Return of the Bieber and a Champion

Norway is a confusing place.

Statue from Vingeland Park

For as many similarities as there are to the states, there are that many differences.

But, when it comes to teen heartthrobs, there is no culture gap.  Which is a shame because Norway has produced such great pop music... ABBA, Miike Snow,  Ace of Base, First Aid Kit (wait... those are all Swedish?!?!  Oh.  Well, there's always A-HA).

Above is the scene from last year when Bieber blessed Oslo with his bangs.  As I informed you all, dear readers, it was a catastrophe.  The mayor hid in a retail store to avoid being trampled by hordes of Norwegian tweens chasing their idol.  Traffic was disrupted for hours.  Police were outnumbered and overrun (I swear, I think there was an hour or two of martial law declared).  It was pure chaos.

So how could the Biebs possibly top that?

He threw three, back-to-back-to-back concerts that created such a demand that they not only sold out in minutes, but causes school districts to re-arrange their testing dates.  Caught off-guard and slightly embarrassed, Oslo's finest vowed to take their revenge (ok... they didn't come off as menacing, but it was the general sentiment).

How did it go?

Well, it was interesting...

Things started off in favor of the Bieberization when his bodyguard instagrammed a picture of himself getting a haircut which lead to a lot of "likes", "favorites", and "retweets".  Additionally, the impromptu photo session lead to said barbershop being swamped with the pre-pubescent.   No word on whether the establishment has been able to air out the smell of Chanel Jr. and Lil' Dior Miss.  (On a sidenote, please check out the Team Swaggy bodyguard's twitter... https://twitter.com/KennyHamilton talk about taking yourself too seriously).

Anyway, things only got more hectic from there.  A day before the shows were to start, a poor, background dancer (a deacon in the Church of Bieber, but a celebrity to Bielibers), was accosted while going for a drink at a local convenience store.  At this point, with the concert about to kick-off, the men and women in light bluish-grey decided to step up their game.

Over 66,000 descended upon the 20,000ish capacity stadium.  The cops were ready, the ticket takers were sorta ready, Team Swaggy was ready.  And so it went...

Did the police crack down or did they catch Beauty and a beat?  I'd call it a draw.

While there were no elected officials whose safety and health were threatened by hormonal adolescents drawn to their obsession, there were numerous injuries and mild catastrophe reported.  Though, the official spokesman for the Kommune Koppers issued a statement that sounded more like they had withstood an invading army.

Which, is fair, seeing how, in the end, the chaos left one, poor Bieberian in a coma.

28-0, 6 KOs

So yeah... Bieber in Norway is no joke.

In other news, I would like to give a special kudos to Norwegian boxer, Cecilia Brækhus.  She beat Mia St. John, the former Super Welterweight champion, over the weekend by TKO.  With the victory, Brækhus retained her WBA, WBO, WPBF, and WBC welterweight titles.  At 28-0, she is one of the best, pound-for-pound fighters in the world.  A fact made even more remarkable due to the fact that Norway is one of a handful of countries with a ban on Professional Boxing.

She is also an accomplished kickboxer and has been dabbling in muay thai and may take her talents to the UFC.  Would definitely be a step up in competition (which, she hasn't gotten much of in her rampage through the boxing world) and probably an improvement in pay (the fights preceding hers were a bunch of slow, has beens/never was/never will be's slapping at each other for four rounds).  It will be interesting to see how that goes as professional mixed martial arts is also illegal here (though, there's an organization with a snazzy Facebook page working on fixing that).

Here is usually where I would write "Alt for Norge", but, in light of the violence and attempted harm going on back in America (it feels weird to watch from abroad... it's almost like its happening on another planet), I decided to switch up the message...

"We must all learn to live together as brothers or die together as fools" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Alt for fred... Peace for all

the early morning hustle

So... I thought I'd write about once a week, sharing all the witty things in my head analyzing the world I now live in.

Though, the one thing I've come to realize is that, like life anywhere, once you get in a routine, its hard to recognize what is noteworthy from just happenstance.  Plus, how interesting would it be to read about me waking up, eating breakfast, and trying to get to class through all the snow?

That being said, I was just going to write about not watching the Super Bowl.  Until a girl passed out on my morning tram ride.

While I don't know what happened to her (she seriously just fell) and would never make light of the situation (while she seemed to be ok when the EMTs took her away, people have died from less), it was interesting to note the radical differences in "reactions" from the passer-bys.

(You would not believe how easy it is to get distracted, I was trying to find a picture of people responding crazy to someone falling down and I ended up here... good song *NSFW*, but weird way to find it)

When the girl first fell/fainted/lost consciousness, there was a visible response of at least a few people issuing "hey, she's not moving and she should be moving and not standing and that would be a very advisable thing to do at this juncture of time and place" concern, followed by a quick response of kneeling to help the person in distress.

This is in complete contrast, generally speaking, to how it would've been perceived back home (we have more of a "laugh and point and film" approach to people in distress... no, seriously *NSFW*).  I probably shouldn't judge because I laugh at silly things.

Though, it was nice to see that the Norwegian spirit of helping their fellow man isn't just reserved to paying a lot in taxes, but actually doing something on a personal level... (I know, right?!?).  Though, on the flip side, two several stops from the fainting location, was a scheduled stop at a hospital (like, the hospital was about 70 40 meters, 225 135 feet, from the tram doors).  It doesn't take a master detective to figure out what might've been a better solution to the situation.  Sure, that may not have been a viable solution (who would stabilize the prone person for the herky jerky ride?  who would prevent passengers from accidentally stepping on the person? etc.), but all I know is that my morning was delayed for forty twenty minutes (did I mention the close proximity of the hospital?  It was roughly a mile, 1.3 km, away... slightly more reassuring than this) due to the whole incident.

Just saying, Oslo... let's try to be problem solvers here...

Rap lyric I'd incorporate into a song if I were a rapper:
Never tested, competition softer than Jergen/We in the clubs makin' it rain like Stavanger or Bergen