I know I am definitely in honeymoon phase, but I am not sure that I will ever leave this phase! Everything here is so new and different. There is always a new thing to do, new places to go, and new people to meet. There are about 60 international students on both campuses, Grimstad and Kristiansand.
Getting ready to run into the sea!
The Outdoor education program I am in has 22 International students, so we make a big population of the international students on campus. It’s nice to feel a since of belonging right from the start with the Outdoor education group. Whatever we do we usually do it together. For example in the first week, one of the internationals from the Netherlands, Wytse wanted to go run into the sea, so at first no one showed much interest in going but then the next day some of us joined him!
Running into the sea!
Running in wasn’t as bad as we all thought, probably because we were on an adrenaline rush, but it was when it was time to turn around and come out that your body finally realizes your in the freezing cold water and your mouth fills up with salt water as you scramble to turn around in the water and just try to run out as fast as possible! Once we were done, the boys were joking about doing it again because it wasn’t so bad, but I think one time was enough for me:)
Food here is so expensive! I have found that I crave peanut butter all the time and it costs about $5 for a jar, so I’ve definitely taken up an expensive hobby! Our first day on campus Jais and I found a little shop called Coop and bought food for the week. It was weird going into a store and buying a bag of carrots for 22NOK, and eggs for 38NOK. Jais and I knew we were going to get pretty good at dividing everything by 7.6 since that is how many Norwegian Krones we get to every 1 dollar.
Wifi was also really hard to come by for the first couple of days, but Jais and I found that McDonald’s and free wifi! So our first night in Kristiansand was spent in McDonald’s while eating peanut butter with a straw because McDonald’s didn’t have free utensils.
sitting on the island enjoying the few hours we have of sun
Huge anchor that was part of an ammunition ship that got blown up
Anne and I:) as I'm trying to spread rock hard butter!
I have probably the best buddy out of all the buddy groups! The very first Sunday in Norway all the international students got a tour of the town, which took maybe 30min to see the whole town.
Not the best example of the heart
Once we were done looking at the town my buddy took us all to an island called Oddrea. This island had World War II ruins on it and a lot of rich history that we got to explore. We found a rock that jetted out into the sea with a wooden chair on it, so we sat there for a while and just enjoyed the beautiful day and nature of Kristiansand.
Waffle house with all the Norwegians outside:)
One of my friends told me that Norwegian Waffles are all shaped like hearts and I didn’t believe him, but low and behold all the waffles were shaped like hearts! The seating at this waffle house was all picnic table style and all outside.
Regardless of the weather Norwegians love to be outside! They have a saying that goes “There is no bad weather, just bad clothes for the weather.” Even though they have awful weather here, it’s always raining or if it snows, rain will come the next day and make sure everything has a good thick layer of ice! Jais and I were falling and sliding everywhere our first couple of days here, we’ve gotten a little better but still a long ways to go!
When we have good weather everyone's happy:)