My First Day at School

Today was my first day at school!  The day started with a pretty full-on conference at the Litteraturhuset on Wergelandsveien (http://www.litteraturhuset.no/).  This is an interesting building which hosts debates, conferences, book launches and houses a café, a restaurant and a book shop.

The conference was about innovation and growth in the Norwegian media industry.  The conference was totally in Norwegian and I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the language I understood, although I could be susceptible to a dose of begginer’s optimism here. 

The conference was organised by the New Media Network (http://newmedianetwork.no/2011/02/20/membermeeting-march-10th-2011/) which has been fostered by Innovation Norway.  Innovation Norway has been set up to promote development that is profitable to business interests and the country’s economy.  I’m quickly learning how structured and focused these Norwegians really are!!  Imagine something like that in Ireland – Shell anyone?

After the conference, we caught the tram to the University, where I was given a tour of the building, including my office/desk and information about the administrative side of things.  I met lots of welcoming, smiley, friendly faces which was very reassuring.  It certainly seems like I have landed in a good place. 

Following on from the tour, some members of the faculty took lunch in the canteen.  It seems quite customary to bring in your own lunch to eat, although the canteen itself is really reasonable priced.  I bought my lunch for half the price of my tram fair.  However, I like the idea of bringing in food to eat, instead of depending on what is available from day to day.  Resolution: make lunch for tomorrow!

One thing to watch out for here is the cost of public transport.  I paid 40NOK for my tram fair to the university, a journey which was about five stops in total.  I paid the same for a journey from Bygdoy to Solli Plass with my parents on Monday.  This works out at about €5 a pop and is pretty damn expensive.   

The trick, aparently, is to by your tickets for public transport in advance.  I’ve been advised to buy something called a ‘Flexikort’, even if I don’t intend to use public transport regularly.  This will allow me to travel up to eight times for 200NOK which is about 25NOK a pop.  This is still pretty expensive relative to Dublin Bus standards (it’s about double the price of a standard fare) but I suppose regular, timely services make up for the cost somewhat.

As I couldn’t access my computer (I didn’t have a login or password – some things are the same everywhere!) and had left my laptop behind, I decided to head home for the afternoon and work here.  On the way, I got caught in the first snowfall that I have experienced since I got here.  It wasn’t so bad at all!  Tomorrow I’ll go back to the uni with my laptop and start mapping out my project.  Exciting times!