Sunday, January 21, 2007

My First 2 weeks in Oslo

Hi All!!!

Well, I arrived safe and sound in Oslo about 2 weeks ago. I was seriously jet lagged for the first 5 days but have now fully recovered and I’m settling into a routine in my new hometown for the next year.Two days after I arrived in Oslo I attended a conference in Trondheim, Norway that was held by the organization that set up my international internship: AIESEC. If any of you want more info on AIESEC and want to know what they are all about go to www.aiesec.ca. The conference was pretty cool and I met a lot of people from many different countries. I met other trainees but none that worked at the same place that I do. I missed my plane to come back to Oslo, so I had to buy another one that left one hour later. I thought the shuttle bus for airport was supposed to be fast, the bus stopped every 2 minutes so I was late. So I got a great experience at the conference and come back with 800 kroner less in my pocket…. Oh well!

My new apartment is really cool. My room is a bit bigger then the one I had in Amsterdam (so slightly bigger then a broom closet). The kitchen, the living room and the washroom are all very big. The kitchen has everything you need and there is a washing machine in the bathroom. In addition to my bedroom, I have an extra living room of my own that I can put anything I want (maybe I’ll cover the room in porn ..hahaha), so there is plenty of place if anybody wants to come visit. I found out that I will have to move out at the END of July so it gives me plenty of time to find another place. The reason is because the apartment was promised to another guy for the month of August. I live with a guy, Bjorn, and two girls, Eva and Hanne (pronounced Hanna). They are very nice and helpful. All three are Norwegians studying in Oslo. Bjorn helped me out buying a cell (which is a must in Europe) and the same day we bought the sports pack for our TV so we now get soccer games and even the NHL!! WOOOO!

After my first week of work, I think I will like it here. I work at Opera Software (www.opera.com) as a marketing intern. I haven’t been given any tasks because there was a sales and marketing seminar all week. Basically the sales and marketing reps from all over the world reunited at the head office in Oslo for some info sessions and team building. I got an idea of what the company will be doing strategy wise for the upcoming year. Also, for the team building we had a dinner last Thursday night and on the Friday we went Go-Karting and went for beers after. I will get more of an idea of what my tasks are this week. There is a canteen at work that is completely paid for. Each employee pays 200 NOK (kroner) (around 37$) each month and we get breakfast, snacks and lunch for free. That will save on the groceries !!!To give you an idea of what kind of atmosphere the company has, I got pretty drunk with the current COO of the company at the dinner and he used me to pick up girls! On Friday the CFO of the company was on my go-kart team! So the company seems pretty cool and it should be a fun working environment. I’m looking forward to the next year.

That’s it for now my friends, I will post pictures of my apartment soon! I have posted pictures of the beautiful town of Trondheim, Norway. Enjoy!

Oh by the way, the girls here are absolutely gorgeous!!!

Take care everyone, I miss you all.

Go SENS Go!!

Jason

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