My Year

It almost feels like a dream, but the following story comes from my real memory. I call it “My Year”. I don't even know where to start now that I'm writing about my experience of being an exchange student in Gjøvik, Norway. I started this journey last semester, August 2017. I was supposed to live in Gjøvik for only one semester, I got a scholarship for 5 months and my plan was to get back to Macedonia by the end of December 2017. But nothing went as I expected it to go. I came here with no idea how everything was going to be. My feelings were a mixture of excitement and sadness, excitement because I was going to experience a whole new thing in my life, and sadness because it was my first time leaving home for such a long period of time. Why did I say that nothing went as I expected to? Because once I got to Norway, I fell in love with this place. I liked it so much that I asked my home University if I could extend my exchange for one more semester. And guess what, I’m still in Gjøvik and this is my second semester here :D.

People always talk about how hard it is to go somewhere and adapt to the new environment. Well, to be honest for me it wasn’t that difficult. Of course, Norway and Macedonia don’t even have one thing in common, they’re two completely different countries, but still I didn’t have one single moment when I felt like I don’t belong here. Everyone says that Norwegians are cold and unsocial people. It’s true though, they aren’t the most social creatures, until you get to know them. I once read in a book, “think about a wild cat. You need to be slow, careful, playful, and distant. You also need to take initiatives, play games for a few hours, a few days, or a few years and you will make Norwegian friends. Once you are friends, you are friends for life”. I agree, Norwegians are great people, you just need to learn to connect in the way they are used to. They’re all very kind, very polite, very honest, very trustful and very welleducated people. They will often go out of their way to help others.

One other thing that has impressed me in Norway is gender equality. Here for the first time in my life I felt treated the same way as boys are, which has never happened in Macedonia. Norwegian women are very independent and gender-based politeness norms are mostly absent. Unfortunately this topic in my home country is still a big issue.

Anyway, back to my daily life as an exchange student. My biggest problem was, and still continues to be, what to cook every day. This may sound silly but trust me it’s not that easy, especially when everything in Norway is so expensive. Living without my parents has grown me in many different aspects. I have to manage everything on my own, without any help from mom or dad. I have to cook alone, do laundry, clean, do grocery shopping etc. An experience like this really prepares you for the adulthood and I wouldn’t change it with anything.

The end will come soon and I will have to go back to Macedonia and leave the life I built here. I still have 2 months left but I get emotional even now when I think about the time I’ll have to say goodbye to Norway. What I’m leaving behind is not just a country. It’s the people I met here, the connection with my fellow exchange students, the memories, the whole experience. Leaving after an exchange means it will never be this way again. I can come back, but nothing will be the same. I won’t be able to text my exchange friends anymore to hang out, cook together or just chill in the sun (because in Norway you start to appreciate sun in a different way, since there are a lot of ‘sunless’ days here).

I try to cherish every moment until I’m still experiencing “My Year”, because I know I will miss this time when it will all be over. I’m grateful to my parents that made it possible for me to live this adventure. I don’t know where life will take me after this or how it is going to be in Macedonia, but one thing I know for sure when I get back is that home may still be the same, but I most certainly am not. :)

Dafina Marku, exchange student in Norway 2017-2018