Nesna

When I heard name "Nesna" for the first time, I couldn't associate it with anything familiar. Actually I didn't care, until my friend had shown me on the map, where Nesna really is. It turned out to be a small town (or village with 1800 inhabitants) in northern part of Norway, 100 km far from Arctic Circle. At first - I was really scared about two things - how to get there, and how to live in such a place - far from cities and civilization, in land of never ending winter and a country with high prices. Now you know how proceeded my travel here and it wasn't that bad. So now let me say something about living in Nesna.

Studies are organized in gatherings - around 5 during semester. It means that we have around 6 days of classes during month, and the rest is our free time. Strange, isn't it? In Poland I used to have 12 subjects, here - only four. It's simply because I need to get 30 ECTS points for each semester, and here one subject has 7,5 point. At my University majority of subjects has 3,0 points. During gatherings, each subject lasts two days with exception of ICT in Society - we do not attend classes but only work online. Moreover, Wednesday is free day at the University and then we don't have classes at all. As you can see - there is not that much to do. So how to spend your spare time and not go crazy?

Nesna College University offers free entrance to swimming pool with sauna three hours a week. There is also a gym - one pays once for the whole semester, and it's really cheap for students. Additionally, you can sign up for step, yoga, volleyball and ever choir. It's really nice that Norway promotes active and healthy lifestyle. It's also good for people who like outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing or climbing in mountains. What I like here most, is being close to nature. On one side I have fjord, on the other - mountains. It's great place to have long walks with camera, admire views, discover new paths... Now you can slow down, far away from cities and crowds. I think, I was missing it recently.

What else is here? Two supermarkets, hairdresser, restaurant, petrol station, camping, library, community centre, police, bank, port, second-hand, church, cemetery, museum, pub, primary and high school. It seems to be enough, at least for people living here. If you need something from city - the nearest one is Mo i Rana, around 60 km from Nesna.

I think what we (i.e. students) are missing here, is a place where we can meet. There was only one party since my arrival in community centre and the entrance was really expensive for such a disco. In Poland student clubs are very popular and very often entrance is for free. I have never been to the pub (yet!), but alcohol in Norway is really expensive (if only available). Pint of beer costs there 70 NOK, it's approximately 6 times more than in Poland. In the supermarket one can buy only beer (one can - ca. 35 NOK) and it's allowed only till 8 p.m. Stronger alcohol like vodka or even wine are available only in liquor shops (where they cost fortune), and there is less than 300 of such shops in the whole country. What is more - you're not allowed to bring more than 1l of vodka from abroad. So as I said before - Norway promotes really healthy lifestyle. And anti-alcohol policy.

How do I spend free time? I decided to do everything for what I haven't time before. Almost everyday I go to gym, I'm watching movies, reading books, cooking, I started to learn Norwegian, I'm taking a lot of pictures, sleeping a lot and definitely spending too much time on the Internet. ^^'

We're also meeting with other international students, usually in our dormitories. We have 8 people from Poland (quite a lot), one from Austria, Russia and Czech Republic. We sometimes talk about our countries and compare languages. It's interesting that we communicate in English, while it's not a mother tongue for any of us. Sometimes if we cannot make up with the word in English, we just say it in our languages. In most cases it sounds similar, even though we don't understand each other. It's always a good experience. And what is most important - I'm not bored of being here! : )

Some pictures I have taken here: