Lipsync in Nepal, yo.

You Can't Make Everyone Happy - Episode 11: The Harry Potter Musical

Scrubbing too hard - Episode 10: Bathing Culture

Walking Around in Norway: Sevem Eleven

Walking around in Norway, I saw many Seven Eleven.  What is so different about convinient store in
Seven Eleven in Norway and Japan. In Japan, you can get rice balls, various kind of luch boxes and
if you want hot food, you can get pork buns, pizza buns, red beans buns, sausages, karaage chicken and various other Japanese food. Seven Eleven in Japan produces lots of ready to eat Japanese food
and frozen food. 

I find visiting familiar places in foriegn country exciting beause  you will be able to see the cultural
differences. You will be able to see many variety of food that you may not see in your country.
Different kind of drinks, snacks and hot food.

Another strange thing I found is that when I use card to pay for things in Norway, I have to actually put my own card in to the machine and do my own thing.  In Japan, it is customerly for the sales personel to  take the card and swipe for you and all you need to do is type in the pin or sign. But in Norway, it is alll self service.  

What's exciting about traveling is that you will find yourself finding little cultural differences in small
things.

Power of Communication : Yes / No

Last week, I spent one week in Norway and I experienced the power of language.  I had no previous knowledge in Norwegian and only words I learned is "Yes,please" and "No,please" and "Thank you" taught by my friend early on in the trip.

I always believed that being able to say Yes or No to question confirms understanding of the language. In Norway, I had an interesting experience of playing with 4 and 6 years old Norwegian children. They spoke Norwegian, and I spoke in English.  So at first, they were very scared at the same time interested in knowing why I am speaking in English. They hid under the table and watched me from far. They were running away from me when I got close.

But after a while, we got to start understanding each other through use of gestures, body language and facial expression. So we started playing game of Yes and No. Saying yes or no to certain actions can lead to fun and exciting game. The way of comminucating without much words.

In the videos, we do a lot of gesturing and facial expression. The communication is not onlyabout spoken word. What you express is all part of what you are communicating. Sure, knowing the languages and all the words in the language can help you comminucate better but you don't have to be shy because you don't know the language. Give it a try. You may be surprised how much you can communicate. 

Cafe in a Bowl ?

When I ordered cafe in Norway, I was given this bowl. What? What is this brown soup with powder. Surprise, surprise. It is a cafe. I have never seen this anywhere I have been in my life. But at the same time, this reminded me of green tea served in the bowl in the tea party. I am not sure why the cafe was served in the bowl but perhaps the way plates,bowls,cups are used have changed to incorporate other culture.

In Japan, there are spaghetti restaurants where they only serve chop sticks to eat them. At Italian restaurants, you often see Japanese people eating pasta using both spoon and forks while in Italy, only forks are used to eat them. I am pretty sure there are more things like that with plates,dishes, bowls, and utensils.

Wow ! : Vigeland Park

I have been to parks but I have never been to a park like this. There were Vigeland's statues everywhere. Statues of men,women,babies of different positions,facial expression. I think the best part of my visit to Norway back in 2013 was visiting this park.  The park is like the museum but you can just have picnic, or play Frisbees, balls with your friends. Just walking around the park gives you the experience of the life time. I really enjoyed walking around the park and looking at the statues. They are beautiful.

I have seen statues at the park in Japan but usually not the whole park is dedicated to one artist like this one. I wonder if there are any parks like this around the world. If you do please let us know.