Backing up to two weeks ago (I can’t believe I’ve already been here for two weeks!)… I moved into my room for the six weeks I will be here. There are two beds (I can feel every spring in mine, though it’s not too bad), one desk and chair, a set of dresser drawers, a closet, and a shelving unit. We’re fairly certain that during the school year, these are individual rooms. Attached to our room is a bathroom with a sink and a shower. The toilets are down the hall.
ISS tries to match us up with people based on our age, classes, and our answers to three questions about sleeping preferences. However, we don’t know who our roommates are until they show up. I was the first one to show up in my room. Luckily, I went to sleep at 7 PM local time that day, so I was more awake when my roommate arrived at 3:30 AM. Her name is Victoria and she is from Ukraine. Originally, she signed up to take International Development, but after the unrest in her country, she chose to switch to Peace Research. We’ve had a few interesting conversations about her life in Ukraine. She has been an absolute pleasure to be rooming with – and I’m not just saying that because she might be reading this. She’s been going to bed when I want to, letting me use my white noise machine, helping me with internet issues, and so on. We go to meals together sometimes, hang out on some of the social program trips, and she’s pushed me to go to more of the ISS offered events. I definitely feel like I lucked out in the roommate situation.
Speaking of the meals, here is a run down of the food options. Every morning, there are several kinds of bread for toast, four kinds of dry cereal, and oatmeal if it hasn’t run out. Once a week, there are hardboiled eggs, boiled to perfection. There is also chocolate and nutella like spreads, peanut butter, three kinds of jam, pickled herring, sliced cheeses, and some deli meat as well, so people can pack lunches if necessary. Lunch is usually food from the previous dinner, either in the same form or repurposed. For example, if we had sausage the night before, we’ll have some sort of ratatouille. Once one kind of food is out at lunch, chances are it is completely gone. At lunch and dinner, there have been a lot of potatoes; boiled, mashed, or cooked in some sort of hash. We have only had fish six times or so in the last two weeks, not as much as I was anticipating. We’ve had a lot of ground beef and chicken legs. I feel bad for the vegetarians, as there haven’t been many protein options for them. Zack, from Minnesota, and I commented on this when we actually saw tofu in the vegetarian line; he said his body had been craving beef due to the lack of protein.
On a completely different note, I did my laundry for the first time on Sunday evening. Laundry is free, a nice change from doing laundry at a laundromat. There are 5 washing machines and 4 dryers for all 300+ people living on campus. As such, people have sign up to do laundry, so that everyone gets a chance. At my designated laundry time, I realized that I accidentally purchased detergent booster pods instead of actual detergent pods from the U.S.; I felt stupid having incorrectly purchased something that was all in English. Victoria was kind enough to let me use some of her detergent as all the shops are closed on Sunday. I got my laundry done, which I’m sure my classmates appreciate.
In addition to the laundry room and the dining hall, there are multiple common areas. The lounge is the place to hang out and do group work as it has wireless internet. (Our rooms have one ethernet jack to share between two people.) There is a library off the lounge for quieter studying, and a music room for those who have an instrument they want to practice for the International Cultural Evening. Below the lounge is the game room that also appears to be a student bar during the school year. There’s pool, ping pong, darts and foosball available to play for free! In a large bathroom on the same floor is a piano… Yes, you read that correctly. There is a piano in a bathroom. In the other wing, there is a single TV room with about eight couches. So far, it’s mostly been used for watching the world cup, though I’m sure it’s also been put to other uses by people getting away from their roommates. Ahem. On the roof of the two wings is a balcony area that the Bachelor’s level students have taken over for heavy drinking. The grounds have a sand volleyball court and flat areas for playing soccer, and the roses here are absolutely gorgeous right now!
So that’s what Blindern Studenterhjem is like – at least during the summer. Here are the pictures of Blindern again.
Norway Adventure 2014 