Slugs. Everywhere.

Skål Norge!

Hey, sorry for the delay in my posts here!  I'm going to try to post every 2-3 days depending on how many exciting things I have going on in my life.  (Hopefully I can shorten these massive posts then, too)

The town is really great and very much like you would imagine a small european fishing town... I'm pretty sure I could take pictures every day here an not get bored of it.  The weather was great for the middle of the week, and I went down to the "beach" near campus.  There were great views of the archipelago off shore, but the water (the Atlantic) was still a bit chilly.  Later, I walked to town to get coffee (and of course, forgot my camera) and climbed up to the church you can see in the "Day 2" part of last post.  There were amazing views of the city from it, so I'm definitely going back with my camera next time it's nice out.

Can you tell I really liked this house?

I've also begun learning about and starting to try Norwegian foods, or at least as much of it as I can afford.  The matpakke is the traditional Norwegian lunch and is traditionally has an open-faced sandwich with some brown cheese and other seasonings.  I'm not sure exactly what kind of cheese it is, but it's sort of mild, sweet, surprisingly filling, and definitely coming back to the states with me if I can bring it.  I've also tried some paste called "Kaviar" which is some sort of fishy stuff that comes in a toothpaste tube.  Not recommended.  This week, my goal is to try some hvalbiff, or whale meat.  I've heard that it is really good and very similar to steak... don't judge me.

The view of the archipelago from campus.  Grimstad is
(supposedly) well know in Norway for boating around it.

Today the cloud and rains were back in force.  This brought out hundreds of 4" long, smelly, black slugs.  Everywhere.  My mission to not step on one has been successful so far, but I'm not holding out hope.  It was supposed to be the Sankthansaften (midsummer's night) festival, but it was raining like you wouldn't believe.  We still went downtown, but you could tell that many people stayed in.  Everyone sang some popular Norwegian songs while we stood awkwardly in silence, and then there was a boat parade / competition that was, again, rather poorly attended.  What was cool, though, was a pair of guys in a row boat that had (or we were told that they had) rowed from Denmark!  That's about a 2 hour ferry ride, so we were a bit skeptical, but supposedly this is an old tradition where they bring flowers and present them to the mayor of the town.  Also, there are piles of firewood all around the shores of the islands that would usually have been lit tonight, so I'm hoping that those will happen sometime later.  In better weather, they would light those and then stay up all night celebrating the longest day of the year.

The clouds move in before the festival.

Yes, again with that house.

Playing with the focus of my camera.  Not dramatic,
but I liked it.

Anywho, I'll keep updating as exciting things happen.  This week, we're going on a guided tour of the town, and then visiting Stavanger Thursday - Sunday.  I'll get to see Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), which I'm really, really excited for.  I'm hoping to get to hike it, but we'll see how the weather turns out.  Also, also, I just bought tickets to go to Madrid in mid July!  I have a friend who teaches there and am very excited to visit.