Nobel Laureate Prizes! Hey all...can you believe all 4 prizes (medicine, physics, chemistry & economics) that have been announced so far have been awarded to professors from the USA?! Unbelievable! It certainly begs the question; is USA the knowledge capital of the world? The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday the 13th, here in Oslo. It is a HUGE event! I will try to get photos...
FUN FACTS:
Did you know only 33 women have been awarded, 731 men.
In 1915, the youngest laureate was awarded, 25 years old!
2 Nobel Laureates have declined the prize.

Photo: The Nobel Peace Prize Center in Oslo & one of many Vigeland's statues, bearing it all!

And then there was SUN!

Went for a beautiful hike yesterday, it was sunny! I am starting to feel better (I was sick), the sun is shining! I turned in my paper, the sun was shining! It rained for 3 days straight, now the sun is shining!

Life is GOOD! My sister and papa fly into Oslo on Friday afternoon and we head off to Cinque

Terre, Italy on Saturday.

So, here are a few questions my dear friend Karen wants to know more about...so, I thought this might make for an interesting blog.
Questions for Leasa:
* How do you cope without Oprah? You won't believe this but Oprah is alive & kickin' in Norway, with Norwegian subtitles! How cool is that? She comes on every afternoon at 4 p.m. Mostly re-runs but I'll take Oprah anyway I can get her. She is just amazing!!
* Have you found any new music?I get about 15 channels on the TV and two of them are like MTV, except they actually play music videos 24/7. Voice is my favorite! I have to admit I fancy the Norwegian rap here...they like to dress up like cowboys in the videos and most of them are white. Check out Karpe Diem, "Show" is a good song.
* Do you miss Moe's Bagel with egg and provolone on an everything bagel? YES!!! Dad, can you pack one of those in your luggage??
* Have you had a Chai in Oslo? The chai is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G here in Norway. They love to latte everything, so the milk is always frothy and with a little touch of honey, it's heaven. However, it's not cheap...30 kroners ($5 US).
* How are your roomates? How is your Kitchen? The kitchen is something to be desired...ick! But, I have become accustomed to cleaning before I start cooking. However, I have to give props to my flatmates, since our flat meeting everyone has been considerate of cleaning their own dishes. It is rare to find dishes in the sink...but it's NOT rare to find gooey, ooey, nasty-ness on the stove!
* Are you the Teacher's pet yet? No! I don't get enough face time with "the pope of international higher education." He is a busy man...traveling, writing, blessing people...
* Do you have a crush yet? No comment...he might be reading this!
* How excited are you to have your family coming for a visit??!! I'm jumping up and down, doing the "Leasa happy dance." The funniest thing...I have two mattresses coming in and we are all going to stay in my tiny room the first night. We must catch a bus at 5 a.m., so we all need to be in one place. One big happy family! I know how to treat my guests to luxury! Wanna come visit?
* And what are they bringing you that you discovered you need or want? I sent my mom & sister a list...capsicum heat pads, travel blowdryer, chocolate chips, hair color, betty crocker cake mix, shower curtain, disinfectant wipes and a BIG bottle of TEQUILA. They sell a small bottle of tequila for 300kroner=$50US.
* How do you keep up on World news? I heart BBC world news. There is one channel with BBC news 24/7. You actually get a feel for what is going on around the world, not just Bush talking nonsense. It is a breath of fresh air! My morning routine is no longer NPR & Celestial Seasonings tea, now it's BBC & Celestial Seasonings tea. How cool is it that they sell Celestial Seasonings right here in Oslo?!

Photos: A sunny day by the water, aker brygge & the fortress wearing fall colors (top), amazing sunset shots, aker brygge & downtown lights (middle), a sunny day in my room-where I will be hosting my sister & dad, we are a close-knit family (bottom).

Deep thoughts by Leasa...
-I have just realized that all of my bedroom furniture is from Ikea (I was really bored and trying my hardest to find distractions from writing my paper.)

-Norwegians don't believe in waiting for others to get off the bus before they fight there way on the bus. Especially those mothers with strollers, man they will take you out without even batting an eye!

-The wild blueberries

are GONE! I went out hiking yesterday with dreams of blueberry muffins and my dream was destroyed. (Yet, another distraction to writing my paper.) Autumn has officially arrived.

-It costs more to get to/from the airport ($42) than a roundtrip flight to Pisa, Italy ($34) (another great distraction-travel planning).

-I have no classes this week, just a whole lotta time to procrastinate. My paper is due Monday.

-Today I sat in the computer lab from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. with a lunch break. I think I made some progress. I have learned I cannot write my paper at home in my tiny room. There are too many distractions (furniture, TV, e-mail, blueberries, laundry, dirt on the floor, staring at the wall, traveling plans, tea to make, people to watch out the window.) Let this be a lesson for me! As I have a 70 page thesis to write in one short year.

Photos: Autumn berries (top left), the Angry Boy in Vigeland's Park (middle), King Karl Johans statue outside Royal Parliment (bottom)

ROUNDTRIP FLIGHT TO ITALY-$34!!! Serious! RyanAir is this cheap, no-frills airline that flys to various European cities. My dad & sister are visiting me October 13-21 and we will spend 5 days in Cinque Terre, Italy. How cool is that? But before I get too excited, I need to put my nose in the book or rather laptop, as I have my second paper due Monday. I am writing on the internationalization of higher education in the U.S. It is quite interesting and a little disappointing because the more I research, the more I realize America is beginning to lag behind in terms of being the "leader" in international education. Europe is on top of their game! There is a huge effort right now, the Bologna Process, to open the European higher education area to make mobility and access easier.

Photos: More photos from Lofoten Islands, Norway!

I was NORTH of the ARCTIC CIRCLE! I just returned from a long weekend in the Lofoten Islands 795 miles far north of Oslo where the majestic, yet naked mountains protrude from the ocean and the best place to lay your head down is in an old fisherman's rorbuer. Our stay on the 67th degree parallel north was far from boring!

My travel partner, Greg, the Aussie stepped into a hole while hiking, and slammed his elbow into a rock-face. It turned out his scream wasn't because he saw a troll but rather was the bellow of a man who had just dislocated his elbow. I wanted to freak out when I saw the pain he was in but I tried to stay calm and get him down the mountain. We then got to experience the Norwegian health care system complete with a 72 kilometer ambulance ride through amazingly beautiful terrain, a lot of morphine and a bunch of non-English speaking, kangaroo joke-making Doctors. Needless to say, Greg's elbow was finally snapped back into place and not only did Greg sleep in the hospital, but so did I. As I missed the last bus back to our peaceful rorbuer on the other side of the island.

After a restless night in a hospital bed, complete with numerous games of solitaire, I rented a car and journeyed back to our fisherman's cabin. A wonderful stop at Maren Anna was a lunchtime highlight where I bypassed the whale and reindeer on the menu and went for the salmon sandwich. It is autumn on the islands and the colors are changing and so are the northern lights, our last night was illuminated by green lights on the horizon. What a stunning place, it reminded me a great deal of my time in Valdez, Alaska!

GLOBALIZATION...does it really exist???! This past week we were honored by the presence of a Professor from the U.S., Dr. Bruce Johnson. This dude is pretty amazing, his CV is 25 pages long. He started his career as an assistant to Walter Mondale and grew into the Chancellor for the State University of New York System. He has done extensive research on the financing of higher education; cost-sharing, loans, grants, etc. So, our latest "controversial" discussion was on globalization and if it even exists or if it is the western culture (free market, capitalism, technology, etc.) being forced upon the rest of the world. Is knowledge, the primary foundation of higher education, so powerful that is could be used as a weapon? Wow, this one has me in a tail spin...what do you think?

AUTUMN EQUINOX, BLUEBERRIES & A FRIEND FROM HOME! Ashley, a former CU-Boulder student of mine, is studying in Sweden for the year and visited me in Oslo this weekend. It was nice to see a familiar face and talk in detail about the phat Illegal Pete's burrito and other Boulder nuances that are missed...
On Thursday p.m. my Norwegian classmate invited us to partake in the annual Aker River Light Festival. The walk is a celebration of the autumn equinox and we were among 25,000 Norwegians walking along the river being entertained by choirs, musicians, trolls, light sculptures and glowing ghosts. It was pretty cool...since we are losing sunlight quicker than Floyd Landis lost the yellow jersey.

On Saturday Ash & I went on a big hike-15km and stopped at the cutest little Norwegian cabin, Skjennungstua. This antiquated cabin was adorable and cozy. It is one of those little cabins where you just want to cuddle up in a fuzzy blanket with some hot tea and a good book. All of the cabins in the woods are known for their "homebaked goods" and this particular cabin baked delicious blueberry muffins and bread. We were inspired by the blueberry muffins and on our hike down the mountain, we stopped and picked wild blueberries and baked our own amazing muffins when we got home.
Photos: (1) Pre-Aker River light festival, tasting some aass beer (Ash, Preet, Ali & Me). (2) The light festival crowd and some crazy lights. (3-4) Ashley at Skjennungstua cabin and another shot of the cabin and the delicious baked goods. (5) Picking wild blueberries.

LOSING DAYLIGHT BY THE MINUTE! Fall is in the air and the leaves are beginning to fall. We are losing on average 4-5 minutes of daylight everyday. Today the sun rises at 7:03 a.m. and it goes down at 7:15 p.m. In 2 weeks, October 7 the sunrise is at 7:37 a.m. and the sunset at 6:33 p.m. On Halloween (which Norwegians DO NOT celebrate), October 31, the sunset will be at 4:25 p.m. Click HERE to see the nifty sunrise/set clock.
Photo: The Royal Palace in Oslo at sunset.

Happy Birthday Preet!
Tonight was too much fun...a whole lot of Indian food & homemade desserts ( Malodova apple cake, Pakistan coconut cake, American chocolate cake & Norwegian brownies).

There was a whole lotta aass (beer), cake fights, "action photos", feeding each other Norwegian brownies, homemade Naan bread, enough camera flashes to make it feel like a nightclub and there were even a few bollywood dance moves.

The longer I am HERE, the more I LOVE OSLO! Today, I finally had some free time. This past week has been pretty intense with classes, seminars and reading. Our semester schedule is much different than what I got used to in the States (10 LONG years ago), there is no consistency. We have 4 units this semester and we just finished up unit 2 in one week. Unit 2 covered literature, lectures and discussion on the "processes" of Higher Education which included: teaching & learning, curriculum, discipline classification and accreditation. Did you know that Europe just started accreditating Universities in the last 5 years? The U.S. has been doing it for over 50 years. The U.S. tends to be the model in many areas within Higher Education. But watch out, the EU is not too far behind, the European Commission on Higher Education came together in 2000 and developed initiatives with the intention of becoming the world leader in Higher Education by 2010. Not too sure that is going to happen, but some pretty cool and innovative initiatives (like this scholarship-Erasmus Mundus.) grew out of it.

Needless to say, I was more than ready for Friday (today)! So, this morning I had a class and then went to the Doctors office to get a prescription refill (that will be a whole different entry in my blog.) Then, I headed down to the pier, aker brygge which is just beautiful on a sunny fall afternoon. I sat on a bench down by the old (early 1900's) sail boats and ate a chicken tandoori sandwich while the seagulls befriended me and waited patiently for some bread. After some shopping at the aker brygge mall, I walked over to the Akershus Fortress, across the pier. I found a bench in the sun and unzipped the backpack and pulled out (yes!) my literature for Unit 3. Woo...I'm trying to stay ahead of the reading! And to be quite honest, I am thoroughly enjoying the material (some of my classmates think I'm crazy). It is SO interesting to me! I guess that means I chose the right program.

YOGA IN NORWEGIAN! I can officially say that I have taken a yoga class in a foreign language and still managed to reach the inner peace and tranquility that results from yogifying yourself. However, downward dog becomes extremely difficult when you are continuously looking up at the teacher to watch for the next pose.

I joined the rec center at the University, called Domus Athletica (see picture). It was 600kroner=96US for the fall semester and there are many FREE drop-in classes to choose from; cycling, aerobics, yoga, stretch, ball, etc. I actually looked into teaching a cycling class but it was too late in the semester.

Last week, Preet and I tried out our squash skills for the first time and it was quite entertaining (see picture). We hit the lighting fixture in the ceiling more than the wall. Domus is a nice facility and the cardio room is awesome! The equipment is top of the line...treadmills, circuit, free weights. But, if you go during the prime times (4-8 p.m.) you will probably be stuck waiting (time to check out all of the audacious hair-do's). I am also planning to join the ski & snowboard club even though I will only be here until December. From what I understand, they have weekly training nights which might be kinda fun plus I need to meet myself a Norwegian ski guide. Namaste

5 Hr. WALK IN THE WOODS x 2...You all know how much I love the great outdoors, the sun and the mountains! So, this weekend was probably one of the best weekends I have spent in Oslo. I discovered that right outside of the city limits there are an ungodly amount of forest trails. The topping on the cake: it was an unseasonably warm weekend for September (70 degrees).

The International Student Office here at the Uni. organizes excursions, movie series and trips for International students. I signed up for the "Walk in the Woods" on Saturday and discovered that the beautiful lake in my backyard (Sognsvann) is just the beginning of an amazing myriad of trails, lakes and cabins. I chose the "adventurous & hard" route and tour guide. It was a beautiful hike and we stopped along the route for some blueberry picking and some mushroom education (see pics). The trail was well marked, muddy and rocky...hence the "adventurous" description of this particular route. This trail also serves as a nordic trail in the winter.

A few of my Chinese classmates joined the hike and I met 2 really nice Germans who are here for a 3 month research project in Chemistry. There are many students who come here for a short period to conduct research. Anyhow, the hike ended about 5.5 kilo's from the bottom of the lake. There is a "serviced hut" at the top where you can purchase snack items and chocolate (chocolate is a BIG snack item here and it's really GOOD!) The trails are like major highways as many Norwegian families bike or walk to picnic at one of the many "serviced huts" on the weekend, especially on nice sunny days. The Norwegians LOVE the outdoors and the SUN...I think it's because there isn't much SUN in the winter. Something to look forward to...

On Sunday, a few of my classmates and I journeyed to the northern end of Oslo and discovered yet another load of trails. This area is the local ski hill-Tryvann and the views are incredible. It sits a little higher than the ski jump and you can see the entire Oslo fjord. After a few hours of hiking, we found the "serviced hut" and indulged in cinnamon rolls and the typical Norwegian b-fast-waffles with cream & jam. YUMMY!!!

10 More FUN FACTS!

1.) For all of my girls back home...check this out!!! The maternity leave here is 1 year off, 80% of your salary PAID! Can you believe that? And there is a bonus to that spankin' deal...it is mandatory that all daddy's (mack-daddy's) take off one month. Now I understand why there are so many baby-bearing women here in Oslo...I was starting to think there was something in the water.

2.) Forget the trash...it's called "rubbish"!

3.) New slang word..."bugga". That is a bugga! It comes from the British vernacular and it's quite a great word. Try it, "oh that is a bugga!" But be careful...bugger n. adj. v. Another superb multi-purpose Brit word. Buggery is sodomy but the word has far more uses than this. Calling someone a bugger is an inoffensive insult (in a similar way to "git") and telling someone to bugger off is a friendlier alternative to the f-word. It can also be used as a stand-alone expletive in a similar way to "bollocks" - "Oh, bugger!"

4.) The bread here in Oslo is to die for. It is full of grains and there is absolutely no white bread, except hot dog buns. Which brings me to my next fun fact...

5.) Norwegians LOVE their hotdogs. But, they are not American style weiners (not weimers), they are long and wrapped with bacon. Even as long as they are, they still insist to eat them on the short, white buns.

6.) Wine and alcohol are extremely expensive here in Norway. The liquor business is run by the government, hence they can jack up the price. A bottle of tequila costs 400NOK=64US and that's for a regular size bottle of Jose Cuervo. The typical wine price is 100NOK=16US and that's for a Jacob's Creek...sorry Aussies, but that's nothing too special.

7.) Norway is the most trustful country! Everyday I take public transportation to get to school, downtown, etc. and I have never been checked to see if I had paid the fare. Of course I have paid, but it blows my mind that there is no system of ensuring you have paid before jumping on the subway, bus, boat or lightrail. It gives me faith that the core of mankind is truthful and honest.

8.) Oh, how I could sink my teeth into an egg and cheese with tomato on Italiano (Moe's bagel)!

9.) The frozen pizzas here are pretty damn good. Almost Nick n Willy quality...ha, ha! My classmates and I had a frozen pizza party...we are truly college students.

10.) I found a FREE TV in the stairwell, that actually works really well. (See TV in the picture above.) We have free cable here so all I had to do was purchase a cable and I was good to go. Now, I can watch the Animal Planet 24/7. SWEET!

Photos: My room (top), Another troll (middle), Watch your head for ski-jumpers (middle), Ali (Brazilian) eating a PBJ for the first time EVER (bottom)