January 10 & 11

The newest symptom to my cold: projectile sneezing. I knew I was starting to get sick a few days ago, but until yesterday it had not really affected me. I was sneezing all day long (using a ton of valuable tissues!) and my head was getting more and more congested by the hour. I don't feel too bad this morning but I have already sneezed all over myself twice. Not a great start to the morning.

Today I have a two hour bus tour of the city scheduled for 1pm. Later coffee hour, some kind of comedian (where they are giving away free food!) and a party the student organization has arranged for us. Should be a fun day.

Yesterday morning I had a meeting with my faculty (faculty basically just refers to department in Norway). The head of the department of social sciences talked to us for a few minutes. She had put together a slideshow of funny cartoons about Norwegians, such as how they always eat brown cheese, and are really shy until you drink with them, etc.. Then another professor talked to us about more relevant matters like registration and when IT help is available.

Sarah (Canada) and I met in the city later to buy "long johns" because we heard it will be -20 C this weekend (that's about -4 for all you Fahrenheiters out there). We did a little shopping around and found some cool sports stores. We settled on buying from the kids section, a pair that was a step above the cheapest kind for about 26 U.S. dollars. I am thinking I will be using them quite a bit.

For those of you who keep up with me on Facebook, you know I had a little bit of trouble with dinner last night. I had gone to a vegetable market a couple days ago and bought potatoes, so I had the brilliant idea to make hash browns and eat them with ketchup. Well..it took me about twenty minutes to realize the reason they weren't cooking was because they were sitting on the wrong burner! Silly me. By that time I was so impatient that I didn't even let them cook all the way and settled for a few that were undercooked. It was pretty tasty all the same.

Last night my buddy group met up at one of the buddy leader's houses in Sogn which is a short bus ride or train ride (and a short walk) from my village. He lives in one of the apartments that was just recently built. Everything still smells new! He lives by himself in a decent sized room with a kitchen area and his own bathroom. Later we walked over to a place that I would just describe as a student hang out facility. There were lots of chairs and tables, a bar, and a couple pool tables. They have things like board game night. I guess we have some place like this in Kringsja but I am just not sure where.  I learned a lot about South Korea last night from talking with Tae Young.  He talked quite a bit about how hard it is for older generations to see eye to eye with younger generations. For example, a young man and woman may decide to live together but they would never tell their parents and their parents would never imagine that such a thing could happen. He said that when parents come to visit, the girlfriend or boyfriend's stuff is hidden or taken to a friend's room. I learned that the ages for marrying in South Korea (and the Czech Republic from talking with Dominca) are a lot older than I thought they would be. Both Dominica and Tae Young said it is typical for  people to wait til their late twenties or until age thirty to marry.  But Tae Young made the observation that if you are not married by then you are put under a lot of stress to find a partner.

Last night was probably the coldest I have ever felt here. I have no idea how cold it was or if it was actually the coldest temperature but when I got back to my room I was so thankful for heat!!

Time to be productive :)

Do you hear what I hear?

One of the best things about this trip is that you get to experience a ton (and I mean A TON) of different languages and even more different types of accents. I've found that I love listening to eastern Europeans speak. It's crazy the sounds they can make with their mouths! I would have no idea how to even attempt half of them. I met a woman from the Czech Republic tonight and it sounds silly, but I just kept staring at her mouth. Language is such an awesome thing. What's cool too, is the way non-native English speakers form sentences in English.  So far everyone has been very easy to understand, but sometimes the order of the words or the prepositions they use are not the way native English speakers would say it.  It is also interesting when they do not know the word for something in English and they must find a way to explain it using other words. That goes for the reverse, as well. Sometimes they do not understand a word I say in English and I must find things that they do understand to show them what I mean. Language really does reflect a culture, because basically what you can say is what you understand. If there is no word for it, it is extremely difficult to wrap your brain around that concept.

Food for thought :)

Sunset

I saw the most brilliant sunset this afternoon. I think I can honestly say that I have never seen one like. Norwegian sunsets are new to me.

There is a lake in Sognsvann about a three minute walk up the road from Krinsja. I had heard it was beautiful and decided to take a walk up there this afternoon by myself. It was absolutely perfect. The lake is bigger than I had originally suspected. The path that goes around its edges is about 5k, which makes it perfect for joggers. I encountered quite a few people jogging or speed-walking, and a few others cross-country skiing.  Originally I had not intended to go the full 5k, but maybe just take a nice ten minute walk and turn around. It was so incredibly beautiful and peaceful that I just never stopped. When I got back to my village I realized I was quite cold and tired, but I just felt alive when I was there. It's crazy how at peace nature can make you feel. The lake has become my new favorite place, which is not saying much now, but I have a feeling it will keep its standing throughout my stay. I imagine it is awesome during summer, as well. But there is something about a landscape covered in snow, surrounded by pines that is perfect for clearing your head. Good for almost all that ails you.

It was at the lake that I saw the incredible sunset I spoke of earlier. Thus far all of the sunsets I have seen in Oslo have been spectacular, but this one just blew them away. It's different than a normal sunset, I think maybe because the original sky color is not the same. The backdrop is almost a greenish blue color and when the sun begins to go down it changes the whole sky, but all of it does not stay the same. It's as if there are a number of different swirls of blue and green and combinations, along with the grayish-purple, pink, and peach puffs of cloud. On my way back I noticed a patch of sky that was almost solely blue, orange and yellow. It looked awesome because there weren't any soft colors. It was much more vibrant than what I witnessed at the actual lake.

It was funny because I couldn't help but stare at the sky on the way back to my apartment. I caught myself thinking the people that passed me looking straight ahead were somehow insane. How can you not be mesmerized by that?! I am hoping that they are not amazed because it is an everyday occurrence, not because I want to be used to it, but because then I can be amazed every single day.

A Morning of Waiting

It was a long morning. Our plan was to leave for the police station at 8 this morning. Sarah overslept and we didn't leave until eight thirty. It took us until nearly 9:30 to get to the right police station. We got turned around multiple times in our journey. We ended up waiting in line for over an hour and a half to simply make an appointment to register with the police (everyone needs to do this when they arrive in Norway in order to get the residence permit). By the time we got on a train to head over to campus it was 11:30. We missed the info session this morning for the Norwegian language class. I did make it to campus in time to buy a seven dollar club sandwich, eat it and arrive early to the next orientation info session (which is about to start actually).

Day 5

It's funny how sometimes it feels relatively "warm" here and sometimes you just feel chilled to the bone. I experienced the latter on the walk back to my room. Brrrrrrr.. While it is incredibly beautiful here, I do not think that I would like to live here. I keep telling myself to embrace the cold because it will probably be the last country I ever visit at this latitude. I know that January and February will be the worst, and after that it will continue to get warmer and lighter (I hope!), so that is what is getting me through it.  For me being a person who hates the cold so much though, it is not as horrible as I expected. You just deal with it. Everyone just deals with it.

Today we had our first official orientation week activity. We met in Auditorium One of the Georg Sverdrup Hus for the welcome ceremony. The first group of people that greeted us was a choir! They were awesome and looked like they were having a ton of fun (especially during the Queen song). We met the heads of a couple different international student groups and organizations though I am not sure which ones exactly. I did get a free trial (3 time use) to the fitness center. Lucky for me that's probably about as much as I'll want to go ;).  We then met our buddy group which consisted of international students studying sociology and some similar fields, along with three or four "buddies" (current UiO students).  We played a couple ice breaker games and then sat in on another part of the welcome ceremony. We watched two students in a sort of interpretive and traditional Norwegian dance, accompanied by a traditional Norwegian fiddle. I met a man from Minnesota (going to college in Montanna) in my group and discovered that he actually lives in my building in Krinsja! I was very excited because I haven't met many people who live in my building. I am always going to other people's buildings to eat and hang out because more people live there and they are usually more centrally located. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but I did meet two girls who live on my floor the other day. Jera (pronounced "year-a") and "shin-ade." They both came from a program that studies in London, Oslo and then somewhere in Germany. They both seemed very pleasant and we talked about purchasing things for our kitchen together.

We also got a tour of campus today (sort of). They basically just showed us the buildings we would be using, though the actually campus is quite a bit bigger. The building where I have most of my classes is quite close to the library and the other main buildings. As you can see below I (sneakily) snapped a couple of pictures inside the library. The top picture is just the label at one of the ends of the rows of books for sociology and social anthropology texts.  The library is four stories. The sociology section is on the second level, philosophy on the third (and other things) and it looked like different languages on the fourth.  It's way bigger than any library I've ever experienced and I am really excited to put it to good use.  The farthest picture down is one that I snapped from a balcony on the fourth floor looking down into the lobby of the Georg Sverdrup building.

I mentioned that I had purchased a SIM card for my phone because the Norwegian plan was cheaper than the global plan from Verizon that I had gotten before I left. After figuring out how to get my SIM card out of my iphone I discovered the SIM they gave me was too big so I had to send out for another, which will take 3-5 days. When I do finally get my SIM card working, I will have a new number for the time that I am here in Oslo.

Tonight my buddy group and I have been invited to a get together in Kringsja by one of our "buddies." Should be a good chance to hang out with some people and meet some new ones.

I can't believe it's only 11am at home right now..

Sleep?

Tonight is the first night that I did not sleep well at all. It seemed like every two hours or so I was rolling over to see what time it was. At least one of my roommates was up until after two, and there is someone up right now though I'm not sure who. (Can I say that it's quite annoying sharing a bathroom with three people when I'm only really supposed to be sharing with one?) The walls are especially thin here, too. I am contemplating buying a fan or something to make some noise when I sleep.  I kept waking up with a dry throat, also. I hope that doesn't mean I'm getting sick..

I'm supposed  to be up around eight anyway, so not too much longer. It is very dark here right now and I think on normal days it will be quite difficult to get up this early. Hopefully my classes are a bit later.

Time to eat some breakfast ("Honey Puffs") and start the day. Most of you are sound asleep, or perhaps just finishing yours.

Nights Like These..

It's funny how I just thought I would be in my room the rest of the night. (I apologize to those who tried to call me). I was invited to eat cake with some friends, something that I thought would not take very long, but here I am nearly three hours later. Let me tell you what happened...

I arrived in building 10, rode the elevator to level 7 and went straight to the kitchen. While I thought there was only supposed to be cake, I found an Italian man with hair longer than mine in the process of making a pizza. By the end of the night he had made two delicious pizza pies, a loaf of bread and a chocolate cake. I met two other people, a woman from Mexico and a woman from Italy and I socialized with some Americans  from my program. Oh, and I met my first Norwegian! That sounds funny, but everyone I have met so far is  international students like me.

I love that every night I have had dinner with other people, and never the exact same ones. It's amazing how simply sharing a meal and conversing with others can make you feel so much more at home. I am thankful for the good natured people I have met and spent time with.

Today was not very eventful. I received my welcome package from the University (instructions for the next week, passwords, semester cards, etc..), walked around the city a bit, got a SIM card for my phone and ate dinner (twice) with friends. Overall a good fourth day in Norway. Tomorrow starts group orientation meetings and I get to meet my buddy group.

Good night all.