another day, another day’s writings. today, we took a city tour via bus and covered a large amount of ground. we went to the scenic overlook where edvard munch (pronounced munk) painted his famous painting “the scream”. we also went to the vigelandspark and walked through the wonderfully beautiful sculpture gardens, right before going to the viking ship museum to see three original ships used by the vikings for various ceremonies and burials.
after that, we came back to the hotel, where i sat around for a while and packed up some of my things in expectation of tomorrow’s departure for larvik. at three o’clock, i met lauren and a group of bandies as they were coming up to my hotel (the bandies and orchies are in a different hotel from the la-las), and we went to the library to check our email at the free terminals. on the way back to the hotels, we found a grocery store, and bought ourselves dinner for 6, and split the cost between us; for a dinner of bread, cheese, and a little bit of nutella for dessert, it ended up being about 10 kroner per person. not at all bad, considering that a sandwich costs somewhere around 30 to 50 kroner in a restaurant or delicatessen.
time for some more observations about oslo, and perhaps the culture of norway. norway has a huge immigrant/refugee population. one can see this just walking through what is called grønnland (which to my understanding is quickly becoming the immigrant section of oslo), and also in the large number of chinese, japanese, and indian restaurants. however, it seems like the only place one sees a person of non-norwegian descent is either in these shops, in grønnland, or working a service job (waiting/bussing tables, housekeeping, etc.). it’s very much like the united states in that regard; it’s like they’re here to do the work nobody else wants to do. i hope this isn’t the signs of a move toward american-like culture; as much as i love america, there are plenty of things that i do not like about our culture and our consumerism.
well, tomorrow is the last day we spend in oslo; we move on to larvik and our first homestay tomorrow night. hopefully, i can get up in time to go running, put my suitcase on the bus, and then go to a cafe to post this and upload some pictures. until then, peace, and behave.
