Finally, the Easter holidays arrive!  My friend C has been visiting for her first time in Norway, which was really nice company to have for a good few days!

With the holidays having officially begun I am taking advantage of all things Norwegian: they are really keen on the Easter break for a number of reasons.  For the most part, the weather is a huge factor.  I have mentioned here before just how very keen people here are on outdoor life, even coining the phrase friluftsliv, which can be loosely translated at “fresh air life”, to explain their joy in all things outdoor.  A major aspect of the year is any opportunity for cross-country skiing.  People head out for day trips on their cross-country skis covering miles of forest and track and taking with them the ever famous combination: Kvikk lunsj (a chocolate bar more than highly reminiscent of a Kit-Kat) and an orange.  I think it’s a bit odd too, but the fact that a culture has grown around a chocolate bar and a piece of fruit is really rather impressive when one thinks about it.  Anyway, I shall be leaving the skis at home but hopefully heading out for some walks in the sun and snow (perfect Easter combination!) during the holidays!  A thermos of hot coffee with me and I’m set for the day, I have become ridiculously addicted since living here, Scandinavians like their coffee strong and by the litre-load.

Another odd and uniquely Norwegian phenomenon associated with Easter is “påskekrim”, or “Easter crime.”  It originated in the 1920s when coincidence had it that crime or detective novels were published largely around Easter, and as a result it has become a nationwide thing to read crime at Easter.  It sounds like absolute nonsense, but it’s true!  Television stations change their programming to feature crime dramas (they’re big on their British exports as it happens, think Foyle’s War, Poirot, Lewis, etc) predominantly whilst the radio stations broadcast detective plays and the like, it’s madness!  Scandinavia is becoming known as the destination for crime writing, which only acts as fuel to this truly bizarre fire.

Today I handed in my vacation notice for my student accommodation, which was a major wake-up call!  Beginning to think about how to get all my STUFF (there really is no other word that can describe the things I have amassed since living here) moved back to home is a nightmare of a thought, and one that I still have not come upon a strategy for!  I am currently job hunting like mad for my return home, which is very difficult being so far away.  Equally as difficult is flat-hunting: whilst I have found two charming fellow residents with whom I look forward to moving in with come fourth year, finding ourselves a place to live is made difficult by us all living out in Scandinavia at the moment.  I am also looking into possible au pair positions in Norway to fill the few months between the end of my exchange and the beginning of term in Edinburgh whilst earning a little money and keeping up my language skills, and all of this is driving me slowly mad.