First, I'd like to say "THANK YOU MEDICAL SCIENCE!" The flights and train ride was not as bad as I have experienced before and anticpated because of motion sickness medicine! WOO! I actually watched a movie, read some of the book Eclipse, and slept really well!
THE TRAIN
When Emily and I got off the plane in Oslo, we thought that we would have a really hard time getting through customs and baggage claim, but that wasn't too bad. Since we dealt with customs in Copenhagen, we didn't have to go through customs and passport again in Oslo. After we gathered our bags, we tried to find a place to buy train tickets to go to Hamar. We survived that, howeber, we had a really hard time going down to the track where the train was. Then we found out that we had 5 minutes unitl the train arrives, which put us in a panic because we couldn't find the elevator and we had so much luggage to take arround. I found the elevator and finally arrived at the track right as the train pulled up. Now, this is the hard part. Emily and I both had the most difficult time getting our luggage into the train, especially me because I had two HUGE suitcases plus a backpack, a laptop bag and a gift bag (which was ripping). No one really offered to help until it seemed like the train was about to depart. While we were almost finished, this lady tells us that there is a loading dock up in front for suitcases where it's machine opperated. GREAT! But we were almost done when we figured that out because she was speaking Norwegian. Some guys helped us, but seemed really irritated, but all is well and we both made it onto the train. It's a good thing people speak English because we were totally shocked and in panic, thinking the train would depart, but it was operated by people, so it could wait.
While we were on the train, I noticed "Be Quiet" and "Silent/Quiet Zone" all over the place, which then explained to me why the people seemed so irritated. The train was a quiet and melow place while these two stupid American girls were being loud and animated. I felt bad about that, but there wasn't much we could do in that situation given the circumstance. People kept stealing glances at us, this I was sure of. However, no one made a comment or anything. I hope they weren't thinking too badly of us.
I looked around outside at scenery as the train went on its way. The scenery was abolutely gorgeous! Land, farm, mountains, water, trees and green could be seen in almost all directions! Also, the sky was a perfect blue with white, fluffy clouds. At this point, exhaustion is sinking in because the adereneline was starting to die down. I also was glad that it hadn't started raining like the forecast had warned about.
The train ride lasted about an hour. We got on about 7:05pm and arrived in Hamar at around 8pm. Getting off the train wasn't as bad as getting on because at that point many people had noticed our situation and was ready to help take our luggage down. I was so thankful and happy that these people were so nice! Then, just as we were getting our hopes up, we encountered another problem. To get to the other side of the tracks to the station (there were multiple tracks and we were in the middle), there was an underground path, with stairs. The elevator going down didn't work, so we had to get the suitcases down the stairs. This was a challenge since we had so much and everything was so heavy and we were EXHAUSTED! I ended up breaking the handle of my new suitcase, which put me in a very emotionally unstable state. I was so angry! But luckily, the elevator on the other side going up worked and we didn't have to worry about getting the extra heavy suitcases up the stairs. I think that getting them up the stairs would be a bigger challenge than going down.
THE PAY PHONE...
Outside in front of the station, there were pay phones. We decided to contact the person picking us up against waiting, since we arrived an hour early due to catching the 7 o'clock train instead of the 8 o'clock train. Yet again, you guessed it, another obstacle! The pay phone was confusing, not in English (of course) and there was a plus sign (+) in front of the number and we couldn't figure out how to enter that sign and the number would not go through without the plus sign. We wanted to ask people for help, but there wasn't much around. While we just stood there confused, a guy in uniform who seemed about our age walked passed us. The first time he walked passed us, he seemed to know we were confused and then when he walked passed us the second time, we asked him for help. He used his cell phone to call our liason, and in about 10 minutes three girls came to pick us up. While waiting, we realized that we might have to walk with our suticases to our location. So I was really hoping they had a car because, as you may have discovered, was big and heavy and one of my suitcases handle for rolling was broken. And sure enough, they had cars! YAY!! These girls' names are Sara, Yeni, and Cari. They seemed really nice.
THE APARTMENT
Once we arrived, we discovered that we live in an apartment with one bedroom to share. There is a small kitchen with a fridge and small cooking and sink area. We also have a small bathroom with a shower. We are pretty happy with our dwelling. It's very confortable for two people to live in. We share a bedroom with two twin beds and a decent sized closet. Our bedroom view is pretty cool. We live close to the shopping district so the view isn't too bad. Our kitchen has a small stove, sink, oven, decent fridge, small two people table and the view is not bad. The living room is connected to the kitchen space, which is pretty decent for two people. We have two book shelves here and two comfy chairs. The bathroom does not have any outlets, so the hair stuff is a pain for me. 
Last night, afternoon for you, we unpacked everything. I'm glad we did that last night even though we were extra tired because today we were able to sleep in, slowly start the day and adjust. We went for a walk around the area, just to see what was around. The clothes here are surprisingly high fashion, and expensive. I didn't expect for New York fashion to be in this little town/city. But it's here, and it's untouchable for me because it's EXPENSIVe! We also went grocery shopping again (we went yesterday right when we came before we unpacked). The store is an upgrade of a 7-11 basically; a mini-mart with groceries and meat. The prices are discouragingly high! I don't even want to eat anymore! But of course, we have to, so we got some groceries and I cooked dinner: fried rice. Our first meal! Something bizzarre happened to my rice cooker. I think it overheated or something, but the plastic on the bottom melted a hole. I think it's still functional but it over heated. That didn't happen when I was at home. Now I think I have to put it over something before cooking rice. Other than that, meals are ok. Groceries are expensive, but still way cheaper than eating out. A salad at the McDonalds was 80 Kroners. I think it's about 5 Kroners to 1 US dollar. Everything here is pretty expensive, but manageable.
Pictures from the first of the post to now: view outside the kitchen, bedroom view to the right, a store front with high fashion clothes, dresses made of tissue paper in a craft store display, and our first meal!
Anyway, we survived the first day. Tomorrow is the tour of Hamar. I'm excited to know the place better!
It feels weird to be so far away and on our own. We live in an apartment, so the idea of being on our own, really on our own is having a hard time sinking in. But it's cool. I'm hoping to learn about more than just politics here. I'm going to learn how to live and grow up.
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