Working for my money

I am still alive. Perhaps it's the increasingly depressing weather or the intensification of the study schedule, but it has been far too long between posts. So how can I possibly sum up what has happened since September? Well I don't know where to start, but I will start with today I suppose as today is far fresher in my memory than yesterday or the days before.

Today I had my final exam for the first course in my masters program, which consisted of three units. Norwegian higher education is rather different to Australia or North America, as units are completed sequentially rather than concurrently (ie. no final exam period with 4 different exams). The other major difference between Norway and any other country I have experience in, is that my final exam is an oral exam, which is the only graded piece of assessment I have been required to complete thus far. In other words, everything that I have supposed to learn over the past 2-3 months was examined today in a 45 minute interview with two professors/lecturers.

I got a "B". That's okay. Apparently a B is a good grade in Norway, or so it was explained to me. How they came up with the B is far less clear and I can certainly offer no clear explanation of how my interview was somehow better or worse than someone who got an A or C or whatever. In fact I doubt anyone could possibly explain this, as students are asked different questions in their oral exam by different pairs of examiners, at different times during this week. Still, a B must be a good grade as they grade us to a curve where C is the average. I guess the people with their exams later in the week will be hoping that not all the good grades were given out today, as theoretically for every B student there must be a D student (in order to maintain the C average over the class). Still, maybe he whole C average thing is just a big lie to make us feel better about getting a B, this certainly would not surprise me.

As usual I have spent my spare time with Katri in Lund, which as always has been wonderful. Above are a couple of photos which show how the autumn has arrived and the greeny parks of Lund and the watery lakes of Norway, with the trees turning all sorts of strange yellow and red colours. It sounds not so amazing, but given how Perth’s natural vegetation is evergreen, the changing of seasons is a bit of a novelty for me. The third photo above is of a small town near Lund where Katri and I cycled to, obviously the cobblestones don't change during autumn but I added it above because I like the look of the little town (I can't remember it's name though).

Earlier this month I also went to Brussels to attend an Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association conference. It was about the European Commission’s program of funding Erasmus Mundus masters programs, such as mine and 70 or so others throughout Europe. There were a whole lot of representatives from other courses there and it was a great opportunity for me to be at my most extroverted best and to socialise (at the European tax payers’ expense). All the news from the Commission was good and it seems that funding for foreigners like me will continue. I’ve actually offered to play a more active role within the association as it is important for the Commission to receive feedback from the students. There may also be inspiration for a thesis topic in there too!

I didn't get any photos of Brussels as I flew in one day and was out the next, and literally saw no more than the conference building, a restaurant and the hotel. I will be going back to Brussels in November with the whole of my class from Oslo, so I should have a better chance to get some photos of it then, before I pack my stuff and move to Finland in December. As you can tell, my travel schedule is intense, maybe too intense as it's hard for me to ever feel like I am "home" as I always seem to be packing (or thinking of packing) for my next trip. It's like going from one extreme in Perth where there is no where to travel to within a 3 hour flight, to the other extreme in Europe where a one hour flight is quite normal.

With all the travel, I really haven't felt like I have been living in Oslo, and to be honest, until lately I have not cared. Oslo is terribly expensive (I paid 72 Norwegian kroner or $15 for a beer yesterday), there are no ATMs within about 4 kilometres of my residence, Mastercard is not accepted at supermarkets and for the past week we have had to boil our water for 3 mins to kill parasites in the drinking water. Crazy!

But what I have discovered over the past week is that Oslo is actually a beautiful city, if you can afford to live outside the grey apartment blocks. The above photos contrast the view that I get from my window, to the view from a suburban house in a typical street about 500 meters down the road. Somehow I think these houses are a little out of my price range, even on the generous student scholarship the Commission is giving me. Still, the charm of Oslo is growing on me and it is sad to think that I am well past the halfway point in my time here. Everything is so clean and organised in Oslo, and everyone abides by road rules. Even the pedestrian birds!