A short train ride, Another European city

The Town Hall

I arrived early the day before the EMA meeting began, and the hotel wouldn't let me check-in so what was I to do? Hop on a train of course! I'd already "been there, done that" in Brussels, so I spent about a half day in the college town of Leuven.

I'd read about it online and how every place was a bar... and that was a pretty good description. One of my fellow HEEMsters raved about Leuven and his experience as an undergraduate there. Personally, I wasn't all that impressed with Leuven, but I could see how a young undergraduate could have a crazy fun time!

I meandered the cobble stone streets, enjoyed views of the historic buildings, and hunted out every park bench, tree stump, and church pew in order to rest my poor ankle. Apparently I still haven't figured out how to walk on cobble stones, and I hurt myself.. and it caused me grief for the rest of the trip.

In any case, I enjoyed "getting out." I love visiting new places, and visiting Leuven staved off my hunger for travel... for a little while at least. 

Upper Left: Tree limbs that have been intertwined and grown together; Lower Left: The university library

Another EMA meeting in Brussels!

It was back to Brussels for me this April! This time for another meeting with the Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association (EMA). It's always a breath of fresh air to meet with such an international group and always so fun to meet new people and see some old faces too. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures (okay, only one), but I was lucky enough to have a nice roommate who shared some of hers with me. The photos were taken at the Comics restaurant during one of our group dinners. Unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to experience Brussels this time... I left earlier on Sunday and I was just simply too tired to have late nights... I'm a lame-o I know. Maybe another trip to Brussels I will get to enjoy Delirium and waffles - I'm sure this isn't my last.

København Part 2

Buildings in downtown Copenhagen - LEGO version on the left, real version on the right.

During the Easter week, Andri and I went to Copenhagen again. We had a nice time even though nothing was remarkable about this trip. We bought the usual meat and cheese at a much better price than in Norway. We even found a package of 4 big portobello mushrooms for only 10 kroners (Danish)! In Norway, you can't really find them... unless you want to buy a whole package of button mushrooms for the single portobello mushroom that is included.  

During the break (Norway officially has 3 public holidays around Easter - Thursday, Friday, and Monday), I also worked on and nearly finished my Norwegian paper. It's quite lengthy, with academic citations and all. On Easter Sunday, we enjoyed some Icelandic Easter eggs again. And that is Easter holiday 2012 in a nutshell.

Have you seen the northern lights?

So the biggest news as of late is that I finally have a job... sorta. I actually have a NAV arbeidspraksis at NL, a small Norwegian based designer lamp company. A NAV arbeidspraksis is like a traineeship. NAV is the agency in Norway that runs all of the social services like healthcare, unemployment, etc. (you know, it's the Norwegian socialist agency that some Americans are afraid of..).

Anyway, my position (Public Relations Coordinator) is managed by both NAV and NL. I've been working here for about a month now, and it is quite nice. I could absolutely get used to the relaxed Norwegian approach to work and vacations/holidays. The NL crew is a young and wonderful group of people to work with!

So this arbeidspraksis thing... I cannot believe that no one told me about it earlier! I had no idea that it existed, and I especially had no idea that it was an option for me! I first heard about the arbeidspraksis scheme through a friend I met in a FB group back in October, but I thought I was ineligible since I am here on a student resident permit. It turns out that I was wrong. This is an excellent opportunity to finally gain some non-American work experience and gain a Norwegian reference. I am also working in a field that is very new to me, so I've learned some new and interesting things so far.

BTW.. we are hosting a giveaway of one of our Bell lamps. Join our giveaway here! I'll be sure to post more about it later. It's open worldwide, so everyone can join in!

In the spotlight

My faculty at the UiO runs a blog about higher education issues and upcoming events and opportunities in the field of higher education research. Since I'm a recent graduate of the faculty, I've been spotlighted on their blog! Check out the HEDDA blog to read about moi :)

While I was away..

I have no excuses, and I know that it's been awhile since I've last posted. Instead of blogging I decided to use my time a little differently... like applying for jobs and jobs and more jobs and studying more Norwegian language. In case you've been wondering what I've been doing since the holidays, I enrolled in an advanced Norwegian language class. It's tough. Real tough. I'm worried about the exam, yet it's still almost a full 3 months away.

Unfortunately I have not taken part in any activities or museum outings yet this year. However, there really hasn't been anything interesting to go to.. and I've been busy anyway. Andri and I did try toboganning for the first time! We went to Korketrekkeren, which is Oslo's most popular sledding area. It was a lot of fun, though a bit scary for me.. but Andri loved it! The track was much longer than I expected it to be. At the end of the run, you just hop on the t-bane (metro) and ride it for about 11 minutes back to the top. It was my first sledding experience ever, and we went on a very cold evening when it was dark. Unfortunately we could not get any good pictures because it was so dark, and we had hoped to go back before winter ended to get some. BUT this has been the shortest and worst (best?) winter I've ever experienced since leaving Washington state.

There has been very little snow this year. The snow arrived late in 2011, and the last week of February felt like April already. Needless to say since winter was cut short, and we never really got to enjoy the winter things that we had hoped to do.. like toboganning again and trying cross country skiing again this season. We even found a very close, not-so-crowded place to try skiing, but it was too late once we found it and the snow is now gone. I'm a bit torn because I really don't like winter or snow, but you come to expect more of a winter when living in Norway, so I'm also a bit disappointed.

In any case, I hope to get back into a routine of blogging and enjoying Oslo again too. Expect to see more from me from now on :)

København Part 1

Yes, Copenhagen again. Andri and I are certainly not tired of it. (And I say part 1 because I already know that there will be a part 2 in 2012). It's always fun to get out of the city.. and go to another one, especially when it's free. I'm not sure how many times we've gone to Copenhagen now, but we have never paid for a single trip. Not one.

We are kind of done with the tourist sites in Copenhagen, but we still enjoy just walking in the city and shopping too. Many things are MUCH cheaper in Copenhagen than in Oslo. One store that we always visit is called Tiger. It's basically a dollar store (10 kroner store), and it doesn't exist in Norway. It's not quite the same as the Dollar Tree.. they actually sell some really nice things at Tiger.. and some unusual things too. It's always fun visiting the store, and we always buy something.