The Worst Of All Bloggers

Hei og velkommen tilbake...

David here!
Yes, yes you are right, we are probably the worst bloggers ever to have attended this EVS project (jealously looking over to last years volunteers...) - BUT here we are and now you're in for an ULTRA Update! At least one from my perspective.

It must have been months since my last (and first lol) entry here, so lets start with what happened in Fall.

After having a glorious Autumn here in Stavanger, many of us believed that the shitty weather would never come anyways, leaving us with mistrust towards everyone who tried to prepare us for a terrible, terrible rainy and stormy and grey time that would last until March. We almost got heart broken because for a very long time it didn't look like there was anything like what we have been told coming our way. But then, it came, and it stayed. In fact it still is here! Grey in Grey with a bit of a shade of Grey. Our outside activities immediately were reduced to the casual grandiosa shopping and the zombie like walking to our work places in the mornings.
I knew that I can't stand this madness for a very long time so I actually decided to break out and do something out of my comfort zone. I went surfing... in December... in 3 degrees cold water. Together with my good Friend frank

I'm a kitesurfer, so wave surfing isn't really my thing but it still was quite some fun! The waves were pretty messy, the wind strong and the water definitely had the potential to kill me in a few minutes if it wasn't for one of those full body condoms incl. gloves and shoes! After a 20 min session of catching 3 waves, 1 of which I actually stood, and what felt like a total of 15 min paddling, I left the waters with numb fingers, ears and toes. SUCCESS! The curse was broken and even better, I got to visit a wonderful sunset at the beach at around 3:20 pm... glorious. 

Fast forward a week I found myself in the city of Bergen, where I spent my Christmas together with 2 volunteers from Germany and 1 from France. We had a duck, a ridiculously expensive duck (we believe we got fooled by the seller) together with potatoes, loooooots of potatoes, a weird cake because the French girl forgot to put the eggs in during the process of creation and we watched a utterly funny Norwegian Christmas cooking show. So, we had a blast to say the least!

Back in Stavanger, everyday life has caught up with all of us again, but the days grow longer again, love is blossoming, temperatures are rising, even the trees in the garden decided to already proudly wear their buds, completely ignoring the fact that it is mid January. Stupid Trees.

Well well, I think that is all for now! Please forgive me if I have missed out on something but I'll write another update after we had our midterm seminar at the end of February in Oslo. I'm sure that will make for some good stories :D

HilsEN (thanks Simon for correcting me)
David

Hei, Jeg heter Viki :)

Hi! Hei! Pryvitannie :)

...How exciting it was to read this blog before a project, how exciting it is to create a new post by myself, enjoying incredibly amazing sunny weather in Stavanger. My second Norwegian class starts in one hour, and now I have a little bit time for blogging :)

Soo... let's get acquainted! I'm Victoria, a new volunteer for Hundvåg and Kvernevik youth clubs. I came from a small "blue-eyed" country in Eastern Europe. Have you heard anything about Alexander Rybak or Darya Domracheva? Yeah, we're countrymen! I'm from Belarus, which is probably "terra incognita" for a lot of Norwegians, but I gonna change it :)

I arrived two weeks later other volunteers because of visa, so I'm here for not very long time, but I've already fallen in love with Stavanger! I actually could never thought that I would live in Norway for the whole one year... One year, full of new people, beautiful places and just new impressions in general! Now I'm thinking about it more and more and understand that I've made definitely right decision to come here. I decided to stop my studying at the university in Minsk and take a gap year before graduation to get an experience, which really differs from formal education, just develop your personality and soft-skills. I have no bachelor degree at the moment, but I gonna come back to Belarus, finish my studying and get a major in Communication. I worked a bit in PR and media during my studying, so I'm very passionate about that. I like watching football and I also took an internship in a young belarusian football club :)

Just two days after my arrival to Stavanger all our gang went to Balestrand to meet other volunteers in Norway, know more about Erasmus+ projects and ourselves as well. Oh, that week was so great! We had a lot of fun, playing games together, singing, dancing, hiking, collecting apples and even swimming in quite cold Sognefjord! We tasted norwegian national dishes (and pretty delicious cider!), watched and discussed a modern norwegian film, made funny performances about norwegian history, and, finally, learnt norwegian troll song, which is playing in our heads all the time now :)

There were 41 volunteers from more than 15 countries...  I've never seen so many open-minded and friendly people at the same time at the same place. I'm very happy that we will meet again in Oslo on February on our mid-term (or hopefully earlier). Btw, we already have the first guests at our place! Kate from Ukraine and Camille from France, volunteers in Mandal, came to Stavanger just one week after seminar. That's so pleasant surprise and so nice reason for a party ;)

The weather in Stavanger is very warm now, so we shouldn't lose an opportunity to enjoy the nature. We had an amazing hiking trip to Dalsnuten on Saturday. Btw, it was my 21st birthday, probably the most unusual in my life till this moment :)

Hope you enjoy your day!
See you soon :)
Viki

New in Town

Hey, Hello, Hei and Servus Everybody 

My Name is David. Or Dave. Sometimes Dave the Wave or Mountain Goat... just call me Dave :) 

I'm 25 years old and I come from up the mountains in a Land far far away... Austria. 

Yeah, Austria, that's right! 

You sure know what we are famous for, yeah? 

If you answered this question with either "The sound of music" or "inhuman Monster" instead of "Mozart, Schnitzel, Freud etc.", you're now officially grounded and doomed to do some research :D

But back to what this all is actually about - Norway, the glorious NORTH

Like all my volunteer colleagues, I will spend 1 year in Stavanger, Norway too.

When I was looking for EVS projects in Norway, I was especially looking out for one where I can be creative and also bring my Ideas to the people we work with. 

                                                        And so I ended up here in Stavanger at Ungdom og Fritid.

My Educational Background is quite a simple one. I have no Bachelor Degree whatsoever, nor do I have concrete plans to take on one in the nearer future. 

I used to be a professional dancer in Austria. Something I never lost my passion for and it will certainly have its place in my Future somehow. Since my "retirement" I had a lot of time to find out more about myself. I'm kind of a driven creative, I love to shoot videos and make little art films out of them. Here's a link to my YouTube Channel if you feel like watching some :): B R E A T H E (that one even features Norway)

I also do a little bit photography, with no higher aim tho so lets not talk about that haha!

It's a bit more than a month now since I moved and I gotta say that I absolutely love it. We have a fairly big flat in a very nice house which is located in Storhaug, just a 10 min walk from the city centre and a 5 min walk from the sea. From Day one we were treated very well here, I can't think of a single human that was not helping and very welcoming to us. No matter what problem or question comes up, we always have someone to go to for help. I'm very thankful for that.

We are still the newbies so obviously work isn't sooo smooth yet, especially because we have just started with the Norwegian Course, but we will get there.. I hope.

Speaking of which! As a German Native Speaker, Norwegian apparently is a tad bit easier to learn  for me than for my colleagues. Especially understanding what's been written seems to be the thing. Other than that - the struggle is real!

But I think you've heard enough blah blah from me for now so, 

Take care & talk to you soon! 

Dave

Hei!

I'm Magda, I'm a new volunteer in Stavanger! I'm 24 years old and I'm from Poland. I arrived on Saturday and I will be spend there whole year! I will work in youth club (in Madla and in Byhaugkafeen). I'm interested in dancing, music and I love hiking! Also I like taking photos and travelling!




I really want to get know a Norwegian culture and learn a Norvegian langue ( Yes, I know that is hard but today I will have a first lesson! ;)) Before the EVS (European Volontary Service) I finished study, I studied Pharmacy, so I also good at chemistry too ;)

That's my 4th day here, and I have two beautiful and sunny days, I hope that It will be more days like that!

It's the view from ours neighborhood.

See U soon,

Magda!

Our summer

Since the youth clubs are closed over summer and we all got "new jobs" for the last months, the blog was kind of closed, too.
Now the clubs are still closed, but we have holidays - so we thought we could write a bit about what we have done for the last months. Most of it was nothing exciting since we worked in the same clubs as before - just with different tasks. Now when the schools and kindergartens are closed, a lot of parents send their children to FFF (Fiks Ferigge Ferie), which are summer clubs, where groups of children do activities from 9 o´clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Then their parents come from work and pick them up. Every club receives a group of 40 children every week, they go to museums, parks, farms and the cinema and say goodbye again to each other on Friday. Many of the leaders are students, who earn some money there as a summer job. We just work their to learn Norwegian and to fill our daily life with something. Mainly because it is just part of our project. But I have to say: It is so much fun! Of course you kind of know ever single museum of the city after being there for the third time and yes, you come home with the urgent need to take a nap after work, but it time flies fast with all the kids around. The clubs turn into lively, colorful places.

That is why we did not really have time to enjoy holidays or the Norwegian summer expect for during the weekends. But that is fine, because Norwegian summer basically means 14 degrees and rain. They said this summer has been worse than the last one and that had already been really bad. In July 27 out of 31 days were rainy. So: Better be busy and work. 

But what did we do on those four sunny days? Well, one of our greatest trips was the one to Kjerag. This rock in a crack at Lysefjorden is one of the three big tourist attractions around that fjord. The hike is much more challenging than the one to Preikstolen, but the view is spectacular!

Actually everything in this country is somehow spectacular. Even the weather is. If it is not nice, it is at least spectacular. Just sad that we could not explore much more. 

On another day we went to Utstein Kloster, an old monastery that was founded during the iron age.

It was quite cute and a very cozy place to stay. 

Now we are looking forward to our last weeks here in Stavanger and do not even know how to handle life after the EVS anymore ;)

17th of May

Gratulerer med dagen, Norge!

Yesterday was the 17th of May, which is the most important national holiday here and is also known as the Constitution Day. People celebrate the signing of the constitution in 1814 with a whole day of parades and parties. We were very excited about it because people had been talking about for quite a while and I am not used to national celebrating at all (except for when it comes to football, of course).
Everybody wears his or her best clothes and those who have bunads, the traditional Norwegian costumes, wear these. Every state in Norway, every region and sometimes even cities have their own costume, which differs from the others through color and some minor details. It is very beautiful to watch all the different bunads, which are very expensive and can be worn at weddings, confirmations and, of course, every year on the 17th of May. Those, who do not have a bunad (which are mostly foreigners, but also quite a number of Norwegians) at least try to dress up.
Our day started early (for a holiday), because the first of the three parades, the barnetoget (children's parade) started at 10 and it goes directly through our street. So people were standing under our windows since 9. But waking up was good, because we could watch the whole parade from our living room while we were ironing our clothes and grabbing Norwegian flags.

After the children's parade we went to the 17th of May brunch at Folken, which was open for everybody and most of the volunteers were there, too. We had way too much food and afterwards went out to see russetoget, the parade for all those who are in their last year of school and wear typical red or blue uniforms. This parade is much fun to watch because they really had a party.

At noon we went to konserthuset to attend the international festival there. A stage was built up outside on which different performances from many different countries were shown. And it wasn't even bad to be outside the whole time, because we were quite lucky with the weather. People, who were wearing bunads said it was not too warm (they are woolen, so you start to sweat easily) and I didn't freeze in my dress. We spent almost three hours at the festival watching the shows and seeing all the international food and costumes before we went back to the city center at four, where we would find a place to watch the biggest parade of the day: Folketoget. In this parade people from organisations, groups and institutions like sport clubs, bands, music schools, the university "march" through the city.

It lasts for almost two hours and we were lucky to find a spot on a bridge, so we could see everything from above. The special aspect of the 17th of May and all these parades is that it is completely without military. The whole day is for the people so there are only "civil" organisations or children marching in the parades. The Norwegians are very proud of this. And still: The whole day has a very patriotic touch.
After the parades we had dinner at Elena's place together with other friends and celebrated a bit. We were very tired from being outside the whole day, but it was really beautiful and something we will probably not forget for a long time!

#EVSBELIKE

#summerinnorway