The flight! (read in the same scary tone as The Birds by Hitchcock)

So I had to say goodbye to my parents- not very easy seeing as how never been away from them more than a week!

And I get on my merry way, no troubles past airport security, but umm my plane was supposed to leave at 10:25 and left around midnight…nothing to do but talk on the cell! So I get on the plane, and thankfully I have an aisle seat, because I need to “go” very often, and I’d feel sooo bad having to ask sleeping people to get up and they don’t provide diapers to 20 year-olds unfortunately.

So the worst plane ride EVER! The food was tiny portions and not very appetizing, but the worst part was…TURBULANCE up the wazoo…while you are crammed up to the point of no personal breathing space. Honestly I kept hitting elbows with the man next to me – nice man from Kenya, who would have had to endure 8 hours in transit and another 8 hours to Kenya. So getting back to the flight – had been awake at boarding for 16 hours, than another 7 hours on a sleepless uncomfortable flight with bad food (but close washrooms) so a total of 23hours as I touched down in Amsterdam. Then I found STARBUCKS, all in English and they accept VISA – caramel macchiato. 2 hours waiting in an airport on a hard seat hoping not to fall asleep! I now must send out thanks to Arsenia who taught me Sudoku, which made the hours seem like mere minutes. Another 1.5 hours to Bergen – wonderful airport!

Bergen Airport – mine was among the first luggage to come  out onto the conveyor belt, hurt my finger taking one off but oh well. Then there are two big archways, one outlines in green (nothing to declare) one in red (declare something)…I go into the red thinking it was a safer choice…and man was I right…no one checked anything, no stamp no anything! So umm grabbed a taxi and saw Bergen at night …beautiful sight and went through a 3km tunnel under their biggest mountain, way cool too.

Then got to my residence, Olga had my keys but umm her cell didn’t work – sound familiar??? Long story short, got into my room around 6pm Bergen time…umm if you’re keeping count I’d been awake for 30 hours. And lucky for me (kinda in a sarcastic tone) the welcome committee planned a nice evening of cultural food called Taste of Norway.  Olga and I ate raw whale among other delicacies such as smoked salmon, herring, deer salami, and ice cream with fresh wildberry sauce! They also had a nice girl play an folk instrument for us similar to a violin but with 9 strings, and each group of exchange students had to present an entertainment piece. I met 3 exchange students so I am getting to know people in the little time that I have been here. The dinner ended very late not really sure when…but I definitely remember the LONG climb up the mountain to reach our residence from the school.

When I got in I arranged my room, signed up for courses, talked to Olga, enjoyed the view of Bergen at night from our room and some other things I don’t remember. Went to bed around 3am our time so that brings the grand total to 39 hours – exactly like my mother predicted since she had said 40! All thanks to a very crammed flight, which didn’t allow any sleep to be had L.

Olga came to wake me up the following morning, and I (apparently since I have no recollection of this, which amnesia has never happened to me before) told her to buzz off! Woke up all rested, and thanks to the amazing water, with amazing skin!!!!!

Olga has written the rest, and we’ll have combined entries from now on lol! I’m clearly not much of a blogger, unlike Rebecca who’s quite awesome at it!!!!!

YAY BERGEN!!!!

 

Olga - Day 1

Praise the lord for Andreea's arrival. When I got here, it was really lonely. No, seriously, it was terrible. I burst into tears and then reminded myself that in just a few hours, she'd be back. I spent the time waiting for her getting things from Ikea, like blankets and pillows and just stuff to make the place liveable. 

Lets describe our dwelling first. We live in the Hatleberg residence, F block on the 3rd floor. We have an ocean view (photos to come) and heated floors in our bathroom. We have separate rooms but a shared bathroom and a shared entrance area (which is abnormally large - we call it "the reception area"). We have a huge kitchen that we share with 2 other students on our floor. It's working out quite smoothly so far, with many friendly smiling faces. Ultimately, we're incredibly lucky as we've heard that other residents aren't as thrilled with their dwelling. 

Today Andreea and I woke up late. Here's the deal: the sun doesn't really rise until 9:30 and for those of us not used to waking up in total darkness, that can be a hard adjustment. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and sunny, a rarity for Bergen in January. We went out to buy groceries and had to climb back up the hill with armfuls of food. It's really not as expensive as we thought it would be, at least not in terms of food. Lucky for us, past residents left a ridiculous amount of cuttlery, pots and pans and just kitchen accessories all over this place. 

By the time we came back and climbed the mountain that leads to our residence, we were exhausted. We ate, watched an episode of Scrubs, dyed my hair and spent the evening on Facebook and reading the blogs of others. Since we are not the drinking types, we weren't super keen on going to the big parties. Ok honestly, we were exhausted. 

We also set up our Skype so that we can call Canada and the US unlimited, including mobile phones and landlines. Hoorah! If you live in the region, expect your phone to ring as it only costs us $3 per month.  You read that right. We registered for our courses and got most of our issues in order. I have class four days a week, but only 3 classes (2 lectures a week each.) We hope to spend most of our time exploring the city, the country and Europe in general. It's getting late. Until next time!