Alarm clock set up for 5:15

Flying to Tromsø first thing in the morning.
While getting ready for tomorrow, I came across the luggage tag that identified my suitcase four months and four days ago, when I arrived in Oslo and inevitably started looking back at what was in my mind back then. It's pointless to compare what were the expectations of the guy sitting on the flight TP649529 with the result of this first four months, but it's an exercise your mind makes faster than you notice. The reason it's pointless is that the past expectations entailed at least a minimum knowledge you thought you had about what it was going to be like. A wiser exercise would be, perhaps, to look to the next six months keeping in mind this knowledge acquired in the meanwhile about the expectations and "receive with simplicity everything that happens to you" like it's said in the beginning of A Serious Man by Coen brothers.
This is an utopia and I do realize it. Only a Buddha is able to do this and, although I'm getting fatter, it's not that much,
I won't be writing before January so it's useless to come here until then.
Last words to thank everybody who made this four months possible and to wish them and the ones reading this from Portugal a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Oliver

Luckily, this year has been very interesting in a lot of levels. Besides the incredible people I’ve been meeting and the incredible places I’ve already visited, I’ve been discovering, step by step what the Norwegian culture is.

Art is one of the aspects present in the definition of culture. I’ve learned about some artists at school, I’ve visited museums, I’ve heard, when advised, to some Norwegian groups and, recently, I had the opportunity to see a musical performed by kids aged from 10 to 18.

I was first invited to the premiere, again to a second performance in which the Norwegian King was present and finally (if I don’t manage, with this post, to convince someone to invite me again) a third time that wasn’t any less impressive than the two others.

We always applause young kids’ effort and agree it’s so sweet that they’re trying. This time, I applauded a great artistic moment performed by very smart, talented and hard-working little actors.

It helps when you have incredible singers, that’s, for sure, the base of the performance, but there is so much more than this. The best way to describe the quality of the acting is by saying that with my basic norwegian skills, I managed to understand quite well what was going on.

What I liked the most was a solo singing moment by the girl playing Oliver. She has this touching young voice with just a bit of insecurity and an abnormal simplicity.

The older actors are incredibly talented and you can tell by the facial expressions  how passionate they are with what they are doing.

For the ones interested, here is the official link: http://www.baerumkulturhus.no/arrangement/595

If you want to go, but don’t know who to go with, invite me, I will be so glad. The last shows are this weekend so it might be difficult to get tickets if you don't order before the day.

(the picture is from the website I set the link before)

Meet you there.

Lunch break in Norway

I've just came been in a snowball fight. Turns out, this is what we do around here in lunch breaks. And I got 5+ in my Maths Christmas exam which lasted for five long hours.

Norwegian response to the butter crisis as an example of Norwegian way of thinking

Everybody who is reading this, regardless being in Portugal, in Norway, in the US, in Germany or in Argentina, has already heard about the lack of butter that Norwegians are facing.

Media around the world has been describing the butter crisis around here, how it’s affecting people and the bizarre histories such as the one about the man that was caught trying to bring 90kg from Sweden.

Meanwhile, today, in the front page of the biggest Norwegian newspaper, you could read “Se hvordan du kan lager ditt eget smør” which means “See how you can make your own butter” and in the cover of the Economic section “Smørkrisen kunne vært unngått”: “Butter crisis could have been avoided”.

This quick answer showing what you can make to circumvent the problem and pointing out the reasons for what went wrong so it won’t happen again shows how, instead of worrying about the simple description of the problems or its consequences, Norwegians are interested in learning from the mistakes and dealing with the short-term effects in their own.

This is the song in my head when I manage to arrive school without falling

Christmas in Norway and Christmas in Portugal

Butter threatens the norwegian Christmas whereas austerity already took what's left of the portuguese one.

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Norsk Folkemuseum III

Norsk Folkemuseum II

Norsk Folkemuseum

11.12.11

julemarkedet 11.12.11

Denne i bordet betyr at det er ikke varm i dag

I morgen, bare10kr. Du hjelper Kosegruppe! (lavkarbo)

7.12.11

nå

It's snowing

Next week

Helg i Sverige; Fim de semana na Suécia; Weekend in Sweden

På norsk:

Lørdag:

7:30 våknet opp, frokost, bagasje i bilen, sovne

11:00 våknet opp i Sverige

Klokken tolv gikk jeg og min vertsfamilie til et Julemarket . Vi parkerte bilen, gikk til parken hvor det var og fant ut det var stengt til klokken et. Vi var ikke lyst til å vente så vi bestemt oss å komme tilbake senere

Vi brukte resten av morgen til å gå rundt i Gøteborg, som er en flott by, går til butikker, ta bilder (ti av dem er her i bloggen)

Vi spist en svensk lunsj. Det var førsten varm lunsj jeg spiste på noen måneder, som var fint, selv om jeg er vant til norske måltider

Ettermiddag, gikk vi litt mer i den nest størst byen i Sverige. Fordi av regn, istedenfor Julemarket, kjørt vi til “Aeroseum aviation museum” (et museum med flyer fra Kaldt Krige). Denne var min favoritt del av helgen. Jeg syns alle som kan bør besøke dette museum selv om, som meg, forstår ingenting om flyer

Rundt klokken halv åtte, kjørt vi tilbake til byen sentrum og spist en stor mongolsk middag. Etter middagen var spist, gikk vi i femten minuter (jeg hadde spist nok til å gå i femten timer)

Søndag:

I morges spist vi frokost i hotellet og dro til Volvo Museum. Det var en kjempe fint museum. Spesialt fordi du ikke ser nok Volvoer i Gøteborg. Det er ikke sant: halv av biler der er Volvoer. I museum lært jeg at det var penter Volvoer (etter 70 tallet)

Etter det, kjørt vi tilbake til gøteborg til å besøke Julemarketen. Dessverre, været ville ikke tillate oss det. Julemarketen var stengt fordi av vinden.

Før vi kom ti Norge, gikk vi til en butikk nærme grensen, hvor all nordmenn kjøper mat.

Denne helg var mye mer interessent enn denne texten

Em português:

Sábado:

7:30 acordar, pequeno-almoço, malas no carro, adormecer

11:00 acordar na Suécia

Ao meio-dia, eu e a minha família de acolhimento tentámos visitar um Julemarket (Mercado de Natal). Estacionámos o carro, andámos até ao parque onde aquilo era e percebemos que estava fechado até à 1. Como não estávamos para esperar decidimos voltar mais tarde

Passámos o resto da manhã a passear em Gotemburgo, a ir a umas lojas, a tirar umas fotografias (dez estão aqui no blogue)

Almoçámos à sueca (europeia). A primeira refeição quente ao fim de uns mesinhos soube bem, apesar de estar completamente habituado ao regime alimentar norueguês

À tarde, andámos mais um bocadinho na segunda maior cidade da Suécia. Por causa da chuva adiámos a ida ao Julemarket para Domingo e fomos, ao invés, ao“Aeroseum aviation museum” (um museu com os aviões suecos da Guerra Fria). Esta foi a minha parte favorita do fim de semana. Recomendo vivamente mesmo para quem, como eu, não percebe do assunto “aviões”

Às 7:30 (mais coisa menos coisa), voltámos para o centro da cidade e comemos um enorme jantar num restaurante mongólio. Para digerir, andámos 15 minutinhos (comi suficiente para andar quinze horas)

Domingo:

De manhã pequeno-almoçámos no hotel e fomos para o Museu da Volvo. Também é um brutal. Especialmente porque não se vêem suficientes Volvos em Gotemburgo (só metade dos carros é que são dessa marca). Aprendi que a Volvo produzia carros bonitos mas isso era antes dos anos 70

Voltámos para Gotemburgo para finalmente visitar o Julemarket mas, infelizmente, devido ao vento, fechara o parque

Antes de voltarmos para a Noruega, fomos a uma loja gigante perto da fronteira onde todos os noruegueses vão comprar comida

O fim de semana foi muito mais interessante que este texto

Acrescento nesta versão: saudades de coisas pormenorzinhos.

In english:

Saturday:

7:30 wake up, breakfast, bags in the car, fall asleep

11:00 wake up in Sweden

At 12 o’clock, me and my host family went to this Julemarket (Christmas Market). We parked the car, walked until the park where it was hosted and found out it was closed until 1. We didn't intend to wait we decided to come back later

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the lovely city of Gothenburg, going to some shops, taking some pictures (ten of them here in the blog)

We had a Swedish lunch. It was the first warm lunch in some months, which was nice, tough I’m completely used to the Norwegian meals

In the afternoon, we walked a bit more inside the second biggest city of Sweden. Due to the rainy weather we delayed the Julemarket’s plans to Sunday and went to “Aeroseum aviation museum” (a museum with Swedish airplanes from the Cold War). This was my favorite part of the weekend. I recommend this museum to everybody who has the chance to go there, even for the ones, like me, who don’t know a thing about the topic

Around 7:30, we drove back to the city center and had a huge Mongolian dinner. To digest, we walked for 15 minutes (I had eaten enough to walk for fifteen hours)

Sunday:

In the morning, we had breakfast in the hotel and drove to the Volvo Museum. It’s also a wonderful museum. Particularly interesting because you don’t get to see enough Volvos in Gothenburg. I’m kidding: half of the cars there are from that brand. In this museum, I learned that some Volvos actually looked nice (before the 70’s)

After that, we drove back to Gothenburg in order to visit the Julemarket. It became clear that, unfortunately, the weather didn’t want us to do that. The park was closed because of the unusual wind

Before coming back to Norway, we went to this big shop near the border, where all the Norwegians go to buy food

The weekend was much more interesting than this text

Göteborg

Weekend in Sweden

Fim-de-semana na Suécia

II

Aeroseum aviation museum

Helg i Sverige

My mom is going to love the Christmas present I just bought her

Gothenburg, Sweden

Gotemburgo, Suécia

Göteborg, Sverige

today, 22/11

You've most likely already understood that today is Tuesday. Apart from the regular Tuesday stuff: arrive at school at 10h10 to have Maths, Social Economy (Samfunnsøkonomi) and P.E., having dinner and going to the handball practice(still to go), there was a small thing that meant a lot to me.

Last week, on the break before the Samfunnsøkonomi's test I decided to take it in Norwegian. I had gotten a 5+ on the first test, which I wrote in English and for 90 minutes I convinced myself that I would be able to do well in Norwegian and that I had that first good mark to "save" me.

After finishing the test I was quite disappointed and afraid that the teacher wasn't going to understand my attempted-Norwegian. Therefore, I was very happy today when I got my 5.

In my personal opinion, when learning Norwegian, it is not difficult to write or read or even speak. The hardest part is listening and understanding but I'm sure even that will become natural after a while.

Mat i Norge og mat i Portugal (this is just a joke, I loved everything I ate so far in Norway, apart from kebab)

Været i Norge og været i Portugal

Still waiting for the snow

I hadn't been reading one of these for some years. Good exercise for learning some Norwegian.

This is what I’ve been doing in Norway:

School, handball trainings, football trainings, eating, redefining cold, waiting for snow, preparing for snow and learning Norwegian. Quite interesting.

Now I'm ready for Winter! It even says Viking on it

19:02 12/11/2011 1 hour and some years less in Portugal