Struggles and Sea Shells

Sunday was the first day we had no official plans. It was nice to sleep in and organize all the papers I had accumulated, but I quickly became overwhelmed.

This isn’t my first time away from home. In high school I went on multiple mission trips to Mexico and Guatemala. On each trip, I spent a couple weeks working on projects at the organizations while learning about the culture and the injustices around me. The summer before my junior year in high school, I traveled to Boston by myself to attend the National Youth Forum on Medicine for two weeks. Three years ago, I made the transition to college. Even though I am from Fargo and I attend Concordia College in Moorhead, I view the transition the same as if I had attended a college farther away. I had to adjust to my new living environment, make new friends, and integrate myself into the college. I treat the Red River like an ocean, not a river. Last summer I lived in Lincoln where I conducted immunology research at the University of Nebraska. Lastly, in between all my travels, I have spent countless days, weekends, and weeks away from home.

These past experiences have prepared me for my transition in Tromsø, but I was naïve in thinking that this semester abroad would be an easy adjustment. Visiting a country for a few weeks and living abroad are two completely different things. This sentence seems straight forward, but only when you live abroad do you understand its true meaning.

Since arriving, I have become overwhelmed with figuring out how to access my money from the university, learning about the visa process in Norway, becoming familiar with the city and campus, navigating the university system (thus far I have four different usernames and passwords to access the university resources), understanding the new academic system, and making friends with facebook as my only non-physical form of communication.

Right now, I miss the familiarity of my life back in the states. I have a bank account which I can access; I do not have to obtain special documents to live in Fargo; I know the layout of the city and the Concordia College campus, additionally, I know where I can go to get certain things; I understand the education system; and lastly, I could easily communicate with those around me.

Today I was able to share my struggles with my mom and two sisters, Jenna and Symone, over skype. This was the first time I had talked with them since arriving in Tromsø besides sending a quick facebook message saying that I was alive and had arrived safely. By the end of our conversation, they had helped clear the cloud of concerns and temporary problems surrounding me. I could now see the bigger picture: how I will grow as a person.

I am very fortunate for being able to study abroad in such a beautiful country, and right now, I need to conquer one thing at a time and make the most of every moment.

Shoreline view from Tromsø

With an upbeat mindset, I invited Callie on a walk around Tromsø. We started heading north and made our way to the shore. Along the shore we were looking for sea shells while talking about our mutual concerns. By the end of the walk, I had collected many sea shells and had learned more about who Callie was.

Me and my sea shells

While heading back to Stakkevollan, we walked through a neighborhood and came across five children playing. I was prepared to just walk by since I did not expect them to talk with strangers; however, I was pleasantly surprised when two of the girls came right up to us. They were speaking in Norwegian so we told them that we were from the U.S. and we only knew English. Their eyes lit up with excitement. We started asking the two younger girls, they were nine years old, questions upon which they would respond with either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ The other two girls who were eleven would then translate for them since they were still in the beginning stages of learning English. There was a boy with them, but he was very shy and didn’t really talk with us.

Having the opportunity to talk with local children was fantastic. What I enjoyed even more was I had met my childhood Norwegian twin. She is the girl with the crazy blonde hair and animal print pants on, almost a complete replica of me when I was that age. As a child I would always be running around the house or outside with insane hair that was rarely brushed and animal print pants. To give you a better perspective, my idols were the 101 Dalmatians, Lion King, and Pocahontas.

Norwegian children we met while on our walk

Sadly, the children had to go home. We were invited to their soccer game the next night, but tomorrow we are going on a trip and won’t be back in time. I hope to see them around.