One Month!

So, I’ve been abroad for one month now! Here’s a list of everything I’ve learned so far:

1. Speak dialect, write bokmål, screw nynorsk.
2. International flights are the only ones worth taking.
3. Norwegian prisons=hotels
4. The weather is more important news than the election.
5. The weather is more important than most things.
6. Celsius actually makes sense.
7. St. Petersburg is pretty far south.
8. Almost everything is pretty far south.
9. Reindeer run this place. There can’t be a train here because it would hit the herds.
10. People still run and train in the snow.
11. 5,000 people is a big town.
12. There are also towns people just don’t live in during the winter because it’s impossible to clear the roads.
13. If you mean five thousand you write 5 000, but if you mean five point five you write 5,5. For some reason, this is really annoying to me.
14. Northern Norway was messed up in the 1600s.
15. Krone coins are like the plague.
16. It is incredibly easy to get in the newspaper. I’ve been featured three times already (once on the front cover) basically for existing.
17. Kaizers Orchestra is breaking up right when I come to Norway and that’s just unfair.
18. Hytter are awesome.
19. Crochet is easy, but since I learned it using Norwegian patterns, I’ll have to relearn all the terms in English. For instance, a “row” in Norwegian is abbreviated as “omg“.
20. People in Oslo don’t know how to talk.
21. Mountain biking is incredibly fun (if you actually use a proper mountain bike, which I didn’t the first few times).
22. Finnmark is bigger than Denmark.
23. People practice Nordic skiing with “roller skis.” Like roller blades, but longer and you use poles.
24. A lot of old people go around in vehicles that look like single-seat, enclosed golf carts.
25. Pepsi is more popular than Coke.
26. It is entirely understandable why people thought trolls lived up here.
27. (Update): Norwegians really like to wear the American flag. I’ve also found it on footstools, air fresheners, lunch boxes, earrings, etc.
28. Coming here was the best decision I’ve ever made.