Studying how to be a student...

I have now been in Oslo for about two weeks and finally things are starting to get into a routine, giving me time to update this blog. Much of my time has been absorbed by taking a number and waiting patiently in line. We were warned about the Norwegian bureaucracy and with good reason, as Norway's abundance of forests must be steadily deteriorating with the amount of paperwork required for a 5 month student stay in Oslo. However, the paperwork has not stopped me from experiencing my fourth university orientation week (my three previous ones being at UWA, McGill and Lund), in a fourth country. As I am studying higher education and can expect two more orientation weeks (in Finland and Portugal), perhaps this area of unique expertise could form as my thesis?

Arriving in Oslo and finding my accommodation went without any major obstacles. After catching a long but very pleasant train from Lund (I had to ask whether I was actually in the second class cabin as it was so comfortable), I arrived in Olso central station before catching the subway to Krinsja, a suburb on the outskirts of town where I now live. When I arrived, I was able to inspect a number of rooms before making my final decision. I chose the only room I saw with an actual bed (most simply had a foam mattress on a wooden frame), curtains and a relatively hygienic bathroom and kitchen. The room is small and on the bottom floor, next to the main entrance. The room is apparently 10 square metres, but I suspect the authorities may have rounded it up to the nearest 10m as it is tiny.

I share a bathroom with a Norwegian guy, Nils, who is very friendly and I share the small kitchen with five more people: an Azerbaijani guy, a German guy, a German girl, a Chinese girl and a Norwegian girl. The Chinese girl, Amy, is taking the same classes as me in first semester as she is studying in the University of Oslo's Masters in Higher Education program (not the Erasmus Mundus program that involves travelling to Finland and Portugal). Below is a photo of Amy and I at our orientation week 12 hour conference (!) in the Oslo hills.

Outside my student room, Norway is a land of wide open spaces and one of the benefits of being outside the city centre is that I am close to the wilderness. Near the student village are some wonderful walking trails, hills and freshwater lakes, giving me plenty of reasons not to spend all my time in my room.

This week has been the first week of my Masters program and so far it has been fantastic. The program organisers are extremely organised, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and have done their absolute best to help us settle in. As the Erasmus Mundus program is designed primarily to bring non-Europeans to Europe, the group is very diverse with 4 Europeans (2 Portuguese, a Spaniard and a Slovakian) and 20 non-Europeans from all over the world (China, USA, Mexico, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Vanuatu, India, Ghana, Serbia, Albania, to name but a few). There is a significant amount of reading to get through, but it is wonderful to actually enjoy reading articles for class and the class discussions are certainly dynamic. I also was nominated today as the class representative in the General Assembly of the Erasmus Mundus Alumni and Student Association. I have no idea what that means, but I do know I get a free trip to Brussels out of it!

Outside of the classroom I have been even busier organising all my papers, setting up student registrations, internet, library cards and all the other sorts of things I will get to do all over again in 5 months time when I move to Finland. I really don't wish to relive the bureaucratic experiences again by writing about them on this blog, but you can easily waste an entire morning and/or afternoon standing waiting for paperwork to be signed. Still worse is when you wait and still don't get your papers signed, which to cut a 5 hour story short, is what happened last Saturday a computer system crashed on the day all international students were asked to get their residence permits stamped. However, as an Australian I am not one to judge the Norwegian immigration authorities, as at least I'm not in an offshore detention centre waiting for papers to be processed.

But my time in Oslo has not been entirely absorbed by classwork, bureaucracy and Ikea shopping, on a more fun note, I have also been able to join the University of Oslo symphony orchestra. As not many people want to play an instrument that is difficult, never has the melody and is the butt of all musical jokes, simply having a viola was enough for me to join the orchestra. I was supposed to have my first rehearsal on Monday evening in the university hall (the picture at the top of the blog entry), but apparently it was rescheduled as when I walk on stage, all that was there was a grand piano and a confused Norwegian man who thought I was performing in a concert that evening and kept insisting that I was "in the right place".

The Norwegians will have to wait another two weeks before they get to see their new Australian viola player, as on Friday I will be heading back to Lund to see Katri and go on a shopping spree. I never thought I'd ever go to Sweden to do cheap shopping, but then again, I'd never been to Oslo. Ordinarily paying $12 for a cheap beer at the bar would be enough to crush my drinking spirits, but hey, the European Commission gave me this money to spend and spend it I will!

A welcome return to Lund

It has been 14 months since I graduated from Lund University and it has been wonderful to see the town again. Lund is such a beautiful town and is Sweden's second oldest, founded around 990 when Skåne (the region of southern Sweden) was part of Denmark. Lund has a long history of being a place of education and Lund University, established in 1666 as part of a Swedification strategy of Skåne following its acquisition by Sweden, is the second oldest university in Sweden (the oldest being Uppsala University est. 1477). As it is currently summer holidays the bicycle traffic has been refreshingly quiet, but this will no doubt change when the 40,000 students return next week from their summer holidays.

Bicycles are a way of life in Lund and they will become terribly expensive when all the naive international student arrive next week. Some Swedes make a lot of money each year by purchasing bicycles on the cheap when the students finish at the end of the academic year and then sell them at a huge profit at the start of the following academic year in August. Some students get around this problem by simply stealing bicycles, but thankfully I never had my bicycle stolen. In fact, yesterday I met up with a friend of mine who I gave my squeaky death-trap of a bicycle to before I left, and he was actually able to give it back to me.

It was a truly emotional reunion for me and my bicycle, as I had spent so much time trying to do ongoing bicycle repairs. These were often of little avail as I spent more money on repairs than the bicycle originally cost me. I remember buying it from a guy in a park for around 700 kronor ($120 Aus) who said to me "If you have any problems or change your mind, you can return it and change it for another bike within the first week". Within the first week I managed to brake the back tyre and snap the rear axle, joyriding my way home from the International Students' Welcome Party. Unfortunately for him, I kept him to his word and he had to make the first of what would become many repairs.

Apart from spending time relaxing in Lund, Katri and I also spent the day in Malmö on Sunday and made a trip to Lomma Beach on Tuesday as it was damn hot (by Swedish standards at least). Unfortunately we weren't the only people to think that hot days are good days to go to the beach, as the small patch of white sand was extremely crowded. Tomorrow morning I will catch the train to Oslo and find out where I will be living for the next 5 months. It's sad to leave Katri yet again, but at least this time Oslo is only a 7 hour train ride away from Lund, which surely beats 20 hours on a plane to Perth!