Deadlines & DuPont

D.C. had a snow day today!

I've come to realize 2 things this week: 

Wind chills are the worst. D.C. has been pretty chilly the last few weeks but not unbearable--until the wind blows. We've been having crazy wind chills with gusts that drop the temperature 15+ degrees. So cold! It says is sunny and in the 30's but it feels like the low teens when the wind blows. Luckily, it is supposed to be in the 50's this weekend--so balmy! 

There is nothing quite like coming home after work and seeing a lot of Pepco trucks lining your block. 

I turned down my street and saw all the Pepco trucks. Those orange cones in the street and flood lights shining into the manholes are a sign that something has probably gone terribly awry. 

It's been a long while since I've been on tumblr. But, 2015 feels like it will be a big year so it seems like a good time to jump back in. 

This will be my first year as an adult--out of college and living in a new city.

I moved to D.C. a few months ago and I'm finally getting the hang of it (...I hope). I started a new job just a few weeks ago at a social media focused PR agency. And I love it already.

This is a year of big changes. In addition to my new job, living in a new city, and adult responsibilities, tomorrow my best friend moves to Australia! It's hard to process that in 24 hours he will be on a different continent. But, I'm really hoping I get a kookaburra or a bandicoot out of his new job. (Sadly, I'm pretty sure the Australian government doesn't allow that.) 

This is Tinni and Sniffer, and they have been dubbed the real-life “Fox and Hound.”

"The Fox" by Ylvis

OSLO: One Southern Lady Overseas turned 1 today!

looking for some summer book recommendations. any suggestions? 

big day for norway!! it's constitution day for norge--their independence day. 

wish i could be there to celebrate. 

Flatmates. 

i was just looking back and reading some of my old posts and realizing how much i missed talking about norway. 

I've been back here at Denison for almost 3 months. And I can't believe how easily I've fallen back into my routine. Now that we have all been back for a while, study abroad seems so far away and we just don't talk about it that much.

Sometimes it is hard to believe it even happened. 

One of my favorite things is talking about living in Norway when I give tours to prospective students. I cannot stress enough on my tours the importance of going abroad to visiting high school students. 

So while I've been back at school, here are some differences and similarities between Denison and University of Oslo: 

you are allowed to smile at other students here. and you wave or at least give a nod to everyone you know when you pass them on the quad. maybe it was just that I didn't know anyone in norway but i never felt like anyone wanted a smile or even eye contact. 

there are no student pubs. i miss the department bars on UiO's campus. 

the weather in Ohio is just as ADHD as Norwegian weather. it is late March and today we got several inches of snow. this is not spring and i do not understand. But Oslo had the same temperatures today so I feel OK about it. 

there is so much more work here! I miss having only 3 classes! i miss having only 40 pages of reading to do every other night instead of 40 pages of reading per every class for every night. 

last post: i realize i don't really have a reason for this blog anymore. i'm not in norway and i don't really have stuff to say about my life back in the states

i really miss Norway. it was an amazing and i met wonderful people that i hope i never lose contact with. i hope i can go back. i hope everyone can go live in a foreign country at least for a little bit. it'll change your life. not just go on a vacation but actually live there. 

thanks for following me to everyone who did! i hope you found some of my posts interesting and my pictures pretty. if you did like my pictures, you can also follow me on instagram as "lizdalloway"

i hope everyone had a gledelig jul and i hope you have et godt nyttår! 

ha det bra,

I've been home a week. I can't tell if it feels longer or shorter than that. I feel like I've gotten some perspective on my time in Norway. And I've come to the conclusion that it was AWESOME. 

The program I went on was run by HECUA and called The New Norway ( https://hecua.org/norway ) I've never learned so much in a semester. I had an amazing professor and I loved being in a small class. My internship placement at Nordic Black Theatre was so worthwhile and added so much to my understanding of Norwegian culture. I had a fantastic Norwegian Language class. I got to make friends from all over the world. I gained a whole new level of independence. I learned way more about Norway and Scandinavia than I ever could have from America. Living abroad made me realize a lot about America too. 

i've been home only a few days. but it is amazing how quickly things go back to normal. i can't believe i only got home on Tuesday. i can tell I haven't been home that long though because (1) my parents still ask my questions about Norway, (2) my sleep schedule is nowhere near normal and (3) everyday American things still astonish me. (for example, I walked into Kroger yesterday and just stood in the doorway for about 30 seconds hyperventilating/laughing at what seemed to me, like a giant grocery store)

i also know I haven't been home that long because i keep having nightmares about getting stranded in downtown Oslo at 1am after the t-bane has stopped running and not having a way to get home. anyway, it's a weird adjustment.

some things I've found really surprising are:

how annoying cell phones are. i really didn't use my norwegian phone in Oslo and now i don't quite remember how to use my american phone and i get frustrated very easily. 

the amount of clothing i own. after having only about 10 days worth of clothes, being able to choose from a walk-in closet continually blows my mind. i also don't know how i survived without a pair of sweat pants or my L.L. Bean slippers

how much I love Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. 

how much i missed my parents. 

how much i missed my house. 

how much i missed my own bed with it's absurd amount of pillows and stuffed animals.

how much i missed having fast wi-fi (no wi-fi in my room in Oslo. just an old-school ethernet cable) 

how easy having a car/driving make errands and everyday life. i wish the U.S. had better public transit and I loved using public transit everyday in Oslo. but, good god, that was inconvenient. driving is so much easier and faster! 

how annoying other people's conversations can be. In Norway, because I didn't speak Norwegian, I didn't have to listen to nearby strangers' loud conversations. I just tuned them out because I couldn't understand them. But here, in an airport or waiting in line, sometimes you have to listen no matter how uninteresting the conversation might be. 

there are a lot more things that are vastly different from living in Norway. and it's taking me a while to process the reverse culture shock. i think i'll get used to it pretty soon.