In the period April 2004 – April 2006 I lived in Oslo after moving from Trondheim because of work reasons.. or better, because of “not finding a work in Trondheim” reasons!!! 
As soon as I had moved to Trondheim as exchange student, August 1995, I had started practicing Aikido at the university club, but I will take about that club later on! So after almost 9 years of active practicing Aikido, moving to Oslo was not a terrible prospect, being the capital also the place with the major offer of Aikido clubs. But for me, especially at that point, choosing the club had been very natural. For the kind of Aikido practiced there, the instructors, the friends already part of that dojo, Oslo Aikido dojo was the club I wanted to join.
The main instructor was, and is, Erik Vanem, 3.dan Aikikai (2.dan in 2004), and he is the person that I must thank for the interest in travelling and practicing with different sensei, independently from their affiliation. And he has a huge experience in that: he has practiced with all the Japanese senseis that live in Europe and has been several times to Japan, organizing the last years a tour there open to all Aikidokas in Norway.
The other two instructors in 2004 were Pedram Bagheri, 1.dan Aikikai at that moment, and Thy-Thy Deep Vanem, Erik’s wife. At that point I admit I knew very little Thy-Thy, mostly met at seminars where infortunately I was not allowed to talk too much with her, being Erik one of the few jealous Norwegians!!!! 
Just kidding.. he just did not trust Italian bachlelors.. understandable!!! Especially around his gorgeous wife!!!! But now he secured the situation with the little cute Oliver!!
Pedram, on the other hand, is one of the people I developed a very deep friendship from my years in Trondheim. We met at Aikido practice up there and helped probably by the fact that we are both foreigners (even if he lived very long in Norway and now he’s married with a lovely Norwegian girl, Tina..OMG, in this pic i look quite different..) we became friends very fast. Next we experienced quite a lot together, both on and off the tatami and even as every friendship there are ups and downs, I am quite happy to think he is always a friend to count on! As the picture show, when I moved from Oslo to Stavanger, he helped me for all the weekend.. and that’s good we share a common passion for good whiskey, so it was easy to find a “thank you” gift!!!
Karsten was another reason to join the club when I moved to Oslo: my best Norwegian friend, the reason why I started Aikido in first place, and together with Simona, compaesana piemontese, they have been great friends in trondheim, Oslo.. and at any moment.. And they both allowed me to follow very close the only love of my life right now: cute little Sara… Now, even living in Stavanger, I will try to not be a stranger also when the second little girl will come!!!
The first summer I was there, summer 2004, because of unfortunate events, we ended up practicing in a park!! and someone even graded there!!! 
But we did practice all the summer, Norwegian summer (also called somewhere, a “green winter”), and I think this helped in keeping together the club!
Next, at the end of the summer they found the place in Bryn, Tvetenveien 32, where the club is located now, and it is a pity we do not have any pic of the effort we made for transforming a normal office floor in the dojo.. except some of the last cleaning, the first trainings with the old tatami and finally the new great tatami and the last improvements of kamiza, o’Sensei painting and calligraphy.
Besides old friends and people I knew already, during this experience in Oslo I met at Oslo Aikido Club new interesting people that I am always happy to meet again every time I head back to the capital.. Quite often because of the seminar there! Of the people I got to know better impossible to not mention Ingvild, Matei, Pål, Ipek, Mathis, Lester, Kim, Jean Francois and Mathilde, Marte, and many other who enjoyed actively both practice and social time off the mats!
My Aikido at OAK improved quite a lot and the good results came with the graduation with Kanetsuka sensei in Oslo the 5th February 2005. I will write more about that in the future, but that day the dan content of our club increased considerably: Erik graded to 3.dan, Pedram to 2.dan and I got 1.dan. In addiction to us, also Ipek and Matei improved their kyu grade.
My last practice at OAK, at the end of March 2005, I received very special presents, Aikido pictures and they organized a special hard training fro me, that ended up on a DVD!!
My last visit in Oslo, in December, just for the last practice at OAK before the Christmas break, I took chance to give them a little Japanese present and enjoy a nice evening at practice and at the restaurant with them!
THANKS OAK FOR SOME GREAT TIME!!!!
