Corrections, clarifications, and other words that start with C

C is for cookie it's good enough for me...

Cookie cookie cookie, cookie starts with C

Ok yeah so maybe I'm a little delirious.

The other day I was emailing with Dianne, who was my high school librarian.  Dianne is a wonderfully sweet lady, who has had many exchange students over the years from all over the world.  She asked one of her former exchange students, Magnus, who is from Norway what the little green signs meant.  He said that they are to indicate emergency exits.  Aha, so I wasn't too far off with my guess of "go this way in case of zombie apocalypse." Because if a zombie apocalypse is not an emergency, then I don't know what is.  Also he said that "lys sirup" was not honey, but in fact corn syrup.  D'oh!  So now I found actual honey, which in fact is called "honning".  Interesting.

I've been pretty sick the last couple of days with a cold.  Probably because when I left LA, it was sunny and in the 80s (fahrenheit) and since I've been in Bergen it's been raining and in the 50s.  I took a couple more pictures of random, everyday items. 

Like the money:

Left to right: 20, 10, 5, and 1 NOK

These are the coins.  The money here is called Norwegian Krones.  Norway is not part of the EU because it would bring their economy down.  Seriously.  To convert to US dollars, it's a bit more than if you divide by 6, but a little less than dividing by 5.  So the coins are about $4, $2, $1, and $0.25. Speaking of money, things are quite expensive here.  The first couple of days I took the bus, it was 25NOK each way.  Then I bought a monthly bus pass and it was about $125.

A couple of people have asked me about the food.  So far the two most interesting things I have seen are these.  Caviar in a tube & these little individual espresso packages that can be inserted directly into a machine still wrapped.  There were several choices for the caviar in a tube.  I think this one is cod (at least according to google translate).

And last but not least...one day the sun was out for a few minutes so I went outside and took a picture of the building where I live.

Home for the next 3 months

Bergen Day 2

Well apparently I am not yet over the jet-lag because I woke up at 2am wide awake.  Also I seem to be coming down with a cold.  In a vain attempt to outwit the virus, I went shopping this morning to try to find some chicken soup and some honey for my tea.  If you've never been shopping in a foreign language, you should try it sometime.  Below is a picture I took of the items I purchased.  I did ok, the "lys syrup" was actually honey, but the "blomkalsuppe" which I had hoped was some sort of chicken-based soup, turned out to be cauliflower soup.  Ah well.  At least the "appelsin" juice had pictures of oranges on it.  2 out of 3 isn't bad. And the "havsalt" is actually sea salt, which was a lucky guess b/c it had salt in the name.

Grocery guesses

There is one mystery I have yet to solve, and that is the meaning of these green signs which seem to be over most but not all doors. My guess is that it's preparation for the zombie apocalypse. 

In case of apocalypse, go this way to avoid zombies

Here is the key to my room that I'm afraid I'll forget to take with me some time when I go to the kitchen & also the button you have to push to exit the building every time that I definitely keep forgetting.

key

magic button to open door (right)

Well the sun popped out for a few minutes today, so I snapped a few pictures outside my apartment building.  Enjoy! 

Across the street from my building

Also across the street from my building

 

Zoomed in on a church(?)

 

The view to my left

 Down the hill that I walk down each morning to catch the bus (my building is off to the right of the picture)

zoomed in version of previous picture

Norwegians like to build their houses on the slopes of the 7 mountains that surround the city

I wonder who lives here...

Ok, well maybe the sun wasn't quite out all the way, but at least the fog had cleared a bit. :)  Apparently after taking pictures of everything AROUND my building, I neglected to take a picture of my actual building. D'oh!

My first full day in Bergen

After being delayed a full 24 hours, I finally arrived in Bergen on Sunday afternoon local time. The head of the lab where I will be working picked me up from the airport and drove me to the University guest house where I will be staying.  He also brought me new bed linens, towels, and the ever-important umbrella.  (see below)

Umbrella with the University of Bergen logo

Shortly after I finished unpacking, I fell asleep around 5:30pm local time and didn't wake up until the next morning (today) at 7:30. Hopefully that does it for the jet-lag.

This morning I went exploring the city a bit before heading into work around 1pm.  Everyone here is so incredibly nice! The city itself is gorgeous.  There are about 250,000 people.  Most of the buildings are wooden and unique.  So far it has been cloudy and rains on and off all the time.  Below are a couple of pictures that I took today.  I think if you click on each one, it will open up as a full-size image.

Check out the marine layer!

Presumably there are mountains somewhere underneath all the fog...

I don't know what this building is, but I thought it looked cool.

Beautiful panorama of the "pond" in the middle of the city.  A great landmark for orienting myself!

Australia part I

So I was digging through photos on my computer & I ran across some from my trip to Australia a couple of years ago.  This first set proves my theory that everything in Australia can and will kill you if given the chance.  See for yourself...

Sure he looks innocent, but you don't want to know what he keeps in those holes.

This is the legendary pokey bird, famous for gouging out eyes with that beak.  Best to wear protective goggles when these birds are near.

Eww a snake!

AAAHHH! It's a croc!

Don't worry, they're safe to hold when they're babies...so long as they have a rubber band around their snout. Note: it's important to close your eyes so that the baby croc can't turn you into stone.

Fun fact: I was actually stung by a jellyfish while snorkeling, even though I was wearing a wetsuit. It was a tiny one though, not like the ones pictured here.

These ferocious turkeys will steal your clothes while you're swimming.  They like to use them as disguises for when they rob banks.

These giant flowers have been known to devour small children whole, so it's great if your kids aren't behaving.

Pictured here is the rare cassowary. They are often made of stone & are seen with tourists leaning on them.  This photo was taken mere moments before the cassowary bit off the head of my friend Jess.

This is a zombie bird.  You can tell by the red eyes.  Not very fast, but they see well in the dark.  Approach with extreme caution.  Use fire when possible.

See here the ranger is pointing out how foolish I am to be holding the deadly flesh tearing macaw.  What he didn't know is that I had just dusted my skin with macaw poison. Smashe 1-Macaw 0.

On the hunt--this guy hunts by the smell of blood.

Poor girl, these lizards are about to bore holes into her skull and suck her brains out.

What's he plotting you might ask?

Aha, he switched brains (and hats) with the ranger. Dastardly!

This lady spins a web to catch unsuspecting prey

Then does a victory march on a leaf

No matter where you are, you never know who or what is watching you...

Top 7 reasons why I would live in Quebec City if it were closer to the equator

7. The view

6. The way you know which stores have bread

5. Apparently the giants here keep potted plants

4. Little guys in top hats hanging from wires

3. Random acts of fire on a street corner

2. Free Cirque du Soleil (this is a girl with about 9000 hula hoops all going at once)

1. Poutine!

Oh the French...

Canadians that is.

I recently went to Quebec City for a conference on human brain mapping.  Besides eating ham and cheese in every possible form, I also did a ghost walking tour with my friend Yaling.  Essentially this woman was dressed in clothes from the mid-1700s and wore makeup like a ghost and said that she had died in 1750, but while she was living, she was married to the executioner.  Fun fact: executioners only became executioners if they were on death row when the current executioner died. During this tour, we walked all around the city learning how and where people were killed.  My favorite mode of death was "the wheel" where the criminal in question was first tied to a sideways cross and then a blunt object was used to break most of the bones in the criminal's body. Then the broken body was interlaced through the spokes of a wheel and the criminal was left to die in the public square.  Apparently public executions were the entertainment of choice before TV was invented. 

Ok, so apparently I didn't get any pictures of our tour guide, but I "borrowed" this one from Yaling's fb page. {Thanks Yaling!}

I did, however, take this cool picture of a carving in the wall next to where we met for our ghost tour.