Elliott’s pre-departure reflections

With less than 10 days to go before your departure to Norway, I find myself filled with all sorts of emotions about the journey ahead.  First and foremost, I am extremely excited about it!  How could I not be since I will be going with a veteran traveler, Maren!  But this is also my first time that I will be living abroad for extended amount of time.  I have heard about the amazing things that one experiences while living aboard from friends who have studied abroad during their college days, and now is my chance to experience them first hand.  While in Norway, I am going to start learning the language as well as hopefully connecting with a school or two to learn about their school system.

 

While I am very excited about going and living abroad, I am filled with a nervousness that I have never experienced before.  I mean it’s not the same nervousness like moving into my college dorm room for the first time or what kind of teacher am I going to be 10 minutes before the students walk through the door on my first day of school, but one that is not happening for other people at the same time and what am I going to do when I get lost and most people speak a different language than I do.  I know it will be ok and lots of people speak English in Oslo, but until I experience it for the first time, I don’t know what to expect.

 

There are going to be lots of new things this year, like blogging, that I am looking forward to doing and sharing about them.  Of course during our time in Norway, I am going to miss my family and friends but with Facebook and Skype, they won’t seem as far away as they are physically.

 

This is going to be one amazing year!!