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).