Påske ferie, dentist, norskprøve 3 & UiO

Unique title for an entry, right? Well it's definitely been an exciting last couple of weeks that's for sure, filled with all sorts of surprises ;) Easter vacation ("Påske ferie" in Norwegian) was definitely the break I needed for my body to start feeling better after being sick for such a long period of time. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as warm as I thought it would be.. it seems that spring coming early was only a false alarm! We've had a few snow flurries actually and the temperature has dropped enough for me to dig back out my down jacket and gloves! The rain has come again too, which is something we hadn't seen in a while. I hope this won't lead into the same pattern as we experienced last summer though.. it rained almost EVERY day! But, being the outdoorsy person that I am, I don't mind being outside in various types of weather, but I do have my fingers crossed for warmer weather soon!

My favorite part of break was becoming more acquainted with the beautiful city that I live in.. exploring new streets downtown and discovering hidden beaches on Bygdøy! I can't wait for my family and friends to start visiting me, because I'm going to have SO much to show them!! I know that they will all fall in love with Norway, just like I did :) The only unfortunate thing that happened over break was that I chipped my tooth. Looking back on the experience now I can't help but laugh, but it was a little embarrassing at the time it happened.. I was at a friend's house celebrating his birthday and chipped my tooth on a hard tiled floor after attempting the infamous "worm" dance move.. it's okay to laugh now, it's kind of funny! I chipped a pretty big chunk of my front tooth off though, but was glad it didn't hurt. I had to go a few days before I could see a dentist, because everything was closed because of the holidays. I was not very happy that I had to go to school with a gap in my mouth after break was over, but luckily had it fixed that very day! The procedure was quick and pain-free; all the dentist had to do was adhere a fake piece onto the rest of my tooth. I really hope that it will stay put for a very, very long time.. but only time will tell! Obviously I can't live my life worrying about hard foods that might knock it right back out again, but I'm being as cautious and aware as possible. If it happens to fall out, then I will just need to get a more permanent replacement!


ha ha ha

Pretty soon, at the end of May, I will be taking the next Norwegian proficiency test. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little anxious and nervous, but everybody seems pretty positive that I will be able to pass. I have confidence that I will be able to pass myself, but I just have to study as much as I can when I'm not at school, or at work when I'm speaking Norwegian. It's important for Anders and I to talk as much Norwegian as we can together (including when I'm around friends too), watching Norwegian TV programs and even reading the newspaper. I'm doing the best I can, but I will only be able to study so much.. Norskprøve 3 is kind of like the SATS, because no matter how long you study for it, you still won't know the topics that you'll be reading, hearing, writing and talking about. It's important that I pass the test my first try though, because not only is it expensive, but it will help me tremendously when it comes to finding another job this summer! They are passing a rule now in Oslo for all immigrants to have documentation that they have passed Norskprøve 3 to get a job in Norway.

I've worked a few more times as a substitute in the kindergarten where I currently have my internship! I feel blessed for the opportunity and I'm having a lot of fun with it! It's definitely helping me to network with people that may become important resources for me when I try looking for jobs. My hope of finding/wanting a full-time job this summer has drastically changed though, because of GOOD NEWS! I found out last week that I got accepted into the Special Needs Education masters program at the University of Oslo that will commence this upcoming August!!!! I was a little surprised to hear the news, because I almost had forgotten about it in a sense. I applied back in November, but at that time wasn't so sure what I wanted to do in my future here.. this past year (almost) has been a bit of struggle with finances and personal matters so I had told myself that it would be best, with whatever answer I received back from UiO, that I would do everything that I could to find a full-time job and take a break from going to school and start to make a consistent income.. I took a long, hard look at things again once I received such great news and concluded that it actually will be best to continue my education and receive my master's degree. Yes, having a steady income and lots of extra money can be a good thing, but I'm only 22 (almost 23), so why am I rushing to find a full-time job!? Even if I found a full-time job, it wouldn't be something that I would want to continue for many years and then what would happen after that? I would probably end up going back to school anyways later on.. so I know now that I can't pass up such an AMAZING opportunity. UiO is rated one of the best universities in Norway and one of the best in all of Scandinavia! It's a leading university in Europe too! I can't even express how excited I am that I accepted the offer.. it'll give me a chance to perfect what exactly I want to do when I grow up, give me the opportunity to make new friends, network with people and have the opportunity just to continue to live here in Oslo! The welcoming ceremony for all students starts only a few days after I return back from Norway from the US in August, so it's perfect timing! I could write forever about UiO and how excited I am, but I thought if anybody wondered more about the university that they could read about it on their homepage: http://www.uio.no/english/.

Other than the great news, all is well. I look forward to the end of school when I can relax and focus on other things.. after I take the test at the end of May I'll be taking a long weekend in London to unwind and meet up with a old friend whom I met on Semester At Sea! It's definitely happening now, just need to buy my plane ticket soon! I'll be traveling from June 2nd - June 6th; it's definitely going to be an adventure!

Something fun: I got to go to one of Norway's famous circuses, called Arnardo. It brought back good memories as a kid.. it was filled with lots of types of acrobatics, strength and of course animals :) Here are some pics:



There were many protesters there too.. "Yes to circuses, without animals."









A short video: stuffed animal monkeys riding on the backs of donkeys.. funny!

evening stroll

Now this isn't very likely for me to write 2 blog posts within a 2-day span, but I just wanted to add a slideshow of pics that I took on an evening stroll around Bygdøy last night! Bygdøy is a peninsula that juts off of the city and is still considered a part of Oslo!

It's where the King and Queen's house is, as well as a lot of other very big and expensive property. It's not very big and we walked probably half way around in a couple hours or so (we took lots of breaks to take pics). We discovered lots of little beaches that I cannot wait to come back to in the summer. It was a beautiful walk!

Happy Easter everyone!

It has come time again for another blog post! Now I am sprawled out on the couch, relaxing up a storm, because it's Easter vacation now! It started on Monday for me and I won't have to go back to school until next Tuesday. Not everybody gets such a long break for Easter vacation though.. people that have full-time jobs (excluding schools and private businesses/kindergartens/etc.) had to work Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday (although a lot took off yesterday too). Most everybody will now have free today (Skjærtorsdag), Friday (Langfredag), Saturday (Påskeaften), Sunday (Påskedag), and Monday (2. Påskedag). The flower shop is open on Saturday for some reason, along with some others, so I actually picked up hours to work then, which is good, because we don't have any plans, and I need the money. During these 5 days food shops, boutiques and the public transportation system have limited hours of operation, so one has to be aware of this and make sure to get most of their errands done before. Some places that are closed until next Tuesday include libraries and post offices, which I found out the hard way yesterday! I tried to pick up a package that my mother sent me, and tried to get a library card, but both places were closed before the afternoon and won't be re-opening until after the weekend, good grief! Anyways, during this time it is common/traditional for Norwegians to spend time at their cabins or 'hytta' and go skiing, or travel to other places with family and friends. Anders and I won't be traveling these next 5 days, but instead we went to a friend's cabin last week from Thursday-Sunday night up in Trysil. There was 8 of us total, 2 girls and 6 guys. All the guys went skiing and snowboarding, while my girlfriend and I just took it easy, wandered downtown and relaxed. It was a nice weekend!


Downtown Trysil.. I'm obsessed with tree art lately!


Anders all suited up! :)


View of the mountains from our cabin.

It's been quite nice having an actual break from school, besides the days that I was home sick (they don't count!). I will need to do some work while I'm home though, because I have some assignments to do and just for my own benefit, because I have to start preparing for the Norwegian test that I'll be taking at the end of May! I need to re-read Stein På Stein, the book that I was reading with my previous class, because most of the topics that will be on this test will come from this book. I have a lot of confidence that I will pass these tests though, I just need to be careful not to make too many careless mistakes. We took a practice test the other week and when we went through it, I realized all these silly mistakes that I had made, probably because I was just nervous/stressed taking it, but if I just relax and do the best I can, I think I will come out of it alive! I really need to pass both the oral and written tests though, because it's only going to make my job hunting endeavors a little bit easier, although it isn't always a qualification in the job search. Speaking of which, I actually found a kindergarten assistant job online last night and sent in an application along with my CV, just for 'shits & giggles' I guess. It's for an outdoor kindergarten in one of the nicest parts of Oslo and the position starts at the end of July, which would be perfect for me, although if I happen to be called into an interview I would have to ask if it would be okay to jump the starting date up 2 weeks, because I'll be in the US. Although I would like to nail a full-time job before I travel back home, I have to be realistic too. I'll be done my class at the end of June and then only 1 month later I'll be in the US. I don't think it would be the best to start a job only for a few weeks and then have to leave for 2 weeks, when I'm just starting to adjust into a new environment. So, this is my new plan! I'll just have to suck it up, be patient and keep working hard at the flower shop with whatever hours I am given every week, which still isn't consistent, but I have to be grateful that I am given any hours at all! I made a little mistake yesterday though, which really stressed me out, but I think nothing bad will come of it.. apparently I was on the schedule to work a few hours at the flower shop yesterday, but I had no idea and it wasn't written down in my little day planer, which I have become accustomed to writing everything down in! I had about 10 missed calls on my phone yesterday from colleagues wondering where I was.. when I finally saw the calls and called back they had already found a replacement and said not to worry, but I was really confused. I guess a new schedule had been put up Monday, which I had to have overlooked, because I worked Monday and saw that I had to work this upcoming Saturday, but didn't see anything for Wednesday.. good gracious, maybe I need glasses! My boss is in Sweden for the week, so I hope she won't be too mad when she finds out. It was a honest mistake, but a solution was found. No one can be perfect, right??

I'm also trying to plan a small trip to both London and Madrid before I fly back to the US this summer. A friend of mine that I met on Semester At Sea, and whom I flew out to Wisconsin in summer 2010 to visit, is going to be traveling in Europe in May and June and she wants me to meet her at the end of her journey in London! I of course am ALL for it and pretty sure that it can happen. I already asked if it was okay to take a couple days off from school, so that I can make my trip a long weekend and be worth it. Flight tickets through a flight company called Ryan Air are also unbelievably cheap, and a round-trip flight ticket from Oslo to London will be only around $50! Crazy! I would be flying out of and into smaller airports though and there are some restrictions, but a $50 trip is hard to pass up! I don't have so much money in the world to make this happen, but I know that we are on the same page and we would probably stay at a hostel and just re-live when we traveled the world together. I cannot wait!! Plans are still tentative, but we're working on them, but I'm thinking I will be going right after the Norwegian test, so either June 1st, or 2nd until the 5th! My roommate from SAS, whom I visited in WI in summer 2010 too, will also be in Madrid in July with her family, because her brother is studying abroad there. I'm trying to make plans to go visit her as well, which will be a lot easier to make, because classes will be over, but the flight is more expensive. Anders and I also really want to try to go to Italy at the end of summer, or in the fall, but we'll have to see how the summer pans out first. I need to find a job first! So many plans and ideas though, I just hope that I will be able to do most of them, if not all of them.

I was hoping to spend a lot of time wandering the city this week, but the weather dropped some degrees from the last couple of weeks. Now you have to bundle up a bit if you're going to go outside, although last week we were soaking up the warm sun in a park! These bipolar weather patterns remind me of life in NH, where it was always unpredictable. But, now that Anders isn't working for the rest of the week, we're going to try to find some new places to take a hike! Last week, and the week before that, we wandered around the city together and he showed me new streets that I had never been down before, which was cool! I have also fallen in love with lounging around Akershus Festning which is a fort right next to the harbor that was used during the wars to defend Oslo from attackers. We took some great pics!















Oslo's soccer team Vålerenga has started playing again too, which makes Anders very happy.. so we went to their home game opener at Ullevål stadium!



Now that spring is coming, I have decided that I want to lose a little weight. I know that this shouldn't be one of my main priorities at the moment, but I just want to get in the habit of eating healthy all the time and watching my 'sweets' intake a little better, because let's be honest, ever since I was a little girl I could never say no to something sweet, or chocolaty. I'm not giving it up completely, but I'm teaching myself a little self-control I guess you could say, ha ha. I actually started writing my daily food in-take in a little journal, just to see how I eat on a daily basis without thinking much about it, and hopefully I can re-read through the entries and make some healthy changes. Over the last few months too I haven't been so consistent at going to the gym on a regular basis, which is for a number of reasons that sometimes I was just too busy and too tired, but Anders and I are trying to be dedicated to going to the gym regularly every week. I know this will give me a lot more energy and can act as a stress reliever and also make me feel good about myself all the time too, which is most important! It will also help my recovery with my knee, which has been amazing me lately, but I still have my bad days.

I still haven't heard back from the University of Oslo yet about my application status on the Special Education Master's program, but I'm pretty sure by the end of this month I will hear back. I am also still waiting to hear from the organization called NOKUT, which is an organization that evaluates foreigners education and pretty much says whether your education/degree matches standards here, or not. Having a Bachelor's degree from the US, I don't think there will be any problems, but I'm still pretty eager to here from them. The process takes on average 4 months though, so I have a little more time to wait it out, because they received the last of my application/paperwork in January. Because my degree is a little 'different', I'm assuming/hoping they will say that my degree fits in the category of general pedagogy, but we'll see, whatever the system decides is what they decide. All I'm hoping is that I don't need to take any extra classes to fulfill what a Bachelor's degree is here, because I already took 4 years of classes in the US for it! Anders thinks that I don't need to worry so much about it, so I guess he's right. Patience and time have become my 2 new best friends here!