summertime photos (courtesy of prima luke)

this is not an optical illusion where the dog looks like a horse because she's in the foreground. nay, this dog is the size of a horse. this is out back at bark of the bay and this is queen, prima's aptly named great dane.
after successfully parking the party barge under the bay bridge, and catching a fish, i caught up to the bonfire crowd by wading through what was supposed to be shallow water. oops.
best damn mother-daughter film crew pair...in history.
Me and Jan-imal crabbing on the fourth of july.

prepare to immigrate.

i may have already emigrated, but now the serious business begins: its time to immigrate. i will head to the main police station (politistajion) hand over my passport and a few other items which were for some reason difficult for me to come by and my soul (plus a passport photo) and then voila. consider me norwegian. and for those of you who say "how can you be norwegian if you don't speak the language and are in fact american?" i say, fine naysayer, i misspoke. i will be an official emigre. accent noted. seriously though. its kind of exciting, this moment that i have been haphazardly prepping for since june and a moment that at times i was afraid wouldn't arrive. but it has. and soon, very soon in fact, i will have a shiny new sticker in my passport that says, "yeah, she's cool. she can stay for like a year. after that we'll talk..."

and...drumroll...i have decided on my thesis topic and am emailing it as we speak. or as i type. or after i type this.

norwegian for, like, dummies.

some quick lessons i have learned:

1. course and kiss are the same word. or atleast to non-native speakers sound that way. so i've already propositioned a professor. sweet.

2. ø = ur
3. å = or
4. y = eu (say it with me. just like if you were wedging a pencil between your upper lip and nose, which i know i do pretty much all the time...eu)
5. æ = a (as in cat. you'd think that would mean it was a superfluous vowel, but noooo)

6. did you know that english is the only language where policy and politics are two different words? ha.

stay tuned...

cell phones, succulents, and consonance.

i got a norwegian plant yesterday. its rather ugly, but makes my apartment feel better.

just posting my new mobile number: 0047 46 25 53 62

if you call it, its free for me and like a gillion dollars for you. so i wouldn't. unless there's something urgent or if you have any questions that only i can answer, e.g. my favorite color or things of that nature. (and mom and susan that does not include a question of how to copy and paste something on the computer)

i'm fully contactable...

okay, so my new address:

Me
Bjølsen Studentby
Moldegata 17, H0104
0445 Oslo, Norway

I'm also skypable now. And I have internet! Which is like a crack addict walking into a plush vault lined with - you guessed it! - crack rock.

pomp and mildly awkward circumstances

My first big organized social event, took place this morning. I was jammed into a square filled with a wild mix of Norwegian and international students. Coded by color and number, I was funneled into a group of “kids” though two were for sure over the age of 35. We stood in an awkward circle while waiting for the last few kids to show up. And we waited in silence. I’m not talking a few whispers or smiles or eye contact. I’m talking silence. And then our designated “buddies” let us know 1. That the kids in this group were all media studies students, and 2. We all could speak English.

In our oblong circle, we went around and said our names and any word that began with the same letter. But before we could say that we had to say all the previous names and the associated word. Fortunately for me I was the fourth one to go (in a group of 15) but I was also the first of the non-Norwegians so I had to admit that I couldn’t pronounce two of the first three names. Oops. So I was Alix – Apple. Next to me was Mischa – Miami. And next to him Siegmund – Swimming. In the bunch there were four Norwegians, a kid from Ethiopia who is pretty much my new best friend, a guy from Latvia, a girl from Poland, a guy from Germany, and this annoying dude from Wisconsin who continued to compare Oslo to Duluth pretty much the whole day. After the name game we were rounded up and instructed to line up in rows of five so we could proceed into the square.

Here is where the pomp comes in: we proceeded into the square that’s like five hundred years old, to the sounds of the Norwegian orchestra playing something ridiculously dramatic. My pack was fortunate enough to be lined up right on the front row. For the next half hour or so I listened to several speeches in Norwegian, a few apologies in English for the fact that they were speaking in Norwegian, and a warm welcome in Norwegian.

And then it began. You know that song that is played to denote any climactic or ominous moment in movies involving cathoicism or satan? Well the orchestra played that song and a pack of singers sang the creepy Latin verses. Only they were in Norwegian. So I couldn’t understand them. As the song hit its crescendo I got to thinking. I’ve been duped. This orchestra is either announcing my descent into hell with Virgil as my guide, or the arrival of the Weegie monster, a reptilian creature first discovered in the North Sea by Leif Erikson. The creature is rumored to be in the care of each success royal family and it eats people. SO this orchestra is thanking me for my sacrficie and warning me…Oh my god the Weegie swoops in and takes out hundreds of students with its tail, breathing fire into the pack and snatching up Romanian, Cameroonian, and Norwegian students alike. Run for your lives!!!!!

Okay. So the orchestra wound up, another guy gave a speech, and I had the pleasure of watching a sign language interpreter stand by like Buster Keaton mocking the crap out of who I can only assume to be the president of the university.

The same sign language chick signed the national anthem, which has to be the most dramatic and folklore infused anthem. Ever. Tears were shed, pretty sure a Weegie was slain. And then we ate lunch, toured the campus, I think I’m the only kid who talked to everyone in the group which is good, because no one noticed the repetition of my north pole joke.

The media studies building is new and pretty and I can almost pronounce the name of it.

hei and ha det.

well, my space is small but cozy and has these sweet multifunction windows that open like doors or just crack open at the top hinge. the school is a twenty minute commute by foot/subway combo and its a really nice one. i can see the oslofjord on my walk back home and have a nice view of the water. there are two roundabouts between my apartment and the subway; and though i'm accustomed to driving through them from small colorado town training walking them is quite a different story. can i go now? no...no...now! no...no...now! to the point where a sixty-year old norwegian in a saab had to force me across the street with a sternly pointed hand. there is a nice marsh kind of thing running between my apartment building and the next and a veritable walmart a mere 100 yards a way. it's half underground so not as annoying. its also way more expensive, pays its employees between 5 and 6 times as much, and its stock items are of good quality...so maybe its not like walmart at all? but it does have everything from batteries, to pans, to flowers, to cheese, to beer, to magazines, to printer paper. you frickin name it and odds are good that if its in norway its in prisa.

transaction language is getting easier. i can almost go through a whole conversation with a cashier as long as it doesn't stray from the business at hand without letting on that i'm a silly english speaker. takk ha det rolled of the tongue to day for the first time. (it means, thanks good bye.) when i hear other people, you know norwegian people, say these things, they sound like their about to go into a melody monologue and sing about fjords, nazi-occupation, and maybe their grandmama's new volvo. the rhythm is so up and down and happy but few people have a look beyond stoicism on their faces. its an odd contradiction. one of many i'm sure i'll be seeing.

back to the norge

after a seven hour layover in atlanta, a nine hour flight to stockholm, a seven hour train ride to oslo, and a hunt for a hotel room at 9 pm, i am getting up from a great night's sleep. despite the late flight, missed train, money jam up, hotel bonanza (some convention is in town), and long day, i'm great. i head to get my apartment keys, and my bags (i stashed them at the first hostel that was full) and then start unpacking and settling in...