What day is it today? I have no idea

Man, oh man. Norway. Um, I love this country. If it were any more picturesque here I just might keel over. We left Lillehammer this morning--yes, the Lillehammer of Olympic fame--and are en route to Laerdal and Voss. Lillehammer is gorgeous. Anyone who wants to plan a trip to Norway should go there. We stayed in a hotel right on the main drag, down the street from a pedestrian shopping area. On...some day, the first full day there, I think that was two days ago, I walked up to the Olympic park with some Orchie friends. It was raining on and off throughout the day, but it was warm enough. We wandered, threw the Frisbee, talked, and then moseyed down to town for the Band concert that was outdoors. Bad news for the clarinet, oboe and bassoon players--outside, in the rain, with wooden instruments. Some Orchies ran out with umbrellas to hold over the wooden instruments. Instrumentalist solidarity!

We played our joint concert, inside, at the Maihaugen concert hall. Maihaugen is a kind of living history park, like the Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth. Except much larger. And gorgeous, because it's Norway. There were traditional Norwegian village homes, churches, barns, most with grass growing on their roofs. I made friends with a horse who tried to eat my jacket. Thanks, that's my only jacket, and now there's horse slobber all over it. Oh well. Anyways, the concert was amazing. The halls we've played in are amazing--the Glass Cathedral in Hamar was mindblowing. Ancient Norwegian (duh) stone ruins, preserved under a greenhouse-like glass structure that makes the inside climate controlled and has delicious acoustics. Wow. Seven-second reverb? Be still, my heart. The Maihaugen was equally as good. (Of course, it goes without saying that both groups played well.) Afterwards I went out with some Orchie girls and four Norwegian boys that one of them knew. I felt sooo old--they were all still in high school, eighteen years old, and all the Orchie girls were 19 or so, and then there's me, 21 and ancient. We had a great time at this nice cafe where the owners allowed us to come in and eat even though it was time for the kitchen to close.

We've had so many free days, just wandering around, and it has been wonderful. Skipping rocks at the lake below the Glass Cathedral while listening to the band rehearse, wandering the streets of Lillehammer at 1 am and meeting random Danish girls who insisted we go out with them, sitting and staring and watching people go by, listening to them speak Norwegian, or French, or some other tourist language. You can always spot the Oles, because we all have the same black fleece. We're an army that has descended upon the country. I love this pace, and the free time, and the exploring. We're driving on buses today and the countryside is amazing. To me it feels and looks like the mountains of Colorado mixed with the beauty of Russia (only cleaner, and more orderly, and with English-speakers). I never want to leave. Mom and Dad, sorry, I'm defecting.