Cozy in Denmark

"Hyggelig" which translates to "cozy" in English is a quite common phrase used in the Danish language. And my experience for the past three weeks in Aarhus has been just that. Here is a bit.

City of Aarhus

Random things about Norway

1. If a Norwegian agrees with you, he or she will nod and say "yeah" with a sharp inhalation, the same sort of noise we would make if we were startled. It keeps scaring the crap out of me.

2. Some Norwegian words sound like rap words, which is hilarious, because Norwegians aren't very "gangsta". For example, "Ha det", which is a way of saying goodbye, sounds like "Holla". And "boller" are little bread rolls, but whenever I hear it, I automatically sing to myself in my head, "Baller, shot caller, 20 inch blades on the impala..." Yeah, remember that song from a few years ago?

3. A preliminary list of things I already know I will miss when I leave Norway:

-Walter's Mandler. A delicious milk chocolate candy bar with roasted, salted almonds (mandler=almonds) and bits of toffee.

-Paprika potato chips.

-Mountains. For example, jogging sucks, but jogging in the mountains...well, still sucks, but at least you have a fabulous view to distract you.

-Swearing on the radio. You know the new Cee-Lo song? It's on the radio here. Awesome.

-Brown cheese. Aka brunost or geitost, the bizarre yet delicious brown cheese, especially good with waffles. I think you can find this in the US, but it doesn't seem the same.

Endless climb 2

A week or so ago, a friend in the dorm provided me with information about an outdoor recreation club. After looking at the short summary of an upcoming weekend hiking trip, I decided I had to do it, even though it seemed hard-core. The informational meeting eased my fears when I saw everyone appeared average-looking, and that there weren't any hippy or triathlon types. At the time, I misjudged one girl wearing giant fake pearl earrings and trendy H&M clothes to be an inexperienced camper. I thought to myself, "Yeah, I got this," so I signed the 'at your own risk' sheet and went home for the potluck. Friday afternoon, we loaded the rental cars and hit the road. I was happy one of the German guys was driving since the car was a manual and the roads were one lane (for both directions). He was shifting constantly, and we were struggling to figure out where we were. We missed the turn and got trapped on the wrong fjord. Two hours later, we were back on track, but were way behind the others. The sun was setting, and we began the two hour hike to the first DNT* cabin in a rather somber mood. In total darkness, we made it to the first cabin and devoured the leftover dinner (we all shared dinners, but brought our own breakfast and lunch). To save some kroner, I decided to sleep in the tent outside. Not realizing that a sleeping mat prevents the earth from sucking your heat away, I shivered in my sleeping bag until the sun started coming up. I went into the cabin and slept on the bare wood floor for two wonderful hours. I woke up and realized I was 26 years old! Yay! During breakfast, everyone lined up one-by-one and gave me a hug or hand-shake and congratulated me (literally). It was actually turning out to be okay to spend my birthday with strangers. Ankles wrapped and blisters bandaged, we loaded our gear on our backs and began the hike. It's hard to explain the hike, but it was one of the physically hardest days I've ever experienced. We hiked for over 10 hours in extremely rugged terrain on the leftover mess of a glacier from long ago. We went up steep trails way above the tree line and down a billion boulders... about a hundred times. The weather was incredible. It was sunny and maybe 60 degrees F in the middle of the day. I couldn't believe I was able to wear a tank top. We made stops every now and again to let the stragglers catch up (usually 2 Peruvian girls and a few others). I started off a little slow, but this weird thing happened where my stamina seemed to increase as the day went on. The Norwegian girl, Johanna (with the pearl earrings), was always first and way ahead of the German guys. Toward the end I was right up there with her. I wasn't sure if it was the Norwegian in me, or if my build was made for this. Before Jeff and I dated, he'd told his parents he wanted a girl with backpack-carrying legs. Well, I guess I proved that on this trip! Hehe! But the last hour was absolute hell. It felt like the Baton Death March, and I wanted my birthday to be over ASAP. The sun was beginning to set, and we still had a lot of ground to cover. When we finally got to the next cabin, it was full of other hikers. Being we were "kids," the people in the cabins weren't very willing to share space with us. So we had to change out of our sweaty clothes for dry while standing in the freezing cold. We then cooked some pasta and onion over an outdoor flame-thingy in the pitch dark. When I found out that two cartons of cream were going into the pasta, I was disgusted and shocked. Having worked in a restaurant for a number of years, I couldn't fathom the idea of eating dairy products that hadn't been in a refrigerator for two days. After an interesting lecture about sour milk from the rest of the campers, I learned that warm milk turns into yogurt and doesn't make you sick. Apparently bad milk has mold and good bacteria, but not really a lot of bad bacteria. After dinner everyone was wiped out and heading off to bed. Without a mat, I once again had to deal with finding a place to sleep without freezing. I basically had to beg the grumpy, old Norwegian hikers to let me sleep on the floor in the tiny entryway of the cabin. On the bare floor, I tried to sleep while my body twitched like crazy from being overworked. I woke up in the morning with a ton of energy (must be that mountain air) and we hiked for another 6.5 hours. We stopped to take some pretty sweet pictures at this rock formation called Trolltunga (Troll Tongue). It was definitely easier than the day before, although the last two hours were a mega balance test. It was very steep as we descended from the rocky glacial terrain into the tree zone. I kept apologizing to my poor knees. I finished the trip second to an American guy from Boston, and we obnoxiously chanted, "U-S-A, U-S-A..." We had a great laugh about that. Then, with two other European girls, we quickly threw our bikinis on and jumped in the lake. The numbing effect of the water felt so good. We had a nice trip home, especially after stopping at the gas station. I devoured a giant bag of chips, a cheeseburger, and a Coke and then rode along quietly thinking about the trip. I thought of all the amazing things I had done over the weekend, which were things I would never have done without a group like this. A few days later all fourteen of us got together and exchanged pictures. Here are a few of them. Wish you all could have been there with me to enjoy the adventure.

*The DNT cabins are an amazing accommodation provided by the Norwegian Trekking Association. You can find the cabins all over rural Norway, and they are so adorable and practical. Inside the cabin, you'll find bunk beds, a table, stove, cooking unit, and a wood-burning fireplace. There is a small fee to use the cabins, and you pay on the honor system. If you're a member of the association, you pay even less. They're first come, first serve and are open to everyone.

Norway in a nutshell

We've been a little lazy with the blog lately. Let's see, what have we missed...

Last weekend, we took a mini Norway in a Nutshell tour with a day trip up to Flåm. Following Rick Steves advice, we got off the train half way there to enjoy the scenery at slower pace. We had an amazing hike- good old Rick Steves knows what's up. We had the path mostly to ourselves, we ran into some friendly goats along the way and fed them some oats (totes). We hopped a wall and climbed through thorny bushes where Ashley developed some hives, all to scrounge for a few measly wild raspberries...then found a man selling a giant bag of them down the road for a few kroner. We got to see the Sognefjord, which was beautiful, but after all our travelling that day, we were a little fjorded out on the 5 hour boat ride home.

We had a lovely potluck dinner last week with our kitchen mates and a few other friends. Ashley made homemade macaroni and cheese for everyone, since many people here had never had it, but had only heard about it on tv. Others brought swedish pancakes, a peach crumble with some german streusel, some norwegian smoked salmon rolls, and lots of other yummy things- it was quite an international affair. We also celebrated Ashley's birthday a little early that night, since she went on a crazy hike this past weekend, which I'm sure she will tell you about soon.

I attended my first "Super Friday" this past weekend in the bar in the basement of our dorm. This happens when the Norwegian students get their checks from the government, and they celebrate with cheap 10 kroner beer, which is an unheard of price here.

And finally, we also started school, which has been a challenge with all the charting being in Norwegian, and not knowing who anyone is or where anything is, and all that fun stuff. But we will get the hang of it, and I think we will have a lovely semester. Looking forward to this Friday, when there will be a back-to-school party at the dental school, and we can get properly introduced to all our new classmates.

The Happiest People in the World:)

So some of you may or may not have been wondering if I am alive...well...I have been hanging out in Houston and Atlanta...the South. I finally leave for Denmark tomorrow, flying through Amsterdam and Copenhagen before finally reaching Aarhus, where my lovely "tutor" will pick me up at the train station.
As I have prepared for my visit such as buying "Danish in 60 minutes," I came across an Oprah episode featuring Denmark. The Danes have been considered the "happiest people in the world" (http://www.physorg.com/news73321785.html) and she wanted to know why...check it out.

http://www.oprah.com/world/Inside-the-Lives-of-Women-Around-the-World/1

I can't wait to find out for myself...until Denmark...

Endless climb 1

It's 12:53 am here. I have pain in every muscle and I'm so tired that I can't form sentences anymore. This is all I can muster. Me, Amy, Laura. Easy road getting exponentially harder to manage. Met guy who told us crazy things happen on this path. Slippery. Sweating. PBJ break. Muddy. Amy turns around. Hiking boots mandatory. Crossed waterfalls. Crawling on hands and knees too often. Raining then sunny. Landscape like a dream. Think Lord of the Rings. Clinging to bare rocks getting old fast. Lost grip and fell in thorn bush. Cussing. Thirsty. No water bottle (long story). Wondering what it would feel like if you fell and your skull smashed into a rock. Death within list of possibilities. Top of mountain. Ate wild blueberries. Squishy moss. Where the frick is the tower? Barren. Got to tower. Drank water. Cold sweat on the downslope. Loosing steam. Don't. Look. Down. Loose rocks. Again, death on mind. Mind over matter. Imagination annoying. Thinking, "Jeff, I love you, take care of Bunsen." Talking to myself to boost self esteem. Moving a little faster. More trees. I think I'm going to make it. Five and a half hours later, Ulriken is conquered by Ashley L Turrittin.

Tomorrow: first day of clinic.

We went on a fjord tour on Friday. Will mention in next blog.

The shit's in here...

We had our first visit to the dental school today, and it was...interesting. We first met with a woman our contact person, Gry Ane, described as "our version of Peter Berthold"- the higher up person in charge of the international exchange program. Peter Berthold, she was not, however. She was a hip middle-aged lady who seemed very laid back. She extolled the virtues of the Norwegian welfare state, one chief benefit was that she, a "rich" person, was not robbed on a regular basis since the poor people were pretty well taken care of, so she thought that was a big selling point. She then leaned back in her chair, letting some belly skin hang out and get a little air. As she stood up to take us on a tour, we discovered she was wearing some fashionable acid-washed jeans. She showed us a few labs and conference rooms, then when it was time to see the main clinic area, she pointed to one of the doors and proclaimed, "the shit's all in here". Needless to say, we were very charmed by her.

She kept apologizing for the poor state of all the equipment, which looked brand new to us. She also said that we might be a little puzzled by the way they do some things here; with endodontics, for example, she said we might find their way to be "quite stupid" (her words, not mine), but it would be a good learning opportunity nonetheless. She also reminded us that Norway is a very informal society, so we should get used to addressing our instructors by first name, which will seem a little strange at first. So we are very excited to start clinic next week. We have one day a week off to study and work on our project, so I think we will find the schedule very agreeable.

We also got our fancy white scrubs today, with scrunched ankles and all. They are pretty spectacular. Hopefully we will have pictures soon.