Norwegian Summer

Hallo! I’m checking in from Horten, Norway, where René and I are staying for a couple of days.

I had written out an entire blog entry last week before we left for vacation, but unfortunately it got deleted, and this has been the first opportunity I’ve had where I could really sit down, focus, and write. (Well, not entirely true…more like the first time I’ve been in the blogging mood.)

As mentioned, R and I are on vacation in Norway. We had just come down from four days in the Lofoten archipelago, to the north of Norway. But of course, I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking:

We stayed in a renovated fisherman’s cottage (rorbu) at Valen, on the edge of the town of Reine and near the island Sakrisøya.

Here’s a view of our rorbu from the side: it’s the one to the right.

Being next to the water, we had a great view from our window and patio/deck.

There was a lot of fish (tørrfisk) hanging near our cabin.

But where were the heads?

A little further down the road, well…we found them.

Shark heads too!

We walked to Sakrisøya to the east…

…and Reine to the west.

And no matter where we went, it was beautiful.

After a long stroll, it was nice to come home and relax a bit.

And each night, we were treated to a beautiful sunset out on the deck. (The sun set at around 10 PM here!)

Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

So now we are down in Horten, with my Norwegian family. It’s been a lot of fun showing René my life here. It’s also the first time that I’ve shown anybody from outside the AFS network Horten, and Norway for that matter. In addition, we’ve spent the last two evenings in Pappa’s home brewery sampling his various batches of beer. (My favorite is hveteøl, or wheat beer.) Fun and tasty!

We still have two days here, and while tomorrow’s plans are uncertain, we will definitely be having the usual Pizza Night on Friday, as well as celebrating Mamma’s birthday. And now, I should get some sleep so I have enough energy for tomorrow. G’nite!

Det ordner seg alltid til slutt.

Everything always turns out okay in the end. Tomorrow I leave Oslo and end my three-year affair with Norway. Right now it seems like everything went by so fast, but I guess it always feels like that towards the end of a journey.
Elise is gone. Daniela is gone. Dáwid is gone. Marek is gone. And nothing is left to remind us that they have ever lived here. The hallway becomes bigger without people to fill its spaces. And tomorrow, it will be my turn to leave, again.

This tiny Nordic country has been the setting for many wonderful memories, but my dreams and aspirations are leading me somewhere else now, and I don’t see myself returning to Norway for the foreseeable future. Not to live, at least.

I’ve loved Norway, and I’ve hated Norway. But either way, I can say that I’ve definitely lived here. And although I’m no viking, jeg er blitt litt norsk. And…I think I have finally found the closure that I was needing to close this chapter.

Currently it’s 1:00 AM. I’m sleepy but I don’t want to sleep. Because when I wake up, it will be the last time I say “Good morning” to Johnny, Korneel, Nataša, Marta, and Dominika.

Today I returned all of Mamma and Pappa’s things to Jan-Erik, including everyone’s Christmas presents. We took a coffee and had a good everything-under-the-sun conversation: our studies, my boyfriend, family, training. Afterwards I did something that I never did before: I took a tram without a destination in mind with the intention of seeing parts of Oslo that I’ve never seen before. I found myself half an hour later at Björn Borg in Majorstua waiting for Tautvydas to join me and buying the most expensive underwear that I’ve ever bought. In the evening, Nataša made some potato pancakes and we kosed ourselves in the kitchen chatting away. It was a meaningful last day.

Despite having flown to Switzerland seven times (soon eight) within four months, I don’t regret making the decision to come here now. I’ve met some great people—intelligent, funny, open-minded, mature. (Surprisingly, there was no drama in our hallway.) I got to experience student life at a “big,” legitimate university and found out that it didn’t suit me. I did end up getting to know Oslo: cafés, nightlife, shopping. And I’ve got half of my grades back, and they ain’t bad, which is a huge relief.

So yeah, this is the end…and everything turned out okay.

På gjensyn, Norge. Kommer til å savne alle de kjekke guttene.

Tilbake til Oslo

Well, today was my first full day back in Oslo, and despite some setbacks with the metro (all sorts of problems they’re having—broken machines, Flexus card problems, time schedules…must be the snow), it’s been a great day.

I arrived at Kringsjå last night to Nataša and Marta planning to bake a cake for Elise, whose birthday is today. After realizing that we added ten times as much water to the batter as we were supposed to, and that our icing was over one year past its expiration date, we managed to successfully complete our mission! To top it off, Johnny lighted candles in the form of a trail from Elise’s door to the kitchen table. It was a very koselig evening.

Woke up at 10 AM this morning, which was a bit later than I had planned. Getting up in Norway is so hard. I don’t know why. After not having done much in Oslo this whole semester, I was “helt bestemt” to not waste any more time in my room—so I looked up some popular tourist destinations on VisitOslo.com. (Despite the name, it’s also suitable for people that live here on a more permanent basis, like me!) I had a great time looking around and shopping at Jelmoli in Switzerland, so I made up my mind to visit Majorstua because it’s a popular destination, plus I had to pay a visit to the bank.

I ended up spending the entire day walking along one side of Bogstadveien: there are so many irresistible places to shop! One thing is fore sure, I’m going to miss the Scandinavian fashion when I leave. It took me a while to get used to it, but now that I am—I really love it. It’s very androgynous, but that’s what makes it cool. It on the same wavelength as the whole “guys that aren’t afraid to wear pink” thing from a few years back.

Tomorrow, however, I have to settle down and plugga for my French exam. Besides shopping in Switzerland, I haven’t uttered a word of French, and knowing me—I guess I am overconfident. I think my French skills are rustier than I would like to admit.

Hælga Er Borte

Wow, this weekend passed by so quickly…has it really been three days? I guess it has.

I spent a good part of Saturday with my friend Gayoung in Farmandstredet, the nicest mall in perhaps all of Norway. I don’t think I got a chance to see here the last time I was here, in May, so it has been a while! She’s one of the only people form Horten Videregående that I’m still in touch with, and it was nice to get updated on her life. She tells me that next year, she will most likely be moving to Oslo, although she also really wants to study in Trondheim’s NTNU. We shopped a bit, and then went back to Horten for a kebab. One thing’s for sure: Norway definitely has better kebabs than Switzerland.

After dinner, I came home and tried some of Pappa’s home-brewed beer. Despite being only 4.9%, I have ridiculously low booze tolerance, so I felt its effects pretty good. Mamma suggested I should train. I’m not so against that idea. After all, I plan on going to next year’s Oktoberfest.

Mamma also made some excellent food for the guests we were having over. I missed the entrée and the main course, but I got my share of dessert: baked pear halves with mint chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It’s so good to be back home.

Sunday, I continued my weekend of kos. Marie woke me up asking if I wanted to join her in delivering “breakfast” to Pappa in bed for Norwegian Farsdag. Of course I said yes and we served him coffee and chocolate and the four of us huddled in one big bed for a while. I was pretty sure I fell asleep, because afterwards I went down to my room again and slept until breakfast: scrambled eggs with leek and lox on rundstykker.

Afterwards we took a promenade down to Horten’s harbor. It was close to zero degrees Celsius and we walked for an hour; to be honest, I don’t think I would have ever done that alone. (But I did hike half of Liechtenstein in February alone…so I wouldn’t say never.) The rest of the day went in flashes: I skyped with René, I ate dinner (pork filet with red wine and coffee sauce, mashed potatoes and broccoli), I watched two episodes of Bones, and I watched Søndagsfilmen with Marie. And now it’s 2 AM again as I type this!

I have to sleep a bit, because I plan on leaving for Oslo early. I have to go to BI for a briefing on exams, and then I have to pack for two weeks in Thurgau with my sweetheart! Only good things are ahead!

Kjære Hvitveisstien,

You remind me of all the things I love about Norway! This past half-year has not been the easiest for me, but as I sit here and koser meg under my dyne I feel not the slightest bit of frustration or anxiety. Being here inside this house makes me relaxed; no stressful thoughts can permeate these snugly decorated walls. Now I again come upon those feelings which prompted me to come back to Norway…

My AFS year here in Horten has truly been one of the best years of my life, and certainly one of the most meaningful. Perhaps it is no surprise then that Oslo could not fulfill my expectations. It’s like going to a bull for milk.

I am spending a weekend back at “home” with my wonderful Norwegian family. There is a tradition that every Friday there would be homemade pizza for dinner, so it was a great thing to come home to! They also read my ecstatic Facebook status update a while ago about Julebrus season, so there was also nice big bottle of Julebrus along with the Coke staple. It was a very sweet and simple gesture, and it made me very glad.

We watched the same programs we used to watch: Beat4Beat, Nytt på Nytt, and Senkveld. I find a certain comfort in that predictability. It’s like, even if you have the worst week (or semester), there’s always Fredagkveld med pizza og TV to soothe you over. (Except for Nytt på Nytt. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being frustrated trying to understand that show. It’s just too darn orange!) After dinner Pappa and Mamma went to bed and we watched an old episode of CSI: Miami in Marie’s room.

Sleep calls me now. It’s 2:30 AM I’ve been awake since 9 AM writing the Executive Summary for the Marketing Management, which, by the way, is all done now. And by done, I mean PDF-format done! We’ve worked our asses off on this marketing plan…I think the province of Vicenza should really take a look at it!