Only In Norway

Have you ever tried a thirty dollar bacon lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwich? I have. It happened in the Oslo International Airport. It was followed shortly after by a seven dollar americano. Good news is that I'll soon be in the Netherlands for a brief respite from this account-draining/credit-inspiring country. 

Big News

It's snowing in Oslo!

Take On Me

Norwegian Idol is on right now. The show is at the point in the season where they begin to have all of the contestants perform songs by a certain artist or band. In America, this usually results in the Idol-hopefuls doing Stevie Wonder, or Lionel Richie, or Barry Manilow. in Norway, it results in A-Ha. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but A-Ha is from Norway, and show up on a surprisingly large number of occasions. Sweden has Abba, and Norway has A-Ha.

For those of you who are interested, here's my kitchen:


The weather in Oslo is up and down. At the moment, it's what I would consider to be down - a thick fog has lowered and is getting worse by the hour. Here's a before/after comparison:


Note that the fog in the above picture was taken earlier in the morning, and it has only gotten worse.

Last night, I continued my trend of seeing great shows in Oslo with the Dirty Projectors at Spasibar. Spasibar has to be one of the better places I've been, and I wish something like it existed in Calgary. Here are the Dirty Projectors:

And finally, here's one last photo of Paris, taken the morning that I left as I walked to the metro station.

In other news, my pad thai has lasted two meals so far, and I'm thinking I might be able to get another two out of it. Not bad!

Some More Days

So, some updates are in order.

I'm going to start this off with some photos from Paris. For those of you who are just joining the blog, I was in Paris this past weekend, having a grand time with my Parents, my brother, and my brother's lady-friend, known to some as Grace.

This is CDG Airport:


This is Paris:




This is the entrance to The Louvre:

This is The Mona Lisa (It's the little black square on that great big wall. I actually didn't even go look at it - why should it get all the attention when there are so many other amazing pieces of art in the museum? I have boy cotted the Mona Lisa.):




This is a picture of Chez Omar:

This is a picture of my Dad and his new best friend, the waiter:

This is a picture of a restaurant called Chartier:

This is at an outdoor cafe looking onto the Eiffel Tower:

This is the Eiffel Tower, and some cars:

Remembrance Day Ceremony. Sarkozy is in here somewhere:

Palais De Tokyo:



Final Dinner:


And that's Paris, a place I look forward to returning to someday. With Paris out of the way, I can get back to blogging about more important things, like the pad thai that I made for dinner tonight. As some of you may know, my time in Oslo has been marked by a consistent diet of pasta, cereal, bread, and eggs. This all changed following a trip to the supermarket, where I purchased everything I needed to complete Thailand's most delicious dish, including chicken. After searching the internet for 'how to cook chicken' and subsequently learning 'how to cook chicken', I got to work. Several hours later, I am now full from a well-balanced meal, containing what I believe to be all essential food-groups. The chicken could have been better.

Now I'm studying, as I will be for the next few days until I leave for Den Hagg to visit with Ross and Grace.

That's it for now.

Bloggin' Ain't Easy

I've been lazy. I've also realized that the semester is about to end and I have an mountain of reading to get through. Both of these combine to produce few, and sporadic, blog posts.

I'm drinking some tea right now, which happens to be the first cup of non-black tea since I left Calgary. I have to say, I'm enjoying it.

Paris this weekend was a good time, as I expected it to be. I'm trying to work up the energy to write more, but the laziness is getting the better of me and I'm going to have to put an end to this entry. My blogability should be 'up' tomorrow (as with my hit points and mana power), so I'll try again then.

Break It Down

Here's what I did yesterday:

1. I woke up, had some Cheerios (multigrain).
2. WALKED IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HENRIK IBSEN.
3. Studied.
4. Made Dinner.
5. SAW SOME SOUND ART.

Here are the details:

A few days ago, I discovered that the international student centre organizes tours and other activities for international students like myself to participate in. One of these tours was called 'Walking in the Footsteps of Henrik Ibsen', and that's exactly what I did. We started off with a tour of the National Theatre, where Ibsen used to hang out in his older years (the theatre wasn't built until 1890 something). Here's where the Royal Couple sits:


Here are some more of the theatre, including a portrait of Ibsen:



Following the Theatre, we took a stroll up past the Palace and over to the new Ibsen Museum, which is in fierce competition with another Ibsen Museum found in Ibsen's hometown of Skein, Norway - apparantely bricks have been thrown through windows, allegations of theft have been made, and various law suits have been filed - we we're told not to mention the Skein musem while we were visiting the Oslo version. In any event, we were able to take a walk through Ibsen's apartment, which has been preserved very well and is incredible large (by the time Ibsen purchased this apartment, he had already achieved success and was considered a national hero (he represented Norway and Sweden at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869). Here's a photo of Ibsen:


Following the museum, I journied home, checked up on the internet, caught up with my studies (not quite), made some pasta and then hit the town, figuratively. I've made contact with a graphic designer in town who is busy trying to promote a series of sound-art performanes. Last night was a piece by Ricardo Jacinto, a Portugese artist who has spent six years creating his own intrument, consisting of 24 suspended mirrors, each shaped uniquely to produce a different tone. Here it is:



It was a really great show, and I'm looking forward to the next installment in December.

As I was walking home, I passed a kebab store. There are two things that Oslo has plenty of: 7-11s and Kebab Stores. You really can't walk more than a block with passing at least one kebab place. I hadn't actually tried one yet, and this one looked particularly good, so I stopped in to see what it was all about. Here's what I ended up with:


It was a bag full of kebab meat, smothered in corn and spicy thousand island dressing. It was delicious, but left me feeling worse than I've felt in a long-long time. I actually thought I was going to throw-up on the train (several other people on the train were apparently feeling the same way, although I don't think kebabs were their problem - the last train always provides for an interesting ride).

People, Keep Clicking.

Some big news: since signing up for the Google Ads, I've made a total of six dollars and seventy six cents (USD). I'm half way to a Calzone.

How It's Done

Not wanting to be outdone by a couple of expats living in Den Hagg, here are a few of MY photos from my time in Amsterdam this past weekend:












I have to say, MY photos are quite good, especially considering that I have never attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Unfortunately, my internet connection is quite slow at the moment, and preventing me from uploading the really outstanding photos that I took. Maybe you'll be lucky and I'll have some time to try again tomorrow.