Beach days

I spent a few great days with my mother, mostly relaxing and swimming at the beaches of some of the islands just opposite Oslo. Here are a few snapshots - they were all made without a flash, check out the time in the lower right corner (you may need to click on the images to be able to read it).







Getting later...





This one features my mum:



And here's a midnight shot of the two of us, taken with automatic release but without flash!



The darkest is actually 1am, not 12... and no, it doesn't really get 100% dark these days, but it gets quite dark - for half an hour or so.

This one is from yesterday; at the beach again, this time equipped with one of these Norwegian disposable grills. These are scampi on the grill in this picture, and they were really delicious.



... but not all the fish or meat that you get in Norway is so great... although I can't say that I actually tried that one yet:



If you look closely, you can see that it says "Hvalbiff" - well yeah, that's whale meat. They do eat some strange things here. I'm still shocked by Frank's Lutefisk description.

Oslo update

I am writing this on the plane back from my first job trip after the move (ICCRG / Pfldnet in Tokyo). It feels strange to go back "home" from a trip, when I know that I will actually arrive in Oslo...

Not much news from there, by the way: I still like it a lot - well, okay, it would be bad if I didn't, in summer! and after not even a month - but I have a feeling that things will never get worse there, only better(*) and better(**) and better(***) and better(****):

(in historical sequence)
* ... receiving visitors and moving to a new flat
** ... moving my drumkit here and finding a band
*** ... family joining
**** ... buying a boat! (just kidding... or not?)

Someone told me that everyone will just claim to visit but eventually most people just talk and then won't really do it. This seemed realistic to me, so I pushed people a bit, and now my calender is seriously packed! But I'm glad about it, and prepared - except for the salmon cooking promises that I made, I really should start practicing now I suppose :-) Oslo is full of museums, and so far I haven't visited a single one - not even the Munch museum which I'd really love to see, and which is almost next door from my place. I'm doing this to avoid spoiling the fun when visitors arrive; I plan to only see at most two with every visitor, so I get to see something new every time, which is also more fun for the visitor than going there alone or with a yawning Michael ("oh THAT again..."), I guess.

The rest of my life in Oslo is mainly about work (which is fine, in a nice environment), getting private things arranged (right now looking for a flat - they are terribly expensive here!) and learning Norwegian. For native German speakers, the expectation seems to be that you better learn the language FAST because everyone does - most people seems to know someone from Germany who managed to become fluent within a year or less. As for myself, I almost showed up for Dugnad with beer and meat because the description sounded like a barbecue to me. But things will get better, language lessons begin in June.

I hope I can get myself to write updates more frequently from now on - see you all soon, og ha det bra! :-)