First Week of School

I've officially been here for two weeks now and have completed week one of my classes!

First of all, the class schedule here is very different than what I'm used to. The semester is 16 weeks long but my classes are all 10 weeks of lecture, but throughout the 16 available weeks.
Intro to Norwegian is the only class with 10 consecutive weeks (so it is over the last week of March). The other two classes have several weeks off in Feb and April and then the classes end in the beginning of May.

I'm taking Intro to Norwegian, which is Tues/Thurs 9-12. I'm really looking forward to more of this class. So far I can introduce myself (Jeg heter Morgan) and ask related questions (Hva heter du?) This class is pretty fun since we are all international students.

I'm also in British Literature (Tues 12-1 & Wed 10-12) and this class is going to be ALOT of work. I have solved my problem of what book to read next because I'll be reading nonstop for this class! I'll be reading Emma by Jane Austen, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Mrs. Dalloway by Virgian Woolf, a VERY large 2 volume book called Norton Anthology of English Literature, several short fiction stories, a couple plays & poems by Shakespeare, Wilfred Owen, John Clare, John Donne etc... Many many items to read!

My other class is Language and Settlement of England from 400-1200 AD and this also will have alot of reading but this class is set up very differently from any class I've taken before. We will have 10 lectures over the settlement of England. But we need to write a min 10pg (preferably closer to 20 pages) paper on any topic we find interesting. The paper is our only grade in the class. So much more free-for-all then I'm used to but it should be interesting.

I'm also taking 2 online courses from CSU (finanace & management). I think I'll be pretty busy, if not in actual school time, in the amount of studying I'll need to be doing.

Last Friday I went cross country skiing with my cousin Tanja and her mom. It was extremely difficult and tiring but SO fun! I was told we'd go for a mile, no big deal, but in Norway the mile is much longer than the american mile.. so I actually went 10km or 6.2 miles!!! Quite the work out, but I made it and had a great time!
On Sunday, John & his girlfriend gave me a personal tour of Oslo's waterfront and some places around town. It was good to finally see the water and then walk around and get a feel of the places I've been to via the tram or metro and how to relate to each other. I didn't realize that the National Theatre (one of my most common stops) is a few blocks away from the water.
Yesterday I went snowboarding in Oslo. It's always interesting traveling to new places in the city but I forgot my directions at home (seems to be a habit of mine) and had to text my cousin and talk to the guys around me to figure out what my stop was. They all found me pretty entertaining and laughed at the American girl sitting on the metro with her snowboard and no idea how to get up to the mountain. Once I got up there it was horribly cold (-10C) but it was really fun to get out and board. The runs are shorter than back in CO but I've been spoiled living in the Rocky Mountains.

Tour of Oslo Waterfront

Snowboarding

Beautiful Sunset

Getting to Know the City

The past few days I've spent going from several different meetings to joining up with "Buddy Groups" and exploring the city. Luckily everyone I've met knows English! The funny part is of the international students I've met so far I'm the only native English speaker and also know the most Norwegian (which isn't saying much)

On Monday we only had to pick up a packet from the International Office, however, I forgot my map at home and I didn't know the name of the building I needed to look for. So I wandered around campus until I luckily found the name of the office written very largely on the building (Knutepunktet). After that  I just walked/wandered for a few hours. I saw some old churches, graveyard and walked through several parks, including the Frogner Park. There are many really cool statues all over, however it started to snow really hard and the temp was -6 C so I didn't stay for very long.

Yesterday, we had a welcome ceremony and then were put into Buddy groups. These groups are supposed to be of other students with similar majors. However two other girls and I ended up not having groups because apparently the Medical majors do something different but none of us had received emails, so we joined the Economics group. Later that night we joined up with our groups again to go ice skating.

Today, we had a information about the Norwegian Language courses. I learned my first Norwegian curse word: Fon (shortened/slang version of "the devil"). Then I met my first American! As fun as it is meeting new people from all over, it was definitely nice to have someone understand you and you understand them. Apparently there are quite a few Americans in our group but I just hadn't run across one yet. I stopped at my first Norwegian bakery/cafe for lunch and got a delicious "tomat og mozzarella panini" (tomate & mozzarella) much to the amusement of the guy working there. Apparently my Norwegian sounds funny. After lunch I saw King Harolds Palace & the guard change which was pretty cool!

Today was the first clear day (for the whole day!) since I've been here so I got to see my first sunset over the water & islands! It was gorgeous!

At the Orientation yesterday we were told of many different "special events" different groups put on for the international students like: hiking expeditions, a ferry ride to Copenhagen, island hoping in the Oslo area, ice climbing and of course tons of ski trips!

I have the use of cross country skis and a snowboard at my cousin's house!! On Friday I'll be trying out the cross country skis for the first time!

Frogner Park

The Kings Palace

Sunset over the Fjords

First Day!

My flight over here was long and boring. Although Iceland was a little stressful. The customs/security personnel were difficult about letting me through because I do not have a Visa. However, American's studying in Norway do not need a visa. Dealing with that after 13 hrs of travel combined with poor English was not fun at all. When I finally arrived in Oslo I slept for 5 hours, was up for a bit and then slept again. Quite an exciting day

The room I'm staying in is the "apartment" because it is the only bedroom downstairs. Down the hall is an office and a TV/rec/gaming room but I have a soundproof door between that and a basically private bathroom, so I am pretty secluded like in my own place. My room is very Norwegian & Ikea style. I have a bed, a sofa/futon, large TV and large desk. It's quite roomy and nice. The TV will be set up on Friday. (there are a surprising amount of American shows aired here, all with Norwegian subtitles of course) There is also an entrance/door that leads outside from down here which is very handy and kind of like my private entrance.

Even though I slept until 1pm today I was only the second person in the house awake!
The people I am living with are: Hans Tage (my grandma's cousin) his wife Jarva and her two kids Charletta (18yrs) & Johnson (22). Everyone speaks English very well especially Tage & John. Even so, everyone has said some pretty funny things to me, like: "do not remember" when reminded that I had mail from the University.

Today I got a "tour" of the neighborhood I'm living in, there is a Tram station right behind the house. Down the street is a market, bank, cafe and some shops. I bought a Transportation pass that is pretty handy, it gives me unlimited use of the Tram, Subway, Bus & Ferry systems which can get me anywhere in Oslo like: campus & the ski resort. I briefly visited the city as well. It's pretty small compared to Denver & Seattle. In 1 hour we got to the city, went through downtown, up to the ski resort, to campus and then back home.

Things I Have So Far Learned about Norwegians & Norway:
1) Crazy drivers - Tage drives down the middle of the two lanes
2) They are NOT morning people - the possibility of catching the Tram at 10am was considered very early (could just be this family though, I do not know yet)
3) Very sensitive to the cold - It was -5 C (about 23 F) and I was warm in a softshell and everyone else was in puffy jackets.
4) They eat very salty & rich food
5) Drink nasty coffee - they think Americans have bad coffee. The grinds labels here says "darkly burnt" and it is very strong
6) They have good portion control - glasses/cups are small and bottles of pop are only 250mL (8.5 oz)
7) No diet soda