Civilization!

Hi everyone! So today I'm in an especially good mood because I was in a TOWN today! I got up at the crack of dawn to go into Forde (pronounced Firda), a town of about 15,000 people an hour away from campus. The bus ride there was absolutely incredible, I simply must go back and see some of the waterfalls we passed again. I've honestly never seen anything like white streams of water flowing down entire mountains into a fjord.

Forde was a much needed break from all the isolation and nature of the college. Every once in awhile, it's nice to just exercise some good old American capitalism and buy stuff. Haha. I almost cried because there are actual malls in Forde. They even have an H&M! I mean, Atlanta can't manage to get an H&M, but a town in the middle of nowhere, Norway has one. It was great, I wanted to buy everything.I walked around every inch of Forde, just to see what was there. I even managed to order a lunch of a calzone and a Coke. The calzone was heaven (hot food! pizza-like! familiar!), and the Coke was interesting. It's different than American Coke! Not in a bad way, just less sugar but thicker Coke syrup. Strange, right? I even figured out all on my own how to tell the people in the stores that I don't speak Norwegian. I was quite proud: Eg snakke ikkje norsk! Haha.

Even though most people spoke English, it was still a bit frustrating not to know Norwegian. I felt completely separated from everything that was going on around me. For some reason, I felt like everyone could tell that I didn't belong, you know? Like, I was walking around and doing the same things, but I was more of an observer from the outside looking in. It was such a strange, lonely feeling. Surreal, to say the least.

Sorry, no pictures of Forde as it wasn't really the most attractive place. To me, it sure looked like the most beautiful place in the world today, what with all the shops and restaurants, but in reality it's pretty ugly. Oh well. Obviously not all bad, because now I'm sitting here in some new clothes getting ready to read National Geographic! That's right, I managed to find a copy of the newest National Geographic in English! Quite a nice reminder of what I'm working towards here. Also, maybe it will help keep me a bit more in the loop about current events, which is nice. It's easy to get caught up in what I call the "bubble effect" here. It's like nothing can touch this campus or the people here. Anyways, time for some R&R before the cabin party tonight! Peace and love.