I believe in God

Just saw the Czeck Republic score an awesome goal against Norway. Might have been the world cup qualifiers, but I'm not sure. That, of course, has nothing to do with my faith in God.

Today has been a surprisingly clear day. Saw the moon in the morning. It was setting, but it looked bright and clear. The temperature fell rather suddenly from 10 degrees to around 3. I think I've successfully busted the widely believed myth that cutting your hair radically short makes you susceptible to catching a cold. My head's been perfectly fine with hair all of 4 mm long for the last three weeks now. That is including the extra cold and wet week at Kristiansund. No cold. Not even a sniff.

Driving in Norway during winter is a rather nasty task. The sun never gets very far away from the horizon, and falls pretty much directly into your eyes whatever the time of the day (as long as it is day that is, roughly from 8 am to 3:30 pm).

Oh yeah, went to the mall today to get some groceries. Yeah well, I'm living in a hotel, but skipping out for a midnight snack is becoming a little difficult in the cold. So there's this really nice ice-cream shop right at the entrance of the mall. Reminded of a me of a certain bit of ice-cream on a particular chin that's celebrating it's 23rd birthday today.. I ended up getting myself a scoop of the weirdest looking flavour on display. Turned out to be mint with chocolate chips. Was pretty nice actually.

Last weekend I'd managed to pain my friends here into taking a 45 minute walk to visit one of the many lakes around Asker. It was a nice walk. The countryside was pretty much the definition of rolling fields. Spent a while sitting on a tree stump by the water watching a dog alternately lapping at the water and having it's neck tickled, by me.

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I figure, belief in God can't be conditional. That kind of belief tends to be somewhat fragile. It's not like one can hold God responsible for not fulfilling prayers. And prayers too often end up remaining unfulfilled, at least to some extent. I prefer believing in God as a sort of an incidental to living. Leaves me more at peace with the world. And God.

ps. Norway have still not managed to equalize. And yes, it is a World Cup '06 qualifier.

Back to reality

It's been three days since I got back to Asker from Kristiansund. And I cannot find a way of putting down in words the pure exhilaration of those five intensely busy days. What shall I say? The days were tiring, yes. Cold, intensely. The rain gave us company on many an ocassion. And whenever it did, a perfect double rainbow accompanied it! I don't know which got to me more, the joy of driving a boat through the driving rain, or the picutre-postcard like town laid out on the various islands that make up Kristian-sund: the Straights of King Kristian.

In particular of course the most fun I had personally was the guided tour that Dag, our Norwegian instructor (an absolute bear of a man with a sing-song accent and an air of complete indestructibility about him) gave us of the Fjord the first day we drove out the boat. That first time I drove very tentatively of course. I don't know how many of you would have driven a boat before, but let me tell you, if you think tons of experience with any other kind of vehicle would make it easier for you to drive a boat, you are in for a rude rude shock :D!!

With Dag. (I'm just there for scale :P)

Another day I particlarly enjoyed was the time Dag allowed us free reign of his beloved workboat! I won't remember it so much for the fact that I managed to make the boat go leaping across the water by swerving real hard at high speed, but because that's when I figured whoever said women were safe drivers needed some sense to be knocked into them!!

My crew on the small boats!

Today it was back to the grind of daily lectures. I had a rather hard time trying to stop my mind from wandering off, back to the clear blue water through which you could see the sandy bottom, the salty spray flying so fast that it made your face sting. To my short, eventful visit to paradise.

For more photographs from Kristiansund: Fjord-landet.

Kingdom of Heaven

I haven't got any pictures so for now, words will have to suffice. Today I saw something so breathtakingly beautiful that I coudn't wait! I have heard of the beauty of snow-capped mountain peaks. I had even seen them in pictures. But let me tell you, nothing beats the real thing. Nothing even comes close!

On the flight from Oslo to Kristiansund, we flew over the range of mountains that run pretty much all through the length of Scandinavia. After take off the aircraft pulled up above the swirling clouds that had caused us to much trouble for the last week. After a while when I noticed a different kind of white that seemed to peep from amidst the white sea of clouds, at first I couldn't believe my eyes! Soon however the mountains with their white-tipped heads were unmistakable. With the vast valleys all wreathed in white, the craggy tops overlooking lakes sparkling dazzlingly in the sunlight, whisps of clouds casting dark shadows on the mountainsides, it was simply the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on!

The best part was of course when the fjords came into view! The tall peaks fell away precariously into deep gorges, and all of a sudden there was the wonderful landscape of alternating mountains and long narrow streaks of clear sparkling water. I simply cannot find enough superlatives to describe it :(. Let me just say that when Douglas Adams wrote that the creator of worlds had done his life's best work when he designed the Fjords of Norway, he wasn't exaggerating one bit.

Right now I'm feeling thankful for just about everything under the sky. It's all so B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!!

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On another note, quote printed on a beer glass in a steakhaus in Asker:

'Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.'

- Benjamin Franklin

:DD.

Flightplan

The other day we decided to go watch a movie. There's a multiplex pretty close to the hotel, but we had trouble figuring out if they showed movies in any language other than Norwegian. To our delight, they did! What somewhat dampened the delight was the choice: Flightplan or The Legend of Zorro. We chose Zorro, and a couple of hours later we left the theatre reeling from the overdose of absolutely pointless and consistently irritating loudness! But hey, at least the seats were good!

Tomorrow (that would be today actually) I leave for the small town of Kristiansund on the North Sea coast. The reason's a week-long workboat course. That would be a refreshing break from 8 hrs of lectures for five days a week! I was beginning to slip into my college time habit of nodding off in class :D. I hope the weather there's better though. I'm getting a little bored with the rain now.

Weather report

I thought I'd just be honest with the title :D.

The Sun has finally chosen to show it's face! After four long days of intense fog, late sunrises and early sunsets, I finally woke up today to find the sky already lit up. (Usually it's just a dingy damp grey.) Of course that means the temperature is about to nosedive again, but I don't really mind. These last few days it was soaring at around 10 degrees above! And this morning it was already down to 6.

Anyway, despite the poor visibility, over the weekend we chose to undertake some rather ill-advised strolls about the countryside. It's quite scary actually, full fledged daunting Roman churches jumping out from behind the screen of fog barely a hundred yards away. Not to mention the sprawling acres of graves in the adjoining cemetery...