Tour of HUC and Hamar

I'm not really sure how to take in all that happened today because there was so much yet not much at the same time. It was weird. The idea that I was studying in Norway was somewhat sinking in, yet I feel like a tourist making a stop at this small township called Hamar.

We finally met the coordinators of the program today (Stian and Knut) as well as a few others involved in the program such as Stig, Cari and more than I can't remember names of. We also met all the other international students, of whom are from all over the place. We have some from Ukraine, Russia, Africa (specifically Namibia), Tanzania, Hungary, Pakistan, India, and Yugoslavia. I think I might have missed one or two places, but I'm not sure. The point is there are students from all over the place in this small College of about 2000 students. This year is their biggest turnout for international students so far. I always hang out with the international students at PLU, and I have never really thought of myself as an international student, yet here I am in Norway as an international student. The funny thing is at first, I think the other international students thought that I was from another place other than the US. Some seemed surprised when I said that I'm from the US. One girl was talking about me to her other friend, and I guess they thought I was Indonesian. They asked if I was from there and I said that I was Cambodian. I can see the connection between Cambodian and Indonesian; the two countries are next to each other.

Of all the people I met today, a few people really stood out to me. Peter from Tanzania sat next to me when we had pizza (which was one of the coolest pizza places ever! I'll explain later). He was very good at introducing himself and leaving a good impression. He had this mellow attitude that reminded me of a guy named George from my yellow color group at ACE (Achievers College Experience) 2008 when I was a peer counselor. The one that stood out the most to me was Africa. His name isn't really Africa, of course, but he prefers to be called that now because "Africa" became a sort of nick name. Plus his name was hard to remember. So, Africa stood out the most to me because of multiple reasons. He is from Namibia, and has studied all over the place in Africa and now Norway. He studied here in HUC last year, is studying in HUC again this year and a few more coming years, which means his Norwegian language skill is pretty good, I assume (one of the Norwegian liasons have also complimented on this). In addition, he plans on getting his masters in bio-technology! That's really impressive, especially since he knows more than 10 languages! That's right! More than 10! He listed them all to me and my jaw just dropped as I couldn't believe it! My goal is to learn 10 languages by the time I graudate college, and I am only at 5, yet he has learned more than 10 languages already. He has passed my goal far and beyond my imagination! I was thoroughly impressed. He was also very friendly and knew how to keep a light mood. A lot of others were just as friendly, and I have a feeling that by the end of the program, I would be sad to have to leave these people.

In addition to meeting new people, we also took a tour of Hamar lead by Knut, one of the coordinators of the program. There are a lot of historical landmarks in Hamar, and, of course, I took many many pictures to share.

First we took a tour of the university college (I'm not sure if I should call HUC a college or university since it is Hedmark University College. I will stick to college), which wasn't too big. The cafeteria was pretty small, but that's probably because it isn't too big of a school. What was cool about the cafeteria was that there are privite dining rooms that you could use as a group if you have a party or something like that. Along the walls of the entrance to the main building there's a silver line that looks like a rounded pipe that adorns the wall. At first, from a distance, I thought this was weird to have a pipe showing. But as I approached the wall, I saw that it wasn't a pipe at all. There were small squares, about one inch lenth square, that are probing out of the wall in clusters creating the illusion of a pipe shape. That was pretty cool, especially when the light shines on it, causing tints of light to reflect and making it look sparkly.

I was glad to discover that the college is a block away from where I stay, because when the weather gets bad, I don't have to travel, meaning walk, a long distance to get to school.

After the tour of the school we went to a pizza place for lunch. This pizza place had a basement area where they serve. I thought this place was creepy at first, but it was meant to be dark and eerie like a dungeon or something of that sort. I saw a dragon's tail and head, and the walls were painted as gray and broken bricks. It was a cool place.

After lunch, we took a tour of Hamar. We walked around the town, and then along the beach, after which we saw medivial(sp?) Hamar and its ruins. All the while there are historical landmarks or cool sights to see. Of course, I being picture happy and all, took many pictures (maybe too much?) to share. At this time, I don't have the time to put them up, but I will have them up with captions later.

Now I am in my room, in my apartment (can you believe it? I'm living in an apartment on my own, sort of). Tomorrow we have an early breakfast with the group and then we have to take care of some paperwork. Hopefully by tomorrow, Kristin has replied and answered my questions. Thanks for reading!