Welcome Baby Girl Scott!

Evelyn Grace Scott joined proud parents Becky and Kevin at 8:32 am PDT on October 24, 2006, weighing 7 lb 12.5 oz, measuring 20.5 inches! She has a full head of red hair and a cute button nose!

While I don't want to say I'm "officially" an aunt since I'm already Auntie Fancy to two VERY cute baby girls (Annabelle and Halle), I will say that I am now "biologically" - an aunt!

Ha det bra!

Ciao e Ciao Ciao!

For the past 10 days I've been busy vacationing, relaxing, hanging out, and drinking cheap wine in Northern Italy with four of my friends from Florida - Keith, Keri, Annabelle, and Ben (alright- we weren't ALL drinking wine...Annabelle!). The week+ long vacation was full of fun and adventure - which started the minute I got to Italy!

I flew into Milan Bergamo on Saturday, October 14th. Keith, Keri, Annabelle, and Ben had flown in earlier that day to Milan's main airport, picked up the rental car and then came and found me (of course AFTER stopping off for gelato first!). I found Keri with ease - after all she had a "Fancy" sign! :) Our first problem was when we attempted to add my luggage to an already PACKED car. Between the four of us and the baby with all her necessities- our little A-class Mercedes-Benz was stuffed full! This was soon overlooked by our next adventure- finding our Villa. Luckily, the boys were smart and opted to pay extra for a NeverLost (our beloved Direction Machine) - which was GREAT- although the directions were in English- the voice was in Italian! Needless to say, we got lost right from the get-go, and somehow we ended up on the wrong side of the Lake (Como)! Unfortunately we didn't realize this- we had directions from the lady who rented us the Villa providing us clear and distinctive landmarks to follow...which we found. I mean how may Hotel Belvedere’s, Via Panoramicas and Ferry Landings can there be on ONE lake? I now know that the answer is AT LEAST 2! Oh well- after a few "jump-out-and-ask-directions" attempts, we found someone who spoke a few words of English and we found a ferry and finally Argegno!

Our efforts paid off and we were very pleasantly surprised with a wonderful Villa overlooking the town and lake- perfect small town feel (even though I'm sure we were ALL willing to give up some of that small-town charm for a big grocery store Saturday night!) Thankfully, Keri had packed a family-sized box of Velveeta Shells & Cheese for me - so we had SOMETHING for dinner. (So yeah, let the teasing begin- we're in ITALY and we're eating Velveeta Shells & Cheese? That seemed SO wrong!) After catching up for a bit (and catching up on watching Nip/Tuck together- SOOO miss watching Nip/Tuck with Keri!!!) it was time to call it a night.

Then on Sunday, since we were all still tired and not all that motivated to stray far from the Villa (and we were in search of a grocery store), we headed south down the lake to Lenno. This was the nicest day of our trip, and luckily we took full advantage, we stopped at a cafe on the lake for some lunch, and then walked around for a bit. Unfortunately, when we found the grocery store, it was closed - we were disappointed but we headed back to Argegno for gelato and pizzas for dinner (which we ate while sitting on our balcony overlooking the lake- VERY nice!)

Monday morning Keith walked down (and hiked back!) into town to get the basic necessities (milk, coco puffs, bread) which held us over for a bit. Ben and I got adventurous and headed back down to Lenno to do some real grocery shopping. Wow- it was a little overwhelming! Just when I thought I had the hang of shopping in Norway- I had to learn it all again! Funny how two places so close together are SO different in common daily activities! At least most of the food in the Italian grocery wasn't seafood, but there was NO English anywhere! But €3.90 for a bottle for red wine? ALL my cares were lifted!

After we got back, the five of us headed down into Argegno and tried some "authentic Italitan" hot chocolate- which really, was warm chocolate pudding in a cup! Yum! Afterwards, we wandered over towards the lake to feel just how un-cold the water was, take some pictures, and even skip some rocks! It was a fun and nice vacation-y kind of day!

By Tuesday, we were feeling pretty confident in our Italian navigation and decided to go ALL the way into Como (which was only about 10 minutes from Argegno) to see Il Duomo di Como (which is just flat out fun to say!). We found it right off the bat and got great parking at the train station. We saw the Duomo- (yep- it’s in Como!) and then we found McDonalds (how shameful it is to write that!) And then right after McDonalds? We found Gelato! (By the way- Bellee LOVES gelato! Loves eating it as much as she loves to get it all over herself- and strawberry gelato, an 8-month old, and a VERY white outfit??? LOL!). We walked and ate gelato and found Como's Funicalar up to Brunato...a small, small, small village-type town overlooking Como. We spent about an hour or so walking around and taking pictures. Then it was back to Como to do some grocery shopping before heading back to the Villa for the evening.

Wednesday we got really ambitious and headed towards Verona (the home of the Shakespeare’s fictional stars of Romeo and Juliet). Once we finally found a parking spot, we window-shopped and walked down the marble streets of the town. There was a huge coliseum (just like Rome's), which was in great shape despite its years. We beat the Pope to Verona by one day (THANK GOD!- traffic was bad enough - can't even imagine what Thursday would have been like!) After lunch in a vendor-filled square (t-shirts for Keith and me!), we found the Dante statute, and then Juliet Capulet's "home" - alright, it could have been her home if she was actually real...regardless, we still engaged in touristy activities, such as rubbing her right breast for “good luck in love” (I rubbed it a lot!) and posing on the balcony. On our way back to the car, we stopped and got our daily dosage of gelato, then it was back to Argegno.

Thursday morning, Ben and I set off on our own, leaving Keith and Keri to have some "alone time". Ben's main draw for staying in Northern Italy for a week was visiting Maranello - the "home" of Ferrari. Another 2 hour drive later, we reached Maranello not having too much of an idea on where to go, luckily we could hear the "sweet siren sounds" of an F1 car test-driving on Pista di Fiorano . Ben and I followed our ears and were treated to a rare sight- an F1 practicing on THE Ferrari test track. After watching for about 15 minutes from a gated-alleyway (with about a group of 20 other fanatics), we wandered over to the Galleria. About 400 pictures by Ben later, we continued on our tour of Maranello over towards the official Ferrari shop directly across the street from the Ferrari factory- of course we could only see it from across the street- Ferrari has a VERY strict regulation on who gets to visit their factory…but we did catch a “mule” driving around, but neither of us were quick enough with our cameras. Regardless, it was a really fun day and I think Ben had a BLAST! Although I'd never been a Ferrari enthusiast before, I'm glad I took the opportunity to visit such an impressive Italian landmark.

After spending all day in the car Thursday, the last thing I wanted to go far from Argegno. Lucky for me, the Donalds and Ben had the same mind-set. :) We drove down to Cadenabbia, and took the ferry back to Bellagio (where we got lost on our way to the Villa our first night). We found a small little restaurant for lunch, then walked up and down the steep stairs and hills of Bellagio. I was a little disappointed in Bellagio, but I think it was a great way to pass the day with friends. :)

Saturday we woke up to a cloudy sky and rain, regardless, we ventured down into Milan for the day. We attempted to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” but weren’t really expecting to, I do think we should get some credit for finding the church though (alright- Donna the Direction Machine found it). After that we headed (in the wrong direction first – where’s Donna now?) to Milan’s Duomo. We turned a corner and then there it was, seriously took you a moment to comprehend the enormity of it. It is currently being restored- and in typical Milan Duomo fashion, the cleaning is behind schedule, so we saw a mostly clean Duomo with decorative scaffolding on the outside. We walked around the interior for a bit, decided against climbing it, and settled for a walk though “A Vittorio Emanuele II. I Milanesi…in other words- the inspiration of current-day shopping malls. I went into the (teaser) Prada store (when in Milan!). After the mall, we accidentally found Milan’s Opera House – I’m voting it the world’s most famous non-descript building. Seriously- our guidebook said this building was world-famous but it was rather unimpressive to say the least. Then we walked a few blocks north to Via Montenapoleone - THE FASHION STREET of the world! I’m talking Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dior, Armani, Gucci, Versace - the works! (Ralph Lauren somehow managed to get a store on this block…) Needless to say, we were a little out of fashion to be walking down this street- Keri was even breastfeeding! But I didn’t let my inaptitude of dressing myself stop me from going to Prada!! I mean, this is THE PRADA! I swore if there was a pair of shoes that I liked- I’d buy them (I was in Milan!) but sadly, nothing interested me. After walking down the most “fashionista” street of all, we turned a corner and hit H&M – a little more our “style”. Then we stopped and had some dinner – complete with red wine. After which, we headed to the nearest gelateria, then back to the car and Argegno.

Sunday was a pretty low-key day- we ventured into Como Sud and stopped by a Bennett (hypermarket). WOW- it was like an Italian Wal-Mart! It was so much fun and in addition to the large Wal-Mart type supermarket, there were also many little shops. After that we just headed home, then a quick jaunt to Cadenabbia for some last minute souvenir shopping! Then we spent the last of our vacation hanging out, drinking wine, eating all our leftovers, watching TV, and packing.

EARLY (before it was even bright) Monday morning, we all got up, loaded the car and headed to the airports. We all had flights out at the same time, but again I was flying through Bergamo and everyone else though Malpensa, they dropped me off early (too early to even check in!) while they rushed off to make (or not) their flights back to America.

One of the things I was most happy about after our Italian vacation, is that I got to stay in Europe. :) So while they were all stuck on 8+ hour trans-Atlantic flights, I was back in Norway in 2 hours, but had to wait a few hours to catch my train back to Oslo. Thankfully, free WiFi made the time fly by!

Since it was Christoffer’s birthday on Tuesday, we planed a surprise party for him. Since he had a friend visiting from Finland (Christian) we decided to plan it for Monday night so his friend could come too. As my excuse to make sure they didn’t make any plans for Monday night, I told Christoffer to keep Monday night open to answer any and all questions regarding Finland (which I’ll be visiting next week). The plan went seamlessly and we got to Uli’s apartment right on-time and Christoffer was VERY surprised! Yay! A lot of people came, think we were up to around 15? It was a lot of fun, plus I got to see all my Oslo friends- which made my happy. :)

So yeah, I’m off to Finland in 4 SHORT days! Didn’t realize it was this weekend already! But it should be fun, and hopefully a little relaxing- I’m a little nervous since I’ll be visiting Christoffer’s home, meeting his friends and family, and really experiencing “Finnish living” first hand. As apprehensive as I am (his family doesn’t speak English!) I’m VERY much looking forward to it!

Ich habe einen großen Fehler gemacht!!

For some reason, which still escapes me today, I agreed to join my German friends on a tour of Oslo's City Hall this past Thursday. Sounds like fun, why wouldn't I join? Oh cause it's all in GERMAN! Guess the German teacher at BI also works as a tour guide at the Radhaus, so he offered the German community of BI students an exclusive, after-hours tour of the historic landmark. I understood: Guten Abend, ich bin...and then I was lost. I could pick up years and bits and pieces but for the most part- it is way to apparent to me that it's been over 8 years since my last German lesson...but it was fun cause I got to hang out with my friends :)

After the city hall tour, we went out to a club - Stravinsky - for a GSS sponsored mid-semester party. Can't even believe I'm half way through my European stay! It has FLOWN right by! The bar itself was kinda lame, but again, much fun was had by drinking and hanging out with friends. Of course I stayed way too late and by the time I got home and finished packing (for Milan) it was well after 2 am. And I only had 5 hours until I had a train to catch!

The train ride was quiet, I picked a semi-empty car in Oslo, and it just kept getting more and more empty. By the time I got to Sandefjord (the discount airlines fly out of Oslo's secondary airport) it was me and a guy from France, who was also in search for Torp. Found our way to the bus station and since we didn't know what we were doing- we got on the 172 bus (which is the right one - but it was just going in the wrong direction!) Luckily for us though- it just made a big loop of the town - which by the way was LESS than exciting...it could rival Kristiansund on an off-season Sunday afternoon! Made it to the airport and was way overwhelmed...swarms of grumpy people standing around yelling in Norwegian. (THIS is why you go to Norwegian class!)

Luckily I didn't have to stand in THAT line- and I checked in and sat down and was pleasantly surprised with FREE internet! Of course, this being Europe and all, NO power outlets anywhere- so I only had about an hour or so of entertainment- which I thought would be fine, my flight was to take off in 45 minutes...but then I realized the reason for the angry people- FOG. Lots of it, resulting in lots of cancelled flights...A brief moment of panic entered my head since my friends were scheduled to pick me up in Milan in only 2.5 hours- and of course- none of us have phones! Luckily for me, my flight was the first one of the day to leave as scheduled, but unluckily for me- all the other flights to Italy they cancelled this morning, they put on my flight- so I'm looking forward to a BOOKED flight- but it's only 2 hours and I have visions of Italy to keep me in good spirits!

I'll write again soon- probably after I return from my 12 day Italian Vacation!

Officially Homeless!!

I am happy to report that I am officially HOMELESS! That's right- my house FINALLY sold! I was scheduled to close on September 15th, but due to paperwork delays, I didn't close until October 5th. Unfortunately, no one bothered to TELL me that I had closed! Regardless, it is sold and I'll be in the market for a small condo in a few months!

"Awesome" København

Thursday, September 28th, came fast. The week after Bergen was a busy one for me (like all recent weeks), but this was due to more personal reasons- the slowest real estate deal in history...originally I was supposed to close on September 15th)...anyway I had a LOT of running around, signing documents, copying, scanning, mailing, etc - it was just crazy!

But Thursday was here before I knew it and I still had so much left to do! And after our International Business class, Karin and I stumbled onto BI's tenth annual Karrieredagen (Career Day). This was an unbelievable turn out of companies, global as well as local Norwegian companies. The best part was that every booth had some kind of freebie...from hair products at L’Oreal and Proctor & Gamble, to food at Deli de Luca, to kitchen utensils at IKEA. :-)

I couldn't stay long, I had to get home and finish getting ready for Copenhagen. The plan was to meet at 14:30 at the door of BI, and we'd walk to the docks as a group. The GSS/InSA class trip included 125 students, 60 of which were international students...and one of which was an American from Michigan who does not attend BI, but UiO, and had heard about the trip from a friend of a friend of a friend. I walked with Eric to the docks talking about his impressions of Norway; see if they were similar to mine, and they were...it was strange talking to someone with an "American accent"! Soon we boarded the boat, which was TOO simple of a process. I've only been on cruises departing from America, and usually they have metal detectors or at least someone to check ID or something- but for this boat - nothing- just walk right on! So we found our sardine-can sized room, which I shared with Nina, Katja and Marie. And after wandering around the ship, taking a *quiz* and visiting the on-board duty-free shop, we returned to our room to hang out and wait for our buffet seating time. The oddest part of this cruise was that food was extra- what kind of cruise was I on?!?! Americans GO on cruises to eat- and here you had to pay extra? We did, and we went to a buffet...apparently a seafood buffet! Oh my lord- how much seafood can one buffet contain? A LOT apparently - fish of every kind, crawfish, octopus, and various other seafood delicacies...too much for me and I stuck primarily to the salad bar and kids' section of the buffet.

After our buffet, we went back to our room and Peter (or as I was told, Howard), Hannes, Matias, Christoffer, and Renate joined our cabin and we drank and hung out. All the BI students were stuck in a little hall, which was smart thinking on the part of DFDS, I mean 125 drunk college students? Needless to say- it was loud - ALL NIGHT! (There was one family in our corridor and I felt so bad for them!) But soon enough it was morning and we were docked - ready to hit the streets of Copenhagen!

Our first order of business was to find the "Little Mermaid" statue - Hans Christen Andersen the author of children’s fairy tales, most specifically, the Little Mermaid (inspiration for the Disney film) is from Denmark, and Copenhagen has a statue along the harbor commemorating the mermaid. We walked along the water for a few kilometers and found her, indeed, she was a *little*, but she also had legs? After the mermaid, we went searching for our hostel. We dropped off our bags and headed toward Strøget - a pedestrian street of stores, stores and stores! Since the girls wanted to go into the stores, we split up. After walking through a few shops, we headed towards Nyhavn , then towards the Amalienborg Palace and Square. Denmark's Queen Margrethe II and her family live in one of the palace's mansions, while her son (and heir to the Danish throne), Crown Prince Frederik (with his Australian businesswoman wife, Mary Donaldson) recently moved into the mansion across the square. We decided to go on a tour of the palace, and I paid 20 dkr in order to take pictures in the museum. Not much to take pictures of, but since I'd paid to take pictures, I TOOK pictures! Its funny cause all my friends know all about the Royal families (from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and England). Shoot! I know England has a queen, but that's about it!

After the palace, we headed back to Nyhavn to catch a DFDS Canal Tour, which was part of our InSA Copenhagen package. The tour wasn't all that exciting, we saw all the sights we had seen that morning, and the boat was soo crowded to take many pictures. Mostly, it was a challenge to even keep my eyes open!

After the canal tour, we wandered towards Rosenborg Castle, but it was closed so we kept walking. (Side note here- apparently this is something Europeans, or at least Northern Europeans, do...instead of the type Bachelor party that - as an American - I'm familiar to, they groom's friends make him dress up in some silly costume and ask for money from strangers. So when we got to the King's Garden, such an individual approached us. We all got a kick out of it and gave him Norwegien kroners - which are worth more than Danish kroners- and he was very excited and told us that he could buy his new wife something nice. I thought this was hilarious! I guess this is what they do- to raise a little money before the wedding - we also saw a group such as this when we were in Gøteborg, but I didn't really believe Christoffer and Katja - just a little too strange for me!)

Anyway, we walked back through Strøget to our hostel, stopping at virtually every store on the way. After QUICK showers, we were off to our (trip-included) Turkish buffet. I think the 125 students arriving at once was little overwhelming for the restaurant people! I don't believe I've ever had Turkish food before, and while it was alright, its not something I'll go out of my way for. After the restaurant, we went to a (trip-included) nightclub, Rust. We had to get there by 11 o'clock in order to use our free tickets. We had some difficulty catching a cab - and once we did- it was a terrifying few miles to the club! The nightclub wasn't really happening until around 12-1 am - and then it was PACKED. Beer was cheap, but mixed drinks were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced! It was fun and we stayed until like 2:30...the bar was open until 5, but we wanted to be able to sightsee on Saturday.

We had to check out of the youth hostel at 9 am, which was good cause it gave us reason to get up and get going. We split up first thing - Katja went off to go shopping while Nina, Renate, Hannes, Christoffer, Peter, Matias and I headed towards Christiansborg Palace (a complex of government buildings standing on the ruins of Copenhagen's original 12th-century fortress; the Parliament, Supreme Court, prime minister's office, royal reception rooms, royal library, several museums, and the royal stables.) This building is the 6th one to stand in that very spot in 800 years...they kept burning down and they're rebuild in the same spot over and over.

After the Palace, we continued on towards the Vor Frelsers Kirke, in Christianshavn. The cool thing about this church is the golden spiral staircase winding its way up the outside of the spire. It was a tough climb, but the views were absolutely breath-taking (or maybe it was the climb that left us breath-less?). Of course, being an American, I had to say it was awesome. Definitely something to check out (especially on a nice day) if in Copenhagen. Check out my gallery for pictures, it was truly amazing!

Next, we split up again, Hannes, Peter and Matias were running off 2 hours of sleep and had NO desire to go to a brewery (guess they'd gotten their fill of beer at Rust!), so Renate, Marie, Christoffer and I headed to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitors’ Center or Besøgscenter. Since we're students, it was only 25 dkr (or 28 nkr = $4.22 USD). While we didn't have ALL that much interest in the actual brewery, we were VERY interested in getting to the "Beer Sampling" part of the tour. After one pass through the Gift Shop, we headed upstairs for our 2 free beer products, PLUS our additional 2 since I'd accidentally stolen someone's tickets. (Seriously- I was trying to hurry Marie along so I was carrying all her stuff and at one point she stopped and pointed to a set of beer tickets on the floor, I thought she was telling me she'd dropped her tickets, so I picked them up- later I found out she didn't drop her tickets, instead I picked up somebody else's! I felt bad, but nothing that 2 free beers couldn't fix!)

After another trip to the gift shop, we had to HURRY back to the city center - so I could power shop. I had seen a purse the day before that I really liked and I wanted to buy it. We had 7 minutes before we were supposed to be at the train station (to catch a taxi to the docks) and I had about 4 blocks to go - thank God I've been working out and jogging! I managed to get to the store and I bought myself a Friis Company purse :-) (Which I found out later is a Danish company- so I'm glad I got it in Denmark - I have seen it here in Oslo, but for 40 USD more than I bought it for!)

Then it was time for our cruise back to Oslo. Since none of us were overly impressed with the buffet going to Copenhagen, we skipped it. We wandered around the cruise ship, watched the impromptu beer drinking game in our hallway (led by my very own BSN roommate!), and did some duty free shopping (ie we bought cheap alcohol for Oslo). Nina, Marie and I were beat so we went to sleep while Katja and Christoffer went out to Karaoke. Bright and early Sunday morning, we arrived in Oslo, and instead of waiting around for the bus, I walked to the Radhaus to catch a tram but had JUST missed it so I continued on to Nationaltheater to take the t-bahne home.

Yet another action-packed weekend, leaving me utterly exhausted! Luckily I'll be in Oslo this coming weekend (something about a party and a Parliament tour), so I can recuperate, catch up on my homework, and prepare for my week-long vacation in Milan with my friends from home!