farewell dinner

Tomorrow night’s the farewell dinner for the Norwegian School of Economics exchange students. This semesters gone by faster than I thought it would, but I still have a few weeks after class is over to check out Europe. I thought I’d post before I have to do all the studying I didn’t do this semester for exams.

After exams, I have the next 6 weeks booked up and it’s going to be non stop traveling. A few days after my last test is Norwegian Constitution Day, it’s called syttende mai and the whole country takes the day off. I’ve heard great things about this holiday and even Norwegians saying things as far as there are no rules on syttende mai. Here’s a picture from Fløyen of the firework celebration they put on in my city to end the day.

After this my fellow Norwegian viking Graeme and I are flying down South. Real South. We’ll finally get some weather in the 80’s in Portugal. We’ll be staying for 6 days in Faro and Lisbon. Hopefully get the chance to ride some 4 wheelers and whap some lefts on the surf board (shout out to Laidlaw). One of the coolest parts of the trip is spending the whole time right on the Atlantic coast and maybe even getting the chance to do some diving in the Algarve beaches. Apparently you can see up to 30 meters in the water at this spot.

Some of you may know my cousin Andrew. He grew up down the block from me and has also got some Norwegian in him. We’ll be meeting up in Oslo, Norway after I get back from the beach. He spent six weeks there last summer and is going to hopefully show me a few spots I missed since being in Oslo for X Games. After a couple days we’re going to take the train to the mountains where I live in Bergen, Hordaland. I’ve heard this train ride is supposed to be the most scenic one in the world when Norway turns green in June. It takes 6 hours, but there’s no strand of monotony.

Once we get to Bergen we’re going to visit Ulvik, a small farm town in Norway that only a few people I’ve met have heard of. Mine and Andrew’s grandmothers heritage started in this town before they emigrated to the states. They had the surname Knutsen, along with the majority of Norway which makes it hard to look up any family heritage while we’re here. It’s pretty cool to be the first in our family to go back to Ulvik where it all started. After growing up my whole life in Seattle with my cousin this will be surreal. Here’s a picture of one of these cabin houses in the summer time.

We’ll definitely try and take advantage of the summer weather on the fjords doing some kayaking and camping. If we’re feeling adventurous with a rental car we may even hike it up Trolltunga or Preikistolen.

 

 

 

 

 

My last stop in Europe before heading home to Seattle will be with one of my French friends Baptiste. He’s moving home to Marseille for work and offered to show me around France for 9 days. I’ll be meeting him in Paris and we’ll be staying with a few of his buddies for a few days. Then we’ll drive his car down to the South of France for the rest of the trip. Spending a few days in his hometown Marseille and then a few in Nice. I’ve heard it’s pretty amazing in these cities during the summer.

I’ll post one last time when I’m back in Seattle. Hopefully bring back a few good GoPro flicks from these last few weeks in Europe. Hope springs been off to a good start back home and I’m stoked to see everyone again.

Skål

Easter Break

First off my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected in the Brussels bombing over Easter break. It was pretty eery being in the Amsterdam airport bordering Belgium at the time of the disaster. It seems like this has been a weekly occurrence during my time oversees. Everyone here preaches to keep doing you, because otherwise they win. However, there were some good experiences that were had in light of this. I’ll run through quickly a few moments in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Prague.

London started off with a long St. Patty’s day night at the bars. The British accents were awesome and I had to keep myself from laughing a few times. This city is absolutely massive and when we took a ride on the London Eye you couldn’t even see where the buildings stopped. The clock was cool and the canals were green. I was constantly thinking about James Bond and The Bourne Ultimatum series the entire time. I’ve never seen so many selfie sticks in my entire life at the Buckingham Palace and so many impatient people on the left of the escalators. We escaped the tourist madness on the last day and had a second to walk across Abbey Road and reminisce about the Beatles.

Next stop was Amsterdam. I was excited for this one. This city is literally entirely built on the water and every single canal was flooded with bikers. I got the chance to meet up with two of my best buds Pete and Sam, as they were heading back to the States a few days later. We of course went straight to the Heineken Factory and learned how it was made, and may have had a few beers. We got flagged down for the Heineken canal tour after, and may have had a few more beers. Walking around this city was an awesome experience and The Red Light District is definitely one of a kind.

The most live able city in my opinion had to of been Copenhagen, Denmark. This place just got voted the happiest country in the entire world. I could see why by the end of the trip. It was a sunny Saturday and we headed out to the abandoned paper factory which sits out on an Island. After going to Christiana of course. The factory is filled with any street food you can imagine and it was incredibly good. We all grabbed a couple of cold ones with our food and sat out on the dock with the hundreds of other Danes. It was rare to be sunny out and we were there for probably two hours, it was honestly one of the best days of the trip. On the way back to the hostel you could see the streets packed with people drinking beer and hanging out with family and friends on benches by the canal. Awesome city and I’m definitely coming back here.

Lastly was Prague. This place looked straight out of Shrek! A huge castle sits up on a hill overlooking Old Town and all of the buildings surrounding on the canal. We were here on Easter and were treated to some of the best priced food and beer I’ve had. We ate at a microbrew for lunch one day, the home of the original Budweiser. They asked us if we wanted dark or light and kept the half liter mugs coming. Heavy set bald guys speed walked around the brewery refilling beer after beer. They would then go back behind the counter and blatantly swig their mugs the entire day which was comical. The meals would come out to about 20 USD for a full plate of food and around 4 liters of beer. We finished off the trip at the John Lennon wall and a pub crawl that has drawn crowds of up to 500 people.. So much history in this place and the prices are unbelievable.

Opening Day for Seattle baseball today. Sco M’s!

 

Paak X Games

Hard to believe it’s already the halfway month of my exchange. So much new and Bergen is finally starting to feel a little like home. This month I finally get the chance to check out a little more of Europe during Easter break. But it’s hard to leave given all the antics going on recently in Norway.

The 17 day festival, UKEN, is underway and it’s been an experience taking pictures and partying with some of these artists. One of them stood out more than all the others. He goes by Anderson Paak and recently his life was flipped up side down by Dr. Dre. He started out working on an illicit farm and then was left homeless a few years ago. He got noticed by Dr. Dre just after and was signed to the prestigious Aftermath Entertainment. Soon after he was having one of the most live Wednesday night performances on the door step of my school in Norway. He plays the drums and raps like no other artist I’ve seen. If interested, I linked the words with corresponding live songs I took. His last performance in the U.S. was for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and he’ll be in Palm Springs for any of the Coachella goers after he’s out of Europe. Props to the business school for picking this guy out.

The last weekend of February was a great one. Canada, France and I took a 60 dollar round trip flight to the capital Oslo, Norway. We were greeted by some of the craziest snow athletes in the world at X Games Oslo. Three straight days of pure blue bird and some of the best atmosphere I’ve been around since arriving here. People watched from all over the world to support their countries skiers and snowboarders. I had plenty to root for considering half of the athletes were from stoney Boulder, Colorado.

The X Games after parties were interesting, to say the least. Here’s a link to a quick highlight of the 5 day event, X Games Oslo.

Skål

 

 

programslippfest

So how bout those Broncos? Last night 30 or so of the students watched the Super Bowl on a projector in the common room. We were up past 4 in the morning and it didn’t disappoint, especially after Payton’s shout out to Budweiser in the post game. The NFL is really starting to catch on here in Europe, but after last night I’m convinced half of the people were only interested in Beyoncé. Anyways, congrats on the win J Rodge. I’m glad that Broncos banner hanging in our room last quarter wasn’t for nothing.

This week I got a chance to take the train up to the mountains and it was probably the best skiing I’ve had in a long time. The mountain was covered in soft snow cliffs and the Voss resort was deserted. Compared to the sketchy long drives up to Stevens Pass this was a treat. I got to sit back and relax for a little over an hour as we passed through the Fjords, which had just been coated in snow from the hurricane a week previous. Yes, a hurricane. They called it Thor and it was pretty crazy. I got off the train in Voss and a British guy picked me up in his hippy van, which is used to take the skiers up to the resort on probably one of the snowiest skinniest roads I’ve ever seen. He was bumping Outkast the whole way and I was reminded by one of the biggest reasons I came to Norway. To ski, and to meet people from around the world who love to do the same. It was a great day and I even schemed the next ski trip up with a few Norwegians on the train ride back.

You may be wondering what the title of this post “programslippfest” means and to roughly translate it would be, “program release party.” This night kicked off the beginning of the three week long UKEN festival that will start in February. It was my first opportunity to take pictures for the festival and it was awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever see so many drunk college students in a business school again or rather for it to be politically acceptable. It has a full size bar with an upper level observatory and the room is called the Aulaen. I couldn’t believe how professional the sound, lights and performers were. Here is a link to the flickr account for the event UKEN i Bergen. Keep in mind all of the people putting on this event are students, but it seems some of them have a future in the positions they volunteered for. People come from all over the world just to participate in this event and I feel very lucky to be apart of it. The next UKEN event is called the Full Moon Party, it’s also in the Aulaen where I will not be taking pictures and instead this time celebrating with the Norwegians. Click on the link for an idea of what continues to amaze me as to what is allowed in an educational building.

Well, it’s been a great first month here in Norway. This week I’ll be celebrating my 21st birthday, which I’ll of course be doing in traditional U.S. fashion. This one’s for the carlos boozers.

Skål

A Northern Euro Break

A few things that I am very excited for have developed over the past week here in Norway, I thought I would briefly share them with friends and family back home in Seattle. It’s been getting a little busier lately given that I have started a full schedule now at the Norwegian School of Economics, but this hasn’t gotten in the way of planning a few things.

First off, a week ago I interviewed for a position to volunteer at the school’s music festival that they hold every two years here in Bergen. This is no ordinary school music festival, it’s called UKEN 16 and I’ve embedded the link for those who are interested in more details. It’s endless concerts/shows and is one of the staple cultural events in Norway. It’s headlined this year by Axwell Ingrosso (who headlined a concert I saw at Coachella in 2015) and is the largest student organized music festival held in all of Scandinavia. The coolest part is that it is fully put on by the students at NHH. Lets just say that the students here in Norway seem to have a good amount of money to work with for this three week long party. Going back to the interview now, I heard through many Norwegians that it’s difficult to get selected to participate as an exchange student. This makes sense because it’s only held every two years and Norwegians should have priority. Surprisingly, it seems my early Saturday morning interview went well even after a long night downtown before. I was selected as a photographer for the festival and I could not be more stoked about it. The photographers are getting hooked up with DSLR cameras and backstage passes to all of the concerts that we are attending. We’re even setting sail on a two night full-size booze cruise to Denmark tomorrow. There’s going to be a DJ’d gala with free drinks and an all you can eat buffet with all of the student festival volunteers. There are quite a lot of them, and I’m taking this as a great opportunity to meet Norwegians given their reserved personalities. Maybe I’m just too forward being an American. Although, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been mistaken as a Norwegian only to sadly have to reply in English. Nevertheless, I’ve started a Norwegian course (it’s brutal) and I hope to use some of it in the UKEN volunteer “activities” leading up to the festival.

Secondly, I’ve finally made plans for break and will be checking out in my opinion some of the coolest cities in Northern Europe. I’ve booked a 13 day trip with a few friends for our Easter break. The first stop is London and then we’ll be heading to Amsterdam. Yes, I will be wandering briefly in the Red Light District. Next, we fly out to the fishing town of Copenhagen and will most likely be making a stop to see the Free People of Christiania. Lastly, we are stopping by Prague to see the insane architecture which lies over the many canals. And the best part is that after careful planning we are going to spend a measly 330 dollars on airfare for this excursion. I guess we couldn’t help getting the best bang for our buck being business students.

I hope everyone’s having a good start to 2016 back home. And I’ll be rooting for J Rodge’s Broncos to beat the stoopid dabbed out Panthers in Super Bowl 50.

Skål

The Port

Classy McD’s

Oyster Shots

Week One

It’s been a great first week here in Bergen, Norway. It took me 24 hours of travel to get here, but I can already say it’s going to be a memorable 6 months. They set me up with an apartment view that overlooks the end of the fjord in Bergen, along with the Norwegian School of Economics. It’s not hard to miss the sunrise and sunset considering there are only several hours of daylight now. In a few months it will be light throughout the night which I am very excited for. I’ve seen other students pictures of the mountain top views during the midnight sun and can’t wait to post some of those on here in a few months.

The last few days here have been jam packed with nights at countless pubs in the city, overpriced McDonalds burgers, Norwegian traditional food and did I mention drinking? They love to drink alcohol here and haven’t shied away from making it known to the exchange students at our never ending pre parties, middle parties and post parties. There is even a night club in the downstairs of the business school called Klubben, it is pretty awesome. They also really enjoy their music and I’ve already purchased tickets with friends to artists playing in Bergen, including Axwell Ingrosso and their very own Bergen born Kygo. There are over 150 exchange students from over 40 different countries. And surprisingly, I am the only American male this semester. I’ve met people from more nationalities in these first few days than I ever could have hoped to. I’m excited for what’s to come, but for now I’m going to go watch the NFL game’s. Sco Hawks!

 

Bridge from NHH to my apartment that looks towards the port by the city.

View from my apartment.

Courtyard of NHH.