Uh, there's like, no spoon. Or something.

Between studying artificial intelligence, learning a new language and discovering a new culture, I've been doing a lot of thinking about thinking.

How does our brain decide what to learn? An artificially intelligent system has to somehow determine the 'utility' of a piece of information, and using this knowledge, decide whether or not to learn it. Humans, it seems, aren't endowed with this capacity - nor can we automatically 'un-learn' information that later turns out to be irrelevant.

With that in mind, I mentioned to Kjell that it amazes me what my brain chooses to remember. Why is it easy, I asked, to memorize useless South Park and Monty Python episodes, but I have to fight to get Norsk words into my head?

Kjell corrected me: is silly information truly useless? Surely there is something tremendous about the fact that although we live half the globe apart, we can imitate Beavis and Butthead together. There's nothing like hearing Kenneth do Eric Cartman's ''Screw you guys, I'm goin' home'' with a Norwegian accent. And on the other hand, I have as yet to find a Norwegian who can't at least get by in English, so it's no wonder that learning Norsk is like biking uphill. Perhaps my brain is doing a better job than I give it credit for.

Last night, we all gave our brains some collective time off and headed for the beach! Only in Norway can you pack two cars full of people, food and grills at 7:30PM and head to the water for a barbeque.

So last night I biked only half-way home and stopped at Mona's house, as we both needed to pick up some fixings for beach-side shish-kebab. Just when we thought the rest of the gang had gotten lost looking for the place, I heard a thick, Newfie accent bellowing out my name. We glanced out the window to see two cars, the first of which sported Shannon hanging out the sunroof, sucking back a cigarette as he hunted me down.

Some banter flew back and forth, during which once again Shannon repeatedly referred to me as the 'grasshopper' from Ontario. I've earned the reputation. A couple of times, my bumbling has revealed glaring deficiencies in my knowledge of the Great Outdoors. After this enjoyable abuse, I piled into Espen's car with Edmundas and Mona. Kenneth drove his car, with his sweetheart Tone in the passenger seat, Kenneth's friend Frank in behind her, and Shannon mostly in the car.

So we headed off for about an hour's drive to a beautiful beach. The mountains, complete with trees, sheep and snowy peaks, reminded me of something out of a movie. Along the way we spotted a Norwegian horse and several fish farms.

It was Espen who started it. He challenged Shannon to dive into the water, and promised that he'd follow if Shannon took the plunge. It seemed for a moment that, like me, Shannon was going to choose to value his nards over his daredevil reputation. Through all this, Edmundas didn't seem to need any prompting; he was looking forward to a little dip from the moment we got there! I offered further bait: if Shannon went through with it, he could call me 'grasshopper' for the duration of the trip.

The pants and shirts went flying off, and Espen and Shannon dashed out into the water with Edmundas in pursuit. There are some great pictures of the episode on Edmundas' camera, and I'll have them up here as soon as I can.

I think it was Mona's stories about the Norsk monsters that kept me out of the water! As part of my training (as a grasshopper) she's taught me a bit about the legendary Norwegian evils - which, after my troll assault, I am inclined to believe are all true. I believe Mona is the only person I have yet to introduce, and perhaps the middle of a discussion of legends is a fine place to do it. You know the legend (inspired, perhaps, by Canadian beer commercials) of Scandinavian women who are supposed to be intelligent, beautiful and endearing? As a former IAESTE trainee and a friend of Hilde (IAESTE's boss in these parts), Mona is proving the legend true by example. Hailing from the Lofoten islands we'll be travelling south to visit during Arctic Week, she is well-versed in Norwegian culture. On the way home from the beach, she challenged Espen to a cook-off of a favourite Norsk dish. Us trainees get to judge which recipe we like best, which means that everybody wins!

She warned me of two creatures I should not want to meet by the water. The first, nøkken, live in lakes and drown unsuspecting swimmers. The second, draugen, sail the seas in half a boat. If a sailor sees the draugen, death is guaranteed to follow minutes later. Trolls, of course, live in the mountains. And two types of creatures live underground: the haugfolket, and the more devious hulder.

The hulder, you see, disguise themselves as beautiful women. They wear skirts or, on occasion, national clothing, and seek unsuspecting men to lure into their lairs. The men, Mona tells me, never return. (Shannon wanted to know what happens to the men before they are killed, but that wasn't revealed to me.) The only way you can tell if you're being seduced by a hulder is to check to see if she - it, that is - has a tail.