My Brutal Welcome to the North

Ever since i have arrived in Oslo all i have complained about is the lack of snow they have. This is extremely rich coming from a girl who was born and breed in Durban South Africa, one of the hottest provinces in South Africa. Well i guess the snow was one of my main coming attractions. I firstly could not wait to build my snow man, to try skiing, have a snow ball fight and the list goes on. During the weekend my so called wish came true, in a massive way. The weather came from Friday having no snow at all on the ground to Sunday not being able to walk because of how high the snow is on the ground. Its always great to experience something new and something so natural. But my philosophy in life is to always have everything on a moderate level. I always say too much of a good think can be bad for you. So my snow has finally arrived and it feels like it has come in buckets and buckets. Let me just give you a preview of how these past few days have been for me.

1. Firstly walking on snow is not the easiest thing to do, i spend most of my time walking as slowly as i can to avoid the continuous embarrassment of looking like a humty dumpty. ( this morning my roommate said on the way to work, can we walk a bit faster please and i was like you go along i will take my time thank you)
2. Secondly when it is snowing and you are in my position trying very hard to co-ordinate your steps. The snow flakes that do not fall only downwards but feel like they coming from every side of your head hood does not help. So i have a hood on my head but still have snow flakes beating on my face and some even going into my scarf. Being able to walk and see is something i am yet to master while it snows.
3. While i was busy minding my own business walking on the side pavement i had to be the drying block of a bus that went past. I am not sure of i was walking to close to road or if i should have just followed everyone and walked where they were walking because when the bus went past it splattered tons of snow and muddy water on me and my poor boots.
4. I have also had to share public transport with a lot of eager people carrying the skies around and of course there is always the baby prams so this has left me in serious tight corners in transport especially during peak hours.
5. At this time of the year the sun is almost non-existent but the whiteness of the snow still shines through so that's a bonus.
So as i write all these things down i can almost not help how strange and different all of this feels to me. Moreover i cant believe how naive i was when i was watching all those movies that make snow seem like the most romantic natural scenery. So if that was the case why do so many people only get married in spring and summer. I cant believe how easy Jessica Parker made walking on snow in your stelletos look. This is my official snow welcome, it feels strange but today i am going out to build my first snow man and hopefully i will be in skies soon. I am sucking everything in and saying to myself 'Always be careful, what you wish for because sometimes you might just get it'. Over and above all of this, its really a beutiful site, it looks like the heaven have just put a white blanket on everything including peoples carswhich is not so great. I will be taking alot of winter pictures because this is definelty an experience.

I started volunteering at a drug addicts and prostitutes cafe called Marita Cafe here in Oslo. I go there every Tuesday from 07:00-10:00pm. This cafe has shown me another side of Norway or should i say Oslo. I have seen people that are outcasted by the community and people that you can absolutely shadow out if you don't look properly in between the lines. It felt strange for me to walk the streets of Norway in a freezing cold night looking for people that we can approach and tell that the cafe is opened and they can now get some porridge or coffee and tea and also just have a warm place where they can have someone to speak to.

Walking around with an experienced volunteer from Marita cafe, to the places know as the hot spots or the places where we can find all these people. I almost felt like i was in a different place or even in another country. So the question i ended up asking myself is ' What makes a person who grows up in a country listed as one of the richest in the world that also has so many opportunities end up in the cold streets doing drugs and living off begging in the streets' or even ' Are all these great opportunities for all people or do some people loose out as always'. I want to go Marita Cafe for the rest of my stay here in Norway because i feel like this is where i am going to feel the essence of the minority in Norway and see some realities that seem to be over shadowed. And to be honest minorities have always interested me. I think i will have more stories to tell from Marita Cafe so everyone must watch this space.