Status Update

Liisa visited last week, and we had a good time. :D Had great weather her first day and her last, we climbed Ulriken and wandered around Svartediket then (until we almost missed the bus to the airport), I sent her on the Norway in a Nutshell tour tuesday, and otherwise checked out Bryggen and Fantoft Stavkirke and Gamle Haugen in miserable cold rain, and bummed out at the free University museums. As I told her, I'd miss her so much if I had ever been able to take her for granted... but this is the way it is for us, long distance Skype and emails has ever been the norm - we were close before we got into this two year period of seeing each other every 3-6 months, and I'm more confident than I can be with many of my friends, that we'll stay close afterwards as well. But still it's a bit sad to see this era of geographical proximity coming to an end. ;_;

Ingibjorg has been sick the last few days, so I haven't had Norwegian class and my existence here has been even more lazy than usual. I literally have nothing to justify the last two days of freedom. :) It's raining cold and nasty, can't see the city out my window, even Fløyen is getting stripped of it's snow cover as I watch, and the only redeeming feature in the landscape is Starefossen, roaring at the moment, so there's no impulse to explore the great outdoors, not this time. But this weekend is fun, at least - Thursday night was the BSI Friluft party where I ran into some friends from Hallingskeid and met some new ones as well. Yesterday night was Club Alrek, a very small group turned up for Karaoke night but as a result we all got to know each other, again I came up with a bunch of new friends who Em and I have invited to a Full English Breakfast/Brunch on Sunday. :) And tonight it looks like I'm going to meet my third group of friends, Charlotte and the guys from Fantoft, at Kvarteret. Too bad Erin and Alyssa from Australia, and Arnaud from Reunion had to go back home. :( Oh, and tomorrow night Monica (my Bergen Buddy) has invited me to another potluck. So this weekend is far from pointless - it's rather a weekend of touching bases, new faces, and the renewal of social ties. :P /why-anthropologists-have-no-friends

I'm so glad I'm living in Alrek. There's a really cozy community feeling here. There are three English girls, two Irish, me, two Germans (+?), a Pole, a Swede, a guy from the Isle of Man, and a Dutch girl here... and as far as I'm aware, the remainder of the residents are Norwegian. Which is great for me and my language and cultural knowledge acquisition. :)