I'm posting the post I just wrote for my blog on here cause no one is writing and I love Melia but I am tired of looking at the same post....so here's a change:
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Ah! Afternoon naps are the best - especially when you don't have to be woken up every few minutes to cough because....I am better! Well, mostly better. Enough that my nose is not running, I'm not coughing regularly and my throat doesn't feel like it's been thoroughly rubbed with sandpaper. So much better...

I haven't written in the past couple days mostly just cause there hasn't been much to write about. Lots of sleeping, resting, cleaning - boring stuff like that but necessary to get rid of being sick. But there were a couple things so here you go...

Oslo Fjord Sailing Challenge

On Tuesday afternoon we had another event for the Fadderullan (this is what they call the first two weeks of school for newcomers to the school), which was to all go out on a bunch of boats to watch a sailing race in the middle of the Oslo fjord. As most things have been, this was a little unorganized - mostly cause details were not communicated to all the students. We met at Nationaltheatret and walked over to the fjord where there were about five boats that were going out. At this point it would have been good to tell us that the color of the wristbands we were wearing coincided with the boat we would be going on but they didn't tell us so we just wandered around a bit until we were finally told. We got on the boat finally about an hour after we all met to go and rode out to the where the sailboats are. I hadn't brought my camera because I had class from 8-2 and was planning on being let out early on the first day so I would have time to go home and get my camera before the 2:30 meeting time but my professor was a stickler and kept us the whole 6 hours. So any pictures below have been stolen from my friends who did have cameras and have posted pictures.

Once we got out to the sailboats, we found out that they had already had the race! So we just floated around for a few hours watching sailboats go by with a DJ who had quite an affinity for techno music. I felt like an old woman complaining about the music kids these days listen to. It was horrible and giving me a migraine so that was not fun. Then the lunch that we paid for consisted of shrimp and white sliced bread with mayonnaise and a little salad. This would have been ok but the shrimp they gave us was the entire shrimp - eyes, head, tail, eggs, legs - everything. If you know me, you know that was not my cup of tea. So I think I successfully dissected about three shrimp before I just couldn't do it anymore. What I did eat tasted good though, I guess. The entire boat probably went through about 2500 shrimp - buckets and buckets full.

After a few hours they finally brought us back and after a few subway delays I got home so I could take some Excedrin and go to bed. I'm sure still being sick didn't help the trip but overall it didn't seem to be worth the 250 NOK it cost (about $40). I mean, the boat ride was fun but we can take the ferry to an island for free with our student transportation pass so that would have taken care of that. I think we will be finding cheaper ways of entertaining ourselves than the school has found in the future.

Living Without a Microwave

More of a topic to discuss than a story. Have any of you ever lived without a microwave? Cause it is a whole new experience for me... definitely makes me appreciate the ease of living with one. I'd say it's worse - much worse - than not having a dishwasher. Example - yesterday I pulled out my dinner to make it. It was a sort of personal-sized lasagna meal and I realized this is something I would normally pop in the microwave for a few minutes and be done with it. Then I looked to my kitchen and realized all I had was a stove and oven to make this work... So after translating the Norwegian cooking instructions on the back of the packaging, I realized that this could also be made by boiling the whole package in a saucepan! So that's what I did - TV dinner a la boiling water. So weird.

Also I bought some bagels last week to have for quick breakfasts but I didn't even think about the fact that they are frozen so they have to be un-frozen in order to be edible. Again with no microwave or toaster, this is a process. I have pretty much mastered it now - about 10 min in the oven at 190 degrees Celsius. The joys of cooking in the foreign country. Perhaps I'll get a better hang of it after a couple months.

Ok so what else? Been listening to some new (to me) music that I'm really liking, thanks to iTunes and aDina (you are now a music store :)

Unless some unexpected plans come up for tonight, I think I might just be having some of the girls come over to watch a movie again. We'll see. Maybe I'll go make a stop at the H&M next to my apt now and see what they've got for me... :)

Nugget o' Knowledge: If you don't have the Kings of Leon "Only By The Night" album yet, you MUST get it. So good. Probably best of the year so far, I'd say.