NORWAY (DRAFT)

Norway
Cold, cloudy, and beautiful. Both the landscape and the people. Oslo reminds me of British Columbia / Vancouver in Canada. Super clean, very modern, diverse, and eco conscious. Oslo is actually a smaller city – only about 500,000 but there are many small towns around Oslo that make it one of Europe’s largest capitals. Things are crazy expensive here – try $10 for a Heineken!!! You only live once right – so drink away.
I have learned so much here – Oslo has the Parisian charm – quaint little café’s complete with red lights, awnings, and blankets. It is a city that is immensely focused on art, culture, theatre, and music. The Norwegian people however are quiet. They are not super outgoing and the only people I have really met here are all Spanish.
Things I have done in Norway….
Went to the Opera – the Opera House is a work of Art. It is perhaps one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen! It certainly gives the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain a run for its money in terms of sleek lines, glass, and its surrounding environment. I saw an amazing Ballet – TORNERROSE in Norwegian. Not sure what it means in English but I think it was Sleeping Beauty. It is truly Amazing – the costumes were so impressive and the grace and passion of the dancers was mesmerizing and immeasurable.
Before that I spent 2 hours at the Nobel Peace prize museum. Norway is actually the country that lays fame to this infamous prize. The exhibit on display is something that I feel very passionate about. They had these small 8x8 cubicles set up. 4 walls and a TV screen on each wall. In the middle sits one small stool. Before you enter there is a placard telling you about a country – Indonesia, India, Venezuela, and Kenya. It tells you about the myriad problems the country has – poverty, aids, crime, etc… The screens come to life with vivid images of poverty, squalor, pollution, and the lives of the people who live there. Each side of your cubicle comes to life and then people in broken English tell you there story – and share their homes with you. Living in a shanty town – under a bridge, in a cardboard box… Working 18 hour days, constantly having to leave their home due to weather or government eviction and sharing the same space with up to 16 members of their family with no electricity, open sewers, and no running water.
Visiting this museum reminds me of why I travel – awareness. I think awareness is the biggest and best attribute we have as human beings. I also believe awareness is the most overlooked. So many people go to school for only the education necessary to get their job – they do not go to school for the reason of self exploration or to become a better citizen, friend, or partner. You can save a life as a doctor but can you truly realize what it is like to live? An engineer can construct anything yet can they effectively lay the foundation for understanding. My point – we as human beings were not born to work we were born to live. To love, to understand, to appreciate, to embrace the sun, wind, good and evil. I must have missed that class at the University.

Education often began long ago with travel, conversations, critical thought, and exploration. Epistemology and or pedagogy were something sacred and desired. Knowledge was also being cultured and versed in the ways of the world and the lay of the land. Looking back through history there has been many thoughts that now seem absurd. How many of our thoughts and beliefs remain unquestioned? Just because you read it, learned it from a $30, 000 a year university or an acclaimed professor
Me… Do I want to be a psychologist? Probably not – Do I want to understand behavior (mine and others), comprehend how others think, and hone in on the skills critical to effective listening and communication. Absolutely! Psychology is the study of how we get what we want in life – and the conduit of gratification is behavior. Some do it with words, others do it power. Some resort to manipulation.
I guess the verbosity is not my goal here – what is my goal to


ALONE
Companionship is something that one who is very secure with themselves should be able to live without. Being alone and in my head almost every waking moment of every day gives me lots of time to think. Thoughts such as how would I truly feel if I was all alone? W