"All I need is the air I breathe, and a place to rest my head" - Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic
Going to school in Paris most certainly has its perks. I get to see the Eiffel on the daily, eat the freshest croissants on my walk home from English, and chill out on the metro for 30 minutes instead of sitting in a couple of hours of traffic. Most importantly, I have the ability to travel throughout Europe with ease. I’m an “yOuNG aDuLT,” 18 year old American who has been granted the opportunity to spend a year on my own “Grande Tour.”
In the two months I’ve been here, I haven’t taken advantage of the opportunity. I’ve seen friends travel to Barcelona, Rome and Berlin on simple weekend trips. During that time I’ve chosen to sit back and use the weekends to watch movies and play Mario Kart with some of my closest friends. As midterms came to a close, and a short fall break peered around the corner, I decided that it was finally time to get out of the city. I pondered over whether I should travel across the pond to London, kick back and drink a beer in Berlin, or bask in the sun in Naples. After going through all the options, I set my sight on the frigid city of Oslo, Norway.
The main reason I went to Norway was to visit my friend Christina, who had studied at OPHS as a foreign exchange student. We had played together on the golf team, and I had gotten the opportunity to show her my hometown, so I was excited to become the tourist in her hometown. I had no expectations going there as it is not known to be one of the major tourist destinations when people travel Europe. I arrived at 1 am and had to take a train and an Uber in order to get to the hostel I was staying at. I was tired and desperate to get home, and in a moment of rest, I looked up to the sky. For the first time in a long time, I could see the stars.
When I woke up, I walked outside and was welcomed to the freshest air I have ever inhaled. The crisp cool air filled my lungs and gave me the best breath of oxygen I had taken in a very long time. The smoggy air of Paris, filled with the obnoxious cigarette smoke had become the new normal, and I had forgotten what it felt like to breathe in fresh air. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as I had expected. It felt like a literal breath of fresh air to be in a new city and see suburban areas that reminded me of my own hometown.
My friend Christina was gracious enough to not only show me around the place she called home, but she also let me stay in her beautiful home for the weekend I was there. It was the first time in two months that I had gotten out of my little apartment in residential Paris, and it made me feel as if I was back home in Oak Park. It was a feeling I didn't even realize I missed, and it made me ever so slightly homesick, thinking about all the people at home that I was missing.
I could go super in depth into everything I got to experience in Norway, but I thought these beautiful pictures could speak for themselves.
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