Skål!

So in my "Teach yourself Norwegian" course, the first phrases they teach you are as follows:
#1) "Jeg vil gjerne ha et glass øl." / I would like a glass of beer.
#2) "Jeg vil gjerne ha et glass øl til." / I would like ANOTHER glass of beer.

Today was the first day of orientation! Inclusive: getting free stuff, lots of information about the college and town of Hamar, meetings with our class, and of course, what would the first day of study abroad be without a survey from the Wang Center? The highlight of the day, though, was a "grill-out" in the evening in the park behind the campus. (For those of you who have never been to Norway, or Europe for that matter, Grill-out= music, franks, and BEER.)


This was a really fun way to start the semester! We got to talk to some of the other students and just hang out. We all got to have "lompe" (I'm not sure of the spelling...that's just what it sounds like.) They're like potato tortillas that you wrap around sausages instead of buns--its a fun norwegian thing :) By the end of the evening it was fun to watch the Norwegians singing/shouting the songs played by the live guitar played, and try to figure out what they were saying. We joined in too on "I love rock and roll" and "living on a prayer" and some others. Norwegian word of the day: Skål! (Cheers!)


After this week of orientation, we are going to jump right into the first course, Norwegian society and culture. After two weeks of the course, we have a week-long group excursion. We're all looking forward to that. During this first module (first 4 weeks), we have 3-day weekends, so we are all ready to start planning weekend excursions. (Yeah!!)

The pictures of our Student apartments are up. The students at Hedmark have nicknamed them the "communist buildings". They do look a bit communist-dreary next to the happy little red and yellow wooden houses all around. I also have posted a picture of the Domkirke (Large Lutheran church at the center of town)