Here we go
If you didn't read my last post with all the background information, you better read it now
We left from Turku airport around 6 am on a Friday.
We flew to Copenhagen.
During the 40 minutes me ran to a Starbucks for the second or third cup of coffee of the day.
We flew to Kristiansand with the Swedes, who joined from Copenhagen. When we arrived we picked up our luggage and were about to leave until the Swedes realized that their luggage hadn't arrived. They got some help and sent a message to the flight company, and left with us, without their luggage.
Not really the best start.
Copenhagen airport strikes again.
I had never been in Norway before, but I had heard some, and seen some pictures. I actively tried to put all the stereotypes and general expectations aside, such as there are fjords and mountains everywhere etc. I thought it was a petty that we were in the south, because I would have liked to see a fjord myself. I thought that the southern coast of Norway looks like it does in Finland and Sweden.
I have never been so wrong in my life.
There were fjords.
Everywhere.
The only things I saw when we drove from Kristiansand to Vennesla were fjords, woods and colorful wooden houses on the hillsides. And super winding and small roads.
I never thought that stereotypes would be so real. Okay let's not generalize the whole country just because of an area on the south coast.
And I was so impressed, it was fantastic, so beautiful, wow, it was nothing compared to what I've seen on pictures!
Real life 1 - Photos 0
We went straight to the local high school, where we met the rest of the participators. The teachers tried to divide us into groups with the help of some kind of app, that would mix the nationalities etc, but surprise surprise, it didn't work, the program had some errors. Eventually we we're divided manually. The task was to rewrite the lyrics of any song, and it should have something to do with the Nordic countries, e.g. what is typical for them. My group rewrote The Fox by Ylvis, and "What does the fox say" was replaced with "What's typical for the Nordic countries?" (in Norwegian: Hva er typisk Norden?). It was a pretty funny assignment, and eventually all the groups of course performed their cover to the rest. After the performances we gave our presentations about our national anthems. This was basically the program of the day and it was time to sort out who was hosting who.
Just a day before our arrival a horrible tragedy had occurred and it affected basically all the students in the school, especially my host. This changed some of the plans about who hosted who, but everything turned out alright, everybody got a place to stay at. I'm still astonished of how strong my host was, how she still was able to host two strangers for two nights and to join us in the activities during the stay. All my respect to you and I wish you all the best in the future!
The night was spent at one of the girl's house, we grilled, ate burgers and hot dogs, talked and got to know each other a bit better. We Finns especially got to know the Swedes, as we spoke the same language. The thing is that we understood each other basically perfectly, as long as we didn't use dialectal words, we and the Norwegian guys understood each other as long as we spoke clearly and with as common words as possible, and no one understood the Danes. Well, my friend understood but the others basically didn't, or at least not as well as everybody else understood each other. So eventually English was used when needed. It's a thing that people speaking Scandinavian languages understand each other, but it depends so much on the dialects, the subject of which you talk about, how tired you are and so on. The Norwegian spoken in Vennesla sounded at times like Danish and it was a bit hard to understand at times. I haven't really heard Icelandic yet, at least not enough to say anything about it, but I assume that as I can't understand it when written, I can't understand when spoken. And I think that's a common thing for the other Scandinavians too.The thing is that written Danish is at times even easier to understand than written Norwegian, it's just that the spoken Danish is so different. And yes, nobody understands Finnish naturally like this, but that was pretty obvious wasn't it.
I was so happy to understand as much as I did, even if I sometimes got it all wrong. It was such a funny feeling being abroad where they speak another language, but you're still able to speak your own language and you still understand each other! And I also felt stupid at times when I didn't understand even if there was such small differences and even if it was so easy.
two days left to tell you about, I can do this!
and, in the next post there will be pictures!
If you didn't read my last post with all the background information, you better read it now
We left from Turku airport around 6 am on a Friday.
We flew to Copenhagen.
During the 40 minutes me ran to a Starbucks for the second or third cup of coffee of the day.
We flew to Kristiansand with the Swedes, who joined from Copenhagen. When we arrived we picked up our luggage and were about to leave until the Swedes realized that their luggage hadn't arrived. They got some help and sent a message to the flight company, and left with us, without their luggage.
Not really the best start.
Copenhagen airport strikes again.
I had never been in Norway before, but I had heard some, and seen some pictures. I actively tried to put all the stereotypes and general expectations aside, such as there are fjords and mountains everywhere etc. I thought it was a petty that we were in the south, because I would have liked to see a fjord myself. I thought that the southern coast of Norway looks like it does in Finland and Sweden.
I have never been so wrong in my life.
There were fjords.
Everywhere.
The only things I saw when we drove from Kristiansand to Vennesla were fjords, woods and colorful wooden houses on the hillsides. And super winding and small roads.
I never thought that stereotypes would be so real. Okay let's not generalize the whole country just because of an area on the south coast.
And I was so impressed, it was fantastic, so beautiful, wow, it was nothing compared to what I've seen on pictures!
Real life 1 - Photos 0
We went straight to the local high school, where we met the rest of the participators. The teachers tried to divide us into groups with the help of some kind of app, that would mix the nationalities etc, but surprise surprise, it didn't work, the program had some errors. Eventually we we're divided manually. The task was to rewrite the lyrics of any song, and it should have something to do with the Nordic countries, e.g. what is typical for them. My group rewrote The Fox by Ylvis, and "What does the fox say" was replaced with "What's typical for the Nordic countries?" (in Norwegian: Hva er typisk Norden?). It was a pretty funny assignment, and eventually all the groups of course performed their cover to the rest. After the performances we gave our presentations about our national anthems. This was basically the program of the day and it was time to sort out who was hosting who.
Just a day before our arrival a horrible tragedy had occurred and it affected basically all the students in the school, especially my host. This changed some of the plans about who hosted who, but everything turned out alright, everybody got a place to stay at. I'm still astonished of how strong my host was, how she still was able to host two strangers for two nights and to join us in the activities during the stay. All my respect to you and I wish you all the best in the future!
The night was spent at one of the girl's house, we grilled, ate burgers and hot dogs, talked and got to know each other a bit better. We Finns especially got to know the Swedes, as we spoke the same language. The thing is that we understood each other basically perfectly, as long as we didn't use dialectal words, we and the Norwegian guys understood each other as long as we spoke clearly and with as common words as possible, and no one understood the Danes. Well, my friend understood but the others basically didn't, or at least not as well as everybody else understood each other. So eventually English was used when needed. It's a thing that people speaking Scandinavian languages understand each other, but it depends so much on the dialects, the subject of which you talk about, how tired you are and so on. The Norwegian spoken in Vennesla sounded at times like Danish and it was a bit hard to understand at times. I haven't really heard Icelandic yet, at least not enough to say anything about it, but I assume that as I can't understand it when written, I can't understand when spoken. And I think that's a common thing for the other Scandinavians too.The thing is that written Danish is at times even easier to understand than written Norwegian, it's just that the spoken Danish is so different. And yes, nobody understands Finnish naturally like this, but that was pretty obvious wasn't it.
I was so happy to understand as much as I did, even if I sometimes got it all wrong. It was such a funny feeling being abroad where they speak another language, but you're still able to speak your own language and you still understand each other! And I also felt stupid at times when I didn't understand even if there was such small differences and even if it was so easy.
two days left to tell you about, I can do this!
and, in the next post there will be pictures!
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