Your daily dose of random Norwegian
3. kleint
Katie-ified: KLY-NT
Translation: awkward
Relevance: While I recently declared a major in urban studies, I have been rocking a 4.0 in awkwardness since the crib. That and, anytime you arrive in a foreign place, with language barriers and new beginnings and plenty of “Hi, I met you five times in the last six minutes but can’t remember and/or pronounce your name” moments, things are bound to get a little kleint. With loads of new friends from around the globe and just as many attempted-but-entirely-lost-in-translation English and Aussie-ish and gibberish exchanges, awkwardness (n.b. unlike humor and sarcasm) seems to transcend linguistic barriers. Case in point: my new friend, Francesco From Florence, declares things like, “I popped my Ikea cherry!” on our first trip on the magical Ikea bus or, “Katie, your legs are two days long” at a party.
Clothed friends and naked sculptures at Vigeland Park
Other kleint things: Norwegian toilet flushers (every single one is different); men who wear very fitted biking/compression shorts as pants; pigeons that look like penguins; when we took a ferry to an island for the afternoon and Louie ripped his shorts; Vigeland Park—one of Oslo’s most famous and scenic spots, filled with statues of naked people and a giant column of tangled nude sculptures and lots of marble children looking on; me when I try to speak Norwegian.