Ups and Downs

(Editorial note/FYI: I wrote this post over the course of several days, so it might seem a little disjointed and the title might not reflect the content as much as I had originally intended.)

Confession time: I hate blogging. That is the main reason why I keep posting inconsistently and changing my timelines for posting. Oh, trust me. I have the time. (Seriously. No one should have this much free time. It’s just bad for you. The Norwegian university system is not set up well—but that is another blog post, if I ever get around to it.) But I can think of like 20 things off the top of my head right now that I would rather be doing than sitting down and reflecting about my life right now. Yet at the same time, I don’t want to come across as an asshole, because I appreciate your interest in my life, although—and let’s be honest here—you probably have better things to be doing right now than reading this.

I’ve spent almost all of the time since my last blog post in Oslo. The hectic craziness of traveling that I was just finally getting used to has been replaced by schoolwork, running, hiking, a desperate summer internship/employment hunt (more on that later), trip planning, and a seriously unhealthy amount of Netflix. (Send help!).

My plans to go to Tromso (the northernmost “big” city in Norway, located in the Arctic Circle) two weeks ago fell through at the last minute due to a strike on the airline that everyone in my group had booked on. I had booked my flight on a different airline, so I was unaffected by the strike. Unfortunately, the group cancelled the reservation that they had made for the cabin that we were going to stay in, so I had no place to stay. Looking into my options for accommodation, I found that I couldn’t afford any of them just being by myself, so I ended up cancelling my flight a few hours before departure, getting only the taxes back as a refund. Not-so-fun-fact: the taxes were not that much of what I paid, and I lost a lot of money :(. Not. Cool. At least I was able to have a fun night out in Oslo playing beer pong in a bar. But I would have much preferred to have seen the northern lights in Tromso. Oh, well. Sometimes life is frustrating—no sense dwelling on that.

After the Tromso incident, I spent an uneventful weekend in Oslo trying to maximize my productivity. I did my taxes online thanks to the help of my dad via the magic that is Google Hangouts. I got my schoolwork done (mostly). I watched Netflix. I went hiking. I went for a run. (Trying to get back up to at least 20 miles a week [should probably be like 30 miles by May] to get ready for when I am going to start training in June for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in October!) I essentially repeated that same procedure the next week.

Just a quick note about the hiking and running situation: it’s great in Oslo. The north/northeastern part of the city simply stops. Like there is nothing developed there at all. It’s all forest (the Nordmarka), with nicely signed (in Norwegian, obviously) hiking trails that are awesome for hiking and trail running. I am looking forward to developing some more strength in my running with the amount of hills that I have been running, which is definitely for the best. I am fortunate to have found a running partner (Nathan—also from the U of M); it’s easier to push yourself when you run with someone else!

I have been spending much of my time over the past few weeks (and months) trying to secure an internship for this summer. I’ve especially been looking for opportunities that have field work associated with them, as I don’t really have any environmental field work experience, and it’s important to have that experience for the type of work that I want to do upon graduation. Not wanting to return to my previous internship as a park ranger (because I learned through that experience that I wanted to do more hands-on environmental work and changed my educational plans accordingly—essentially being a park ranger, although a mostly positive experience, is just not relevant to me anymore), I applied for many, many internships (at least 25). After I had a few Skype and phone interviews and some rejections (and no offers), I naturally started freaking out. And when I freak out, I don’t half-ass it. I mean like straight I-will-not-find-anything-and-I-am-going-to-be-miserable panicking. I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom venting and making worst-case-scenarios. I also messaged many of my siblings and close friends with my frustrations. Shout-out to my awesome family and friends for countering my insane whining and frustrations with support and encouragement—y’all are the best and I miss you all greatly! So excited to see you all again in May! (Which is coming up really fast, whoa! Past the halfway point now!)

I continued with my interviewing, getting another rejection, and right as I was about to launch a final full-on, last-ditch internship application extravaganza (with a plan to apply for almost 20 more internships that I didn’t really want but were willing to jump on the grenade for as a means of gaining experience), I got some VERY unexpected and happy news. I was offered a position that I had applied for in early November and had interviewed for in late December. This was just days after I had [finally] given up hope on this opportunity and was feeling incredibly pessimistic about my internship hunt and life in general (strong negative feelings can do that to an individual). I had been pestering my HR contact at this organization literally for months about the status of my application, and I am so thrilled to have had my persistence pay off! I accepted the position and am incredibly excited to start it in late May! I will be working as a Regulatory Student Trainee (student trainee=intern) for the US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, where I will be doing environmental regulatory work (jurisdictional determinations, compliance, and enforcement) from an administrative side as well as in the field. And the position is located in downtown St. Paul, meaning that I can live in my school housing (no stressful housing hunt from abroad!) and that I can spend my first-ever summer in the Twin Cities! I’m so freaking excited and happy that everything worked out! And, funny story: I was offered another position that I also wanted a day later; I weighed my options and politely declined the offer. As my mom told me: “When it rains, it pours!” Things have a funny way of working out sometimes! (BTW, want to network with a young professional in the environmental science field? Check out my LinkedIn profile! #shamelessplug)

My “Environment and Society” course had an optional overnight field trip to Sweden earlier this week. We left Oslo on Thursday morning, heading for the Glava Solar Energy Center, which is a research center on solar technology. It was really interesting to learn more about the solar industry in Scandinavia and Europe, and I got to see some of the technology that I had read about up close in person, which was really cool! It was also really weird because this center is located in a very rural area of Sweden, so that was a little unexpected. From the solar energy center, we went to Karlstad, the city that we would be spending the night in. We stopped on the way to get some late lunch at a truck stop/restaurant/candy store. Not being very hungry, I opted for candy. Being in Sweden, I naturally bought and ate some Swedish fish. I was pretty excited about that, but then again I’m a total dork, so it really wasn’t a big deal, haha. When we arrived at Karlstad, we checked into the hostel and got situated. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner and drinks with the other students and the professors (which was not something that I have ever done before, so I was a little amused by that). There were around 20 students in total, of which 6 or so were international students. With international students being the minority, much of the casual conversation at dinner (and throughout the rest of the field trip) was in Norwegian, which was a little disheartening (I wanted to make some new Norwegian friends!), although I am generally pretty used to not being able to understand what is going on by now. After dinner we headed to a bar, grabbing a few drinks before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Friday morning we left for Storaenso, a massive papermill operation in Karlstad. We got to learn more about the forestry industry in Sweden, the Storaenso company, and the processes that they use to make liquid paperboard packaging (the stuff that is used for milk cartons) at their plant. Then we toured the factory. Large industrial processes have always been really fascinating to me, and this proved to be no exception. Two GIANT machines make ENORMOUS rolls (45 TONS each!) of this liquid paperboard packaging material. And it only takes an hour to make one of these rolls. Incredible. I’m really glad to have been able to learn some more about the processes behind turning trees into milk cartons. Before this field trip I only had a very basic understanding of how paper is made, and it’s always good to learn more about the processes behind the production of items that we use every day! (I have some pictures from this field trip that I will be posting on Facebook sometime soon, so watch for those.)

On the way back from Sweden we stopped at a liquor store (on a field trip!!! Hehe!) so that we could take advantage of Sweden’s significantly cheaper alcohol prices compared to Norway. It was pretty nice! We stopped again at a shopping center (that was built near the border pretty much specifically for Norwegians to come and buy cheaper stuff than can be bought in Norway). I was told by some Norwegians to buy meat and cheese here, as they are two of the items that have the largest price differences. They weren’t kidding—meat was soooo cheap compared to Norway, and I ended up buying more meat yesterday than I have probably bought since I have been here, haha. Cheese was also pretty cheap too (and they had cheddar cheese, which I haven’t been able to find in Norway and have been missing dearly, so I was thrilled!), so I stocked up.

We headed back to Oslo and I spent a kind of lame Friday night working on some school stuff and then this post (which I didn’t finish then, unfortunately). I also got a chance to Skype with my friends Mary and Jessi (along with a brief appearance from my friend Forest), which was really great! It was so nice to talk to some classmates/UMN friends on Skype for a change and not just my family—not that I am at all sick of talking to my family, but I like hearing from friends too! (UMN friends who are reading this, you should Skype with me sometime—it will likely make my day!)

And now it’s Saturday night—I better get to enjoying myself before it gets too late; I have a bunch of schoolwork to get done tomorrow. Lots of deadlines are coming up on Monday/Tuesday because Easter break begins for me next week! I’m so excited for what I’m doing over break, but more on that when I get my stuff done…

As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS