Tackling the Domestic While in a Foreign Country

For those of you who know me well, you know that I will do anything, and I mean anything, to avoid laundry. While I love clothes and fashion (I turned my second bedroom at my apartment in Grand Forks into a walk-in closet instead of creating an office for myself like a goddamn adult, for instance), I hate the horrible maintenance and never-ending mess that comes with a large wardrobe. Here is the thing I hate about laundry - it is a chore that is never officially finished. If you are wearing clothes, your laundry cannot be completed. I guess you could do laundry naked if you own a washer and dryer, but I have until most recently either lived in apartments without such appliances or with roommates. And while I love most of my former roommates and have had few problems with my neighbors, I think most people would generally frown upon using communal laundry space whilst wearing nothing but a smile. Because I hate this chore so much, I usually let my laundry pile up until I have about 7-8 loads to do. Here in Norway, however, I cannot avoid doing laundry. I didn't bring that much stuff with me. I brought 5 dresses, 5 pairs of pants, 12 skirts, a handful of sweaters, maybe 15 tops, and 5 pairs of tights (and of course socks and underwear, but I am assuming you don't need the rundown on that). That may seem like a lot to some, but to me, it is incredibly limiting. And it forces me to do laundry much more frequently. Today I decided to tackle the problem head on. This ended up being more difficult than I anticipated because instead of having written labels and instructions, which even if in Norwegian can be translated easily through the magic of google, there are just weird symbols on the appliances:

This is the washer. There are far more buttons than necessary, and I am not too sure I put the soap in the right place, but at least the cycles themselves are labeled with words

The Dryer, however, is like "fuck words, let's use happy faces, rain drops, and fern leaves to indicate how to operate this machine. Doesn't everyone speak emoticon/ clip art?

It was what I imagine trying to do laundry on the space station is like. Basically, I stared at the extra buttons on the washer for a couple minutes and was like, "welp I'll just push some things, pour some soap in, hit the start button and hope for the best." The clothes smelled clean, so I guess it worked out okay. The dryer, on the other hand, is either highly ineffective or I picked the wrong fern leaf/ happy face combination. It didn't so much dry my clothes as warm them up. I ended up just hanging them to dry, so I guess no harm no foul. It is funny how you forget that even the mundane can become interesting if what you are familiar with is suddenly changed. While I was annoyed by this laundry ordeal, I was also kind of amused. The absurdity of a grown woman yelling "why in the fuck would anyone consider a rain drop and an exclamation point an effective communication system" to her dryer while alone in her apartment is not lost on me. Well, I don't have anything else to say. Until next time.

First Teaching Day and a Walk Around Town

Today is the first day of teaching, and it has gone just fine so far. I finished my syllabi with 9 hours to spare, because I am both responsible and punctual... My satire class looks like it is going to be full and the students are already talkative, which is great. Comp is comp, not much different than teaching it at UND. Maybe fewer eye rolls, but give them time and I am sure the students' contempt for the class will grow to American proportions. Today, during the long break I have between classes I took a walk around town. It's not exactly a beautiful day outside or anything, but I decided to take photos anyway. Here are some pictures of foggy little Moss:

This is the American College of Norway

Here's where I live

This is one side of the waterfall I cross to get to town

The beach of one of the fjords

 A little boardwalk/ dock

Having lived in land-locked areas my whole life, I have never seen semi-trucks being loaded onto a huge freight ship

Moss from the Island

Some boats and the bridge between Moss and the island

More boats

A little harbor/ bay area with shops and a big ass boat

Boardwalk/ dock again

The Norwegian Lady. She waits for the safe return of the men at sea. Apparently there is an identical statue in Virginia Beach, because that is one of Moss's sister-cities

The walkway to the beach/ boardwalk

This is the city's crest, the golden crow. The story goes that hundreds of crows circled the town's church and alerted the townspeople that the church was on fire, thus saving it from ruin

The church the crows saved

  One of the many steep, icy hills in town. Norwegians don't clear the sidewalks. Apparently nobody sues here because "it's your fault you have stupid shoes on"

This is the other side of the waterfall and the now defunct paper mill. The mill is the reason that Moss has a faint, oh-so-pleasant sulfur smell. It looks cool, though

The pictures pretty much accurately capture what Moss has looked like every day I have been here thus far. It actually kind of reminds me of southern Ohio in the winter: gray, dreary, but manageable. The darkness thing is not as bad as I thought it would be, the sun rises at about 8:00am or so and sets at 4:30pm-ish. Not awful, but not great. I think this is it for right now. I am anticipating that teaching 4 classes will slow down the progress of this little blog, so don't be surprised if I don't post as frequently. These are charmed days where I have little to do and still possess the energy to do things beyond teach and read...

My New Abode

So, today is my second full day in Norway, and so far, so good. I know where the mall, some bars, the library, the train station, and the grocery store are - so I feel like I am set. My apartment is quite nice, much more room than I am used to. Note the lovely pictures:

My Bedroom: the bed is huge and it has a walk-in closet big enough to use as a dressing room. It makes my giving up my awesome bed and "closet room" in Grand Forks for the semester less painful.

The Living Room: it is quite spacious and has a fireplace, but I am afraid that I will burn the place down, so I will stick to the electric heat, thankyouverymuch.

The Office/ Spare Bedroom: again, really big and nice. If anyone wants to come visit, I have room for you, that's for sure!

The Kitchen: I have successfully made oatmeal, cut up carrots and apples, and boiled water in here thus far. Hopefully the culinary endeavors become a little more advanced in the following weeks, or I am going to be seriously hungry - and sick of oatmeal, carrots, and apples.

The Bathroom: this is seriously the biggest bathroom I have ever had. The sink/ vanity area is separate from the toilet area, and...

The Shower Room: that's right, the shower has its own room - complete with heated dressing area. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

I really like this apartment. It is the whole second floor of a house and actually also has a second sitting area, but I forgot to take a picture of it, mostly because I haven't really been in there and I doubt I will use it much. I will post pictures of the outside and the view from my window in an upcoming post dedicated to Moss and ACN in general. I think this is it for now. I gotta tell you guys - I am pretty proud of myself for remembering to do this whole blog thing. 2 posts in 4 days, not too shabby - for me at least.

The First Travel Day

Here I am on my first leg of the journey. I still look okay, and not like the sleep deprived mess I was when I actually got to Norway

Hi anyone who has chosen to read this fairly narcissistic little project I have decided to start. I am assuming that if you are reading this that you know me personally and are interested in my recent decision to teach for a semester in Norway. And since I am assuming that most of you dear readers already know me, you can imagine how counter blogging, or public writing at all, is to my personality. I can honestly say that I have never been a blogger or even a journal writer. Frankly, dedicating time to any task that has no consequence if not accomplished has never been on the top of my priority list. It is the reason why I have so few hobbies; my apathy toward anything other than those things that have dire consequences if not completed (such as failing or disappointing people I admire) always wins out in the end. In addition, I find my writing voice (much like my speaking voice) a little grating, so I don't make it a habit of subjecting others to it (very much unlike my speaking voice, which I try to subject people to on a constant basis). Anyway, this blog will be dedicated to chronicling my journey to Norway, the teaching experience I have at the American College of Norway, and the travelling I do throughout the semester. I am writing this blog for two reasons: 1) It is an easy way to keep track of all the things I will do over the next semester. Let's face it, I am never gonna be a scrapbook kind of gal...and 2) It will give me a way to let those who are interested see what I am doing without repeating the same information over and over. So, in the spirit of getting started on the right foot, I am writing this first entry on the bus from Oslo to Moss. The bus has Wifi, which is very cool, considering the last bus I was on could only offer the smell of urine and a homeless guy puking in the back - what up, Cincinnati Metro! Both plane rides were easy and uneventful. It was interesting having all the announcements made in Norwegian first, then English (thank god for the English, guess who didn't bother to learn the native language of the country she moved to...this gal). Two of the exchange students from UND were on my flight, so we navigated the Oslo airport as a team, which is always good. While they are here to study and I am here to teach, it makes me feel less alone to have other UND people around. There is little else to tell right now, but I wanted to get this first blog post in before I forgot. I have no idea how frequent they will be, but I will try to be consistent (of course, that could mean that I consistently forget to write anything, and let's face it, that would be par for the course). Bye for now.