Feb 20

I spent Friday at a Russian’s house to celebrate a birthday.  We played some weird Russian party games and had a blast!

Saturday, I made pancakes (somewhat more successful then the last time) for some people that came over for brunch.  Later that evening was my first shift at Ludo, the student bar on campus.  I started at 9:30pm and got everything set up with the 2 other bartenders.  We spent the next few hours snacking and keeping ourselves entertained because no one showed up until midnight but then it was non stop until 4am.  I had never formally served drinks before but I quickly learned how to make several different drinks, shots and to pour foamless beer.  The most difficult part was figuring out which of the many buttons to push on the screen to charge people for their drink.  It was actually a lot of fun and it was no problem that I didn’t speak much Norwegian.  Although I am not getting paid for this, I get a significant reduction on drinks as well as getting into their concerts for free; I only have shifts every 3 weeks so it’s a pretty sweet gig.

I got home late after working at the bar and was up by 10am the next day to hit up the snowboard hill about 20 minutes outside of town.  The idea was for me to teach some people how to snowboard and finally have a fun day in this new snow.  When we got there, we were told that it was to windy at the top of the hill and the resort had to be closed for the rest of the day.  Oh well, I hope to try again next weekend.

Today, was my last Norwegian language and culture class.  I must say that I know the basics and some very simple phrases. Kathrine brought in some dried codfish (Norsk delicacy) and some beer to wash it down with; it was a nice treat.  Tonight for dinner I made some falafel and veggies for my roomies, mmmm.

Tomorrow is the International Food presentation day so I am making poutine.  I just went to the groceries and bought 5 big bags of frozen fries, packets of gravy and 2 huge blocks of cheese… needless to say I got a strange look from the cashier who clearly doesn’t know what poutine is.