Også - Also

So.
Wow. I just met my first actually helpful administrative Nordmann. The first person who let me point out a problem without getting defensive. Toosen takk RANDI! Du er veldig flink! You are very clever.
I visited Randi yesterday and explained my beef with the unnecessary fees and redundant bureaucracy and just plain ridiculousness of asking me to put down 3 000 NOK against trashing my room when they already have control over 81 000 NOK of my flow. I went back today and she'd taken care of the problem. Randi arranged for a direct transfer of my funds from the SiT general account to the SiT bolig (residence) account. She wrote up a tiny little english contract paragraph missing some key phrasing. We added it - printed it - I signed and *poof* fees and running all over town - gone. Wow.
When we were all stuck in the basement the SiT bolig people just stood there like deer in headlights and would put their hands up defensively and cry "It's not our fault!" and then turn and run away.

She even said that maybe I am helping to change their systems for the better - has no one pointed out the ridiculousness before? Anyway -- Randi = A+ Nordmann!!

Også.
Last night I played my first Norwegian ultimate. I am going to try to be nice because someday someone might read this... but DAMN!!! that sucked. Like SUPER GIANT BOLD TYPEFACE NEON LIGHTS !!!!!! SUCKED. I will be back every single time - but I won't be quite so happy about it.
I am used to an organic pick-up game. I don't need a stack or score or a dump - but this was like a jostled hive of hornets and another jostled hive of hornets. People running willy-nilly. Hospital passes all day and night. Everyone dropping everything. Arms flailing (the previously mentioned Jude is a tall long armed guy who doesn't run with his arms in near his sides and wears a damn hard watch and didn't take it off and hugely back-handed/wristed/watched me in the forehead and my forehead is split open and bumpy right now). People just clogged each other to no end. Bah. Norwegians may be taller but they jump sucky.
Ugh! The group organizer seemed to have slightly more skill but not by much.
Out of close to 30 people (two games) - there were maybe four Norwegians that showed some skill or promise. There's German Andi who I tossed with last week and will enjoy playing against/with and there's my wee ruddy Scottish mate Sean Suckling - Little Flame - The Ginger Streak. Bigger heart than all of the others combined - he's brand new to it and can't throw very well but he'll quickly outdistance most of the other 26 if he really cares as much as he seems to. I need to send him an email and tell him I thought he did great and to not stress on throwing so much at the moment because nearly everyone starts in the role of receiver.
The fields were small and rocky and while the general field was a good width - the endzone was a more of a centered third-width box. This was okay (not great) when we were playing small fields of 4-on-4 or so - but went to complete shit when I convinced them to combine two smaller games into a larger game and the group leader wanted to keep the box. 7-8 people running into this box was not unlike visiting one of the city center bars on a Thursday night - uncomfortably crowded.
We played only maybe 1.5 hours - boo. When it was over I went to get my bike (left near the first game I played with) and came back to find everyone just finishing something that had them standing in a circle. The organizing group is a Christian Fellowship of some sort. Some sort of church group. They play disc on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
German Andi played with a different group (NTNUI) on Sunday (while I was picking blåbær) and he says they weren't quite so horrid. I hope I will play with them this Sunday but I am supposed to tour the Samfundet (student union club/bar/cafe/maze) and learn about volunteering and maybe doing some live sound there. My only fear is that they may have way fancier gear than any of the bars in Boston ever bother to pay for and that I may have to learn some fancy multi-tiered menu systems and crap before I can do even the simplest set-ups. Not that I can't usually figure that shit out - but to have to do it in a language I don't yet really know - that has DISASTER POTENTIAL for sure. The tour is at 1800 and the game at 2000 - hope to do both.

I haven't seen any metal yet. :(
Ha det bra!