[Disclaimer en español: El siguiente entry estará en inglés porque en mi cabeza funciona mejor. No se descarta que luego lo traduzca, si leen mi blog saben que igual me gusta escribir hihihi]
August 1st, 2008 is the single most important day of my life. What happened that day and what happened afterwards shaped me as a person and the more time goes by, the more I realise how different the Javiers pre-1st and post-1st are. That day I arrived in Gardermoen Airport, Oslo. The day I began my exchange.
Let's begin from the beginning. On my second year of high school they were promoting exchange programs through AFS (American Field Service) and I checked the website to see what that was about. I looked into Europe out curiosity, but not the super famous Europe everybody knows. Nah, I wasn't for the Coliseo, the Bradenburger Tor or the Tour Eiffel. What do you think I am? Normal? Ha! No. I wanted to go to that one place I could barely place in a map and describe the flags: Skandinavia. Roughly around March 2008 I got the letter (yup, letters. That old): I got accepted. Norway. Halden, a tiny town at the south east, quite close to the border with Sweden.
As soon as we left the duty free on Gardermoen we saw a ton of kids wearing a yellow t-shirt saying "AFS Intercultura". When I told them we were from Chile they started to yell some stuff in italian and oh lord those kids were loud. AFS Norway is divided into five geographical zones and we were placed at the eastern side, for a week we stayed in a school in the town Skjeberg, near Sarpsborg. And for the first time in around 48 hours or more, I had the chance to sleep.
I shared room with Fai from Hong Kong, Lars from Germany and Knesk from Thailand and after a week we all became pals. In total we were around 35 students from USA, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brasil, Italy (...obviously), Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia. I think if I try it super hard I could be able to name them all. Great week, and finally....home. To Halden.
One of the core ideas of AFS is to live and immerse yourself in the local culture. They weren't able to find one for me so I stood with the Sørlie family for the first week or so. I remember that week as getting to know the town, seeing Fredriksten Fortress, seeing my school and cuddling with the cat: Yuki.
Because everything is better with a cat. Everything.
A few days later AFS found a permanent family to me: the Skevik-Johanssen. Ann-Kristin, Reidar, Tula and Frøya (the dogs) and Pussen (the cat. More on him later). I had three windows on my room, so every time I woke up I could see how slowly but steadily winter was approaching. Because oh boy winter in Norway is the real deal.
In Halden, winter means darkness, -12°C and snow, lots and lots of snow. And I didn't realise at the time, but that "darkness" part hit me hard. Thinking that's super late and the day is over but it's only 16.30 while I was walking home after school, alone, while it's snowing, it's dark and having all these conversations with myself about fitting at home, at school, with my friends, that I wasn't able to speak properly the language despite being Ra-knows how many months and so on. Knowing that a fellow exchange student who was a super good friend of mine was coming back home because she couldn't handle it. I remember Reidar telling me that I had to endure it, that spring will come and eventually everything will flourish and fix...
...and that's exactly what happened. The snow turned into rain and then into flowers. The darkness turned into DAMN long days. My friend was a Russ and he got me into every Russ party he could. When the fellow Russ looked weird at me, he grabbed me by the arm and shouted "Hei alle sammen! Han er Javier. Han er fra Chile. Og han er min venn. Skål!". Roy, if you ever read this...takk.
The last week was strange. Rainy and strange. I cuddled with Pussen, took longer walks with Tula and Frøya and looked at Fredriksten a lot. The last camp at Skjeberg, with many of the familiar faces and a few new ones who changed family. Lars had to take a flight early and I still remember the hugs in the parking lot, that last dinner and we crying with my chinese and italian friends like there was no tomorrow. Because there was no tomorrow. And just like that...I woke up in Chile after 348 days in Norway. It was over.
As Billie Joe would say: It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life ♫.
I felt I wasn't neither from here nor there, but I was here. The infamous earthquake we had in 2010 brought a ton of people from every corner of the world asking if I was ok, and the Utøya mass shooting and the Oslo terrorist attack in 2011 also felt super close. Nobody I knew was directly involved, but it wasn't another headline on the news. Those were places I cared, people I cared, a country I cared. I was watching NRK online and in the other tab asking all my friends if they were ok or if they knew about this or this person. Those two events left a mark on me, not only because both Chile and Norway felt them really hard, but also because we people in different corners of the world cared about each other. Bittersweet that two tragedies helped me connect with everyone, but they did.
In 2013 I discovered the program PME (Student Mobility Program in spanish). I learned that my university has agreements with many entities around the world, University of Oslo included. I had to apply. Eventually I got accepted and hell yeah...time to go back in time, sort of.
I followed this romantic idea of coming back to Norway, to the place I had so many fond memories. To that extent I carried my dream that I chose to arrive on another August 1st (2014 this time). And it happened. Now what? I remember the fear and the uncertainty rushing through my thoughts when the woman in front of me drops her passport without realising. "Kongeriket Norge". "Sorry, it's yours!" I say in norwegian, and her reply is "Oh! Takk skal du ha!". My first conversation in norwegian in ages. It finally clicked on me: I was at home.
Hjem.
I lived in Sogn during that time, near downtown Oslo and super close to my university in Blindern. I used those first weeks to get to know the town, campus and to go back to AFS Norge. In one of the many activities the Universitet i Oslo (UiO) did for the beginning of the semester, I happened to walk pass the stand of Cybernetisk Selskab, a nerd club/bar run by volunteer students at the UiO. They invited me to join. Come on: they were playing Mario Kart in the middle of a student party. How could I say no? The bar is called Escape and it's one of the places where I spent most of my free time that year. In retrospective, I think Escape and this lake could be my favourite places of my exchange. I mean, look at it!!
Maridalsvannet.
My exchange was originally for a semester only, my mum was very clear that I needed to find a job in order to stay for the entire year because damn Norway is expensive. All my attempts failed and I was scared to go back "early". In one of the many activities the students did, this girl told me that she was going to talk to her boss. The snowy monday after Christmas I had my interview at the kitchen in the Diakonveien hospital. I got in. A long chain of miracles and funny coincidences allowed me to stay in Norway longer. Jana, if you ever read this...thanks. Хвала.
Going back to Halden was also an interesting experience. Going back home. I had the chance to meet both Sørlie and Johanssen, as well as the new kids on the block. In the Sørlie side, my brother and sisters were making their own lives with kids and exchange sons as well, and in the Johanssen side my host brother had her daughter. I met her back in 2008 (or 2009?) as a baby, now she was a competent kid who I could tease and make fun of. I have nephews and nieces in Norway! :D
And of course: Pussen. He was always a quiet cat. He wasn't fond of outsiders but loved being petted. I arrived at home when he was eating in the kitchen, hopped to run through the stairs but he stood in front of me, giving me this "yeah, I know you from somewhere, kiddo"-look. My mum told me that after I left in 2009 he kept sleeping in my bed. And after all those years, I only needed to grab him and he started purring again. As if time never passed.
As if time never passed, there was an italian friend also hanging around Norway at that time and we had to meet up. We walked around Fredrikstad gossiping about our host families, our native countries, about norwegians and everyone else in between. Just like a bunch of teenagers who met in Skjeberg three days ago. We were so busy chatting that we didn't even take a photo to remember the encounter, we even got lost in Fredrikstad looking for the train station. And just like last time, we said "see ya!" because a goodbye wouldn't be the right word.
And just like last time, July 15th arrived. Time to go back. The sun shone until I arrived to Gardermoen, then the pouring started. "It's like even the country is crying" told me a friend on Facebook. Took my flight and luckily the plane had "American Idiot" which was played on repeat thorough the Atlantic Ocean, and finally saw the Andes covered in snow.
This post could go on and on and on forever, it's crazy how time passes. Friends have children and I want to meet those kids and say "you know, I say your mummy falling on ice when she was 16!". Friends got married and I couldn't feel happier for them. Friends I would have never met without this experience. Families I'd never feel as "family" if fear would have kept me outside of this. Thank you, Javier from 10 years ago, for jumping into this adventure and forever changing your life in the process. And thanks to everyone who jumped in along the way.
[I really wanted to post the photo where Morgaine looks like crying but I couldn't find a place, so here it is <3 ]
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