Humbug

Winter break is over, and classes have started back up again.

Due to financial reasons (read: tickets are expensive), I decided to stay here in Bø for the entirety of break.  The hope is that I will have saved the $1200 on round-trip tickets in order to 1) afford life in this country and 2) be able to travel somewhere this semester.  I don’t know if either are possible, but I’m going to try.  As I’ve said before, food here is incredibly expensive.  My friend Pierrick even took a four hour drive one-way to Sweden to purchase groceries (primarily meat).  To celebrate Christmas on my own, I purchased a 1,4k ham (3 lbs).  That piece of meat alone cost me over 160 NOK ($28).

Almost no one was here for the majority of break, and there were a number of days where I was the only one in this building.  And in the times when there were people here (that I knew), there wasn’t much hanging out for some reason.  I was the recipient of a lot of pity over the holiday season, but I have to say that it wasn’t as bad as people thought it would be.  I wasn’t personally worried about it, but others were, and for their compassion, I am grateful.

I did get a bit of cabin fever, though.  That’s for sure.  I would be tired and restless at the same time.  My sleep schedule became completely inverted.  There were numerous days where I did not go to bed until between 6 and 10 AM.  I would frequently wake up sometime around 6:30 PM.  There were many days in which I did not see the sun at all (not difficult when it barely comes up in the first place).  It took me a couple of all-nighters to remedy this situation, but now I’m about back on track.  Lately, I’ve been having a different sleeping issue, though.  This morning, for example, I woke up at 8:30 AM – not a bad time to wake up.  The problem, however, is that I went to bed at 2:45 AM.  That’s not enough sleep.  I guess I’ll try to nap later.

I did call my family back home.  The only part of the break where I was bummed out about being here and not home came when I called home.  It was a bit disheartening to hear all of the family gathered into a few Christmas celebrations.  But it was nice talking with them nonetheless.

For New Years, I was invited to Skien to hang out with my friend Gunnar, but ended up turning down the offer in order to save some more money until I get the loan money for this semester.  It’s not much, but it’ll help.  Instead, I opened my curtains and watched the people of Bø celebrate the New Year with a rather impressive fireworks display.  Houses on the sides of the mountains all around Grivi launched their own little displays, and collectively, it was quite a nice sight.

I also participated in an online marathon for charity put on by the folks at ExtraLives.org.  They are definitely doing some good work, particularly when you consider that they’re only high school seniors.  After almost 81 hours of solid Zelda gameplay (they played several different games, including the horrible CD-I games), the guys had raised over $12k.  I was happy to donate my $10 and be part of the marathon.  With the money they donated to Free The Children, they are able to fund the building of a small school house (or build on to an existing school), stock the school with books and furniture, train teachers to run the school, and create a lunch program for the students for two whole years.  Absolutely amazing.  Now if only they could get the triforce on there…

Other parts of my break included (in no particular order):

1. Runes of Magic
2. Misc. video games
3. Reading
4. Writing
5. Movies
6. TV (see below)
7. Ham
8. mam!records

I watched a surprising amount of TV, often while playing games or doing other stuff online.  I watched:

1. Pokemon: Indigo League (the original season, all 82 episodes)
2. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (all seasons)
3. Frisky Dingo (all seasons)
4. Scrubs: Med School
5. MythBusters
6. Modern Family
7. Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil
8. Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge
9. Pawn Stars
10. Devil May Cry: The Animated Series (all episodes)
11. Cavemen
12. The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
13. etc, etc, etc – this list is starting to get embarrassing…. It was a couple of weeks alone in Norway.  What do you expect?

Well, after that whole deal, I’m happy that people are finally here in Bø again.  I had my first classes this week – Norwegian Literature After 1900.  Recently, I had been doubting the progress I’ve made in my Norwegian education, but the start of this class has given me some much needed confidence.  Last semester, I had signed up for this same class (except it was based on literature before 1900).  I attended the first class or so, and found that I could understand nothing that the professor said.  I dropped it in favor of an independent study making up for the lack of linguistics at the college here in Bø.  This semester, I expected to have trouble understanding the teacher, just like last time.  But lo and behold! I could understand her – mostly. Definitely what I needed.

That’s about where the encouragement ended, however…  We started off our Norwegian literature course by reading Swedish, among all things.  It wasn’t too bad, but I certainly did not understand much of what I read.  The story we read was Alexander Skarsgård’s Att döda ett Barn (To Kill A Child).  At only two pages, it was a really great piece.  It certainly inspires me to write more.

The second day of this class was even more discouraging.  This time, we have a different teacher.  I forget his name at the moment, but he speaks a dialect that is very far from the one I learned.  The Norwegian students have even told me that they have trouble understanding him.  He also writes in nynorsk, which is a different writing system than what I learned (bokmål).  Luckily, he writes on the board for us to take notes from.  It would be a great help, but he writes in some of the worst cursive I have ever seen.  Combine that with words you’ve never heard in a writing system you’ve not used much, and it’s all Greek to me.

That’s enough for now.

Exams And Other Things

A lot of things have been going on lately, and it doesn’t surprise me.  Around this time every semester, stuff hits the fan.  Today was no exception.

I set my alarm for 6:30 AM in order to get up early enough for some studying before my written Norwegian exam at 9 AM.  At 8:02 AM, I woke up.  Dammit…  Took a quick shower and rushed out the door without any breakfast.  Rushed to the culture center for the exam, then remembered I needed to go check out a Norwegian dictionary (no English allowed) for the test, so I ran up to the school, then back down just in time to make it for the exam.  I walked in to get my seat, only to be told that our exam was moved back to the main school building because of a listening exercise included in the test.

So all four of us in our Norwegian class (Hope, Anjuli, Kelsey and me) went up to the school and asked around until we found out our room.  After about fifteen minutes, we realized no one was coming to give us our exam.  Checked some more rooms, and nothing.  I guess there was a mistake, and it was the Introductory Norwegian course that was supposed to change spaces, not us.  Finally, they arranged a new room for us to take our test, and we began about thirty minutes late, but were given more time on account of the confusion.  The exam was much easier than I thought it would have been.  It was certainly easier and fairer than our second midterm exam was.  I finished with plenty of time left over, so I relaxed downstairs while I waited for the others to finish.

What followed was five-ish hours of waiting for the oral part of the exam.  We did some good studying, and a lot of goofing off.  It was nice to spend that time with my buddies.  I hope I didn’t annoy them too much.  The oral exam went pretty well.  I was worried that I would have to talk about a political party in Norway, but ended up telling the fairy tale “De Tre Bukkene Bruse” (The Three Billy Goats Gruff).  I knew that the teacher and evaluator would have heard that story a few times today, so I decided to switch it up a bit.  I gave all of the goats names (like Carl) and made them eat the troll instead of poke his eyes out and get fat in the pasture.  I thought it went well.

Did some grocery shopping for some much-needed food (these cupboards were bare, for sure).  On my way home, I cut through the elementary school playground, which was not a good idea.  As you can see by the pictures, the weather here has not been ideal.  These pictures are actually a bit old.  We don’t get this much sun anymore.  It snowed a little while ago, and it’s been rainy recently, which means lots of ice and some really slick slush.  I must have tripped on something in the schoolyard, but whatever happened, I ended up face first in the semi-frozen mud.  It didn’t hurt too much, and it was dark, so no one saw me… I think.

But the day has been all gravy since then.  I only have one exam and a paper to write, then I’m done for the semester.

Thanksgiving/Birthday:

I had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving, which was coincidentally my birthday this year, with a bunch of international students.  We had five whole turkeys and gallons of mashed potatoes and gravy.  Tons of people brought dishes to share as well.  I had four cans of cranberry sauce, thanks to my mother who so kindly sent them.  Tusen takk!

I won the big side of the wishbone after an epic battle with Janys.  She didn’t stand a chance.  It was great to share my favorite holiday with so many people I know.  It was a nice piece of home.

Damn.  I’m 22 aren’t I?

Years For Beards:

We’re continuing to write articles for my little group project, Years For Beards.  It is a music review site, and so far it’s doing pretty well.  Things are slow with most of us in exam mode, but we’re still pumping out articles.  At least one a week.  Click here to go there.

Milk A Fat Guy:

I started another website (bringing my total number of domains up to five, I believe).  This time, it’s a comedy site.  I have these comics that I made sitting around, and I wanted to share them with people.  The name comes from an inside joke.  Dan gets it.  Like Years For Beards, I’m looking for people to make content for the site along with me.  I’ve gotten generally positive feedback on it.  New strips are ready to go up soon (possibly every Wednesday, but maybe every Sunday).  The comics will probably be aimed toward an older audience (above 18).  I think Corey might be joining me to make some strips.  I hope he does.  Click here to go there.

Support Your Scene:

I tuned in to Support Your Scene this past weekend and had a chance to talk with Ashley for the first time in a while.  Support Your Scene is a radio program on WSUM that focuses on music local to the Madison area.  This Sunday, from 1 PM to 3 PM Wisconsin time, is Ashley’s last show with Support Your Scene.  She’s been a great host, and I’d like to formally thank her for getting me into WSUM.  I will, and do, miss you, Assley.  Check out her last show this Sunday.  Click here to go to the WSUM site, where you can listen to our live stream. I’ll be back this summer with my show, Bridges and Balloons.  So look forward to that in 5-ish months.

Music:

I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time working on music, like I always do.  Recently, however, I have been happier with my music than I had been earlier this year.  Corey and I are working closely on some stuff for Pushmi-Pullyu and K. Wilhelm that is turning out great.  I’ve also created the first few [praw] tracks that I’ve been happy with in a long time.  I have decided to keep working on music for the rest of the semester and avoid releasing anything until I get back to the states.  In the past, I would have released a lot of stuff in this 10 month time, but I’ve decided it’s best to wait a bit and make some more cohesive releases.  Expect a big party when I get back home.

~             ~             ~

I’m sure there are things that I had wanted to say, but it’s getting pretty late (2:34 AM).  Now that exams are coming to an end, I’ll be able to post more.  Keep in touch – remember, you don’t need an account here to leave a comment.

First Snow

“What the hell is that…?”

That is basically what was going through my head this morning when I woke up. I was told that Norway would not really get snow until maybe as late as February. But here we are, the 3rd of October, and there lies a thin layer of snow on the ground. My only consolation was that a steady downpour of rain was slowly melting the snow.

The snow took several hours to actually melt, but the rain is still falling. Having talked to a few other people, it is going to be like this quite often now until the actual snow starts in earnest. Snow during the chilly nights; thawing during the day. I guess I can live with that. I am from Wisconsin, after all. I was just a bit shocked to see this today – the leaves just started really falling two or three days ago.

After getting over the fact that I would be cooped up in my room all day, it was actually kind of nice to sit on the balcony and watch the rain. It is not often that you get a chance to witness three kinds of condensation in work at once. It was foggy, snowy and rainy. Perhaps it happens more often than we think, but it was nice to notice it.

I am becoming increasingly surprised with how much of a day I can waste and how quickly, at that. A nap, a meal and a few episodes of MythBusters, and eight hours have already passed since I woke up. Without being able to really do anything out side of my dorm, I am finding it a bit difficult to get anything done inside my dorm. And it surprises me that I feel so much “cabin fever” today. Normally, I have no problem being alone. But lately, I have wanted less and less to be by myself.

I guess lately I have been feeling an exceeding amount of loneliness. I feel a blatantly unfounded sense of being left out. And it bothers me a bit, not so much because I know that I am wrong, but more because of these angsty teenage feelings. I am better than that kid stuff… I have friends both here and back home, so why would I feel this?

Perhaps the worst is that these feelings manifest themselves in strange ways. I can sometimes get an odd feeling in groups, which is the exact opposite of how I am used to being. Even worse are the dreams / nightmares. Always of things I can not have, in an emotional sense more than material; they usually start off amazing, with a sense of elation, only to end in a deafening sense of rationality. It is a sinking feeling waking up to that.

But enough of that unwarranted depression….

There are a lot of things I can occupy my time with, even if I have difficulty doing so. I have this next week off. Unfortunately, my trip to Amsterdam fell through – we could not get tickets soon enough to make the trip very affordable. I will instead maybe take the train or bus out to some place in Norway that I have not visited (which would be any place in Norway, basically). Probably, I will end up sitting in my room or taking a walk, though. Hope and some of the other American girls are off to Ireland and other cool places like that, and later in the week, Marco and Jesus are going to London. Money is tight, though, so I am actually not too upset about not going anywhere – just a bit bummed. I am planning to save as much as I can for now, and instead, take some nice trips next semester when I have a better idea of where my money sits.

Thanks in large to conversations with Kelsey, I have started to pick up writing again. I am making my first true attempt at writing a book of some sort. A real book, not the things I have done in the past. It is going to be based a lot on my experiences here, but in a sort of bizzaro way. I can not imagine what people will think of my personal experiences here if they read what I have in store.

I am also working on more music, as always. I had a really great talk with Corey the other day, and we are finally going to try some true collaborative stuff now. We have some ideas and some sketches to go on. In the end, I do not know what we will have. But Corey is great at what he does – I have no doubts about his ability and drive. I am fairly confident that we will come up with something respectable.

I have been picking the tempo up with my label lately. The other day, we were approved for a Content Distributor account at mininova.org. We have had 480-some downloads in about a day with our first two torrents. I think it is already starting to lure in some new artists for the label.

And whenever all of the above fails, I guess I have this blog to turn to.

Life In The Jungle

It is said that the law does not exist in Bø. The police station closes at 2:30 PM, even! Recent events lead me to believe that this statement is true.

This is the outside of Grivi, the dormitory. Let’s take a closer look.

To the left, you’ll see the flag from Meny – a giant flag made specially for Meny to hang outside the grocery store. To the right, you’ll see three more “trophies.” A sidewalk card for Floriss, a traffic cone and yes, a small tree.

This car intrigued me a bit. I can only assume that this car covered in dirt – the only one in the lot – was the car used to transport the tree (and for that reason, I have taken care not to show the license plate). But let’s take a look at perhaps the most excellent “trophy” that these random, most-likely drunk, scavengers acquired.

Behold, the flag from Rema 1000!

I first found this flag in the middle of the night, illuminated perfectly by the center light. Let’s imagine it that way.

I’m glad I got pictures in the morning to document what was surely an epic night for some drunken idiots. The items we either taken down or collected by their owners (probably taken down) within an hour of me taking these pictures.

It must have been quite a feat not only to get these things from their respective stores and to get them up on the roof of our dorm as well. It was quite an accomplishment.

Yes, an accomplishment, but it does bother me. Apart from these “trophies,” I know of at least a dozen bikes and shopping carts that have been stolen around here; the cleaning lady caught a man trying to steal clothes from the washing room; and last year there were rashes of food theft from kitchens. People seem to have no problem with the stealing.

And that bothers me.