Alright. There's an interesting thread over at Bad Girls where people tells a lil about their homearea.... I find it amusing and interesting reading about other peoples countries/areas...in their own words....I wrote this about Norway.....please don't take it for pure fact....this is my limited knowledge/experience.... I might have gotten the facts wrong some places....but I tried to write what came to my mind when telling about Norway....figured it'd be fun to share here too :p
And because I can't post without a photo of some kind; here's an old one from last february..one of the rare days when there was snow around..taken in my backyard/back of the garden at the old house..look! Flare!!
Funny :) Well, I live in Norway...I grew up in Oslo, the capital of Norway...actually I was born in South Korea but I was adopted when I was 7mo old so I have no memories from my time there....
Norway is a fairly large country really - slightly larger than Germany.... but because of the landscape (lots of mountains) there's not that many people living here.....close to 5million people atm... the density is 12/km^2 according to wikipedia...(to compare.....in England (England only, not GB) the density is 388.7/km^2 ...Germany..which's only slightly smaller than Norway in area's got 230.9/km^2.... quite a diff :)
Norway is part of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden and Denmark)..... lots and lots of fjords along the western coast....(According to A hithickers guide to the galaxy the creator of Norways fjords got a prize for them ;) )
Hm. Oslo.... I used to love the city...it was my city...despite what the papers wrote I felt safe there....I didn't mind walking home from the subway or nightbus after a night out.... now...Im scared and sad heh... I don't know if it's because I moved from Oslo when I was 18 or because I got children and another perspective on life....I think the latter....hm...I digress...
Oslo is the capital and the biggest city.... at the SEish part of Norway... about 500.000 people lives there I think...big concentration of foreginers... everybody moves to Oslo kinda... I moved to Bergen when I was 18.. to study here and fell in love w/my hubs so I stayed here....it's at the western coast of NOrway... Bergen is the 2nd biggest city in Norway..I live about 10min outside of the city at an island with like only 30.000 people (hey correct me if Im wrong!)...
In Norway....there's a lot of wooden houses....I mention this because I know wood is kinda sacred at some parts of the world.... so some foreginers usually remark that there's a lot of wooden houses here.... esp outside the cities.... while there's a lot of "blocks" (not sure on the spelling? tall/large buildings where theres lots of apartments together) in the cities there's also a lot of people living in their own houses esp outside the cities...
The roads sucks here.....seriously.....we have had a number of swedes visiting lately....they all go wtf the road sucks once they get in to NOrway from Sweden... :p
We're a monarch...we got a king and stuff.... but he has no real power..it's mostly just name/tradition.... we have a parliament..democratic parliament....prime minister...
The religion...we have a state Church of Norway....everybody who's born are registered to this automatically....you have to tell them to not be in their lists kinda...according to wikipedia about 83% are members of Church of Norway.....which is lutherian btw.. only 10% attend church regulary though... and there's huge debates (but has been so for the last 20 years or so at least :p) about separating state and church....guess it'll go on for another 20 year :roll:
Hmhm more? *scratch* We have a nice health service...well.....it's being complained about at lot..but at least it's free when it comes to necessarities (sp?).... like.... someone in my extended family married a woman from South Africa...and she was amazed that giving birth was free....according to her they had to pay for all the controls during the pregancy and equipment and stuff used for giving birth at hospitals in SA (which in turn amazed me - please correct me if this is incorrect..I believe there's someone from SA here too?).
We don't homeschool... at least it's very very unusual that I know of. All children are required to attend school from 6-um... 15 I think... then the majority continues school (high school?) from 16-18...but it's not obligatory.... a large number moves on to college/university..more and more the last years..
Military...boys are required to serve the military for a year when they're 18...usually they're like, sent up north haha.... if they can't do the military due to various reasons they're to do community service instead (a lil longer than a year)...girls can apply but for now it's not obligatory for them...
Sports....soccer (which we call football) is the main sport no 1 I guess :p Skiing and stuff are popular too... oh yeah..we have snow...sometimes :p At the western coast (where I live) it's more usual having a much milder climate than north/east.
I'm contemplating taking part of a photochallenge that's about taking photos of your community once a week. I'll share the photos on my blog if anyone's interested in seeing how it is around here...havent started yet but fairly sure I will...:)
If you actually have read all this...and would like to tell me about your area...I'd totally LOVE to read! On the BG forum or your blog or in the comments whatever - just let me know and I'd really love to learn more :) Norwegians..feel free to correct me haha :p
Now. New dugnadschallenge coming tonight! Stay tuned cause it's seriously a cool one! :D
