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They have this really weird fashion here in oslo. It's these one piece overalls that I wore when I was a kid. You see people wearing them here on the street instead of sweatpants! AND they're super expensive too! 

I have a hard time seeing that trend in Stockholm.

Check out OnePiece for more pics.

 

Yesterday I met up with Kari Turner, my second cousin, and we had some coffee and chated for an hour or so. Before I was starving and had to get home for dinner. Norway is so expensive so its not like you can just grab a snack.. Anyway it was really nice to see her and hear about her Oslo experiences and adventures.

Today I went to Moss after lunch to visit Ellen, who is a Art Director at Tikktakk. She has worked with HH since 1995 and even sat Inhouse for 10 years! So she has got a lot of experience and I was thrilled that she invited me over for the afternoon. Tikktakk is located in Moss which is south of Oslo and they have their office in the coolest buildning. Very modern with windows everywhere and high celings. Ellen also had her dog at the office whom I fell in love with. It was a 2 year old Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, you always wanted one of those right mom? She was really intense and almost crazy, rolling around on the floor just to get some attention! I couldn't stop laughing! We got some work done to... I made prototypes of a new HH package that I can't tell you more about because it's a secret! But I can tell you it's starting to look pretty good. Now I just have to convince marketing to go for my suggestion.

And today the people living in Oslo have recoverd from the snowstorm that chocked everyone yesterday. Itwas nice +16 C outside and sunny, so all the cafés with outdoor seating where packed with pale norwegians trying to get some vitamin D.

Tomorrows schedule;
7.00 Wake up, eat breakfast
8.00 Get a ride to the office with Gisle
10.30 Meeting 1 (about packaing)
11.30 Lunch
13.00 Meeting 2 (about information/labels/etc to put on packaging)
17.00 Meeting 3 (about Ready to sell display for winter11)
18.00 Hopefully on my way home
19.00 Dinner
20.00 Running for 30 min (unless unexpected snowstorm)
21.30 Paradise Hotel (my way of learning norwegian...)
22.45 Bedtime

I was HOME for the weekend and it was so nice to see everyone again! I love it here in Oslo, but I really miss my family and Seb. But as I sat on the plane 'home' again, I realized that I really enjoy Oslo. I guess you don't appreciate the city you grew up in as much, because I think Oslo is so much nicer than Stockholm. It really isn't, but I just get that feeling when I'm walking around here. I am thankful for having this opportunity to have a internship abroad and I am glad that I did take the initiative to come here. But I still wish Seb would be here with me...

Some pics from Strømstad Spa and Resort that HH had their salesmeeting at. I was there for two days and ate the most delicious food and drank a lot of mojitos. And did some work of course...

Monday again. This previous week has been intense here at the headquarters. Everybody was getting ready for the big sales meeting in Strømstad, so if I tried to ask about something I just got a hand whiff and a 'don't have time now, next week, i just have to answer this call' and so on. Today the office is empty, just me and a few more people. Silence. 

Tomorrow I'm going down to Strømstad to see the big fashion show. I'm very excited, even though a lot of people have said not to have to much expectations, since it's a sales fashion show for HH only. Not a big runway show. But I'm still very excited to see the Winter11 collection. On wednesday I'm going to have a little talk to the sales people. It's important that they get a saying in this new packaging project in a early stage. I have a lot of ideas, Ida (the designer) has a lot of ideas and now we just have to add the sales peoples ideas to the pile. And then we are taking in focus groups. A lot of work lies a head.

This weekend I have strolled down in 'Byen' as they call it. Saturday was crazy, they had this huge market thing going on at one of the main shopping streets. All the stores had big sales and tents out front with special offers. I bought two body butters from The Body Shop for 200 Nkr! In Sweden they cost 200 Sek a piece, so I thought that was a pretty good deal. It was people everywhere grabbing everything they could get a hold on. Then they also had a inner city running race. It was a 800 m race, so it wasn't far, but there were so many people running it! And so many people cheering on. So I stopped and watched it for almost an hour. Then I went to a nice little coffee shop that was called 'People and Coffee', which had surf inspired decorating and the best chicken and hummus sandwich. I really like that they serve alcohol at the cafés here in oslo. It looks nice to sit and have a glass of wine with your food in a homey environment. Maybe I should start a nice café/bar, I know that they've discussed it in Sweden. Now you can only serve alcohol if you have warm food I think. In my café/bar there's going to be boardgames to borrow, a little library section, Kate Melua songs coming out from the speakers and the best homemade baked goods. Only 5 different salads and say 8 different sandwich options on the menu.

Anyhow, like I said to my mom, I have found out know after two weeks that I love this environment at HH. I like the outdoor clothing business and would love to continue working in this business. I don't know if packaging is the only thing I want t o work with. I'm getting more and more interested in the hole development part, the design process that has to work with all the different materials and textiles, and then finally production. I also really enjoy the marketing part, we had some courses at school that I found very interesting, but now in the product area of my intreats it has taken me by storm. I think I still want to work with product development though. Right now I just don't know if I have to study something more, or if there is some job out there for me with the education I've got so far. I would love a assistant job to start, and then work my way up. 

Anyway... My weekend. Sunday I took a long walk with Maia, the dog. It was really warm in the sun, but as soon as the sun disappeared it was pretty cold. Then I took 'trikken in the byen' and had coffee at a nice bakery on Aker Brygge. I had a cappuccino, a almond croissant and the latest Elle magazine.

AND I forgot to tell you about friday. We went on a after work, not at all common in Norway. It was this really cool bar with maps on the walls and people in every age. You brought your own food and bought drinks there. I had spicy tuna maki rolls (sushi) that were delicious and some beer imported from Prague in a cool bottle (yes, a bit of a packaging nerd). I had a very good time and I think it was good to see and talk to some of my work colleagues out of work.

I think I covered it all. 

Sitting here at HH waiting for lunch. This first week has been so much fun, but a lot of hard work to start things of. Not only do I have to remember everybodys names I also got two projects going. One packaging 'line' for mens, womens, and kids baselayer, and I'm also responsible for a ready to sell display for beanies, socks, and mittens. A lot of meetings trying to please everybody from sales, designers and marketing. I have to take a lot of own initiative and have a lot of responsibility. But I'm really enjoying myself! Luckily I don't have any friends here yet... But tonight I have my fist volleyball practice with the Koll team. And I'm really excited for that, it will be good to get up and moving after two weeks of rest.  

This weekend we were up at Beitostølen were Eva and Gisle have a nice little cabin from the 50's. Eva, Maia (the dog) and I too a 2 hour ski up in the mountains. The weather kept on shifting, it was sunny then snowing, then sunny, then raining. It felt so good to breath in all that fresh air, but I was completely out of it all night. We also went to a after ski and drank beer. I got to borrow traditional norwegian after ski wear which was leather knickers. I thought I looked like a dork, but eva insisted that everybody weares them. When we got to the place I didn't se ANYBODY wearing them! Especially not kids my ages, it was the usual jeans and hoodie thing there. But I had fun and tried to follow the conversation.

It is hard to understand norwegian some times, especially because they just assume I understand everything since I'm swedish. Some accents are impossible. I'll give it another week then I'm switching to english.