trotz -- in spite of

Speaking of good friends, I've been fortunate enough to make quite a few friends that don't live in the States. For example, when Michael, Chris and I were in Schwäbisch Hall we made friends with Anne who lives in Oslo. We were able to go visit her this past weekend! Our flight there was pretty inexpensive through RyanAir, but Oslo is so expensive! Sadly, it was also raining 3 of the 4 days we were there. But trotz the bad weather and high prices, we had so much fun in Oslo!

We didn't realize this before getting there, but Anne actually works as a tour guide of Oslo, so we were very lucky to have our own personal ambassador showing us around.

On Friday she took Michael, Chris, Hilary, Maureen and me to go see the the city hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out, the Viking Ship museum, and the Fram museum. The Viking Ships used to serve also as tombs, so when the captain died, they would bury him in his ship. Because of this ritual, some of the ships were well preserved in the clay in which they were buried and so we could see exactly how they looked.

The Fram is also a boat, although not a Viking Ship, and it has made the farthest journey north and the farthest journey south.

Friday night, Hilary, Maureen, and I were cold and tired of the rain, so we decided to splurge and go to dinner and a movie. The dinner was delicious, and the movie was hilarious. We first asked if it was playing in english, and they said yes, with subtitles. So we were sitting in the theatre before the movie began enjoying all of the Norwegian commercials, making jokes about what they were saying, when two people who worked there came into our theatre. They held this bucket towards me, and everyone was saying things to me in Norwegian, when someone finally said, "Pick one!" So I drew a ticket stub out of the bucket, but then had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. Que someone in the theatre: "Can (pause). You (pause). Read (pause). It?" So I had the ticket stub back to the guy, and it turns out I had just drawn out Hilary's ticket stub, so she won a free t-shirt!

Maria and Leah arrived late Friday night, and so Hilary, Maureen, and I got to hang out with them on Saturday around Oslo. Maria got a lovely picture of me looking like a total tourist

As you can see, I definitely enjoyed using Dad's camera on this trip, and I got some -- actually over 200 -- great pictures of Oslo:

We visited Vigeland Sculpture Park (where the Sculptor is a distant relative of Maureen!) and get some fun pictures before it started downpouring.

That afternoon, Anne took Chris, Michael, and me to see the giant ski jump and eat some apple cake in an adorable norwegian log cabin-turned-restaurant.

Sunday was (finally!!) sunny! So we re-visited the sculpture park.

The National Gallery, home of Munch's Sceam, is free on Sundays, so we spent about an hour there. Hilary, Maureen and I decided that we liked this painting even better than Scream:

It's entitled: The Day After.

Then, Michael, Chris and I hung out at the fortress for a little while. Lots of families come there and hang out, and we saw these kids playing on the cannons.

Our last stop before the airport was the Opera House, which is built to look like a glacier. You can walk all over it, even to the top.

It was a great trip!! And also my last one planned before heading home (although that could change). I've seen a lot, and I'm excited to enjoy these last 6 weeks in Berlin!

Liebe,

Emma