Amerikanske Sjukepleiarstudent

Well, my time in Norway is rapidly closing in on me and I'm not quite sure what I think about it.  Of course I miss everybody back home, but I wish I had more time here.  The weekend at Anna's cabin was a wonderful getaway.  The view was mountains and water the whole way.  It was dark by the time we arrived but the scenery was still beautiful.  After getting to the area of the cabin, we had to hike up a steep hill because it was too icy and snowy for the car to make it.  Needless to say, I learned how out of shape I was.  Carrying a bag, walking through snow, and trying to get up this "mini mountain" without falling backwards was quite the workout.   We settled in at the cabin and began making food.  The girls made "Norwegian tacos."  SO much better than the boring tacos we are used to in the U.S.  They put everything on them: meat, cheese, lettuce, cheese, tomato, cucumbers, corn, salsa, peppers, sour cream...at least they know how to even out the fatty calories :)  After eating and cleaning up, we played a few games.  One of the games is called Ligretto-Dice.  I had never heard of it before and after playing it I had to go buy it (and I did last night.)  I'm so excited to get home and teach everyone to play it with me.  We sat around the table playing games, talking, and laughing a lot, it was a great way to spend a cold weekend.  Saturday morning we got up had breakfast, packed up, and drove home.  The drive home was so much more exciting because I could see what I was missing during the dark drive to the cabin.

Saturday night we met up with the other international students from Scotland and Spain along with some of the Norwegian students.  It was one of our only opportunities to actually get to know these students so we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  We all went to the student pub (yes....there is a student pub right by the school here).  It was fun to meet other students from the school, and everyone that talked to me had the same shocked facial expression when they found out I was from South Dakota in the U.S.  At first they would ask where I was from and when I replied, "America" they would say, "Oh you're from New York!?"  It was entertaining how many people assume that if you're from America you're from NY.  We had such a wonderful time Saturday night getting to know each other, and I will miss all of them when I go home.

Sunday was another lazy homework day.  Once again, NOTHING is open on Sunday, which is nice, but when you're not from around here it can be quite boring.  Monday was my first day at the hospital and boy did I learn a lot.  There are many differences between what nurses do here and what I am trained to do back home.  I will not elaborate on this subject here on the Internet, but I can discuss it in person when I get home if you have any questions :)  I did however enjoy the 7 1/2 hours shifts....they are much more fun than the 12 1/2 that I'm used to!  The Augie professor that is in charge of the exchange with Norway was in Haugesund and she stopped by to see me during my hospital shift.  It was so good to see a familiar face!  Her energy and excitement is so wonderful.  She is so enthusiastic about everything so it's hard to not be excited about what's going on when she's around.  After work Brad and I met her at her hotel near the waterfront and we walked around the shops for a bit and then grabbed a bit to eat.  I really enjoyed being able to talk to her about my experiences here and the things that made me uncomfortable at times.  After supper, we went back to the flat where Brad and I had to make a PowerPoint presentation for today.  We had to present a reflection to the Norwegian nursing faculty, the international students, Augie's international coordinator, and Pam.  We were having a little bit of anxiety thinking about the topics we were going to talk about.

This morning, we met Pam and Don (the international coordinator from Augie) at their hotel for breakfast.  I have never seen a breakfast buffet as wonderful as the one this morning.  There was fresh bread with every jam imaginable, meat/fish and cheese for breakfast sandwiches, all kinds of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, eggs, bacon, sausage, omelets, yogurt and every parfait topping possible.  I don't think I've ever had a breakfast with so many choices!  It was a great start to the day.  After breakfast we went to the school for a presentation to the 1st year nursing students at Haugesund to try and plant the seed of studying abroad at Augie when they're far enough into the program.  Pam did such a wonderful time with the presentation, it made me wish I was a HaugesundHalle even told us that by noticing all of the common themes with similarities and differences showed that Brad and I are competent in our knowledge and education.  I had never thought about it in that respect, but I'm very glad he did.  I actually walked away feeling like maybe we had provided some important material.

It has been quite a busy week, but I'm still enjoying every moment here.  I will finish 2nd and last day at the hospital tomorrow and then I will have one day to finish my last minute shopping, and one day to figure out how to pack everything up again.  I hope everyone is staying warm back home....negative degrees with blowing snow does not sound like fun compared to my 41 degrees yesterday morning!

This is right by the parking area on the mountain where Anna's cabin is.

Ric (Anna's boyfriend), Astrid, Me, Brad, Solveig after supper.

This is the view from the back step of Anna's cabin.  I will have a view like this some day :)

Me, Anna, Astrid, Solveig, Ric

This is what I missed on our way to the cabin!

These look like normal tunnels, but once you're inside of them you see that the "walls" are the mountain! They are all ridged from being....carved?

I love this picture...snow covered mountains, with an island of trees, and water.

 

There are neighborhoods up the side of the mountain, so cool to see.  Must be a challenge to get up the driveways with all of the ice and snow.

This is what the Norwegians have taught me...and I'm not complaining.

This bridge is right by the hotel that my professor stayed at.  It is so beautiful when it is all lit up at night.

This picture isn't the best, but you can see the ship coming through under the bridge.

We saw these swans after breakfast when we were leaving the hotel on our way to the university.