Adjusting to life back at school after my long weekend in London has been a bit brutal. Upon my return, I spent much of my free time writing about my trip to London (sorry if three lengthy posts was a bit much) and, therefore, very little time learning Norwegian. Taking a five day break when learning a new language is a big old NO-NO. It's not like I had any particularly good reason not to; I just didn't feel like it, as bad as that sounds. I'm here in Norway to learn Norwegian, after all. But so much new vocabulary can be daunting.
I'm pretty good at learning grammar but memorizing vocabulary has never been a strength of mine. Certainly there are those with a proclivity for memorization and I wouldn't consider myself one of them but that's no excuse; I'm not good at lexical acquisition because I think I'm not. Just because I'm not as good at one thing as I am at another doesn't mean I shouldn't work hard at it; it means I should work even harder to overcome my inadequacies. I'll never get better if I don't try. As corny as it sounds, the things that come easily to us define what we've always been; the things we have to struggle for determine what we'll become. Will I be lazy and simply give up? Or will I power through, press my nose against the grindstone, and learn as much Norwegian as I can because that's what I came here to do. I hope that having said this on the internet for all the world to see will encourage me to put more effort into my studies.
This self pep-talk brought to you by Neal's unfinished homework.
Despite the constant struggle, both of my classes have been extremely enjoyable. At first I was a bit worried about the length of my Norwegian class, as late as I am in saying so. Three hours every day immediately after spending two hours in a different class sounded like a lot. However, the time goes fast when I'm concentrating on absorbing everything. Also, two fifteen-minute breaks separate the three hours of learning into manageable chunks. My Norwegian class even seems to go faster than my history class. My history class is fascinating -- particularly the historic and linguistic tangents my professor goes on -- but a two hour lecture class taught by a professor that enjoys the sound of his own voice is rather like watching corn grow. Don't get me wrong, he's a fantastic professor; it's more the nature of the class' material and early-in-the-morning-ness that makes the time tick by so slowly.
Yesterday (Wednesday) after class I went on a walking tour along the Aker river. In addition to it being a beautiful day, many of the old mills and factories along the river are from the time period I've been learning about in my history class the past couple days. The tour guide was an interesting person but also very knowledgeable and quite funny. He told us that the name "Aker" originally comes from the word for "field" or "corn." He also told us that if we ever get a job in Norway selling fake university degrees to give him ten percent of the profit.By the end of the two and a half hour tour I was starving. At dinner they served ribs, potatoes, and -- you guessed it -- corn on the cob. I don't know that I'd actually call it corn on the cob, though; it had been canned, was all soft and weird, and tasted as if the plant it came from died six years ago. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but growing up in the Midwest can make a person picky about their sweet corn.
After dinner I worked on this blog for a while before going out for an evening with some friends. Nothing too crazy. Just an enjoyable evening with some wonderful people. Sorry for how corny this post ended up being. I try to think of ways to make my blog posts interesting or entertaining for people to read but oftentimes I feel as if they're mere husks of what they could be. I'll try to stalk up on a cornucopia of new ideas before my next post. I can just feel the scornful looks you're giving me. That's okay. Your corneas can do my ears no harm. If you want to tassel over it, though, I'll be in the corner.
If you're still reading this, thanks for reading! I'll do my best to post something before leaving for my white water rafting excursion this weekend. Stay tuned. -NLD
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