Jeg prøver å lære meg norsk

Translation: I'm trying to learn Norwegian

Having a quick flick through my posts I've decided I have definitely not talked enough about learning Norwegian. After thinking about it for a while I can think of a few reasons why this is, I think its mainly because its a touchy subject and if I'm honest I've not been trying hard enough. I hate admitting it to myself but its true. I am learning a little all the time but I'm probably not being nearly as forceful with myself, I'm also a very hard critic.

So what level am I at now you may ask, and I would answer, a very low one (although Marianne being the kind loving person she is would probably disagree, at least she does to my face). I'm learning its very very difficult to assess progress, something I find very frustrating. On the one hand, I do know many words, and the very basics of sentence structure. I have a comically large knowledge of food in Norwegian for example and I know all the basic human activities such as;

Jeg er trøtt - I am tired.
Skal vi sove - Shall we sleep
Jeg er sulten - I am Hungry
Skal vi spiser - Shall we eat
Må på do - Directly translates as must on toilet, not the most polite way I understand but totally acceptable.
Douche - Shower

And yer lots of other basic things like that. I also know enough about the written language that most of the time I can read things in the correct way. Such as knowing the extra letters and pronouncing and not pronouncing certain letters, the e at the end of a word for example, it would be silent in English but isnt in Norwegian, and its more of an 'a' sound. Douche for exaple is pronouched 'doosha'. (I discuss this in the following two posts too http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/02/tias-birthday.html, http://gent-turning-troll.blogspot.no/2012/01/pals-birthday.html)

Combining my small known vocabulary with common sense words that sound like English and even more common sense of scenario and body language/gestures I am often pleasantly surprised and surprise others with the short conversations I can follow. However its very much pot luck, sometimes even short simple statements I have not got the foggiest whats being said.

There is of course also the dialect problem. People from Bergen for example speak what is called 'Bergensk' and this is a far cry from the Eastern dialect heard in and around Oslo. Its like comparing really extreme London cockney and Newcastle geordie accents, its technically the same language, but only just. This creates a problem for me as 90% of the shows on TV and 100% of the available audio books and online tutorials pronounce words completely differently to the way I've been taught so far and the from the people I hear speaking every day. All in all its a mine field of stress and confusion.

I'm going to bring this to a close as I could probably write thousands of words on this but I'll summarise by just saying, I love learning in small doses, I find it genuinely interesting, and I also want more than anything to be able to speak Norwegian. Not just for huge amount easier it would make my life but also for the people around me who are so patient with my ignorant English ways. But alas it is not easy, so I should probably stop writing about it and start practising.

A very helpful little kids book that I really must spend more time reading

After the Holiday. The good, the bad and the tedious.

I've been living in Bergen a month now and its fair to say the holiday period is well and truly over. Marianne even started her new job yesterday so I'm on my jack jones most of the day. So what have I been doing?

Lets start with the positive, went out a couple times in the last week or so and really enjoyed myself, plenty of bars and stuff and I have discovered you can even get drinks here from as little as 29kr if you use your noggin. Definitely becoming much more comfortable generally, met plenty of people and even managed a couple of hours of football the other day which although I'm still suffering, I really enjoyed.

Best news of all is I got my University Results last week and to my shock I got a 2.1!!  I'm aware most people dont know what that is so I will tell you, it's essentially a B, the second highest grade and given my very slow and lazy start to Uni something that neither I nor anyone else every thought I would manage. I was quite simply chuffed to bits!! (for those that dont know this expression see Hugh Laurie's interview with Ellen for a translation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE )

So on to the bad, finding a job is my no shock number one! Finding out in the same week I got a great grade I never thought I'd get only to then realise I will still not get anything close to a decent job in the near future was a major moment killer. I found one job I really liked the look of online that although probably still way out of my league I was a tiny bit excited to look into, only to phone them and be told, "yer I know it says we would consider graduates but only really those with an engineering background, without that and very little experience I would be pessimistic, we usually get well over a hundred applicants for positions like this. But do feel free to apply". Well thanks for nothing man, well except your honesty, guess its not actually his fault but I need to blame someone! I did apply, mainly just because I had nothing better to do with my time but I eagerly await the thanks for trying but bugger off from them along with a couple of other jobs I've ambitiously put myself forward for.

Now for the tedious bit, I actually got offered a job over a week ago, sadly though this was for a very busy restaurant in the centre of town that insisted that I work every weekend and evenings and commit to be their long term. Now I've done that before and know I am more than capable of working long hours in a restaurant running around all the time (although I did develop some worrying knee problems at times) however I've moved all the way to Bergen to be with my girlfriend, what is the point in doing that if we then have conflicting jobs that result in us literally never seeing each other and just meaning neither of us ever get any sleep as we are disturbed by the other. In the end it was just a big no go, and with that it occurred to me that pretty much anything in hospitality was also going to be the same, so the one area that although I didn't actually want to work in again I thought I could at least settle with before I came I now cant really do. So where does that put me, sitting on my arse at home depressingly searching through dozens of jobs I can't do. Oh Goody!

Still one must keep positive, and most of the time, I am, something has to come along soon right? In the mean time I consider myself very lucky to have a nice roof over my head and food on the table thanks to Marianne's insanely kind family. After all things could be loads worse and one must have a little perspective, so actually, ignore the forth and fifth paragraphs, everything is good really I cant really complain.

Summer Solstice

It was recently the summer solstice as most of you are probably aware, where I come from this is celebrated by going to Stone Henge and checking out some crazy druids (I've never actually done it but I'm assured that is the done thing). In Norway they have huge community bonfires, seems very unnecessary as its so light for so long, you'd think this would be a better idea in the winter, but who am I to argue with custom.

Marianne and I took the opportunity to go out into the long evening sun to take come nice (cliche) pictures. I found it very strange to still see it so light gone 23.00 and the sun didnt really disappear until about midnight. It also meant it was quite warm too and ideal for a nice walk. I have been looking forward to moving to Norway for all the walking and amazing views and although I have not done as much as I maybe should I have really enjoyed what I have done. This country really is stunningly beautiful and I hope I never stop seeing it. 

Finally I would like to mention the zebra crossings here. Now yes we have them all over England and I shouldn't find it that strange but I do as they are everywhere, it seems every street you are just meant to happily wonder into confident the cars will always stop for you, I find myself waiting at the side constantly waiting for an opening only to see cars stop and look and feel like a muppet. What I love about Zebra crossings here though really is the signs. A few new ones have popped up with a stick figure on them which is tragic as the original is a guy in a suit and trilby hat. I think it is very funky and honestly makes me smile most days, I think I may start to petition against the new stick man!

Really enjoyed getting this photo, although cars where coming far too often and looked very stupid. It was 23.18 here, and as you can see, so bright

This was 23.15 here and it was a lot lighter than this picture makes it out to be. I  had an obsession with the lonely tree in the middle of the mountain, thought it was awesome!

Cliche silhouette photo taken with my iPhone, couldnt resist. Taken at Midnight

Lads Cabin Trip

Apologies once again for the gap between posts, it is shocking however this time I have a better excuse than ever.

Last week I was with little notice invited to a lads week in a Cabin just outside Stavanger. There were between 5 and 8 of us throughout the week ( this was because people came and went as per there personal commitments not due to fatalities) and I was the only Englishman invading what was a very long tradition between this group of life long buddies. I was a little worried before the trip, being a clear outsider only knowing one of the guys well (Pål my girlfriends, sisters boyfriend) and meeting 3 of the others just once before. I needn't of  worried though, everyone was great and I had an awesome week!

We spent all our time simply chilling, chatting and drinking. Drinking a lot in fact! Despite suffering heavily each morning and one in particular where I didn't move for around 10 hours (except to excuse myself for regurgitation) it never stopped me enjoying the big BBQs we had every single night. A great idea that was met with zero resistance every time from every man present.

But anyway that is enough of all that, I really wanted to mention a few other observations I have made about Norway. Firstly many people have cabins in the country, I found this strange coming from England where space is scarce and property is expensive but given the change ratios of land to people in Norway it does make total sense. I've always been a big fan of camping and the cabin culture is similar in many ways and I'm hooked early. People should enjoy their own countries for a little get away and realise that going abroad and spending thousands is not always necessary. I  even came back from the cabin trip with a nice little tan!

What I found most interesting though was the location of this Cabin. To get to it, one could either drive up a very steep rocky road (impossible with front wheel drive and a challenge in anything not designed for off road driving) or park a little way down the mountain and walk (this is what we had to do). This does not sound so bad and in hindsight it wasnt. But at the time as I was trying to drag my case 5 minutes up a wet hill using a mud track and climbing over rocks I couldnt help think that noone would ever do this in England. Why would you build a house somewhere you cant easily get to? its madness!! we visited a peer later in the week and again to get from one side to the other you had to scale over rocks, this didnt bother me at all but I just found it really strange no one had built a path. 

I asked one of the guys about all this lack of convenience stuff (trying very hard to appear inquisitive and not just lazy) and he explained quite simply that in a country like Norway with so many mountains, rivers and other natural obstacles and such a sparse population their is just no point trying to avoid things all the time and Norwegians are very happy to accept the challenge. Personally I think there is definitely a novelty element here and it wouldnt hurt to build an extra path or two, but what is wrong with a nice little challenging novelty. Answer, nothing actually so I should probably just drop it.

One of the many beautiful panoramic views from the cabin. I already wish I had more but drinking and BBQs seemed much more important at the time