Weekend in Tromsø

Hello everyone!

From Feb 4-8, I went off with 6 friends north to Tromso. We were lucky enough to make contact with 3 Saskatchewan students at the University of Tromso. They let us sleep on their floors and helped guide us around the city. Their help made the trip much more affordable and enjoyable!

This is 4 of the Bodo students I travelled with. Left-right Tomomi from Japan, Jen and Ellen from Ohio and Missouri and Alina from Poland.

Tromso is a city in northern Norway that is a bit larger that Bodo. The reason for going on this particular weekend was a Sami festival (Indigenous people in Scandinavia). On our first day there, we went to the University of Tromso to have a look around and have some waffles with other international students studying there. I also had my first taste of Brunost (brown cheese) here. It is very popular in Norway, and I thought that it was delicious. It is basically just cheese that is a bit creamier and smoother than regular mozzarella. It is toffee brown colour, hence the name, and has a bit of a sweet cinnamon and nutty taste to it. Very yummy on waffles with jam.

After the brunch, we went downtown to visit the Sami market. The picture shows some Sami shoes. I'm not sure exactly what they are made of but are very wwarm and have curled over toes. There were a few guesses as to why they wear "elf shoes" with the best guesses being to keep their skis from sliding off (before ski boots) or to make it easier to walk through very deep snow.

Later that same day, some of our group made it over to the polaria museum which is essentially an aquarium with some other exhibits about climate change and marine biology. It was very neat, we arrived just in time to see the seals getting their dinner. The polaria is the only aquarium in the world that has bearded seals grown in captivity.

The other events of the Sami festival were "women throwing" (not nearly as exciting as it sounds, merely the women's lasso competition) and reindeer racing. The reindeer racing was quite exciting, they would put the reindeer into a box and then a skiier would come in behind and hold the reins. When the race started, the lid of the box would fly off and the reindeer came rushing out pulling the skier behind. They went so fast. The only pictures I took were quite blurry.

We also paid a visit to the Polar Museum. This held exhibits about the history of the Polar region, exploration and expeditions. It also had a great deal of trapping, sealing, whaling and hunting exhibits. It was extremely well-done and very interesting, but quite graphic and disturbing too.

The last big adventure of our weekend was a trip up the cable car to view Tromso from above. The pictures themselves tell the story! It was beautiful with all the snow covering the city.

Maple Syrup/Poutine

So mostly it's been same old, same old around Bodo. We had quite a bit of free time last week because of cancelled classes, so there are a few things I can update on:
On Weds, we went to the waterpark downtown (as I said in the last post!) and it was really quite neat. They gave you an arm band with a little microchip in it which was your access to the change rooms and lockers. You would wave your wristband in front of the machine and a locker would pop open. Then you could put in your things, close the door and wave it again to close. I thought it was pretty cool. The water park itself had 4 pools (lanes, wavepool, kiddie pool and wading pool) also diving boards and 3 water slides. One of the slides even had different light effects as you slide down (strobe, rainbows, stars), it was alot of fun.
Then over the weekend, Tomomi and Laoka who are 2 students studying here from Japan, helped everyone to make sushi. We used smoked salmon, artificial crab, cucumber and even managed to get ahold of an avocado. The salmon around here is amazing, nothing like I've ever had at home, it's so fresh!
To repay everyone for the sushi, John and I (a fellow Saskatchewanian) made some poutine on the next day. It was quite good, and everyone liked it even though we used regular cheese instead of curds and powdered gravy. Also, thanks to my wonderful parents, some maple syrup arrived yesterday so I shared that as well. In Norway, they don't often use syrup like we do at home, they have corn syrup and a really thick molasses-y syrup for baking. They tend to eat pancakes/waffles with jam, fruit or a sweet brown cheese. One of my Norwegian friends tried maple syrup for the first time. I saw maple syrup once in a grocery store (Made in Canada was on the label!) but it was very very expensive.
And finally today I took an AfroPower Jazz dance class at the local gym. It was all in Norwegian, but still easy to follow along and really great fun. I've taken a few fitness classes there so far and am glad that I decided to join up.

The most exciting news of the week is that I am leaving Bodo tomorrow to travel to Tromso, which is quite a bit further north. I am going with 7 other international students and 3 other U of S students who are studying in Tromso have graciously offered to be our guides and provide floor space. The reason we are going is a Sami festival that takes place this week. The Sami are an indigenous northern people in Norway. We will return on Monday evening, and hopefully I will have some more great pictures to post.

Ick

So today we got hit by a bit of a wind and rain/snowstorm. In the morning, I had to walk down to the bus stop down a large hill. I fell really hard on my ass within about 20 steps away from the door since it's still really icy. And because of the rain of course I fell right in a puddle. About 2 minutes later, because the universe obviously decided I should be equally soaked on all side of my body, I faceplanted into another puddle. So all in all in was a beautiful day.

...Funny part is, we were heading to the swimming pool downtown.

A very long hike/ snow day!

Dear Blog:

This past weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday I went for a hike with 4 friends. We started out around 830am and hiked ~2.5 hours in, had lunch and explored a bit and then came back home. It was a cold day, but not too bad if we kept moving. We managed to hike far enough for a good view of the mountains + ocean. It was very icy at parts since the first week or so was quite warm and a lot of the snow melted and refroze. So everyone is entitled to one good wipe-out during each walk (I had several!).

During the night on Saturday, it snowed quite a lot as I've heard it did in Saskatoon as well... we went out in the afternoon and had a bit of a snow fight -North Americans vs. Europeans - and then went tobogganing on a nearby hill. We only had 1 cheap plastic sled, so the rest made do with cookie sheets and shovels...there were some spectacular wipe-outs involved.

Aurora Borealis

Dear Blog:

Everything is going pretty swell here in Bodo. In fact it is Flott! which means great in Norwegian. Since my last post, I've mostly just been hanging out, pretty low key stuff. There was an epic hockey game on Sunday on a nearby lake that has frozen solid. I'm happy to say that the Canadian team + 1 polish member triumphed over the American/French team!!! On Mondays I have 3 classes, so I have school pretty much from 815 straight through to 4pm. But after Mondays, its pretty much downhill since I have one class per day for the remainder of the week. On Tuesday, I wen to join the local gym, Friskhuset, which is about a 5minute walk from my place. It was a bit pricey, but has nice equipment and lots of fitness classes to join. There is also a pool attached which is nice since I've been missing my swimming.

So the big news of the week: last night, after watching 2 episodes of Glee with the girls, we decided to go outside for a bit. And looking up, we saw some amazing Northern Lights. They were very bright with greens and purples and they danced around and filled the sky. It's so hard to even describe how beautiful they were in words. I tried a few pictures, but they came out kind of blurry. We tried to walk to the lake again to see them more clearly but it got cloudy by the time we got there. It was a pretty nice treat since other students who have been here for a few semesters said that the lights last night were some of the best they've seen while studying here. Vi snakkes! (talk to you later)

Saltstrummen

Dear Blog
Last night, we had the International Student's party at the Samfunnet, student pub, to welcome all international students to Bodo this term. The student society gave out coupons to get your first half-pint of beer for a cheaper price: merely 7.50 Canadian rather than the usual 9.00!! It is crazy how expensive everything is. It also costs roughly $6 dollars canadian to ride the city bus one way. Food is comparable in price but it's still more expensive to eat out.
So the international party was fun, getting to know everyone as we danced the night away.

This morning there was a bus trip planned for all the international students. A guide took us through Bodo to show where all the important places are and then the bus drove us to the Saltstrummen which is an area of whirlpools and fast currents (called maelstrom) that is famous in this area.

Jeg heter Zoe

Dear Blog:

Wow this was easier than I thought. Just a couple of clicks and I've evolved into the world of the blog! This is meant to document my incredible study experience in Bodo Norway. The last "o" in Bodo needs a line through it...so that it's pronounced kind of like "Boo-duh."
I arrived in Bodo on Jan 8th in the evening, after 4 flights and no sleep. At the airport, I was picked up and driven to my residence, Hoglimyra, which is on campus within walking distance of the university, grocery store, bank and all that important stuff. It was very disorienting for the first 4ish days since it was dark all of the time. It's hard to kick jet-leg in the butt without the sun to reset your system!
After a weekend full of sleep, orientation for internationals was on Monday and classes began on Tuesday. The classes I am taking are Molecular Ecology, Marine Biology, Animal Behaviour and Norwegian for Foreigners. I learned to say Jeg heter Zoe, Jeg kommer fra Canada yesterday. See if you can work out what that means :) The rest of the classes are pretty great as well. For Marine Biology, we are planning an excursion to Svalbard in early May!!! I'm excited already.
I haven't taken any pictures yet because it's been so dark! Within the last few days, the sun has begun to come back but doesn't stay up for long. I hope I can figure out how to post photos here as soon as I have some. It's very beautiful in Bodo.