We went out for a hike with the Norwegian Outdoor Education students. They had planned the day so we didn’t have a clue where we were going beforehand. We only got instructions to dress for the weather and bring lunch. The hike was on the jegersberg area behind the uni. The plan was first to go up den omvendte båt, but when the norwegians heard that most of us had already been there they adapted their plan and we went up holmenkollen instead.

The main focus on this first trip was to get to know the norwegian students better. This proved to be tricky as on our way to holmenkollen most of them only spoke norwegian to each others. Once we got to the top and got the fire going we decided to introduce the rules we had discussed in class (such as only talking english) to the norwegians and they seemed to agree with them.Having common rules should create a better feeling of being one group between norwegian students and internationals. After this we played a game of ‘never have I ever’ with questions about hobbies, skills etc. and if you had done it you introduced yourself and talked a little about your experience regarding the question. At the end, in order to try and remember more names, we stood on a circle and everyone said their name on their turn and made a movement that everyone else copied. After this we walked back and this time it was much easier to talk to the norwegians as you could remember a few names and talk about similar hobbies.

This first trip showed me how important it is to break the ice at the start, and have the courage to talk to new people. I noticed that I should have been more active talking to other people as well. Even if I had only met the other international students a couple days before, it was so much easier to talk to them as I already knew something to strike a conversation about with any of them. In future if I am leading a group I will make sure to introduce myself and everyone in a group to each other already before the activity starts. This is to make myself more approachable and to help the group work together better.