September 22-28

It rained every day except for the day I left, but somehow that didnt matter because Trondheims charm lies not in the environment but rather in the students that populate this university town.

Flying into Vaernes airport was impressive, the plane gliding over green hills rising out of the grey glassy sea. I couldnt help myself- I took pictures even through the foggy windows of the prop plane that carried me from Copenhagen on the 1.5 hour flight.

Trondheim itself is situated right on the coast, a semicircular town ringed by hills and a river that cuts off downtown from the university that hugs the hillside. Downtown is Norways oldest cathedral, Nidarosdomen. The oldest part dates from 1320 and is built in the Norman, Romanesque, and Gothic styles. The cathedral was damaged during WWII and a whole new facade was built after that including a beautiful stained glass rosette and lots of statues of saints and, of course, Jesus. Another Trondheim landmark is the mall, Trondheim Torg. This seems to be the central meeting place and a hang out location for all of Trondheims teenagers. Oh, and the perfect shopping destination for an American girl who arrived not expecting such chilly weather and needed to buy a jacket, sweater, and pants to keep warm. I should also mention that clothes are particularly expensive, though I managed to find all three things for under $60 total, a feat indeed given the prices.

Jakob, aka The Striking Viking, welcomed me here with open arms. Because his apartment was rather small, he loaned me to his friends, Pål, Bernt, and Halvar who share the lower level of a cozy home right down the hill from himself. They put me up in luxurious accomodations on a mattress in their living room and enjoyed my cooking for the week in exchange for their hospitality. I was thoroughly impressed by their living conditions. Most guys around the age of 23-24 in the States live in complete squalor. Not so here. Perhaps it is the year of mandatory military service they all do at 18, up in the snow covered mountains of northern Norway. The bone chilling nightwatches, 48 hour marches, and living with hundreds of other guys seem to have done them a load of good.

Although Jakob did a good job showing me around town on his limited free time, I spent the majority of my trip thinking about training, getting ready for training, training, and (most of my time) recovering from training. The Norwegians did a great job of totally kicking my butt. After having done pretty much no activity for the past 6 weeks, the day after I arrived I did three training sessions. In the morning I woke up to lift weights with Jakob and his friend Ketil, who is from the north and has an amazing six pack (I hope you are reading this Ketil!). Then at night I did the kickboxing class that Jakob teaches and trained with his girlfriend Silje. Immediately after that I did the grappling class led by my new roommate Bernt and his friend and former mentee Magne. I felt great...until the next morning when I couldnt get out of bed, that is. Serves me right for diving into working out after weeks and weeks of laziness. The rest of the week was much the same, only I limited myself to one workout a day after the results of the first day. I even got to show some wrestling takedowns- a single and a firemans carry for those of you who know wrestling- at one of the grappling classes. It was so great to train with a bunch of guys who seemed open to training with me even though I am a woman (something that should be a given but often is not the case).

Nearly every night I cooked the guys dinner. I think that this was a welcome change from the pasta, pizza, tuna, and sandwiches they seemed to be eating all the time before my arrival. It was pretty amusing to come home around lunchtime to find Pål eating a bowl of undercooked (still crunchy) pasta and tuna. He said that it was a new shape of pasta that he didnt know how to cook, but I think he was just very hungry and therefore impatient and thought that he could handle barely limp pasta. He must be a tough guy, because I certainly couldnt deal with that. So I made them Chinese food, pasta with chanterelles, and a memorable sheep and cabbage stew for which I posted the recipe and a story on this site.

Everything was outrageously expensive here for me. I have never paid $5 for a Coke before coming here, though I suppose theres always a first time for everything. The advantage for the Norwegians is that everywhere else seems so cheap!

The weather finally cleared up the day I left, and it was then that I realized that I need to return to Norway some day. Flying to Oslo for my trip to London, I saw breathtaking views of the landscape- the miniscule settlements along river valleys, fjord inlets, snow covered peaks, expanses of barren rock. Only next time, I will either come in the summer or bring some extra warm clothes.

Takk for everything.