Day 182: A Day of Note

I have officially been away for exactly half a year.

For curious parties, I'll be back in California the last week of July.

The first few weeks here my dorm building had a few transients who only stayed for a couple of weeks. We've seemed to have settled into the group that will be staying here for awhile: 6 people. It makes for a cozy group, since the building is meant for 24. In theory, this is the short-term dorm, but no one here is actually short term.

Today the Norwegian - we'll call her Tuna, because that's what she said I could call her, because I can't pronounce her real name very well and don't know how to spell it regardless - made waffles for everyone! This was the first time we were all together at the table.



Lot of photos of people you don't know comin' attcha:

The Icelandic couple. I won't embarrass myself by trying to spell their names either:



Tuna - Norwegian:



Mea and Pierre, Swedish and French, respectively:



And just another photo for good measure:



Here's some interesting news: our water pipes have been freezing periodically over the last week, probably because it got done to -55 (C or F, its basically the same down that low). The undrinkable water drama is over, though, so with usually at least our bathroom pipes working we get by. The shower drains freeze pretty much...always.

Oh yes. I went out without my cast for the first time this weekend. First, I noticed that my foot is not the same shape that it used to be (I tried to put on my hiking boot). It's definitely not the same shape. Curious. Secondly, I noticed my ankle basically doesn't work. I thought I was staying in shape from walking to UNIS everyday, but my cast kept me from moving my ankle. It's all...floppy now. We'll get 'er back soon.

In other, cultural news, the market had a big sale on fruit recently, for no reason whatsoever. It was amazing. I went to find some dinner things and there was a big fake palm tree display with oranges and kiwis and pinapples and figs on sale. No seriously, this was wild. I got a pack of kiwis for 9 kroner. That's about $1.50. I assume there was some recent shipment of fruit, but from what I hear places sometimes have random things like this around town in the winter, to keep spirits up. It works.

That's it.

Happy 6-months of adventure, me.