Cozy winter-time

So here we go, the last month of the exchange is here. Regarding the great regularity of my blog, this is probably one of the last entries. Still I won't get too sentimental in this post, this can wait for the last one. (Well actually now that I think of it, maybe one day I'll continue this blog with a second exchange, a world travel tour or a how-to-be a good wife/mother/cook/... guideline, you never know ;-)  But I guess for the cooking guideline Instagram is all you need nowadays, isn't it?)

The time since my last exam, yes it is only 5 days, actually feels like ages. I think it's the strong contrast from all-day-library to a real fun and no exams life that makes it look like I did so much the last week.
Although talking about exams may sound boring to some of you, I think it is part of my student life here and at least my parents may be interested ;). So mom and dad, this is to you: I failed all my exams and have to give back my Erasmus loan! The parties before the exam were apparently not a good idea...
No actually it went okay but the more interesting part is that those exams here are quiet different. Exams are taken really serious in case of cheating etc. but the exams themselves seem more relaxed.

My last exam for example was written in a large tennis center that fitted hundreds of students. Have you ever waited in line to get to an exam? No, me neither until monday. There is a first time for everything in life, apparently. Additionally, another interesting aspect is that the exams enhance my understanding of the real meaning of the large Norwegian welfare state. The University hires many friendly (tendentially older) Norwegians to accompany the students to the toilets or outside for a cigarette or coffee. So whenever a student needs to use the restroom, they get their personal guard. You can imagine, how many people this may need. It seemed quietly costly to me, until my friend told me that they are not being paid. Wow, still can't believe that. Thanks Kamilla ;). And this system helps to prevents cheating really efficiently I assume.
On the other hand, exams are more relaxed. In Mannheim, sometimes exams are a competitions where the winner is the person with the fastest handwriting. Facts are written down as fast as possible, and who cares about a good structure of your text? No one. Here you have 3,4 hours for one essay. You can structure your texts, use examples and put your own thoughts into the essay. I really like this way of writing an exam and I think in the end it is qualitatively better than the exams in Mannheim. So I really think we could need some of that at my home university.

Monday evening after the exam I went to the best Sushi in town. A friend introduced the place to me a while back and I was eager to show it to my Sushi-Lover-Friends. It's at the Collosseum Movie Theater for those wondering. My friends Ilka, Steve and Tim joined me and we celebrated the end of the exam period. It was one of the few nights here in Oslo that I went out to eat, since it is simply too expensive. This is one of the few things I miss about home - regular visits in restaurants with good friends. It's just so nice to sit down in a cozy place with a good wine and a pizza and have interesting talks.
On tuesday morning I started my trip to Gothenburg. My friend Nicole from home studies in the north of Sweden right now, and our plan was to meet up in Gothenburg for 2 days to finally make a reunion in Scandinavia possible. The trip turned out sooo nice. It was great to have some quality time with just the two of us. And Gothenburg during the winter time is lovely. Everything is nicely decorated and the Christmas market in the local amusement parc was probably the best I've ever been to. And the big Science museum was also worth a visit. The museum is really interactive, and introduces different areas as the rainforest or spae physics on a really child-friendly level. Perfect level for me due to my non-existing physic knowledge ;) We both enjoyed it a lot :)
Afterwards Nicole stayed for two more nights in Oslo and we spent some time in the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo and at the pier, as well as in the city on day 1. My friend Toby cooked for our group in the evening and we had a good evening. The next day we went up the Holmenkolen and enjoyed the sunset over Oslo and its fjords, then in the afternoon Nicole left.

Beautiful church close to our hostel

View over Gothenburg

On of the highlights of the semester was taking place yesterday evening. My big group of friends organized a Christmas Party and we also celebrated my friend Brent's birthday. Everyone brought food and some of my friends decorated the location super nicely Christmas like. The evening was simply perfect. Good food, a nice speech of a friend, a slideshow of our time here, a happy birthday kid, a great party and I could continue with this list, were part of a perfect evening. I just want to shout out a big thanks to everyone who made this night so wonderful and this group for being my Oslo family.

Great people (Photo by Miriam)

Today I went to the Nutcracker in the Oslo Opera with some friends. It was a beautiful evening, even though many of us were still in the recovery process. The ballet was really nice, great dancers and lovely customes. :)

I hope you are having a lovely winter evening :) Byeeee!