Quick note: Please read previous blog post ‘Cloudberries and Championships’ first.   24 hours on from my first (and quite probably last) performance in the Annual District Skolekorps Championship I am proud to announce that Strommen og Skjetten Skolekorps received 9th place (the fact that there were only 9 bands doesn’t really matter). I write… Read more »

It’s crazy to think that I’ve been living in Norway for almost 3 months, I don’t know how long I think I’ve been here but it certainly isn’t that. Things have finally started to settle down and I’m gradually finding my own ‘normal’. Despite my previous sentence life has still been pretty crazy but it’s… Read more »

Easter is the first ‘holiday’ I’ve spent abroad. Sure I’ve had school holidays but this is the first one where I was acutely aware of the specific traditions my family had in Australia and thus could sort or compare to Norwegian traditions. My experiences of Easter in Australia have always been quite focused around the… Read more »

I think I am a relatively sporty person, I use this term only due to the amount of sport I did in Australia. I wouldn’t say I was naturally athletic by any means but, particularly  in Summer, I spent a very large amount of time playing sport or at training. Team sports are sort of… Read more »

As February comes to an end I can now say I have made it through the Norwegian Winter. Spring is meant to have started  however you wouldn’t be able to tell if you looked at the weather forecast. Strommen is currently experiencing the most snow it has had in around 20 years and this week… Read more »

Today I cooked dinner for my host family, more specifically the great Australian food that is the meat pie. I had cooked meat pie before I came to Norway, we made single serve pies in food tech last year, but there was a bit of added pressure here. This dish is iconic and I didn’t… Read more »

I have officially been in Norway for 31 days though it honestly doesn’t feel like I’ve been away from Australia for that long. A month can be a really long thing or a really short thing. At the moment it sort of feels like both. A part of me can’t really remember not knowing what… Read more »

A couple of hours ago I arrived back in Strømmen after spending ten days in Nesbyen. The first three days were an “Introduction Camp” with just the Australians where we learnt more Norwegian and the last 7 days were an intensive ski training camp with all of the exchange students in Norway. I have very… Read more »

I can now officially say I am a Rotary Exchange student. There is now no need to add a ‘will be’ or ‘soon to be’ to the start of the phrase. My location and current place of living is (for the next twelve months) Norway. My 27 hours spent in transit is now over and… Read more »

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t just start packing today despite what the title may suggest. I have been planning and laying out clothes for over a week. Every couple of days I have weighed my suitcase to see how the weight is progressing and I hadn’t been anywhere near the limit… Read more »