The end of Oslo and the beginning of lugging my suitcase around the rest of Scandinavia

Hello family and friends!

I have now finished my program at the International Summer School in Oslo. Now I’m journeying around the rest of the region-currently enroute to Stockholm.

So I ordered hot chocolate and got a rather large bowl....

The last two weeks of the summer school were filled with studying for my government test and writing papers and preparing my project for the peace prize class. We also visited the Nobel Peace Prize museum in downtown Oslo, which is definitely one of my favorite museums of all time. I didn’t expect much, but then it was really interactive and high tech! The first level was an exhibition about the four South African peace prize laureates. There were also works of art from South African artists that were really interesting. On the second floor there was an exhibit about Obama. They had a whole wall of newspaper clippings from all over the world criticizing the peace prize selection committee’s choice of Obama, which were interesting to read. I was surprised that they had the clippings as part of the official exhibit. Then there was a peace prize garden with led lighting and sort of other-worldly music, and each of the laureates were sort of like flowers in the garden. It’s hard to explain.

Here's a picture of it from another person's blog (didn't bring my camera that day)

The coolest thing in the museum was probably this holographic book about Alfred Nobel’s life. Again, it’s sort of difficult to explain, but you could make things move around on the page just by sort of waving your hand in the air. Another museum might have had just a normal book about Alfred Nobel, and so most people wouldn’t have bothered to read it, but this book was so cool that there was a line to look at it! I learned a lot about all the different peace prize winners and what they did to deserve the prize-definitely I would recommend that you visit it if you ever make it to Oslo!

The African Group

Last week we had the international cultural evening, one of my favorite memories from Norway. There were booths set up from many different countries with food. I had so much delicious food it makes me want to visit everywhere in the world just so that I can have all that food again! Some of the other Americans made apple pie, which with Norwegian ingredients and some difficulty with conversions turned into something more like apple soup. It was still delicious-I miss food at home so much! I’ve already drawn up a list of about 8 restaurants that I need to visit when I go back to Colorado for two weeks. (I’m excited for chicken nuggets at your house, Grandma!) After this trip I’m never eating boiled potatoes again if I can help it. But I digress. After eating food at the cultural evening, there was a show. Each act was a group of people from a different country doing a dance or singing a song. One of the most memorable acts was a song from the Balkan students. They got together and performed this song that all of their countries claim as their own in five different languages. These students had been doing a special program at the summer school in addition to classes where they met to build understanding between their countries, so it was very moving when they all sang together. I got to sit in on one of their sessions the next week and it was evident that they had all been very changed by the program and had become almost like one big family. Another memorable act was one from the African students. They all danced together to the World Cup song. There were a couple dances from Indian students and they looked like so much fun that I have now decided to find a way to go to India. It is my next project!

Outside the city hall

After I finished all my work (yay!), I had to say goodbye to Oslo, a city I’ve become very comfortable in. I made my last trip up to Sognsvann lake a few days before the end of the program and hiked around. I ended up coming across lots of wild raspberries and picked them as I walked around the lake. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon! After some very long speeches at the closing ceremony we had a party and all had to say goodbye to each other. I’ll be seeing quite a few people back at St. Olaf and all my peace prize friends at the next Nobel Peace Prize Forum (hopefully before, though!). I was ready to leave though, so I’m excited to be going off on the next part of this adventure! So far I’ve already had to ask four different people for help as it appears the Swedes are not fans of translating things into English…slight problem…I’m also incapable of lifting my luggage onto the overhead luggage rack so I have to ask a random stranger for help every time. Ah, the joys of traveling alone when you can’t speak the language. I expect I’ll be asking for a lot more help in the days to come! If anyone has any suggestions for where I should go in Stockholm, Copenhagen, or Iceland please let me know!

Saying goodbye to my roommate Nini :(

Sweden, as seen from the train. Reminds me a lot of MN!

See most of you soon!

Love,

Maria