Before I arrived, I had thought I would give myself a week to get settled before jumping in. I figured that would allow me time to work through the jet lag and properly gather my bearings. I am not sure if that would have been the correct strategy because that is not what I did.
Entering a foreign country where you do not speak the language, do not know the culture, and know no one is scary. It did not matter that I had spent five weeks in Norway last summer. I had lived on the periphery, traveling around in my own enclosed capsule, always on the move. This time would be different. My goals were to meet people, learn the language, look for a job, and experience day-to-day life in Norway. Mostly, I wanted to find out if the pull it had on me after my travels last summer was real or imagined.
As soon as I arrived, I felt instinctively that I had to jump in right away. I knew that every day I put it off, the fear would build and it would only become harder. The consequence of this decision was that I would be battling exhaustion while also trying to put myself out there in a foreign land. The result was all too predictable. It was a challenging week.
I scheduled my first language meetup for Wednesday and booked a floating sauna session for Friday night. I figured that would be enough to force me into it without burning through any reserves on my first week.
I spent the early part of the week stocking up on groceries and a few other items I needed to add to my apartment, figuring out the light rail system, reacquainting myself with Bergen, and scouting out where my language practice would take place on Wednesday. I had trouble falling asleep on Tuesday night, so anxious about the language meetup. How terrifying to try to speak Norwegian for the first time around a group of people!
When I arrived the next day, I expected the people there to have broken Norwegian, to struggle with it as I was. That was not the case. Everyone in my group seemed to be able to say what they wanted and understand each other. I could pick out words here and there but was completely lost most of the time. I am not sure what I expected, that after studying Norwegian on Babel for several months I would arrive in the country and be conversational? But it didn’t matter. I felt devastated. I felt like an outsider. Of course, I knew I was being too hard on myself. So even though I felt humiliated, I have added weekly language meet-ups to my calendar for Mondays and Wednesdays. As everyone keeps telling me, you have to start somewhere!
The Friday night sauna ended up being the perfect antidote. I am not sure words can even express how much I love experiencing the sauna coupled with jumping into a fjord. Of course, I could not help but laugh that shortly after my cold plunge into the Antarctic Ocean, I was once again standing outside at 0°C (32°F) and jumping into bone-chilling water (6°C, 44°F). Of course, this felt very different as I entered the water after overheating in an 80°C (176°F) wood-fired sauna, not after my body temperature had already dropped standing outside in Antarctica! I plan to return regularly.
Another great blessing, I discovered a “New Freinds of Bergen” group on Facebook and was delighted that my post expressing my interest in meeting people had a huge response. I already have many coffee and hiking meet-ups in the works. And I have entered the world of Hinge, the dating app. My social life is filling up!
So, after a tough start that was all too predictable, the week ended on a high note. Though for the time being, my brain feels like it is two, three, maybe even four steps behind my body.
Lessons from: Getting My Feet Wet
- There are (free) language meet-ups on Mondays through Thursdays at various libraries around Bergen. There is also an opportunity to be assigned a language partner, which I have applied for! For me, this would be someone who wants to learn English and speaks Norwegian. Of course, everyone here already speaks English, so my fingers are crossed that they find a partner for me. The website for language meet-ups is: https://bergenbibliotek.no/arrangement/filter/spraaktrening.
- Norwegians come across as shy. Culturally, they don’t speak to strangers. I already knew this. However, I have been delighted to find that when I do have the opportunity for conversation, like in a sauna, they tend to be so very nice, engaging, and curious.
- The app to use the light rail + bus system in Bergen is called Skyss. It could not be easier to use! Adult single tickets, good for 90 minutes, cost 44 Kroner (around $4.4USD). The more tickets you buy over 30 days, the deeper discount you receive. Or you can opt for the unlimited 30-day pass for 780 Kroner (around $78 USD), which is the cost-effective option if you are making more than 2 trips per week.
Something interesting: March weather in Bergen.
he small bulbs popping up are the only signs of spring.
Bergen has a very rainy climate, averaging 239 rainy days per year. However, the ocean and the Gulf Stream regulate the temperature, which rarely drops much below freezing. Even the coldest month of February averages a high of 2.5 °C (36 °F), and a low of 0.1 °C (32.2 °F).
Since I arrived, there have been grey, rainy days and days filled with brilliant sunshine from sunrise to sunset. The temperatures during the day have been just above freezing. Pretty ideal for this cold-climate-loving gal!
A look behind the curtain.
I spoke to my mom on Sunday. That was the first phone conversation I had had with anyone in the States since arriving and it turned out to be exactly what I needed.
When my mom was 18, she lived in Denmark for one year. She told me that in her initial weeks, she had days when she could not bring herself to leave the house. Her schooling was all in Danish, and it began shortly after she had arrived. Some days, the prospect of going out the door and immersing herself in a foreign language and culture was more than she could bear. She knew that was not how she wanted to conduct herself, but it was all should could manage.
I can now relate to her experience in a way I never could have a week ago. I did study abroad in Mexico when I was 22, living with a family that spoke no English, but I was surrounded by American students at school. That was very different.
Every time I had to leave the house during this first week, I found myself putting it off by picking some aimless task to check off, knowing full well that I was letting the fear get the best of me. It is a feeling that is hard to describe and one I am learning to let hum in the background while I force my feet out the door.
It feels as though I am making myself unbearably vulnerable because I cannot predict what will happen, with whom, and how. But mostly I think it is just exhausting. The energy it takes to interact with a foreign world daily is hard to describe, but it creates a deep brain fatigue in which everything becomes fuzzy and confusing. Confidence is nowhere to be found. Self-esteem is lost. You feel as if you are a walking target with no defense.
But I know this feeling will not last! As I write this, I am just beginning my second week, and I already feel much less frightened to walk out the door. This is aided by the fact that I could not be more thrilled to have the opportunity to take on this journey in such a wonderful country!
She Simply Wanders 
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