And then there was SNOW

This week Callie and I had made plans to walk around the whole island today. However, when we woke up this morning it was raining, cold, and very slippery so we decided to postpone our wonderful plan. I’m really glad we did because on my way to campus to workout I realized how slippery the sidewalks and roads are. My new goal for studying here is not to fall especially on my butt in front of anyone. Not falling will save me from embarrassment as well as potential injuries which I would like to avoid at all costs since I don’t want to deal with the health insurance situation here.

Later in the evening Callie and I were invited to another dinner hosted by Bill. Bill was the first person we met when we arrived to Tromsø and he has been very helpful. Tonight he had a small group of friends over for burritos. At the gathering I got to meet some new people. I met Jessica from Pennsylvania, Signe from Russia, one of Bill’s professors, and Kam from Idaho, but who grew up in New Zealand.

It was nice sitting around and talking about each other’s background and a variety of other topics like English grammar. These are the types of evenings I enjoy most; I love learning about other people. The majority of the group was older than 24 so it was nice to have more mature conversations. I like going out to the clubs, but I prefer sitting around and conversing about important topics. I relate better to older students and frankly I find drinking until you pass out immature and pointless. Just the type of person I am.

Callie and I enjoying the snow

 

To make the evening more splendid it had started to snow tonight! On the ground was a fresh layer of fluffy, white snow. It was beautiful and Callie and I were so excited. The snow reminds me of Christmas, but it’s too early to start thinking about that.

 

 

Professors Deserve Respect

This morning I went to Kraft with Holly to work out. Kraft is a work-out facility for students at the University. At the beginning of October I purchased a one month membership since I basically had no more motivation to run outside because of the cold and increasing period of darkness, not to mention the crazy hills J. Thus far I have enjoyed working out at Kraft.

The Kraft work-out facility on campus

 

After working out I had my history class. The class starts at 12:15 pm, however, today the professor was late. An informal rule in college is if the professor doesn’t show up within 15 minutes of when class should have started, students can leave. By the time our professor had shown up most of the students had left since it was 12:45 pm.

The professor we had today was Henry Minde and this was his first and only lecture with us. In my history course, we have different professors almost every class period to teach the day’s topic upon which they are experts in. Today’s topic was ethnic minorities and the Norwegianization policy. Minde has written many articles on this topic and we have read a few of them in my culture class.

When Minde arrived he was very flustered since the History department had given him the wrong room and he had trouble unlocking the room. In Norway all the classrooms are locked and you have to enter a code to gain access. After we were inside the room, the professor then had troubles with the computer and projector. While waiting we sat quietly chatting since there was nothing we could do. He was having a rough start in teaching today.

Once everything was running and the power point was up we began lecture. Minde seemed really nervous and he read from his power point slides that were almost entirely writing. I will have to admit his lecture was quite boring, but I wanted to be respectful so I gave him my attention the whole class period. A couple of students, however, did not pay attention in class today and were very disrespectful. There were only 8 students today and so the actions of the two students did not go unnoticed. During lecture, the two students interrupted the professor a couple of times to sternly correct his pronunciation of words. They also laughed at him when he had trouble working the old light projector. I did not approve of their actions in class today.

Throughout class I kept thinking about how the professor felt. Here is a professor who was already frazzled from being late to class that had to teach a class in not his primary language and was now being disrespected by students. I give this professor as well as others respect for coming into a class where they don’t know the students and teaching a course in English. Although most Norwegians have a good understanding of English, it’s still a challenge for many to teach in only English. Our professor had a more difficult time teaching in English than most professors I’ve had. If I were in his position I would of course be nervous and it would be difficult to teach in another language. Even though the two students were from different countries where English was not their primary language, they had no right to be as disrespectful as they were.

Even though lecture did not go the greatest, I did learn that Henry Minde has Saami heritage. Now whether he considers himself Saami or not is his choice, but he did mention in lecture that his parents did not teach him Saami due to the negative image associated with the Saami culture during the Norwegianization period. After hearing and reading about the Norwegianization policy and its effects in my culture class, it was neat to hear firsthand about some of the experiences. It brings new meaning to the information I have learned and will learn.

Traditional Belgian Meal

This evening I was invited along with Holly and Callie to Leonard’s to enjoy a traditional Belgian meal. As already mentioned in my blog, Leonard is from Ghent in Belgium and he has shared many things about his country. For instance, I have learned that Belgium has three national languages, Dutch, French, and German, and that Belgium has had no official government for 540 successsive days, setting a new world record for the longest period of time a country has had no official government. The previous record holder was Iraq at 289 days. I am learning more about Belgium than its reputation for amazing chocolate.

Leonard making our Belgian meal, waterzooi

Leonard is very proud of his culture so he decided to make a traditional Belgian dish, waterzooi. The ingredients in waterzooi are fish or chicken as in our case, carrots, onions, celery, leeks, potatoes, herbs, egg yolks, cream, and butter. The dish was absolutely delicious. It was a very hardy dish and reminded me of some of the stews I have had in Ireland. I plan on getting the recipe from Leonard so I can make the dish back home.

The delicious waterzooi meal

After dinner, Leonard shared some chocolate and cookies his parents had sent him from Belgium. The chocolate heart I tried was amazing; the heart melted in my mouth and I have a new taste for Belgium chocolate. The chocolate has lived up to its reputation. The cookies we tried were called speculoos or speculaas. The main ingredient in the cookies is cinnamon and they tasted like molasses cookies but better.

Both the meal and sweets afterwards were a real treat. Leonard was a great host and I am very fortunate to have experienced a little part of Belgium. Callie and I will have to make an American meal to share with others. We don’t have any plans yet, but we will come up with one.

Whale Meat

In my culture class we had a guest visitor, Trond Theun who wrote a couple of the articles we are reading in class. His lecture was very intriguing and I appreciated him coming to talk to us.

During our break our culture professors surprised us with another snack to enjoy. Thus far I have tried seal, reindeer heart, and dried cod and today our professor had brought Minke whale. She also brought flatbread, sour cream, rose jelly, and another jelly to eat with the whale. In Norway whale used to be a common staple of people’s diets, however, as agriculture progressed and the prices of other meats decreased, whale became more of a traditional food. Nowadays, mainly the older generation eats whale and only some Norwegians of the younger generations consume whale on a regular basis. Even though whale is only popular among some people, whale hunting is still an active part of Norway’s economy and they have a certain quota of Minke whale to fulfill each year.

Minke whale meat we had in our culture class

I am not a supporter of whale or even seal hunting, however, I decided to at least try the whale meat. I only took a little bit and placed it on the flatbread with some sour cream. Like the seal, the whale tasted very bloody and I could only take one bite. In addition to the whale I also tried the rose jelly on the flatbread. The rose jelly was okay but it tasted like a rose perfume or candle which makes sense since it is made from roses. The other more yellow jelly was okay.

The whale meat with sour cream on flatbread and jelly on flatbread

Even though I was not particular fond of either item our professor brought in today, I am very grateful that she makes the effort to share a part of Norway’s culture. This class has been a great way to get a little taste of Norway.

Frost

This morning when I stepped out of my flat I saw that the ground was covered in frost! The frosted leaves and grass and bushes looked gorgeous. This is the second frost since being here, but I have a feeling this one is staying and snow will soon follow.

I want it to snow by the end of October so that I can go reindeer sledding and dog sledding here in Tromsø. These are two things that I have been looking forward to doing since getting here. Hopefully it will snow enough before I leave and there will be enough daylight left so I can take part in these two amazing activities.

Frost on the ground outside my flat

Life is Precious

Unfortunately my boyfriend back home lost his grandma yesterday afternoon. Although, they knew the moment was coming due to her advanced stage of dementia, it is still difficult to lose a loved one. I did not know my boyfriend’s grandma well, but nonetheless it is a reminder of how precious and fragile life is. My thoughts and prays are with his family.

For me the hardest thing about death is understanding why the lives of certain people are ended while others are spared. Some have lived out their lives on this Earth, content with what they have accomplished and therefore are ready to move on. Others have their lives stripped away before they can finish the journey they have begun. I only wish the former on people; however, I know that death is something we as humans have little control over.

The death of anyone is tragic and it is difficult to face the reality of it at times. It is hard to grasp the concept that they are physically not here anymore; you only have the memories of them. For many this is hard because the memories of the people they have lost are so fresh that it feels like this is a dream and they will see them tomorrow, but their logic tells them otherwise. Embracing the death of someone is difficult no matter the circumstance, but we must remember the moments we had with that person.

With life comes death and with death comes new life. Death is unavoidable and we should be grateful for the moments we shared with that person. Their death should be celebrated because they have moved on to a greater place.

I am very fortunate for the people around me and I pray for their safety.

Brownies and Invictus

Tonight Callie and I had plans to go to a Halloween/Birthday party at Karolina’s place. Karolina just had her birthday so she thought it would be fun to celebrate. She wanted to combine it with Halloween so that we North Americans could celebrate the holiday because the Norwegians don’t celebrate Halloween here. Unfortunately, right before the party was supposed to start Karolina became ill and the party was to be postponed.

Callie and I were going as Goths (since we had to work with what we had brought here) and luckily hadn’t put on our intense make-up before hearing about the postponed party. With the night free now we didn’t know what to do. We talked about going out to the clubs, but we didn’t want to be out that late. When Norwegians go out to the clubs they don’t go out until like 11:30 pm or midnight and then stay out until around 4 in the morning. Since we both wanted to be productive tomorrow we decided to stay in and watch a movie.

Our delicious brownies and milk we enjoyed while watching Invictus

Before deciding what movie to watch we made peanut butter brownies. They were warm and chocolaty and very much deserved especially after our history exam. Once the brownies were done, we ate them with glasses of milk while watching the movie Invictus.

Invictus was about Nelson Mandela’s his first term as the South African President and the movie focused on his efforts in supporting the national rugby team to victory in the 1995 World Rugby Cup which helped to unite the apartheid-torn land. Although I am not familiar with rugby the movie was fantastic and it inspired me to strive for peace and set high goals. My favorite part from the movie was the poem “Invictus” written by William Ernest Henley that Mandela recites. The following is the poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Written by: William Ernest Henley

Crowded Bus

Callie and I went shopping again except this time Holly joined us and we went to the larger mall on the other side of the island.

To get there we obviously had to take the bus. In Fargo we have a bus system, but the system is very inefficient and hardly anyone I know takes it. Additionally, places in Fargo are easily accessible and it is more convenient and faster to drive oneself. In Tromsø the majority of the city population takes the bus because it is easily accessible and driving in Norway is very expensive. To obtain a driver’s license one has to take a series of five driving tests and has to pay a fee of around $1,000.

Picture of how crowded the bus gets

A lot of people especially students take the bus on a daily bus. Therefore, at times the bus becomes quite crowded and people are shoved into the bus. On this day in particular the bus was crowded. All the seats were taken and people lined the isles of the bus pushing up against one another. The bus driver had to skip stops since it couldn’t take on any more passengers. In case you were wondering the city bus can hold 96 people total, 50 people sitting and 46 people standing. This is a lot of people on one bus.

For the most part taking the bus isn’t that bad, but when it becomes crowded like it was today, I think about the luxury of driving back home. I know I will appreciate being able to drive and go somewhere on my own time. For now I am grateful that there is a bus system I am able to use.

Waffle Wednesday and Fretex

Since I absolutely love the waffles at Café Bodega I met Callie and Rudi on campus to enjoy a waffle for lunch even though none of us had class. I have been trying to limit myself to one or two waffles a week, but today I realized I am only here until December. Therefore, I should eat as many waffles as I want because back home I will not have the opportunity to eat these wonderful waffles from Café Bodega.

While eating our waffles a couple of students came by and dropped off the following piece of paper. The paper included tips about taking care of oneself while studying for exams during the winter. I laughed at the majority of the tips and I especially loved the one that said: “Meet your friends. Properly, not just on Facebook.” If you want a good laugh, you should read through the list. I apologize for the inappropriate words on the sheet of paper.

 

Flyer handed out at Cafe Bodega about taking care of yourself during exams



After waffles Callie and I went to the city center to look around. We stopped in a variety of stores and also went to the mall. We were mainly looking for potential souvenirs, but we also were looking for shoes. Here people where a lot of high heeled low top boots. Both Callie and I are interested in buying some, however, the price of shoes here is very expensive. Hopefully we can find a bargain before we leave.

Before heading back we decided to stop into Fretex, a store run by the Salvation Army. Since getting here we have wanted to visit it, but it was always closed when we tried. Today we finally had a chance to look around. I love thrift store shopping and so this was a real treat for me. At the store I found a cute grey coat and a lovely floral dress. Even though the place is a little run down inside, there are a lot of treasures and I will be back in the future.

Cod as a Treat

My culture professor keeps surprising us with the snacks she brings for us to try. This week she brought in a specialty from Norway, dried cod. Cod has been and still is an important part of Norway’s economy. Although many things can be done with cod, the cod we tried had been salted and dried. This type of cod is considered a treat in Norway.

Dried and salted cod

When our teacher opened the containers with the dried cod the room immediately began to smell like fish. The smell was very strong and I felt like I was at the harbor when a fresh stock of fish came in. I like fish, but the smell was too strong.

After grabbing a piece of cod I tried to rip off a small section. The cod was very hard and dry making it difficult to rip off a piece. Finally I had a small enough piece to eat. The dried cod was very dry at first, but after a few seconds it became softer and I could chew it. It tasted very good and I plan on bringing some home for family and friends to try. The dried cod is rich in Omega-3 and is a healthy snack.

To Print Without Printers?

After many hours of researching, writing, and editing I had finally completed my first essay exam. Today the exam was due and I had to give three copies of the essay to the history office by 2 pm. On each essay I had to include my identification number for the course and my name could not be present anywhere on the paper. In the Norwegian school system all work submitted by students must be anonymous. Therefore, teachers do not know who completed what and the grading is based only on content. This strategy is very logical; however, I have heard from teachers and students on campus that it is too anonymous and sometimes one student’s work becomes confused with another.

Before submitting my essay I had to print it off. Printing on campus is more restricted than at Concordia. I can only print from the 16 computers they have in the library. Since the library is closed on weekends I had to go to the library when it opened at 8am before my bioinformatics class to print off my paper. When I arrived I saw ‘No Printing’ signs all over the printing area. At this moment I became overwhelmed because I didn’t know where else to print my paper. Right away I asked the librarian where I could print and explained that I needed to turn in my exam. She responded by saying “that’s not my problem” and walked away. I was completely shocked by her response.

While walking away I realized I was presented with a challenge and I must remain calm. I had less than an hour before class to print my paper. On campus there are other printers, however, you must have a specific ID to print from them. To get the ID you must be considered a part of the department and then you have access to their printers. This wouldn’t be a problem, but since I am an international student I am not considered a part of any department, thus I do not access to other printers. Luckily, I came across a Norwegian who very graciously printed my essay for me. It was a huge relief to have my exam printed because this exam is worth 50% of my grade for the course.

With a huge weight lifted off my shoulder I headed to my bioinformatics class. After class I finally turned the paper in and went to Café Bodega to meet Callie. Unfortunately, the rest of the students in my history course were going through the same dilemma I had gone through this morning. A group of students including Callie ran around campus for over two hours trying to find a printer. Finally, they found one in the bottom of a basement in the Fisheries building that they could use. At 1:55 pm Callie and the group of students turned in their papers.

Now that the excitement is over with, I laugh at how the printers were broken on the day an exam was due. I wonder what will happen next time I have an essay exam to turn in. Overall, today was an eventful day for my history class and I am excited to relax these next couple of days.

Catching Up with Friends

While on campus Callie and I ran into Alberto and Leonard. Alberto is from Italy and like Leonard is a real gentleman. I can remember one particular example that defined how much of a gentlemen Alberto is. During the first week of school there was a movie that the International Student Union put on for international students. Callie and I of course decided to go, but it wasn’t clear as to which building it would be played in. While wandering around we ran into Alberto and his friend Marcello who is also from Italy. It was raining that afternoon so Alberto being a gentleman held the umbrella over my head and his as we walked around looking for the building. Even though I had a rain jacket on, I appreciated this kind act of chivalry.

Alberto, Leonard, and I chatting while on campus

It was nice catching up with both Leonard and Alberto today especially since it had been a while since I had seen them.

Another Taco Night

To keep up tradition with weekly group meals, Callie, Holly, Karolina, Rudi, and I made tacos at Karolina’s place. The tacos were wonderful and very much needed.

Callie, Holly, Karolina, and Rudi enjoying our delicious tacos

Eating one nice meal a week is a real treat. It is also a great way to catch up with friends that I sometimes don’t have a chance to see throughout the week.

Care Package #2

My second care package from home finally arrived. The walk to ICA to pick up the package was a good break from my busy day of exam writing.

Care package number 2 from my family

I loved the package and I am very thankful for my family back home. What is more important than the contents inside the box is the love and thoughtfulness that went into preparing and sending the care package.

My First Exam

Today I got my first essay exam which is for my Arctic Norway history course. I have one week to complete the take home essay exam. The exam has to answer the following question: “What were the main features of the society and economy in North Norway from 800 to 1800?” The question is not that hard, but the topic is very broad and we are only allowed around 2,500 words.

I have until October 8 to complete the exam so I will be very busy this week.