Why My Class is Better than Yours

On Wednesday I went on a field excursion with my marine ecology class.  I was a bit nervous about it because I would be spending the whole day with a bunch of Norwegians I don't know and to be honest, I do not know that much about the marine ecology of Norway either.  I had to take an early morning, hour long bus ride south to Drøbak, where I chatted with a French friend.  I got off to find myself next to the beautiful Oslofjord and I thought to myself...this might not be that bad.  We all walked over the the biology station which is actually this cute little cabin right on the fjord, where the teacher had coffee brewing for us.  Fun fact, apparently the town sold the cabin to the school a while back for 1 Nok = 12 cents.  Our professor, who I have really grown to like told us we would be going out on the boat and scraping marine life from the hard bottom and then identifying the species we bring up.  He cautioned us not to to talk to the captain until he had finished his cup of coffee.  We looked out the window at the scruffy, deadliest catch captain who was smoking and drinking a cup of coffee on the boat and all silently agreed that would probably be for the best.  I was the first group to go out on the boat, and it was really neat.  I made friends with some Norwegians and it was a beautiful day out on the fjord.  One Norwegian explained to me that the island out on the fjord where we could see a wall with cannons was an island that the Nazi's took over and sunk one of the Norwegian ships nearby.  There were tons of jellyfish out in the water and I decided against swimming in it this season.  We scraped the bottom of the fjord and pulled up all sorts of sea-stars, gooey things, anemones, barnacles, crabs and what not.  To my dismay, I had to pick them up and put one of each in a bucket.  Then we headed back to the cabin and spent the rest of the day out in the sun looking up the species we found in our books.  I was able to chat it up with some of my classmates and overall it was a really fun day.  Norwegians really don't like Texans.  One guy asked me why one of the most religious states was so judgmental and I told him that we should have just let the south succeed to begin with.  They like Californians.  I think. This bodes well for the week long excursion my class is making to Bergen next week.  At the end, when my professor was telling us a bit about our next trip and to think of food to buy in the grocery store because it was on him... this concerned look came across his face and he said "except for your beer, I'm only buying my own so you will need to bring money for yours."  I laughed and I am really curious to see what living in a cabin in Bergen with my professor and bunch of classmates will be like.  All in all, the day was great.  I mean, how many Americans get to say for their class they went out on a fjord and collected sea-stars?