Update

I've officially been home for 19 days. It seems so weird to think that just 20 days ago I was in Oslo, walking around Sognsvann lake. Weird I tell ya. I miss Norway, but not the way I thought I would. I almost feel like I never left. Then again, there are certain things that keep cropping up that I notice are different. I thought I would feel stressed about being away from Norway, at least at first. The day I left I was anxious and had numerous occasions where I just wanted to run back to Kringsja. But after that...no culture shock, hardly any jet lag.  It was certainly unexpected. My experience feels less real than I thought it would. It's scary how it can feel like that. It's not like it faded away either. It was just like all of a sudden I was home and doing home stuff not in Norway doing Norway stuff.

There are so many times when I talk about it though..."When I was in Norway.." "Ever since I've been back..." "Sarah Ferguson...." And whenever anyone asks I'm quick to tell them Norway was and is still my favorite place and that it is the best experience of my life so far.

Two nights ago I got to swing dance again for the first time since I've been back. I was on a high from it still when I got to work Wednesday. I went to Buffalo (an hour plus drive). There was a mini lesson which happened to be almost exactly what I had learned while in Oslo. The instructors were nowhere near as good (or funny) as my great Norwegian instructors, but I knew what I was doing of course. I danced with several guys who knew what they were doing, and I even taught one of them a new move! (sliding doors, flirt, and the longer one out of sliding doors) Sara and Amanda came with me and I was so proud of them! They both danced with just about as many people as I did, and I think they had a pretty good time ;)  I definitely want to go again. Hopefully I can get some more recruits! Every time we rotated partners I wanted to say "Takk for dansen" though-and I did a couple times :p

One thing I realized being home is that I don't want to stay in this area. Before I knew I wanted to go away to experience other things, but now I just want to get out. As many good things there are to say about small towns, it seems like the not-so-good ones are more magnified. Especially the gossip. That's all anyone ever does here! (Is it just here? Or is everyone in America a gossip?)  I have noticed myself unconsciously not telling stories that other people had told me because it's just GOSSIP!! I don't want people to be up in my business and I don't want to know everything about other people either.

Another thing I do is say "nei" a lot here. I'm not sure if anyone notices though. No one ever says anything about it. I know Sara knows what I'm saying but I feel like everyone else maybe just thinks I misspoke. Sometimes I say "eh" too but not pronounced enough for people to make fun of me for sounding Canadian.

I'm also proud to say I am still regularly eating my brown cheese! I've gotten a lot of people to try it since I've been home and everyone has liked it! I was so impressed. I did injure myself with the cheese slicer the other day, but that was the only bad thing that's ever happened related to brown cheese.

I'm hoping this post wasn't too unorganized. I'm not feeling very focused right now, so on that note. Until next time..

Last Days

My last week in Oslo was pretty rainy. Like I said, Monday and Tuesday were nice days but Wednesday rained almost all day long. Thursday rained a lot, a little Friday, and a good chunk of Saturday. Friday was nice most of the day though, and Saturday afternoon/night turned out great.

I met up with Johanne Friday afternoon. She had an errand to run that required us to go back to her apartment, so I got to see where she lives. I was really happy about this. I haven't really gotten to see how any Norwegians my age live except in Kringsja. The apartment she's living in right now is really small, but SO cute! I had a great time with her. We got ice cream downtown, stumbled upon a gay pride festival, and hung out at one her favorite places, a bar/coffee shop and music shop called "Bare Jazz."

I met up with Kristbjorn and Eivind that night. Another great time. Took a walk to Sognsvann, got bit by some mosquitoes (oh wait, that was mostly Eivind :p), just hung out. That night I was trying to stay up for the sunrise so we stayed out quite late. I did stay up until the time I was supposed to, but it was cloudy and really cold out (10 C!) so I decided to just go to bed. 

My last day (Saturday) was spent mostly just cleaning and packing. I had a bit of trouble packing at first, but it worked out okay. It poured in the morning. Luckily I made  it to Kiwi to buy my brown cheese before that happened ;). Around 5 pm it cleared up and the sun came out. I was so excited about that and took the liberty to go for a walk. I think this was really my "goodbye" walk. It's funny how I never get bored on my walks. I just find myself thinking about so many things and all of a sudden I'm halfway around the lake. I took my time with this walk, enjoying the scenery and the feel. This time my mind found itself filled with thoughts of gratitude and appreciation for my time in Norway and for the people I met. I took time to say a "thank you" to Sognsvann, to Oslo, to Norway in general for the great experience.

I was trying to think of how to compare my love for the U.S. with my love for Norway. I decided that I love the U.S. like I would love a family member. At first I loved it because I was told to, because I was born here, just like you originally love your family because well...they're your family. But now, I love the U.S. because it is my home, because it is familiar to me and because it is in many ways (but not all of course), a great place to live. Norway on the other hand, I would compare to meeting a new "old" friend. I think of my relationship with Sarah kind of like this. First you meet someone and you don't know them so you need to get to know them, but the more you do you realize they feel like an old friend to you. You just fit together. I feel that way with Norway. It was new and took a bit of adjusting, but something inside me just feels like it is an "old friend" to me, someplace that I won't be able to set aside. 

I will return to Norway. I know that. I can feel it. It may take some years, it may be in a completely different context, but I'll be back eventually.  When I think of my time there, I am hit with a rush of memories: people, places, dances. It has been the best experience of my life. With that being said, I hope to have many more "best" experiences. Oslo (and Norway in general of course) will always have a place in my heart. Takk for alt Norge. Ha det bra!

The Long Trip Home

On Sunday my day started at 3:30 am. I'd gotten about two hours of sleep. I walked to Sognsvann with the hope of finally getting to watch the sunrise-and I DID get to see it. It was pretty cloudy when I walked over and still cloudy when I got there, but there were two decent chunks of sky that were visible in the East. I stood there for about 15 minutes watching the sky get lighter and lighter. Then, I decided to start my walk around. It was an awesome walk. Every time I got to a place where I could see that part of the sky it was different. At one point I had a very good idea exactly where the sun was because the clouds behind it were so vibrantly pink and orange. Needless to say I never actually saw the sun, but the sky made up for it. It took me a little over an hour to make it back home. I stopped a lot. I was trying to take in everything I could, knowing that it might be years before I could see a sunrise at 3:50 am again. I stopped at my favorite place, the dock on the opposite side of the lake. I couldn't sit because the dock was soaked from the rain but I just stood there and stared out at everything. It was just me and Sognsvann and the Oslo sun, newly awake. The left side of the lake was covered by a thick sheet of puffy grey clouds, while on the right side of the sky there were wisps of pink and orange clouds on a backdrop of baby blue sky, and these were reflected in the water. Such a contrast.

When I finally made it back home I took my time eating and getting everything ready to leave. I left Kringsja around 7:15 am. I had sort of said "goodbye" the day before so the fact that I was sweating like a pig because of carrying my bags didn't really interrupt the fact that I was leaving for the last time. I am very very happy that I was able to leave on a sunny day.

Overall no major problems flying home. There were some minor worrisome details with the flights, but no problems with security/customs. My brown cheese made it! At Newark they were cancelling and delaying departures due to weather so my flight was delayed a bit, but only by a half hour or so.

There were a couple times when I wanted to turn around and run back to Kringsja. At the Oslo airport the majority of people at my gate were Norwegian but there were so many Americans and they were all talking how Americans talk and I just wanted that to be put on hold. Newark was crazy. Loud and lots of people. As soon as I got there some guy mouthed off to one of the airport workers and the worker stormed off, spouting something about how she doesn't know why she even tries to help. There were a lot of people complaining about the wait to recheck our bags. And yes, it did take forever but it was just very stressful. You wouldn't see Norwegians complaining that loudly at least :p

My parents met me at the airport and it was SO great to see them. Everything felt way too normal though. It felt like I wasn't seeing them for the first time in six months, or riding in the car or walking around my house. Everything just felt familiar.  Even seeing Sean felt familiar. Same kind of thing with my parents. I was SO happy to see him, but everything after just felt normal.

One thing that was different was how DARK it gets here. I'm hoping that will help my adjusting-ya know, so my body knows when to fall asleep. I slept GREAT last night and I was up by 7:30 this morning. I guess it makes sense though. I was up for almost 36 hours with only about 5 hours of sleep.

I think I will get a bit overwhelmed by all the people who want to talk to me/see me. I spent a good twenty minutes texting/facebooking people before I got out of bed this morning. I'm glad I have two months to say hi to everyone again :p Some people only come home for a couple weeks.

Sean is coming over for breakfast today. I have an eye appointment this afternoon and then car shopping! Should be a good first day back.  Though it's only 8:30 am and I'm already sweating...hey, summer.

Things you should know about Norway

These are just preliminaries. There will be more...

1. This is number one for a reason. Norway is the most beautiful country I have ever been to. You just can't get away from it. Even in Oslo (the capital city mind you..) there are beautiful places almost everywhere. Sognsvann lake is one of my favorites.  What's great is that I have only been to see a very small portion of the country and if the capital city is this beautiful, the rest of the country has to be amazing.
2. Pay attention to the sunset in the winter. It is the most beautiful I have ever seen and you are able to catch it almost everyday because it happens so early.
3. Norwegians love nature. Skis are perfectly acceptable to take on the metro, or anywhere else for that matter. If you're not outside enjoying a nice day, there is something wrong with you. Also, children should learn to ski ASAP (that way their parents don't have to drag them around in a sled all the time). In kindergartens children sleep outside in the spring/summer and take tons of field trips.
4. Babies in Norway go everywhere and are extremely well protected. The strollers have heavy duty wheels-built for endurance and stability. And the babies...well, there's so much padding in there that if they did tip over, they would be a-okay. 
5. It's more confusing when it's light so late than it was when it was dark so early.
6. Brown cheese is great. Give it time. And whoever came up with the cheese slicer was a genius (yet another form of Norwegian moderation).
7. Norway offers parents nearly a year off to split when their child is young. Fathers get 12 weeks all to themselves (use it or lose it). The normal vacation period workers get is four weeks and that's from the start-no working your way up.
8. All the Norwegians I've met are extremely friendly, but don't expect anyone to voluntarily sit by you on the metro.
9. Norwegians eat kaviar and mayonaise out of a tube. They also eat a lot of fish. A Norwegian breakfast consists of buttered bread and various fish spreads, among other things.
10. Norwegians like their free time, so basically everything is closed on Sundays (including most grocery stores). It's frustrating for International students, especially for holidays we didn't know existed. There was one time where grocery stores either were not open or were reduced hours fri-mon (Friday was National Day, Saturday was reduced hours and both Sunday and Monday were holidays so everything was closed). 
11. Norwegians seem to be very trusting. For example when you buy a student ticket to something they do not always ask to see your ID and when you ride the metro you only have to validate your ticket the first time you use it (if you have a monthly pass for example). You don't need it to get through a barricade or anything, so it's very easy to play the system. Also, Norwegian children seem to be trusted to be by themselves quite a bit. I've seen kids that are pretty young riding the metro by themselves. I trust people more in Norway.

Coffee with a friend and more..

Today I was happy to meet up with one of the ladies I went to Ulvik with earlier this year, Tone Grete. I am so lucky to have met so many wonderful people on my trip, her included. We had a very nice chat and she even got me a small key chain as a memento. See below :) (Moose)

I started sorting through some of my things to start packing, and I cleaned the bathroom and some of my closet. It was rainy again today. Yesterday it rained from noon until I went to bed and I when I woke up it was raining again. I'm hoping for at least one more nice day before I leave. Tone Grete says this is what it was like last summer-raining off and on a little everyday. It's very inconvenient if you want to plan to do anything outdoors. 

Not sure if I mentioned this but I plan to continue my blog at least into the first couple weeks I am back. I am very interested in what sort of culture shock I will find myself faced with, and I am thinking there will be many things that I notice that I could not have seen before as I make my re-entry into American culture. I'd like to document it as much as possible. I am expecting some culture shock, definitely. Since I have been here I feel as though I have become separated from the "American" way of life. I think one thing that demonstrates this is how easy it has become  to pick out Americans who is American here and on my travels. I am separate enough that I can see that. I think of myself in a weird sort of limbo, still American of course but a little more Norwegian than I started and a little bit less grounded. One thing I expect to have trouble with is sliding back into the role I used to play in my life. Here in Norway I did not come in with a role. No one knew who I was, no one expected anything from me, and living with international students especially, there were no specific set of norms to follow. I am wondering if I will feel restricted when I come home. Not only will I be coming back into "normal" life, into a set of norms that I once followed and will again be expected to follow, but these norms are complied in the goings on of a small town. As much as I miss home and I look forward to the familiarity I will find there, I am worried that I may not fit. As I'm rereading this, it might sound like I'm saying that I don't want to come home or am simply setting my little town aside. That is not true at all. I am so very excited to come home and see my family and my friends, and drive around Amish country, and get a Duper doughnut, and just be home. But like I said, I think my "role" will have changed, even just slightly and I am very interested to see what comes out of that shift. 

One thing I am disappointed about is that I never met anyone from Buffalo! Next time I travel I am bringing a buffalo shirt or hat or something because I know they're out there!  

For any of you that are wondering, my flight is due to arrive in Buffalo on Sunday night at 6:50. 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday I had a full day-lots of walking. I started at Oslo City Hall. They offer free guided tours everyday during the summer and I thought I should take advantage. The inside is beautiful. There are a lot of great paintings. In one room every inch of the wall and ceiling is painted. It's kind of overwhelming because you feel like you're in some sort of jungle, but also really neat.

After the city hall tour I walked around Akker Brygge, which is down by the docks where I dance on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer. I didn't realize it went further down, so I explored all the way to the end and found a very small "beach" there.

Next I took a bus to the center of Grunnerlokka because that was one of the places I wanted to walk around in. I had only been to the flea market there on Sundays and one bar. I ended up just wandering around. I think I got quite a ways away from the main part. I followed the river that the club Bla is located on and eventually ended back up where I started. I had the intention of stopping in a cafe but that didn't happen. I got frozen yogurt at 7-Eleven later though :) I walked from Grunnerlokka all the way back to central station. I thought about just going home but I ended up taking the t-bane to Majorstuen and walking to Vigelandsparken. I had only seen it in the winter and it was quite a bit different. Way more people, greener. I think I almost liked it better in the winter. The statues had more meaning, I think. I explored a little bit of the park and walked down some streets I'd never been on and then at about 16:30 I decided I was pooped and needed to go home.

For some reason the internet isn't working right now and my spotty wifi was being very efficient last night so I spent most of Monday night watching Jera pack. She and her husband left around noon yesterday. I'm very sad to see them go. We spent a lot of time together this past week, mostly just hanging out in the kitchen. I hope to be able to visit them someday. Jera's masters program next takes her to Germany and from there who knows..maybe they will stay in Germany, maybe they will come back to Norway or go to Slovenia where Jera's from.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to visit the islands I had missed last week: Gressholmen and Lidoya. They were obviously less popular. Lidoya had a lot of summer houses on it. It would be a cute place to stay. Gressholmen was grassy and woody. There was one cafe/shop and some people swimming. I just walked through both the islands and caught the next ferry. Last night I went to the open swing dance at Akker Brygge. I reeeeeeally wish I had brought my camera. I never do because usually I don't have any pockets and things tend to get stolen if you bring a bag. It's just such an awesome thing to watch. A couple groups put on a show during the free dance even. And I still don't have a video of me dancing. There were more guys than girls last night so I danced for basically the whole two hours. It was a ton of fun. I danced with the old crazy guy again. Boy that guy is awesome.  I have no idea what kind of dancing we were doing but I was hopping up and down and twisting with whatever he was doing. After the dance I went with some of the dancers to an Irish pub. I talked with a Filipino guy who has been living in Norway for 8 or 10 years now. It was interesting because his perspective was both foreign and Norwegian. We shared some stories from Kringsja because he used to live there too. He told me that it took him a year to learn the language and only three years to adopt the Norwegian sing-song rhythm. It seems like he fits in very well now.

Today it looked like it would rain but I didn't want to start the day cooped up in my room, so I decided to ride the T-bane. I took line 1 which is the line with the big ski jump. I had never been all the way to the end so that's what I did-took it all the way up the mountain. The scenery is awesome going up. You can see basically the whole downtown area. It started raining on the way back down and is still raining now. It's cold too. Yesterday and Monday were pretty warm. I am still dreading the weather back home. I really don't think I'll be able to handle the heat.

It's so weird that there's only a few of us in our flat. Right now I am the only one here because the Norwegian guy and his girlfriend are at work and so is my roommate. It's nice in a way, but also kind of lonely.

Lastly, I would like to wish my wonderful mother a very happy birthday today. I wish I could be home to celebrate, but I guess four days isn't too long :) Have a great day, Mom!

 City Hall (above and below)

 Super Moon at Sognsvann!

An Unexpected Morning

Today I planned to do some island hopping in the Olso fjord, but I had a bit of an unexpected obstacle this morning. I went for a run around Sognsvann like I have been doing the past few mornings (more about this later). I thought my roommate had left for work, but like always I put a note on the door saying not to lock the door to our suite because I only bring my access card to get in the building. Well, I came back about an hour later and what-da-ya-know....locked. So begins my adventure: I went to the SiO office and it was going to cost 250kr to call the caretaker to unlock my room. Not doing that. I message Remi on facebook (because why would roommates ever exchange phone numbers?) and waited for a response. Jera (my flatmate) and her husband were having breakfast with a friend so I ate some cornmeal stuff with yogurt (surprisingly tasty) with them and just hung out for a while. Finally I decided I would go to campus to look for Remi. I knew what building he worked in and that he was doing an internship on fish, but nothing else. A good start, I thought. Alex, Jera's husband, decided he wanted to go for a walk so he came too. Luckily he had just met Remi the other day and could add some information to mine. For example, Remi is studying the development of the fish, cod specifically. We ended up only having to ask three people to help. A woman with a slightly British accent was the most helpful and pointed us to exactly the right area of the building. From there on it was luck. We happened to walk past an open door and see Remi sitting there. I think he was surprised and a little worried when he saw me, and I think he felt badly for locking me out. An honest mistake. I was just happy to have a key so I could go shower! (which I haven't done yet...hey, this story needed to get told)  I really like Jera's husband (just so ya'll know his name is actually Alejandro-how cool is that?!) We had some good conversation during our outing. I think he enjoyed himself. He got to see some of campus and get some nice outdoor pictures.

I think a shower is in order before I continue. Hold tight.

................................................................................................................................

In other news:

Last night I went to Akker Brygge to dance. I'm not sure if I explained how this works. Basically if you were an outsider you would be walking along the docks and suddenly run into a bunch of people standing around watching about 15 couples swing dancing. We get a lot of people that stop and watch, and they often applaud after the songs. There are some really great swing dancers that come. I love watching the older people dance. It's so awesome to think that most of them have been dancing since they were younger and continue to find joy in dancing. I would like to be like that when I'm older. Actually last night I danced with a couple of those older people. There is this one guy who is always there. You can't help but watch him. He goes craaaazy. Hopping around and kicking his feet up and throwing his hands up and just making all kinds of faces. It just looks fun. He seems like quite a character-he's got a tattoo that stretches across his chest (not sure of what). I know because he always wears his shirt with half the buttons undone. Anyway, he asked me to dance and all I know is rock step. I think he was doing some Lindy Hop but the rest may have been made up. Anyway, I danced with him twice and it was a ton of fun. I had a little trouble following at first but after a while I just decided to stop trying to figure out what he was doing and just go with it. The other older guy I have no idea what kind of dance he was doing-much slower and no hopping. He was even harder to follow but he was doing a pretty good job of leading. There was another old man that was very good. He was fun to watch too. I didn't dance with him though. Another exciting bit of news: I learned the basics to Lindy Hop last night thanks to an American named Alex who is visiting his parents (who are living in Norway for who knows what) over the summer. I was so excited. I even danced a couple of dances. We mostly just did the basic steps but I think I did quite well. Now when I get home I won't be starting from scratch when I learn Lindy. I plan to try to go to Buffalo on Tuesday nights to dance and I would LOVE for anyone  and everyone to come with. You don't need any experience, nor do you need a partner (Thank goodness because my boyfriend refuses :p). From what I've read it's a half hour mini lesson and then just a free dance.

Not much more to tell...I had a nice run this morning. My legs were pretty sore but I got it done. Whenever I run here, not just Sognsvann but anywhere in Norway, I get distracted. Sometimes it ends up being a walk because I decide to explore somewhere new. Other times I just get distracted by beautiful things. Today it was the ducklings. I have seen them the past three days and they are just as mesmerizingly (sorry  for bad spelling) cute every time. I also have been stopping at a dock that is basically the halfway point in my run. It's on the opposite side of the lake so even if there are people at the lake, there usually aren't many there and I've been running pretty early so it has been really empty. I just stand on the dock for a few minutes staring out at the lake, watching the ripples come towards me, breathing in the Norwegian air. It's one of those moments you could make last forever.

I'm not sure what I will make of my day today. I'll probably head downtown later. I broke my sunglasses yesterday so I think I'll have to buy a new pair. I don't think I can last for 11 more days without any. Jera has invited me to eat lunch with her. She's making something with buckwheat? Sounds..interesting. And I'm sure it will be good. She always makes tasty things.

Ha det bra!