Someone I know was doing a paper for school pursuading her school board to creat a "culture club" so she e-mailed me asking me some questions about my exchange so she could have some more information for her paper. They were some pretty good questions, so I decided that I would share the "interview" with you. I cut some out because they weren't that great.
1)Has your perspective of life in general changed since you've been to another country? If so, how?
Definitely, knowing that i only have a certain ammount Of days in Norway has made me take a "day-to-day" out look on life. I have started taking each day and making the most of it, because I know this is a once in a lifetime experience and I don't want to just sit back and take it for granted and watch my days here disappear. I have also started to appreciate the smaller things in life. Things are totally different here. I don't have that cushion of comfort that I do at home, that gives me a sense of security and tends to make everything a little bit better. So it's kind of a hit or miss each day if it's going to be a good one or not. But even on the worst days, some little thing tends to happen that makes everything 10 times better. There was one instance where I was extremely homesick and was seconds away from going back to my house and just sleeping the day away, but then just a simple conversation with a friend, about nothing significantly meaningful, made my entire day better. (if you are Norwegian and are reading this and thinking "hey, I wonder if that's me"... it probably is :) ) It makes me think a lot about how much I could make everyone's day a little bit better if I just smiled at them, or started up a simple conversation with them.
2)What important life lessons have you learned while on your exchange trip?
I think the most importat of the lessons that I have learned is that cultural acceptance is key. At the beginning of my exchange I made a list of all the things that I thought were incredibly strange and different from home. I looked back on that list a couple days ago, and half of them I either do, or I find completly normal. The people are definitely different here. They have different customs, behaviors, and views on life, just like every other culture. Just a general knowledge of someones culture can help one to understand why someone does the things they do. Once I learned more about the Norwegian culture, suddenly everything seemed a little more normal. One example of this is “the Norwegian Stiffness” Norwegians are known for being a bit “cold” towards other people who they do not know; it's just a part of their culture. I experienced this a lot at school for the first couple of months. There were some people at school who would just not talk to me at all. At first it came off as they had no intrest in me, and it was difficult, but once I started to get to know more and more people and got better with my Norweigan, I realized that they weren't actually mean, they were just shy, and afraid to speak English to me (even though their english is SO good) But everyone is really friendly now. I like Norwegians a lot!
3)Have you developed relationships with people while on your exchange trip that you think you will keep in contact with?
Definitely, I have made some truly amazing friends so far on this exchange. They're really a great group of people, and I like them a lot. I don't know how I will ever leave them. Not only have I made excellent Norwegian friends, but I have also become really close friends with all the other exchange students here in Norway with Rotary. Ever since the first day we all met, we became really close friends. We're all going through the same things with being an exchange student, so we all have that common thing that we bond together on. We share our struggles, our embarrassing stories, and our highlights of our exchanges with each other, and we help each other get through the rough patches of our exchange. I seriously don't know how I would have survived this exchange for so long without my fellow exchange students to talk to. Besides friends, I have made close relationships with all three of my host families. I love my host families to pieces. I was seriously blessed with 3 amazing host families. They have all been really nice to me. It will be SO hard to leave come July.
4)Do you think you'll ever return to this country? Why/why not?
Of course I will return to Norway again. I couldn't go for forever without seeing these people again. I like them all too much. It took me 4 months to fall in love with Norway. I love everything about it. The people, the gorgeous nature, and the chocolate. Ever since my four month mark, I have been dreaming about living here permanently. I seriously love it here. So if everything works out in the future, and it is meant to be, I will live here in Norway again...maybe.
5)What has been the most enjoyable experience about your exchange trip and why?
That's way too hard of a question to answer right now. There's so many to choose from. I've definitely enjoyed meeting all of the people. Like I've said before, I like them a lot! I've also enjoyed doing all of the typical “Norwegian stuff” like cross country skiing, ice fishing, cabin trips, eating traditional food. I just really like being an exchange student.
and that's that.
Here are some photos from last Sunday. I went ice fishing with my host family. It was pretty anticlimatic. We spent 4 hours on the ice holding a twig with fishing line and a hook attatched to it, only to go home without a single fish. It was still fun though.
(My host sister fishing)
(my host brother)
(The lake)Thats all.
No comments:
Post a Comment