Skiing and byvandring with my art class

I don't know how to caption that picture besides maybe "wow", so I'll let the picture do the talking. Last Saturday my host parents and I went for a ski here, about an hour's drive away. The landscape was almost surreal, it felt like skiing amongst giant marshmallows. I was in a bit of a daze the whole ski; I still haven't gotten used to so much sun! I had to dig my sunscreen out from the bottom of my suitcase for the first time since I've been in Norway.

I don't know that person; they came up from behind just as I was taking the picture

The trails were kind of odd; a good portion weren't track set, and after you got up a little ways it branched into two steep trails winding up into the mountains. I didn't really have the energy to stride properly up, and turned it into more of a hike up. The  trails were packed with hordes of people dragging or carrying  kids, dogs, toboggans, pet fish and televisions. Ok, no fish or tv's, but it wouldn't have surprised me. Half were actually on the trails, and the other half were plopped down along the trail, eating and drinking coffee in the sun. 

After the ski it was matpakke time. I don't know how I ever ate jam and bread without brown cheese at home: 

Bread with jam and brunost, and chocolate. Doesn't get better than that. They pack their sandwiches in paper here, I still haven't figured out the technique. It just ends up looking like I tried to make a paper airplane, and then shoved bread into the wings or something. So I usually use bags or containers.

My french teacher asked me what we do for school lunches at home, and I said it's pretty normal to bring food from home, although we can also buy it. He seemed surprised that Norway wasn't the only place where people pack their own lunches to school.

Now back to Friday; our art class went into Bergen to visit an illustrator/animator, and an art school.

In the art gallery that was part of the school

The cheapest I've ever seen anything in Norway; I don't remember exactly what it was

First we went and visited an illustrator's studio, Gustav Kvaal. He's done pictures of people in the local newspaper, illustrated books, and done some short films. I never realized how much work it is to make an animation! 

A scene from one of his animated films

Illustration in the Bergen Newspaper

Then we visited an art school and were shown some different types of printing, and looked through their art gallery. It's really neat to get these opportunities to see more of the city through school here!

World Cup:

I've mentioned it before; the Nordic World Cup (or VM in Norwegian) starts today. And Norwegian advertisers and newspapers have gone a little crazy. Just like with Christmas, the food companies have pounced on the event.

From chips...

...to milk 

...to cheese

to...uhh...turkey? ohhh Norway

The text below says "Great combined with ski jumping, cross country skiing, pasta or rice"

They even suggest what you should bring for lunch to the competitions. Never mind that this poster is on the opposite side of the country from the events:

And that's just a small sample.

Half a year of living like a Norwegian, skiing and the return of the sun

The sun is coming back!

Walking to school last week looked like this:

It's getting lighter by about six minutes a day, so soon we'll be able to wake up in the light too. Can't wait! Then maybe I won't need three different alarms to get out of bed, even if that system still isn't very effective.

Yesterday I was supposed to give a presentation to my English class about Canada, right away in the first class, which starts at 8:05. I love waking up to an alarm and getting to go back to sleep, so I set one alarm for 4, one for 6:30 and one for 6:45. Yeah, I know the 4 o clock one is a bit strange. I vaguely remember turning one alarm off, but definitely not three. When I woke up it was light out, which is never a good sign on a school day! Apparently Jon had knocked on my door at 7:30 as well, but I was knocked out until 8. Not the best plan when you're supposed to give a presentation at 8:05. I was completely oblivious to three of the four attempts to wake me up.

Anyways, I did the presentation at the end of class, and I think it went alright. It was supposed to be on bilingualism in Canada, but it ended up being a bit broader. I think I learned more than my class from it, just from researching Canadian history and facts that I never knew about. Apparently instant mashed potatoes and zippers are Canadian inventions. It's also further across Canada than it is from the East coast of Canada to Norway.

On the topic of school, I'll give an introduction to the Norwegian school system:

Norwegian School system:


-School is divided into three levels, like at home. Barneskole, Ungdomsskole and Videregående. They start the year they turn six, so generally a year later than us.

-After Ungdomsskole, or middle school, they can specialize into different lines. A normal academic line is an option, but there's also health care lines, music, media, art and sports lines which combine these topics with academic subjects. There's also trades/work lines with apprenticeships and theory built in. This means that Norwegians have to choose a direction after middle school, although many seem to stay in the academic line to keep options open.

-I've noticed the classes to be less interactive than classes at home; lots of note taking and independant work. It depends a lot on the teacher though. I still find it strange that almost every class has a "smart board", but I've never seen them used. They just seem to be taking space away from the chalkboard teachers normally use.

-I'm in a line that combines general courses with design and art courses, which I really like. Today we finished illustrating some Norwegian texts, where we were given the writing and could interpret the pictures however. We then put the pictures and text together on the computer. I've learned a lot about photoshop since I've come here, which is a nice bonus. I can't get the entire project to upload, but here's the main character, Frøken Bisk Glefs, in action:

I guess those seem a little odd....but it makes a little more sense with text. Here's my favorite character, the poor little mouse:

After high school here, it seems pretty common to take a year off to travel and work. There's conscription into the military for men here, which some do after high school. Women can go in as well, but aren't required. I don't know exactly how it works but a certain percent of men have to serve. As a result you see the odd person in the mall or on the train dressed like this, and looking a bit out of place:

Since it's about a week and a half since I last updated, I don't remember what happened last week. I do know that I reached the six month mark in Norway, however. Every time a month goes by I write "wow, I can't believe I've been here THAT long", but the novelty of counting months is wearing off. Especially since weeks are flying by, and I no longer have an unending stretch of time ahead of me here. The next nineteen or so weeks are going to disappear like my rotary allowance does each month - in an instant.

I'm happy with my written and comprehension skills in Norwegian at this point, but sometimes it feels like I'll never really speak it. Today I was looking for paper for the photocopier at school, and asked a teacher I'd never talked to before where to find it. Apparently I can't pronounce the difference between "kaffemaskin" and "kopimaskin", because he asked me why on earth I wanted sheets of paper for the coffee machine. He asked me what my native language was, and I misunderstood and said "art class". Or maybe I said that I come from the "country of art class." Regardless, it was an awkward exchange. Once he figured out I was from Canada I was treated to a long explanation in english of the relatives he has in Manitoba, by which time someone else had found paper for the machine.

I always took being able to pronounce words in English for granted, but I find it the hardest part of Norwegian. If all conversations were written, life would be much easier. There's so many subtle differences that are important, yet  so hard to say if you're not a native speaker. Thank god I'm not learning chinese or thai or something.  I definitely appreciate english more now, being able to say what I want in several different ways without thinking about it. It's really neat to look back on your own language from the perspective of another. Regardless of all the awkward exchanges and pronounciation difficulties, I think it's so much fun to use another language. I picked up a magazine while waiting for the train today, and flipped through several pages before I even noticed it was in Norwegian. Moments like that make it all worth it!

Last weekend I was in Geilo at my host families cabin again, and it was a gorgeous weekend full of chocolate, tacos, fuzzy socks, sun and skiing. I classicked both days, three hours on Saturday and about two hours on Sunday. I can really feel in my arms that I don't ski much anymore, but I still know how, and it was amazing! Some pictures:

 Jon and Inger

 Part of Geilo

 This needs no caption

 Thermometre with expressions for all the temperatures. 

 Someone is a little confused between helicopters and airplanes

Sunnnnnn <3

The nordic world ski championships are in Oslo in a couple weeks, and the presence of it is everywhere. From life size cutouts of cross country skiers in the shopping centre, to posters on the train, to sausage and brunost advertisments. That's one thing I would love to take home with me; the country's attitude towards cross country skiing, as well as hiking and being outdoors. It no longer surprises me to see a huge picture of Marit Bjørgen on a truck, or walk by a TV store and see xc skiing playing on the TV's inside.

The week after next is winter break, it's going to be a great week. We're going to Geilo on the Monday, then all the rotary students are meeting in Oslo for three days. So we'll get to be in Oslo for 3 days during the world championships. I'm not entirely sure what we're doing there, and which, if any, events we're going to, but seeing the exchange students after 5 months will be fun regardless!

Tommorow our art class is going into Bergen to visit an illustrator and an art school. Tommorow I'll have been going to Norwegian school for half a year, and while it's strange to go to high school when you're actually done with it, it's fun to have the totally different experience.

I'll leave you with another sunrise photo, and a view over Geilo. 

If anyone has any questions or suggestions of topics for me to write about, just say it in the comments below!

God natt 

=)

Horse races, chocolate and a tour of the school

It's a dark picture, but last week I went with Tine from my english class to a sort of horse race, where people ride in little chariot type carts around the track. I actually had no idea this kind of racing existed since ancient Greece. There were a couple races with bigger horses (I'm sure more specific terms exist than "big horse", but I'm pretty clueless about horses) like this:

And then there were pony races as well (top picture) which were much slower and cuter. They all started on different parts of the track based on how strong they were; the little one up top started out first, and ended last. Despite it being wet and cold, it was really neat to see!

Now for Language Lesson time:  =)

(Picture taken from Andrea's facebook, who is in Denmark. The link is to her blog, which is great!)

I've had it mentioned to me several times that the English language has a huge range of words compared to Norwegian, and I tried looking that up on the internet. The english language apparently just reached the one million word mark, and I couldn't find anything concrete about Norwegian. The idea makes sense to me though; Norwegian tends to compound words together to make bigger words, making it easy to guess what they mean. 

For example:

-tannlege (tann = tooth) (lege = doctor), whereas we have our own seperate word, dentist.

-sykehus (syk = sick) (hus = house), so hospital

English has these kind of words as well, but I notice it a lot in Norwegian. It makes it much easier to figure out words when you can break them apart like that.

I've mentioned norwegian compound words before, how they seem to continually pile words together without ever using the space bar. "A midsummer night's dream" becomes "en midtsommernattsdrøm." Wikipedia has an interesting list of these words where adding in a space can completely change the meaning:

• Terrasse dør ("Terrace dies") instead of Terrassedør ("Terrace door")
• 
  
• Tunfisk biter ("Tuna bites", verb) instead of Tunfiskbiter ("Tuna bits", noun)
• 
  
• Smult ringer ("Lard is calling", verb) instead of Smultringer ("Doughnuts")
• 
  
• Tyveri sikret ("Theft guaranteed") instead of Tyverisikret ("Theft proof")
• 
  
• Stekt kylling lever ("Fried chicken lives", verb) instead of Stekt kyllinglever ("Fried chicken liver", noun)
• 
  
• Smør brød ("Butter bread", verb) instead of Smørbrød ("Sandwich")
• 
  
• Altfor Norge ("Too much Norway") instead of Alt for Norge ("All for Norway", the royal motto of Norway)

There's also a lot of norwegian words that look strange written, but are pronounced in a familiar way. For example, "sjåfør" is just a norwegian spelling of "chauffeur". Many words ending in "tion" gain a "J", and become norwegian as well. Motivasjon, inspirasjon, applikasjon etc. 

I think my norwegian is now close to the point my french was before I came here, although I'm stronger and weaker in different areas because of how I've used the languages. My french grammar was likely better, but I was less confident speaking it. I think it's amazing that six years of french immersion classes in school can give a similar result to six months of living in a country! With french I could write essays before ever talking with a native speaker outside of class, whereas here it's been the opposite. I never thought I was interested in languages with french either; it was just another class to me. Now I realize how fascinating it is to compare languages, and I've become more interested in French as well.

Speaking of France, and so therefore speaking of cheese (a lame attempt at transitioning between ideas)...

I haven't seen cheddar cheese here at all. Tonje and I were discussing this as we were running, and she was really surprised that we would have orange cheese. Some other foods I've (almost) forgotten about (not that you can't get them here, just that I never come across them):

-Peanut butter 

-Pumpkin

-Breakfast cereal (corn flakes, Special K, Froot loops etc)

-Hamburgers eaten on buns (we eat hamburgers, and buns, but I've never eaten the two together at home)

-Pancakes/waffles/french toast for breakfast

-Pie

-Milk at dinner (it's more often water)

-Grilled cheese sandwiches (I remember them every once and a while and have to make one)

Now I'll switch back, and introduce some norwegian chocolate and candy. They definitely have their fair share for such a small country!

 Like smarties, but better says Emma :)

Basically Kit Kat; they have really patriotic commercials for these with people sking and hiking in the mountains

Seigemenn; little gummy people

Troika; layers of jelly, chocolate and marzipan. I find it an odd kombination

Smash: to copy Devin's description:

Sweet black licorice; I never liked black licorice before i came here

Sur Sild (Sour herring)

and 

Salt herring (they have a lot more black licorice and salty candies here)

I could go on and on and make this post ridiculously long, those are just the first that came to mind. My Little Norway has an interesting post comparing Norwegian chocolate bars.

I have a free period in the middle of Mondays since I switched out of Math, and today I decided to wander around and take a few pictures of the school. There wasn't much to take pictures of, and I didn't go in any classrooms, but here's a little snapshot:

Second floor hallway

Little cafeteria (they don't actually sell food here, besides a coffee machine)

Dungeon stairs

Recycling/garbage/compost bins (they don't have these in classrooms though, so a lot of this stuff still ends up in the garbage here.)

Vending machine which sells orange juice, chocolate milk, iced coffee, and yogurt/granola.

If you look closely at the paper on the machine, you can tell that the paper here has four holes. Exciting, I know. Students also call teachers here by their first names.

On Saturday I went shopping in Bergen and went a bit past the sentrum, to some areas I'd never been before. It was neat to just explore around!

Bryggen from across the water

And that's another week gone by in Norway

Lost in Translation

It's raining. Big surprise. I notice it more at this house since my room has a skylight, and even when it's just drizzling it sounds like it's raining hard. Looks like we're in for a bit more rain:

I didn't start a blog post just to tell you it's raining though. That's not exactly big news here. I just wanted to talk a bit about translations and english in Norway.

Since everyone here is so good at english, I haven't seen any hilarious examples like this:

or this:

or this:

More of those here.  :)

Even without menus advertising "rude and unreasonable chicken", there's still smaller translation quirks that can be funny.

Most tv here is in english with norwegian subtitles, but they often translate the title to norwegian in the guide. This just makes it confusing to browse through and know what's actually on, since I tend to assume it's a norwegian show if the title is in norwegian.

I came across My little Norway last year when I was looking for sites to learn norwegian, it's a great site about an Australian woman and her family living in Norway. It has a list of some funny movie title translations into Norwegian and back; here's a few funny ones:

-The Pacifier
-Norwegian: Operasjon barnevakt
-Back to english: Operation Babysitter

-Opportunity Knocks
-Norwegian: Hjelp, jeg er blitt sjef!
-Back to english: Help, I've Become a Manager!

-Airplane
-Norwegian: Hjelp, vi flyr!
-Back to english: Help, we're flying!

-The World's Fastest Indian
-Norwegian: En høyst uvanlig mann
-Back to english: A Highly Unusual Man

-Meet the Parents
-Norwegian: Slekten er verst
-Back to english: Family is the Worst

It isn't just movie titles that can get strange translations; the Harry Potter characters are another example. I don't know what these name changes accomplished:

Albus Dumbledore - Albus Humlesnurr

Dudley Dursley - Dudleif Dumling 

Vernon Dursley - Wiktor Dumling

Hagrid - Gygrid

Gilderoy Lockhart - Gyldeprinz Gulmedal

Neville Longbottom - Nilus Langballe

Professor McGonagall - Professor McSnurp

Tom Marvolo Riddle - Tom Dredolo Venster

Slytherin - Smygard

Severus Snape - Severus Slur

Dolores Jane Umbridge - Venke Dolorosa Uffert

You know who - Han de vet (he they know)

The translator must have been bored with their job or something, they definitely had fun with those! "He they know" doesn't sound quite as ominous as "you know who." The names didn't really become any more Norwegian though, no Olav or Ingeborg or Torbjørn to be seen.

Norwegians use a lot of english in everyday conversation, without seeming to notice it. If I tune out the norwegian and just listen for english, it's surprising how many words and expressions they use. Without understanding any norwegian it would be babble with completely out of context english statements thrown in. I don't actually remember noticing this too much when I understood less norwegian though; it's still nowhere near enough to understand the conversation.

I think I had more to write, but got distracted and forgot I was writing this. So that's all for now.

In art class we have to illustrate a small text, so here's my rough first drawing of Frøken Bisk Glefs:

Happy Groundhog day