Cultures

Being through like the Erasmus Program is not only something about visiting places, partying at night, meet other people,etc. In my opinion, it is far muc more than that, and the best thing you can get is the difference between cultures, eventhough we are all europeans.

Last week, we had the pleasure to meet a bulgarian family that visited us for almost one week. Great friendly, cheerful people! Always laughing! In so many aspects, they resembled my own people: the way they talked to us, the way they acted, the dinner time, the food(specially the white cheese). Like us, they spent lots of time at the table. We don't have dinner in one hour, we have dinner for 3, 4 hours if not more, when friends come to visit us. We eat and keep sitting by the table talking talking talking. The chief of the family is a merchant ship captain. Immagine the stories he has to tell. Adventures all over the world!
Afterwards, there is music, dancing joking, etc. Always noisy and loud! Just like us! Always party time!
When they left, I felt I needed to visit them again, since they were such great people!

This last weekend, I tried a totally diferent reality: visiting norwegians in their home and stay there for the weekend. I loved them! The way they cared about us, the things we did - sailing, fishing, prepare the fish, walking in the rain, etc.
The dinner time was so different, everyone was talking, and having such a great time! Such a cozy house, and friendly people,hot tea, nice soup,etc. We just didn't want to leave them!
The man on the house, as a good seaman, always telling such great stories about the sea and sailing and a marvelous world beyond the coast line boundary. Stories about the sea, the seapeople and the nordic culture, history and mithology.
Suddenly he played the guitar and sang such great slow melodies! The air was so nice and great... So calm and pure!
The experiences I lived this weekend I will never forget them, and the people, I will always keep them in a special place!

Now tell me: which one did I like the most? I can't tell!
One of the experiences made me feel at home, because we are much alike; the other one, made me feel at home, because I had such a great company and hosts...

Lyngør

Lyngør, the main road

Mermaids

I have been out for the weekend, that was the reason I didn't post anything for the last days. On this post, I will tell you a joke a 100% norwegian friend told me.

Two hillbillies, from the countryside went to the south of Norway to fish. For southern norwegian people, the northwern ones are much more quiet, silent, not using many words.
So, they were fishing for hours, without saying anything, just looking into the ocean, dwelling in deep thoughts, until one of them feels something really really big struggling on the hook.
"What a big fish I have here!" - he thought!
After a huge fight with the "fish", he manages to take from the water...a mermaid!
He looks, amazed the beautiful creature! His eyes are shining with such a magnificent sight and an overwelming experience! The beautiful face and body, the hair, the eyes...perfect!
But then, he just gets bored and fed up with the mermaid and throws her back into the water. 45 minutes later, his companion asks him:
"-Why?"
and 45 minutes later, he gets his answer:
"-How?"

Cheese Slicer

The Cheese Slicer

Being in Norway is not just about people, serious issues, feelings, friendship, etc. It is also about small little things a person is not used to in his/hers homecountry. One of those little things is the cheese slicer.

When I first arrived to this house where I am living, I was given a package, with all the cutlery, pans, frying pans, and...the Cheese Slicer!
I looked at it, and I thought it was used to slice butter, or to take the skin from potatoes and when I was told it was used to cut cheese, I couldn't believe it!
This norwegian invetion(brought to us by Mr Thor Bjørklund) is, in fact, very useful to slice norwegian cheese!

In a country like Portugal, such aparatus would be useless, because the cheese making and the shape of it is totally different(they are mostly round, and they have a hard skin. Usually they are sliced the same way as cakes, however the slices are much thinner), from norwegian cheese(I have only seen cheese in bars).
The slices made by this "device" are so thin, that if I would cut a slice like that at home, my mom would push my ears!=P

We eat cheese in a very different way. We might eat it with bread, but it is also very common to have it with red wine. Here people eat it in sandwiches, with those thin thin slices!

Best Regards

P.S.- In 2 weeks, I had more than 400 visitors! Please spread the word and help to turn this blog more dynamic!=)

How to slice norwegian cheese
(Hvitost, by the way!Very cheap in LIDL)

See how thin it is?

Where the hell are the Fjords?

Bummer, no fjords!

Greetings!

For a common portuguese person, Norway is a synonym of codfish, fjords, cold, snow and midnight sunrise. For a portuguese like me it's all that plus black metal and vikings. For a really badly informed portuguese, Norway means cold and half of the year of night and half of the year of day. Nice conceptions aren't they?

Well, before I moved to Rena, and after some research on the Internet, I realised the region was quite far from the fjords. I though it wouldn't be no problem to see them, eventhough they are so far away... I saw this region was in the middle of the forest, without high mountains, but no problem...it's Norway, anyway!

The reality is that it's been more than two months since I first arrived to this freezing country, and I haven't seen one single fjord! I can't fail my main mission! If I go back, without seeing one single fjord, the best I can get is being linched by the raging populations!

Being far from the west coast made me realize how HUGE this country is! I believe from Rena to the nearest fjords, it's necessary to drive 7/8 hours! In little old Portugal, in 7/8 hours, you would go from south to north two times (almost...=P). But I can't give up! I must go and see them...one day...

Codfish...Where the hell is codfish?

I have searched for it almost everywhere I go, in order to cook some of our traditional dishes, but I can't find the true "Bacalhau da Noruega"(Codfish from Norway, which is a synonym for high quality cod in Portugal)...There is the fresh cod, but no salty, dried cod...

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and ask myself: "so, if there is no cod and no fjords...Am I really in Norway?"(moose and reindeers don't count, since they can be found in Sweden and Finland!)..."Maybe I am, since the most of the people is tall and blonde!"

I was told to go to Ålesund or Bergen to find cod...and fjords! Maybe I need to go there one of these days, and find them both!

Best regards!

Norway? Maybe...

Maihaugen - Lillehammer
No fjords, but houses with grass on the roof...

Røros - pt II

Back in Norway, 15kms after the border we saw something that will never be erased from our memories: a flock of reindeers! It was so amazing, they were there, near the road, in a huge group. I got so happy and excited with such a magnificent sight, I came outside the car, even before it was stopped. I felt like a child, when I was watching them...I can't describe what I felt, back then, but it was something really special and very beautiful thoughts! (Once agan, people mocked at me, asking if I had seen Rudolph...even my mom!!!)
The nect 4/5 kms, we had to stop the car 2 more times, to see other flocks in the middle of the road. And I got some really cool pictures!

Some kms ahead, turned north to the mines...Driving through a narrow, full of holes road, we saw something never seen before: dozens of young girls practising a sport, cross country, perhaps? It was like skying, but with wheels. It was so funny, for us, because we are not used to see such sports. For me it was even more curious, since in my homecountry, wintersports aren't that common.
After a while, we arrived to some really old abandoned mining facility. Old wooden buildings, with anykind of vegetation near the place. Just a kind of yellow sand I had never seen. Once again, it looked like we were on the Moon. The view was breathtaking: could see hills far far far away, and the forests at the distance. The wind, cold as always, was freezing to death, but me and a friend, in an act of madness, we started to run across the sand, towards a small pond, near the factory! It was so cold, but we didn't care, just ran ran ran ran... We were free! Nothing could stop us, not the wind, not the cold, nothing... Just us, the sand, the sky, the infinity.

Near the lake, we found something very strange: somekind of mudd, that when we put our feet over it, would react like mudd, but we didn't "sink", but jumped... Like a natural trampolin! Do you know what can that be?

Frozen to death, but feeling reborn, we went back to the car and tried to visit another mine. When we got there, the day's last vist had already begun. No visting inside the mines for us...Bummer!

Time to go home...More than 3 hours to go back home...It was so beautiful to see the same hills at sunrise and at sunset. The colors, greens, yellows, mixed with a deep blue sky. Such a peaceful place, uncompared with anyother...

When we got home, the expressions in our faces were great! Tired, but complete, we felt that day!

Crazy people


Taiga

Way back home.

Røros - pt I

I needed to share with you oure travelling experiences, from here to there, the places where we have been(me and the other foreign students) and the funny and less funny things we were through!

Some weeks ago we went to Røros, a well known small city in the region of Sør-Trøndelag. It is very popular, due to it's "made into a museum" copper mines and for many UNESCO World Heritage site.
We left early in the morning and drove north, for 3 hours. The sun was rising in the heart of the taiga. The hills, the trees, the mountains, some peaks covered in snow... The untouched forestry and landscape! I felt that mankind still didn't put theyr clutches on such an idillic landscape!
It was so strange for me, because I was driving, and for so many kilometers, I didn't see one single house or car. We thought we were alone in the world. Freedom was the word of the day.
When we arrived to Røros, we tried to visit as many places as we could: the old wooden town, which I must say it is very beautiful and it has nothing to do with other old cities I've been, across Europe. The grass over the wooden houses still impresses me!

There was such a beautiful cathedral we tried to visit. We got inside, looked around, and when we stepped forward, we were asked to pay 20NOK(2,5€ approx.). Ok, we decided to visit the church another day... We are cheap, poor international students! We don't have money to pay to walk around inside churches(we could see the whole church from the door,anyway).

Near one museum(we didn's visit, because it was expensive) there were some remains of the "trash"(??) from the mines. Small brown stone hills, inside the village. It definitelly looked like a moon landscape. There was no life, at all over these small hills! On the top, the wind cut my face like knifes. Røros is also known to be one of the coldest place in Norway!
Tired of walking, we decided to have lunch: eating bread with sausages and nutella in a prking lot, near a supermarket! For those who know, this is the portuguese way to travel around: always take your own food, because it's cheaper!

With our stomaches full, we decided to visit other mines, but we got lost and ended up in Sweden. I must tell that the landscapes I saw, were some of the best I've ever seen. Yellow leaves, still lakes, snowy hilltops, deepblue sky. All the best emotions you can get: inner peace, quietness, purity, inocence...
On our way to "the mines" we stopped at a gas station, in a small village, near the border. It seemed one of those american movies gas stations, in the middle of nowhere, with kids playing outside, empty store, few cars parked on a pub near the station, empty road, no houses. Inside, a strange beep calls the owner. I thought I wasn't in Norway anymore, but in Texas or some american state. After a brief talk with a young man(young people in this part of the country?) we discvered Sweden was just up ahead and the mines were 25kms behind us.

Sweden: I was so amazed, happy like a kid, when I saw the Lappland flag! Back in my country, being in Lapland is being so far far away. Lappland became a sinonym for distance. Even Brazil looks like closer, than Lappland, in our minds! By the way, everyone asked if I've seen Santa!
Alcohol and tobacco bought, back to lil'o'Norway.

To be continued...

Moonscape in Røros

The Old Town

Como é bom falar português!

Don't go away! The article is in english!=)

Yesterday evening was a very special evening for me. I went to a great concert, met nice people, had a great time with friends. But the most important of all, was being able to talk to someone, eye-to-eye, in my mother tongue!

After two months and one day, in Norway, I never used my mother tongue to speak to someone, as you can imagine. Of course I speak with relatives through the internet or the telephone. I read portuguese newspapers, I read books written in portuguese, etc. However, after such a long time, speaking english all day long, you tend to forget a bit of your own language. It was so strange to use it again. I was feeling so rusty in the begining and uncomfortable. The words just didn't come out! My mind was almost blank!

For me, using the english everyday is not a big deal, at all. As you can see, I deal with it quite well. It is my second language, and I believe, that after sometime, I would manage to speak it, like my mother tongue.

It is hard to describe how you feel, when you can't express yourself so good as you wanted to. The jokes noone laughed because no one understood it. The news you read and you can't make your point. The confusion on your mind. It's a daily struggle you need to fight everyday,when you wake up. Fortunately, the adversaries are not that hard do beat, but still, they are on your way.

You can speak a second language in a percet way. However, it will never be the language you first listened to. The language you heard inside the womb, the language you learnt in the primary school, the jokes on high school, the verses your poets wrote, sentences writers used to describe a world of imagination, the fights, the anger, feelings, good or bad, the words you used to say "I love you", for the first time. It is something you take for granted for your whole life, it is a part of you, something so useful as an arm or a leg. And when you use a prothesis for a long time, you just want to walk by your feet again.

I felt realy good, being able to use such tool, after such a long time!
I felt at home, closer to my little land, my people., my country. The sounds, the expressions, invading all your senses, your mind, deep inside yourself, like a beautiful melody you never forgot to sing, and you will never will!

Caramulo, looking at the sea

Thermometers

Pretty darn hot, hey? It took me 10mins to do this. 'The actual temperature was 12degrees Celcius.



Here I am again, in fron of this computer, in this small bedroom, in this beautiful end of the world! This next article is about something really ridiculous, but very funny and strange from my point of view: Thermometers!

After my arrivel to Norway, I started to realize that in every house I put these mortal feet, there was always a thermometer, placed outside, in a strategic place (mostly in the kitchen), in order to people could know the temperature outside, standing inside. For me, it was confusing: "Why, in this world, do they need a thermometer in the kitchen?" or "Is it THAT important to see whether is this or that temperature?". After questioning some people, the answer is the same: it is really important to know which clothes to wear, with this or that temperature, if it is a very cold day, if you need to put on more than one pair of socks, and so on. You can't tell, by eye, if it's really cold, eventhough the sun is shinning outside!
Back in my homeland, I never used a thermomerter to "say" what to dress today or the day before. I just look at the window and see if it is sunny or cloudy or windy. It happens quite often, when I look through the window, which is placed to the East, and on the West, there's a gigantic cloud mass. No problem at all, I just go back inside and put a thin jacket on!

I don't believe this is only related to the climate itself. It won't be incorrect to say that I act that way, because Portugal is a much warmer country. However, I've learnt to look thorugh the window, gaze at the sky and make the daily forescast by instinct, which means it is very easy for me to know wether I should put on these or those clothes. Don't people act like this here? Or the weather changes a lot, during a day?
Climate here is so much diferent from Portugal, that I always have to use a jacket when I leave my place. Therefore, no need of thermometer! I know it's always cold outside!=P

I must say, something that has begun as pure curiosity, is now a daily habit! Everyday I look at the thermometer everyday, many times a day, just to see how cold it is! The conclusions I have are: it's always cold and even it's sunny, it's as cold as hell too!

"Summer time" in Rena!

Hunting high and low - Complete version

A pair of woolen socks, wind/waterproof clothes, warm boots, chocolate and water", were the advices given to me, for today, since the walk would turn to be long.

After sometime, I again had an extremely new experience in Norway: hunting! Some close relatives used to hunt, but I have never done that in my life before, and I must tell it is, somehow, a special experience. Back in Portugal, I am against hunting, due to everysummer fires, that consume thousands of square kms of forest. Therefore, animals lose their nesting places, the living areas turn even shorter and many animals are caught in the fire. A reality totally different from Hedmark, and this region of Scandinavia. And the reasons that drive people hunt around here are different from the reasons in Portugal.

Leaving home when the dawn was breaking, in a misty day, we went for 15 kms north from Rena. After turns, turns and more turns, we got to this place in the middle of the forest, far away from everything and everyone. The silence was shouting at my ears. The simplicity and the majesty of the sorrounding forest made me feel small, and insignificant. I felt totally lost, first because this forest is totally different from those I am used to walk in. Since I use the sun instead of a compass to guide myself through the forest, I felt even more lost. But I was totally realxed, since my companions are hardcore norwegian forest explorers! If they would get lost, I would fear...A LOT!

Entering deep in the core of the forest, we walked for hours, through bushes, trees, paths, marshes and swamps. I must say that my feet were cold the most of the day, since I my army shoes weren't as waterproof as they seemed... The forest, so silent and so peaceful. An unexploited paradise (except here and there some cut down trees) full of life. The mist, surrounding the trees made the landscape misterious and surreal. This kind of forest is really interesting, from my point of view, since in 2 metres, the landscape can change drastically. you never know when there's a swamp just right in front of you.

Suddenly: a shot! let's go! we must find that bird! I've never done such thing: running and running and running through dense forest, because a bird was shot, and it kept flying, so it was needed to be killed. It flew away, and we lost it in the tree crowns. We didn't catch it, but the rush I felt in my blood and the adrenaline running through my veins, when I was running through the woods is something I can hardly describe. You don't think, you just run, run and run, jumping over rocks, dead trees, roots, grass, swampy mosses, everything! And you feel free and as one with the nature around you.


By the end of the day, with no killings and no birds on our bags, we returned home. Tired, and with my feet frozen to death, we returned home.

Best regards

Running through the woods

Another view of the Hedmark's forest

Hunting high and low - pt I

"A pair of woolen socks, wind/waterproof clothes, warm boots, chocolate and water", were the advices given to me, for today.

After sometime, I again had an extremely new experience in Norway: hunting! Some close relatives used to hunt, but I have never done that in my life before, and I must tell it is, somehow, a special experience.
Leaving home when the dawn was breaking, in a misty day, we went for 15 kms north from Rena. After turns, turns and more turns, we got to this place in the middle of the forest, far away from everything and everyone. The silence was shouting at my ears. The simplicity and the majesty of the sorrounding forest made me feel small, and insignificant.
Entering deep in the core of the forest, we walked for hours, through bushes, trees, paths, marshes and swamps. I must say that my feet were cold the most of the day, since I my army shoes weren't as waterproof as they seemed...

I am too tired to keep writing this article. Tomorrow, I'll finnish it! Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures!=)

Best regards

Marshes

Norsk skog

Kiss me...

This might be one of the most stupid posts ever for those who really don't understand it, because it deals with deep cultural roots. Please don't mock it!=P

It is known the latin people kiss their friends, their family, when they meet someone for the first time,etc. As an example, the portuguese kiss twice in the cheek(boys/girls, girls/girls, not boys/boys), so do the spanish and the italian(although italian people use a different "method"). The french are famous for their four kisses and the swiss, they kiss three times.
Well, here in little Norway, noone kisses! And physical contact is kept at bay. That is so trange for me. I need to kiss a girl in the cheeks, I need to hug a friend and kiss her in the head!(Oh...I guess I'm starting to feel homesick...nahh...not much). I need to know a girl and when introduced, kiss her, not a cold, distant handshake... As a southern person, I need physical contact. I can't live without it!

One other detail, is the handshaking between boys. In my homecountry, when you meet a friend in the morning, you handshake him. You go home for lunch and meet the same person in the afternoon, another handshake. You go home after, you handshake him. You meet him at night, you handshake him again. And you do that everyday.Yes, that is so much work and handshakes. But I presume we need that. We need to feel the other person next to you. Eventhough we don't live in a cold country, AT ALL, we need human warmth in exagerated doses. Any ideas why is that? Wasn't it supposed to be the opposite, since nordic countries are so much colder and people need to keep themselves warm? Answers? Anyone?

Best Regards

Middle of nowhere

Coldness...

It's 4 degrees C outside, and for the portuguese dude, it's a blistering cold.... And this post is about that: Cold.

In southern countries, people assume that the norther peoples are colder. I didn't know what they meant with that, since my experience had proven the opposite. Some recent events, that have been taking place and a deep introspection about the matter, made me realize and understand why we think they are so cold.

The strangest case, took place on my way home.
There was a lady, having trouble to pull her baby's trolley(??), and a friend of mine tried to help her. The lady's reaction was the least expected: she put my friend away! And looked at him in a strange way, telling him to go away. "Norwegian people is not used to gentlemen", did he say, joking. But for us, southern people, that would be outrageous, since we never deny help, even if we don't need it, since it's unpolight to do so. If some one thinks he/she can be useful, we shouldn't deny that, because it's the best people can do: offer help. Denying it make people feel useless.

Other examples might be something like, opening the door to someone, and they don't care; trying to serve food to someone and they deny; saying to a lady to take your place, and everyone looks at you;etc etc etc. In southern countries, you expect that people act like that with you (open the door for you, serving your plate, carry your bags, etc), if they don't they will be unpolight.

The second thing that drove me to write this post is the variation of distances between people.
It as been really hard for me(maybe us) to deal with this situation. For what I observed so far, norwegian people like to place their relations on their places. This means if it is an informal relation, it should be maintaned out of work place, and vice versa.
It is so odd, when I go out at night, and everyone comes to me and talks a lot, drink a beer with ,laugh with me, having a close relatioship. The very next day, you're lucky if they say "Hi!" in school, but the next night, they will come to you again... I have experienced that before,in my homecountry, but in other circumstances, and they were individual behaviors. The southern pattern is to interact with the person the same way, everywhere(except if we're talking about your boss or teacher). If you go out and know someone, the next day, you'll be talking to him/her, the same way the night before.
Such behaviour creates a interaction barrier, for I never know wether I should approach or "retreat"...

It must be said that I'm living in a small community. I don't know and I can't say that all norwegian people is like that, since this country is much more than meets the eye!

Best regards!

Jumpology in Hammar

Scandinavian Taiga

Bow to my......Inferiority?

It has been more than a week,since my last post. I have been so tired and without time to write anything relevant on this blog. There are so many things to be written here, that I just can't decide myself from where to start. As a matter of fact, being in the heart of the Scandinavian Taiga, can be really really exciting and stressful! You just get bored if you want!

The title of this article might be somehow confusing, since noone bows to the inferiority!
Since the first day in Rena, I felt that everyone(almost) in Norway had a high level of english! It was so confusing to me, since back in Lusitania, almost noone does! It is shameful, that people in universities can't speak english at all. Hopefuly, in some years now, they'll manage to speak english everywhere.
but my point is, that it is so odd when I am in a group of 5, 6 or 7 norwegian people, and they just talk in english, so I can understand them. It is so correct and polight from them! I don't know if me and my people would do the same, since we have never experienced that(the most exchange students come from Spain or Brazil, so it's easy for them to understand us). And even more curious, is the fact that some friends of mine, they speak english with me, and if for some reason, I have to leave, they'll keep speaking english between them. I think this means, they are so comfortable to use the language as their own!

The most strange experience about everyone speaking english, took place last week. I was invited to go to somekind of conference, by a teacher. I went there alone. I was the only foreign student, in the middle of a 30 people audience(there was also a foreign lady, I couldn't understand where did she come from). The conferencist(??) asked if someone couldn't understand norwegian. The little portuguese, raised his arm and said he couldn't undersand norwegian. I also said it wouldn't be a problem, if she spoke norwegian, since 99.9% of the audience is norwegian native speaker! Guess what? People in the audience, told me, it wasn't a problem!The main objective was that everyone should understand the message. They sacrificed their own language, only for one person to understand...I felt so confused and shy, but at the same time, I felt so good, because they wanted me to understand, to share the same information as they did.

Once again, the people from Norway, surprised me!

Best regards.

VigelandPark - Oslo

Jumpology at the Royal Palace - Oslo