So, I've been here now for exactly 70 days. Can you believe it? I come home for Christmas in just 61 days. Already half way there. I figured that it could be somewhat entertaining to start a blog so I could go back at the end of the year and laugh at all of the silly things I did. Therefore, I say hello to all of you back home and I hope you can laugh along with me. I really regret not starting this earlier, but I reckon that's another thing I'll shake my head at when this year comes to a close.
When I first arrived, I was a giant mess considering I didn't quite get anything in order before I left. I spent way too much money on trying to make my little room in my flat look homey. I realized I had no access to my money, except on a credit card. I had to give up my iPhone because I realized that yes, AT&T does indeed screw you over with the whole "locked phone" system. I'm really liking life without my iPhone now, though. I've gone back to the good old flip phone that doesn't even have a camera. My room is almost luxurious, though. It's bigger than my old dorm room and I don't have to share it with anyone. I have a kitchen and a beautiful bathroom. It even has heated floors. Fancy, eh?
Within one week, I met people from over 20 different countries. NTNU is amazing considering that nearly 10% of their student population is actually international. Mind you, NTNU has almost 30,000 students. Pretty amazing, right? I met some really amazing people. Some I still see and others have gone their separate ways. The majority of people I met were German or French or Spanish. If you had to guess someone's nationality, then you could bet on one of those three.
I actually had a really eye opening experience because of my own nationality. I had been chatting with this guy from Serbia at the "basement" (you'll learn more about that later). He overheard someone say that I was from New York and he decided to tell me word for word: "you'll never be the person you want to be because you are American. You can read newspapers and books and you can try to educate yourself but you'll never understand what the rest of the world is going through." He went on to say more, but needless to say, after that, I really wanted to tell everyone that I was Canadian. Instead of going for that, though, I decided to go with the jokester attitude, I guess. "Yeah, yeah, I'm the stupid American. Blah blah blah." It's really strange to be from the states in such an international context. Some people love it and want to hear all about it while others blatantly stop talking to you once they learn where you're really from.
Well, now, things are going really smoothly. I'm sitting in my room with the heat already blasting. It's a rainy day, but outside of my window I can see the yellow leaves falling off the trees. Despite the conception that Norway is a totally frozen tundra, we actually do have Autumn here. It's really beautiful, but it's much more green than in the states. I think the mountains just have alot more evergreen trees, so instead of turning the gorgeous colors, it mostly stays green. There is already snowcaps on the mountains. The other day, I went up to my campus, Dragvoll, (which is pretty high in altitude) and there was actually snow on the ground. I couldn't believe it. It's not even Halloween! What the flip?! Other things that will make you drop your drawers:
1) A six pack of beer costs almost 24 bucks. That's not even the good beer, either.
2) Health care is indeed free. Sometimes you have to pay a little co-pay fee, but it's barely anything.
3) Meat is foolishly expensive. Two fillets of chicken costs almost 10 dollars. Guess we won't be sharing many dinners.
4) It's not even the end of October and I'm already wearing wool sweaters, wool socks, boots and a heavy coat. So weird.
5) Bagels don't exist here. At all. They have cream cheese...but no bagels. WHAT?!
Well, maybe none of that is very shocking considering I now live in one of the most expensive countries in the world. Needless to say, I've definitely been making budget cuts. No spur of the moment trips to Shake Shack or Magnolia Bakery anymore. Hah. Well as for what I have been doing as of late: I have not been studying. I have rarely been going to lectures and I have been elected the sort of "official party planner." Hah. I've been working with the International Student Union of Trondheim as the social program coordinator. My job description essentially only includes planning parties and trying to get cheap deals at clubs/bars etc. It's a blast. I've been meeting awesome people because of it. That's where the "basement" comes in. In almost all of the buildings in my student village (think smaller dorm buildings. 6 floors each, with 1 apartment on each floor with 4 people living in each apartment) the basement is rented out by different organizations. ISU has our own basement and it's basically a bar. Open every Monday & Friday. That's where most international students just meet up for a "vorpsiel" (pregame) before going out. It's also where I host alot of themed parties. It's a blast. I must say, I'm loving the break from working my ass off this year. I'm taking time to have fun and enjoy my 20s.
Well, I'm going to sign off. I realized this has gotten to be a really long entry. I mean, catching up on over 2 months of time can take a while. I'll leave you with a link to a video of a Norwegian band that I'm loving. Kisses and hugs and hope you don't have bugs.
Kings of Convenience: Awesome Norwegian Band
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