26 Aug 2007 4 Comments

One month in Bergen — life of a software engineer in the most beautiful city of Norway

26th of July – 26th of August: it is exactly one month that I am in Bergen and my life is completely changed… again.

I live in a nice flat really in the city center, close to all pubs and social places. It is made by three room, one bathroom, one little storage room, and a little space in the basement where I can park my new bicycle. The kitchen has gas stoves instead of electric hot plates, something really rare here in Norway since cities have no gas networks, and I really feel at home. Unfortunately there is no living room, but my room is very big, about 16m², where I have also a sofa.

I share the flat with other two nice and clean Norwegian guys, Thorolf and Willy. The life at home is a bit different from what I am used to have in Italy or during my Erasmus. People spend most of the time in their room. Sometimes they come to the kitchen to prepare some food, but then they even eat back in their room. I would like to have a bit more of social life here…

Thorolf and Willy, if you are reading this, why don’t we make a party here? Anyway, maybe it is normal to have a quite life when you are a worker, like me and those guys are, but I noticed that I have still and Erasmus mind-set.

I go to work with a shiny new bicycle, and since the company is one of the few with the office still in the city center, I am at the work place in 10 minutes.

The firm is little, and sometimes I feel like I work in a family-managed business. The relationship with the managing director and technical leader is very pleasant. I have flexible working hours, with core work from 9:00 to 15:00. Of course at the end of the week I should have done 37.5 hours of work, but this is a very good opportunity for me. In general I work from 9:00 to 17:00, but if I need to do something I can go out earlier and work more the day after. There are details that I do not like in the company, the perfect work place does not exist, but I am trying to come to an agreement with the management to fix them.

I work closely with Mikal, the guy who found me this job. We will have to develop an entire new project about surveillance systems starting almost from scratch. The way is very long but we want to do the things in the right way, like Ian Sommerville teaches in the Software Engineering book. We agree on how the company should be run, but we have a completely different technical point of you. As you know I am a strong believer of the free software philosophy, I prefer to use free/open source technology in my life, and I would like to do the same at the work place. On the contrary, Mikal is enthusiastic of latest Microsoft technologies, and while I recognize that some of them can be even better then the free/open source alternatives for the purpose of our project, I do not agree with him for what concerns the ethical and economical consequences of using Microsoft products. Anyway, the final word on the technology is always up to the technical leader, and we are still far from starting the implementation, so we will see what will be chosen in the future.

Soon I will receive my first salary, and I look forward to feel completely economical independent even in Norway. Here the cost of life is a bit higher than in the rest of Europe, but not as much as one would believe. I spend about 3000NOK (about 375€) per month for the rent + bills, less then what I would have spent in Rome and Milan, while I spend a lot more for food and drinks. At the end of the month I think that the total cost of life is just a two hundreds Euro more than in any metropolis of Italy, but the salary, at least in my field, is more than the double.

My parents sent me a package of 30Kg, containing a lot of personal staff and food. It took almost one month to be delivered and at the beginning it was also lost by the Italian post service. Fortunately it was simply stopped by the custom at the Italian border because of some “missing documentation”, probably something was lost during the way. At the end it was found and delivered again with the proper documents, and now I can finally eat some good food from Italy. I do not like a lot of things from my home country, but I still believe that Italy has the best food and cuisine in the world.

How do I spend my spare time? As you can imagine I came here with few contacts left from my Erasmus experience in Bergen and from the short trip I had here in Easter, but this was enough to know lot of new people.

The bad news for me is that most of them are just left or are leaving soon. Thank you Mauro, Piedad, Silje, Sara, Gonzalo and the other people surrounding the “auberge epagnole”, you are very nice. I would have had more time to spend with you but this is unfortunately part of the Erasmus: suddenly you have to say good bye. I hope to keep in touch with you and to see you again, maybe here in Bergen or maybe somewhere else in the world.

Anyway, I already have new friends who are starting new their Erasmus exchange… this is a kind of Erasmus part III for me, but this time my hope is to get in touch with local people. During my Erasmus I did not have this chance often, since I was living in the Fantoft studentboliger, the hostel where almost only international students live.

Here all the people use Facebook, an on-line social utility to connect friends. Practically every Norwegian not older than 40 year is at least registered to it, and most of them use it as a concrete communication media. It has been impressive to see that anyone I met was also there. Some times people instead of asking you your mobile phone no., just ask you your family name so they can search and you on Facebook. I am registered too now and I am getting used to it, but the good old way to have a real talk with your friends in front of a glass of wine is still the best for me.

If you looked at my Flickr photostream you would have probably noticed that I am also spending a lot of time in shooting pictures around the city. My new DSLR camera gives me a lot of satisfaction, especially now that I have a bit more of theoretical and practical background about photography. Take a look at my last pictures of Bergen.

I am learning Norsk too thanks to a language exchange with Silje, a Norwegian girl who is interested in learning Italian. At the moment I can say just childish sentences like “Jeg heter Alessandro og kommer fra Italia” (My name is Alessandro and I come from Italy), but I hope to improve my skills soon, especially if I will join an evening course.

Anyway, this time I really wrote a lot, my stomach is reminding me that it is time to eat something. I will keep you updated!

by Alessandro in Uncategorized