bloggen ist krieg !

Monday: Driving home for Christmas.. with Markus, the guy whom I first met five months before in sunglasses in front of my window in Berg. The plan is to take the car, go snowboarding, take two sleepovers in Lillehammer and Gothenburg and then the ferry to Denmark.
But before, there is still a thesis to deliver – and since I am a hardworking student with that certain attitude to deliver just in time (N.B. being late) I spent the Sunday sitting at the Kjelhuset computer lab delivering the thesis on Monday morning.
With the last line being written at 7am, me and Mingyi almost sleeping but being happy, I headed home as Markus would pick me up at 9. After getting me a pizza at home with a fried egg – sunnyside up – on top of it all and drinking some cups of tea we started the trip enjoying an amazing Norwegian morning on the street. The frozen landscape, the mountains, the rocks with flows of frozen water coming out of it as well as the purple-blue illumination (the sun stays low in Norway due to the geographic position, providing a great selection of colors in the morning and evening) create an amazing picture. A truly great country to spend Christmas in.
We managed to get through quite fast although the E6 running through almost all of the country doesn’t really look like a motorway on its way down to Oslo. We reached Lillehammer around 14:00, or Hafjell to be more precisely, which was one of the venues for the Olympic Winter Games in 1994. Markus found a great cabin with shower+TV right in front of the ski lift for 500 kr, and as it is off-season the landlord agreed to let us stay a while longer the next day so we could leave in the evening. After getting me a snowboard and boots from the local renter (I also had to buy goggles and gloves as I didn’t had these before) and devouring a tasty ICA chicken, believe it or not, we were so thirsty for orange juice that we walked kilometers back to ICA to get it! We spend the rest of that day drinking juice and watching nonsense-TV with Norwegian subtitles. (Did you ever watch The Girls Next Door ? You definitely should, great fun!)

Tuesday: Do you remember your first time on a snowboard? Well, that’s what happened to me today. Along with the trousers the equipment was complete so we got us the ski passes and took the cable car up the hill. When learning to snowboard you are a bit of a candle in the wind, you keep on falling to the front (not so good) or to the back (still not so good but hurts a bit less) till you get it.. at least for the few seconds you fall again. We had a lot of fun through and left Hafjell very tired at 17:00. On the way to Gothenburg accompanied by some good songs in the radio and Bomstasjonen (lies: Bumstationen; not to be mistaken with the Czech border) along the street, we realized the snow has disappeared.

Preparing myself mentally for Christmas and our departure on Sunday – Last pieces of Christmas presents were bought (although in my case this is a continuous process modeled by opportunities and eventually ending on Christmas Eve) and the last exam written today (although this was the only one, besides of one oral examination and the term paper). And while all good kids can look forward to receive their presents soon, I am going to tell you a story. Not a story about Santa Claus and the 8 reindeers but one about 12 retirees and my examination in Strategic Management.
As everything is slightly different in Norway, so are the examinations in Trondheim. After spending the last five days on papers by Porter, Mintzberg, Eisenhardt and and getting into frameworks as Value Chain Analysis, 5 forces analysis or the Core Competencies I woke up slightly puzzled today at 7 and made my way to Trondheim Spektrum. There the exam among many others would take place. Imagine it as a serpent shambling in snow, weary but steady towards a unified direction – A place where the fair halls were not only filled with young students but also contained a surprisingly large amount of senior citizens. Yes. Retirees are supervising each exam, reading conditions, providing the paper (that one to write on) and accompanying you to the restroom (how long is it since your grandpa helped you to the lavatory, eh?)! The paper is applied with a carbon layer to provide you a copy of each sheet in case one of the very accurate seniors looses it, and needs to be counted and signed by the assistants on delivery. Noteworthy also the fact that not a single page requires your name to be written on or needs to be signed by you.
Most people I talked to appreciate the concept – it seems as if your grandma/grandpa would help you with your exam, providing you paper, and explaining the Norwegian headings – I do agree.

With the help of Markus I moved from Berg to Moholt today. I am now living with two Spanish guys, Iago and Zeus and Danyl from Jamaica.