Letter home from Norwegian Summer (camp)

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry for not writing more lately, I've been caught up in the summer.

Where to begin?

Well, for starters, I passed on a trip down the coast to watch boats and eat ice cream so I could write this.  It wasn't a popular decision, but I had to catch you up on everything.

There was camping in the Oslo fjord.  It was great!  If you were on Facebook, you could see my photo albums, but I'll include some here.

The fishing didn't go so well.  It took me about three, different outings to figure out how to catch actual fish and not just seaweed.

But the swimming has been fun.  It started with the water being really cold!  Like 15 Celsius (59 Fahrenheit), but, in the last few weeks, its been up to 21 (69 Fahrenheit).  Which is pretty cool.  Not so cool is that most of the beaches are rocky and don't have the easiest exit strategies.

Of course, there have been a few nights out.

But, uhmm, there was also a field trip to the old harbor town of Skudeneshavn.

The crown jewel of this old town is the old, foghorn factory which is now a store... which doesn't sell foghorns. 

I know this letter is lacking in substance, but it's hard with the great weather outside.

See you again in August!  Until then, sun only sun!

Sincerely,

Son #2

Alt for Norge

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Buy my non-Norway based book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-New-Normal-ebook/dp/B008M0GPW2

EuroVision and Sunshine

Above is Norway's entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest held last Saturday.

(If you're asking yourself "What is Eurovision?" Here is a long answer, but, in short, it's a competition where many of the countries on the continent + a few, neighboring countries perform songs, one per country, and the citizens of all of Europe vote for the winner)

Even if this is confusing to you, there's only one thing you need to know.  Norway finished fourth.  They should have won.

Listen to the song.  It's epic (I think it sounds like a Bond song!).  It's moving (she's feeding you her love!).  It's well performed (even if this isn't the actual contest performance, it pretty much is identical).  Yet, it languished in a distant fourth place to the eventual winner (Denmark, whose song is aptly described as "Rihanna in Westeros"), Azerbaijan, and Ukraine.

Yes, in a European-wide song contest, they finished behind a country that's not in Europe.

At least they didn't finish behind this behemoth from Romania.

And that's all I can muster about Eurovision...  If you want a better, thought out summary, please refer to this blog.

OTHER, WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS:

- As I stare at the third, straight day of chilly weather and rain, I just keep thinking about the days preceding those.  They were three, magical days of uninterrupted, 70+ F (22+ C) weather and it was amazing.  You'll be in my heart forever...

- My birthday is in two weeks and it was just announced that, on June 19th, Immortal Technique will be performing in Oslo... Take those two facts for what you will

- I, seriously, just listened to the entirety of the Tarzan song just now.  Wow.  It's not even my top-five, favorite, Disney song.  Here's the order of my list that it's in: 1) "A Whole New World" (Aladdin); 2) "Colors of the Wind" (Pocahontas); 3) "Circle of Life" (Lion King); 4) The Beauty and the Beast song... Tale as old as time?; 5) "Kiss the Girl" (The Little Mermaid)

uhmm... yeah,

ALT FOR NORGE

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The return of plus degrees

In America, there are countless signs that Spring is approaching.  Baseball season starts, college kids violating State of Florida ordinances while at Spring Break, warmer temperatures, etc.

Alas, only one of those are present here in Norway (well, two... but one is well-known).

That's right, it's getting warmer.

For those of you that are too cool for metric (Hey, America... what up?), the idea of "plus degrees" (you know, above zero) may seem like its radically cold here.  However, all it means is that the weather is consistently above 32 Fahrenheit (yeah, Norway isn't a windbreaker-in-March place).

Which means the snow is melting giving us a view of all that dead grass and a smell of all the rotting leaves (leaf removal is not a priority).

BUT, as last year has taught me, after that is washed away by the rain (April showers bring May showers), things start perking up.

(Here's how you know you live in a cold place, when you Google for spring pictures, the overwhelming majority have snow in them)

Just seeing this picture, and waking up to the third straight day above 0 (2, if you're scoring at home) makes me ready to go grilling in the park.  Which is a national pastime here.  As soon as the first patches of brown-green turf emerge from the receding ice and decomposed leaves, Norwegians will throw a blanket on it and fire up the grill.  Don't let it get in the teens...

That's when the party starts... while it doesn't quite get as turned up as it does in the States

The party can jump off...

Well, maybe it does get a little crazier here.

Alt for Norge

Like me on Facebook: facebook.com/OSLOST

Follow me on Twitter: @BoomerOSLO

Buy my non-Norway based book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-New-Normal-ebook/dp/B008M0GPW2

17.5

May 17th is sorta an important day in Norway... ok, ok, ok.  It's THE MOST important day in Norway.  Since Norway has always been, more or less, an independent nation (or rather grouping of marauding Vikings... whichever term you prefer), it treats the day the Constitution (or most recent iteration of their government) was signed (1814, if you're keeping track at home) as their day to celebrate all things Norway.  Ever since I arrived here, I have been, constantly, told that "nothing compares to it" that it is amazing and quite the spectacle (in a good way).

You know what?  It was a pretty dope affair.

The first thing that caught my attention were the parades... oh, the parades.  There were three altogether.  Children's, Adult, and Military.  We opted for the children's version and were witness to ALL the children of Oslo.  Oslo is a little smaller than Baltimore (or Seattle) so, as you can imagine, that's a lot of kids.  They each had the banner from their school, or social group, and each kid was waving a flag.  The parade route went all the way to the Royal Palace where the King, himself, greeted each participant from his balcony several stories up.  The crowd joined in singing along to the national anthem (seriously, that thing has like a dozen verses) and random shouts of "hip hip hooray!".  In the distance, the Akers Fortress cannon fired off a few dozen times to let us know that the celebration was on.

As you can see in my video, there were a lot of people here to see the parade and celebrate the National Day.  It felt like every person in the greater Oslo area turned up and I can, honestly, say that there have been few other events I have attended where there were more people.

Another fun part of the day is that its tradition to eat ice cream and sausages.  Fine by me, after about ten minutes, I had a strawberry ice cream in one hand and a sausage in potato wrap in the other standing shoulder to shoulder with my new countrymen.  Many of them had on the traditional bunad while, a lot like me, were just in suits (though, other traditional clothing was welcome... there were a fair amount of dashikis).

This guy won the award for best bunad... oh, I'm mean mugging someone who cut in front of my picture... Norwegians can be jerks

Though, the highlight of the day (ok... one of the highlights.  The Russ impromptu dance party was pretty awesome, too.  I promise to write an article about that on Friday) was attending an international function after the parade.  There was free champagne and really good finger food (really, REALLY good shrimp).  Oh, did I mention the champagne was free?

Altogether, it really gave me some perspective on this odd nation.  Sure, Norwegians may be reserved and inwardly focused, but they love their own country and coming together to celebrate it.  While I still feel somewhat apart from this place and have questions than answers, at times, I understand celebrating your history and hopes for the future.  Seeing all the other people, of various ethnic backgrounds, gave me a sense that there was room here for everyone willing to do their part.  I look forward to my next May 17th and I hope that it happens here in Oslo.

Alt for Norge

the early morning hustle

So... I thought I'd write about once a week, sharing all the witty things in my head analyzing the world I now live in.

Though, the one thing I've come to realize is that, like life anywhere, once you get in a routine, its hard to recognize what is noteworthy from just happenstance.  Plus, how interesting would it be to read about me waking up, eating breakfast, and trying to get to class through all the snow?

That being said, I was just going to write about not watching the Super Bowl.  Until a girl passed out on my morning tram ride.

While I don't know what happened to her (she seriously just fell) and would never make light of the situation (while she seemed to be ok when the EMTs took her away, people have died from less), it was interesting to note the radical differences in "reactions" from the passer-bys.

(You would not believe how easy it is to get distracted, I was trying to find a picture of people responding crazy to someone falling down and I ended up here... good song *NSFW*, but weird way to find it)

When the girl first fell/fainted/lost consciousness, there was a visible response of at least a few people issuing "hey, she's not moving and she should be moving and not standing and that would be a very advisable thing to do at this juncture of time and place" concern, followed by a quick response of kneeling to help the person in distress.

This is in complete contrast, generally speaking, to how it would've been perceived back home (we have more of a "laugh and point and film" approach to people in distress... no, seriously *NSFW*).  I probably shouldn't judge because I laugh at silly things.

Though, it was nice to see that the Norwegian spirit of helping their fellow man isn't just reserved to paying a lot in taxes, but actually doing something on a personal level... (I know, right?!?).  Though, on the flip side, two several stops from the fainting location, was a scheduled stop at a hospital (like, the hospital was about 70 40 meters, 225 135 feet, from the tram doors).  It doesn't take a master detective to figure out what might've been a better solution to the situation.  Sure, that may not have been a viable solution (who would stabilize the prone person for the herky jerky ride?  who would prevent passengers from accidentally stepping on the person? etc.), but all I know is that my morning was delayed for forty twenty minutes (did I mention the close proximity of the hospital?  It was roughly a mile, 1.3 km, away... slightly more reassuring than this) due to the whole incident.

Just saying, Oslo... let's try to be problem solvers here...

Rap lyric I'd incorporate into a song if I were a rapper:
Never tested, competition softer than Jergen/We in the clubs makin' it rain like Stavanger or Bergen