My First Week as a Norwegian Student

My week started off bright and early Monday morning: International Student Orientation. After wandering aimlessly around the building for a good 15 minutes, I finally found C1-060, one of the classroom/auditoriums. The school is made up of different levels and different sections and the rooms are named accordingly. Sounds easy, except that if you go up one of two steps, you're suddenly on a different "level". Very confusing. But I showed up ready to be thrust into the life of a Norwegian college student. Right off the bat, they didn't have my orientation packet, and the head lady rushed up to me and told me to go home and change!

Before anyone starts thinking anything odd, I'd like to point out two things: 1. the head of the international exchange program knows exactly who I am, and 2. I was selected to be THE international student to participate in the school's yearly matriculation ceremony. Before anyone goes off to dictionary.com (like I did), here you go: Matriculate: to enroll in a college or university as a candidate for a degree. It's this ceremony that the school does where they officially "welcome" 4 new students; a bachelor student, a MBA student, a MSc student, and an international student. They have this whole setup and the president of the school is there and all the students are there watching. I was selected to be the "international student" to be matriculated. It was kinda cool- I got to hear exactly how my last name is pronounced in Norwegian (yeah, I SO don't say it like them!) and I got to shake the president's hand, and I got a little "matriculation diploma". Not sure how I was selected, but it was cool - only downside was, I had to wear a skirt!

After the ceremony, I got a tour of the campus. (They make it look easy!) And then I had a Master student informational meeting. It was for all new Master students, and it was pretty much along the lines of, school is hard and you need to give it your all for the next two years. Kinda freaked me out a bit until I realized I've already been going to MBA school for 2 years now.... we'll see.

After that meeting, it was BBQ time! Since it had been rainy off and on all day, they canceled the BBQ at Frogner Park (which is a very cool park in Oslo, featuring hundreds of sculptures by Gustav Vigeland). Instead we had a BBQ at a park next to campus. The international student committee provided about 30 little personalized BBQs and packs of hotdogs. This was seriously very strange, it was this grill in a box, you light the box on fire, and in the box are baquettes of charcoal in a wire frame. Since it was a group activity, I was forced to be social and I met some other exchange students. I met a girl from the UK, three boys from Germany, a girl from Toronto, a girl from Texas, and a girl from Mill Creek, Washington! She was a trip! She is 18, just graduated from high school. It was pretty funny.

Then on Tuesday, I started classes. Alright- I started "class". I had my very first class: Corporate Responsibility. It was strange, cause the very first class was a guest lecturer from a Norwegian company. He did NOT have nice things to say about American companies, and I got a new perspective, although brief, on business outside of America. There were about 250 people or so in the class. Largest class I've EVER had in my life! After class I did the most exciting thing thus far- I got my student ID card! Woo Hoo! Discounts on the subway, train tickets, tickets to museums, everything! So after a impromptu nap after class, I hit the streets with my new ID and promptly purchased myself a monthly transportation card, and a movie ticket.

I'd always wanted to see a movie in another country. My choices were limited, since I'd already ruled out anything with a Norwegian title (small steps!). So I chose Miami Vice. The movie was in English, and it had Norwegian subtitles, and the parts that were in Spanish, instead of English subtitles, they just had Norwegian ones. It was kinda tricky at first, but then I just ignored the subtitles. Oh and the seating! You have to pay extra to sit in the back of the theater, and you have assigned seating! I was in row 10, seat 11. See- I was able to read 2 Norwegian words! Rad and Sete. And there were people on either side of me, in the seats right next to me! I've noticed that the Europeans (or at least the Norwegians) don't have the same space requirements that Americans do!

On Wednesday, I slept in, wandered around downtown (now I have my transportation card) and did some major grocery shopping. Doesn't sound like it should take up a full day, but it did!

Thursday was the second half of my first week of school classes. My other classes don't start until September, so I only had this one class, but twice. Again, we had a guest lecturer. This guy was very difficult to understand...someone told me later that he was "speaking in Norwegian, using English words" - which pretty much means his voice inflections and emphasizing was on all the wrong parts of the words and sentences. That, and I don't think his mic was properly plugged in.

After class, I decided to go on the Graduate Student Society "Treasure Hunt". This has been the most fun event yet! First of all, we met in the school's bar (that's right- the school has a BAR- like an actual bar, in the school!) and were teamed up into different teams and given maps with destinations on where we were to go. There were 7 people in my team; 6 girls, and a boy - all Norwegian. It was so much fun! Our first stop was the Oslo Hard Rock Cafe, where we had to drink a beer and play Charades, in 7 minutes! Next stop was another bar, again, drink a beer and play Pictionary, in 7 minutes. Then another bar, 7 minutes, a beer and this time we had to drink this concoction and attempt to guess what was in it. It was quite amusing to play this one with Norwegians, because I would guess things too, and since spices and such aren't common words, I would have to figure out ways to explain the spice I'm guessing (such as, Nutmeg- the spice on egg nog?) Plus, we're trying to use our tastebuds after downing 3 beers in the past 30 minutes? Next stop was our final bar, our task here was to build a tower and "kiss up" to representatives of the company who was paying for all this, while downing our beers. After our last bar, we met up in Frogner Park for the postponed BBQ. It was raining, but we made the most of it. I met quite a few people at the BBQ as well, and then after the rain REALLY started to come down, we decided to move the party back to one of the bars, and I met even more people. In fact, I met a Norwegian girl who spent a semester in Coupeville, Washington, a Norwegian girl who went to Pacific Lutheran University, and a Norwegian boy who actually spent a semester studying at FIT! In Melbourne! How small is the world? All in all, it was an awesome night, and I'm looking forward to my next GSS event, which is Tuesday, it's going to be a cruise down the Oslofjord.

Then on Friday, luckily I did NOT have to get up early, I slept in and wandered over to campus to make sure all my documents were in order for my registration with the Foreign Police on Saturday; I had to file for a residency permit. Since it was pouring, and I'd forgotten my umbrella, I was forced to sit in the Oasis (student cafeteria) and wait out the rain. Other people had the same plan, and I saw a few people I'd met Thursday night. By the time I got home, it was GORGEOUS outside - so I decided to go on a walk. I found this cute park a few blocks over, and proceeded to do 5 laps around the park and then I sat and watched a league soccer game and then walked home. Only when I got home (2.5 hours later) did I realize how far I walked! Not only was I sore, but gmap-pedometer.com said I walked over 7 miles!

That's about it for my first week as an official Norwegian Student! Sorry it was so long! It was a busy week! Tomorrow I have to file for my Residency Permit - I think its kinda funny that my g.grandparents LEFT Norway, and here I am applying in order to be here! Other than that- I have no plans this weekend- guess I'll just see where the city takes me! :-)