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.