as I'm sure you can imagine. We scurried into the bathrooms at about 6 AM just to get the heat. At least now it makes for a good story. We survived two nights, but I can definitely say, I couldnt have done it a third.
Here we are bundled up and frozen..you can't tell but I was wearing a long underwear shirt, 2 t-shirts, 2 undershirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, 5 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of pants, a hat, 2 hoods and gloves:


Wednesday morning, [after having slept about 3 hours total, in between shivering and rolling over to find a more "comfortable" position] we decided to spend the day hiking. So we asked at the reception for a good hike. Apparantly, the Schauinsland hike is pretty popular in Freiburg, and you could start right at the bottom of the mountain where we were. It was supposed to be 10km, about 4 hours. Sounded good to us, so off we went.




It was a really beautiful hike, very rewarding and a lot of fun. However, it ended up taking us about 5 hours, and I'm pretty sure it was about 15 km, not 10, due to us getting a little bit lost on the trail. (15km=9.3mi) The last stretch of the hike took us STRAIGHT up, we had to stop about every 3 minutes to catch our breath. And once we got to the top, being the insane people that we are, we climbed to the top of the observation tower to catch a glimpse of the black forest and alps. The view was breathtaking, but I still think we were insane.

Here we are at the top of the Mountain:

Here's the observation tower:

Here we are at the top of the tower:


At the top of the Schauinsland there is a cable car--the longest one in Germany, in fact--that takes you up and down the mountain. So pretty much everyone else who was up on top of this mountain had gotten there via cable car, and were planning on hiking DOWN. We did it backwards...of course.

I must say, though, it was very rewarding to climb the mountain, and then have the luxury of sailing down slowly on the cable car.







When we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were supposed to take a bus back into the city where we would catch a tram that could take us back to our camping site. Unfortunately, due to bad directions, we took the bus the wrong way and ended up in a little village in the wrong direction, and had to wait an hour for the next bus to take us back. But it was worth it because the village was really cute and there was organ music playing outside the church by where we were waiting.

We eventually made it back, changed out of our more stinky clothes into some less stinky clothes, and were then determined to find my friend Matt. We found an internet café (inside a dirty casino..) and looked up his address in Freiburg via Facebook. Then we searched out his apartment, and after a long journey of ringing lots of the wrong doorbells, we woke up one of his housemates and found out he wasn't home. (He was out looking for us, believe it or not..)
It was quite discouraging, but we left him a note, and luckily were able to meet him the next morning for a few hours before we took our shuttle to the airport in Basel.

He took us to one of his favorite little cafés, where we had "chococinnos" to wake us up, since we had hardly slept due to the hard, cold, ground. (I'm not even going to elaborate, it was just too dreadful.)

Then he took us to the Freiburg Markt, which I SO wish we had in Hamar. It had all kinds of fresh local vegetables, wine, flowers, nuts, rolls, everything for really inexpensive prices. It was a lot of fun. He gave us a tour of some of the older buildings in Freiburg--apparently Freiburg used to be a gated city, but now all that is left is the large gate entrace. There's some really nice old medieval buildings and such, which he told us about.


Then we parted ways, sadly, and Bryanna and I got on our shuttle to the airport where we had the most random experience ever...

We checked into our flight easily enough, searched out our gate, and when we got there, found a large buffet with free wine and hors d'oeuvres. We were apparantly going to be on the very first Ryan Air flight from Basel to Stockholm, and there was a large celebration giong on. It was craziness! It turned out the flight was about an hour and a half late, but I guess the free food made up for that...

So we arrived at our hostel Stockholm around 9:00. This hostel was interesting as well...we shared a room with 16 other people. It was worth the cheap price we paid for it, I'll put it that way. We were only there one night, and left early so we could tour Stockholm before our train left for Oslo at 2pm.

I have decided that Stockholm is my new true love. It's beautiful. Even when it was rainy and grey, it was beautiful! It definitely blew modest Oslo out of the water, and I would even dare to say that I liked it more than Trondheim. Bryanna and I also agreed that the guards at the palace definitely added a certain attractiveness to the city. ;-)








We walked around in the Gamla Stan (or Old city) where the palace and parliament were located, and then went to a little hole in the wall café, where I had a white hot chocolate. It was soooooo delicious.

After relaxing and enjoying the Swedish culture in our little café, we walked down the main shopping street...always a treat.
I bought a really beautiful scarf, and some post cards from the TWELFTH country I've been in! I couldn't believe it. A dozen countries already...

At about 2 o'clock our train to Oslo arrived and we spent a good 6.5 hours travelling across the swedish country side back to Oslo.

The train ride was interesting. I sat accross from an extremely attractive (Bryanna and I have determined he was Moroccan) man who I am going to guess was about 25. That definitely made the trip more bearable, since I was constantly being hounded and climbed all over by a little girl who wanted to play with my ipod and eat my food. At first I kind of felt sorry for her parents, that they had to take a small child on a 6-hour-long train ride, but then I kind of wanted to kill her parents for bringing a small child on a 6- hour-long train ride.

When we got to Oslo, we had about 20 minutes of layover to our train back to Hamar, and we arrived back safe and sound and $500 poorer than when we left.

It was a successful journey.

Our refrigerator was looking pretty empty yetserday, after having been gone a week, so I went to the grocery store and--this is for Aunt Deb--a little boy was walking through the vegetable aisle, and he biffed it and went face first into the ground. One of the clerks who was handing out samples saw him and said, "Uff-da! Går det bra?"

So it is true...I am a back in Norway, and they definitely do say Uff-da!