Jelly Belly Buttons

A bit of campus

Blindern Train Stop

Hei Hei,

This past week, I did not go on an exotic trip. Nor did I find a crazy music festival. I dreamed that polar bears were roaming the streets, but that didn't happen either. I've mostly been eating candy, making omelets, running around lakes, and going to the occasional class. I'm getting ready for Rome to meet up with Joe for a few days. And I've talked a lot about getting up and getting to the port at 7AM to buy fresh shrimp.

So in lieu of super cool events/explosions to tell you about, I figure I'll just throw out some more observations about life and sweeping generalizations:

1. As an American, it's pretty cool how differently I come off to Europeans. We tend to be much more goal-oriented and less in the present.

2. This week was the first week I've seen sidewalk! Bricks, really?

3. Taco night is awesome. Everything's expensive, but when split with 4 or 5 people, delicious tacos are super duper.

4. The beer we brewed in our closet was delicious. And strong.

5. I love my Scandinavian film class. I'm watching tons of movies that I never would have heard of, let alone seen. I still think Lars von Trier is a really weird dude (Antichrist was so messed up), but a lot of the other movies are fantastic and really portray Scandinavian life.

6. Norwegian life is incredibly deeply rooted in Christianity and its Christian history.

7. Norwegian history is pretty boring. It's mostly, "We really wanted to not get taken over, but then we did anyways." A lot of their culture (art, food, music) is a lot of striving for a Norwegian identity. They've been under other governments and cultures for most of their history, and establishing what is Norwegian is taking them a long time to figure out.

8. My cooking abilities are improving immensely.

9. My first born son will be named King Kong.

10. The internet is amazing. The amount of information and ways to communicate from anywhere in the world is unbelievable. I can stay up on all of my music blogs, read, write, video chat, call a real phone, share pictures, videos, and songs. I really hope we don't get taken over by robots.

Anyways, that's about it. I'm bout to watch a movie for my film class and then keep listening to an album by Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore that I've been addicted to. Check out one of their songs, Something Somwhere Sometime. Though it's not one of my favorites, it's the only mp3 I could find lol.

The only fraternity on campus. Just kidding, it's the music building.

<("), Jonathan