New Steps: Tourist to Local

August 21, 2017

New Steps: Tourist to Local

Of all my little idiosyncrasies and quirks, one that I'm not sure anyone knows about is the way I gauge a person's familiarity with a place. As long as I can remember, I've used the way people walk up and down stairs to judge how well they know a place. Barring any walking disabilities, if someone is comfortable in a building, be it a house or school or office, they probably could run up the stairs with their eyes closed. If they've never been to this place before however, they might rely on the hand rail to support them. Back in NH, I dash up the stairs in my house two at a time, my hand only grasping the rail as I swing myself around the corners using the physics I've perfected in my head simply from sixteen years of the same action. Here in Norway, I've been a bit more tentative, pulling myself along with the rail as I walk up the stairs to the third floor looking down at my feet, trying not to slip into the gap between treads. If I were to look at myself climbing these stairs, I would immediately be able to tell that I was new to this house.

This past week, I've been living the same way I walk up the stairs: as a foreigner. An outsider. I spent my week as a tourist, despite trying too hard to look like a tourist. With my host family at work and school, I had my first taste of the freedom granted to Norwegian teenagers. I was taken aback when my host dad mentioned offhandedly that I could just go into the city myself and walk around, but despite my surprise, I did just that. I practiced the route to school, visited the major tourist attractions like the Opera House, the royal castle, Parliament, and Karl Johan's gate which has a lot of the shopping. I also spent an afternoon with Evelina, another exchange student from Latvia, shopping, eating our matpakke (basically food that you pack for lunch, usually open-faced sandwiches-- told you I was trying to be a local), getting ice cream, and exploring. I also spent a day with Evelina and Robin (an exchange student from Germany). We brought Robin to the Opera House then rented city bikes that you can use for the day after picking them up from one of the many racks throughout Oslo. We rode around cobblestone streets and winced at the pain of going over even the smallest bumps without really any shock absorption. We visited Vigelandsparken, a pretty well-known statue park so I could feel as though my tourist bucket list had been all checked off. We discovered that we are all huge fans of SKAM, a Norwegian TV show that follows a group of friends at a high school in Oslo, so we decided to indulge our fangirl/boy sides and visit the Hartvig Nissen skole, the school it was filmed at. I must say, it's a bit embarrassing how excited I was, but it's magical to recognize the scene, especially because most American TV and movies are filmed on sets in Hollywood. It got me so much in the SKAM mood (I finished the whole series back in the US) that the next day, which happened to be rainy and cold, I cuddled up and watched some of my favorite season (2) with Norwegian subtitles and wrote down all the words I didn't know for learning's sake to justify watching so much.

This weekend has been full of a good mix of excitement and down time. Friday evening, my host mom and I went to some trails by Holmenkollen, the big ski jump, and picked blueberries. Saturday morning I made American pancakes for the family which went over very well. Definitely a good food to start with when introducing American culture! Then we went to visit one of Anne's (my host mom) best friends and her family then continued on to do a little shopping for Bjorn's first ever day of school before heading to our final destination, Anne's mom's house. We had a delicious lunch that included homemade strawberry jam that I will dream of for years. I don't know what was so good about it, but I have never enjoyed strawberries and sugar so much. Once we finished eating, we left the kids with their mormor (maternal grandma) and Anne and I walked to a church to meet Espen (my host dad) for his best friend's wedding. It was a gorgeous ceremony and I got to hear some Norwegian songs and see some Norwegian traditions! I went back to Anne's mom's after that for dinner before heading home for the night.

Sunday, I made french toast with Anne for us and Espen since the kids were still with their grandma but they joined us after a bit and seemed to approve of my cooking :) Filled with energy from breakfast, Anne, Bjørn and I built some wonderful Lego prisons and boats, then we met another friend and her kids for a hike that reminded me of Mt. Agamenticus, for those of you that know it. The biggest difference between Mt. A and Vettakollen is the view. At the top, you can look out for miles over all of Oslo and the fjord. It's absolutely breathtaking and the pictures I have do not do it justice.

Monday marked a big event in any kid's life but especially in that of an exchange student. Monday was the first day of school. Nerves ran high as I made my way to Oslo katedralskole early in the morning to meet with a teacher before the day started but were quickly calmed when the teacher and other exchange student I met were extremely nice and welcoming. While waiting for the meeting, two second class kids even introduced themselves to me and welcomed me to the school. After being shown around the school a bit, I had almost two hours to do whatever I wanted. I walked back into the city center and feeling brave, bought a blueberry muffin in Norwegian. As I was walking around, a tourist asked me if I spoke any English then asked me for directions which I was beyond proud to be able to give her. Filled with lots more confidence than a few hours earlier, I headed back to the school and was able to get through some registration stuff before my whole grade listened to a welcome speech from the principal and heard the well-known school choir sing.

In Norway, the last of the schools before going to a university is known as videregående and is made up of three years which would be 11th, 12th, and 13th grade if translated to the American system. For that reason, I am again in the first class and get to be the young one all the older kids look at. Yay. But it actually is good because all the other kids are new as well and don't know each other as in Oslo, you apply to different high schools in the city and have to get accepted to go. Katta, as the Oslo katerdralskole is known, is actually a really good school that's hard to get into. I met my 30 person class as well on the first day, and we mostly did introductory things and got to know each other. During our lunch break, I sat with a bunch of girls in my class who are amazing and welcomed me to Norway, offering to speak either Norwegian or English. I have a lot more school to go so I'm not going to go into much detail in this post which is already way too long. I'll post more pictures of the school in a later post as well as I haven't had much time to take pictures yet.

I gave myself the first week to be a tourist, but with school now going it's time to be a local. My feet are beginning to recognize the path up the stairs in my new home and I rarely graze the handrail. Every day, this city and house feel more and more like home, as cheesy as it sounds. I hope everyone is having a great end to their summer and I hope school is at least bearable for those of you who still have to go :)

Word of the Post:

et bryllup: a wedding