Norway

As some of you would know, I really enjoy traveling. Especially when it involves meeting amazing people from all over the world. International conferences are the perfect excuse to travel abroad on a shoe string budget and invest in a kind of experience you simply cannot buy with your own money twenty years hence.

I was in Norway a month ago, representing India at the International Student Festival in Trondheim(ISFiT) 2011. Needless to say, I had a whale of a time! I’m now writing a short account of that complete experience, how I wish I had done the same for my trips to Turkey and the UAE!

I spent 15 days in Norway, exploring Oslo, Trondheim(ISFiT) and Tromso. Most of the planning for the trip was done by Madhu, a great friend from Singapore who put up with all my laziness for 15 days.

Oslo:

My first port in Norway was Oslo, where I spent half a day before heading to Trondheim for ISFiT. I roamed the city center with a couple of other Indians, a Finn and a Brazilian. I was thoroughly exhausted as I had been traveling for over 24 hours. But it was snowing and things became really pretty..and slippery..and wet. I quickly realized that I didnt really have the clothes needed to survive that kinda weather. But I did manage to attack my companions with snowballs.

The size of the city surprised me, it was really small for a capital. We could cover the entire city center in an hour. We covered a path leading from the Oslo Central Station to the Sculpture Park. We saw the Parliament, The Royal Palace, Oslo University, The Cathedral and a couple of other important looking buildings on the way. I soon realized that Oslo, being the world’s most expensive city, was gonna burn our pockets. For example, a McChicken burger costs a little over 1USD in India and 13USD in Oslo! (Sorry, didnt bother to check the price of the veggie burger, if it existed). The sun set at 6pm and the snow started melting. As the snow melted, it seemed to get warmer somehow.

After roaming about for a few hours we returned to the Airport to catch the bus to Trondheim with the rest of the participants.

Trondheim:

The bus trip to Trondheim took 8hrs, but it was OK as I was asleep most of the time. I was still pretty tired by the time we reached Trondheim. I was relieved to be connected with my host, Kaia, who took me home immediately. She was a literature student at the university and was as kind as she was beautiful. I was to share the living room with a participant from Iran(whom I didnt get to see much of as he devoted most of his time to getting laid). Kaia cooked us a lovely dinner with rice, chicken and salad. That dinner taught me that Norwegians stay fit by eating little.

The ISFiT experience was all about my workshop group “The Future”. There were about 38 of us. As I’ve noticed in previous conferences, I take some time to get talking with people. So I was kinda shy at first. But slowly I got talking and made some really close friends. Everybody in my group were somehow amazingly cute! It was also interesting to note how close we became, a lot of people cried on the final day, no I DID NOT CRY.

What exactly did we do?? Well in the mornings we would meet up and do group activities, debates. discussions, have guest speakers over and play loads of games. We’d then head over to the university campus to have dinner at around 5pm. After dinner we’d go to this student activity center called Samfundet. That was the epicenter of all ISFiT activity. I was really impressed by this building as its completely run by the students on a voluntary model. We’d either have a plenary session or a few cultural events at the samfundet. After these there would inevitably be a party. Not really being a party freak I would generally take the last bus home at around 11pm. Yeah, I was kinda loserish there.

But I always found the route back home quite intruiging, I would sometimes even walk home. Now, Trondheim is considered by some to be the most beautiful city in Norway. I think it looks even more beautiful by night, with its many trees, cobbled streets and white snow. As I lived close to the city center, I would pass half the inner city before reaching home and it still wasnt too long. I would just grab a cookie(that was the cheapest thing available!) and some cola on my way home. I think I found it intriguing because it had this sense of uncertainty and adventure attached to it. I would sometimes lose my way until I come across a land mark and then redirect myself from there. Hard to believe, but I did this for 10 days!

So by the end of it, I knew bad words in four new languages, heard stories from all over the world and found places to stay in three continents . I also got to introspect a lot and understand myself better. I was kinda flattered because girls from different parts of the world found me “cute” and I actually got videos of some of my new friends describing how awesome I am!

On one of the days they showed us a video about the free hugs campaign and everybody started hugging each other. Now, I’ve never really been a huggy person, my hands are never aligned the right way  and I dont lean the right way either. But needless to say, I got plenty of practice at ISFiT. I wanna hug everyone now!

I really wish I could write in more detail about my friends at ISFiT:  whether its about angelic Xiwen(Moshie), or drunk Eams, or the amazingly sweet Raluca, Cigdem,  Romy  or the constantly abusing and funny Daniel and Cem or whistling Ida or the amazingly sweet Andres and Jaochim, or the embryo that Anin is or the winner in Nina, or the beauty of Ermira, Lena and Marina, or about just how cute Hye Na is, or about Ingvild’s Puppy face or about charming Charles or bold Marian, Rabab, Jane and Kim or about the leaders in Carlos, Rosilin, Marius, and Vebjorn and how awesome  Ines and Jose are, or about how Vandana and her camera are one thing or about amazing Zak who is currently battling it out in Libya or practical Nikoline or about dancing Aina and talented Defbry or eccentric Akshara or smart David or just about how bright the future looks because of everyone else.

But I cant, you’ll read about them in the news soon enough

On the last day of ISFiT we said our goodbyes and people were really crying. I felt kinda bad that I couldnt get myself to cry but I really did feel sad for leaving them. I stayed back as I was going further north while most of my group mates took the bus to Oslo. Those who were left went back to this place where we all used to hangout and it felt really weird seeing it so empty. We cleaned up, ordered pizza and discussed marriage traditions in different parts of the world(always a great topic). I was really groused out by this Zimbabwean tradition where the father in law sleeps with the bride first to test her virginity.

I headed back home after some time and had a long conversation with Kaia. I really did enjoy my conversations with her, she was also very deeply introspective and we would discuss at length about personal satisfaction and stress control. She also taught me that Norwegians are well educated, well rounded, competitive and very proud of being Norwegian. The next day, Madhu and I explored Trondheim a bit more, got kinda lucky because it was the King’s birthday and we got to witness, read: feel, the traditional firing of the canons at noon. Kaia prepared another really amazing lunch for us and we ate, laughed and talked for one last time.

Tromso:

The flight to Tromso took us a couple of hours. Now Tromso is to the north of the arctic circle and is considered to be one of the best places  on Earth to catch the northern lights. Madhu and I were kinda concerned because the lights are not visible everyday and the forecast was not looking very good either. But, we got lucky, really lucky in fact. We saw the northern lights from the flight. So we literally went hysterical in the flight, much to the amusement of out co-passengers.

It has always been a personal dream to see the northern lights and we couldnt stop smiling stupidly for hours after that. We took a bus to the hotel where we were staying and the lights were even more distinct there. They seemed fluid somehow, green lights playing in the sky, needless to say, it was pretty amazing.

We were joined soon by Akshay and his DSLR with which we were able to capture this:

We spent the next day exploring the beautiful town of Tromso.  It was quite amazing actually, its like everywhere you look, you see a scene out of a post card. We went northern light hunting the next night as well, but due to a cloud cover couldnt really see anything. But we met this really nice Aussie couple who travel all over the world. Talking to them really gave me an idea of where I see myself in 30 years.

Oslo:

We took a flight back to Oslo the next morning.  We were going to stay at the home of an Indian professor. We were really happy to meet her and the German researcher she shared a flat with. They were researching on social media branding, an area in which I had some insight, so I thoroughly enjoyed my  discussions with them.

We then set about exploring Oslo. We first went to the Edvard Munch museum.  We went on a guided tour and I was feeling kinda sleepy towards the end.  We then went to this lane which was filled with ice sculptures on display. All of these sculptures were modeled after Munch’s creations so it was pretty easy for us to recognize them.

We then went to the harbor and walked around a bit. We also checked out the Nobel Peace Prize Center where the Nobel Peace Prize is delivered.

We then met this Norwegian lady and her son who took us to their ‘ancient’ house. As it turns out, her son was a genius piano player! So we were treated to some good music and some great conversation at their house. She told us how she used to travel a lot when she was young and her wish to visit India one day. Everyone in Norway has either been to India or is planning to visit soon.

By the time Madhu and I returned home, there was hot Indian food waiting for us! We then had a really long discussion on social media, culture, bollywood, living outside one’s home country etc. We finally called it a night and slept for one last time in Norway.

We woke up early next morning and went our separate ways at the airport.

As my flight was taxying towards the runway, I got a mail from London Business School, saying that I’ve been accepted to their Masters in Management programme. A fitting end to the Norwegian Experience.

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