What I learned so far + German visitors

Realizing that today is one of the last October days and that I commented my last blog entry with the title "first october life update" means that I apparently ignored, ähh, forgot this blog for a couple of weeks I guess. But therefore there's also more to tell :) so here we go with the last october update I suppose.

The weeks were just running here in Oslo with my visitors from Germany, exams coming closer, assignments and many friends I wanted to hang out with before this whole exchange will be over ( I promise not to mention too often that time is running towards december!!).

Working on wednesday made me realize that by now my Norwegian really develops and it feels so good. I was waiting for this point where I am self-confident enough to speak "publicly" more than just thanks (takk), hey (hei hei), ha det bra (goodybye) etc. Of course I knew more, but I had this barrier in my mind to really try out whatever I know. It's still not that much and the barrier is still there, but I understand and try to say words more and more each day. Yes, if you think that this actually doesn't matter anyways, cause who speaks Norwegian anyways you may eventually be right. It's still nice to get along better with some knowledge of the language.The answer to how many people speak it by the way should lie somewhere around 5 Million people, since this is round about the number of people living here minus some people living here and not speaking Norwegian plus some exchange students studying this popular language and emigrants. This little fact actually reminds me, that I haven't told you a lot about Norwegian culture or about interesting things I learned here, but that I kept telling my friends over the weekend.

So what have I learned by now:

- Norwegians eat Reindeermeet (poor reindeers :((( )

- Norwegian currency are Krones - 8 Krones equals 1 Euro, which shocks you like crazy at the
beginning. The first question my visitors from Germany asked was: "We just payed 90 Kroners for our train ticket...is that normal? How much did we pay???" (now you can calculate ;))

- Norwegians get one year of parental leave with full pay (Germany has like 14 weeks or so), if their first child gets sick, they get up to 10 days off work in order to take care of them and 15 for two children and also mothers get one hour per day for breastfeeding off - I should get my 4 kids here I guess!

- you should calcuate manyyy hours for a short car ride, cause the tempolimit is always lower than tempolimits in Germany (if there is a tempolimit) or the roads are up and down the mountain and the road is big enough for 1,5 cars in total on a two-sided road..

- 50% of the Norwegians I met try to talk some German words they used to learn in school, fortunetly, it's often the same level our Norwegian is  ;)

- gender equality as it's best -> guys don't pay drinks for girls, maybe as the most a beer :D

- Norwegians have on average the highest number of one-nightstands, we have that saying in Germany "nüchtern zu schüchtern, besoffen zu offen" which could be translated to "sober too shy, drunk too open" which describes their party behavior haha

- Norwegians just generally dress sporty...why? we can't figure it out. Because black tights make girls look thinner? Because sport clothes could indicate a sixpack somewhere under the outfit? Because one always wants to be prepared if some sporty opportunity opens up? I really don't know. But I assume that the avergae Norwegian girl - doing sports or not - has 3 black tights and 3 nike airs etc. in her wardrobe. It's gonna remain a mystery I guess.

Back to my Norwegian experience. Last weekend I had two of my best friends here in Oslo. Sophia - we know each other since we're like a few months old - and Charlotte - studying at the same University back home. Friday morning I picked up the girls from the airport (Lufthavn) and we were sooo lucky with the weather. The week before, Norway treated us with snow.... so I though Sophia and Charlotte will hate me for not picking Spain or Greece for my exchange semester, but the weather cleared up in time for them to come and the sun was greeting them :)

On friday we did some shopping and the girls got some glimpse of the Norwegian Hipster clothes that will probably be sold in Germany in 2-3 years. Also, we went to the Opera House, a must-do in Oslo. Having a view over both the city, the newly constructed "bar code" - some fancy buildings at the port - and the Oslo fjord, the Opera House is a great way to start the sightseeing days :). I feel like it shows the different sides of Oslo. The modernity, the richness, the nature, ...
On friday evening we were invited to one of our International dinners. Our German boys were cooking potato salad and sausages and we had a cheerful evening. Later on, Sophia, Charlotte and me went to a birthday party from a friend and ended the night going out with my friends from the dinner. We had a crazy night that ended with Marius screaming my name through the bus because we fell asleep in the bus. Sightseeing and shopping made us tireeeed! Thanks again for destroying my ears buddy! :P

Us and the Barcode

photo sums up the night

Saturday started (after sleeping in) by taking the t-bane up to the ski jumping piste. On our way up, we met a Norwegian, who told us he studied in Mannheim for one semester a while ago --- the world is so small!! At the beginning we had a lot of fog and couldn't see much, but later on we were able to see over the city and the fjords. Afterwards, we continued our tour to the Vigerlandspark, one of the best spots here. We bought cake before and sat down on a park bench for quiet some while, eating and enjoying the beautiful autumn colors of the trees and bushes. I love this place because it is always full of people, kids running around, tourists imitating the statues, but on the other hand as soon as you get off the main track, the parc is pretty quiet and you will find a calm spot to sit down at. I am glad I took my girls there, cause they really enjoyed it.

 Sophia and me being typical tourists and climbing up the statues

For dinner I invited my friend Hannah and we had salmon and pasta. Afterwards, we ended up with quiet some people in our kitchen and went out later on to the city. After a bar and a failed try to get into a bar +23 we ended on a Halloween party, that was a little too drunk and weird for us.

Sunday Charlotte and I were able to convince Sophia to go to a museum, since it was puring all day. We were on our way to the architecture museum, when we passed the Nasjonalmuseet and went in there instead because it seemed to have some interesting exhibitions.

One was about an architect called Louis Kahn, who worked mainly in the US, for example for the Yale University. He made some really impressive buildings, and also cool  ideas, such as a building that is made of a DNA structure (which was never built though).

the museum's advertisement for the exhibition

The second exhbition was about an artist called Kjartan Slettemark. I assume he was some crazy-minded dude. His artwork that was exhibited was mainly protest work against the Vietnam War and president Nixon. He had rooms full of Nixon pictures that he reconstructed in certain ways as changing his eyes, etc. Also he had collages demonstrating his opinion about the Vietnam war and the American intervention by using bloody American flags etc.
The museum even had a "Nixon photobooth" were visitors could take a Nixon-picture with themselves in it. I guess, Slettemark would have loved this :-D Hundreds of people every day making fun of the Nixon picture as he did! It was really really interesting, especially how intense his feelings towards Nixon must have been, producing tons of art pieces about him.

Sophia and me in the Nixon photobooth

Now both girls are gone and the next days are full of studying, so that the halloween celebration can take place on the weekend :) Thanks to my girls for being here! :)

I talk to you sooner or later, anyways, have a beautiful day!!

Anniversary, Quiz Night, Kopenhagen & Partypartyparty

... so much for my great plan: "next week I'll start studying"

I thought that at some point I will be exhausted from being gone every evening from wednesday-sunday for trips, parties and other activites. But oh well, the last weeks offered tooooo many opportunities to enjoy my Oslo life, that obviously I couldn't resist to continue with it. Also I was eager to spend more time in Oslo and less on travelling, which was possible cause the last weeks was only one small trip in comparison to the others. And tomorrow I will make a library day (I am only writing this down here so that I really go. Pressure on me now, so I have to!!!), so then I can make up for everything, haha :-P

Seriously, one has to love Norway. They are simply the sweetest. They celebrate everything. In Germany one would probably have lots of dicussions about wasting money, when the University offers free cake to all their students because of it's 202nd anniversary, but Norwegians love to share some love, drinks and food on occasions that don't even have to be special.

Last wednesday it was one of those days. The main student organization turned 200. Since everyone was really excited about this birthday (ironic, yes) there was obvioulsy the neeeed to celebrate it :-P
Therefore they engaged four music acts for a great concert, fireworks late in the evening, free drinks for the first 1500 visitors, and cheap beer all night long (until it was gone ...). We had a fun filled evening with some Norwegian hip hop bands, and a perfect ending with fireworks. Thanks Oslo for making it so easy to love you!

Friday nightwas Quiz night at the Social Science Pub U1. Another Norwegian thing that amazes me. You know, it's friday night, you would think about going out to a club, or having a datenight with your girlfriend/boyfriend, ... but of course you could also pack some selfmade sandwiches, go to University and do some quizzes in order to keep your brain cells active :-D. Okay, although I am making fun of it right now, I actually liked this way of spending the evening and one has to add that the quiz if ofcourse made in a nice and funny way with videos and music etc.. We had a nice group and grabbed some beers (except of the people having a hangover that had to stay with Pepsi..sure not meee ;)) and thanks to our Norwegian translator Kamilla we were also able to participate at the quiz :) Bad news: We didn't win. Good news: We didn't loose.

On saturday another trip was on the plan. My friends and I booked a trip to Kopenhagen for about 25 Euros. It was a special offer that took us to Kopenhagen by cruise over night, than we had a six hour stay in the city and then overnight back home. So I know you keep thinking that I travel soo much, but well, I had to take this special offer!!
Also, it was my first time on the cruiseship and I loved it. I've never considered doing a cruise vacation before, cause the prices are normally extraordinary high and I love exploring a city in more than 1 or 2 days. But I have to say, I loved crusing around haha. It's really like a little town. They had a spa and pool area, three clubs and several bars, restaurants, a duty free shop etc.. After a visit in the duty free shop and just a few drinks.. we rocked the karaoke nights with hits like Mamma Mia and Say my name. SO!!! much fun. Thanks for this amazing night to my friends, I love that wherever we go we have such a great time. Even when no one dances in clubs, no one sings at the Karaoke bar -- they manage to start the party. Glad, to be part of this wonderful group of people, really :)

 

Kopenhagen was simply amazing. We were lucky with the weather, sunshine during the whole time!! We started our tour ( a route recommended by Mark!! Many thanks!!) at the old port Nyhavn. So many nice restaurants and cafés were located at the port and I would have loved to stay a little longer and have dinner outside at one of the nice looking restaurants!! We passed the opera house and the theater and after a break with the probably best Bagels in town and passing two churches, we arrived at castle Amalienborg just in time for the royal guard change. Afterwards, we headed out to a parc with a little castle inside. Again, would have loved to sit down, but oh well, 6 hours in Kopenhagen were still enough to get a first impression :-).

 

At the end of our stay we headed off to Christiana. Everyone seemed to be eager to go to Christiana, or the "free town". It's a place in Kopenhagen that is occupied by a commune, who sets their own rules (rather) separate from the rest of the city. I imagined it to be really creative and colorful, to be inspirational. Of course I also expected a lot of drugs, but I didn't know it was mainly about drugs. Going into the "free city" didn't make me feel free at all (maybe I was lacking the drugs...). I felt like people are less smiling, less chatting as in the city and the smell of drugs was everywhere. Yes, there were some house paintings and interesting sculptures out of trash, but it's not like they were extraordinary and you couldn't find that elsewhere. 

This week was also filled of many great evenings. After a short night out on friday that made us realize that Norwegian securities are a little strict when it comes to paper passports, friday night worked much better. First we attended the gig of my friend Emre at U1, unfortunetly it was not too busy, but we had some beers and enjoyed listening to his music anyways. Afterwards I continued with some friends in a bar (name? I really don't know) in Grynerlokka. It has the longest bar in the Northern hemisphere as my friend Steve explained me, and yes, took some time to pass the bar. It was such a nice place and upstairs people where dancing to some really funky music. Enjoyed this evening a lot and looking forward to repeat it :).

After a walk at Sognsvann with my lovely roomate Naomi on Saturday, we were heading for one great night in the city. We had predrinks at our place with our friends and since many of us had visitors the last weeks or went to places in Sweden and Denmark were Alcohol is comparably cheap (can't believe i call Sweden cheap...), there were alcoholic drinks on the table other than beer, haha. In addition, my roomate Gogo also pulled out some strong Macedonian Liquer, that let's say guranteed a night to remember. Around 12 we arrived at Nivou, a club in Oslo's city center. The music was really good and the evening turned out to be really really nice. Another place I would love to come back to...why is it already October??

As you see, I am doing fine :-). I am grateful for the chances life offered me lately. As some of you know, the original plan was not to come to Oslo. I am thankful it turned out that I got here. Partly because of Norway, sure, but also because of my friends here. I'd rather have the ugliest city for my exchange but great people I can laugh with, than a beautiful city without them. Fortunetly, I got both, and even more. I can say that life is treating me well and I do my best to enjoy every minute. Again, Oslo and also the wonderful golden autumn here, makes it hard not to.

Ending with those cheesy but true words, I wish you a good night (or wherever you are, maybe also morning/...) :-))