final exams

Today I had my oral exam for my Norwegian class.. I think I did alright! Granted, I still am only in Level 1, so I definitely wasn't perfect and definitely wasn't speaking very fast. The structure of the exam was 1 on 1 with my teacher and I, who I have had throughout the duration of the 6 week course. I was invited into the classroom, once another classmate had gone, and then I had to pick from a bowl the topic I would be discussing with my teacher. The 5 different topics were: family & friends, vacation & free time, studying & work, food & traditions and what a normal day consists of for ourselves. We were told all the topics beforehand so that we could prepare for each of the topics, because we had no idea what topic we were going to eventually end up choosing. I felt like it was difficult to study for such an exam, because I had written down both in English and Norwegian what I would have liked to say, but it's a lot harder to think of what to say when you sit down in front of the teacher, 1 on 1, without any notes or a script to read off of. Even practicing with Anders and friends didn't really help prepare me for the actual exam itself. So, we had to speak for 10 minutes straight, first introducing ourselves and then talking about the topic we had chose. I chose vacation and free time, so I talked a lot about my study abroad trip (of course all in Norwegian) and how I liked to play sports and such. I still had time left after I sad what I had to say, so I was able to talk about my family and what a normal day consists of for me as well. It seemed that my teacher understood what I was talking about.. so I'm pretty confident that I passed. She's not the only one who grades the exam though--the entire thing was recorded, so that someone else can also listen to my conversation and evaluate how I did.

Thursday is when I have my big written exam (cumulative, of course). It'll be based on chapters 1-14 in our Norwegian Level 1 textbook, På vei. In one of my recent posts I wrote some bullets about what we have learned in each of the chapters, so I will write about the last half of the book now.

Chapter 8: Hva gjorde du i ferien?
-What you can do & where you can go on vacation (vocab)
-Writing postcards
-Different regions of Norway
-Forms of transportation
-Past tense of verbs

Chapter 9: Et nytt liv
-Free time vocab (ex: playing different kinds of sports)
-Days of the month (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.. etc.)
-Format of dates
-Eiendomspronomen (showing ownership)

Chapter 10: Hyemme og på arbeid
-Household chores vocab
-Names of different stores in Norway & what they sell/provide
-Other careers (vocab)
-A little about chores & work in Norway
-Perfektum tense of verbs
-More prepositions & ownership pronouns

Chapter 11: Litt om Norge
-Lots & lots about Norway (geography: different cities, towns, regions, etc.)
-A little site-seeing vocab
-Mange vs. mye, prepositions & more adjectives

Chapter 12: Skolen
-School vocab (ex: names of different classes)
-Writing notes to be excused from class
-Types of school (primary through college level)
-Sentence order

Chapter 13: Familie og samliv
-Family vocab (ex: immediate family, grandparents, etc.)
-How to write invitations (birthday, wedding, etc.)
-A little about Norwegian traditions
-MORE pronouns!

Chapter 14: Slik bor vi
-Apartment & house vocab (inside & out)
-How to read ads in the newspaper (ex: selling things)
-Types of homes
-Komparativ & superlativ (prettier.. prettiest.. etc.)
-MORE grammar also

Our written exam only has chapters 1-14 on it, as I mentioned, but the book has 17 total chapters. We haven't paid as much attention to the last few chapters, but they are still technically part of the curriculum, so we have been reading through them. Chapter 15 is about holidays and other celebrations, chapter 16 is about health and the human body and chapter 17 (the last chapter) is about (more) jobs and how Norwegians create their CV. I'm not sure if we have class on Friday, because our last part of our exam is Thursday, but I guess we'll see! Each part (both the oral & written) count for 50% of our final grade. You only need a 51% to pass the course, so I'm pretty confident that I can manage that..

I am still so astonished about how much I have learned over these past 6 weeks.. it's insane. I hope to be able to find another course to get into, maybe in the spring? I have so much I still need to absorb, because of how fast pace the class was, so I look forward to continue learning at my own speed after this week is over.

I haven't really have done all that much since my last post, besides studying a lot for these final exams.. I did go to a friend's cabin though over the weekend, which I went to last summer as well, when I was here in Norway. Pretty much it is just a weekend full of relaxtion, tanning, boating and drinking. It is located south east of where we live, so closer to the shore and very close to the Sweden border. I can now say that I have been to Sweden, but it wasn't that exciting of a trip!! Unfortunately, we just went into Sweden to go to this shopping center to buy alcohol and food for the weekend--so now that exciting, ha ha. It was beautiful though, regardless, but didn't look any different than Norway. It's like driving into Mass. from NH.. things look VERY similar. We have friends that live in Sweden though, so someday I hope to actually get to see more of the country (sorry it wasn't as exciting than you thought, Mom)!


Us, out on a friend's boat!

I have been more active in trying to figure out my whole job situation too, now that class is winding down.. it is still a difficult process though, because I'm not fluent in Norwegian. I have written e-mails to a few different restaurants that seemed to be hiring, but haven't heard back. The problem with this is that most restaurants are only looking for servers and you need to speak Norwegian to do that. I e-mailed a school today though, called Oslo International School, which is how is sounds.. a school for foreigners, just like my summer school program--so the common language is English. I was just told about it today and that they have afterschool programs during the school year, so I think it would be really cool if I get a response back of a potential position I could have. Anders and I are going to go into the Police Station, Friday afternoon, to ask more questions regarding visas, because I'll need to have applied for one no later than the end of September (when my tourist visa is up), but I would obviously like to begin this process MUCH sooner!! I'll have a lot more time after school is over to figure everything out.. once September rolls around too, I will be able to look more into Masters programs for fall 2012.

I finally remembered to bring my camera to school last week, on a sunny day, and took some pictures around the campus..


The student dorms on campus--Blindern.


One of the main buildings/auditoriums on campus.


A hang out/cafe/student area in general.


A fountain on campus.


The building where I've been having my Norwegian class!

I think I pretty much covered everything, for right now.. don't have much plans for the rest of the week besides studying, going to the gym and hanging out. My friends from class are both leaving to go back to Columbia and Ukraine next week.. wish that they were staying!! One thing that I've realized by being here is that it's hard to make new friends, especially when they aren't staying in Norway, like myself, and obviously everyone has their 'own' friends here, just like I do back in the US. I hope that I will be able to meet some more people over the months to follow.. on that note, I am off to bed! God natt.

P.S. HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY to YOU, Dad, 4 days early!!!!! :) I love you & miss you <3