Sickness, Oslo, and Odense

I feel like I start every post with apologizing for how long I spend between updates. Well, I am a slacker, so get used to waiting.

The title of my post basically describes my last week, which was pretty up and down.
1. Sickness
The worst part of the last week was getting sick. It started on Tuesday night, and continued through Thursday. I will spare you the disgusting details, but lets just say I spent a lot of quality time sitting on my heated (awesome I know) bathroom floor next to the toilet. Thankfully I did not have a field study that Wednesday, and one of my classes was canceled anyway on Thursday, so I didn't miss as much as I could have. I am better now, but it put a bit of a damper on the booze aspect of the booze cruise to Oslo, Norway.

2. Oslo
On Friday a group of 8 of us (2 rooms of 4) went on the overnight ferry to Oslo. It was a really good deal, and I basically went to Norway and back with housing for less than 50 dollars. It was a really sweet ship (nicer than the cruise ship on our Baltic Sea cruise) with lots to do. Where they make their money is on food, so my still unsettled stomach was a benefit, because I could get away with just the sandwich I had packed. We sailed throughout the night, and arrived in Oslo at 9:30. Major difference between Oslo and Copenhagen, the temperature in Oslo is at least 10 degrees colder. It snowed the entire time we were there, and there was even ice in the water (but no icebergs, which was both good and disappointing at the same time). We went to the Edvard Munch museum, who is one of the few Norwegians I have heard of. His museum was really cool, we saw the Scream, and I really liked a lot of his other art. Plus, it was free since it still counted as the winter season. The rest of our 6 hours in Oslo (which was way too short) we spent having lunch and walking around the old part of town. We also had a snowball fight in front of the Royal Palace. I sure everyone who was there was annoyed by the stupid Americans. That night was basically a repeat of the night before, which consisted of going to the clubs on board the ship. My next couple days are pretty uneventful, because they mostly consisted of catching up on work I had missed.

3. Odense
On Wednesday my H.C. Anderson class got to go to Odense, the town where he was born. It is about a 2 hour drive from Copenhagen, and we got to cross the long bridge connecting Copenhagen's island to the rest of Denmark. It was a gorgeous day, so it was a good thing I didn't fall asleep on the way there because I got to see all the scenery. Once we arrived in Odense, we went to the H.C. Anderson museum, which was pretty cool. It is built around the tiny house where he was born, so you can see how poor his roots were. It also has books from almost every language he has been translated into (he is the most translated author ever), tons of his art and papercuts, and lots of his personal effects. It was a really cool museum. Then we also got to go the Tinderbox, which is a place for children to connect to his tales. It was one of the coolest places I have been to so far, and the entire time I kept wishing I was 6 years old. Basically, they tell the kids some of his tales, and then the kids get to illustrate them in the nice art studio, dress up in elaborate costumes, and then get to act out/play out the tales in this super elaborate set they have created. Pictures are to come, but it was amazing and would be so much fun. We were able to walk around Odense a tiny bit and then had to ride back.

4. This weekend
Today is a very busy day, basically I am going to the rest of my classes, then immediately biking home to cook for Keops Kooking Klub, (fajitas, hopefully delicious), then eating dinner, and then picking up Mary Ann! She is visiting from Bath this weekend. Hopefully we will have lots of adventures to tell on the blog.