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I had originally started writing this right after Canadian Thanksgiving so there could be some outdated opinions...

So much snow!

Anyway, it’s been nearly three months in! Wow, time flies. In these three months I’ve experienced summer, autumn and winter. Not even kidding you. The snow came last weekend, and what a shock that was to my system. I’ve been telling everyone here how much I hate snow because as all of us Vancouverites know, it’s chaos and a complete gong show in the city for us. Thankfully, it was much better managed here. I still can’t believe the “seasons” change so quickly here. I haven’t walked through so much fresh powder in a city-setting in so long..

Updates from the various parts of my life:

School: I had many doubts before the program started as to how it would all work out, if I would even meet any other like-minded people, and if the program would challenge me enough. In some areas, namely Immunology, it’s been a real challenge, but there are also some courses where I miss the quality of UBC’s lecturers. I know I’ll stop comparing soon, but after five years of serious high quality teaching it’s been a real tough adjustment to some classes here. Part of it is probably due to the lecturers all teaching in their second language, English, so I can sympathize. However, it still doesn't make it any easier and when grades are involved, I think I’m allowed to complain ;). The classes I take also have rotating teachers, so we never seem to get the same guy more than once or twice. Again, it just adds to the frustration sometimes.

My classmates are wonderful people I must say. Although we don't see eachother often it's nice to finally have a smaller ''class'' of people all studying relatively the same thing. I'm so used to like the 500-people big programs at home it's a refreshing change to be in one with under 40 people.

A Norwegian dinner. I'm making them turn Asian by posing like one.

Currently in the middle of writing two papers. One on snus, which is smokeless tobacco. It’s more common here in Norway and Sweden where users (usually) put a “teabag of tobacco” into their mouths and lodge it between the upper lip and gums. Sounds weird, but it’s what these people do.. I’ll admit and say I’ve tried it. The feeling is a bit different to smoking obviously. I’m totally going to send a box over to a certain someone soon. Anyway, the paper will focus on all the supposed negative effects it has on the body. There’s much controversy surrounding this, as many people have said ‘’there’s no proof it is bad for you.” I guess I’ll soon find out.

Locked down a Master’s Project! I’ll be studying prospective iron uptake genes in mycobacteria which causes Tuberculosis. I’m not too sure what exactly what I’ll be doing with these genes, but it should be a good learning experience and I’ll get to take nice pictures with the confocal microscope along with infecting live mice!

Social Life: Since the last time I posted I've been pretty active at Samfundet. I have no idea if I should be thankful for all the new people I've met through the KSG ‘gang’ that I've become a part of. These people are just, wow. Ha. I don’t even know where to begin. A lot of people have asked me why I’m even “working for free”, and I go because all the internal social events make up for it. They really try hard to make people meet, drink, have fun, drink, and drink some more. Further details will be spared for fear of angry Norwegians who apparently read this.

I think I’m slowly learning how to say NO to certain events and things. My body is no longer as strong as it was a year ago. The freakin’ hangovers suck. But again, it’s fun to be there. I love serving drunkards on a late Friday/Saturday. I have a sign that’s managed to stay at the bar now for over a month, “Jeg snakker ikke norsk”. I wear it when it gets busy and people start yelling at me in Norwegian.

Hopefully in January I’ll be able to take that Introductory Norwegian course so I can progress beyond the basic words in Norwegian and saying “I hope a pig eats you.”

nom nom nom

ISFiT: Unlike the heavy partying and drinking culture that surrounds KSG, ISFiT is an organization that I had my sights on the moment I heard about it. Again, it’s this massive international students festival that brings together 450 students from around the world. There are 17 workshops this year and I’m lucky enough to be planning the one revolving around Social Movements along with three other students. It’s been challenging at times with the content I’m dealing with. Coming from Canada the most recent social movement that I could even think of was the Quebec students walking out of school. Albeit a “success”, it’s hard to put that in comparison to what’s going on in Syria, and last year’s Arab Rising. Again, plenty of issues to look at and after spending two entire days reading hundreds of applications, the people coming are going to have a wealth of knowledge and first hand experiences in these movements that I hope to learn from.

We had a cabin trip/retreat last weekend with all of the other workshop leaders. I think there’s 68? of us. It was my first time in a cabin and lucky for us, it was during the snow(storm)! Away from the city life and surrounded by a group of other fantastic peers it was a weekend to remember. The views and surrounding areas to the cabin were truly breathtaking.

I can’t wait for February 2013! Should be a good one.

WHY SO PRETTY NORWAY?

Life in General: I’m healthy. I eat vitamins. I eat a lot of potatoes...and I mean a lot. I don’t even eat that much rice here! Shocking, I know. I’ve gained 2kg since coming here. I’m happily watching my life savings disappear. I’m finding a routine for myself now. It’s sort of scary when I wake up some days and “forget” that I’m in Norway. Like, the novelty of me being in a new culture and country at times just disappears. I guess that’s a sign of me being comfortable and accepting the life I now have here. It’s a good thing I guess? Again, very different from Australia.

I miss home only for the food..and friends/family I guess. There are days when I really want to just splurge on (sub-par) sushi here, but I know my wallet will hate me so I don’t.  I haven’t really been homesick thanks to Whatsapp and Skype. I’ve loved receiving the care packages. I just want freakin beef jerky. I’ll try to make the Americans going home for Christmas bring me back a few packages...

Waffles. A Norwegian staple food

Random Thoughts:

• I want to kidnap the babies/little kids running around the playground. Okay, I sound like a creep but they all have these oversized neon vests they wear whenever they're outdoors with their preschool or whatever they're with. It's hilarious and adorable to me.
• I thought I wouldn't be able to mimic a stereotypical Norwegian accent. I am now in the process of learning one. Give me a few more months, heh.
• There is no creativity into naming their cheeses here: White cheese. Brown cheese.
• There is also low creativity in people's first names here. I've met countless Ingrids, Magnuses, Sindres, Siris, Anders..es among others. To make it worse, everyone has an unpronounceable last name which is often 2-4 words long. It makes it very hard for me at times to remember people's names. I guess I'm used to the opposite...common surnames, more distinguished first names. 
• Cows are mandated by law to sleep on mattresses. 
• Their fruit ripen so damn quickly. I'm used to buying like a bundle (is that even the right word?) of bananas at home. Here, if I do that, by day 5 they'll be so brown and speckly the skin starts to break. Well, that's been my experience anyway.
• Professors take mobile calls in class. What the hell.
• The number of people who have smartphones here is significantly less than Vancouver. Boris, my blackberry, is slowly dying as well. :(
• Fish can come out of tubes that they then spread on bread. And liver. They love liver.
• I FOUND SOMEONE WHO'S CANTONESE.
• I snuck into the Vengaboys concert here. 
• They still love Gangnam Style and Carly Rae Jepsen. I don't. 
• My mother wanted the address and phone number of the cabin I was going to. I yelled at her and then hung up. 
• They don't exactly celebrate Halloween here. No one hands out candies here in Trondheim..and no one dressed up at all on the actual day of Halloween. Sad.
• Christmas parties are held in November, not December.
• Finally managed to stay out all night and took the first bus home. The bus driver was not impressed at how I looked.

One month into Norway..

Oh boy. The one month mark since I’ve arrived in Norway has passed. Time certainly flies.. only 22 more months to go. No, I’m not counting down.

Believe it or not, three weeks of school have already gone by yet I’ve only attended two classes. Here’s where I’ve taken UBC a bit for granted. At UBC everything is so freakin’ simple and streamlined for us. You can look at timetables months in advance, pick courses and sections to register in, and boom. Here, they emphasize giving students the freedom of choice and want us to be “independent”. Basically, it means no one really has a clue as to what’s going on, timetables are constantly changing, lottery systems exist for certain classes and department heads taking vacations during the first month of school.  Sorry, I’ll stop complaining. I blame UBC. It’s made me spoiled.

As for how I’m doing, it’s an adjustment from the last time I was abroad for school in Australia for sure. The ‘’exchange’’ mindset is completely gone. I feel like a boring old man sometimes. I think I need to subconsciously stop comparing Norway to my Oz experience. I can’t afford to be partying every single weekend and I actually want to get involved on campus and other things.

That brings me to the Volunteering culture here in Trondheim. Their student organizations and clubs are somewhat similar to those back home, but they have this massive red round building right in the heart of the city, Studenter Samfundet, that basically plans and houses massive parties, events, concerts and festivals. It also has countless bars, a full sit down restaurant, pubs, a cafe and other secret things I’ve yet to discover. The best comparison I can think of is that it's like the AMS at UBC and everything the SUB has. However take out the student politics, pretentious people, overbearing rules, incessant forms and replace it all with a more relaxed culture, fun people, clubs and generally a better time. Here, the entire thing is run by volunteers from top to bottom! How they manage to do that, I have no clue. We were told that some of them even put in 40+ hours/week. That’s how big volunteerism is here.

I applied to join one of their sub groups inside, ‘’gangs’’ as it’s known here. Um, unsurprisingly so I applied for the bartender jobs, haha. Gotta use my White Spot experience! So now I’m a barservitor at their restaurant. A bit more bartender work than White Spot but it should be fun. The good thing about volunteering here is that I’m actually going to be forced to learn Norwegian. Plus, my ‘coworkers’ are basically all Norwegian so I’m not just hanging around internationals. Watch out, in two years I am totally going to be fluent in Norwegian J

Studenter Samfundet. Nothing like this at home.

I’ve also applied for ISFiT, the International Students Festival in Trondheim. It claims to be the world’s largest student festival of its kind. It reminds me a lot of the SLC at UBC except the focus is on international issues, conflicts, and what we as students can do about it. I got the position of a Workshop leader where along with three other students, we will plan and run a workshop on Social Movements. Other workshop themes include topics like: Wealth and Health, Human Dignity, Trade as Art and a lot more! Check out www.isfit.org for more on what I’m doing. And everyone can apply to attend with financial aid available. Go go go! You can visit me, ha. I swear, I don’t belong in Sciences sometimes..

Using my trusty Blackberry, that NO ONE here seems to have except one other Canadian guy I met and my English classmate, I’ve been jotting down random thoughts as they come. I’ve also made it a mission to learn a new Norwegian phrase/word every day. I’ve been semi successful.

• I enjoy trying new foods..sometimes. I’ve ventured into fiskekaker (fish cakes), nakkekoteletter (pig’s neck), remoulade, some random ham spread/pate thing, shitty beers and “karbonader”... I Still don’t know what that is to be honest.
• Canadian stereotypes. I knew this was going to happen..and some other ethnic ones
• “Do you speak French?”
• “Say about”
• I will end a sentence with “eh?” and get mocked instantly
• They quote that How I met your mother episode a lot for these stereotypes
• Isn’t it cold in Canada?
• I love playing the “What kind of Asian am I?” game. So far I’ve gotten a lot of Thai, Vietnamese, “I DON’T KNOW. DON’T MAKE ME GUESS”, Korean. Grr.
• “Are your parents Chinese then?”
• I’ve outdrank Norwegians :p Their 4.5% beer’s got nothing on shitty 5.5% Cariboo guys. The strongest ones you can get in the supermarket is actually 4.7%
• Their drinking culture. The “vorspiels” (predrinks/party) is actually more fun than going out.
• Nightbusses cost ~$12 CAD. Ouch.
• Taxis cost more.
• There are countless, apparently very distinct, Norwegian dialects. This literally varies from city to city. It makes learning Norwegian harder. Everyone says “Steinan” the place where I live differently. I’ve learned to just say it like a stupid Canadian without even trying to sound Norwegian.
• I found $1.50 bread. YES.
• I gave directions ONCE and felt like a frickin’ champion
• Bus drivers are way nicer here. Here, you hail down buses if you want to get on at a lot of stops. If you’re running to one and can’t make it there in time, 9/10 times if you just stick your hand out the driver will stop for you.
• They NEVER start the bus until the older people have sat themselves down safely
• The more and more Norwegians I meet, the more I realise they don’t have a lot of variety in their first names.. This will be a problem.
• I started introducing myself as “Hi, I’m Nelson. Like Nelson Mandela” For their ease.
• Google Translate is my new best friend
• They party until the sun rises

Norway: First Impressions

Wow, it's been nearly two weeks since I came to Norway and it's been a really big adjustment to say the least. After my lovely and extremely uncomfortable sleepover in the Iceland airport where everyone was drinking before their flights, I arrived in Norway! Being the idiot that I am, I did not go to the duty free and stock up on alcohol and other things. I'll get to the ridiculous prices of alcohol later.

I literally walked straight out of the Trondheim airport without a clue as to where to go. I followed people and hopped on a bus that was apparently going to the city center. Already, I could tell this would be a country I'd probably grow to love soon. It helped that I arrived on the one sunny day of the week and it was spectacular! I got dropped off at some random station that I thought was the ''center''...it wasn't. Carrying a 65L backpack with a suitcase and another backpack makes for a good sight, not going to lie.

After about 1.5 hours of shameless tourist map reading, asking people for directions and taking 3 buses, I got to my house! I was expecting a typical share house, so a small room, washroom, living room etc, but I got much more than that! My room is so much more spacious than what I had imagined it to be so that's a huge plus. The stairs are very very narrow. I can tell I'm going to trip on them after a night out soon. So far, I've been alright. Yes, I have my flags up. Represent.

 The rest of the week was just spent trying to navigate the city and exploring everything it has to offer. Since none of my roommates moved in yet, I solo-ed it. It was a bit lonely for the first few days, not going to lie. The only human interaction I got was with cashiers, bank ladies, and post office people. I almost forgot how to speak English properly when I skyped with my friend.

What you see on postcards :) It's the "symbol" of Trondheim as one local told me.

The sentrum (city center) is pretty walkable. I walked all over the little neighbourhoods and landmarks the tourist book told me to do. Pictures to come on facebook.

This past week was a huge orientation week for International Students. We got to take part in a 'Matriculation Ceremony', bbqs, play Klubb (traditional medieval Norwegian game), hike Bymarka, go to the Trondelag Folk Museum, and hike along the fjord located in Trondheim. It sort of sucks I'm living at Steinan, a residence that's further away and with fewer international students. But, it is with a lot more Norwegians and since I'm not here on Exchange, I guess it should benefit me in the long run. Still sucks that all the parties and goings-on are at Moholt. I digress.

Class starts tomorrow. I am terribly unprepared. I have no real clue as to what to do. I've met a few people in my program, so that's good but for the most part NTNU is nothing like UBC. Things are a bit slower, people seem to be a bit disorganized, and there's a lot less communication between the faculty and student. It doesn't help that a lot of offices and stores here close at 3pm.. Again, cultural differences, I'll adapt soon.

To end this, just a few first impressions I have of Norwegians/Trondheim so far. This will be interesting to revisit two years later :) :

• so many young families. Young mothers/fathers EVERYWHERE. And of course, Scandinavian babies are cute as hell. I want to kidnap them.
• A lot of retired/older people here in Trondheim, yet they still bike everywhere.
• Brown Cheese: WTF
• Norwegians are yes, blonde/brunette with blue eyes and very tall. I feel short.
• Everyone has a basic/intermediate grasp of English. Very much appreciated. However, I still can't read nor say anything in Norwegian.
• Groceries are 1.5x as expensive. They have a very limited selection of fresh fruits/veggies. Chicken is like $20/kg.
• People here are pale.
• Alcohol is more than double the price in Canada. A mickey of some domestic brand vodka will cost you at least $30. Beers are ~3.50 each in the stores. Urghh. At least I'll save money this way.
• People are very slim/fit. I haven't seen any guidos or 'roid monkeys at all. Goodbye douchey Vancouver guys.
• The sun is out till 10pm.
• It rains like Vancouver. Like right now. I am sad.

That's it for now. I think.

Some thoughts...

Leaving Vancouver was a big step in itself. I got absolutely no sleep as I frantically packed the entire night. Some friends came over throughout the night to wish me away, including my last meal of Indian food. It felt so good.

Airport. Good byes were said to the family. I know my mom will be taking this hard. I also know she doesn't want me going deep down because I'm her one and only son. She'll miss me, and I think I am ready to admit now that I'll also miss all those little comforts of home. I never thought I'd ever get homesick, ever, but here I am. Sitting here typing, and I get these pangs of "I wish I were home" moments. It's boggling to me to know that I'll be 25 when I return. 25. Holy shit. I didn't even think I'd make it to 24 at the rate I was going a few years ago, but 25 is a scary year.

Boston. Came and went just like that. I definitely needed 23817293123 more hours in this city. Hell, I'm not even living in Boston but a city outside of it, Andover. Caroline's family kindly took me in and I am so thankful I had this stopover before Norway. If I had to leave straight from Vancouver to Norway, I don't think the transition would have been that easy. I walked a bit of Boston during my time here, went to Fenway Park where I still don't really quite understand the immensely popularity of Baseball in America, and spent a nice day with her family. All in all, a good little reprieve from the chaos my life had been for the past two months.

I leave for Norway soon. Under 2 hours to be exact where I'll have an 8 hour stopover in Iceland..except it's from 11:40pm - 8:00am. The kicker? I'm not allowed to sleep in the airport, apparently it's..uh..illegal. Damn it.

So there we have it. Nelson on his way to get a MSc in a place where he knows no one. A completely blank slate awaits me. Now it's up to me to decide how I want to be portrayed there.. Apparently Norwegians don't enjoy the self deprecating humour I am known for, nor the sarcastic angry comments that I am also known for. I'll keep this blog updated from time to time, it'll serve me well in the future when I look back on all of this. Hopefully in two years there's going to be some immense growth in me and I can look back at all of these fears and laugh. Or not.

Crap, I'm going to miss hockey so much..

Shit. One hour until I leave the house for the airport. I have never been more scared or unprepared for something so major in my life.

No turning back now I guess.

Deja vu much?

Looks like it's all going to happen again. I originally started this way back when to document my exchange to Australia. Now, it's time for something bigger (and hopefully better).

Before I make it all official to everyone, I need a bucket list for the next two months. This is more for my own personal purposes and no one else's. In no real particular order...

• Jethro's
• Phnom Penh
• Fried chicken
• SUSHI TILL I PUKE
• The Cobalt
• Blackout
• Bake something again
• Memphis Blues
• Electric Owl
• Grouse Grind - 50 minute goal
• Tan in preparation for two years of dismal weather.
• Bike the Sea Wall
• Drunken McDonalds
• AYCE Indian
• The Cambie
• ...more to come.