Tuesday: I
went on a field seminar with HECUA to Civita, a Norwegian economic think tank. We went to go learn about their perspective
on Norwegian spending and the welfare state, and it was a conservative view at
that. Educational nonetheless, biases
make for more learning. After that visit,
I had dinner with my boss from Queer Youth along with two of her friends and
girlfriend at her apartment. I had a
great time with everyone sipping champagne, red wine, and eating the
traditional Norwegian meal my boss had prepared for us meat eaters, aka reindeer. It was quite good! Sorry Rudolph…
Wednesday: My
midweek work day times two this time: I had an intern shift at QY helping
Ashild (my boss) with organizing the office and also had a shift at
Uglebo. This was the first time I had
worked at the student pub on a Wednesday (I’d only done Fridays before) and
that meant bartending Quiz Night. The
quiz night produced a packed bar but a calmer one as well. As usual, Uglebo was fun and I cashed in for
a couple beers for the after party.
Thursday: I
got home around 3:00 in the morning due to the after party and slept for only
about three hours because I had a Skype date with my gal pals Felicia and
Kathleen in SF at 7:00am my time, 10:00pm PST.
After chatting for a half hour or so, I went back to bed for two hours
then dragged myself to class. This was a
difficult day to get through and after class I worked hard to finish I paper I
had due the next day. I wanted to be
done with my essay before midnight so I wouldn’t be writing it anymore on my
birthday. I finished around 11:45pm,
booyah.
Friday:
BIRTHDAY! Turning 21 doesn’t hold
as much weight in Norway as it does in America, but I knew that coming into
this semester. The drinking age here is
threefold: you can buy anything from a grocery store that’s alcoholic and go to
student pubs when you’re 18 (so primarily beer), at 20 you can buy hard liquor
and have mixed drinks, which means you can go to the majority of bars, and
lastly (and most disappointingly) some places are surprising 23 and older. I was turned away from a bar my first weekend
in Oslo for not being 23, which I didn’t expect. But I think it’s up to each bar whom they
want to serve so there’s the third age characteristic in Norway.
Anyways, I woke up and my friend Many made me crepes for
breakfast, yum. Then I went shopping on Karl
Johans gate right off of downtown (refer to pics from a previous entry). After doing some spending, I went back to my
apartment to prep for a party in the evening I was hosting. When I got home, my lovely roomies had
decorated the kitchen with balloons, had a cake in the oven, and presented me
with a card! I sure lucked out with my
flat mates, as I’ve written in prior posts.
Love those guys <3 So I had a
party in my apartment and that story will remain a 21st birthday
mystery =)
Saturday: Had
a pretty lazy Saturday, then went to a party (another birthday actually) in a
building close to mine in the same student village and after a little while we
all headed to Amatøren. As I’ve
mentioned, this is the student pub in the student village (Sogn) but it’s not
usually open on Saturdays. This night
was different because it was Latin Dance Party Night. The bar pretty full by the time we got there
and when I left about an hour and a half later it was packed. I had a good time. Who would have thought I’d been doing the
Macarena or dancing to Mamba Number 5 in Oslo?
Sunday: This
was an indoor day mostly at my computer.
I caught up on some work and watched some online TV, which I hadn’t done
in a while lol. I did pick myself to go
out to Amatøren for a second night in a row because Sundays are movie
nights. And last night the pub screened
Skyfall, which I loved in theaters.
Watch it if you have or haven’t, I highly recommend it. Viewing the latest Bond on a good sized
projector screen was a nice way to end another great week in Norway. And now I’m 21. Time flies!
Only a few photos this week, sorry folks!
Delicious!
I love my roomies: Nini, Claudia, and Davide
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