A Quick (Eve-of-an-Adventure) Update

Well, it didn’t take me long to break my whole one-post-a-week rule. Whoops. (But what difference does a few hours make? Completely arbitrary; get over it. I’m over it.) I had a longer post planned, but school and my adventurous spirit (line up, admirers) got in the way, and I am just going to make this short and sweet. (Still struggling to write tastes, so I’m not sure if this is going to go as planned ;).)

First, a fun story in which I realized how interconnected we humans are (or maybe just Norwegians and Minnesotans):

After a long week of running into other Minnesotans whom I didn’t already know (three to be precise; I naturally have a note on my phone in which I keep track), I was waiting at a bus stop to head back to my room to get some stuff done. Proudly wearing my Minnesota winter hat (and sticking out as an obvious American), I was approached by a Norwegian girl who asked if I was from Minnesota. “Yeah!” I enthusiastically replied. She responded: “No way, I studied there for a year… But I was mainly on the St. Paul campus because I was studying environmental science.” I was taken aback, as I study environmental science (mainly on the StP campus), and here I am in Norway, 4000 miles away from campus, running into someone whom I have never met before who studies the same thing as me and has done so at the same place that I do so. It was weird. But very cool. I enjoyed talking with her, comparing her studies to mine. And it helped to serve as a reminder to me about Norway’s connection to Minnesota. Neat.

But now on to the reason as to why I’m depriving you, dear reader, of a full-blown blog post: I’m going to London tomorrow! One of the bigger reasons why I wanted to study abroad was to have to opportunity to travel. And with the insane amounts of time that I have outside of class each week, what could possibly be a better usage of time than traveling throughout Europe? So I’ve made a list of the countries and places that I want to see, and now I’m making plans to make that list happen. London was pretty low on the priority scale of the list (oh, yes, there is a priority scale–I love lists!), but I found a roundtrip flight for $21USD, so I’m throwing caution to the wind and going for it! I’ll be there from tomorrow afternoon until Saturday morning. And it was so last-minute/I’ve been so busy with other stuff that it is almost completely unplanned, so I will be planning and figuring stuff out as I go. (Which, as another parenthetical, is SOOO not my style–if you couldn’t tell, I love planning stuff into the ground–so it will be a double dosage of comfort-zone-steppage-out-of.) But anyway, apparently a quick update is 500+ words for me. I need to go to bed. Lame. Expect another post (with photos!) about my London experience on Saturday night/Sunday/soon.

As always, thanks for reading!

-TJS

More Exploring, Norwegian Academics, and Free Time

Whoops, I forgot to write that follow-up post regarding the content that I had originally written about and then lost in my previous post… Sorry, y’all. I’ve been busy settling into my life here in Norway, and despite the fact that my phone has been constantly reminding me every few hours for the past week (which is so annoying—why do I do that to myself?) to write that follow-up post, I have not done that. Oh, well. You can’t miss what you’ve never known, so there… But I will be talking about most of that stuff in this post anyway, so you’ll know, ‘ya know?

But anyway, enough of that:

Yesterday marked two full weeks since I have been in Norway. Wow. Part of me finds that difficult to believe, but another part of me is surprised by how confident I am in my surroundings for only having been here for 15-ish days. Most of this confidence probably stems from how much exploring of the city I have been doing in my free time. Norwegian universities have a different way of conducting their courses (compared to US universities), so I basically have a ridiculous amount of free time on a weekly basis. (More on the course structure later in this post; keep reading.) I’ve been using this free time to get out and explore my surroundings. I’ve gone running (and accidentally discovered some beautiful forest trails!), walked around an outdoor sculpture garden, explored Oslo’s waterfront, hiked around an awesome lake, and explored Oslo’s incredible public transportation network. Earlier today I saw an incredible sunset over the Oslo Fjord from on top of a hill, which was incredible! (It’s the featured image on this post; check out the rest of my photos to see more.) And tomorrow I am picking up the cross-country skis that I am renting for the season from the student athletic organization, so I will be able to explore the outdoors like a true Norwegian! Seriously, SO MANY people ski here (and they use public transportation to get to the ski runs too, which is awesome)—I’m excited to have another way to get to know my surroundings while exercising.

Getting back to the academics that I briefly mentioned earlier: for a Norwegian student, 30 credits is typical for a full-time load. Each course is usually 10 credits, so most people take 3 courses (and that’s what I am doing). These credits will convert to 15 standard credits back home at UMN, so it’s equivalent to a pretty typical semester for me, at least in terms of credits earned. However, that’s where the typical part ends. (I mean, obviously this semester isn’t typical for me: I’m 4000+ miles away from home and on a different continent in a different country. Duh.) Norwegian universities are based heavily in independent learning, so there is only one lecture a week for most courses. And then there are a lot of assigned readings (which I’m told are not like in the US where you can usually get away without doing them). There is also no homework in the sense that I am used to. Course grades are based entirely (high stakes, much?!) on a written final exam, a semester paper, or a take-home exam. I have all three of those grading methods between my three courses, so I will get a good sense of Norwegian examination protocol.

So because of this, I only have three classes (and one seminar for one of my courses) once each a week. And my schedule is very compact, so I only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays here… Which is totally insane and not at all what I am used to. At UMN I always have class at least Monday through Thursday, and usually (but not always) on Fridays. Going from five days of class per week down to two has been really weird to adjust to, and I know that it will take discipline and effort on my part to be an effective student in the face of so much free time. But it also brings up an important question: What am doing to do with my free time?

It’s an interesting situation, to say the least. Obviously I am going to be spending a decent amount of this free time on learning the material via the assigned readings. But when I finish those each week, my options are wide open. Which is awesomely terrifying. I hope to spend a lot of this free time outdoors, enjoying Norway’s natural beauty via outdoor recreation. I am also planning on doing a decent amount of traveling throughout Europe—I already have flights booked for Denmark and Germany in February when my sister, Laura, comes to visit! (And I also might go to London next week, which would pretty awesome!) And knowing me, I will also be spending some of this free time watching Netflix. (Lame, I know.)

On a final note, I just realized that I talked about my academics but failed to tell y’all about the courses I am taking. (*facepalm*) As I mentioned, I’m taking three courses. I’m an environmental sciences, policy, and management (ESPM!) major, so naturally the course that I am most excited about is “Environment and Society”. This course will be analyzing the environmental science and the issues around this science from an international, human geographic perspective. Much of my coursework has focused on the scientific aspect of the environment, so I am really excited to be apply to apply this knowledge to view these truly global issues from a global, geographic lens. The two other courses that I am enrolled in aren’t really directly related to my ESPM major, but they count toward the liberal education requirements that I need to graduate from UMN anyway, so it’s cool that I can take them here. These courses are “Norwegian Music for International Students” and “Norwegian Life and Society”. The music course is not music-theory-based, so I am glad about that! And the life and society course will help me to learn about and more completely understand the culture that I am immersing myself in for the next 4 months. It should be an interesting semester, and all three classes have been going well so far!

Well, that’s all for now! There will be another post coming your way within the next seven days. (Heh, that rhymed. :P) Thanks for reading, and check out my photos if you haven’t seen them yet and would like to!

-TJS