Norway in five days

Last week I was on a trip to Oslo, Norway. A vacation? Not officially, but it sure felt like it.

Thanks to my friend (a real inspiration to me sometimes) we were on a course in Norway for five days. We were 14 students, all women, who travelled with our Norwegian teacher to join some lectures and have a good time. This was actually my first time in Norway, the land known for skiing and its hills. We travelled there a Monday at 5 a.m, after two hours of sleep. We arrived after one hour of taxi-driving to a beautiful conference-hotel called Voksenåsen. The view was amazing and the hotel was really nice.

Every day (except Wednesday) we attended lectures which were in different ways connected to Norway: the languages here, the folk-tales and their heritage, everyday life and finally the movie-industry in Norway. I felt the lectures and discussions were interesting, even though many of them were connected to the studies in linguistics. Most members of the group are in the field of linguistics and pedagogy, except me and my friend.

Tuesday afternoon we met a Norwegian author and talked about her novels. This program was closest connected to my own studies in literature, and I was really excited. The author had her own way to talk to us compared to the other lecturers. She discussed with us in such a personal way and with obvious consideration. In general they were all good, I enjoyed every single one.

Wednesday was a typical "tourist-day", we were driven around in Oslo in a bus, with a tourist guide. We visited the Ski-museum, the Viking-museum and looked at some ski-jumping places. The tourist-trip didn't feel that special, I'm not a fan of those things. But at least I know Oslo a bit better.

Officially the trip was a course in Norwegian. Our whole group could talk Swedish and we were almost perfectly understood and we learned to hear Norwegian around us. During the lectures we discussed about the languages in the nordic countries (how they are linked and what similarities there are) and the Norwegian culture and myths. It was all interesting, no matter if the subject was about languages and their politics or movies in Norway.

What else? The hotel was awesome, with plates of fruit available for everyone and coffee machines all over the place. The hotel surely deserved the four stars. It was such an opportunity being a part of this course and being able to stay at the awesome hotel with the interesting conferences, the view and our beautiful room. The whole course was greatly organized and I am happy that I was a part of this trip.