For some reason my hands decided they were going to rebel and become extremely dry and irritated. I'm thinking it's all the coming in and out of the cold air, and the hot water from dish washing and showering that did it. Anyway I only brought a tiny bit of lotion with me, so I had to go out and buy some today. The 7 kr lotion was sold out of course so I had to buy one for 30 that was only a bit bigger. Anyway, my hands are thankful, though not 100 % again.
I also discovered that I am not drinking enough water here. I was rudely awoken at 6:45 this morning to a bothersome cramp in my calf. Instead of getting through one water bottle I have gone through two today. I decided that I also shouldn't be a lazy bum anymore. While there aren't much options for exercising besides walking (or running outside) or spending money to join the gym or rent skis, I took to my old tricks of in-room workouts. I had a couple different workouts pinned to my Health board on Pinterest so I tried one of those. It wasn't anything spectacular but if I can do that and throw a couple walks into my week I can make it through until it gets warm enough to run outside.
Today was a really nice day. Clear and Sunny, though pretty cold. I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean. It may have actually been warmer here than some places at home. I heard it was in the negatives this morning in Elmira. Here it was probably in the single digits only. Even though clear days usually mean colder weather, they are so much cheerier. I'm looking out my window at the moon right now. The sky is four or five shades darker than sky blue and the moon is nearly full so it makes for a pretty awesome view.
I had my first class for Family, Gender and the Welfare State today. I think it will be a bit more challenging than I anticipated. At least until I get things figured out. The professor's English is a bit difficult to understand (I can't imagine how my non-native English classmates are doing) and she talks quite a bit faster than the professor in my other class. Sometimes she uses phrases that are not something a native english speaker would say and it takes me a minute to figure it out. Also, during the lecture she was simply reading word for word off of her notes so it was even harder to understand because she was never really talking to us (if that makes sense). When she did divert from her notes, it was clear that she was very interested in the subject and is probably a very good lecturer. We talked about some technical terms today about welfare states and their policies towards families. I don't have a very good background in that stuff so I guess I will have to try to get a lot out of the reading. Luckily this class at least gives us which chapters and articles we are supposed to be reading for each class. Some don't even do that. I found out the seminars (there are only three) are optional but recommended. Not sure if that is the same for all classes with seminars or not.
I bought the language book today. The book is about 200 pgs and cost 440 NOK (about $80). I also purchased the compendium for the Gender class (articles that are not found free online through the database) and that ended up costing 89 NOK ($16ish). So not too bad. I am going to hold out and hope I can keep taking my Norwegian Society book out of the library or find someone to sell it to me for less. So I may only be spending about 100 bucks on books. Wouldn't that be great?
I also did my first homework assignment. We had to do exercises from a chapter in our language book. It wasn't too hard. I am both excited and nervous about this class. I think it will be a great experience by the end, but definitely not an easy road.
I moved around the furniture in my room last night. It took me about four moves but I think I have everything settled finally. My bed is still where it was but I moved my desk further to the left, all the way against the wall and put the comfy chair in the corner on the same side as my bed so that I can still use the lamp from the desk to read in my chair. My big shelf is now directly next to my bed and is the first thing you encounter when you walk in. I'm half of one of the shelves for a night stand since I moved the coffee table to the wall where the shelf used to be. I'm not sure why but I think it feels homier.
Sarah, Lara and I are going to a free Jazz concert tonight. I have no idea who it is that is coming. I just saw was a post on facebook about it. Gotta take advantage of those free activities ;)
I also discovered that I am not drinking enough water here. I was rudely awoken at 6:45 this morning to a bothersome cramp in my calf. Instead of getting through one water bottle I have gone through two today. I decided that I also shouldn't be a lazy bum anymore. While there aren't much options for exercising besides walking (or running outside) or spending money to join the gym or rent skis, I took to my old tricks of in-room workouts. I had a couple different workouts pinned to my Health board on Pinterest so I tried one of those. It wasn't anything spectacular but if I can do that and throw a couple walks into my week I can make it through until it gets warm enough to run outside.
Today was a really nice day. Clear and Sunny, though pretty cold. I'm sure a lot of you know what I mean. It may have actually been warmer here than some places at home. I heard it was in the negatives this morning in Elmira. Here it was probably in the single digits only. Even though clear days usually mean colder weather, they are so much cheerier. I'm looking out my window at the moon right now. The sky is four or five shades darker than sky blue and the moon is nearly full so it makes for a pretty awesome view.
I had my first class for Family, Gender and the Welfare State today. I think it will be a bit more challenging than I anticipated. At least until I get things figured out. The professor's English is a bit difficult to understand (I can't imagine how my non-native English classmates are doing) and she talks quite a bit faster than the professor in my other class. Sometimes she uses phrases that are not something a native english speaker would say and it takes me a minute to figure it out. Also, during the lecture she was simply reading word for word off of her notes so it was even harder to understand because she was never really talking to us (if that makes sense). When she did divert from her notes, it was clear that she was very interested in the subject and is probably a very good lecturer. We talked about some technical terms today about welfare states and their policies towards families. I don't have a very good background in that stuff so I guess I will have to try to get a lot out of the reading. Luckily this class at least gives us which chapters and articles we are supposed to be reading for each class. Some don't even do that. I found out the seminars (there are only three) are optional but recommended. Not sure if that is the same for all classes with seminars or not.
I bought the language book today. The book is about 200 pgs and cost 440 NOK (about $80). I also purchased the compendium for the Gender class (articles that are not found free online through the database) and that ended up costing 89 NOK ($16ish). So not too bad. I am going to hold out and hope I can keep taking my Norwegian Society book out of the library or find someone to sell it to me for less. So I may only be spending about 100 bucks on books. Wouldn't that be great?
I also did my first homework assignment. We had to do exercises from a chapter in our language book. It wasn't too hard. I am both excited and nervous about this class. I think it will be a great experience by the end, but definitely not an easy road.
I moved around the furniture in my room last night. It took me about four moves but I think I have everything settled finally. My bed is still where it was but I moved my desk further to the left, all the way against the wall and put the comfy chair in the corner on the same side as my bed so that I can still use the lamp from the desk to read in my chair. My big shelf is now directly next to my bed and is the first thing you encounter when you walk in. I'm half of one of the shelves for a night stand since I moved the coffee table to the wall where the shelf used to be. I'm not sure why but I think it feels homier.
Sarah, Lara and I are going to a free Jazz concert tonight. I have no idea who it is that is coming. I just saw was a post on facebook about it. Gotta take advantage of those free activities ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment