Finished Essay & Excursion

Alright! I just finished my first essay for this class! I'm so excited! I hope it's good. I haven't written one since the end of the spring semester. It's a good thing that this essay will not be "graded" with a letter grade or anything like that. The message I got about this was that it was for a feedback and and getting a feel for it. I hope that's true, because if it's not too good, I'm ok! But I'm sure I'll do ok. I've written many essays before and have not had trouble with any of them. Never below a B grade in an essay; that's pretty deccent. Anyway, I sent my finished draft to Inger. Hopefully she has some time tomorrow morning to look it over and give me some feedback, so that I can revise and edit in time to turn it in on time. Speaking of which, I'm not sure which time is the correct due time tomorrow. The hand out says 1400 (2pm) but on the Fronter (online classroom database) it says 1615 (4:15pm). In any case, I am aiming for the earlier time; it's better to be early than risking the chance of being late, especially for turning in a paper!

I've also have a few chapters in the Work, Oil and Welfare book. I think I will finish up that book tomorrow! Since I have some time after turning in my essay! That makes me so happy just thinking about finishing up important "to do's".

Inger gave us the itinerary for next week's week-long excursion. I'm so excited for it!!! Although, I am not too excited about the train, boat and bus rides since I get motion sickness easily. But I have medicine and Emily has motion sickness patches, so I should be ok. If not, I can just sleep or something. Below is a brief schedule of what is planned for next week!

On Monday we are going to have a 3.5 hour train ride from Hamar to Roros, followed by 2.5 hours of a walking lecture tour of Roros including the Roros Church and Mining Museum, followed by another train ride to Trondheim lasting 2.5 hours. We are staying at Trondheim Vandrehjem (Hostel)

On Tuesday we will wake up bright and early at 7am, have breakfast, have a walking lecture throught he city of Trondheim at 9am, and then lunch. At 12 noon, we are going to Nidaros Cathedral Arch Bishop Palace - The Crown Regalia Exhibition. After that, we have the afternoon and evening free!! This is my chance to buy some souvenirs and learn more about other cool places!

On Wednesday We will wake up at 7am, again, have breakfast and lock up our luggage. At 10am, we have a potential meeting with politicians of Trondheim, talking about challenges ahead. We have lunch at noon and at 1630 (4:30pm) we will be on our way to Kristiansund Harbor on a 3 hour boat journey. This is going to be interesting because I have to be conscious to take in the oil platforms and continue to learn, while dealing with motion sickness. Well, at least I will be in the sea; I can just stick my head to the side and throw up if I need to. After we reach the harbor, we go to our hostel. This is supposed to be a cool place because we booked the rooms around a communal area (shared living space with stove and stuff I think).

On Thursday we wake up early at 7am, yet again, for breakfast. At 8:30am we will walk through town as a class through the old ship building. By 10:30 through 12 noon, we are supposed to pass the Petro Center, and Town Center. Then we'll have lunch, and go to West base at 1300 (1pm). At 1430 (2:30pm) we will be at OSNOR, a local oil based company where they recycle oil drilling equipment. This part of the trip, (well, started from when we were at sea) is kind of one of the main points of the trip; learn about oil and their economy and such. Then we have no more planned activity for that evening. I'm thinking that with all the planned walking, SLEEP is the best activity for this free evening!

On Friday we will have breakfast at 7am, bring our gear into town at 8:30am so that our luggage and such will be ready for departure at the end. At 10am we have planned Interacting with Politics or Production 2008 (Oil developments). Then we have lunch at 12 noon, and then another walk through town to the church and the Outlook Tower Water collectors. At 1530 (3:30pm) we will have individual time for 2.5 hours before a group dinner with the class in town at 1800 (6pm). At 2014 (8:14pm) we will depart Kristiansund for return to Hamar by BUS for 9 HOURS!!! For this trip back home to Hamar, I'm really going to need to knock myself out so I don't get too sick. Oh yea, I'm planning on it! Unless my group decides that this is a great time to discuss our group presentations for the trip.

We have a group presentation about an aspect of Norway that we observed on the trip. We are going to a lot of churches, so religion might be a big and popular issue to address. Or the issue of oil and the economy, and such. There are, of course, other topics since it's up to the group to decide. I guess I kind of want to observe how the minority population (immigrants) is interacting with the Norwegian throughout all the places we are going. I'm pretty sure that my group would not wholeheartedly agree to this, so I won't be forecefull about it. I think we, as a group, are aiming towards religion as our topic for discussion. However, I will still continue to do this observation on my own and come up with my own conclusions, or no conclusions, depending on my findings. This can be my own little project leading up to my research paper at the end.

I am so excited!!! However, I am a bit worried about money. Lodging and dinning are covered by the program, so I'm sure I won't starve. But, knowing my appetite for cool new foods with the combination of being in a foreign with new foods that I might never have a chance to eat again... I might be very tempted to eat to my hearts content... which means MONEY! How ironic that we are talking about Norwegian economy and their wealth while I am here having my own problems with money. Also, I'm worried for my camera; it might have a heart attack with my addiction to taking surplus amounts of pictures... I also have to buy another 1G memory card for my camera so that I don't have to take my laptop with me on the trip since I wont be needing it. Again, more money. I hate spending so much money, espcially in such an expensive country! And not to mention the souvenirs! I think I'm going to buy postcards. I've been sending postcards from Hamar, so I want to send some from my trip as well. And some cool Norwegian souvenirs that is totally Norwegian with no globalizaiton influence... it'll be like magic when I find the perfect souvenir. Then I'll not need so much. I don't want too much. Just enough for the people I promised (which is abut 5 people, not bad).

Ok! So that's pretty long. I wonder who's going to read it, but that's what's up!