Go Oslo!

Happy Teacher Summer, everyone!*

School got out and I hit the road! First up was a trip to NYC with #thechildren** and then a quick turnaround for Norway. I'm starting in Oslo and explored the city yesterday and today. The city is beautiful, it has been a sunny 60 degrees for the high, and everywhere you go in this town is a statue. It's lovely!

I started off yesterday in Slottsparken (Palace Park)*** and had my first taste of the city's love of statutes. Right at the entrance was a statue park newly added this year that had statues inspired by children's drawings. I think they're just celebrating Pride, myself.

Palace Park includes the palace where the royal family lives. The flag implies the family was home but no one came out to greet me, so . . .

I continued wandering past the parliament building**** and more statues and flowers. I ended the night***** in the area of Aker Brygge for dinner. The area is right on the water and has been recently developed with live-work-play buildings that felt new and fancy.

I started today with a walking tour of Oslo given by Norway's own Kate McKinnon.******

 

We hit all the Oslo hot spots, including:
The Opera House which hosts the opera, the ballet, and people walking all over the building

City Hall- you can't fight it and the murals are so fantastic you wouldn't dare

And a fort.*******

After the tour I backtracked to see more things in detail. The views from the top of the opera house were glorious and it was super cool to walk all over the building. I did the tour of the building inside, as well, and they walked us through the performance space, backstage, the costume shop, etc. It was fantastic.********

I followed that up with a visit to the Munch Museum which featured artwork and the history of Edvard Munch. It was a scream.

 

 

I was pretty committed to hitting all the Oslo highlights so I next went to the Nobel Peace Center. This is where they award the Nobel Peace Prize every year. It features a museum that looks at the work of the recent year's winners, past winners, and an exhibit on a special issue that is affecting the world today.

The featured exhibit was on climate change and how it is affecting the world and how people are protesting for change.

 

The feature on the 2018 winners and their fight against sexual violence as a weapon of war was especially moving.

 

 

And finally, the last room had an interactive screen for reading about all the past winners.

 

My last stop for the day was to Frognerparken which includes Vigelandsparken, a park with over 200 statues by Norwegian sculptor, Gustav Vigeland. It rounded out my full sculpture experience in Oslo!

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I head north- about as far north as is possible without hitting a pole.*********
More from there!
-Kelly

*Unless you live in the northeast, of course, and have an untold number of weeks left. I'm sad for you.**********
**Shout out to the world's best frolleagues!

 

***Naturally, I have learned no Norwegian and it reads like German with additional circles and slashes. Everyone I have encountered speaks better English than I do.
****It's a constitutional monarchy, I know you were wondering.
*****I swear it's after 9pm but the sun doesn't set until forever!
******Truly, she acted just like her. I'm sure she does a great Hillary.
*******I know you heard my exasperated sigh from wherever you're reading this.
********We weren't allowed to take pictures inside on the tour and, for once, I obeyed.
*********You're making this into an inappropriate joke so that I don't have to? Thank you.
**********Until August, you monsters.

Mexico City: Poncho Villa

Hola from Mexico City!

It has been a very abridged Teacher Summer this year but a quick trip to Mexico City has been perfect. There will be at least one other blog post to focus on the food, because . . . it's amazing.* But I guess I should report first on the actual things we did.

We started off with a walk around Bosque de Chapultepec. It is essentially Mexico City's Central Park. On a Saturday afternoon it was the hang-out spot for all the locals.** There were monuments galore and the Chapultepec Castle overlooking it all.

Conveniently located in the park is the Museo de Arte Moderno*** which we cruised through. We entered about an hour and a half before closing time and quickly found out that closing time meant the time they locked the front gate, not the time you headed for the door.**** Still, we had time for some Frida and Diego and bright colors.

The next day we went to the historic center and saw all your city favorites: the big church, the big plaza, the big government buildings. Kudos to you, Mexico City, because the plaza had a band blasting at all times and was definitely a party atmosphere.***** If we hadn't had several meals to get to, we could have partied more. The church and a random walking street are pictured below but my favorite was a courtyard wall covered in greenery like a giant mural.

In the afternoon we traveled to Teotihuacan, an ancient Mayan city about 45 minutes outside of Mexico City. It started to be built around 100 BCE and prospered through 600 CE. It is dominated by three different structures and was revered by the Aztecs who modeled their own cities after what they saw. We arrived and started at the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. It is not the largest pyramid but does have the most intricate carvings remaining. As you can see, the storm clouds were starting to come in . . .

From the top of the temple, the skies opened up and it started raining, then pouring, then hailing. We hightailed it to the car where we hid out for a bit and let the worst of it pass. Before we ventured out again, we donned some super sweet ponchos.

Next was the Pyramid of the Sun, the tallest structure in the city. There were many steps****** and awesome views at the top. AT stayed down below while our guide Alejandro and I made it to the top. His commitment to tourism photography was bar none.*******

We got AT back at the bottom and headed for the second biggest structure, the Pyramid of the Moon. At this point the rain was starting to pick back up so we took 80 million more pictures but called it a day.********

We have lots more museums to hit up but mostly have meals to eat.********* That should fill up the remainder of our excellent time here!

Hasta luego!
-KT

*Guys. The food is so good. I can barely type this because I am so full and so looking forward to the next meal.
**If they weren't hanging out they were taking bike lessons at the bike school which had a totally sweet set-up and hot pink bikes.
***Wham, bam, thank you, MAM.
****Any city that has such a passion for leaving work on time has already won my heart.
*****Except for the time we had music blasting in the background and then walked past a street musician organ grinder and it was definitely a nightmare atmosphere.
******Not a problem. Thanks, empty nesters of the local YMCA step aerobics!
*******And at one point I guess I thought I was a fashion model for ponchos?

********And at one point I guess I made AT be a fashion model for ponchos?

*********Have. I. Mentioned. The. Food.