Across the Pond: Soup and Sledding

Time to wrap up the last bit of January! Here’s what my week looked like:

Tuesday: Felt awful when I woke up, so I stayed in my flat for the day. Due to my coughing, headache, and everything else my body decided to berate me with, I missed my classes on multiculturalism in Norway for sleep, tea drinking, and hanging out with my computer who can’t get sick from me. The main bummer about my sick day was that it was the nicest day I’ve seen in Oslo with a clear blue sky. I could only appreciate it from behind glass which was most unfortunate. Luckily, as I may or may not have mentioned in a previous post, Netflix has wider selection in Norway than at home which helped pass the day. That was about it for my Tuesday.

Wednesday: I finally started my internship! Well, technically I had my first meeting/interview with the organization I’ll be working for. My first shift is this coming Wednesday (in two days). I’m going to be at the Oslo branch of Skeiv Ungdom (Queer Youth in English) each Wednesday for my semester here and I’m the first intern they’ve ever had. To my understanding so far, I’ll be helping around the office and building up the social media presence of Queer Youth for English speakers through their already established Twitter and Facebook, as well as help launch a blog (and Tumblr, which I recommended), and possibly even an English version of their website (I Google translated it for my sake, but to have an English option at the get go will be way more convenient). I spent two hours getting to know Ashild (SU aka QV’s president) and Eirik (the secretary). It’s a great space, and both of them were really nice. Plus the office is right in the middle of downtown. I’m excited to make my place at Skeiv Ungdom!

Thursday: After feeling alright enough to go to class, my HECUA buddy Lauren helped me out by taking me to get a cheap (for Norway, yep, always going to clarify) replacement cell phone after my debacle last week. Luckily, I was able to keep all my credit and previous Norwegian number, so at least that part of my week of having a phone set up didn’t go wasted! I’ll make sure to watch this phone like a hawk; don’t want to go through another case of lost and not found phone.

Friday: Skyped a friend early in the morning and then went straight back to sleep. I spent the day indoors coughing, drinking even more tea than Tuesday, and working on my independent study project. The ISP is my 3^rd course here in Oslo, and is done on my own time, with a few due dates, and will result in a 15-20 page long thesis at the end of the semester. Once again, like Tuesday, my compy (what I call my laptop) was my best friend but this time for work than play. Research was actually okay to do when sick since I was already stuck inside, meaning there was no excuse to put it off, which is a good thing. I am here in Norway to study abroad… which includes the study part at some points, ha.

Saturday: About the same as Friday minus the Skyping, plus one trip to the outside world. Not much of an adventure, just that I ran to the grocery store for a cinnamon roll and tooth paste. An ironic pair yes, but I didn’t need anything else and used the errand as a short escape from my sick zone to enjoy fresh air and the fresh new snow. In short, another day of tea, ISP, and rest (meaning either sleeping or watching The Big Bang Theory). I really have watched too much TV online here, but at least this past week I had to pass the time while sick somehow. Another thing I did today was try to make soup, which I had been putting off. Why? Soup is easy, right? Not so much in Norway… it’s powdered. Very few things are canned here I’ve discovered and soup is one of them. Broth sure, but not soup. I boiled water with a little milk since it was tomato soup powder and it turned out decent, but I don’t think I’ll be eating soup too often which is a shame. Oh well, I have a newfound appreciation of canned soup.

*Side note, if anyone is planning on coming to Norway for an extended amount of time, you should bring your own over the counter drugs. Three reasons: brands aren’t the same, you may need a prescription here for something you can buy off the shelf at a pharmacy in America, and the overarching trend of high prices on everything in Norway. I was told this before I left and my mini first aid kit packed with Aleve, Nyquil, cough drops, etc. very much came in handy this week.

Sunday: Woke up, finished my ISP proposal (one of the three things other than the final paper I have to turn in), and went SLEDDING. This is the activity that produces all my photos below for the week since, well, I already put up pictures of my room, ha. Anyways, one of the first things I heard about once I stepped off my plane in Oslo was that the sledding course here is amazing. All you have to do is take the T-Bane (metro train) route 1 westbound to its last stop, rent a sled (the one I got was 125 NOK plus a helmet, which is about $23) and you’re good to go! After you get to the end of the track, the bottom of the hill puts you back at the T-Bane to take you back to the top: the length of the sledding course is seven T-Bane stops! And boy, it was so much fun! I went with three girls from my international buddy group and we all had a blast. And there were plenty of bumps and speed: when you sled in Norway, it’s extreme.

Sledding was great; we went down three times and were worn out. But there was more in store for the night because in the student village I live in it was Sunday Movie Night at Amatøren, the pub. It was having a Kill Bill double feature so I went with one of the girls from my sledding group and another friend from our mutual buddy group who also lives in Sogn. Watching Quentin Tarantino fight scene madness and sipping a pint of beer to warm me up was the perfect way to finish off a long week.