I live in a place called
Kolsaas just outside of Oslo which is the capital of Norway. In Norway
there are approximately 4.5 million people. It is one of the smallest
countries in Europe, but it has the longest border of all the European
countries.
I came to Norway two years
ago because my mother married a man from Norway (my real father is
Thai). After a lot of paperwork and struggle with the Norwegian government
I got the visa to come here too. When I walked down from the plane
I was thinking that it cannot be as cold as mum had told me. Guess
what, I looked at the thermometer and it was close to minus 7 Celsius
and I started to freeze and thought "I will miss Thailand".
After one month in Norway I found out that it was not a bad place
at all.
Before I came, the first
thing that worried me was food. I was afraid that there would be no
Thai food here but I was wrong. There are plenty of Asian shops with
all sorts of food available, even fresh vegetables from Thailand.
The second thing I was worried about was the weather. When I came
it was at the end of the winter season. The coldest temperature I
have experienced so far is a bit below minus 20 Celsius. The third
thing was the Norwegian language. It is a bit more difficult than
English. It has some words from both English and German but this is
mixed with the old Northern European dialects.
When I came here I was
sent to a special International school to learn the language and to
be prepared to start in a normal Norwegian school. I am very happy
that the people in Norway accept foreign people and culture in the
same way as I accept them and their culture. Of course, you have to
adjust yourself to the local customs, but that is not the same as
forgetting what you have learned in your home country.
Teachers in Norway are
very different from Thai teachers. They are very kind and they really
try to help us learn the things we are supposed to learn in school.
Here you also can have opinions different from the teachers and have
free discussion. The teachers respect that you can have a different
opinion in many matters such as politics and in how to solve a problem.
That is what I really like about the schools in Norway.
My hobbies are fishing
in the sea and the freshwater lakes. When we have holidays we always
have an opportunity to fish. Because of the different seasons, fishing
is something you can do only in the spring, summer and early autumn.
When it is winter there are other things to do such as skating, skiing
and snowboarding. I tried snowboard for the first time only a few
weeks after I came here. In the beginning it was a scary experience
but now I have a lot of fun using my snowboard.
I have been back to Thailand
one time since I came here. That was last year at Songkran. That was
a strange experience. I suddenly felt like I was a tourist in my own
country. The contrasts are so big. I am not missing the life in Thailand
so far, but the rest of my family is still living there and many times
I miss them. Luckily there is the telephone and e-mail so when I miss
them I can make a call or send mail. But it is not the same as talking
face to face.
