First Teaching Day and a Walk Around Town

Today is the first day of teaching, and it has gone just fine so far. I finished my syllabi with 9 hours to spare, because I am both responsible and punctual... My satire class looks like it is going to be full and the students are already talkative, which is great. Comp is comp, not much different than teaching it at UND. Maybe fewer eye rolls, but give them time and I am sure the students' contempt for the class will grow to American proportions. Today, during the long break I have between classes I took a walk around town. It's not exactly a beautiful day outside or anything, but I decided to take photos anyway. Here are some pictures of foggy little Moss:

This is the American College of Norway

Here's where I live

This is one side of the waterfall I cross to get to town

The beach of one of the fjords

 A little boardwalk/ dock

Having lived in land-locked areas my whole life, I have never seen semi-trucks being loaded onto a huge freight ship

Moss from the Island

Some boats and the bridge between Moss and the island

More boats

A little harbor/ bay area with shops and a big ass boat

Boardwalk/ dock again

The Norwegian Lady. She waits for the safe return of the men at sea. Apparently there is an identical statue in Virginia Beach, because that is one of Moss's sister-cities

The walkway to the beach/ boardwalk

This is the city's crest, the golden crow. The story goes that hundreds of crows circled the town's church and alerted the townspeople that the church was on fire, thus saving it from ruin

The church the crows saved

  One of the many steep, icy hills in town. Norwegians don't clear the sidewalks. Apparently nobody sues here because "it's your fault you have stupid shoes on"

This is the other side of the waterfall and the now defunct paper mill. The mill is the reason that Moss has a faint, oh-so-pleasant sulfur smell. It looks cool, though

The pictures pretty much accurately capture what Moss has looked like every day I have been here thus far. It actually kind of reminds me of southern Ohio in the winter: gray, dreary, but manageable. The darkness thing is not as bad as I thought it would be, the sun rises at about 8:00am or so and sets at 4:30pm-ish. Not awful, but not great. I think this is it for right now. I am anticipating that teaching 4 classes will slow down the progress of this little blog, so don't be surprised if I don't post as frequently. These are charmed days where I have little to do and still possess the energy to do things beyond teach and read...