A Little Taste More of Oslo

It's hard to believe, but I have been living here in Norway for a week now, slowly getting used to the way the city works. I've acquired a pass for the t-bane (the metro system in Oslo), and in my free time (which with class starting has not been much) I've been riding around the city learning where things are and exploring. Conveniently, the university is only two stops from the center of the city, and so I have spent some time there getting acquainted with the downtown.

The National Theater in the middle of downtown, where there is a Henrik Ibsen festival coming up soon.

I have tried in as much as possible to experience the Norwegian way of things, especially in regards to food. One of my favorites that I've tried so far is the pølse. Basically, pølse is a hot dog, albeit a pretty high quality one. You can get it in a bun, or in lømpe, which is a kind of lefse, and everywhere you go in the city you can find people eating them. It's a custom that I can truly appreciate.

The weather here in Oslo has been classic Norwegian, meaning cool and rainy. It averages anywhere from 14-20 degrees Celsius, so from about 45-66 degrees Fahrenheit, a little on the chilly side. So far, it's rained almost every day, with a few moments of sun here and there. It's not a hard rain though, just a persistent drizzle. But I'm hoping the sun will come out soon, so that we can explore Sognsvann, which is a large lake surrounded by forest just outside the city, and also so that we can take advantage of the beaches along Oslo Fjord.

You are Cordially Invited...

Now, not being one to mingle in exclusive circles, I haven't been to many fancy get-togethers in my life, but the opening ceremony of the International Summer School was definitely what I'd call a fancy get-together. It took place in the aula (a hall for festive occasions) of the university in downtown Oslo.

 

The aula is quite an impressive room, as I hope you can see. The inside is lined with marble and those large murals on the wall are painted by Edvard Munch, Norway's most famous artist and painter of The Scream, which just sold at an auction for 119.9 million dollars. There were speeches, from the director of the International Summer School and the rector of the University of Oslo, and music from a Norwegian jazz clarinetist and pianist.

Dr. Ole Petter Ottersen, Rector, University of Oslo

The ceremony was a little on the long side, with the jazz duo playing seven pieces and special appearances from the Norwegian State Secretary of Education and Research, along with a student from the International Summer School class of 1947. But all in all, it was quite the enjoyable affair.

Daniel from Georgia, Me, and Aaron from Chicago at the ceremony

After the opening ceremony, we head over to Oslo City Hall, where we were the guests of the mayor.

Here, there were hors d'oeuvres and fancy desserts and champagne flowing freely, along with another jazz band and more speeches from the mayor's representatives and other esteemed fellows. It was really a splendid welcome that the city of Oslo and the University put together for us, and I've felt quite so upper crust. But then, when the speeches had ceased and the band stopped playing, we had to go back to our tiny dorm rooms and prepare for the next day's classes. Such is life, I guess.

I knew I should have brought my black suit!

Transatlantic Mail

For those of you who are in the practice of sending letters (or are in the process of starting being in said practice) and would like to send one to me (or perhaps you would just like the joy of sending mail to Norway, regardless of to whom it goes), my address here is:

Kristofer Coffman

International Summer School
University of Oslo
P.O. Box  1082 Blindern
NO-0317 OSLO,
NORWAY

Hope to hear from you all! 

Touristing

Sunday, after dormitory meetings in the morning, we boarded buses for a sight-seeing tour of some famous destinations in Oslo. Our first stop was Holmenkollen, a very large ski jump. Skiing, in all its various and sundry incarnations is the national sport of Norway, and though cross country skiing is perhaps the most popular form, ski-jump has always held a special place in the Norwegians' hearts. It's a gigantic structure, and I'm not sure the pictures do it justice.

After Holmenkollen, we proceeded down to Vigeland's Park, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Oslo. It's really quite a strange place, as it's a park filled with two hundred statues of slightly overweight, naked people. Naked people seems to be a theme in the art around Norway, especially on the public buildings.

The fountain in the center of Vigeland's Park.

Of far more interest to me was our next destination, the Viking Ship Museum. In this museum they had three Viking ships from the ninth century which they had dug out of burial mounds, as well as many artifacts buried along with them. The ships are remarkably well preserved for how old they are.

In the foreground, a 21 year old tourist. In the background, a 1200 year old Viking ship.

After seeing the ship, we headed back to campus and prepared for the first day of class. More on class, the opening ceremony of the summer school and Oslo in general coming soon!

Fire Marshall

The Official University of Oslo Fire Marshall vest and whistle

I was sitting today at breakfast, having my second cup of coffee and considering what to do with my day, when I was approached by Wojtek, the Residential Manager, and asked if I would like to be a Fire Marshall for my floor of Blindern Dormitory. Seeing no good reason as to why not, I agreed to take the position.

A dashing get-up isn't it?

Now, the title Fire Marshall is a bit misleading, as it's nothing like our American use of the term. The Norwegian word is Brannvern, and it doesn't have a great English translation. Brann is Norwegian for fire, and Vern is a word meaning to protect or defend, so a Brannvern is someone who protects people from fire, I guess. The dormitory we live in is almost entirely wooden, so they take fire policy rather seriously. There are two of us on every floor and we have basically two responsibilities. First off, when a fire alarm sounds, we have to jump up, toss on our blaze orange vests and direct people to evacuate the building. Then, when everybody is out, we have to take role and report to the proper authorities. Our second responsibility, on the prevention side of things, is to tell people not to smoke in their rooms. Hopefully, knock on wood, I won't have much to do in regards to this job.

Aaron, my friend from the University of Chicago and fellow 3rd floor Fire Marshall

Blindern Studenterhjem

This building is Blindern Studenterhjem, built in 1925 and I am currently living on the third floor (the topmost set of windows). I moved in yesterday and while the room is small, it's cozy and nice for it's chief purpose, sleeping in. I think it will turn out to be quite a nice place to live for the next month and a half. Our room has a shower and sink attached, which we share with the room next to us.

The unmade bed, of course, is mine.

In addition to the shower, we have a dresser, a desk, a bookshelf and a closet. The only thing we have two of (thankfully) is beds. The room is probably around 7 ft by 15 ft or so, maybe less, and seems to be designed for one person (hence only one of everything), but there really should be no problem having two people live in it for six weeks. My roommate for the summer is an eccentric, 25 year old Italian named Luca, who is taking a master's level course on human rights. So far, we get along quite well.

Luca, as I found him when I arrived, working on a report.

A Journey of 8567 Kilometers...

(That's about 5323 miles for everyone back in the states.)
It all started Thursday in Los Angeles when Uncle David dropped me off at 6:15 pm. I got on a plane at 8 am and arrived in Newark, New Jersey at 4 pm. In Newark, I was lucky enough to run into a girl from St. Olaf I know and together we met another student travelling to the International Summer School, by the name of Aaron, from the University of Chicago. We got on the plane and left Newark at 7:30 pm and settled in for a long flight. Our plane flight took us far up north, over Iceland and across the Atlantic. Even as we traveled mostly due east, we could always see the sun just over the horizon, shining down on the lands up north where it stays up all night.

I flew SAS airlines, which is the official Scandinavian airline, and they treated us quite well. We got two meals (dinner and breakfast) as well as the Norwegian newspaper, water, coffee, and tea, and free movies to watch. In addition, all the stewards and stewardesses were Norwegian, so I got to practice a little bit in answering the short questions they asked. Even though it was a nice flight, it was quite a long one, and I did not sleep well, mostly because my body couldn't quite figure out what time it was supposed to be. But seven hours later, we started our descent into Oslo.

My first glimpse of Norway

After we landed, I tracked down the other two ISS students I had met in New Jersey and we set off to find the University. After exchanging US dollars for Norwegian kroner (A quick digression on kroner: $200 US gets you about 1100 kroner. However, the exchang rate is deceptive. For instance, to mail a letter, which costs $0.50 in the US, it costs 15 kroner, or about $3 US), we bought train tickets to Oslo central station. The airport is located about ten or fifteen minutes away from downtown, and it's a pleasant train ride through some pretty country.

From Oslo central station, we bought tickets on the T-bane, which an electric train system that runs all over Oslo, and this took us to the Blindern campus of the University of Oslo, which is where we were staying. We got to Blindern at 11:00 am Norway time (for those of you on the West Coast, Oslo is 9 hours ahead. Greenwich Meridian time +1). All told it took 18 hours of travel time to make the 5,000 mile journey. Not too bad if you think about it.

The west side of Oslo

A Tale of Two Kristofers

In 1910, 26 year old Kristofer Nilsen Tvedt, a native of Bergen, left Norway and arrived in America. One hundred and two years later, his great-grandson and namesake, 21 year old Kristofer Dale Coffman (that's me), is heading the other way across the Atlantic. 

For those of you who don't know, I am travelling to Norway to attend the International Summerschool at the University of Oslo. I will be living in Oslo for six weeks and will be taking an intensive Norwegian language course. In addition to classes in Norwegian (or norsk as the Norwegians call it), this past semester, I was selected as the 2012-13 St. Olaf Rand Scholar and granted a fellowship to study liturgical changes in Norway, beginning from the time of the great emigration and so I will be conducting research for that project during my stay.

But before any of my academic endeavours can take place, my first task was to get this large pile of clothes, books, and other accoutrements, weighing sixty odd pounds,



into these three bags.

That having been completed, all that's left for me to do is to wait until tomorrow morning when I will step onto an airplane at Los Angeles International Airport and out of the country for the first time in my life.

I'd like to close this inaugural entry with a picture from this past Halloween, taken when I had no idea that Norway was in my near future. For those of you who haven't seen the movie Up (and you should, it's really quite a good one), my friends and I dressed up as the three main characters: myself as grumpy Mr. Fredricksen, my roommate Adam Berndt as Russell the boy scout and Addie Rosenwinkel as Mr. Frederickson's house. 

I add this picture simply to illustrate that what we learned in Up is true: Adventure is out there! And while I'm searching for it on an airplane and not in a floating house, tomorrow morning, I'm off to find it!