Un movee from Frahnce

After leaving Norway on Thursday, I flew into CDG, trained into Paris. There, I met up with friend Franck, we went to a nice restaurant for dinner, walked around his neighborhood (st. germain), then retired for the evening.

The next several days were spent wandering around, taking photos, visiting musee d'orsay, renting velib bikes, eating, shopping, and generally enjoying Paris with my friend. It is easy to lose track of time whilst dining at cafes with really good food and looking at all of the lovely buildings and museums.

Franck is a former coworker of mine from Boston, and, although French, he spent enough time traveling around in high school to speak (fluent) English with an American accent. He used my visit to practice this skill which he doesn't often get a chance to practice. Unfortunately, he tended to talk a little loud and in crowded places. Some of my favorites: while waiting in line for a movie, which meant queuing outside the theatre packed fairly tightly together, Franck to me: "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, cutting in line is a French national sport!". And, any time while crossing the road close to a car: "Uhm excuse me! I'm trying to walk here!" ... Of course to all the world he sounds like an irate American. Meanwhile, the I'm trying to keep a low profile...didn't work so well, as you can imagine!

Update: I finally finished a video of my adventures with Franck and Beaker in Paris. Somewhere during the trip, we started recording clips, then we started staging scenes, and then... we got a bit carried away. It's a bit long, but I'm not trying to break into film making, so that's okay. Without further ado, enjoy!

Oslo on the quick

Went into Oslo on Wednesday, saw the sites. Vigeland Park, the Fortress, the Nobel Peace Prize museum and Norwegian resistance museum (from the outside), the national gallery, as well as a norwegian salvation army! It was a very enjoyable day with my lovely sister. I didn't get photos from all the exciting places we visited, but here's a few more...


The view from the top of Holmenkollen, above where the national ski jump area is. This view is from a cafe, there is a ski mountain behind me, a nursery school that meets off the parking lot down to the left, a xcountry ski track that goes directly in front of us, just beyond those two buildings, and the start of the sled run: to the left of the building in front. Oslo is in the background.
At the royal residence in Oslo. In the background is an army guard with a fancy tassel hat, a gun, and little kids pestering him.
One of the many cafes in Oslo. Note that it's ~ zero celsius, and although this cafe has heat lamps, many don't. But they all have some sort of fur or skins on all the seats so your butt doesn't get cold. Brilliant!
Some of the many sculptures in Vigeland park, where most of sculptor Gustav Vigeland's works are displayed.

Hei from Norge

I'm writing you from the frigid arctic air here in the Kingdom of Norway, where I'm visiting my lovely sister Lisl, her husband (also lovely) Rhodri, and the ninos Rhiannon and Tryfan. I arrived on Friday, so it's been 5 days so far. Initial thoughts: people really like snow and skiing here. Also, things are very expensive. Oh, and they say 'hei hei' when they great you in shops. It sounds like 'Hi hi', but with some intonation changes that I find hard to replicate.

Apart from those observations, and the usual stereotypes about boring Scandinavians, the bland personalities, the prevalence of German automobiles, the striking similarity of the way people look...I've found things here to be pretty great! For one thing, they're serious about exercise. Every town and neighborhood has a cross-country ski area in close proximity, and they're groomed daily. What's more, at least one area per town is floodlit, to be skied during the long arctic night! There are lots of ski-to huts which offer waffles, coffee and assorted other snacks. These huts are operated by each local ski club, and are generally open every weekend during the season. It's pretty cool to be able to leave my sister's house, drive a mile or so to a trail head, hop on some groomed ski tracks for 3 or so miles, and end up at a cabin with tables, fireplaces, and hot food. Of course, on the way to the cabin cafe ('hyttes' or huts - the generic name for a mountain cabin), you pass many a family that has pulled off the side of the trail, started a fire, and has some hot dogs cooking. It's the total weekend thing to do. No wonder Norwegians dominate the ski events: it's all they do in winter!

Well, not all. As it turns out, they're serious about soccer too. So serious, that every soccer club in every town has a year round field. Not indoor field, mind you, but an outdoor field with artificial turf and hot water pipes flowing underneath to keep the snow melted. It's surreal to drive by the huge snow drifts and see these square patches of green. It's not an idle pursuit either: every time we've passed one of these fields, people have been practicing on them. So, that's a serious check in the positive column: any country passionate enough about soccer to have year round pitches in the snow can't be all bad.

So far, to recount the activities of the last few days, we've skied thrice, played squash once, gone down a crazy (groomed) 3km sledding hill, checked out the museum which houses the ship Amundsen took on his voyage to the South Pole, gone to a shop which finishes reindeer and sheep skins, and made various trips to markets, bakeries, and shops (which, of course, is equally fascinating). Tomorrow we go to visit Oslo.

Below are selected photos and videos from the trip so far:

Lisl bargaining for reindeer skins at a crazy fur shop.
driving pas the holmenkollen skin jump above Oslo
Norwegian supermarket. Rhiannon and Tryfan are looking at the cow dancing out of the barn above the milk aisle. You push a little button on the wall, and the show starts with animals dancing and singing. It only lasts 30 secs, but it's cool.

Playing catch with Rhodri and Rhiannon. I love Tryfan's excited look in the background.
Lisl and I skiing on one of the many trails surrounding their house. Groomed nightly, of course.

southern snow

I realized that I hadn't posted any photos of the unseasonably large amounts of snowfall we had in February, affectionately known as Snowmaggedon 2.0 (1.0 was just before Christmas). It was officially the snowiest season ever in the district of columbia, and I was there to see it! I also sledded and snowboarded in my neighborhood, which was exciting for the novelty, if nothing else.

Although northern city newspapers love to report on how ill-prepared the city was to move the snow, how poorly the public transportation system fared, etc., all of that business is expected: after all, when you don't get snow very often, there is no reason to be prepared for it. The thing that surprised me was how quickly cooperation and civic spirit devolved into a 'me-first' mentality, whether it was finding a spot on the bus, fights over a parking space, or getting food from the grocery store. That's just human nature, I suppose, but it always frustrates me to see how quickly people turn ugly when something is rationed. Ah well, city life.

Enjoy the snow photos below...

Snow piling up outside our bedroom window
Don't call the tow truck! View of the tow truck stuck on our street (with car hooked up) for approximately 2 days.
As you can see, they didn't exactly get around to plowing the street for a little while...
View of snowing rooftops and the national cathedral in the background.