Finally the 14th of January, moving day! I will live for the next 6 months together with my roommate, Claire in a room (bedroom and bathroom) and share the rest of the apartment (kitchen, storage area and common area) with some other fellas. My housing apartment is really close to the university. It feels a little bit like my housing that I had at home. Here there are also a lot of housing apartments together close to the university.

After a couple days/weeks we were with six people in our apartment. Claire (Idaho, USA) and me shared a room. Carolina (Colombia – France) and Marina (Spain) shared a room and Elena (Germany) and Anna (France) shared a room. Claire and Elena also study the outdoor education program and one room was still empty and locked (what is kind of weird, because they said they didn’t have enough housing for all the international students).

The first couple of days was a lot about settling in, buying necessary stuff and getting used to living with a roommate and share the rest of the apartment with others.              It was really nice that we already got a big box with kitchenware from the university, so we didn’t have to buy that all ourselves. I bought a bike for myself, because the city centre is on the other side of the bridge on a 40 minute walk from where I live.                It took some time getting used to having a roommate, but after some time we bonded a little bit. Especially with little situations, like when one of us wants to go to sleep or to get up etc. .                                                                                                                      For the rest I really bonded with Elena. We cook and eat almost all the time together and Claire also sometimes joines us. It is fun to get to know dishes of their country, like farmers breakfast from Elena and sloppy joes and American pancakes from Claire. I made for them meatballs in tomato sauce and pancakes/crepes to represent Belgium.The others cook mostly for themselves, because they eat vegan or have allergies, what makes it more difficult to cook all together.

The week after settling in a bit we had our first classes! Unfortunately still mostly online, but after a week we could already meet up for some classes!                                            We have theoretical and practical lessons. In the theoretical lessons we learned about ‘friluftsliv’ and group dynamics (and in one break about the structure of snowballs). Our practical lessons are different from the last years, because of COVID-19 and financial cuts in our study, but I’m still really glad with all the stuff we still do and what our teacher wants to do with us. It is also nice that we can change all our classes around looking at the weather and what we want to do.                                                                                In our practical lessons we made first some group rules, around respect, including everyone etc. . The second thing we did was talk about all our gear we had to took with us and if all the gear was good enough. The third practical lesson was about tents and shelter. We learned what is a good spot to set a tent up and how to do that. The fourth practical lesson was about what is good food to take with you on a trip. There we looked for food that gives a lot of energy, is healthy, is lightweight and easy to prepare. After these classes we had our first overnight trip to test our gear out and to practice setting our tent up, making a fire and cooking with our stove and gasfire. It was nice to test and practice everything. My gear is all warm enough, the cooking was nice. I only have to practice on my fire making, because in the snow with wet stuff making a fire is new for me and didn’t work so good as I expected.

In the weekends I also didn’t sat still. I worked for my bachelor thesis, did online meetings and activities with my youth movement (KSA), went to do groceries and did my own wash. I also explored the surroundings around the university. I went for a hike and a run in Jegersberg (note: sliding down on ice with jeans is not a good idea). We had a BBQ with the class, which was great to meet and get to know everyone (note: Germany takes our class over). It was a lot of fun, with games and dancing. I also joined another event, where you did with a group some challenges and afterwards a BBQ. It was nice to also meet other international and Norwegian students in this way.

Class photo! (from left to right)

top row: Anna; Kathrin; Sara; Wil(lemijn); Laura; Mira; Ida; Antje; Asger; Wydse; Thomas; Elena; Claire; Laura (me); Nico; Roman; Luca; /; Maike                                        bottom row: Pauline; Toni; Leoni; Laura; Elena; /; Deborah

Weather update: Cold but not as cold as I expected. Even possible to ice skate or walk on the frozen lakes! Also some snowfall (but not a lot)!

COVID-19 update: Really strange to have less and less restrictions here. After some time everything was open, no mandatory mouth mask to wear, back ‘normal’ classes at university, again meeting up with people and doing things. I’m grateful to experience again a more normal life and world.

After a hectic flight, where I lost one of my suitcases (for a short time don’t worry) and got sick on the flight (note: flying is still not my thing),  from Düsseldorf with a stop in Oslo to Kristiansand I finnaly arrived in Norway. Now the adventure really begins! My study of half a year in Norway, outdoor education at the University of Agder (UIA)! But before the adventure really can start I had to go 10 days in quarantine because of COVID-19.

During this time I stayed in Clarion Hotel Ernst in the city centre of Kristiansand. Luckily the quarantine wasn’t as bad as it sounds! It was ten days of exploring the city and the surroundings, ten days of roomservice and ten days to chill in a hotel room.

Kristiansand is a lovely little city at the southern coast of Norway. It is the capital city of the province Agder. The city centre is called ‘Kvadraturen’ and the streets are build like a chessboard pattern. Close to the city centre you find Odderoya and Baneheia.

Odderoya is a peninsula that was very important throughout history. It was military active during the war as a frotress, marine base, quarantaine station, port and cargo space etc. . Now it is a lovely recreational place where you can go on hikes, go for a swim or do rock climbing in the untouched nature. It is also used as a concert venue.

Baneheia was back in the days used as a watch post for the fire station, also located in Baneheia. Now it is just as Odderoya a recreational place (with a sinister background of the Baneheia case). In the beginning of Baneheia you find a lot of lakes, big and small. If you walk further you will come to the Ravnedalen Scene, an open theater. You will also find the dam there. For the rest you will find beautiful hikes in Baneheia with a lot of viewpoints on the way.

I’m glad that I had the time to discover all this places on myself but also with new people. People who also just wanted to go for a hike and socalize and people from my class, who already wanted to meet up. I hiked a lot of times around with my new roommate Claire and with the other dutch persons from my class, Wydse, Luca and Wil(lemijn). It was nice to get to know them already a bit!

My hotel room was nice! I had a double bed for myself, I had a bath and a shower and every day I got delicious things to eat! For example salmon with potatoes, a salad with chicken, rice with chicken and last but not least fiskekaker. Fiskekaker is a typical norwegian dish. It is kind of a fluffy pancake with fish flour. A lot of people hated it, but I liked it very much (so thanks for the people donating their food to me).

The rest of the time I chilled in my room, because it still is a quarantine where I was in. I worked for my bachelor thesis, called with friends and family and joined the online meetings the university organised. They were a lot of fun. We played online games together, watched a movie, did a quiz and also got some practical information about the beginning of the semster and our housing.