The Day Norway Won My Heart

  Abby and I were supposed to wake up to catch a boat to see some museum on an island…but somehow spending the first night in Bergen led us astray from our tentative schedule.  Needless to say we did not make it in time.  However, we were feeling adventurous and determined to make the most of our entire Saturday.  I knew I wanted to find this tree called a monkey puzzle tree and hike to the top of Ulriken which is the highest mountain in Bergen.  On our way there, we ran into Alejandro who had also missed the bus and decided to come along with us.  We were in nike's and t-shirt and he was wearing jeans and crocs.  It was going to be a tough day for him but he was excited.  At first we tried to see if we could go kayaking but found out that it wasn’t open on the weekends.  Our next stop was to find the tree.  We got on a tram, got off where it was close to the pin on my maps app and started walking.  We had no idea where to go and eventually I got an irking to walk up a side street.  As soon we saw someone in the yard, I went up and asked him if he knew where the tree was.  He immediately pointed through his backyard and there it was.   I am still in shock to this day that I found a random in tree in the middle of a neighborhood in Bergen. We walked around and took a bunch of pictures and continued to the hike.   The bottom of the mountain was near the hospital so we started hiking towards the signs.  As soon as I saw a bus driver I asked where to go and he told us to wait on the 12 bus.  ~I love asking questions because I'd rather ask someone that knows instead of standing around for thirty minutes trying to figure it out myself. ~ As soon as we made it to the bus stop, the bus arrived and we hopped on.  It dropped us off at Montana which was at the bottom and we did a quick snack and bathroom run.  Then we started the trek up the mountain.  It was very rocky and kind of steep but so pretty. Before we started the hike Alejandro offered to carry my backpack, in his crocs and jeans mind you, and I was so grateful. He is such a gentleman and I could not get over how much he cared for others before himself.  At one of our break points we ran into a women who was going through cancer and about to start her first round of radiation after several rounds of chemotherapy.  She was telling us about her life but, still kicking butt and continuing on.  Abby and I couldn't get over how much of an inspiration she was to us.  It was difficult for us to make it up the mountain and we had not even gone through half of the trials and tribulations that she has.  We continued on and made it all the way to the top! There were really cute cabins and a restaurant with a bar.  There was even a little pond at the top.  Dinner time was quickly approaching and we started the way down.  As soon as we found the bus stop we sat and waited for a bus.  An older man was walking by and I asked him if he knew when the buses would be running.  Turns out he was heading the same way so we walked with him.  He told us a little about how he used to live in San Francisco and played soccer and he happened to be on his way to a soccer match.  As soon as we made it to the main road he told us to get on the bus coming so we ran to the bus stop and made it just in time.  We were worried about being late to dinner so we ran straight to the restaurant.  The bus happened to drop us off right in town.  We showed up in our sweaty and stinky clothes into this beautiful and fancy restaurant.   Apparently, we did not get the memo that we were supposed to dress up.  It was Abby's 20th birthday which is the same as celebrating a 21st in America so we sang happy birthday and went out for a night of fun.  One lesson I will take with me when traveling to a foreign country is to bring your drivers license. A passport is not the smartest thing to bring with you when you are jumping from bar to bar.  The day ended up to be the perfect day.  I learned to never be afraid to ask questions and that maybe jeans and crocs aren't the best for a hike up the tallest mountain in Bergen but determination and positivity can make anything possible.  

Gender Equality in Norway

While there are so different aspects of studying abroad, the most important part is the studying.  After looking at the list of courses, I chose to take Gender Equality.  It seemed like it was going to be the most interesting to me compared to literature, politics, art, and government.  As it turned out, this class and I had a love-hate relationship throughout the semester.  On the first day, I thought I was going to love it because the class was based on discussion from our readings and there were such extreme differences of cultures in the classroom.  Unfortunately, during the second week of school I had a breakdown because I realized that the mixed graduate/undergraduate class was going to be more of a challenge than I thought.  We were assigned to read about 100 pages a week and after reading some of the articles and not understanding, I didn't think this was the class for me.  I had never taken a theoretical and discussion based class before and it made me nervous to share my opinions about gender equality in front of people that I knew were not as fortunate as me.  After some mom inspiration, I decided to push through and give it a real shot.  I learned how to analyze the articles and relate it back to my culture to share with my class. Our professor also gave us a chart that helped us pick out what the argument was, the background of the data, and the conclusion that the author came to.  As we dissected each topic in class, I started to enjoy it a little more.

Norway is known as one of the most gender equal countries in the world.  There are still some areas of improvement but, because of gender equality policies and mainstreaming, women and men are seen as equals.  After being in the midst of such an equal society this summer Norway started to seem like an utopia.  Policies are in place so that men and women have the same representation in political elections, on the boards of the major corporations and in the most common job advertisements.  Women and men are both given time off to help raise their families together and studies have shown that in doing so it creates longevity and happiness in the relationship.  However, there are segregated neighborhoods throughout the country that are of non-traditional Norwegian families.  These families settled in Norway to get away from war, political persecution, or to seek a better life.  Without being in their homeland, they still stay true to their original cultures.  For example, Muslims found home to Grünerløkka.  Walking through the area, I could tell that they don't believe in the policies that Norway has installed. Men go out and work and women take care of the children and they don't share roles.  Norway needs to find a way to favor both traditional and non-traditional Norwegian cultures.   

In my own experience, I was talking to my friend Espen about something that happened in high school and he made an example of a sexist comment.  I didn't think anything of it but, he replied with "see any woman in Norway would have been mad that I just said that".  Women there are very strong and they fight for what they believe in.  They are the reason that Norway has been so successful in the fight for gender equality because they don't give up.  In the end, I am so thankful for sticking it out and seeing the class till the end.  I now see in so many ways how the USA can improve and how countries like Macedonia and Sri Lanka can initialize a movement.  In my future career, I hope to work in sports and we all know that it is a male dominated field.  I do think there will be challenging times when my gender does play role but, based on my experience in this class I will stand up for what I believe in because I know that my sex should never be a reason to hold me back.

Chocolate, Choklad, Sjokolade

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get".   Just like Forrest Gump, I was able to try my own box of chocolates this summer.  When thinking of mouth watering chocolate most people think of Godiva in Belgium or Swedish milk chocolate.  Personally, they are a little over rated because after this summer I was able to taste "Et lite stykke Norge" (A small piece of Norway). The sjokolade in Norway is to die for.  Every time I was in a gas station or convenience store there was no denying the extra calories that I was about to inhale.  You could choose between bars, rolls, or even the sweet perfection around your ice cream.  I usually went for the rolls because they were small pieces that you could just pop in and go on about your day.  They also had a hazelnut flavor and a bar that tasted just like a Kit Kat but the chocolate around the crunch was about ten times more gratifying. Everyone in Norway is obsessed with chocolate.  As the saying goes, "Money can't buy happiness but, it can buy chocolate and that's the same thing".  If it isn't because of their welfare state, perfect weather, or beautiful people then, I think their secret to a happy livelihood is within the depths of the Freia Factory in Oslo, Norway.