tasting the vinegar

GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON
j. o.

Rådhus

My friend Heather is in town on Daylighting Lab business. I use to work for the Daylighting Lab in Seattle. We did extremely scientific studies on the affect daylight has on architecture. The lab is run by Joel Loveland (Cheers, Joel). Heather is a fellow student at the University of Washington and has come to Europe to take part in the Rome program, which starts on the 26th. (I’ll be seeing her again when I show up down there around that time.) Any rate, Heather is taking some time before the Rome Program starts to look at some hospitals, one of which is here in Oslo. So she’s in town for a couple days. We hung out today. I showed her some buildings I like. We got into the Rådhus, which was awesome. Check it out.







She’s going to the Hospital tomorrow. And we’ll meet for dinner. It’s good to have conversation. I did, however, find out some of my language center’s functionality had begun to atrophy in the last couple of months. But that was quickly overcome and the conversation was had by all.


And also the Oslo City Graffiti Aquarium, still for Jessica:

Building Excitment

I’m starting to get stoked for my trip. I’m a little worried though, and here’s why: I’m going to meet my friend Hope in Paris. Hope is great; I’ve known her for a bunch of years. I’ve been to Machu Pichu with Hope, and my buddy Alex. That was a great trip. Once, Hope and Alex and I drove from Pullman, Washington to Reno, Nevada and back in two days so that I could get my Aunt’s album collection she was storing in her garage after her complete switch to compact discs. (Her records were awesome; she had all this great vinyl from the late sixties through the seventies and eighties. Hundreds of them. When we got there I found out a good part of them had been stolen. I still made it back with over a hundred great records, but it wasn’t what I had thought. These albums now sit in a storage unit in Portland, Oregon under the care of my brother Dustin. Thanks, brother.) The point is I dig traveling with Hope. She lives in Belize now, teaches scuba diving wants to build a resort and is not the reason why I am worried. (Although I haven’t heard form her and don’t know if she got the information for the hotel in Paris, but if she doesn’t show up I’ll deal with that then.) What I am worried about is that I haven’t heard from The German. Some of you know The German. Those who don’t are missing out. Anna, as her friends and family know her, sat across from me the first quarter of Architecture school. She was on a Fulbright and was only suppose to stay a year, but actually graduated this last June from the UW. She is funny. She has a Vizsla named after Hugo Boss and another named Emil after the letter e, I think. She kept a pigeon. She married another German named Armin. She grew up in the Bavarian Alps. She is my good friend. Hope and I are suppose to meet Anna’s in Munich this coming Friday and spend some time there. A week. And although I’m sure it is all cool (Anna and I have been talking about this for a good year) I haven’t heard from her in a month and I don’t know how to get a hold of her in Germany and, well, I leave in three days. This makes me a little edgy. But here’s my plan: If I haven’t heard from her by Wednesday, I’m going to fly to Paris. I’ll spend a couple days there and if I haven’t heard from her by Friday, I’ll fly to Munich. If, when I get to Munich, I find that she is not at the airport, Hope and I will figure it out from there. But good luck getting a hotel since it’s Oktoberfest. At this point maybe a night in the airport, and then hitchhiking to Vals to see the Zumthor Baths before making our way to Venice. Something. So, although I am worried, it is more about Anna and whether or not she is all right. Because it’s just not like her, then what’s going to happen to me and Hope.

To pass the time, here is the Oslo City Graffiti Zoo for Jessica:

Packages and Ruins

Today I woke up feeling all shitty, a stuffed nose, sort of tired. I thought I might be getting a cold, which would suck to get sick just before the whole Paris-Munich-Rome business. I took some vitamins and drank some water and sat for a while waking up. I was really hungry, but I didn’t have any food. So I gathered myself together and decided to go to the grocery. I wasn’t looking forward to it because I only had about 200 kroner to spend and that’s just not a lot. And my head was a little light. But I went out anyway. I go to the store. One of the things I needed was laundry soap, but it’s 30 kroner and that’s a good chunk and I needed these few kroner to stretch until next Wednesday. So I traded the soap for some ramen noodles and got a couple extra meals for the next week. (It’s not all that bad. If I really needed to I could go use my credit card at a bigger store, I’m just trying to save up for this other trip.) I’m not sure what I’ll do about the laundry.

When I got home I checked my mail. Ussually full of flyers and adverts, today there was also a slip for a package. Awesome. It was from my friend Matty C. Made all that more awesome because he sent it in June and, for the nature of these things, the move and such, it didn’t arrive. We had both written it off. But here it was, waiting for me at the Post. I was totally excited. I walked over. They told me it was at another Post. I thought it was the one by my old place. I walked up there. It was raining, but I told myself it was like Christmas. (Mostly because it always rains on Christmas in Seattle). When I got there they said it was at yet another Post. The problem in both cases was I didn’t have my map with me and they kept saying the name of the area in which this Post was. I asked for direction and the lady gave them as best she could with no map and me unable to understand the road names. So I walked across town, with no map and spotty directions and eventually found the place with the package and I’m stoked. Thanks Matt. It has some toothpaste, some real chips, some books and movies and pepperoni sticks and candy. And it is awesome. The perfect thing to pick me up. I’m stoked.

A couple of days ago I went and checked out these ruins in Oslo. They are the king’s residence and a few cathedrals from 1000 A.D.

walks and buildings and rain and television shows

Thursday Friday and Saturday, I circled the city looking for buildings by architects from the first half of the century. I found some pretty cool stuff of these long, leg aching 8-9 mile walks. It was mostly housing I was looking for. Magnus Poulsson, Arnstein Arneberg. Ove Bang. Knut Knutson. It was a good couple of days. Sunny. Mid 60’s.
Arneberg/Poulsson



Magnus Poulsson



Arnstein Arneberg



Ove Bang



Yesterday I stayed in. It rained all day. I need to get some sort of rain slicker or maybe just a hat to wear when it rains so I can go out and look at stuff when there is water falling from the sky. The rain is not a problem, per se, more of a nuisance. I have even been thinking about *GASP* buying an umbrella. Oh my god, nooooooo! Yes. I have lived the better part of three decades in Seattle and I have never owned an umbrella. What for? You get wet – you dry off. Not a big deal. It rains a lot in the Northwest, but it’s not unpleasant. Well, let me tell you, Seattle has met it match in Oslo. And the rain isn’t unpleasant here either, it’s just thick, knuckle sized drops pelting the world in satisfied fury. And it’s only going to get worse. And I was thinking that if I had an umbrella I could sketch under it. But I’m not sure I’m convinced. I think I’d look like and idiot with an umbrella. I’d feel like an idiot with an umbrella. And is it worth that to stay dry when, in truth, I would just dry off on my own? I’ll probably end up just getting a hat.
It’s sunny again today. So I’ll go take some photos. I think I’m going to go to St. Hallvard and explore the area around there. St. Hallvard is a pretty cool church by Lund & Saaloto. We visited it when I was here last. It’s got this great ceiling I’ll try to get some photographs of.
That’s been the last couple of days. Pretty uneventful really. About the most exciting thing has been that I have recently opened up an account at iTunes where I can download television shows. And this is pretty exciting. I watched the second season of Battlestar Galactica. If you haven’t seen this show, check it out. It’s really well written, plus there are Cylons. Anyway, they have the first two seasons of Lost, which I’ve heard was all right. And The Office which is comedy. And pretty soon Apple will be offering movies for download. So my entertainment is set for the winter months. It’s pretty cheap too. Well, reasonable anyway.
Check out the map under the Photographic Albums link to see where some of these buildings are.
Pigeons

Graffiti