'Tis the season

Growing up, I took many things for granted. Family, was one of them. Granted, I didn't grow up in the "sterotypical Canadian nuclear family" where balancing my parents' and grandparents' Chinese culture with the country they chose to immigrate to proved to be challenging at times. We fought and argued a lot. In hindsight, I was just rebelling and acting like a privileged kid who thought he knew best. Leaving them in my 20s finally gave me a sense of independence I had long yearned for since my pre-teen days.

I guess that's where perspective comes in. Once you leave, you start to notice things you've always taken for granted. From the notoriously full pantry, to the 3 dozen eggs always available in the fridge, to laundry being done and folded for you even when you didn't ask for it.. these little things I'm sure many can relate to. However, these things are easily managed. What I'm having trouble managing is being away for important holidays and celebrations. Christmas and Chinese New Year are two times during the year I feel extremely homesick.

No, it's not for the materialism and consumerism associated with both holidays, but rather they were the few times in the year where the entire family would actually gather together (and probably yell at one another for one reason or another), but still. Everyone was there together. Being away from home now for five years has taught me I miss these moments.

Sure, I have great friends here; friends who I tell things to my family would never ever know, but at the end of the day, they're "just" friends. Family is different. These are the people who have sacrificed so much of their life and time to ensure you grew up into someone respectable. My stubborn, bone-headed ways come from my dad, and my empathetic, nurturing side from my mom. My level-headedness from my grandpa, and my fiery side from my grandma. I see these qualities that I always used to clash or align myself with in me now. It's strange.

So here I am, alone on Christmas day. My family's thousands of kilometers away and I've never missed them more. I am grateful for the friends I have here. I am happy people care so I'm not completely alone on Christmas. I just wish I had my family here as well.

Merry Christmas to all.

Racism

I'll write down these thoughts here before I forget them.

Unexpected events happen in life all the time. Some you forget immediately, some you forget in a few days, and some you remember for a long time. But there are some that will hit you so deep you become scarred by them. Here's one.

After being in Norway for over a year now..and living and hanging out with a predominantly Caucasian crowd, the issue of racism comes up ever so often, in both a positive and negative light.

I remember last year when I first made a self-deprecating (most likely Asian/Canadian) joke, and that opened the opportunity for others to realise, ''hey, he's not some stuck up kid who can't take a joke."

I will openly admit I make jokes about my own culture, heritage, ethnicity, whatever, on an almost daily basis. I don't (usually) mind if others do as well, because if I can do it to myself, why can't others?? I am not ranting about this because I honestly don't mind as long as I know the person doing it and it's in good taste. I'm usually hard to piss off so again, the point here is: I really don't care.

Or at least I thought I didn't.

Last night I think I experienced my first real sense of racial attack. Yes, I was under the influence of alcohol. I don't know if the other guy was as well, that's beside the point. Normally I wouldn't care, but when another person persists and doesn't let up and thinks it's funny to mock me my based on my skin colour despite not knowing me, that's not cool.

The more and more I sit and reflect on it, the more I realise that maybe I do care. I'm from a community in Vancouver where Asian immigrant families are the predominant makeup of the population. It's something I've been accustomed to for all my life which is why I think I chose Norway to let myself immerse in an environment nothing like that of Vancouver. It's refreshing and I love it, don't get me wrong.

Some here may even view me as a "self-hating Asian" since I honestly don't identify with being a stereotypical Chinese male which is why I say some of the things I do and make it a point to correct people if they call me Chinese/Asian/whatever. Others will disagree with how I view my identity but I'm Canadian first and foremost, but therein lies the problem. I allow for these racial comments and jokes to be made at me because I enable it. Hell, I even start it myself. I'm not even remotely mad or upset at any of the friends/acquaintances that have been guilty of these remarks, please don't misinterpret this.

But it's not until you experience something racist firsthand does it make you re-think how you've been acting. That incident will probably be a one-time thing (I hope) and is completely unrelated to my every day life here in Trondheim. However, I can't help but feel pissed off at not only the guy, but at myself for creating this double standard for myself. I am a hypocrite for even writing this. 

I don't know what my point is, but I think at the risk of hurting people's feelings I need to rethink how I allow others to perceive me. Racist "jokes" are never just that: jokes. They exist for a reason. I know most people don't mean it to hurt me and I've become so de-sensitised to it all. I enjoy that people can be cheeky towards me because I can take it and I give it right back. I don't want others to change how they act around me, because I would absolutely hate that. I enjoy the banter with or without these snide remarks because it's also awesome to break stereotypes when I open my mouth and people go "oh he's not from China/Japan/Korea/Thailand and can actually speak English like a [North] American." (Not that there's anything wrong with speaking English with an Asian accent.) I identify with being a Canadian. Am I ashamed of being Chinese? No. But am I proud of being Chinese? Not necessarily. I'm proud to be a Chinese-Canadian.

I can't shake this feeling in me that I'm doing something wrong; that if I'm allowing others and myself to "mock" me at my own expense even if it's in honest to good fun, I'm somehow allowing racism to exist in society without me even fully realising it. I know for a fact many of my Chinese-Canadian friends back home could never take half the things people say to me here. Does this mean it's okay then to just say it to me but not others? It's like the whole "N" word dilemma in the Black community. I don't want to be that politically correct guy because I'm not. But you know that feeling you get inside you that weighs you down? I'm feeling it.

There is no answer to this problem, but just a bit of reflection and hope others realise I'm not as much of a clown as I may seem. Life events change you, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. It sucks right now.

I didn't like that anger that I felt last night. I don't like the anger that I'm feeling today. I know it shouldn't affect me, but it is. I'll get over it, I always do. To that guy from last night: don't think for a second you're better than me. You're not.

/end

Merry Christmas/Gung Hay Fat Choy/Happy Easter!

Okay, so I totally suck at updating this blog. Luckily, I have a good memory. The Norwegian beer hasn’t completely depleted my brain cells just yet. And speaking of Norwegian beer/alcohol, I can no longer proudly say “I never get hangovers”. This makes me oh so very sad. Mom, if you’re reading this, sorry.

Well, I guess I’ll go update month-by-month in the most concise way possible.  Let’s see...

December – Exams and Melbu!

Given that the education system here is a bit different in the sense that many classes have 100% exams, this promotes a lot of cramming. And I mean a lot. I don’t think I’ve studied so much since...maybe third year when I was close to failing Organic Chemistry before the final. Not that I felt like I would fail, but with no midterms or any kind of mid-semester assignments in many of my classes, I was not caught up with the readings. It was painful, but it made the last day of exams feel so much better. We finished our Immunology exam at 1pm and off to Mormors for drinks! I can still fondly recall my friend and I going in, and him ordering 4 beers for the two of us in the middle of the afternoon. Mind you, tables all around us had students studying hard. Jealous bastards. J

Word I learned that I will probably never use in conversation: trommestikkespikker

After exams, I had a few days off before departing up North to Melbu! Ivar, one of the friends I’ve made at Samfundet was kind enough to take me in for a week over Christmas. I was determined to see the Northern Lights and try moonshine. Only one of those goals were accomplished.

View of Melbu at night.

The sun tried to come out..

In short, Christmas in Norway is quite a bit different from what I’m used to at home. There are traditional dishes that his family made such as ribbe (pork), pinnekjøtt (lamb), risgrøt (rice..porridge) among other traditional foods served over breakfast/lunch. I’m used to my family usually roasting a huge turkey with 31315 different side dishes (my family eats a lot..ha), but in his family it was more “basic” with one protein, one vegetable and one carbohydrate option. Not that I’m complaining, since it was all delicious, but it was a nice change. I was also driven around the island with my durable camera in hand taking pictures of everything. It wasn’t until a couple days there that I realised there are no traffic lights... Melbu is a small town of roughly 2000 inhabitants. My high school almost had that many people. I don’t know if I could live in a small town, but something about being in such a tight knit community (it seemed like everyone knew eachother or had a mutual friend regardless of age) makes it..cozy. Yes, I started to use the word ‘cozy’.  All in all, a very low-key, eye-opening Christmas spent somewhere I never thought I’d get the chance to see.

Oh right, there was absolutely no ‘’daylight’’. The sun tried its best, but the most it could do was illuminate the fjords. My last day there it was raining and that’s when there was 0 daylight.

In about 3 hours, this much snow accumulated. I thought it was a ''snow storm''..my friends just laughed. Vancouver snow worries are going to piss me off when I return.

January – New Year’s and Experts in Teamwork (EiT)

I went back to Trondheim on NYE to celebrate New Year’s since a friend was having a party. It’s strange for students (unless they’re from Trondheim) to spend the holidays there since it’s predominantly a student town. The city’s a ghost town at times... NYE was fun, we went up near her place to watch the fireworks! They were amazing. Vancouver needs fireworks on NYE, seriously.

School started soon after where I took an intensive course called Experts in Teamwork. Basically, any 4^th year level student at NTNU (their equivalent of 1^st year Masters) had to take a course where they combined students from multiple disciplines together, group them off into teams, and have them make a project/product based on the “village” theme. I don’t know why they decided to use the word village to describe our group, but whatever. Most people complain about how much it sucks because you’re forced to work with people you (usually) don’t like very much and there’s one common grade given, no exceptions.  However, my village, “Trondheim as an International Student City” was really engaging. I won’t blab on about it, but I came out of there, yes, frustrated at times, but honestly had a really good time. Even though I took a very similar course to it back home at UBC, it did not prepare me for all the frickin’ diversity in my group.

February – ISFiT

Walk of Peace. Over 800 people walked through Trondheim.

As mentioned in previous posts, ISFiT was the one commitment I put myself into that I was really looking forward to! I think this deserves a post in its own, but I fear this is turning into too long a post. I only have positive (but very tiring) memories of those ridiculous ten days. Along with three others, we led a workshop over 10 days. From about 7:30am – 11pm (on a good day) I would be out of the house running around with our participants. In the morning, we had activities and methods aimed at helping them explore the theme of social movements. Then, dinner. Afterwards, speakers and events at Samfundet that easily went late into the night. I wanted to see and do everything, but holy, my body was dying at the end of it.

It's hard to put in words how freakin' amazing this night was.

 There were incredible concerts, dance parties, speakers, unexpected lessons, and even a billionaire who treated us to breakfast. I still remember all 30 of the participants in our workshop (who represented 26 different countries!), and I hope I can see some of them in the near future. Hearing their stories about the struggles they go through in their home countries makes me feel so lucky that I’ve grown up in Canada. Seeing all 450 participants at the closing ceremonies representing over 100 countries was very special. I don’t think I will ever get to experience such a festival again. Okay, sappy Nelson over.

My Workshop! :)

 March/April

The highlight of March by far was FINALLY seeing the Northern Lights! They were all over Trondheim one night, it was gorgeous. I'll just leave this picture up, it obviously does it no justice but that was one of my "Norway Bucket List" items I can now finally cross off!

 The sun also decided to come out a lot more.. This meant my pale body could finally (attempt to) tan. HAHA. I literally sat outside sometimes like this soaking in the sun... One thing I've noticed about my body is now anything above 0 degrees is ''warm''...I wear my Vancouver-spring clothes here in 1 degree weather. I am going to die this summer in Europe when I re-experience 30 degree heat. Oh well!

There's obviously plenty more to say, including my Easter trip to Oslo. Perhaps I'll write about that another day. 

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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.

Take me back..

Motivation

Motivation comes in many ways. Recently I have been dedicating my days to studying the MCAT. Scratch that, I've hardly been dedicated. Going out during the playoffs basically meant little to no studying. Any studying done probably got erased by the excitement and events associated with playoff hockey. I realised I was not taking the MCAT as seriously as I should have been. Students, on average, spend about 3 good months studying for this test, I am attempting to do it in about 1.5. I know I am not the smartest academically which means I am at an even greater disadvantage.

In light of recent events at home, I have found a new source of motivation: my family. This is too public of a place to write about everything but going out is now going to take a backseat to everything. I am comfortable knowing while everyone is out partying Friday and Saturday, I will be at home with coffee partying with Organic Chemistry and Physics. My future doesn't necessarily depend on this test, but I am not going to half-ass this exam. For the next 5 weeks I don't see myself going out to the extent I have been in the past year. It's time to smarten up and know my priorities. Family is always going to come first and this is the first time in a long time I have actually accepted this with open arms.

There's no place for me to screw around anymore. It's time to get serious Nelson. I may be the youngest in the family but with the backbone of the household breaking down, someone's gotta make up for it.

I can only hope things will return back to some normalcy by summer's end.

...

You know it's finals when you gain weight.

My mother called me fat today.

Excellent.

The Red Centre

I KNOW. 5 months later and I'm FINALLY writing about Uluru. I debated long and hard whether or not to even do it, but instead of 'blogging' about it I've decided to treat this as more of a reflection/journal of my travels in Australia. There hasn't been a day where I didn't think about Australia. It sucks, but it's life.

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Wow, to go back all those months it's sort of hard actually.. So ever since I was in grade 4 my teacher had taught me about Uluru (Ayer's Rock is the 'white man' name for it, something I never bothered to adopt since it feels disrespectful) and its iconic symbolism to Australia. For those who don't know what exactly Uluru is it's that big red rock you see in Australia books/postcards/brochures. Money was no longer that big of an issue to me at this point, I was determined to see as much as I could as my time in Australia was drawing to a close.

So I booked a flight with Jess, Xander and Hilary (bro and sis from FL, also living at the Unilodge) for the end of June, right after final exams [funny: it's the end of UBC exams right now..]. It was going to be cold for sure as nighttime temps hovered around freezing. I was just getting used to the low teens that Melbourne was going through too..

We would be there for 5 days. There are only two flights that go in/out of Alice Springs each day. One from Tiger, the other from Qantas. We arrived in the evening and it was pitch black..and chilly. We caught the shuttle bus our hostel provided us with and already, I could feel I was in an entirely different world. Strange, yet exciting. As we got settled in..we decided to see what was going on in the restaurant/pub downstairs. Since it was night, and we were warned to NOT wander the streets then, we planned for a calm night.

Next think you know, jugs were on the table, bottles of wine appeared, and I'll leave it at that.

Next day, we caught up with one of the girls I met on the plane ride over, Steph, as we went into town to explore. It was sort of chilly in the morning but by noon, it got up to about 20ish degrees. Such a nice welcome.. weather in the desert is too weird.

Sightseeing, shopping, and other touristy related activities were completed. We even found a place that sold $6 steak, chips, and a beer to go with it. Can NOT beat that anywhere. Benefits of a small town I suppose. We took a quick pit stop at the bottle shop to pick up some expensive as goon. Classy goon. $15, 2L. Oh boy, Stanley. This is where my eyes truly opened to the very visible disparity that exist in the town.

Many aboriginals of Australia have had a rough past. Similar to Canada and many other countries, when it was first colonized the settlers decided to 'ethnically cleanse the country of any natives for whatever reason they saw fit. The after effects are still seen today as the Aboriginals of Australia are now only in select concentrated areas, Alice Springs (and the Northern Territory) being one of them. Through government handouts, the natives still receive little to no assistance in forms of education or support through their lives. Thus, many fall into the alcoholic world that is so often stereotyped with this group of people. Although not all Aboriginals are like this, the ones we saw around town were just alarming in appearance. They'd sit around the street with a box of wine to themselves and drink themselves till they pass out. The bottle shop even has signs limiting sales of goon to one box/car or group of them in an attempt to control the alcoholism. Sadly, it doesn't really work. Fetal alcohol syndrome is almost a given with many of the kids, some of which I saw first hand. Heart breaking, but also a dark side to Australia. It's not perfect and I can see how it needs to address these serious issues but I digress.. back to the trip.

We went back to our hostel to cook up dinner again, ha. My appetite when travelling more than doubles, it's weird. Pesto pasta with chicken was the meal of choice. Standard backpacker's meal I suppose. I learned from this trip there are meals many backpackers will eat. Pasta, of course, rice, butter chicken (of all things), potatoes, and $10 roast chicken from Woolies..

Anyways. I believe we had a relatively easy night because we had to be up at 6am the next day to start our tour.

So I won't go into too much detail as I feel the pictures alone have enough substance to them. I'll just jot down notes here and there of any significant or interesting events to note.

....okay I'll do that soon. Back to studying.

Still holding on..

I still can't believe it was just two months ago that I was in Australia. Now, I'm dealing with graduation, courses not working out, stresses at home and ..school..

Okay I'll stop bitching.

I still need to complete my final thoughts and reflections from my Alice Springs and East Coast trips.

I'll get on that soon.

All Islands are Good Islands

I don't think I've ever gone to an island which I didn't enjoy.. Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, Whitsunday Islands, Australia.. and even Tasmania. Tasmania, according to a friend of mine I met there is, "an island made of inbreds". Many people give Tassie grief because it's sort of like the ugly cousin of Australia. I tried not to let these stereotypes affect my view of Tassie as I had never even considered travelling there until the opportunity arose. Hell, might as well just go to it..and considering I'd be going with 14 others, it had to be fun right?

Day One:
Our trip began at 2:30am as our flight, via Tiger Airways, was at 6am. Tiger is strict on checking in 45 minutes earlier as they will close off all their flights at this point and are rarely accommodating for latecomers.

Flight into Hobart was smooth...until we landed and left the plane. It was FREEZING. I knew it would be cold here, but I was not ready for the frigid blast of winter air on me. Thank god I was camping outside.. We picked up our rental cars and headed into the city for some breakfast. After a brief mix-up, our car (Team Asia) was lost in the parking lot and Mark's car (the Wallabeaters) managed to already hit a fence post not even 5 minutes on the road. Haha, hilarious.

Finally got into town and made a pit stop at Subway. The worker there seemed a bit overwhelmed at so many people invading her store so early but was nice enough to offer us each a free cookie after we asked! Our trip was already starting off on a good note. From there we headed to the Salamanca Market which only ran on Saturdays.

There was a lot of good food, merchandise, and even live performances by street artists there. Here's the hard part about travelling with 15 people, it's impossible to follow a strict timetable as everyone had their own interests. After gathering everyone, we drove off to Freycinet Park, otherwise known as Wineglass Bay. Here's where everyone got separated (as was the norm on this trip). Our car decided to take a small detour into some offroad driving, one car lagged behind, and the other was just too quick for us to follow. We once again bumped into some nice people who gave us their parking pass required to enter the national parks. Australians are just too nice.


Our car saw sunset at some lookout and took various pictures of the natural wonders of Tassie. It was cold, yet calming and serene at the same time. Good people coupled with good talks made for an awesome sunset.

Danny decided to scream like a little girl when he saw wild wallabies, as he's never seen them in real life yet (I don't think). I never thought such a high pitched squeal could come from a man, haha. From there, we drove back into Hobart as we checked into our hostel. It was Michael's birthday so we had a couple of beers ready and planned to eat at a restaurant by the wharf. Following Danny's brilliant idea to bring some travel-beers for the walk there, the police saw us and stopped us. Luuk was the only one who was actually "caught" by the cops for having open liquor as Danny and I stuffed our bottles in bushes. Lucky for us, they let him off with a warning as Taylor (already pretty tipsy) decided to make friends with them. Cops are really friendly in Australia and are NOTHING like the power tripping idiots found in Canada/America. They seriously could be your friend. Taylor even 'pushed' one to demonstrate a point and he just smiled.

Dinner was delicious and well deserved after a long day. We headed back to the hostel and just had fun there. I believe national anthems were sung by the Americans, Canadians and Dutch. I don't think I'll ever get the chance to travel with such a diverse group of people..

Day 2:
Woke up 'early' but the third room decided to have a bit of a sleep in so our day began late again. Today we'd be going to Mountfield where Lake Gordon and Russell Falls were. It was a long drive in, but worth it as the scenery made it worth it. Here was where I had near death experience #1 driving :) I decided to cut in front of the car I was following as it was too slow..little did I know I was going straight onto a truck.

I swear it wasn't THAT close but the people in the car were freaking out. Pfft, they just need to experience a true China man's driving style. Weak.

Got to Russell Falls after a bit of driving.. it wasn't as magnificent as I thought it would be, but still pretty neat.

We drove up some mountain to get to Lake Gordon where there was actually frost! Something I haven't seen since Vancouver..and this was May. Pictorials were taken as we continued on to the dams where we planned to watch sunset. The Wallabeaters once again took off too quickly as they lost us remaining 2 cars. We went to two smaller dams, Scott's Dam and Lake Edgar? to watch sunset. Afterwards, when we compared pictures, the other group's dam was MUCH bigger, but we still had fun. At least the three cars managed to stick together for half the journey today, ha.


Today was also the day where two cars killed a wallaby each. We saw one happen right in front our eyes as we were following car Band of Gold (haha) and one hopped right into their front wheel. But remember people, wallabies and kangaroos are actually considered a pest species in Australia because there's just so many of them. They overgraze the land and damage the ground by travelling/hopping so much. No need to feel guilty for running them over or eating them ;) Kangaroo steaks are delicious, I can attest to that. Plus, it's low in fat and very rich in protein.

At night, some of us decided to go to the casino and attempt to win some money. Most of us (except Paul) managed to come out on top as I made 95? or something to that extent playing blackjack with Min. Team Asian Sensation never loses.

Day 3:
We decided to go to Bruny Island (who knew Tasmania had other islands within it..) to check out some nice lookouts.

Cheese tasting was magnificent as most of us bought some with bread to eat for lunch. Walking up to the lookout to see both sides of the islands (refer to pic) was breath taking. Unfortunately, two of our travelling mates had a flight to catch back to Melbourne, so the trip was cut short on the island. Not to worry though, while waiting for our ferry back the 'toaster' dance broke out as everyone took part in this fad that Rimock and Kim learned in Nzld. Perhaps I'll show it one day in Vancouver.. haha. It's awesome.

We also experienced one of the creepiest things ever. We decided to stop on the side of the road to discuss where to go next and there were sheep in the pastures next to us. Of course, we got out to take pictures of them..next thing you knew, they ALL looked at us, baa-ed in unison and walked towards us. I'm not talking about 20 sheep here, there were at least 150 of them just looking at us and every single one of them just walking towards us. As quickly as they came, they suddenly all ran away. It was definitely creepy as they approached us as I thought they'd attack us like some possessed demonic sheep.

While one car took them to the airport, the rest of us went to Mount Wellington, a mountain located pretty close to Hobart. The drive up was pretty slow as the roads were narrow and little protection against falling off. However, the views were nothing like I've ever seen. We drove into, then above the clouds as we watched sunset from the top of the mountain. The clouds were swirling in and around us as we watched Hobart light up and admired just where the hell we were. I will never forget those views up there. My camera did it no justice as I tried to capture how beautiful it was. We decided to eat some real oven baked pizza for dinner as I scarfed down one with Tanis. Best meal yet, it was so satisfying.


Drinking games followed in the hostel as we played Kings (where I had to put a damn box over my head...) and watched some scary movie to end the night. I passed out for the entire movie with Taylor. So comfortable ;). The final day was quickly approaching as I wasn't ready for it to end so quickly..

Day 4:
Our last day was spent going to Port Arthur, a historical settlement town. The drive in was surreal at one point as the low clouds + water bodies made for an almost psychedelic experience..

We went to choice lookouts including the Tasman Arch as we took many pictures of other random scenic things. Oh right, we also went to some.. beach. I forgot what it was called, but I killed a bird heading out of it. Now all 3 cars have killed some kind of wildlife on this trip. By the end, we realised we've each taken about 200 pictures of rocks, but hey, we have proof we were in Tasmania and that was enough for me to be happy.


Port Arthur was created by ex-convicts or something like that..basically and served as a jail for new convicts. Communities were formed we learned as people were brought here to serve time for the dumbest crimes you could imagine. Bad behaviour would result in inmates going to some dark, windowless, small room for hours as many would go crazy in there. As I went into this room I was creeped out at how DARK it was in there.. I don't think I could handle it. Inmates also had to manually step on a water wheel to keep it moving. Imagine a low intensity stair master workout for 8 hours. If you lagged or stopped, you basically fell to your death. Brutal.

Following the river cruise, we headed back into the city to return the cars and boarded the plane back to Melbourne.

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This trip was definitely well worth it as I completely underestimated how beautiful and interesting Tassie really is. Many have said it looks like a smaller version of New Zealand which made me sad because I wish I had the time to check out New Zealand during my exchange here. Not to worry though, I'll be back to Australia one day and New Zealand will be conquered as well.