Now I Feel Like a Biologist

Don't worry, I'm back. After spending a week in Bergen (west coast of Norway) on a biology excursion with my class, I've found that the life of a biology student is very difficult.  We arrived into Bergen and were taken to the grocery store where the teacher told everyone in my class of 20 students to grab whatever we wanted.  We wound up with 3 giant carts of food and 2 carts of beer.  We rolled up to our "cabin" which was really a giant house on the water with a research building next to it and I already began to dread the day I would have to leave (See the "Norwegians Don't Slum it" post for pictures).  Then we proceeded to spend the week going out on boats and grabbing samples from the marine bottom and tide pools out on an island (See the "When you buy raingear the weather looks like this" post for pictures).  After that, we would spend the rest of the day in the lab looking at what we found and trying to identify the species.  We would all eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with each other and after the day was done we would drink in the sauna, go swim in the water to cool off, get back in the sauna and so forth.  Like I said, it was a stressful week.  The best part about it was that I got to know my classmates much better and I really had a great time hanging out with all of them.  They kept hassling me about being American (in good fun) and everyone was really great with all my "how do you say this?" questions. It was a good way to practice some Norwegian, especially since they wouldn't hesitate to tell me if I wasn't saying something exactly right. They even tested me and I had to translate the back of a cough drop bag and they almost rolled over laughing at the words I would fill in for the ones I didn't know.  Turns out "forklift" is not used to describe the nature of eucalyptus cough drops.  I also learned a couple new fun facts while I was there.  1) Norwegians always take their shoes off inside.  When my German friend passed out on the couch, they wanted to draw on him and I told them they couldn't because his shoes were off.  They looked at me confused and I explained in the US when someone passes out at a party, only if their shoes are on, are they fair game.  The Norwegian friend then furrowed his brow and said, "But why would someone have their shoes on in the house?"  Then I gave up.  2) Svalbard exists.  I had no idea what/where it was when a girl in my class told me she is moving to Svalbard next semester to finish the last year and a half of her masters.  Turns out it is an archipelago WAY north halfway between Norway and the North Pole.  It was explained to me that everyone that moves there must by law get a rifle license and carry it with them at all times in case of polar bear attack.