It really is the small things

It turns out i'm just as bad at updating blogs as i thought i would be. Though i am extraordinarily thankful for the connectivity of the internet during my travels, i have to admit that it and i don't always get along.

i'm now officially been here in Bodø for over a month, and abroad even longer than that. It's so hard to believe that it has been four weeks already. Knowing how quickly the semester will fly makes it easy to appreciate life's small victories. On Saturday, i had the joy of figuring out what sour cream was - all by myself and without looking it up! Woohoo! Pappa would be proud, i made twice-baked potatoes for a group of us, and they turned out pretty well, thanks largely to the sour cream :)

i also discovered that it is rather embarrassing not to be able to answer the inquisitive 6 year-old boy who is asking you what you are doing. i think i smiled and laughed enough to satisfy his mother, but he was certainly confused concerning why i couldn't respond! Norwegian is odd in that each region has a dialect. For example, someone from Oslo will speak differently than someone from a more northern area like here in Bodø. i am learning bokmål, the standard language, which will allow me to read in Norwegian, however; if i actually speak to someone in bokmål, it is probable the they will answer in English because bokmål is different from the area's dialect. It is also odd to realize that there is a kind of age limit concerning the people with whom i can converse. It is likely that the younger Norwegians will know English well enough to communicate, but you can guess that at a certain age they won't, and it seems that most don't really like to speak in English if it isn't a neccesity. i have become accustomed to being unable to understand nearly everything i hear when traversing outside my little crowd of international students and have picked up basic words, but i hope i can learn quite a bit in the northern dialect before i go. It would be very nice not to respond with "i'm sorry, English?" when a local says somthing to me. (or rather, "Snakke du engelsk?") Words and sentence structures are similar to English and German, making it fairly easy to pick up on basic things, but the accent and the language remain strange on my tongue. i imagine it will remain that way for quite some time.


i have a thing for maps, so here is a map of Scandinavia. i live very near the city of Bodø, which has just over 46,000 residents, and is the second largest town in northern Norway. And because i like comparisons...

Norway: 148,746 sq. mi. - Population: 4,850,440 people - Density: 31/sq. mi.
Nebraska: 77,421 sq. mi. - Population: 1,796,619 people - Density: 23/sq. mi.
Lincoln, Nebraska: a bit over 250,000 residents


Bodø was built up quickly after the war, and as guidebooks will blatantly tell you, the city is not beautiful. If you ask me, being surrounded by mountains, trees and trails makes up for it. i live a 20 minute bus-ride away from Bodø's city center, and just a ten minute walk from my college.



















The area i am in is really very nice to see. All of the houses are about the same size and are great shades of navy, deep green, yellow, and red. i can see the mountains from my residence building, and we have a series of trails just behind our area. Below is a picture of our student blocks (i currently reside in the middle one with the red - Høglimyra, flat B 424) and the mountains we see everyday on our walk to school :)

























No one really has a showy home or a flashy car here. It has been interesting to speak with one of my few Norwegian friends about the culture and the situation. He was telling me about taxes and how it is virtually impossible to really get rich. Many of the things he explained sounded ridiculously like being a middle-class American.



























The weather goes back and forth between snow and rain, though the streets never actually loose their coating of ice and snow. It is always hat and scarf weather, and i've started wearing my underarmor habitually. Overall, however, i think the weather has been a bit more mild than home. Bodø has the Gulf Stream running very nearby to help moderate the temperatures. When you get further inland, it gets much colder, even though i am right inside the arctic circle. This is all not to say that it is warm by any means, but i think Nebraska's winter has certainly been comparable :)

In regards to sunlight - when i came we were at nearly four hours of light, though the sun never actually showed itself above the mountains. The light consisted of a long golden sunrise extending into a long and redish sunset with no sight of the sun at all. We were very excited to see the sun actually peak above the mountains one day, a very worthy thing to note. By today, we have nearly 6 hours of sunlight and the sun itself is actually visible for at least two of those hours. So nice to see! i am told that the daylight increases by something like 18 minutes a day, and when i leave in June, it will be very nearly time for the midnight sun.



i spoke with my wonderful Aunt Carmen in Tennessee a few days back, and realized that i have recorded little nothing about the area where i am currently residing or what life is turning out to be like. In complete honesty, i never pictured myself coming to a place like Norway - an area with a very high standard of living and a VERY high cost of living. i am taking my classes in English, and the entire international crowd more or less speaks English amongst themselves. (unless of course you find yourself in a room full of one particular nationality other than your own, in that case you may be out of luck :) The culture shock has been minimal if at all. i am extremely impressed by my friends all over the world studying and living in places so very different from home, more different than here in Norway. It is always interesting to encounter the sterotypes that are placed on you, and to be in a place where suddenly YOU are the foreign one. And to hear someone talk about the "American accent" was really interesting too. What i have missed most is the ability to pick up a phone and easily hear the voice of a loved one, but wonderful skype has eased that tension. What i have enjoyed most has been the change, learning how to travel, living only with what a suitcase and a half can hold, and meeting the incredible people i have met.


















i was lucky (yet again) with housing situations. i live in a flat with 3 other girls, and we each have our own room, and the flat has a very decent shower and a kitchen that has been most convenient for cooking together. It's funny to me, now that i have so much less stuff with me, i have about twice the room i normally have at Wesleyan! i think i will have to go home and dramatically reduce. Two of my flatmates are American, and the third is a very mellow Norwegian. Trine doesn't seem to mind sharing her space, and seems to enjoy the company of the international students, though she is rarely here for many days in a row. Jen is originally from Ohio, while Ellen has her roots in Missouri. We were all a bit disappointed to learn that we were living with Americans, but jointly decided to make an effort to get out and meet people whenever possible. We were quick to discover how like-minded we are concerning issues such as human rights, the environment, and other priorities. It makes for great conversations. There are only four of us Americans all told, the other is John from Tennessee who has never seen this much snow and ice in his life. The picture of us was taken by John when we Americans teamed up and explored Bodø without really knowing what we were doing. We were some of the first to move in, so we had some time to explore, get lost, fall on the ice, and proudly figure out Bodø's bus system all on our own. The other picture illustrates the street conditions pretty accurately, i had to walk on the rail to get any real traction up the incline and laughingly pulled Ellen along with me.






Days pass quickly and i find that time fills itself easily. Jen, Ellen, John, and i, as well as some of our Canadian friends are studying the same program, making classes very fun. We fill our other time with things like hikes and exploring, getting to know the bigger group, cooking, sledding, and travel when we can can. We have enjoyed each other's company so much, that even quiet times in the flat are quite nice.

Georg is an Austrian who has been mountaineering for about 6 years now. He has been the most adventurous concerning going out and exploring the area's great trails. He took a group of us out on a hike one saturday morning. It was about a six hour day - we left with the morning light and returned in the near dark. Alex is a tall and talkative Russian who accompanied us with his near professional quality camera. The pictures i put in here are thanks to his camera skills and willingness to share the results (he took over 400 pictures that day!)




Here is the gang that was willing to get up before 8 AM on a saturday - Zoe (our wonderful and spunky Canadian friend from across the hall), Georg, John, and Alex.









Zoe and i initiated a short break on a very large, very cold
rock.


















Remember the story of "Three Billy Goats Gruff?" Before i came, i had all but forgotten that trolls are part of the Norwegian storytelling. The bridge the goats had to cross is one we have driven over now once or twice on the bus. The trail system is pretty impressive up here with signs all the way through it, and i'm fairly certain this one translates into "troll street." It makes complete sense that these stories originated here; the landscape is completely conducive to such ideas. Walking amongst the stones of the ground and the mountain slopes all steeped in age-old cold and half covered in moss is enough to make you feel as though a little hairy creature may be around the next corner - ready to stop you on your way and demand of you why you are there. Maybe part of the reason i like it up here is that the land is so perfect for fairy-tales.



And here is a good one of the landscape and the intrepid Georg.


We took some time to goof off and explore our area just after a brief break for lunch. You couldn't stay still very long, or you simply became too cold. It was best to keep the blood moving and enjoy where we were.




































It was a fantastic way to spend the majority of a saturday, and i hope we go again soon. i have been on a lot of smaller hikes around the area, thanks a friend who had been here a semester already and was willing to take some of his time to show us around.

Now that i have nearly written a book in one post, i think i'll save my sledding stories for the next post, because, yes - as some of you already know - we went sledding on a cake pan. Small things like that certainly seem worth noting to me :)

To anyone reading, i send my love from the arctic. i hope to have more soon! But, well, it seems as though that never quite works out as i plan :)