I so enjoy listening to the Nordic languages. Though I didn't grow up with the opportunity to hear my great-grandparents speaking in their native tongue, it just feels like home: the way words are held in the mouth and gently rolled about, the sing-song prosodic rise and fall of speech lending itself to the clucking…

Thursday morning offered some blue sky views, a promising change from the forecast of rain all day long. We took a tour of Oslo City Hall and pretended we were laureates as we stood in the grand hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each December 10 at 1:00 pm. Then we were off…

I got up just after 5:00 am to take a run before a day on the bus. I’m not a great runner, and only recently have I started to feel anything other than dread at the thought of running, but the anticipation of being stuck sitting for 5 hours on the bus spurred me out…