In a halfway

It's me again- the luckiest man in the world. It's been a while since my last post. Finally I decided to update this part of my blog. At least it can be some kind of summary of all what has happened for almost five great months which I've spent in Alta. Life in northern Norway became reality after years of dreaming about it. But it's not only the dream that came true. That would be too easy, too perfect. It turned out to be the biggest challenge I've ever faced.

On my way to Alta. It's worth mentioning that I came here by car all the way from Poland. It was great journey with my parents and I'll never forget it.

I remember first days. Or should I say "first day" because sun was up the whole time. Alta looked like town of strangers. All I know stayed in Poland, 2800 km away from here. "Well, that's what you wanted, isn't it?" I don't even know anymore. Chasing "the dream" was supposed to make me "the happiest" and so on. But when I think about this a little longer it doesn't look the same. Especially during my first week I got a feeling mixed with burning red dot in my head with giant caption saying: "Shit is now getting serious". And it got. Me- homebody, who was quite satisfied with his life, decided to go out of comfort zone and reach for MORE. Ambitions were always fighting against fears and this time won. Sometimes the result of this battle can lead to a huge success. Being now in a halfway of my language course in Norwegian I still can't proove that this is 100% true.

One of my first days. Sitting in a front of computer was boring so I decided to make a little trip to Komsatoppen.

After couple of lonely days it all finally started. I met international students, a lot of new people from various countries. To describe each of them I would need a lot of space and time. It got much easier to get to know this strange place having such company. Alta was something new for some of us and we took adventage of events which have been organized by our univeristy. Of course it was difficult to find some common language. At least it was me who had problems in the begining. I came here from some kind of isolation and focused on wintersports. I thought that everyone would be like me. Apparently I was the only one with such dumb idea of working in skiing business.

If you were in the North and didn't see any reindeers, then you weren't in the North. 

Alta itself didn't look like skiing paradise in my first impression, maybe because of seashore nearby. First month was mainly about breaking the ice between me and Northern Norway. It worked and after a while it got easier to find my own way of northern life. It turned to be a bit different than my imagination and expectation about this place. But who would care about it? First trip with overnight somewhere under the open sky, mornings with 20k jogging and the northern lights- how nordic is that! I was taking everything I could from a single experience. Days were long, landscapes were picturesque and there were still plenty of new things to try. However after the first deep breath of Norwegian air I found my routine. Life changed and slowed down. The sun was disappearing under the horizon quite early. Autumn has shown its another side. The dark and depressing side. For the first time in my life I got to know the feeling of homesickness. Hearing Polish language somewhere in a street was the best feeling I could imagine at that time. Skype calls with best friends and family was the most important part of evening. I felt like I was living neither in Norway, nor in Poland. It was somewhere in a halfway. Still all the memories of previous years were coming back and giving me the same message: "You need to grow the fuck up". I didn't want to do this at all. It's studies, you aren't supposed to grow up on that time, you are supposed to get drunk at least once a week, open a channel on YouTube and play FIFA ridiculous amount of time. Unfortunately, you can't afford for this when you are Polish self- financed student in Norway. Thus, I needed to find a job as soon as possible.

The northern lights above UiT The Arctic University of Tromsø- campus Alta.

All took me about four months. At the end of November I was finally employed and actually got adapted to Norway. Apparently living in the North is not about watching the northern lights everyday, going on trips, training in the morning and having a party every weekend. For me it's more like fighting not to get depressed from darkness, having good people around and trying to find my chance. Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming for 20- year old student, who came here to make his dreams come true. Maybe a passion for cross- country skiing is not enough to live 2800 km away from home? At least a little bit snow outside looks promissing. On the other hand, this whole experience has already tought me a lot. Or should I say that people has done it. Here, in Alta, I heard many words for the first time in my life. For example, someone said that my handwriting (so far considered as ugly) is beautiful. Someone else admitted that it's a pleasure to train with me. Small steps like those build up my self- confidence, even if it's a bit overrating. And that's what I like most in Norwegian culture. They encourage you with nice words. Previously, in Poland, I experienced more of criticism, either constructive or just dumb.

Unfortunately this beautiful winter hasn't arrived in Alta yet. This picture was taken during a fantastic trip to Finland. That day I saw sun for the last time before coming home for semester break.

 "No matter who you chose to be", it's always difficult to get there. Stay in Alta, so far away from home, gave me a different perspective to look at my plans. All I get here will be my advantage someday in the future. Now I'm getting closer to the end of my first semester. A tough and demanding time will soon be an another part of my history. But I have also plenty of new such days ahead of me. And I still have no idea how I'm going to manage this. It's the polar night's fault, which successfully messes up my brain. Maybe I can just follow the sentence which I wrote one day at my Polish site: "Sometimes it's better not to think at all". Yes, definitely. Otherwise I wouldn't be here, right?