Spring has sprung, finally! Months of darkness, serious cold and snow is slowly being banished by the gradual return of the sun, it really couldn't be more welcome! Every day the lying snow melts that little bit more, and in between sessions at the computer typing up a plethora of essays I have been dramatically throwing my windows open and basking in the light in a way that suggests I may never have encountered the sun before (semi-true, Edinburgh is hardly hot-spot for that kind of action). Anyway, it's beyond lovely to have light back in my life, and the beginnings of barbeques and picnics and things happening OUTDOORS are taking shape, hurrah!
Contrastingly, I have been indoors all weekend in an attempt to work sufficiently: whilst these credits are superfluous, I would hate to take this semester's courses and turn up to the classes each week, etc, and fail on a technicality, that technicality being the semester assignment for each subject that must be passed before on can sit the end-of-semester exams. With that, I have sidelined any remnants of a social life and got my head down this weekend, a tedious routine broken only by visits to the gym to thrash out my frustration over my own terrible choice of assignment topic! Norwegian 'dirty realism' in 1980s literature, oh dear!
Most excitingly over the past week has been a steady stream of new faces that I have managed to make acquaintance with, rather pleasantly. First up is the fact that I finally was matched with a TANDEM language partner! She is very lovely, we meet once a week for coffee and lament the business of university and exchange bizarre language oddities, though coming from the south of Norway she has a very pronounced dialect which is a challenge. However, dialects are something I do need to work with as they form such a massive part of society here with some even speaking what is formally acknowledged to be another language, and so it really is a very good match, all things considered.
Secondly this week, the empty room next to mine in the flat was eventually moved into! I heard shuffling and voices and didn't meet my neighbour until the following day: a tall, hulking Norwegian man from the western side of the country currently studying to become a priest, from what I gather. My flat had previously been deathly quiet at all times: my neighbours barely spoke to me or one another, it was a bit of a depressing situation. However, my new neighbour, whilst rocking the boat in a previously completely female-zone, is friendly in the extreme, knocking on my door, having a chat, lending me things and teaching me humorous idiomatic Norwegian expressions. Last night he and I and a few friends watched a film on his enormous flat screen television, an accessory which is accepted as the norm for Norwegian students moved away from home, and it was at this point I met another person: my neighbour introduced me to his friend from Scotland, who it surmises is an Edinburgh University student on a Law exchange! I was hugely surprised to find out there was anyone else in Oslo from Edinburgh besides myself and the two other girls, as was she! It seems a shame not to have been put in contact before now, but life is full of amazing coincidences when one thinks about it considering the above.
Strangely, semester already seems to be wrapping up in a very long-winded way here: whilst planning trips here and there I suddenly realised how little time I have left here. I'm happy to be heading home in the summer, with lots of things to look forward to there, but this feels so very much like my home that I can't quite imagine leaving it behind. The less I think about it the better, I should think.
