17 May 2009

Last year we celebrated the Norwegian Constitution Day in Copenhagen. This is something all Norwegians do, all over the world. Not surprisingly, we did the same this year. Although it's a bit overdue, here are some pictures from the day:

To the left: Jan at the service, proudly wearing a flag ribbon; In the middle: The parade through Christianshavn; To the right: John-Arne happy because he has secured a bottle of Solo.

17 May is just like 4th of July for Americans. It's a day where we celebrate freedom, independence and human rights - in gratitude to those who defended it through our history, but primarily it is the day of the children. And it is the day when all Norwegians become children.

Job from October!

After living in Copenhagen for a year now (3 October) and being unemployed for the past 5 months, I finally managed to get a job.

I am going to work as a Higher Executive Officer (AC-fuldmægtig) at the IT University of Copenhagen. It is Denmark's smallest university (in Norway universities of this size is classified as specialised universities), only a little bit bigger than my previous employer, the MF Norwegian School of Theology.

The university is also the youngest in Denmark, it was founded in 1999 (then as an independent part of Copenhagen Business School). Most of the people that work there are young and it is an innovative milieu. Actually my colleagues will all by in their thirties and forties.

The university used to be situated not far from where we live (in North-west), but moved in 2004 to Ørestad (just south of the centre of Copenhagen). Not far away is the Faculty of Arts, University of Copenhagen. It moved into a building that is really cool. Here are some pictures of it:

The entrance area - Inside the atrium - One of the seminar rooms.

The photo to the right is by La Petite Claudine from Wikipedia Commons and the one in the middle is by IT-universitetet.

I'm looking forward to begin, and the building is awesome. For more pictures, check out: Pictures of the ITU-building.

Pictures from Greece 2008

We have now created an album with some of the pictures from our vacation. We've also put the pictures on the Google map (check out the amazing satellite picture function!). Enjoy (we did)!

Greece 2008

Danish Test 3

A part of moving to a new country is learning the local vernacular. You might think it's not necessary if you move between Norway and Denmark, but it's not that easy. Although there are similarities, there are differences. My Latin teacher once said that next to Turkish, Danish is the most difficult language to learn for those without any prior knowledge. Luckily that does not include Norwegians ...

The Norwegian language consists of two types of written Norwegian, they are called «nynorsk» (new-Norwegian) and «bokmål» (book-language). Nynorsk is based on the different dialects and was created in the 19 century by Ivar Aasen, a linguist. His written Norwegian was called «landsmål» (language of the land) until 1929. Bokmål was a language based on the Danish language that had dominated the bureaucracy and the Church. It was originally based on the dialect of Copenhagen and called until 1929 «riksmål» (language of the kingdom). Today around 10-15 % of the population use nynorsk, the rest use nynorsk. I have a dialect that is close to nynorsk, but I chose to write bokmål in high school/junior college.
Until 1907 the there were few differences between Danish and bokmål. In 1907 a new rule of writing increased the differences, and the subsequent reforms followed this line. Today bokmål and nynorsk is closer than ever. No wonder only 10-15 % use nynorsk today (as anything goes in bokmål today).

Although written Danish is somewhat different, the spoken Danish is even further away and is the most difficult part to learn. Therefore I signed up for an integration course in Danish called Danish Test 3. The Danish test 3 consists of six modules. Scandinavians (Norwegians, Icelanders, Swedes and Finns) can begin either in module four or five. I began in level five (as most Norwegians do). What don't you do to get a job in Denmark.

So what has been the biggest challange for me when learning to speak and write Danish? Well without question to speak it. Danish has evolved away from the other Scandinavian language. It used to be classified together with Swedish as an eastern form of Scandinavian (and Norwegian and Islandic as western form of Scandinavian). Today it is alone in the southern form of Scandinavian. Swedish and Norwegian is today much closer. The Danes have almost eradicated their dialects (which is not so bad when learning Danish). The language has many phonemes, meaning that e.g. the vocal 'a' might be pronounced in at least six different ways. Their consonants are a lot softer and to a Norwegian sounds obscure and muddled. It actually takes a lot of practise and I'll never learn it properly.

Written Danish is mostly difficult because they spell words differently, and they also spell words that are not Danish in origin the way it is spelt in the original language. So if they have incorporated a word from Swahili it is spelt like it is in Swahili, while in Norwegian it would be spelt the way it is pronounced in Norwegian.

I have completed my written Danish Test 3. I got the grad 12 (A) on that, but I still have to battle with the spoken Danish Test 3 next week. And it counts double in the final grade. So, I am worried. I'm preparing a monologue on the ethical philosophy of the Danish philosopher Knud E. Løgstrup (which is a piece of cake since I had to study him in my postgraduate degree). So if all goes well ...

Norwegian Constitution Day in Denmark

Outside of the Norwegian Church in Copenhagen


Norwegians celebrate their Constitution Day on the 17 May, even when living abroad. The day is the Norwegian National Day, and we celebrate it to commemorate that Norway got it's first Constitution in 1814. Previously we were a part of Denmark (until 1536 we were in union with Denmark and after that we became a part of Denmark) and in 1814 we were handed over to Sweden as a part of the peace settlement of Kiel (the end of the Napoleonic wars). Denmark so to say lost Norway to Sweden. Needless to say the day grew in importance during the union with Sweden. The closest comparison to the Norwegian Constitution Day is the American 4th of July.

The day itself is celebrated with children parading (marching) in the streets, band playing etc. We sing the National Anthem and other songs that expresses our national identity. A lot of Norwegians and Samis put on their national costume. Dignitaries give speeches about liberty, tolerance and human rights. It's a day for everbody who comes from Norway (read: people like me) and people who for whatever reason is attached to Norway (e.g.: Jan).

For me it was a strange thing to celebrate it abroad, for the second time. Last time was in Germany while studying there. Denmark is however more exciting, there are more Norwegians in Copenhagen and the country is explicitly mentioned in verse 6 of our National Anthem, as one of the three brothers of Scandinavia.



Jan shouting Hurra and me enjoying the parade.


Me and Jan went downtown for the day, it began with a service in Christian's Church, followed by the parade to the Norwegian Church in Copenhagen. There the ambassador held a speech, songs were sung and we got something to eat. The day made me proud and it was interesting to hear the ambassador's speech.


I actually think Jan enjoyed the day greatly. At least he is talking about starting a tradition here in Denmark, celebrating the Danish Constitution Day.

From Barcelona with Love

As I mentioned in the previous entry, we have recently been to Barcelona. It was my first visit there, and Jan's second. He had previously been there due to work, and only seen the Sagrada Familìa (The Temple of the Holy Family). We went there with three friends; Annie, Ann Maria and Henrik. Actually we learnt to know Henrik during the trip, myself had only met him twice before the trip.

Anyway, here are some pictures (there's lot's of more, but these are the best):

Barcelona 2008

Hit the link if you want to watch some pictures. Enjoy, like they say in the commercial.

Job over ...

The 30 April 2008 I quit my job in Oslo. It's sort of a "game over" when you leave your job. I have worked at MF Norwegian School of Theology for nearly four and a half years, for me that's quite some time. The first half year I worked as a Higher Executive Officer, and then for the remainder of time I worked as an Academic Studenter Advisor. The first couple of years with a responsibility for the postgraduate programs (including Professinal Degree in Theology and Ministry) and the two last years as a Teaching Coordinator (working with planning and schedule). The week before I quit the job, I was in Oslo to step down and to be celebrated (if you can call leaving ones job a celebration).

The entire leaving-process was weird. I felt strechted out between the pressure and stress the last couple of days to finish some projects we were working on and then the insatiable pleasure knowing it would all be over soon.

Me and my successor in the job, Arfinn, in my old office.

One of the evenings my collegues invited me to a Lebanese restaurant were I enjoyed a nice meal and good words. And they presented me with a card and a gift certificate (for a book store - who may have suspected that! ;-)

At the restaurant. In the left picture (from left): Rune, Elna, Claudia, Arnfinn and me (who needs to go on a diet). In the right picture: Hallvard, Marie-Luise and Ann (giving a speech).

The last day the entire faculty and other employees were invited to eat ice cream and drink coffee. And a lot of the people paid homage to me, and I'm going to remember some of the good words that were given to me. Academics don't hand them out too often...

After that week me, Jan and some friends went to Barcelona together. But that is material for another entry. Right now I'm unemployed - and often bored... go figure... but luckily (?) MF has hired my as a special consultant for a couple of days in the end of May... at least I get to return to old hunting grounds for a while...

(And thanks to the ever kind Pirjo for sharing the pictures from my last days at MF)