And the fun continues…(Week 2)

Norwegian Adventures

 

I know in my previous blog post I mentioned that the next post (which is this one) was going to focus on the Norwegian Education System, however, I feel that I should rather keep you up to speed with the happenings of this past week and focus on the Education System in a future post. The reason for this is because there’s just so much I want to say about the Education and I need to do more observation and research before presenting the information to you.

Let’s go through my week now, shall we?

On Monday and Tuesday, I attended lectures and these are part of the course I’m doing. My subjects include:

• Social Science (A short overview of the welfare state and early childhood development)

• Norwegian Language (learning how to communicate in Norwegian)

• Pedagogics (Society, children, and childhood – comparing childhoods and comparative perspectives on growing up)

• Drama
• Art
• Music
• Natural Science
• Physical Education

These subjects are highly interactive as we are always doing comparisons to our own country and giving feedback (which is awesome!). We get to learn about the Norwegian systems and way of life, but also insight into other countries systems through the various students in our international class.

On Wednesday, I got to finally go to the school (Kindergarten translates to Barnehage in Norwegian) in which I will be doing my 35 days of teaching practice. I have to take 2 buses (15 minutes each) and walk for 15 minutes before I get to my school. I have a male mentor teacher and the age group I am working with is 3-4-year-olds. I have 9 children in my class. I promise to tell you more when I’m giving you my thoughts and findings on the Education system! Promise. You don’t want to miss that post.

On Friday after school, I came home to a beautiful view and I decided to attempt to make chicken curry.

The curry turned out pretty good for a first attempt, however, it was a bit spicy. I had a heavy hand when adding the masala (spices).

Saturday

On Saturday, The international class (25 students from various countries doing the same course as me) went to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet! It was at the Egon Tårnet revolving restaurant. It gave us a view of the whole city of Trondheim. It was 110 krone and unlimited pizza. So delicious. I’ll add pictures below.

After filling our bellies and getting the best of the sunset, we decided to take a chance and chase the Northern Lights. We went home, put on all our warm gear, bought some beer and set off to Kristiansten Fortress. We were told that this viewpoint was great for looking at the Northern Lights as well as seeing the city of Trondheim at night. The girls and I took two buses and did a 20-minute hike/walk up the hill to the fortress and WOW! The place was beautiful. We sat on a hill, cracked open a beer and just watched the little sliver of green in the sky. The Northern Lights were not as bright, but you could definitely see it, however, I could not capture it with my camera. A friend from my class caught a few great images and she will email them to me soon, then I’ll put it up for you to see! Pure magic.  Absolutely beautiful.

On our way back home, at around 10:30 pm, we stumbled across a frozen lake. The girls had a ball skating on it. Of course, we did not have ice skates with us, but we were slipping and sliding with our normal shoes. Making snow angels and just having a great time. I am from sunny South Africa and walking on the ice has been challenging for me here in Norway. I keep slipping and feel like I am going to fall because everything is glazed with ice and I feel I have no balance. So I stood at the edge on the snow, whilst everyone else played on the ice.

My friends were not having it. They held my arms and supported me and took me out onto the ice so that I could also experience it. I really am glad they did so. I got comfortable with being on the ice, and soon after, I too was gliding on the ice and doing little tricks. It’s so good to be surrounded by people who include you in everything and want you to step out of your comfort zone to experience something new and exciting. I’m grateful for the new friends I made because, without them, I would have never had the confidence to try something new and conquer my fear of the ice. My first time on ice and it was fantastic! Here are also some pictures from the top of the fortress overlooking the city and more of us on the ice.

Shew! What a day. I was beat. But I must say that I had the most awesome time trying out new things and connecting with my classmates in a setting other than our classroom.  Friendships were formed and it was a great opportunity to step out of my little comfort bubble and get going with this Norwegian lifestyle.

Sunday

On Sunday, I had a relaxing day in. I slept til late and woke up and did some cleaning. A few of my new friends invited me out to the movies with them. Alana and Emily from Ireland and Anke from Belgium wanted to go to the cinema and watch “Split” (Go watch this movie!!!). This is a movie about a man with Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID). It’s so interesting and my favorite genre of movies are Psychological thrillers, so DUH, I was definitely amped to go to the movies. The four of us set off at about 5:30 pm and reached the cinema in time to buy our popcorn and tickets.

Everything pretty much works on a self-service basis and you get your popcorn from this heated glass oven type thing and go over to the pay point and just pay for it. The layout is really cool.

We watched the movie and were at the edge of our seats the entire time. It was THAT GOOD! I mean, come on, M Night Shyamalan is just a genius director. The movie was epic. It was so good that whilst on the bus, busy engaging in conversation about how good the movie was, we missed our stop! Three stops later we realized, whoops, we’re lost. So we got off and waited for another bus to take us back into the city and then catch another bus back home. We ended up getting home pretty late but it was fun and an experience to remember none-the-less.

 

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend.

I would like to make this blog more structured and I think from now onwards, I am going to try and blog every Sunday, to give you a run down of my interesting week.  How does that sound? Good? Good!

I’d like to leave with this thought:

There is a  Japanese concept called “Ikigai” (生き甲斐) meaning “a reason for being”. Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an Ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self.

I believe once you find your “Ikigai”, your life will be filled with bliss.

Go out there and find your “Ikigai” my little embodiments of light. Go out there and find your reason for being. And live the best possible life that you can!

 

Love and light to you always,

Sona

*I’m adding the serenity prayer here, for any of you who might need it. This prayer has helped me through some of my darkest days and I’m sure it could help others too! Spread the love, spread the light, spread the peace.*