Blog 1

"This was some adventure, huh?"

My adventure is now. I'm in the middle of the biggest adventure in my life so far. This year, in a foreign country is MY adventure.

It's eight months since I stood in my kitchen, hugging my mom while the tears ran down my face like small rivers. It was the night before I was going on a long flight and an even longer stay in the US. That was the moment it all hit me, I was not going to see my family, friends, my home nor my country for over10 months. My bags were packed, and ready to go, and so were I. I had mentally prepared me for months, I had been looking forward to this since I was 12, and now the time had come. I was scared.

The sun hit me like a wave of summer at the airport in Chicago and my first thought was, "I can deal with this". My family picked me up the day after in Minneapolis and it couldn’t have been better. Got a map, keys and some money the first day and it was time to explore. A couple of days later it was time for cross country season and I sigened up.That was probably the smartest decision I've made this year. I met great people, got my closest friends, who included me, took me under their wings and made the typical scary-first-day-at-school not so scary. I must say, South is different in many ways. In the beginning it was the crowd, all the different people, who were all doing their own thing and all the rules, that freaked me out. But I learned it, accepted it and embraced it. I find it interesting how South manages to have all these different people from different backgrounds, cultural and religions all getting along. It's a great thing that I wish I had been exposed to earlier.

The time went by, I had got more friends, experienced a whole lot, been traveling and having the time of my life. The time went by so fast and now it’s spring. Only two more months until my stay here is done and time to go back to Norway. It seems like I’m leaving my home to go home. This place has made me see, experience and meet people I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for this exchange year. It will be hard to leave it, but the memories and people will stay with me forever.

I'm going to make the best of the rest of my adventure, since it's still happening!