I thought I had somehow escaped jet lag until I woke up and asked my host what time it was. I am not sure if I should blame staying up until 3:00am typing on the computer or jet lag, but I definitely woke up by 12:00pm on my 2nd day in Oslo. I shared a quick "breakfast" with my host and hit the town. I walked around for a bit with the hopes to see the Nobel Prize museum. Unmotivated to spend a ton of money on a museum I was only half interested, I chose to walk around in the dreary rain and make my way back to an internet cafe.
I am organizing an urban adventure scavenger hunt so I am spending quite a bit of time emailing folks in order to get things organized so I do have some excuse. Additionally, when I am spending $6 per hour using the internet I am actually saving money as opposed to eating or going into a museum. I am still getting used to the culture shock of sticker shock and how weak our money is here in Norway land.
After fiddling on the computer for way too long I made my way across town and finally get my local cell phone connected. Ahhh, the feeling of being connected again! I love my cell phone and I am so glad I now have access to meet friends much easier. It feels so archaic telling someone, I will meet you at this plaza at this time. I am happy to admit my addiction to cell phones and am grateful for the existence.
At 5:00 I met up with Fuat, a local couchsurfer willing to cook dinner for me. When I arrived at his house I learned that he is originally from Turkey and has lived in Oslo for 10 years. I quickly put together the fact that Oslo is quite an international town. While there are a plethora of beautiful, blond-headed, blue eyed, skinny, fit men and women, quite a bit of diversity also exists.
For my 1st night my host cooked me a traditional Spanish dinner and on my 2nd night a couchsurfing host cooked me a traditional Turkish dinner. I cannot wait to see what dinner 3 brings me. Fuat prepared an ancient dish that was even accompanied with a tale about how the dish came about (courtesy of wikipedia due to inability to translate story into English I could understand). He worked the simple yet complexly flavored dish on his hands and knees for nearly an hour. It was delicious and I cannot wait to share it with my family when I return to the states!
After dinner we made our way to the Underwater Pub where they had up and coming young opera singers perform in a pub. It was a sight to be seen! It was such a unique experience! Although I have officially never been to the opera, I cannot imagine opera could get better than the ambiance of a pub!
I am organizing an urban adventure scavenger hunt so I am spending quite a bit of time emailing folks in order to get things organized so I do have some excuse. Additionally, when I am spending $6 per hour using the internet I am actually saving money as opposed to eating or going into a museum. I am still getting used to the culture shock of sticker shock and how weak our money is here in Norway land.
After fiddling on the computer for way too long I made my way across town and finally get my local cell phone connected. Ahhh, the feeling of being connected again! I love my cell phone and I am so glad I now have access to meet friends much easier. It feels so archaic telling someone, I will meet you at this plaza at this time. I am happy to admit my addiction to cell phones and am grateful for the existence.
At 5:00 I met up with Fuat, a local couchsurfer willing to cook dinner for me. When I arrived at his house I learned that he is originally from Turkey and has lived in Oslo for 10 years. I quickly put together the fact that Oslo is quite an international town. While there are a plethora of beautiful, blond-headed, blue eyed, skinny, fit men and women, quite a bit of diversity also exists.
For my 1st night my host cooked me a traditional Spanish dinner and on my 2nd night a couchsurfing host cooked me a traditional Turkish dinner. I cannot wait to see what dinner 3 brings me. Fuat prepared an ancient dish that was even accompanied with a tale about how the dish came about (courtesy of wikipedia due to inability to translate story into English I could understand). He worked the simple yet complexly flavored dish on his hands and knees for nearly an hour. It was delicious and I cannot wait to share it with my family when I return to the states!
After dinner we made our way to the Underwater Pub where they had up and coming young opera singers perform in a pub. It was a sight to be seen! It was such a unique experience! Although I have officially never been to the opera, I cannot imagine opera could get better than the ambiance of a pub!
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