a quiet night in Norway

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Hilsen fra Bodo.

It's nighttime here again in the small Norwegian city above the Arctic Circle. And today was not an over-active day by any standards, but not my slowest day either. It started a little too early and I had a bit of trouble pulling myself out of bed at 7a.m. to get to my one and only class today, Norwegian language, at 8:15a.m. And after putting in my eyes (aka my contacts), I popped open my computer only to find that the internet was down. Sad day...so I took my time getting ready and played some tunes then headed down to campus with my Missouri roommie. It was actually a very nice walk and one that I'm really starting to enjoy. Of course, it sucks on rainy days as the rain here is INSANE! It's much more insane than those Juneau sprinkles. It is a frickin' monsoon! But...that's my life 😊 haha.

So anyways, we went to Norwegian language and had a very nice class although I did find myself zoning out during one part. But our professor, Kit, is really funny and a lot of fun. She's a great teacher and I'm really starting to love the class. She makes it fun and interesting and always cracks these little jokes that make all of us smile. Ah, Norwegians have a great sense of humor! I was actually a little surprised by that. Call it my naive American mentality, but I had actually expected Norwegians to be a little stiff and hard to talk to. Instead, it's quite the opposite as all of them (not counting a 7-11 clerk that looked at me like I was scum because I was American or maybe it was as Destinie said, because he's in his 30's and still working at a 7-11) have been quite nice and very welcoming. And although at times the language barrier is a little bit of an issue (counting tonight where D and I went to a debate and only understood a few words here and there), it's really not hard to live here even though you don't speak the primary language. The only thing I really miss is English newspapers. Oh and signs around campus that I know what they say, but it's really not too bad.

So after a nice class, I grabbed a bite to eat, checked the bus schedule, then headed to the Politi (aka Police Station) to recover my passport. When I got off the #22 route, I accomplished my good deed for the day as I helped a woman get her baby carriage down the stairs. Of course I have no idea what she nicely muttered to me and was pretty sure it wasn't "thank you" as that it "Takk." Ah, it's a mystery that will never be solved. So I headed to the station to recover my passport. I had to get my Visa finalized and since their machine was down last week, I had to leave it there. That was a little scary and intimidating...being in a foreign country without your passport, but it all turned out well. And before long, I was back on the bus, reading my book (The Alchemist which is awesome so far), and headed back to campus. Once there, I headed to Polar Gym, got in a nice tan, and had a short, but nice time on the treadmill. And I was pretty surprised as one of the girls in the locker room actually recognized me saying "Aren't you in aquaculture...from America?" It turns out she was one of the Russian aquaculture students I had gone on the fishing excursions with the week before and had remembered my face. She was pretty nice and tried really hard at English even though she struggled a little. Well after the nice workout (which also included the playing of "Eye of the Tiger" on the boombox that is always blaring music), I grabbed some grub for later and came back to my hole to continue my research I've been doing for a few days now.

So all-in-all, not a bad day by any standards. I'm starting to get less homesick a bit more every day.

God Kveld!

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