Suddenly, I thought about how I saw the Norwegians and their society and culture and I came to think that, maybe, I sticked with their first impression on me and never wanted to change how I see them. Now, I think it's unfair for my friends that helped me through the year. It's unfair for them that I should generalize and see the Norwegians in a negative way because, whether I like it or not, they still are Norwegians themselves and they can't change it. Instead, I'd gather all my thoughts and observations and list down what I think are positive and negative about them. Though I expect a dominantly negative list, I would try my very best to look through it as objectively as I can. I am a very critical critic and I see the negative in things very easily and I should work on that.
Anyway, the list:
Norwegians
Words that can describe: well-off, nature lovers, "freedom lovers", have an amusing accent when trying to speak English, almost all can speak English, beautiful girls (according to some people; sorry boys :D ), competitive, hard-working, "homogeneous" (the youth), regales with drinking until drunk
Positive: They have a lot of personal freedom, everyone is equal in their rights, proud of their achievements (self-confident)
Negative: Rather americanized, have a tendency to be spoiled brats (the youth), have a tendency to become materialistic, have a tendency for chauvinism
Notes: When I refer to the youth, it is almost exclusive to my experiences in my school but, cross-referencing it with the other student's experiences, i made a basis for my criticism
More to come..
April 28, 2007
April 22, 2007
22.04.2007 69 Days
Yesterday, I went to Oslo to meet Hana.
She's an exchange student too, from Germany, who lives in Kristiansand and she was visiting Oslo for a bit. I was supposed to go to Oslo last Friday but my card got locked up because I pressed the wrong PIN code 5 times. It's been a while since I used it so, I sort of forgot the code. hehe.
We met at the park at around 4 or 5. Flavio was already there. So, we played frisbee for a while and then Flavio went to pick up Rikardo from the train station or somewhere. And then we played a little bit more but we both suck at it so we just settled on stopping. hehe. We stopped playing, sat down and just talked. We were waiting for the two of them to come back.
After a while, they came back and then we played more. And then, I threw the frisbee quite high (and wrong) to a tree. You see, the frisbee we're playing with is more of like a hoop so it got stuck. We proved everything to get it down. My shoe, climbing the tree, shaking the branch (which by the way, gave me "emo" scratches) and everything possible. After a while, we managed to get it back with the help of the guys who were playing volleyball. (They took the pole. hehe.) And after that, we played a bit more and then Flavio and Rikardo needed to go home and eat dinner. So, Hana and I went out to grab a bite over at BK. And then stayed there for a while, just talking.
I realized, time runs so fast nowadays. Somehow, I'm really excited to coming back home. You see, I'm going back home to a new home. Literally and in a sense. Literally because we're moving in to our new house. In a sense because I've changed so much that the way I see them has become something completely new.
Although, I have regrets for letting time pass without doing anything about it. That's why I made a pledge that while I'm here, I'm going to make my stay as memorable as possible. Not with big things, but with small, seemingly irrelevant, things. In a sense, I just want to live here while I still have the time. I want to not to be sad when I come home. Probably become nervous, but overall, I want to be happy --without regrets. There's so many things to do in life that there's no use regretting things that have not been done. I'd rather cherish the moments I've created for myself.
Anyway, I just came back home from Riccardo's (ITA) place. I slept there instead of going home last night. I'm just being lazy, that's all. And I'm glad I stayed there. Somehow, I became closer with them. Probably not to be considered a real friend, but I think, close enough. I guess it's a start of something for me. I hope I don't ruin it.
And it's 69 Days and counting.
She's an exchange student too, from Germany, who lives in Kristiansand and she was visiting Oslo for a bit. I was supposed to go to Oslo last Friday but my card got locked up because I pressed the wrong PIN code 5 times. It's been a while since I used it so, I sort of forgot the code. hehe.
We met at the park at around 4 or 5. Flavio was already there. So, we played frisbee for a while and then Flavio went to pick up Rikardo from the train station or somewhere. And then we played a little bit more but we both suck at it so we just settled on stopping. hehe. We stopped playing, sat down and just talked. We were waiting for the two of them to come back.
After a while, they came back and then we played more. And then, I threw the frisbee quite high (and wrong) to a tree. You see, the frisbee we're playing with is more of like a hoop so it got stuck. We proved everything to get it down. My shoe, climbing the tree, shaking the branch (which by the way, gave me "emo" scratches) and everything possible. After a while, we managed to get it back with the help of the guys who were playing volleyball. (They took the pole. hehe.) And after that, we played a bit more and then Flavio and Rikardo needed to go home and eat dinner. So, Hana and I went out to grab a bite over at BK. And then stayed there for a while, just talking.
I realized, time runs so fast nowadays. Somehow, I'm really excited to coming back home. You see, I'm going back home to a new home. Literally and in a sense. Literally because we're moving in to our new house. In a sense because I've changed so much that the way I see them has become something completely new.
Although, I have regrets for letting time pass without doing anything about it. That's why I made a pledge that while I'm here, I'm going to make my stay as memorable as possible. Not with big things, but with small, seemingly irrelevant, things. In a sense, I just want to live here while I still have the time. I want to not to be sad when I come home. Probably become nervous, but overall, I want to be happy --without regrets. There's so many things to do in life that there's no use regretting things that have not been done. I'd rather cherish the moments I've created for myself.
Anyway, I just came back home from Riccardo's (ITA) place. I slept there instead of going home last night. I'm just being lazy, that's all. And I'm glad I stayed there. Somehow, I became closer with them. Probably not to be considered a real friend, but I think, close enough. I guess it's a start of something for me. I hope I don't ruin it.
And it's 69 Days and counting.
April 14, 2007
13.04.2007 Friday the 13th
I didn't notice that it was Friday the 13th today. Not until now, though.
Anyway, whether it was the myth around the day or of my own doings, my day turned out a very crappy day.
I woke up with the sound of my alarm clock. Ever since I used the one on the radio, (it's a multi-functional tingamajig, really) I've been waked up at least 3 times in the morning, and every single time, I sleep again with the exception of the last. On Fridays, I only have Norwegian classes for a meager 4 hours and a half and we had a test today. As much as I like writing, I just hate exams because, besides the fact that I don't really need it, it sucks out a lot of me - not of lack of writing, but of lack of things to do. Sitting there for hours at a time, doing practically nothing tires me out. (Who gets tired of doing nothing? me!) After the test, Jens and I decided to take our bikes to Rema to buy some stuff. Here's where things started to go wrong.
On the way to Rema, suddenly, the gear-changer of my bike (or technically speaking, my host dad's bike) lost its screw causing the chain to go out of track and land in between the fork and the gear. (Why can't the chain just land in the gear? Was he tired and wanted to take a break from the gears?) Anyway.. the sad thing is, I really didn't know that it was just the screw missing and not the entire gear-changer-thingamajig broken into pieces. So, I went home, dragging the bike with me, and went out to carry on a surgery on it. And then I found out that the screw just fell off or something. However, due to an extreme lack of logic on my part or rather an influence of complete laziness, I did not look for it. (I mean, how stupid can I be?) All I thought of the time was to tell it to Trond, the legitimate owner of the bike. (and partly expecting that my butt will be kicked) The thought of looking for the missing screw did not really dawn on me if Trond had not suggested looking for it. And that was roughly 6 hours after. -_-
Anyway, while I was waiting for dinner and boring myself out, I went up to my room, used the pc, played music, read a book and in the process, fell asleep. With the sun shining through my window, I just needed to fall asleep. Anyway, half an hour later, Ragnhild started yelling around for me. Now, I am hearing her but I'm not up to anything besides sleeping at the moment. I really wanted to sleep just because it's feels great. Anyway, she was saying something about a call for me. Now, who in the world would call me? and in my *temporary* residence number?
It was a lady who seemed to be in a very bad temper and is talking to me with raised tones. Ouch. It was my AFS local contact in a bad mood. This weekend, my host mom will have a ladies' party in the house and she already leased all the beds in the house for some of the guests who would not be able to go back to their own respective homes in the course of the night. I really don't have anything against it because, in effect, I'm just a vagrant here myself and have no claims to any property or whatsoever. So, my host mom asked my local contact if I could crash over for the night and generously she said yes. Now, her son sent me a SMS message asking when he could pick me up and I replied something like this: "when? because I'm going to a birthday party of one of my friends at 7." Now, I did ask when, right? By asking when, I meant, what time. Apparently, they only managed to absorb the second part of the sentence. They suddenly had the idea that I'm not going to sleep over. So, she was quite upset that suddenly, i go off canceling things. When I explained that I am still going but I'm coming after the party, she became even more upset. Understandably, as a mother, she would not want her son to be staying up all night waiting for me to come to them. In her perspective, it would be unfair for her child to wait for a stranger to come home to them, and I agree with her. Curse my wording preferences. I could not ask for them to come and pick me up so late, can I? That would be even more embarrassing for me but apparently, as later I would come to know, they wouldn't mind. The end of the conversation left me with two choices, either ask Morten to come with me or i wouldn't go to the party at all.
Now, I already considered these two choices before (and even more alternatives that I taught of) and I can see both as not a real option. Asking Morten to come with me would be a good thing to do, but I don't think he's the kind of person that would be interested with such kind of things. I don't know but I just feel it. The second choice would mean breaking a promise because I already promised her that I would be coming. It's my way of making things up for myself by trying to uphold all promises that I make. So, i already discarded them as options. But here I am, ended up in choosing one of the two. As the whole thing was very stressful, I chose to go to Morten early instead of just going to the party. So, I sent messages to both Morten and Cho Kiu, telling them that I'm coming early and I'm not coming, respectively as well as an apology message for the both of them.
And then came dinner and I told Trond about the problem and we went out, after dinner, to search for the missing nut. We had no luck. So, I took the bike with me and drove down to the sports center and asked if they had a nut that would fit the hole? The first clerk told me that they're not offering Diamant bikes and therefore they have no parts of it to sell too. So, I called Trond and asked if I should ask for something that would just fit even though it's of not the same manufacturer. I was just being sure because it's his bike, anyway; and that I would not want to choose things that would contribute to its wreckage. It's strike #3 for the day and strike #2 against Trond. I got a lecture on how things function. I know those things, hallooo! what do you guys take me for, 6 years old? I don't know your preferences on things so I needed to make sure that it's what he would pick himself. So, I went in and asked a second time to another clerk. This time, this clerk tells that I can just check it in for repair and get it back next week. Oh well..no biking for me.
So, by the end of the day, I was upset myself and I sat down at the church's garden for a while. How long exactly, I did not know. It just felt soothing to be there. Just sitting there, thinking, listening.
So, how's your Friday the 13th?
Anyway, whether it was the myth around the day or of my own doings, my day turned out a very crappy day.
I woke up with the sound of my alarm clock. Ever since I used the one on the radio, (it's a multi-functional tingamajig, really) I've been waked up at least 3 times in the morning, and every single time, I sleep again with the exception of the last. On Fridays, I only have Norwegian classes for a meager 4 hours and a half and we had a test today. As much as I like writing, I just hate exams because, besides the fact that I don't really need it, it sucks out a lot of me - not of lack of writing, but of lack of things to do. Sitting there for hours at a time, doing practically nothing tires me out. (Who gets tired of doing nothing? me!) After the test, Jens and I decided to take our bikes to Rema to buy some stuff. Here's where things started to go wrong.
On the way to Rema, suddenly, the gear-changer of my bike (or technically speaking, my host dad's bike) lost its screw causing the chain to go out of track and land in between the fork and the gear. (Why can't the chain just land in the gear? Was he tired and wanted to take a break from the gears?) Anyway.. the sad thing is, I really didn't know that it was just the screw missing and not the entire gear-changer-thingamajig broken into pieces. So, I went home, dragging the bike with me, and went out to carry on a surgery on it. And then I found out that the screw just fell off or something. However, due to an extreme lack of logic on my part or rather an influence of complete laziness, I did not look for it. (I mean, how stupid can I be?) All I thought of the time was to tell it to Trond, the legitimate owner of the bike. (and partly expecting that my butt will be kicked) The thought of looking for the missing screw did not really dawn on me if Trond had not suggested looking for it. And that was roughly 6 hours after. -_-
Anyway, while I was waiting for dinner and boring myself out, I went up to my room, used the pc, played music, read a book and in the process, fell asleep. With the sun shining through my window, I just needed to fall asleep. Anyway, half an hour later, Ragnhild started yelling around for me. Now, I am hearing her but I'm not up to anything besides sleeping at the moment. I really wanted to sleep just because it's feels great. Anyway, she was saying something about a call for me. Now, who in the world would call me? and in my *temporary* residence number?
It was a lady who seemed to be in a very bad temper and is talking to me with raised tones. Ouch. It was my AFS local contact in a bad mood. This weekend, my host mom will have a ladies' party in the house and she already leased all the beds in the house for some of the guests who would not be able to go back to their own respective homes in the course of the night. I really don't have anything against it because, in effect, I'm just a vagrant here myself and have no claims to any property or whatsoever. So, my host mom asked my local contact if I could crash over for the night and generously she said yes. Now, her son sent me a SMS message asking when he could pick me up and I replied something like this: "when? because I'm going to a birthday party of one of my friends at 7." Now, I did ask when, right? By asking when, I meant, what time. Apparently, they only managed to absorb the second part of the sentence. They suddenly had the idea that I'm not going to sleep over. So, she was quite upset that suddenly, i go off canceling things. When I explained that I am still going but I'm coming after the party, she became even more upset. Understandably, as a mother, she would not want her son to be staying up all night waiting for me to come to them. In her perspective, it would be unfair for her child to wait for a stranger to come home to them, and I agree with her. Curse my wording preferences. I could not ask for them to come and pick me up so late, can I? That would be even more embarrassing for me but apparently, as later I would come to know, they wouldn't mind. The end of the conversation left me with two choices, either ask Morten to come with me or i wouldn't go to the party at all.
Now, I already considered these two choices before (and even more alternatives that I taught of) and I can see both as not a real option. Asking Morten to come with me would be a good thing to do, but I don't think he's the kind of person that would be interested with such kind of things. I don't know but I just feel it. The second choice would mean breaking a promise because I already promised her that I would be coming. It's my way of making things up for myself by trying to uphold all promises that I make. So, i already discarded them as options. But here I am, ended up in choosing one of the two. As the whole thing was very stressful, I chose to go to Morten early instead of just going to the party. So, I sent messages to both Morten and Cho Kiu, telling them that I'm coming early and I'm not coming, respectively as well as an apology message for the both of them.
And then came dinner and I told Trond about the problem and we went out, after dinner, to search for the missing nut. We had no luck. So, I took the bike with me and drove down to the sports center and asked if they had a nut that would fit the hole? The first clerk told me that they're not offering Diamant bikes and therefore they have no parts of it to sell too. So, I called Trond and asked if I should ask for something that would just fit even though it's of not the same manufacturer. I was just being sure because it's his bike, anyway; and that I would not want to choose things that would contribute to its wreckage. It's strike #3 for the day and strike #2 against Trond. I got a lecture on how things function. I know those things, hallooo! what do you guys take me for, 6 years old? I don't know your preferences on things so I needed to make sure that it's what he would pick himself. So, I went in and asked a second time to another clerk. This time, this clerk tells that I can just check it in for repair and get it back next week. Oh well..no biking for me.
So, by the end of the day, I was upset myself and I sat down at the church's garden for a while. How long exactly, I did not know. It just felt soothing to be there. Just sitting there, thinking, listening.
So, how's your Friday the 13th?
April 9, 2007
09.04.2007 2nd Day of Easter
I've never heard of a 2nd day of easter before.
In my own country, we only have Easter Sunday and on that day we go to church.
Here, things are much more different.
Easter is marked with easter eggs and yellow chicks.
Sort of weird for me since as far as I know, Easter is the resurrection of Jesus.
But it's okay. That's what I'm here for anyway.
To learn of differences and of limitations.
Because "what gets us into trouble is not what we don't know,
it's the things that we know for sure but just ain't so."
From last Wednesday up to yesterday, we were at the mountains.
And we were skiing for 3 days straight!
I guess after that I was a bit of tired of skiing. For the mean time I guess.
But I believe that that will be my last time on skis for a very long time after.
And I'm happy with it.
Oh well, normal school day tomorrow.
I've got to admit that I'm starting to feel lazy going to school since it is absolutely, completely, pointless. 1 more month, more or less, until the end of classes. and 3 more months, more or less, until I go home. I'm just counting weeks now.
My gratitude to my host family, Trond, Fredrik, Raghnild and Andrea for having me here for a year, especially to Trond for making a lot of moments special for me. I really appreciate it.
In my own country, we only have Easter Sunday and on that day we go to church.
Here, things are much more different.
Easter is marked with easter eggs and yellow chicks.
Sort of weird for me since as far as I know, Easter is the resurrection of Jesus.
But it's okay. That's what I'm here for anyway.
To learn of differences and of limitations.
Because "what gets us into trouble is not what we don't know,
it's the things that we know for sure but just ain't so."
From last Wednesday up to yesterday, we were at the mountains.
And we were skiing for 3 days straight!
I guess after that I was a bit of tired of skiing. For the mean time I guess.
But I believe that that will be my last time on skis for a very long time after.
And I'm happy with it.
Oh well, normal school day tomorrow.
I've got to admit that I'm starting to feel lazy going to school since it is absolutely, completely, pointless. 1 more month, more or less, until the end of classes. and 3 more months, more or less, until I go home. I'm just counting weeks now.
My gratitude to my host family, Trond, Fredrik, Raghnild and Andrea for having me here for a year, especially to Trond for making a lot of moments special for me. I really appreciate it.
April 1, 2007
01.04.2007 Party
So, I'm here at Jens' house, in a party with his friends.
I'm glad that I came.
His friends, even though a little bit odd, they're very nice.
It's a circle of friends that moves away from the mainstream and I can see that they have their own character. They're not like everyone else that seems to blend into a homogenous entity and I like them. I try very hard to help around and to get involved with people. For once, I try to make eye contact when someone's speaking. Something that I am not used to.
Anyway, as for the party, majority of the ones that were left behind drank at least 3 shots of vodka (including me but I drank around 2 and a half shots though) and they were very tipsy and acting quite silly. It's fun to watch them. =D I'm not tipsy nor drunk though. :D
I'm glad that I came.
His friends, even though a little bit odd, they're very nice.
It's a circle of friends that moves away from the mainstream and I can see that they have their own character. They're not like everyone else that seems to blend into a homogenous entity and I like them. I try very hard to help around and to get involved with people. For once, I try to make eye contact when someone's speaking. Something that I am not used to.
Anyway, as for the party, majority of the ones that were left behind drank at least 3 shots of vodka (including me but I drank around 2 and a half shots though) and they were very tipsy and acting quite silly. It's fun to watch them. =D I'm not tipsy nor drunk though. :D
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