In high school, I spent a year on exchange in Norway. I was living a dream. In a year I lived a whole life. I got to travel Europe, make cool friends from around the world, and explore Norway. I attended school, but if I’m honest- it wasn’t the priority.
I remember that I loved coming back from Norway. It excited me to think that I was coming back into a world where nothing had changed but me. I remember arriving home and my friends laughing at me because I had developed an accent. I loved all the pieces of Norway that stuck with me. But, over time, they began to be just shadows of memories.
During my year, I spent more time outside than I ever would have done voluntarily at home. I spent all my time hiking, cross-country skiing, biking. I miss it and I long for it.
I miss the food. And by that, I mean I miss eating with my family on the porch on the long Norwegian summer days when the sun would never sleep.
The seasons took a new meaning for me during my time in Norway. Norwegian Summer was built on long days and short nights, where the sun never set. When I think of Norwegian Fall I think of changing colours, hiding out in the cabin, enjoying the last of my time before hibernation. With Norwegian Winter, it comes. The days are short but filled with cross-country skiing and willing hibernation. After a long winter, Norwegian Spring is filled with hope, sunshine, and ice cream.
I long for trips to the cabin, where we would max out our data in the first day and sit there bored for the next six. Not truly bored though, simply forced to live outside our digital world. I miss my Norwegian woods.
I will always feel extra sentimental on the longest day of the year, which is Scandinavian midsummer- a time for celebration. I will remember collecting seven different types of wildflowers with my host sister that night, to see if we would dream of our future husbands. I didn’t.
Likewise, May 17th means a lot to me and always will. The national day in Norway is a day of pride, tradition and celebration for Norwegians. The day is filled with hot dogs, ice cream, children’s parades, and dressing like royalty in the national costume.
The social scene in Norway was so much different from what I’d known. In Canada, I loved going to school. I worked hard at my academics in high school. But more than the educational aspect, I loved the social. I loved walking down the hall and stopping to talk with 20 different friends from 20 different groups. When I got to Norway, I remember feeling so alone at my school that if just one person made an effort to include me or talk to me, it was a good day. I don’t know which parts of this I take with me now into my adult years. Having experienced exclusion like that stuck with me and made me very comfortable with being alone, with being a friend to myself, with keeping myself busy. At the same time, this experience of feeling constantly alone has shaped me to be more inclusive without a second thought. My Norwegian school experience played a big role in shaping my character, but it’s not how I failed to connect with my classmates that I think of when I think of my time there. And, I could never say that my experience was entirely negative. In fact, I even miss that too.
A lot of these things I loved about Norway have disintegrated from my day-to-day life. I feel like I remember it in Memorium, like a part of me that has passed. I remember it for its happy parts and I carry with me the desire for more of all those things I grew to love in such a short time. My kids will grow up celebrating midsummer and the 17th of May without really knowing why, but loving the traditions all the same.
So, as I sit here with this longing for Norway, with so many parts of who Norway made me slowly disintegrating, it becomes clear to me that all the places you go take part in shaping you. Some, of course, shape you more than others. I long for these places, and for places, I have yet to be transformed by, yet at the same time, I realize that it’s the memories I’m after, the feelings they take with them.
To see more moments from my year in Norway, check out my exchange blog.