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