A wise man once said...

"All good things must come to an end"

So this post is going to be somewhat less concrete. I suppose my thoughts have been less concrete lately anyway, which can be a worry if you consider that I have officially finished my Obstetrics rotation (3 weeks) and am approaching the tail end of Gynaecology. God save the unfortunate pregnant lady who needs me to birth her unborn child in the back of a ute...

But what I really wanted to say today is something completely unrelated to medicine. Lately I've been doing a bit of reflecting, and one of the thoughts that keeps surfacing is the fact that I will be returning to Australia in two and half months. I have officially passed the half-way mark of this exchange experience, and here's the thing. When I arrived in Oslo just over 2 months ago, I came to the conscious decision that I would make this place into my new home. And that I have done for sure, in many aspects. Each day, I learn more and more Norwegian. Whilst speaking fluently is (obviously) still a challenge, I can now hold decent conversations about substantial topics. I even went so far as to purchase two novels in Norwegian, and have started on book one (Gutter er gutter - a translation of Nick Hornby's About a Boy).

It's not just the language. It's the place, the way of life, the attitude. I don't calculate prices in Aussie dollars anymore, and when discussing plane tickets or accommodation, I prefer to talk in Norwegian kroner. If I go one step further with this, the next most obvious aspect of settling in is the people you befriend. I've met quite a few people through my adventures here in Oslo, some of whom have become really good friends. I mean, with some people I would be rather upset if they visited Australia in future and didn't tell me (not that they would do that)! These people are the ones you tell things to, feel happy with, and can be upset to. They help you when you *really* need it. I keep saying this, but I really think it's true that you can feel these sorts of things rather quickly - you don't need to know someone for very long to feel that you connect with them on more than a "Hey, how's it going?" level. And of course, everything happens on fast-forward whilst on exchange!

But here's the thing. I'm going back home in 2.5 months, and as much as I look forward to the comfort of family, friends and familiarity, I know that I am going to miss my life here terribly. It's sort of a good thing really - what would be even sadder is to have spent 6 months in Oslo, only to have "I can't wait to leave this place" as the last thing on my mind. And so when I got myself into this exchange, I knew I was set up for these mixed feelings at the end. But of course, you don't say no to a good experience just because you know it will end at some point. And let's not sugar coat my time here. There have been some not-so-great experiences too, events I'd rather not recall, decisions I'd rather do over. Yet all in all, my decision to forego electives and come to Norway on exchange has been one of the best in my life. Cheese aside, I've learnt a lot about myself, what I am capable of now, as well as where I want to go with my future. If my mind were a map, this map has extended its borders.

So it's going to suck when it comes time to say goodbye. Sometimes it's easy to lapse into the train of thought, the one that asks "What is the point of all of this, if we're only going to go our separate ways so soon?" It's not like I live a train ride away from Europe...I wouldn't even mind the 24 hour traveling time, but buying a plane ticket from Australia to Europe isn't exactly loose change.

I can't help it. I invest myself with people. The more you invest, the more you gain in return. Usually. And I suppose we can consider our lives like a long stroll. Sometimes you'll have certain people with you along the way, who then take their own path at a fork-road, at times you'll walk more or less alone, other times you'll be with other people. But essentially you walk alone, except you're never *really* alone I guess. The practical person in me would say that the type of friends you hold come to you sort of like in an audition, with our subconscious casting certain friends to fill in vaguely defined roles. So essentially, you have the same circle of friends no matter where you go, except with different names. You will always find yourself The Joker, The Listener, The Crazy one, The Gossip, The Drinking Buddy, The Plotter, etc. I guess the point of me explaining this is to say that it's not quite that simple or true. Some of the people I know here now fill a unique role, roles that are lacking in Melbourne. And to take up these roles, I have to give a little of myself, make some room, clear a little space. The sad thing is, I'll be going home in a few months and so will they, and perhaps take with them parts of me I won't get back. The same goes for the Norwegian language. Amongst the beginner exchange students in Norwegian class, I've probably invested the most of myself to pick up the language. It has certainly paid off whilst living here, but realistically, where am I going with this as soon as I get back home? Nobody speaks Norwegian in Melbourne, and Swedish? Well...

Okay, enough of this intangible crap. All of this may be the truth, but it also comes down a lot to perspective, and I suppose I can always spin this in a favourable light if I so desire. Indeed all good things must come to an end, but I really should stop thinking about it and just enjoy everything for what it is, as it is, right now. After all, this exchange experience wouldn't be called an exchange if it were to continue indefinitely.

So in the meantime, I'm just going to keep dancing in my head, have a great time, hopefully pass my exams, and when the time comes and the curtain closes, I'll take a bow and be glad for having had the experience in the first place!

Power post

So it's been 2 weeks since I last wrote something. No, that's not entirely true because I actually wrote a journal every day that I was in Stockholm. But now in hindsight it doesn't seem like such a good idea to publish it all, but at least here were the titles of my daily entries:

1. Jag förstår inte svenska (I don't understand Swedish - in Swedish)

2. Who the fuck stole my köttbullar (meatballs)?

3. So this is where all the beautiful people were hiding...

4. Traveling is always beautiful in hindsight

Okay, so number 2 was pretty messed up. Someone actually stole my food at the youth hostel, but let's face it, I wasn't really that surprised. Annoyed, yes, but not astounded because I knew from the moment I walked in that the place was dodgy. First of all, it was completely packed with old Eastern European men (mainly Russian). I was like, what is this, some sort of syndicate??? Anyway, so I spent the first 2 hours of my visit in Stockholm waiting for reception to open so that I could drop my bags in the luggage room. And waiting is fine, except for the fact that the Russian receptionists were already there, and all they needed to do was pass me the key (2 secs), and I could have stowed away my luggage, returned the key (2 more secs) and gone on my merry way. But instead, they rather that I waited and listened to them BITCH about every living soul in the hostel (employer, employees, patrons, dog...) for 2 hours. Man, I didn't know it was possible to bitch so much in 2 hours. And at one point she was like: "If I were a guy, I would punch the shit out of him!" Then when it was finally 8am and I went to retrieve the keys, I ran into them making out in the laundry room, her thigh propped against his crotch. And when they saw me standing by the doorway, mouth agape, she grimaced in the way you would if you'd tasted some bad Thai curry.

Stockholm itself, however, was very beautiful, superficially and all. If Oslo is Missy Higgins, Stockholm is like J.Lo with hoop earrings. And I took lots of photos. And made a video. And I had an awesome time running through the streets of Stockholm with Katherina (also at Uppsala, a 40min train ride northwards). I also kinda met the King and Queen and Princess of Sweden. Yeah...okay maybe more like 'saw'. 'Met' sort of implies an exchange of words.

Anyway, so back to the food stealing. Like what the fuck, right? Who steals food from poor exchange students? These meatballs were my only source of red meat, which I haven't eaten since arriving in Oslo over 2 months ago. I mean, thank god I don't menstruate but still! They weren't that expensive, and if somebody really wanted a couple I would have obliged to share. But stealing is not cool. Anyway, I ate the same breakfast and dinner for 4 days in a row (except one dinner where we went out to eat at a fancy restaurant). Instant mash, meatballs and ketchup, 7 times. See below. It got messy................lack of fibre...(too far?)

All in all though, Stockholm was an amazing city. Abundant sight seeing, endless shopping, Scandinavian design stores, cheap food and cheap everything (compared to Norway at least). And all just a 7hr bus ride from Oslo. You know what else about Sweden? They spell funny. That's the other thing. It hit me last week that I have become so Norwegianized now that I even refer to Norway with the first-person possessive. I say refer to Norway and Norwegians as 'we'. For example, when speaking to a Swede about the differences in our languages (there you go again - our), I kept saying "We spell with a Ø whereas you all spell with an Ö" and "We use E's where you use A's". As if I'm already Norwegian... And I felt this strange sense of patriotism. In fact, I feel like running outside right now and buying a Norwegian flag.

Anyway, I suspect I might have to get used to this whole Swedish spelling funny business. Nobody teaches Norwegian back home in Melbourne and if I'm to continue learning once I return, the university does offer a Swedish language course. They're pretty much mutually comprehensible, especially the oral components. I suppose once I make the mental switch to Swedish, the spelling won't be too bad either. But for now, köp looks so wrong. It should be kjøp. No question. And what is with all the A's? Skole --> Skola. Hele --> Hela. Gamle --> Gamla.

So I got back from Stockholm on Tuesday evening, and the next day I was off to Bergen. Bergen, what can I say... I had a most amazing time there, pseudo-fare-evading and all. Pseudo because we bought the Bergen travel card but it didn't say that the train was included - the brochure specifically referred only to Buses. But we needed to catch the train each day, so on the first night we decided to just hop on and try our luck. Only thing was, inspectors came on board one stop before our destination. So we ran off and tried to walk the last stop home. Only it wasn't really possible, so we headed back to the station and waited for the next train. Only to find out the next morning that we weren't, after all, fare evading because the Bergen Card did include train travel. All part of the experience.

Bergen, you also have a lot of locked doors. And it sometimes seemed like your whole city is under reconstruction and repairs. But I had heaps of fun anyway, and we stayed with Felix's friend from Leipzig - Henni - who was a lovely host. Might I also add that our dinners were such a treat - Awesome leek soup, Fresh Bergen salmon with lemongrass, garlic and chilli, and Pancakes with ham, avacado, fried banana, jam. I have a lot more to say (as I always do), but I think I'll have to save it for another time.

Anyway, I'm going to stop here because I should go to sleep now. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to go fishing with my flatmates. We're going to, fingers crossed, catch some fish for dinner tomorrow somewhere near Sognsvann. I'm not quite sure exactly where yet but German guy (Janusz) seems to know so I'll just have trust him. Although he is the same guy who offered me some wild mushrooms.

Jeg skal prøve det (I'll try it)

(English version below)

Nå har jeg bodd i Oslo i to måneder, og jeg synes at kanskje kan jeg prøve å skrive på norsk. Det skal være, selfølgelig, ikke så flytende, men jeg går på norskkurs hver uker her, og jeg har en god lærer. Jeg lover å ikke bruke google translate...haha.

Jeg kom nettopp fra Stavanger forrige helg, og der er det så vakker! Jeg klatret Preikestolen, og tok mange bilder der. Jeg dro dit sammen med fem venner av meg, og vi likte seg veldig bra (se bildene ned...). I går kveld gikk jeg til en kafé i Grünnerløka sammen med en annen venn av meg, Felix, fordi det var en konsert der. Sangeren kom fra Melbourne også, og han var veldig flink! Men det var litt vanskelig å finner denne kaféen, særlig om kvelden når det var mørkt. I kveld skal jeg reise til Stockholm med buss. Jeg plannet ikke det, men jeg skal ha fri denne helgen, og neste mandag og tirsdag også. Jeg gleder meg til å besøke Stockholm, fordi mange av mine venner forteller meg at Stockholm er en pen by. Jeg håper at været skal være godt, og jeg kan kjøpe så mye der. Det bør være billigere der, tror jeg.

Jeg skal komme tilbake til Oslo tirsdag kveld, og onsdag kveld skal jeg reise til Bergen! Der er det veldig pent også, tror jeg, og vi skal bo sammen med en venn av en venn av meg (det koster oss ingenting), derfor kan vi kjøpe mer ting der! Jeg gleder meg til å delta i noen konserter der, kanskje!

Nå må jeg gå til sykehus. Det er en annen forelesning (sigh), men jeg vet ikke hvorfor jeg går altid... noen ganger vil jeg å sove, og jeg lærer ingenting. Men vi skal se. Jeg skal ikke være i Oslo de neste flere dagene, derfor skal jeg skrive mer i en eller to uker!

Mange hilsener fra Oslo,

Kevin

English

- please excuse the simplicity...

I've lived in Oslo for two months now, and I think that perhaps I can try to write in Norwegian. It will be, of course, not so fluent, but I go to Norwegian classes every week and I have a good teacher. I promise not to use google translate.

I've just come back from Stavanger last weekend, and it was so beautiful there! I climbed Preikestolen, and took many photos there. I went with five friends of mine, and we enjoyed ourselves a lot (see the photos below). Last night I went to a cafe in Grünnerløka with another friend of mine, Felix, because there was a concert there. The singer came from Melbourne too, and he was very good. But it was a little hard to find the cafe, especially in the evening when it was dark. Tonight I'm going to Stockholm by bus. I didn't plan it, but I will have free time this weekend and next Monday and Tuesday. I'm looking forward to visiting Stockholm, because many of my friends tell me that Stockholm is a pretty city. I hope that the weather will be good, and that I can buy so much there. It will be cheaper there, I think.

I'm coming back to Oslo on Tuesday night, and I'll be traveling to Bergen on Wednesday night! It is also very beautiful there, I believe, and we will be staying with a friend of a friend of mine (it costs us nothing), so we can buy more things there! I'm looking forward to attending some concerts there, perhaps?

Now I must go to hospital. There is another lecture (sigh), but I don't know why I always go...sometimes I want to sleep, and I don't learn anything. But we will see. I won't be in Oslo for the next few days, so I will write more in one or two weeks.

Many greetings from Oslo,

Kevin

Norskkurs

I've been planning to write a post on my Norwegian language class for a while now. You see, going to Norwegian class each time is like going to watch a comedy at the movies, only it's free here, and I'm learning something new. And this is way funnier... Let me explain.

I like our teacher. I couldn't ask for a better Norwegian teacher. His name is Frode, and he is fantastically enthusiastic about teaching Norwegian. He gave us his office number, and his email, and his home phone in case we couldn't reach him. He has high hopes for our class, only, sometimes I don't think we quite live up to these hopes of his. Of course, he doesn't have the heart to tell us this.

Our class members can be divided into a cast. The chorus (read: majority) would be made up of the Germans. Germans are known for being fast learners of Norwegian. The thing about the Norwegian language is that syntactically, it is very much like English. Sentences are constructed in the same way, but the advantage for native German speakers is that the Norwegian vocabulary shares a ridiculous number of German words. So these Germans usually find Norwegian relatively straight forward to learn, but not vice versa. Why? To begin, German has 4 cases. I still don't quite understand the deal with that. I also don't understand why Germans seem to have their main verb at the end of their sentences. Why would you do that??? It's like, every time they speak to each other, they hold back the most operative part of the sentence until the very end. So you find out all the main players, all the objects and props, all the prepositions and time setting and location and SURPRISE!! He got killed. But you didn't know that because I only said the verb at the very end...

Anyway, I digress (a tendency shared by my Norwegian class...). Quite simply, here's what makes me laugh:

• The fact that it's so obvious when it's a German reading the text out loud. They pronounce Norwegian like they're speaking German. Throw in a few Ich's and Nicht's and Aber's and you could convince yourself it was German...
• The fact that there's a girl in my class who still struggles with the concept of the infinitive. Ie. To live, but he lives. And Norwegian is simple in that. To make a verb the present tense, you just add an 'r', no matter who the subject. So it's I play, you play, he play, she play, we play, you all play, they play, it play. Bless that girl.
• The fact that we'll be reading a text in Lesson 3 Chapter 4 and someone will ask a question about Lesson 1 Chapter 4, as if it were normal. I'm not sure of why there is this time delay.
• We'll learn a new verb in class, and someone will innocently ask the teacher, (as if we'd never come across the verb yet), how to say that verb 30 min after we'd just learnt it.
• Pronounciation. Possibly not as bad as someone in my Year 12 French class who kept on saying Jay (like Jaaayyyyson the bogan) when they meant Je. Je as in I. The most basic and important word in French. But yeah...Norwegian is a fairly melodious language, and yet some insist on reading it staccato.
• Sometimes we still struggle with the concept of making nouns plural when so required. So people will go around saying things like 'I like to read book'. Similarly, because Norwegian places the word 'the' at the end of the noun (ie. en bil = a car; bilen = the car; biler = cars; bilene = the cars), people struggle with the concept of the definite article. So we go around saying 'During weekend, I read newspaper and eat grape (yeah...I eat one grape)'.
• Norwegian has 2 tones. A flat tone, and the up-down tone. In Norwegian, gjenta = repeat. Jenta = the girl. Phonetically, they are both pronounced the same way. But gjenta is flat, and jenta goes down first, then up! Our teacher specifically sounds out the difference to us, then gets us to repeat after him individually. The difference in his voice was obvious. But out of our class of 20 something students, I did not hear one single person correctly differentiate the two words.
• We were taught the past tense last Monday. On Wednesday, our teacher wanted us to write an essay in the past. He thought about it for a moment, paused pensively as he looked over at us with pity, then decided to keep it in the present tense until next week. He didn't have the heart to tell us why, but his eyes said it all.

You know, I LOVE my Norwegian class. I have so much fun there, even if we do seem to go through the same thing again and again. I also love the students in my class. We are a great bunch. We try very hard. We don't quite live up to our teacher's hopes (he had high hopes because of all the German speakers). But we have fun trying anyway.

Meanwhile, I really hope that the aforementioned student discovers what the Infinitive actually is, and when to use it and why it is different from the present tense (or past for that matter...).

My first Norwegian delivery

So I just got back home from hospital where I delivered my first baby! And I'm still buzzing. And I want to sit and write this all down on paper because I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning when this feeling will be gone and my mind will be occupied with other mundane questions like why my Norwegian bank account still isn't working or why NAB decided to block my eftpos card or what 'Australian' food I'm going to cook on Monday for International Dinner.

Today was my first day on maternity ward. I showed up in the afternoon, upon which I was told that there was a lady in labour that moment. When the midwife asked her if I could observe, she said no. Bummer. Then I spent the next few hours brooding and waiting for people's cervixes to dilate. During this period, I also spent some time with a lovely couple who agreed to have me be present during the delivery. Somewhere in between then and their child's birth, I saw my first vaginal delivery by another couple. It was all pretty quick. I guess I've learnt all the theoretical mechanics of birth (ie. head being the limiting factor). But seeing those fontanelles in real life, that truly is something else. What I learnt today was that once the head's out (which can take a while), you have 10-15 seconds where the rest of the baby slips out like an eel.

So I'm going to put it out there. I have never cried watching a movie or reading a book, but today when the first baby came out, I may have felt a tear or two (tear as in liquid from the eye tear, not as in vaginal pelvic floor muscles tear ripping). It's hard to explain. I just felt so happy for them. Even though they were speaking a foreign language, happiness and joy is something that transcends all languages.

Then there was my actual delivery. This time I was gloved up and was helping the midwife with the lovely couple I got to know through the afternoon. And by the end of the shift, I had delivered my first baby. It was beautiful. And they were a beautiful couple (with a few other beautiful Norwegian children). When I first met them in the afternoon, we were strangers. By the time I left the hospital, I was officially in some Norwegian household's family photo album. It really felt like Christmas - you know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you open the presents and all your family is home. Somewhere during the process of evacuating a baby from her womb, something happened. We all bonded. And I mean let's face it - try topping childbirth as a bonding exercise... By the end of the labour, they made me promise not to leave the hospital without taking photos with them!

I don't know. After a couple of births, it'll become the same and I might (like one of my friends...lol) fall asleep during the actual evacuation of baby. But for now, this was my first, and I'm going to savour it for as long as I can because medicine is supposed to give me these highs. No matter how many deliveries I chart in future, this will always be my first. And it was as best a first delivery as I could possibly wish for.

Lykke til, baby!

(Good luck, baby!)

Floored people

Sometimes things seem so perfect, especially from far afield. And upon closer inspection, you think you'd start to see the cracks, but nope, "it's still good!" Sort of like how you expect uncapped milk to go off after sitting in the fridge for a week, but it actually stays good. Actually I don't see the parallel anymore. I don't know how I came up with that analogy...Okay maybe I should scratch this post entirely.

But seriously. We are all flawed people, right? I guess we could be floored too. The way a uterus can prolapse to the floor. Okay, I really don't see this analogy either. But back to the flaw. Recently I wrote something about Perspective, and how it comes down to the way we choose different ways to view what is essentially the same thing. I guess sometimes we sugar coat our perception, see things through cellophane, and things seem perfect. But then invariably the veil lifts and you start to see the imperfections. Kind of like Asian hair and split ends. (Yep! If you look closely enough, Asian people do ACTUALLY have split ends too - and yes, this analogy makes sense - AND even makes reference to the 'veil' metaphor).

But my point here is, perhaps rather obscurely expressed, we are all probably a lot more flawed than we like to think, and certainly more than we like to share. But it's not so much a bad thing. Being flawed is okay. I just discovered yesterday that I've been going around saying "In future..." when in fact it should be "In the future...". How come no one has ever told me I've been making this fundamental grammatical error? How is it that as a native English speaker, the phrase "In the future" sounds strange to me? And yet I say "In the past" and "In past" sounds completely wrong to me?

Perhaps more seriously, I wonder if the wider community views medical illnesses as a flaw? I mean, nobody goes around wishing they had Diabetes, right? But do we view Diabetes as being a flaw? Or do we accept it simply as a medical illness? Does the same go for obesity? Because obviously being fat is their own fault, right? [read sarcasm, I think]. And what about mental illness? Do we view depression as a character flaw? And then there's neuroticism. We're all neurotic to some extent. We dissect laboriously, we over-analyze, we over-reflect, we mull over, we're paranoid, we think too much, we think too little, we run our heads in circles, we project into our faux-future, we come up with our self-lies. In that case, perhaps flaw should be spelt with a capital F.

So I guess next time we're quick to judge someone, it's important to remember that we're probably just as flawed, only in our own little way. Like how I'm being very abstract right now. That's flawed. It's flawing this post. I should write about something concrete, something solid. Like Vigeland's phallic sculptures. I guess they're solid and hard...you get the idea...

Fjellvang - The epic trail

Following the excitement from last week's glacier hiking in Fjærland, an impromptu cabin trip was discussed and agreed upon during Norwegian class. And whilst booking the cabin proved quite the struggle (thank you Elise for searching online in Norwegian for me!), by Saturday morning we managed to A) Sign up as DNT members (Norwegian Trekking Association), B) Get the cabin key, C) Map out our route, D) Buy food for the trip.

The cabin was called Fjellvang, located in the Nordmarka area about 20 min North of Oslo by train. So on Saturday morning, 4 of us met up at the start of the trail at Sognsvann. Unfortunately, one member was feeling a bit worse for wear from the previous night, and so 3 of us set off on what would become the epic trek to Fjellvang. Let me start off by saying that it was an awesome hike! Nevertheless, we weren't without obstacles, including the following:

1) Our decision to take the harder/longer trail (it was more beautiful - more trees, less asphalt)

2) It started to RAIN 15min into the trek. It rained on and off (more on than off) for the remainder of the day, and poured heavily during the night.

3) Our tendency to overshoot corners. I guess we walked faster than we thought, and every time we saw a small trail, we told ourselves: Nah, this can't be the trail". It was. Several times.

4) Humidity - the fact that we were walking up hills in rain jackets meant that we were, essentially, hiking in a sauna.

5) Slippery rocks and boggy mud puddles. (refer to rain).

Here are some photos to prove the wetness of the hike (although Felix's camera probably has better quality photos - my camera sort of dies during extremes of weather).

Nevertheless, after 7 epic hours of walking, climbing, descending, climbing again, crossing railway tracks, getting excited about a cabin before realising it was the wrong cabin, we finally made our way to the right Fjellvang cabin at 5:30PM, followed by warm dinner and great music (A Heart is an Airport - think about it). The cabin was so koselig, even with a hearth (sort of). Water seemed to be an issue though, with no sink, no tap, no running water, no shower, a hole for a toilet, and water was to be fetched from a well. We were also unaware of the Norwegian sign that said water should be boiled before consumption. It was a great weekend, very Norwegian (despite the fact that none of us were Norwegian), and I definitely feel much fitter than when I left Melbourne. I can't wait for my next cabin trip!