June/July...the beginning

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Hei,

I know I have been quite bad in writing since arriving in Norway but without
the internet at home this proves to be a bit of a challenge.??But I'm
here now so here goes.

Vret/The Weather

The weather has been amazingly nice and since I have been here it has rained
only one weekend but that's ok cause since I have lots of time during
the week I still get to enjoy the nice weather.??I can appreciate why people
get so happy and strip to their bikinis (and less!) in the parks in and
around the city as the sun, as we all know, won't last for too long.
Also most people are allowed to finish up at work early (like 2 pm instead
of 4) cause it's the summer time.

Intensivt norskkurs/Intensive Norwegian course

In my first week I went to the intensive Norwegian course for 3 hours a day.
I would sit in class and our teacher would just give us handouts with
instructions in Norwegian.??We were expected to do at least five hours of
homework a day??I guess no one had told her that she needed to teach us
something and that it was summer time.??I quit the course in the second week
motivated to teach myself Norwegian from the books I bought there and with
Lars' help.??Well, I can say that I have not really tried to stick to
this plan, I can't help it if the summer is teasing me.??But after my
hectic time of working hard and getting my shit sorted to move to Norway I
believe I deserve to chill out. Please don't get me wrong I have
achieved something, a great tan.

Oslo Sykler/Oslo Bikes

In amongst spending my time out in the sun and catching up with some
friends, I have been getting around town with these Oslo bikes.??These bikes
are set up at 68 bike places all around the city and you can use a card
which costs $12 a year to get the bike out of one spot and you can put it in
any of the other 68 spots all around the city.??You can use them for 3 hours
at a time which is enough time to check out the whole city as Oslo is not
exactly the biggest city I've been too.

Grilling/BBQs

Norwegians also organize bbq gatherings in the park which I have taken part
in.??What they do is buy these $3 disposable bbq's with their many
condiments to go with their sausages and drink beer.??Besides feeling like
one of those alcoholics that you walk past in the park, and being annoyed by
bums/immigrants collecting our empty beer cans from you (you get money to
recycle them), you can't help but wonder why they don't just sit
up a few bbq's in the park like we have in Oz and save themselves the
trouble of buying them.

Billing Pub/Cheap Pub

I've been going to this cheap pub.??They have these really cheap $5
pints of beers there which is roughly half the price of beer at most pubs in
Oslo.??At 9 pm it increases to $6 to really break the budget. They also have
this really cool game that everyone plays there.??It consists of these
wooden blocks which make up a tower, and you need to remove one block from
the bottom, with only one hand, and put it on top without tipping the tower
over.??Trust me when you have had a few drinks it is quite difficult but a
really funny game to play.?? It's also cool cause it opens up
conversations between strangers at the pub which I can tell you is unique in
Norway.??Can you imagine speaking to people you don't know???How will
this turn out?

Anyway I must head off to enjoy the sun!!

Cheers,
Maria

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Comments

[Andrew]

Great Blogg
Great Blogg, I think it is great. Look, there are stories and pictures, a FLAG and even a boomb gate, what more could people want? I mean where would we be without boomb gates and FLAGS? Well there would be no borders - can't have a border without a boomb gates. it just doesn't work. There would be no countries for the boomb gates to protect as you can't have a country without a flag. Also you need flag polrs that way people can have their photo taken at the base if it in countries like Norway. I am not asking you to like it. It's just part of the bigger picture known as "THE WAY". Oh and Hi Lars, hope you are swell, well and not eating pal with your mate Mel down at the local fairy dell. Andrew