Een jaar in Oslo!

Hello everybody!

So… This will be my first and probably last blog in English. First I wanted to write a big post on Facebook to thank all those people that made this year a huge success for me, but then I decided it was maybe a better idea to write a blog to all of you. To all those amazing people that I met in Oslo: friends, good friends, very good friends, classmates, flatmates and people that you just happen to see at different places every time. You all made Oslo feel like home to me. Home turned out to be a feeling, not a place, and feelings are so often determined by the people around you. A room becomes home with flatmates. A university becomes school with the right classmates. A city becomes your city when you can randomly bump into people everywhere and all the time. And lastly, Erasmus becomes Erasmus when you know the right people to party with, when you meet people that turn into friends and when you have people to make all your travels with.

The first semester, on the very first day, I met this Italian girl. Even though we had a nice talk, Lucia, we never saw each other again until the second semester when I suddenly saw you everywhere and we became friends. I’m so happy that we both stayed half a year longer! That same day a trip to IKEA had to be made. Little idea I had that those people who joined me would become my Buddygroup 2.1. For the whole first semester I’ve had the best dinners with Evelyn, Svenja, Zuzana and Marcus and with you I also made amazing trips those first few months. First to Copenhagen and then later to Lom with Evelyn, to Stavanger and in the end to Tromsø. All of these were ‘best ofs’ of the first semester! Then there was this classmate from Amsterdam, Marit. Even though you didn’t remember, I remember very well that we met during that introduction weekend in 2011 and, when we found out that we both had fallen in love with Norway, agreed that we would go together to Norway in the third year. Two years later, we did it! And you were upgraded from a classmate to a friend. If you ask me, our ‘best ofs’ were our trip to Stockholm and the 17th of May. And maybe the fact that you helped me learning Norwegian 🙂 Then there were these other people in the first semester: Tim, my patient German teacher who didn’t give up on my German skills when I did. Steve, who didn’t kill me for making him look like a dragqueen during a Halloween party. Rosa, who brightened up every Norwegian language course (no one else has made me laugh so hard at ‘en gammel bil’ as you). And finally those people that just showed up everywhere: Luis, Bernhard, Pascal (so happy to have seen you again in May!), Eva…

The second semester started off with a new friend: Thoby, sleighing at Frognerseteren apparently creates a certain bond that lasts for the rest of the semester and who knows how much longer? And then there was this party where I met two American guys who seemed to know it all about Europe. Even though you don’t remember Nick, you impressed me that evening and another prejudice was scattered. Luckily we got a second chance in Åland and Finland (thank your mother for teaching you Finnish!) and we even made it to the status of Facebook-friends! I couldn’t be more grateful, I think you will be an amazing lattepapa!  Later, a lot later, someone showed up who learnt me that even when you’re not actively looking to meet new people any more, it can still be worth it. Martin, even though talking for the first time at a Syria-seminar might seem a doubtful start, I’m very glad to have spent those last couple of weeks with you! Last-minute friends can turn out to feel as if they have been there the whole year, a good lesson to learn. And also in the second semester there were these other people: Juliana, a classmate to see outside the Norwegian courses as well. Raoul, who gave us so many things to see in Tallinn. Elise, who makes the best powerpoints ever and later helped me out during the Election Night where I didn’t know anyone. Lastly there were again those people that seemed to be often at the same place as me: Elisa (classmate with common friends), Doris, Rikke and Thor.

I guess I have to devote a slightly longer part about the people who have been there in both semesters. First of all my amazing flatmates: Eranda, Chang, Minori, Dipankar, Hong (and Jocelyn for two months!), and the two Ana’s. I admire all of your cooking skills and our flatdinners were not only delicious and cosy, we also agreed that none of us ever had to clean the kitchen alone. If the whole world could cooperate as well as we did, it would be a peaceful place! Thanks for your amazing food, your company and your interesting lives. Thanks to you the world has become bigger and yet smaller as well. Then there were also some classmates who first made me happy in Tove’s course and later made Bård’s courses even better. Daniel (I’m sure that big book provided you with some amazing muscles 😉 ), Monika (I would go to your concerts!), Julia, Jessica and last but certainly not least Borja. Borja, I don’t know how you do it, but you always make me happy. Maybe it’s because you are always happy (except for that oral presentation in the first semester, I still feel sorry for you when I think about how nervous you were) or maybe it’s because you have made some of the most delicious tortillas de patata I have ever had. I’m not sure if my Norwegian skills would have been the way they are now if I would not have had my language partner Øyvind. Actually, I’m pretty sure they would not have been the same. Not only did you help me to get two A’s for my oral exams, I also genuinely enjoyed our conversations, whether they were about the EU or not, and you taught me a lot about Norway and Oslo as well. Even though I don’t speak Flemish, I hope I have done the same for you!

Lastly there are the people who have made it to the category of best friends in Oslo and hopefully a lot longer than this year alone. First of all Marcus, although I already mentioned you and our memorable first meeting on our way to IKEA. I’m very happy that you decided to stay for another semester and even though the dinners we had were not of the same quality as Svenja’s ones in the first semester, I still liked them a lot. We did too much to mention it all, but especially the Worldcup Skiing and of course our trip to Trolltunga must be written down here. It’s incredible how you changed from the guy who walked up Preikestolen in his normal shoes into someone who likes hiking a lot and still smiled when we reached Trolltunga after 5,5 hours. Thanks for your amazing pictures and of course your amazing company, waiting three hours at the legevakt is no problem having you around! And then there are those two French girls who are always mentioned together. Cécile and Pauline. Pauline and Cécile. You deserve to be written about separately, but first I have to say that you two have done more for France’s reputation than anyone else before you. I will tell everyone I meet about the two French girls who refused to speak French to me and even spoke English when they were together. Cécile, I have written about our goodbye that it was worth an Oscar. You were the first to leave and it hit me hard. In 9 or 10 months you have grown from ‘the girl I shared a cabin with in Lom’ to one of the best friends I met here. I don’t care that I lost our birthday-challenge, because you deserved to win and I’m glad you did 🙂 I can’t even remember all the other things we did, but of course our trip to Finland and Estonia was one of the best things. Pauline, our goodbye was a lot easier. Not because I’m not going to miss you of course, I think it is because we both didn’t want to think about it being a goodbye for a longer time than maybe two weeks. You were always in for some crazy adventure: climbing on the roof of Åland’s parliament, sneaking in as a ‘visiting friend’ in our hotel in Tallinn and staying the whole night, hitchhiking in fjord-Norway and meeting up with me and my cousin in our cabin and picking up the Ruter cards that Cécile and soon I left for you. Cécile and Pauline, I think you were always mentioned together because everybody knew you. It’s very special how you seemed to like everybody and how everybody seemed to like you. Many people can learn from that, I think. I’m very happy that you were my friends and I really hope that we will make this tour through Germany this summer. It would be again one of those spontaneous ideas that maybe seemed crazy at first but that might come true. If so, I’m already looking forward!

So this was it. A year has passed and so much has happened. All good things come to an end, they say, we can only try to let them continue when we are all back in our first life. Thanks to all of you and so many other people, this second life has been amazing and I can leave it now with not only all my stuff but another backpack full of memories, stories to tell, pictures, lessons and friendships. I think Erasmus’ mission has officially been accomplished. Tusen takk for det!

Marloes