Norwegian Saga

In Canada I was greeted by a massive snowfall on the day after I arrived, and it proceeded to continue for about a week. I ended up shoveling snow for two weeks. I’m not complaining though, it was fun and with my father the two of us managed to do it fairly quickly.

Now upon my arrival in Norway as of Monday, I was also met with snows like they’d not yet witnessed this winter. And, needless to say, it’s been snowing pretty much ever since. The result is mountains of snow that are not easy to get around in. Norway, for all of its northerly ways, has terrible snow clearing practices (at least compared to what I’m used to) and when you couple that with the small roads and sometimes cramped sidewalks it gets a little crazy. It’s not all bad though. My housing situation means I don’t have to shovel and my transport habits (public transport) mean I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in the ditch.

One very noticeable difference between the climates of Norway and Canada is the moisture content in the air. I’m no weather man but it seems to be very much more moist here. There is fog here almost daily at least to some extent. It could be the temperature difference, but at 0C there wouldn’t be any fog in Canada, especially if the 0C had been the trend over a week. No doubt it has something to do with the ocean nearby.

How about a little info on my classes. I’ve got two classes at the moment, Norwegian and “England: Language and Settlement 400-1200AD.” The England class is only on Wednesdays. The professor is a pompous British weener that uses a monocle. He’s a nice guy but he’s exactly the type that makes me hate academia. It’s stuff like “As any educated person knows bronze is a mix of copper and tin” and how he doesn’t want lazy students in his class. By lazy he means those that aren’t willing to read a few hundred pages daily. I don’t have a problem reading, the problem is that this is the type of professor that pushes a long gone style of research, a very closed minded approach. From my professors of last semester this is a change.

The Norwegian course is great, it’s on Mondays and Wednesdays. I’ve only had one class of it but have already learned quite a bit. The teacher and fellow students are nice so it’s not a chore to be there.

Beyond that I haven’t much to report. I had to work yesterday at the school. They approached me about taking on another class, one of seven year olds. I’m hesitant because they’re not going to know any English whatsoever but the thought of an extra 1000 kroner per month is appealing. I will let you know how that develops.