Eidsvollsbygningen: The Birthplace of the Norwegian Constitution

Our class had a field trip to Eidsvoll today; to the location where the Norwegian Consitution was created and signed! It was a very exciting trip. I can surely say that this is the best fieldtrip I have ever been on!

On the way there, I had a very pleasant conversation with a historian (his name is Morten, he also gives lectures to our class) about languages, globalization, nationalism, and books! It was a great train ride. And during the transfer, I bought a postcard and High School Musical trading cards! So the day already started out really well!!

Eidsvollsbygningen house was amazingly beautiful and old. It has been preserved very well. Our class had a guided tour through the house where representatives met to discuss the Constitution and later on signed it. Of course, I took detailed notes during the whole guide, just to discover that there is a brochure with all the information! I also read some information about the place before hand, so I didn't really need to take notes at all. In any case, I'm glad I took notes, because now I can remember it better.

After the guided tour, we went to the building next to the mansion. This place was a cafe for the museum, as well as a more informational museum (the house serves as a historic monument, to look pretty). There were displays, posters, videos, and many more informational set ups that were very catchy and detailed, as well as meaningful. We had a PDA to listen to the naration of the whole museum as we walked through. I of course, messed up. I tried to lock the touch pad, and ended up poping out the battery and it all shut down. I couldn't open the program again, so I had to improvise and find the audio files in the memory and listened to each individual one. I survived! When I returned the PDA I bought a feather ink pen to add to my pen/pencil/writing utensil collection. I collect pens and pencils when I go places.

After that, I went to the gift shop and bought some choclates; small pieces to distribute.

When we got ready to leave, we took pictures with the statues in the front of the location. It was very fun and it was our first class group picture that was complete.

I will have pictures up when I can. Right now, I just want to finish Breaking Dawing (The end of the Twilight Saga)! I'm only in the first 100 pages but the story is already progressing at lightning speed!! I plan on finishing thing book today so I can start on my book for class tomorrow without being distracted. I hope I can finish the Breaking Dawn today, since it's really thick. But I do have more or less 7 hours, so I could try to read faster! So when things are more settled, I will take some time to post pictures!

Reading at the beach

Today is Sunday; it was very relaxing. I slep in a bit to wake up with a pleasant surprise. Emily made pancakes, so that was so very nice of her! The day couldn't have started any better. After I read a bit from the book Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer from the Twilight Saga, I did some homework reading. While in the middle of reading the article for class, I decided to join some friends at the beach to read out there. It was so relaxing and the reading was even more interesting now that I was in the environment that the article was about. The article discusses the characteristics that make the Norwegian national identity, and why it is constantly changing. In the article, immigration played a big role and of course I was really interested. I was also very excited when I recognized some anthropologists that the article mentioned that I had learned about in ANTH375 last fall. Inger (our professor for this program in Norway) was right, this is a great article to start the program.

As for the Twilight Saga, I absolutely love it! My co-worker Erin introduced me to the saga and I was curious. Who wouldn't be when it comes to vampires, werewolves and a human girl? So I started read it and I just fell in love with the story. I am now on the third book and it's getting even better. I also spent some time looking at information about the movie production of the first book Twilight. It seems really cool, but I'm wondering if it's anything like the book. Your senses are utilized differently when reading a book than when watching a movie, so I'm a bit curious as to how the production will come out. I saw some behind the scenes and preview trailers, and I think I would like it. However, some characters I thought the casting could be a bit better. The character of Alice, one of the Cullen family (good "vegetarian" vampire) could have been younger. I expected Alice to be about 16 looking, but the actress for the part of Alice looked older to me. I also imagined Emmett to be bigger and more muscular from what I read. Dr. Cullen and Esme seemed about right. Rosalie and Jasper seemed about right, however I wasn't sure what to expect for what Jasper looked like. The nomadic vampires and Charlie seemed to fit what I had imagined also, but I didn't expect for Laurent to be black. I thought that Victoria was PERFECT! I didn't see Jacob, which was disapointing since I was really excited to see who was casted for Jacob. Now, for the two most important characters: Edward and Bella. I thought of Edward as a bit more built or taller. I can see how he could fit as Edward, but I expected him to be a bit different. As for Bella, I expected her to be more fragile looking and voice to be softer. I am a bit disappointed with the actress for Bella, just because I had a different image of her, but I think that for what the author described, that actress would suffice. So, that was my moment of obsession over the Twilight Saga. It is now time for bed. I have my first class for Society and Culture tomorrow! I am so excited to hear what everyone else thought about the article!

P.S. If you are reading this, I would appreciate it if you left a comment, just so I know that people are reading my blog.