I find myself with increasingly little to blog about at the moment: academic life is taking over in all manner of ways!  My subjects this semester are more full-on, but I am enjoying this fact, I feel a lot more as if I have something that actually challenges me.  Last semester I took more study credits than was strictly necessary and as such, my year's worth of ECTS credits are already in the bag, and so this semester's subjects are more challenging, less pressing and simply an opportunity to improve upon my credits, rather than leaving me in the stressful situation that some people encounter where every credit of this semester counts!

Despite a hectic academic schedule, I do feel very much more like an Oslo resident than ever before, rather than simply an ERASMUS student at the city's University.  The other day I had to return a piece of clothing to a shop for the first time, which was quite an experience.  Having never done so, my vocabulary clearly wasn't entirely correct as the girl working there proceeded to laugh at me, tell me exactly what it was that I was trying to do, and talk about me to another shop assistant whilst I stood in front of her, as if I was deaf/really rather stupid.  Anyway, like any good story she got her comeuppance when the cash register failed to work and made her look a bit silly.  She tried to credit my card, which apparently didn't work, and then had to give me cash, and you just can't possibly guess how much I am hoping the card credit also went through, as I suspect.  The sad thing is that I wish this purely on principle, not simply for the £25 I may gain!  Yes, I really am being petty in the extreme.

Recent very good news is that I have been invited by NORLA, Norway's government funded translation foundation, to attend their annual conference in May.  I am really interested in pursuing translation upon graduation, should that fateful day ever actually come, and the invitation took me entirely by surprise (I really haven't a clue how they got my details though suspect my lovely tutor in Edinburgh may be responsible).  As such I will be staying outside of the city in a hotel for three days, attending seminars and meeting translators from around the world (with all expenses paid, cha-ching).  Norway has a massive literary culture for such a small country, and the number of respected authors attending the weekend also surprised me (rather bizarrely, whilst others might feel childish glee at the thought of meeting Hollywood's latest hot young things, I get the same thing about potentially meeting Lars Saabye Christensen, Dag Solstad or Helene Uri, I KNOW, it doesn't really get most people hot but what can I say?).  I feel a bit of intense fear that I may manage to make a massive fool of myself, but the following week I will be trekking in the arctic, which I think is far enough away to get over any potential embarrassments.