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Romanian Memories of NORWAY - An Unforgettable Experience
It's seven o'clock in the morning, on Sunday May 16,2010. We cannot describe the feeling that every person lives before the first flight. The emotions overcome us before the flight. We feel amazed when we realize that we are far from the ground.
Bucharest becomes a blanket of green and brown patches and the cars seem ants.
The flight was very relaxing until Amsterdam where we had to change the plane. The Schiphol airport was huge and it was difficult for us to find our departure gate to Trondheim. Norway's image from the plane looked like a 3D map. From the plane, huge forests of pine seemed to be a wonderful game - ready to be put under the Christmas tree. Norway - the country of everlasting snows, welcomed us with the first rays of the Scandinavian spring.
At arrival, two teachers welcomed and accompanied us to our hosts. We were anxious to meet our hosts.
Irina stayed at Julie's (12 years), Ann Elin and Oystein's daughter who live in a beautiful house with a modern design and warm atmosphere. They have got two dogs, ducks and hens. Gessica and Bianca stayed at Hanna, in the neighborhood.
In Norway, the houses have a unique architecture, an original one; they are not surrounded by fences and they are painted in bright colors - which replace the gloomy days. We went to a football match. The favorite team of our hosts is the local team Rosenborg. The final score was 3 - 0. We are delighted by the first matched watched live in Norway.
On Monday, May 17, the National Day of Norway was a special day for everybody. The inhabitants of the city hoisted their national flag, washed their cars, put on their traditional costume, and each oh them had a small flag in their hand. In the morning the flag of Norway was hoisted in the schoolyard, where the fanfare of the school, consisting of students and teachers sang the Norway's anthem.
We took part in the local parade together with students from Breidablikk School. Although it was very cold, we were wearing our national costume. The way through the district was quite long. After lunch, we found a good place in the centre of the city, where we could admire the parade. We had the opportunity to see the Norwegian folk costume.
There were 22 fanfares, scouts, firemen, local people, students, the Rosenborg football team players, businessmen, etc.
For two hours we watched this parade which fascinated us.
On Tuesday, May 18, we visited Breidalikk School - where we made a tour of the school and we met some students.
Then, we visited the interactive museum Vitensentret. Each of us found something interesting here. We climbed on a rope, we handled a robot, we studied how to produce wanes, the static electricity and light decomposition.
After visiting the Town Hall, another important moment was the visit to Nidarosdomen.
We walked until the port, and then we took the ferry to the Hitra island.
On the way we could admire the impressive fjords. The stones seemed to be ready to fall in the water. Here and there, there were some houses which announced us that there was a landing place nearby. We took a lot of photos in order to show our friends and relatives from Romania the wonders seen by us. On our way back we could admire other Norwegian beauties of nature from the bus: waterfalls whose waters were falling into the sea. We crossed the fjord along a tunnel of 5600 m, at a depth of 260 m under sea level. This tunnel links the Hitra island with the continent. We got home late in the evening and we were surprised that although it was 11 p.m., there was still light outside.
On Wednesday, we found out more things about the scientist John Ugelsted, who was a teacher at NTNU ( Norwegian University for Science and Technology). A co-worker of John Ugelsted told us impressions from the period they worked together. We watched the films about the activity of John Ugelsted. Two students from the University had the idea of a contest both to the young students and the teachers. They made up teams of five members who had to write the chemical formula of water, nitrogen.
There were, of course, questions related to the activity of John Ugelsted as well as about his contribution in the chemistry domain. Then, we took part in the activity in the Chemistry laboratory. Each participant had to produce a chemical reaction using some mixing substances. We took our containers home in order to see the result. Then, we visited the University Camp, where we had lunch.
Later we went to the local stadium Lerkendal in order to find out more things about the football team - Rosenborg ( the local people are very proud of their team). Each inhabitant of the city is a supporter and most of them practice football regularly.
On Thursday, May 19, we made another tour of the school, we established friendly relationships with students from different countries, we learned to play softball (Norwegian baseball) and we watched the artistic program. All children of the school sang songs, a thing which impressed us very much. Students from the upper grades prepared a play with Peer Gynt, a play inspired from a Norwegian legend and written by Ibsen on the music of Edvard Grieg, the greatest musician in Norway. His music was inspired by the music of the local people or other Scandinavian nations.
At lunchtime, we admired the city from the top of the Tyholttower tower, while we were eating a pizza. After lunch we went to Gran?sen, a place for ski jumping, in a mountainous area where the Winter Olympics were held in 2002.
In the evening we went to the farewell party and each group from the participating countries performed an artistic moment. The Norwegian rock band was applauded and appreciated by everyone. We were very sorry that we had to leave, but we swapped addresses to continue our mail on facebook.
On Friday we said good-bye to our hosts and we went to the airport. During the flight we discussed about the wonderful moments spent in Norway. We acquired a valuable experience, we met a lot of friends and we found out more things about the educational system in Norway. We had the chance to eat Norwegian traditional food; salmon with boiled potatoes, fruit pies with strawberry jelly.
We appreciated the Norwegian traditional costume. Everywhere we could see young families with 3-4 blonde-haired children.
The trip to Norway impressed us very much. It was an unique experience which we would never forget.
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