The last days in Norway…wow this half year went so fast!

The last days were still very busy. We had our practical oral exam and I had my deadline for my bachelor thesis. I had a really good feeling about my bachelor thesis. I really hope that my bachelor thesis can change something in the special youth care and the use of outdoor activities. For my practical oral exam I was really stressed out. I don’t know exactly why. This made that I made some stupid mistakes or forgot some little things, but for the rest it went okay. I had a D. For the practical exam we had to learn everything that we did during the semester, like during our trips, for example paddling techniques, map and compass, knots, shelter, fire making etc.

During these days there was also time to do still a couple things with the class before saying goodbye. We went swimming, did a photoshoot (naked and only covered with knitted stuff or stuff out of nature) and did a bonfire, where we grilled sausages and made marshmallows. This day was really fun, especially the photoshoot! I’m really curious about how the photos turned out (if you want to see them too, feel free to ask 😉 ). At the end we want to make a calander with the photos! After the exams we also had a bonfire, but there Claire already left. We also went swimming almost every day of the last week in the lake, because the weather was so good and the water was nice. Our selfmade outdoor education shirts/sweaters also arrived! They are so cool! What a great memory from this semester. It was already fast time to say goodbye to everyone, because everyone started leaving slowly. They were going home or starting their trip.

Before I went home I first had to take the bus to Oslo to catch there my flight the next day (Sunday the 13th of June). It was nice to visit Oslo short! In the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed. Oslo is really a big city with a big city vibe, everywhere high buildings, a lot of traffic and a lot of people, not something I was still used at. I made a walk through the city, where I walked past some special monuments and buildings, like a fortress, the palace, churches etc. After that I went to eat at a street food place, where were a lot of little stalls with food. This was really nice! After that I went back to my hotel room to get a good night rest, before my flight the next morning, which went smooth. It’s still so unreal that I’m going home and I’m leaving Norway, after living here half a year! It’s a mixed feeling to go home. I’m happy that I will see everyone again, but it’s also weird to leave Norway now after all this time and all the experiences. I hope we will do fast a reunion with everyone (the plan is to go sailing!) and that I will go back to Norway! The welcome back home was amazing and seeing everyone again is also so nice, but still a bit weird to just pick up my normal routine again.

Our last trip! Because of corona we couldn’t go together with the Norwegian class, so we only went from Monday until Wednesday noon. That was a bit sad, but we were glad that we could go and with our whole class together, because of the rising numbers in Agder.

Monday:

Let’s go to Randoya! We took first the bus and after that the boat and some kayaks. I went with a kayak to the island. It was fun to be again on the water. We settled in the houses divided in our groups and after that it was time for our first activity. My group and me had rowing. It was a really chill activity we rowed a bit and chilled on an island close by. When we wanted to leave we first had to search for the dog from our teacher, because he went to investigate the island. We didn’t row always straight and against the current it was also a bit working. In the evening we had a little history tour around Randoya (war history – bunker) and after we threw the fishing nets out with our rowing boats. We were all excited to see the next morning if we would have caught something. This evening Elena and me looked for a good spot to put our hammock up. We decided to just put it up close to the path, because the island was full of ticks! In the night I always had the feelings that they were crawling on me, so not that good of a night sleep.

Tuesday:

In the morning we rowed early out to get our nets back in and see if we caught some fish. We had in total six fishes!! Two flat fishes and four codfishes. The teacher showed us how to kill, clean and cut them up, after that we did it ourselves. So for dinner our own caught fishes were planned! In the morning we went kayaking. It was cool to kayak on open sea, but also more work. The waves hit your kayak hard, so you have to keep paddling to not get catched by the waves and drift off course. In the afternoon we drove with a motorboat. This was also nice, but not that spectaculair. In the evening we came together with the whole class, ate all the fishes we catches (they ware delicious!) and made it a cozy evening with singing, the gituar and the ukelele. This night I slept outside, because I wanted to have a better night sleep, than the last night.

Wednesday:

Wednesday we had our last activity: biology! It was a lot of fun to learn more about plants and seafood. We also tried a lot, which was nice, for example some plants, some shellfish, snails etc. Yeah I ate a snail! After that we went back to Kristiansand, after cleaning everything.