Pieces of the past.

** I wrote this the day after arriving. But decided to let things settle a bit before posting so I could laugh at it rather than be annoyed. **

Looks like it is back to simple living, in a kind of complicated, unexpected and undesired way.

After tromping around the city yesterday afternoon with our suitcases (I always love that part), my friend and I arrived at our student hostel just in time, as the girl that had our keys was just leaving her place – actually met us in the parking lot on her way out. Good timing.

The hostel is well…an enormous complex of (extremely over-priced) student dorms. Walking into it, I felt like I was going eleven years into the past…walking into St. Mary’s dorm. Except this building is dirty, smelly, and is filled with graffiti. Violent, disturbing, dark…graffiti.

We learned the hard way what “white goods” means. No, it is not sheets. It means refrigerator. Good thing I brought a pair of sheets (gave the top sheet to a friend that only had a light blanket), travel pillow, and the Snuggy I got from my east coast family, just in case!

My kitchen is also completely empty. There is one hot plate however. No pots or pans. This is serious. I don’t even have a way to heat water for my coffee. I guess they expect the students that come just for one month (or even less) to travel with a kitchen? I left my kitchen in Berlin. And I am back to eating Ranch style. One eating utensil (a plastic spoon). One mug - my travel coffee mug. Good thing I packed that and my Swiss Army knife. For now I make do with the side of a cereal box as a plate (Yes, I'm serious.) and the tupperware i usually use for lunch serves as my bowl.

My room is as dark as it is outside (nearly). I’m sure this will be the ideal study environment.

My bathroom from time to time lets out whiffs of outhouse smells. And no, not just any outhouse. I’m talking La Hicaca outhouse smells. The maintenance crew came to “fix” it. Nothing actually has changed.

The knob on my radiator is broken, so it’s nearly impossible to change it without a pliers. I forgot to pack my pliers.

Norwegian? Forget it. However it seems that many people here speak English, which is a blessing.

We can’t access the internet until we begin courses and get our user accounts, which is on Monday. Then it takes another 24 hours apparently for our account to be activated. That’s a downer. Oh, and they also fail to mention there is no wireless, so of course we have to buy a cable when we get here.

The housing department is taking advantage of us in regards to rent and the termination of our contract. I'll spare you those details. Just another obnoxious bump in the road. Hopefully we'll get this fixed.

And to make matters worse, I seem to have left my cell phone in the apartment in Berlin, and didn’t realize it until I had already locked things up (left the keys inside), and was on my way to the train station. The neighbor with a spare key wasn’t home. So, am a bit out of touch.

Haha, and the weather. At 8:30am, we leave for class in the dark. By 4pm, it is nearly dark again. The days are cloudy, rainy, and windy. Not my style.

Sigh.

------------now back to real time-----------------

Worse things happen, and I will survive a month. I will probably be settled in just as I'm ready to leave for London.

My second day here I went shopping and purchased an over-priced pot. First, they didn't give me the sale price, then they supposedly reimbursed me. Now nearly two weeks later, and my bank statement still shows I paid $60 for a pot and a fork. Awesome.

Today is the first day I have actually eaten from a glass plate. A friend loaned me one from their shared kitchen. Thank you block C floor 6 =).

The housing department has finally given in to my slightly threatening emails, and has decided to allow my contract to be terminated when I move out, and not a month later as they were trying to do previously.

Today and yesterday we have actually see SUN. Now if only we didn't have to be sitting in class during those precious hours. The city of Bergen looks MUCH different these days now that we can actually see it. I hope it lasts!!

Some of our classmates from the program in Berlin will join us this weekend for the upcoming modules. Looking forward to seeing some more familiar faces!

Things are looking up.