November 14
Wow, long time no post. But I have sort of a legitimate reason. I think. From November 2nd to November 9th I was in Norway with my corridor mates and friends, and I figured I would late until returning to make some new posts.
Norway was incredible. For natural landscapes, it is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited. It fit what mental picture I had of Scandinavia when I saw the Norwegian landscape.
We had a large entourage. From our corridor, we had me, Frieder, Eddy, Helene, Marion, Judith, and Yuko (the last two came later). Eddy’s friends Geoffrey and Yahia came, and Frieder’s friend Paul came too. 
Paul and Eddy drove us all the way up from Lund to the house where we stayed, a good 7 hour drive. Helene had found a secluded house that was about 45 minutes northwest of Oslo. The house blew away any expectations we had. It was actually two houses, a large one and small one. Each were completely furnished with full fledged kitchen, spacious living areas, comfortable rooms, and house stereo, tv, dvd player, everything. It was located just 5 meters from the Tyrifjord/lake. They had boats and canoes and we could use all the equipment. It really was amazing, and all for an extremely affordable price because we were there during the off season.
It was mostly a time of relaxation for everyone, and relax we did. Woke up and had coffee while gazing out over the fjord with its fog shrouded mountain ridges.
Went out onto the lake with the boats and admired the Norwegian landscape.
Watched movies and played games at night. One day we took a day trip north of the house to explore more of the country-side and do some hiking. 
Another day we went to Oslo to see the town. It’s a modest unassuming capital.
Another huge thing we did was to film a scary movie. Frieder and I thought of the idea before leaving, and we worked out loosely the story we’d tell. And during the stay there, we used everyone and did a lot of filming. It was a little tricky to manage it at times, because it was supposed to be a vacation but doing the movie does take work to do. We filmed everything there and currently we are working on finishing the movie. It so far runs at around 21.5 minutes. We’re going to eventually make a DVD of it. But we also had a lot of fun while filming it too. It was great fun. 
Back here in Lund the weather has finally turned wintry. It has been overcast/rainy with heavy winds. It is getting dark here too very early like it did in Norway. At around 4:30pm it is completely night. I have to write an essay in the next few days for my Scandinavian Culture class, which is ending in about two weeks. I am presenting the essay I finished before Norway on Wednesday. I also need to start working on the final essay for the Role of Religion in the Middle East Conflict class. That will be about 10 pages long, but there is a lot of material for it.
Last Thursday Frieder, Paul, and I went to another Lund Giants hockey game. It ended in a tie, but I got a game puck that flipped out of the rink after being deflected off the goalie’s pad. It is a great souvenier. Poor Franz didn’t get any ice time, but we’re hoping he’ll play next game.
Lishuang is off traveling through Germany, Austria, and Italy. Eddy, Helene, and Marion are heading to Russia and Estonia next week. We are having a birthday party for Christian next friday. Today was very strange. I woke up at around 11am or so after going to bed at 3am. I felt ok, but fell asleep again. I woke up next at almost 3pm! It was crazy…really heavy intense REM sleep. I really haven’t been dreaming much while I sleep over here, but I guess today my brain just said enough is enough and did a LOT. Really weird…
Anyway, make sure you check out my Norway pictures here: http://www.saketvora.com/photos/norway/index.html and email with how you are doing. Leave comments!
