the abyss means...

This was a nice day.

After getting over the shock of not being able to have netwok access until tuesday I resigned myself to meeting new people. At breakfast I met a girl callled sorbe (sorbet)and a chap called Pete (both americans).

I met up again with Pam, Susie, and Cibal and we went to look for the swimming pool (after we had registered). Unfortunaley the map was completely unclear and we ended up wondering about in a residential area. It was a nice area because it had a woodland brook in between the houses, with a public footpath that we could follow.

After lunch I spent some time talking to both of my roommates, Akvile (Lithuanian) and Brittney (American). By this point I was beginning to spot a pattern about the number of Americans on campus...

We had an orientation meeting in the afternoon (which was grim). They showed us a video of 'scenes from norway' which was accompanied by really OTT classical music.

We discovered that this day was when the norwegians celebate midsummer, so we went out for the evening. Cibal, Susie, Brittney, Some girl whose name and nationality I don't remember, George (American) and Dennis (Russian/English), and I took a walk down to Vigeland park (which took about an hour)where there were masses of Norwegians sitting in small circular groups having barbeques. The entire park was filled with smoke (which made the statues so much more impressive). We spotted a pattern however, when every single group of people we walked past turned and laughed and talked in norwegian - WE WERE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. WE WERE FOREIGN STUDENTS!!!!!!!

We decided it was best we went down to the free music concet at the harbour (Aker Brygge) instead. This was a 2 hour walk, but was mediated by the amusement of watching George use his American wiles to find out which way to go. We ended up using the Douglas Adams method of navigation, by following little old men who seemed to know where they were going.

When we got there it was all euro-pop, which was horrendous. I talked them into walking up towards the fortress which overlooks the bay (Akershus), and when we got up there we sat in a circle and talked. We must have done something right because a man came up to us and talked to us in norwegian (he was trying to blag a cigarette). I have established that when in Norway ou need to sit in a circle and talk.

We got the T-bane back at about midnight. The T-bane is a form of underground/tube/subway system, which is really nice, clean and easy to understand (unlike the americans).

See Oslo and Vigeland Park for photos

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