Reading books

I'm half way finished reading the first assigned book of this module for the Society and Culture program. This one is called Work, Oil and Welfare by Knut Halvorsen and Steinar Stjerno. I didn't enjoy reading this at first because there are so much facts in there. I, as some may already know, am not a big fan of memorizing facts. But after the first chapter, I got pretty involved with the book; mainly I was amazed at how sucessful the Norwegian welfare system has been. We have a group discussion meeting today. I am leading the discussion for chapter 5, which is "Security in old age: Protecting the frail and elderly". Up to this point, I have taken notice that the Norwegian as a whole put significant value in family and the wellbeing of the family. I was very impressed of this and even more at how developed their programs are for old age pension and other family benefits (especially children!). Having a family in Norway seems to be such a comfortable thing. I have also noticed that there are a lot of baby strollers around, so the people here are definitely enjoying the system when it comes to family wellbeing.

There are also a few other books for this module as well as articles. I'm reluctant to buy these books because I've roughly calculated the costs, and they come up to about $300 for this module. If I assume that that is the average, then I'd have to multiply that by 3, which comes to about $900. That's $900 for one semester. For now, I'm just going to borrow the books from the library as I need them, and make copies for the books where were aren't reading the complete book (although it would be nice to read the complete books). I'd select a few books that I reall like after reading and just buy those few. That's my compromise for that expense. And I've taken greater care at my other expenses as well.

For the general part, things are going well. Classes are GREAT! I really enjoy our discussions. Although I'm happy and content about this aspect of the stay, homesickness keeps growing and now it's pretty bloated. If only I could cook as well as my mom or dad and have the familiar foods here.