Another week has passed, and whilst my parents on holiday half way around the world continue to make a big deal of how lovely and sunny it is with them, icy puddles have started appearing most mornings in Oslo. Luckily, I am a huge fan of cold weather, and whilst I would be among the first to admit that Helly Hansen did horrible things to any notions of fashion in the 1990s, they make really good thermal long johns that I just know I will need to start wearing soon. What a sexy image to begin this blog post with.
My flat still isn’t the easiest place to live: there are no real huge problems, but I came along later than the others and as such am not a part of the group, and it can be difficult living in such anti-social surroundings when I know that all my friends in another student village are having a rare old time as neighbours. I have heard really good things about this other student village, Sogn, where the parties are plentiful (not to mention actual living Norwegian people inhabiting the area, which is an extreme rarity in my village) and the people are lovely (they wash each others’ socks, for crying out loud). My friend C, also from Edinburgh, just transferred there and is much happier and loving it there, and I am ever so slightly envious: it will be an amazing opportunity for her to meet new people, and as she has ended up living among Norwegians it figures that her language skills will come on leaps and bounds, whilst my once articulate skills in English suffer at the hands of my international neighbours. I am pondering over an application to move; perhaps by next week I will have decided one way or another.
Despite this, socially things are great here, but it is beginning to dawn on me that many of the lovely people I consider my better friends here will be heading back home soon due to their exchange only lasting one semester, some going as far as Australia or America. It seems a shame that they will miss winter in Norway, which is a completely alien concept for many of them, but whilst it will be sad to see them go there will also be new arrivals come January, and all the international student events (tours and free admission into Oslo’s attractions and free food for ‘new’ student) will be offered all over again, giving me a low budget tourist approach to the city that I never took advantage of first time around. A (feeble) light at the end of the tunnel/beginning of next semester?
At the moment my University deadlines are all over the place, in the sense that there are many of them and I am horribly disorganized. I have submitted one essay for first draft correction, and am currently working on the next, which is far more tedious to write: the first essay was a subject of our choice, and I was able to write about one of the most intriguing Norwegian films that I have ever seen. However, the second essay for my literature subject concerns an age-old Danish play (Oh, I really do hate reading Danish) and I am barely managing to force myself through it. I cannot wait to finally submit it and get it out of my hair. I have never written such long essays in my second language before (one aspect which I would say we arrived here ill-prepared for, despite loving the department back home and being entirely reticent to criticize!) and it has acted as a steep (but positive) learning curve.
This afternoon I am heading out to one of the numerous cafes on campus (have I mentioned the fantastic nature of all the cafes and canteens on campus here??) to meet with some friends, and this evening our charming German friend S is making us dinner which he described to me as a “big roast animal.” Whilst many would shudder at the thought, I can’t wait: meat is a rare treat in these parts, whatever it happens to come from.
