Items

• 
  2022-03-16

  Sign in Staff Area of St. Olav's Hospital

  This sign is located in the staff area of St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim, Norway. This photo was taken on March 16th, 2022 inside of a staff-only area. The sign reads as follows: Habits that prevent infection Paper tissues Cover your mouth and nose to protect others when coughing or sneezing. Through away the tissue after use. Then wash your hands. Use the hook of your elbow When you need to cough or sneeze and you do not have a paper tissue. Wash your hands With hand sanitizer when hand washing is not possible; for example, when traveling. In 2022, many places in the world have taken down signs and other precautionary rules that have to do with limiting the spread of coronavirus. This sign, which can only be seen by hospital staff, shows how precautions are still being enforced for hospital staff. This is important as it shows what rules and regulations are still being enforced in 2022.
• 
  2022-03-16

  Sign at St. Olav's Hospital

  This photo was taken in the lobby of St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim, Norway on March 16th, 2022. The signs reads as follows: INFORMATION WEAR A MASK - Available at the front desk DO NOT ENTER IF YOU - Have symptoms of COVID-19 - Tested positive for COVID-19 - Had contact with a corona positive patient Please arrange visits with the ward in advance. I believe that this is important because this shows have precautions are being taken in the hospital in 2022. In many parts of the world, two years into the pandemic, a lot of rules and regulations regarding the prevention of COVID-19 have relaxed. In some cases, there are no precautions at all. This sign shows have precautions are still being taken in a major hospital by requiring masks and asking people who have been exposed to not enter the hospital.
• 2020-11-09

  Symptoms of Covid-19

  Throughout 2020 there has been many different symptoms of Coronavirus. The main ones are fever, sore throat, coughing. I had a personal experience with one of my family members getting the virus. It was my great grandma. My great grandma was my biggest hero. She went through many obstacles in her life including; World War 2, she was a model for Norway, and she even beat a pandemic. On November 4 2020 my family and i found out my great grandma was diagnosed with Coronavirus. Now she had many health issues and we all knew the virus would not help that. On November 8th she tested negative. We were all very happy she made it through. The next day she was not doing well and she passed away. She was surrounded by family on zoom to talk to her and I will never forget how amazing she was.
• 2020-03

  Stuck In The North

  I was serving in the Norwegian Army when COVID-19 came onto the scene. My base, Skjold Leir, was one of the first places in Europe to react to the virus. Immediately after it was perceived as a threat, my base shut down, and put the soldiers into quarantine, leaving us stuck inside our rooms in the barracks. My company, which was a part of the Engineer Battalion, had spent the last two weeks preparing for Cold Response 2020, a major international military exercise, meant to train and expose soldiers from all over the world to the severe elements of Troms, in the north of Norway. This event was unfortunately canceled, due to the newly arisen threat of the CoronaVirus. The members of my squad and I got stuck in our rooms quarantining for five days. We tried to keep ourselves occupied to pass the time. We began to hear news of mass lockdowns taking all over Europe, with the United States closely following suit. Although there were some who were hopeful that this might be over by Easter, it became quite apparent that things would not get better any time soon. After our quarantine, there was a malfunction in one of the gates at the back of the base. The gate would not close, so more soldiers were needed on both day- and night-shifts to ensure that our base was not compromised. The entire base needed to be patrolled constantly as well. This assignment lasted two weeks. I was chosen to serve on the night-shift. I found it extremely difficult to adjust my internal clock to stay awake all night and sleep during day-light hours. At times, I found myself sleepwalking while standing in front of the main entrance, not among one of my most proud moments. Thankfully, we were assigned partners, and we were instrumental in helping each other in staying awake and focused. Although the first few nights of the night-shift had been rough for us, we quickly adjusted to it. It would not be until after we were done with our two-week overnight-shift that the gate finally got fixed. Fortunately for us, however, we managed to find a way to seal it shut during the night, thus lessening the workload. After our two week shift was over, we quickly began with our normal routines. Other than the local gym and movie theater being closed, as well as each barrack in our base needing to take turns going to the mess hall to have breakfast and dinner, business was still running as usual. An unfortunate consequence of the pandemic was that soldiers could not leave base, which meant that all of our vacations were cancelled. For some of us, this would be a trying period, as the pressure of being trapped in base for so long without going home increased the amount of depression in our squad. My base took some preventative measures to keep its soldiers content and motivated. They organized sport events, as well as other fun things to keep us preoccupied, some of which I helped to set up and run. This, unfortunately, would not be enough for a few of the soldiers on base. Some of them ended up quitting the army, sheerly out of the stress caused by not seeing their loved ones for months on end. Even I at some point had a brief panic attack, as the pressure of being in this same place for so long affected my morale. I am proud to say that I managed to pull myself back together, and refused to quit. I was determined to see my obligatory service in the Norwegian Military through to the end. For all our extraneous duties, we were awarded with a two week leave. To finally come home after many months of service was a great joy. I was so happy to see my parents, my brothers, my friends, as well as my dogs. I also brought with me a great sense of pride and accomplishment.
• 2000-11-20

  From Norway to Boston

  I am currently a student in the NU.in program in Northeastern University. Originally I was supposed to go to Montreal, Canada to do my first semester abroad at McGill University. However that quickly changed as Covid-19 spread throughout the world. As I am an international student from Norway, Covid raised several different challenges. Not only was Montreal cancelled, but I also had to acquire a visa to enter the US. Understandably, the US closed its borders and its embassies respectively. This meant I had no way to get a visa, and I prepared to do the semester online. It was an annoying time, because not only was Montreal cancelled, but travelling to the US instead seemed impossible. I signed up for the Online-program at Northeastern, until one day in late July. The embassy had re-opened and was now allowing Students visas. I was incredibly lucky that Northeastern offered in-person teaching, as this was a required for me to be allowed entrance into the country. Some of my friends at home were not as lucky, spending their first semester at college from their home in Norway. I was so happy, and when I finally arrived in Boston I felt a huge sense of relief. Although most of my classes now are online through Zoom, I try and focus on the fact that I am incredibly lucky to be allowed to be here and meet my fellow peers.
• 
  2020-11-18

  As COVID-19 soars in many communities, schools attempt to find ways through the crisis

  As schools reopened around the world, countries saw surges in new COVID-19 cases. In response, some countries have re-closed schools while others have remained upon and employed strict guidelines.
• 
  2020-09-18

  Aslak's Competitive Weightlifting

  My friend Aslak, from Norway, has always stayed in shape. It wasn't until the pandemic hit that he started to do it competitively. Weightlifting competitively gave him a new edge and something to bring focus into his life. While this isn't exactly a new hobby, it is a new form of one of his favorite hobbies and has allowed him to meet new people (while staying at a safe distance). During this pandemic, people all around the world have had to find new ways to adjust, to cope. While Aslak is all the way over in Norway, his life right now is not too different from mine. While Finland was able to handle the pandemic differently than the United States, they also had to quarantine and wear masks. The pandemic has become divisive, but it also has untied us in ways that we haven't been before. Everyone has had to adjust and some have done so through new hobbies, like Aslak.
• 
  2020-03-15

  Post by Norwegian University of Science and Technology calling for students to come home.

  As countries around the world began to institute travel bans, many universities began to urge their students studying abroad to come home. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology posted that "this applies especially if you are staying in a country with poorly developed health services and infrastructure and/or collective infrastructure, for example the USA." The coronavirus pandemic has made all the more stark just how poor, how less than ideal, the health insurance system in the United States - and numerous other aspects of our infrastructure and structural systems - are. Though the Norwegian university later changed their post, their initial honesty about how many in Europe and elsewhere see the United States helped call this into stark relief.
• 
  03/21/2020.

  Knitting Podcast

  Two men created a daily knitting podcast on YouTube