lifeasmission

Oslo and Middle School

August 21, 2006

Do you remember the first day of middle school?  It wasn’t quite as initimidating as your first day of Kindergarten; afterall, you had been doing the school thing for quite a while.  But at the same time, it was a big first.  If your expereince was like mine, then the first day of middle school meant a new building, a new bus, new teachers, new hallways, new policies and procedures, and most important of all, it meant going back to being the low-man (woman) on the totem pole.  Scary, intimidating, nerveracking, and overwhelming, those are some of the words I’d use to desrcibe how I felt about my first day of middle school.  Coming to Oslo has been a lot like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Oslo (quite unlike middle school), but there is so much that is different.  The words are hard to pronounce, most of the signs are written in Norwegian, the streets, instead of being aligned in some sort of grid, are kind of maze-like, making it tough to remember how to get around.  Everyone speaks Norwegian.  Thankfully, almost everyone is fluent in English as well, making communication at least possible, but at the same time I have come across some Norwegians who are hesitant to engage in conversation in English because they are shy about how well they can speak it and others who kind of have an attitude about it (not unlike arrogant Americans who look down on those who only speak their native language).  Like the rest of the world (except for the US), Norway operates on the metric system – liters, kilometers, meters and so forth.  Oslo is extremely expensive, moreso than either southern California or New York City.  A gallon of gas (here that would be 3 liters) is going for about 6 bucks (actually 12 kroners per liter).  A 20 oz. bottle of diet Pepsi is a little more than 3 dollars and a pair of jeans will run you around 100 bucks.  It’s not cheap living.

On the upside, there is a great public transportation system.  The bus lines, subways, and trans all operate as a single unit.  Meaning, if you buy a weekly or monthly pass, it is good for any of those methods of transportation.  The city is nowhere near as crowded as cities in the states.  It is cleaner and less noisy as well.  People walk or bike everywhere and over long distnaces.  It kind of feels like Disneyland with some cars thrown in. 

Maria bought me a bike and a map, so I have been busy figuring out the city and where stuff is.  There is something cool to see everywhere you go.  There’s a river with trails along either side, a mountain in the distance with a ski jump from the Olympics.  The harbour is not far away.  More centrally, there’s the Parliment building, the Royal Palace which you can walk right up to, massive cathedrals, and other sites of architectural note.

I have spent a good bit of time at MF, the school Maria is teaching at.  They have granted me “hospitant” status which means I have access to all the resources of the school – library, Internet, workout facilities, and even classes.  Starting tomorow I will be attending a biblical thelogy course on synoptic and pauline theology (in English).  I have also met a bunch of Maria’s friends and a number of them have invited me to play futbol (soccer) with them.

This truly has been a great experience so far.  I have been made keenly aware of just how much of a disservice is done to Americans when they are led to believe that theirs in the culture to which all others ought to aspire, or even worse, the only truly valid one.  There is so much more to the world than America and American culture. 

I’ll definitely have more to say about that and about Oslo in general later (more pictures as well), but that should do for now.

Ha det bra!

Posted in: culture, random, school