18 May

The weather today was the sucks. 45 degrees with steady wind and rain. I slept in until 1 pm in protest and then ventured into the city with my two German roommates: Marcus and Michael. They are visiting for just a few days - they flew here via RyanAir and rented a car.

Unfortunately Oslo is much less beautiful when it is wet and gray-tinted, so I did not take nearly as many pictures today. Also - all the museums and attractions except for the parks were closed...so there was little to do. The highlight of my day was definitely going out for a Norwegian dinner! I ate super cheap on my first few days here, so I wanted to splurge and have something authentic. Tonight I had wasabi and cucumber glazed salmon with beans and potatoes with a soy reduction. Glass of wine too. It all came to 300 NOK (a little under 50 dollars including tip and tax). Pricey, but I wanted to eat some real Norwegian food.

Another thing I want to do is post more pictures, but my wireless will only work for 2 minutes at a time now, requiring restarts in between. This only gives me enough time to load 90% of a picture before the connection dies. No one else is having any problems. I spent a while cruising forums for a solution and I found out that there are hundreds of people having the same problems with their macbooks. No solution from Apple or elsewhere has worked. If any of you reading at home have some advice, let me know. I have tried just about everything. On an unrelated note, if anyone wants wants to punch an Apple Genius in the face, you have my blessing.

More to come later - I have to yield this free internet console to a couple of Russian teenagers.