From Boston to Norway

If you're reading this, you probably know that I spent the first part of my summer in Boston hanging out with my wonderful boyfriend and doing lots of grocery shopping. Therefore, it made the most sense for me to fly to Norway from there. I didn't allow myself to get nervous until the day of, but luckily for my nerves & my biceps, Sal helped me with my luggage and took me to the airport. It was hard to leave, but I knew it was going to be an incredible experience and totally worth it, so we said our good-byes on top of Norway on the large map on the airport floor, and I went on my way. I flew from Boston to Oslo via Keflavik International Airport in Iceland on a red-eye leaving at 9:30 pm on Wednesday, June 22nd. Of course I didn't sleep, due to the fact that seats in exit rows do not lean back (NBD, just sat straight up with my head forward for 5 hours after taking a natural sleeping pill), but the flight was pleasant overall. My layover in Iceland was from 2:30 am-6 am Eastern Time, so I didn't have time to leave the airport, but the airport is open enough to provide a decent view of the surrounding area. I can't wait to see the outside during the layover on my return trip!

 
Luckily for me, I discovered that another student from my program (Patryk) was taking the same flight as me from Iceland to Norway, so we met up at the airport. It was definitely one of those times when it's nice to see a friendly face, especially since our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. I will be taking the same route back to the U.S. but with a 12-hour overnight/early morning layover, which will allow me to leave the airport and explore. Although I will only have a few hours to take a taxi around the capital, Rekjavik, which is only 20 minutes from the airport, I will have seen Iceland beyond the airport. So stoked.

View from the plane at take-off:

Obviously, I landed in Oslo safely and made my way to the train station's Burger King, where a representative from BI (my school over here) was waiting to pick me up and take me to the airport. The most difficult part of my trip had yet to come, as we had to drag our luggage about 30 minutes, mostly uphill, to the dorm where the international students are staying. Thank God for Wii Fit. I thought my heart was going to explode as it was; I don't imagine I would have made it if not for those occasional sets of girly push-ups & yoga poses.

I made it!

I really didn't know what to expect of my apartment (Preview Staffers, but I was blown away by the accommodations here. I have my own bedroom that is definitely larger than my room in my HOUSE in Gainesville and has TONS of storage space. If you know me, you know I'm not a good sleeper, but luckily for me the "midnight sun" is blocked by intense black-out curtains for nighttime.

While most students in my program are sharing apartments with other international students, I ended up with a full-time BI student, a native Norwegian named Alex who literally looks like a supermodel and could not have been more welcoming. She has lived in our apartment for about a year already, so I arrived to find an already homey living space complete with plants, decorations and kitchen supplies.

My first night here, a large group of us ventured out for our first Norwegian meal: pizza at pizza chain called Pepe's Pizza. This was our first introduction to the crime that is Norwegian food prices. 1 medium pizza and 1 large pizza split 4 ways = $25 EACH. Good thing it was fantastic pizza.

10 hours later, at 6 am in Norway, I fell asleep. This should not be surprising if you know me. Hooray for jet lag! I've been here for a week now and will continue trying to catch up with this blog. It's been a late couple of nights, so I apologize if this entry is not especially entertaining or witty. I promise I'll be more clever after a nap. :)

Hello from Oslo!

I wish I had been able to start this blog a little sooner, as I am already 6 days into my study abroad trip to Oslo, Norway, but it's been such a whirlwind that this is my first opportunity to sit down and actually start writing! I titled this blog "Why Norway?" because that was most people's first response when I told them about this trip. The way some people said it, you'd think I'd told them I was going to Mars. To answer that question, I chose Norway for several reasons.

1.) It seems like the majority of people who study abroad these days go to France, Spain or Italy. Those are wonderful places, but they are much more traditional travel destinations that I would be more likely to visit on vacation or for business one day. I wanted to pick somewhere different, somewhere few people had gone before. In fact, I am the first person from UF to do this summer program. As a result, planning and applying and preparing for this trip became like a part-time job during spring semester, but I am forging new terrain and hope that my experience will pave the way for future Gators who want to go abroad and in a small way increase interactions between the U.S. and the Scandinavian countries.

2.) When else in my life am I going to have the opportunity to go anywhere I want by myself and meet other people my age and get very generous financial support from scholarships to help pay for it? Probably never. Again, I wanted to use that opportunity to do something different.

3.) In my psychology & sociology classes, the U.S. is always compared to other countries in terms of a wide variety of social issues, with the Scandinavian countries seemingly always being portrayed as the "ideal." From what I'd learned, it seemed like a pretty nice place to be, almost Utopian. I wanted to see for myself what the hype was all about. So far, it has not disappointed. The Norwegians have it pretty good over here. More details in future posts.

I've already learned a lot about their culture here and plan to include "fun facts" & interesting things that I have learned in each blog post. I will continue to play catch-up and post next about my journey thus far. Stay tuned!