Reflections and part two of The Fridge

Looks like blog updating has become a Sunday evening thing, something to do when I feel like being slightly productive, but not enough to actually work on an essay or do my "homework".

I'm trying to decide on a date to go home, and hoping to fly back with Abby and Devin, who I flew here with. Thinking about this gives my exchange an endpoint rather than seeming to stretch on til "whenever in the summer", and makes the idea of going home more concrete. Before Christmas it felt like my year had just begun,   but now, a day away from February, summer feels just around the corner. Devin and I were reminiscing about the flight here on skype the other day; it feels so long ago. I was most excited about the idea of hearing Norwegian on the announcements; that was honestly what I looked forward to the most at the beginning of the flight. Flying into Oslo and trying to wrap my head around the idea that this was Europe, not Canada, and that I would be spending 10 months here. Getting way too excited about absolutely everything, from Norwegian looking people to the airplane wing, to the fire hose signs and the cute little trucks. I'm going to repeat what I wrote in my journal at first:

"August 13th

First impressions of Oslo Airport

-The bathrooms are cute! They're like little ships cabins

-Trucks are smaller and cuter too

-Way quieter than American airports - no one talks! And if they do, it's quiet

-Everyone dresses nicer

-People who work here push scooters!

-Some of the guys have really awesome sweatsuits!

-Everyone looks - European"

Reading what I wrote there still makes me laugh.

In the information packet we got before we left, they say that after the holidays is when you really adjust to the new country. Until now I thought that was crazy; five months to get used to it? I thought life here felt normal two weeks in! I'm starting to realize how right they are though; how "normal" in September is different than "normal" in January. It's hard to describe what I mean, but all the magnified and unexpected ups and downs have leveled off drastically in the past month and a half. Everything was great before as well, but friends, school and everyday life here now feel much more stable, without anything actually changing.

I'm going to quote a section of Devin's blog, which I thought was great:

"I have also started to appreciate the smaller things in life. Things are totally different here. I don't have that cushion of comfort that I do at home, that gives me a sense of security and tends to make everything a little bit better. So it's kind of a hit or miss each day if it's going to be a good one or not. But even on the worst days, some little thing tends to happen that makes everything 10 times better. There was one instance where I was extremely homesick and was seconds away from going back to my house and just sleeping the day away, but then just a simple conversation with a friend, about nothing significantly meaningful, made my entire day better. (if you are Norwegian and are reading this and thinking "hey, I wonder if that's me"... it probably is :) ) It makes me think a lot about how much I could make everyone's day a little bit better if I just smiled at them, or started up a simple conversation with them."


It's this "hit or miss" that has changed so much as life becomes more stable here, those little moments are less likely to make or break a day now. 


On the topic of homesickness, I can say I've been very lucky. I have so much to miss at home, but I was definitely ready for a change, and that made things so much easier. In the first month or two, seeing pictures from home was strange and I would've loved to dive into the photos in the coffee table book I brought about Nelson. Now when I look at the same book, it's like "oh, that's a pretty town," but my life there seems on pause, and fuzzy. 


When people ask if I've been homesick, I usually answer with "ehhh...no, not really," which sounds like lying, but is actually true. Sure, there's things I've missed, but there's been so much new and exciting, and I've always known that I'd be back home before I knew it. I've had a few dreams where I'm back home and wishing I could have just one more day back in Norway. These kind of dreams make me really appreciate having another five months here, and even more determined to enjoy it as much as possible. I know I'm going to really miss Norway when I'm back home, but knowing I'd soon be back in Canada has made it hard to miss it too much.


I was looking through the books I used to learn Norwegian, and I still can't believe that those foreign sounds and words have become so commonplace to me now.

Ohh Language camp....this "conversation" I filled in says "I love brown cheese." "You're welcome"

Back when this was a complicated sentence

I still haven't gotten adjectives figured out

Where I wrote down new words at the beginning

Packaging on products here can be a really confusing mix of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. Not only do you have to read the Norwegian, you have to figure out which part is actually Norwegian. Here's some examples:

On this bottle of facewash they've mixed Norwegian, Swedish and Danish into one. Pronouns seem to be danish, verbs are shown in Danish and Swedish, and there actually isn't much Norwegian. For example, "vand/vatten" for water, not "vann", which is Norwegian, although I think "vatten" is also Nynorsk. "uger/veckor" for weeks, not "uker". You have to learn to ignore little letter differences when you read this kind of thing, and jump to conclusions yourself. I find it harder to read this mixture than just straight Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. Finnish is entirely different; I recognize almost none of it, besides maybe "minuuttia". All their words seem really stretched out with tons of vowels. 

Sorry you can't read the text I added here very well. It says that some things they don't bother translating (like "Soft tacos"). You can recognize swedish by the dots on top of the A's, and they use more C's. 

Now for some mirror pictures....

They have mirrors on some corners on roads

I tried to trim my own hair, pretty dangerous considering how impulsive I can be with this kind of thing. It turned out alright, considering I was using mirror photos with my cell phone to check the back. Not exactly precise. I only took off about a centimeter of the deadest hair, so I don't think I did too much damage.

In art class we're designing bus stops and making models of them: ours is going to have glass walls, tile, and swings. Maybe not so practical, but definitely fun!

Printing off our "Materials"

"roofing"

Now that I've exhausted my stash of pictures collected over the past week while trying unsuccesfully to tie them together, it's time for another fridge translation. (Part one of this exciting series can be found here)

1) Sour cream

2)Vanilla Yogurt 

3) Some kind of cheese

4) Vanilla sauce, usually eaten on chocolate pudding

5) A jar of herring

6) Jordbær syltetøy - strawberry jam

7) Brunost number 1 : Geitost

8) Hvitost (white cheese) I don't know if it has a more specific name than this. They keep it simple I guess

9) Liver paste number one

10) Liver paste nuimber 2

11) Liver paste number 3 - Yeah, that's three different kinds of liver paste!

12) Brunost number two - the creamy mild kind

13) Butter

14) Margarine I think

15)Brunost number three - another kind of geitost

16 - Various processed meats

1) barbeque sauce I think

2) Soy Oil

3) Thousand Islands dressing

4)Olive oil

5)Gløgg mix: a spiced holiday drink with wine and nuts. I haven't actually tried it

6)Some other kind of ketchupy barbeque sauce thing 

7)Hamburger dressing; I don't know what's in this exactly, but its use is pretty obvious

8)Olive oil

9)Caramel sauce

10)Light milk - it's a random percent like 0.7 here I think

11) Whole milk (3.9 percent)

12) Applesin (orange) juice

The bottle in the left bottom corner I forgot to number : it says svinekraft, so, uh...pig juice? Some kind of broth I guess. 

This past week I started swimming at the pool which is about a two minute walk from my house. I figured I might as well take advantage of it, and I should start doing something other than just running. They only have an hour and a half of public swimming a week, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, so I went both days. It was a bit crowded, especially on Thursday. There didn't seem to be any swimming pattern which made it confusing; people would reach the end and turn back in the same path they came. This made it a bit of a game of dodging people, especially since I was one of the faster swimmers and had to find ways to pass people. It kept it from getting boring in any case, and I think I'll keep up the swimming. 

Last night I was at a surprise birthday party, which was really fun. It's always entertaining meeting new people, especially when I say my name, which doesn't sound Norwegian, repeat it again, and then explain that I'm from Canada. 

I've noticed I've started saying some things in English with Norwegian phrasing. For example, I caught myself saying "it's the same for me" instead of "it doesn't matter", since the first is a direct translation of how you say it in Norwegian. I also "think over" things instead of thinking "about" them, another direct translation. 

So that's another week gone in Norway, time is flying by. It's starting to get a bit lighter which is really nice. It's still dark when I go to school (assuming I'm on time....) but it's light by first break now. 

Here's a picture from back in August

Hadet :)

A Trip WAYY up North, and a Giant Santa Claus

Morning in Lyngseidet, near Tromsø. Keep reading  (or at least scanning) to see a map of how crazy far north this is!

Somehow it's November already, not entirely sure how that happened. It feels like it's been 3 weeks, rather than nearly 3 months. The bruises on my knees are proof that it's no longer summer; our driveway is slick with ice and frozen snow. It's 4:15 pm now, and the sun is down, although it's still light out. The clock fell back an hour a couple weeks ago, so now it's light when I walk to school again. The past couple days I've left the house just at sunrise, and the entire sky was glowing pink and orange on my (very short) walk to school. It's colder than usual for here right now, and snowed over the weekend, so we've switched from soggy wet swamp to winter again.

...And that's the weather report, not a very exciting way to begin a blog post!

Two weekends ago Emma, Karoline, Tonje and I were going to go skating at a rink in the city, but when we got there (after sprinting after and missing the bus, and getting off at the wrong bybanen stop), it turned out there was hockey practice going on. So we went back to the sentrum, and went shopping instead, which was just as fun. I have two pictures to show from this adventure:

Florida bybanen stop, in Norway.  "Next stop, Florida"

I want this shirt! The ostehøvel, or cheese slicer, is apparently a Norwegian invention,as several people have proudly pointed out to me.

I tried out training with the track team here for the past two Mondays, which was a really good workout. It was confusing though, as the gym we were in looked just like central school, and everything felt like ski training a few years ago, besides the fact that it was in a different language, and I didn't really know anyone. I found it interesting that the people there only really spoke Norwegian to me, with very little English. I think if I was forced to use Norwegian like this more often, I would learn it quicker. I haven't decided if I'll continue with it or not; I'm not interested in competing, it's just nice to have an organized practice. Soccer is on the same days though, and right now I'm leaning towards that, but we'll see!

Back home I never appreciated how nice it is to understand what's going on around you. It's going to be a shock to come home and have the buzz of background noise become intelligible again, to hear English in the grocery store, to answer the phone without fearing the rush of Norwegian and awkward explanations that follow. It's frustrating to be in a group, understanding bits of the conversation, but not enough to join in. It's like a constant stream of sound that runs by, the challenge is to snag enough words to piece together an idea of what's going on. Answering is another story. As a result, I do a lot of listening.

I also find it frustrating how quick people can be to switch to English when I don't understand what they say the first time. Usually when I don't understand, it's because:

-It was too fast; people don't say "space" after each word, of course, and a simple sentence sounds complicated when it's said like a jumbled detveitikkjeeg, written (det vet ikke jeg, I don't know). I was trying to think of an example to use there, when Helene walked by and said that, so there you go, a real life example.

-I don't know one or a few of the words in the sentence; if someone says, say, "do your toes hurt", and you don't know the word for toes, there's no hope of understanding, unless they point to your feet at the same time. Even then, there's a lot of room for misinterpretation. I can't think of any situation where someone would ask you if your toes hurt, but still...

-Sometimes people will say something where I completely understand the language used in the sentence, but don't know what they mean by it, or what they're actually talking about. This can easily happen in English too; it isn't restricted to a foreign language.

In all these cases, an English translation of the entire sentence doesn't teach me anything, and often all it takes is a slower repetition in Norwegian, or a rephrasing, to understand. This is something I need to remember to ask people to do, as I'm getting to the point where I'll understand the Norwegian, and maybe just need a few words translated, rather than the entire thing. I realize that when someone switches to English, they're just trying to help, so it's my responsibility to explain this. 

Everything is going well, although my mood tends to go up and down more dramatically and unexpectedly than at home. It can be hard starting off new in a different country, and there have definitely been times where I wondered what I got myself into. I have a great host family and rotary club though, and everyone at school is really nice, so I've been very lucky. There are times when I miss understanding and get frustrated, and times when I realize where I am, and that I'm learning a new language, and get ridiculously happy. The latter is way more common, and life is pretty much great! I manage to work through small problems by talking to other exchange students on facebook and skype, who can relate to everything, whether it's buying a scarf without speaking English, or comparing embarrassing moments and misunderstandings. 

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to Tromsø with my host family, and that's what I did this past weekend. We actually went to Lyngseidet, a little town about a 2 hour drive from Tromsø, near the Swedish and Finnish borders. Oh, and above the arctic circle! Being so close to Finland, and so far north, was really exciting, we were about as far north as Inuvik is in Canada! I think it's time for a map, so people from home can get a perspective on what Norway looks like, and where I've been. So, I made this:

Bergen is where I'm living, and WAYYY up there, is Tromsø. Sweden doesn't even go that high up!

We flew from Bergen to Oslo, then Oslo to Tromsø, where we met up with Torbjørn, my host parent's son, and his girlfriend, Camilla, who go to University in Trondheim. Tord's brother in law picked us up, and we drove about 2 hours to Lyngseidet. 

The weekend consisted of a lot of visiting, which for me meant listening to a ton of norwegian and trying to understand it. When there's three different conversations going on at once, and I don't know the people and events they're talking about anyways, it's pretty hard to follow. A couple hours of trying to understand can be pretty tiring! We also ate a lot of food, and drank a lot of coffee. I didn't know it was possible to eat pretty much 5 meals a day, plus snacks! 

All that food inspired me to go running, so I went for two gorgeous runs along the road at sunrise (which wasn't all that early, about 9:30 am). Picture time!

A snack in the grocery store, tørrefisk, crunchy dried fish

Food, accomodation, and.....roosters?

Apparently the world's largest and ugliest santa...I find the largest part a bit hard to believe, but who knows? My cell phone battery died before I could get a picture of the front

Morning run :)

Ferry on the way back to the Tromsø airport

On Saturday I played, guess what...scrabble of course! with Tord's brother in law and his 12 year old grand daughter. This time, for once, it was in English! It was also surprisingly harder than I thought; I would see Norwegian words before English ones. I managed to win, but not by much, the 12 year old girl was really good at english. It was really entertaining; trying to explain that "caked" really IS a word in english, that I didn't make it up, and that it isn't a verb for baking a cake. Tord's brother in law was really skeptical, so we had to look it up in the dictionary. It was set up for Norwegian though, so the proportions of letters and points was pretty weird. It's hard to find an english word when you're stuck with three K's and a J, whereas in norwegian there's plenty of possibilities, like "kjekk." That's one of the great things about learning a new language though, is that you learn about your own as well. I never realized how little we use the letter K compared to C, which there's only one of in Norwegian scrabble.

When I get home, the first things I'm going to buy are a waffle iron, and scrabble!

It was a very koselig weekend, and so neat to be SO far north. We saw a bit of northern lights one of the nights, a light green glow behind the mountains. We flew home on Sunday, and got home at 1 am Monday morning.

That brings me up to the present, and speaking of presents, I got the birthday package from you guys, mom and dad! I'll try and wait to the 25th to open it.

Happy November 9th from Norway! :)

I added a column on the side as a list of new things I've done here, some of which may be mundane, but as Robert Brault (whoever that is) says:


 "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

Running

This is my first summer that I haven't been officially training for cross country skiing, so it's been interesting to plan workouts around life, instead of planning my life around workouts.

Last fall I dreamed of coming home from school and not having to go rollerskiing, running or to the gym, but after  "quitting" ski racing, I've found that I can't live without exercise. At home I walked about an hour every day to get to and from school, as well as training most days. Here I have about a three minute walk, so that's a big difference. 

I find that even if I have no real reason to, I still like to run to relax and keep up my old habits. I'll come home from school, having decided I don't need to run, hang around for half an hour feeling jittery, then give in, change and go.

My standards have changed; I used to consider an hour "short" and while I'm still in good enough shape to run for longer, I've learned to accept that any length of run is good, and have no problem going for just half an hour. It would be a better use of my time to do intervals and long runs and mix it up, but for now I'm happy plodding along at a steady (slow) pace. 

At first I didn't know where to run here; everywhere I went seemed to be a busy road with no shoulder, or a frustrating maze of dead end streets. I found out about some roads that run parallel to the busy main road, and discovered a network of trails that wind up the mountain. 

This morning I took a trail up behind the handball gymnasium, and ended up at the beginning of some trails I'd come to before, but from a different direction. I kept going up, mostly walking because the trail was a slippery muddy river in some parts. I seem to have found where people hike around here; I got lots of hei hei's as I met people on the trail. I kept thinking I should turn back, but knew I was getting near the top of something, although I didn't know what. After about 40 minutes since leaving the house, I popped out above the trees to an insane view. I could see to Bergen in one direction, the Osterøy bridge the other way, and rolling hills meeting the ocean. 

It was like being above the treeline in Canada, but it had only taken 40 minutes from town to get there. It was greener as well, it felt like I'd hiked from Norway into Scotland or Ireland, with the rolling green hilltops. I heard some clanging, and there were sheep wandering around up there!

I regret not bringing a camera, jacket and water, because I felt like I'd just gotten to the good part. I'll go up and take pictures another time, because it's gorgeous! More rolling than around Nelson, and the hills aren't as high, but it's really amazing to get above the trees so quickly. I had to go back for breakfast; the whole thing took about an hour and a half.

There is nothing better than a cold shower after a weekend run, drinking water from the shower head while shaving my legs, then going upstairs to a feast. 

At orientation they showed a sine graph and said that on exchange there would be amplified ups and downs. So far the graph of my exchange has been absolute valued (if you can even use that as a verb) and has hardly dropped into the negative axis at all. (Sorry for the nerd moment, apparently I haven't forgotten all of math 12) On Friday night I hung out with Emma from my HiFi class and some of her friends, then yesterday I went shopping with Vilde in the city then went to a party later on with the girls I hung out with the night before. Alt var kjempe gøy (everything was very fun, at least I think thats what I wrote :P )

Life is good.