Police Station, New Friends, Being Responsible

Today, we had to get our visas, but of course, I encounter obstacles yet again. I wonder why, but usually all the incidents happen to me. First, I have trouble getting my Norwegian money, even before the plane. Then, my ticket didn't show up in the system in Copenhagen for our connecting flight, and then my suit case broke when trying to go down the stairs to get to the other side of the train tracks (elevator was not working) in Hamar. Even after that, I manage to blow out the circuit when using my hair dryer, with a converter! And you guessed it, another incident! My rice cooker malfunctioned. It melted a hole on the bottom, so I can't use it now. I used it again today, just in case that was a one time accident. But no, the hole just continued to expand, leaving more melted plastic on the counter. I've decided to buy another rice cooker here. It's NOK 200, which is about $40. That's pretty expensive, to me, but I can't survive without rice, so I'm going to have to sacrifice some money. And yet again, my luck gets worse. I put the cutting board on the skillet, for a moment to clear up some space since our kitchen is extra tiny and I needed space. And guess what? the cutting board, being made of plastic, even though it was a bit thicker than 1cm, melted on the skillet. I hadn't noticed that the skillet hadn't cooled completely, but even then, it wasn't even that hot. Finally today, the cherry on top, but I'm sure there will be more cherries. I waited the whole day for my turn at the Police Station for my Visa, but at closing time, they got to 704; my number was 708. That's just so frustrating because I've been waiting around the station all day! I also found out that you need an extra passport picture! I sent 2 extra with my application, but they sent that, along with my original residence permit to another station. It's going to take a week to request that. I need the visa NOW, so I need to take passport pictures at the booth conveniently located at the station for NOK 70, which is $12. That's so expensive! I think my best option is to just get the pictures at the booth and get my visa tomorrow rather than waiting a whole week to complete my paperwork. I have to get my visa before I can complete paperwork for the Hedmark University College. I hope things work out. They usually do, regardless of how much trouble and incidents I encounter. I'm just a magnet for these complications.

Although I am upset about the visa issue, it gave me time to make friends with some people, specifically Godfrey and Peter. Emily and I walked around the beach with them while we all waited for our number. I wonder how old Peter is because he is a teacher in Tanzania, and he gives me such a calm feeling about things. I feel like he's a wise man and it prompts me to treat him with a higher level of respect that just a friend, like a teacher or respected person. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I just get the feeling that he is wise and can see things others can't. As or Godfrey, he became pretty absorbed into my music when we shared music on our phones. He heard some Chinese music and I just had him hold on to my phone and browse the music list how he wished. I was glad that he liked my music. These two are from Tanzania and they are very hospitable and kind. I want to describe them as friendly, but I think that kind is a better fit. They have a gentle and generous air about them.

In the afternoon, Emily and I made plans for our dinner meals for the next week, as well as split the shopping list between the two of us. This was effective and we have decided to eat enough, and only what we need so that we could conserve on spending. So we are cooking all our dinners. We decided that we'd go out to eat rarely to conserve money as well. After that we went grocery shopping and our planning paid off since we didn't end up wandering around aimlessly like usual, not sure of what to buy. Studying abroad in an expensive country is training us to be responsible adults. I like this. The act is a bit tedious, but I can't really complain at all. I'm actually enjoying the cooking and planning, even though they are just simple meals. We both feel accomplished and we are so proud of ourselves. However, I predict that as school gets busy, we won't have time to do this in as much detail, but at least we would be more experienced with the task to do things well enough.

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!