BY MARILLA HESS
Editor’s Note: Marilla Hess recently had the opportunity to interview a young Norwegian’s experience at Boise State University. We thought residents of the Wood River Valley would find it interesting, given their keen interest in the world all around.
A young lady from Norway who spent a year as an exchange student at Boise State University recently described her experience. Ella, 22, was given the exchange options of England, Tennessee and Idaho. She thought it would be fun and interesting to pick the location farthest away from Europe and was hoping for a “like the movies” experience.
Ella commented on the culture shock she experienced here. This included her surprise at wearing shoes indoors, the huge portions of food at restaurants and how much people were willing to drive places for unimportant things.
“People are always driving. They drive everywhere, all the time,” remarked Ella.
This seemed like a “waste” of time and fuel to her. She couldn’t believe it when she went out for coffee with a friend and, instead of sitting down at a nice cafe, they proceeded to go to a drive-through coffee shop!
When Ella thinks of an American city, she pictures concrete everywhere. Ella also thought it was so creepy how every neighborhood looks exactly the same, “like a post-apocalyptic project” with houses too close together and so quiet.
“In Norway, they’re less uniform and there’s more space between the houses,” she said.
Ella would recommend BSU on the academic level, if you are an interested exchange student. But she said if you want more freedom to come and go in the city and surrounding countryside, choose a place with more public transport.
Her biggest disappointment was that American cities are not walkable, compared to the park-like European cities. There, the basic necessities are often in easy walking distance of where you live.
Norway, according to Ella, is much more “outdoorsy.” Almost everyone has a cabin, she said, and if not that, they at least have a boat. Although Norwegians are reserved and social circles are hard to get into, she said somehow the reservation is dropped when you meet other Norwegians along a hiking trail or enjoying the outdoors.
Ella explained that it is difficult to make friends in Norway because it takes a lot of time, but when you do, you get a solid friend.
How did Ella find Americans? She said they were extroverted, open, and easy to start conversations with. On the flip side, she found many of them shallow and hard to connect with on a deeper level. American humor felt more slapstick. It also seemed difficult for her American friends to take off work.
Accommodations and help for the students could have been better, such as options for getting to affordable stores like Walmart. Some organizations held interactive events for the exchange students. These parties generally consisted of something like a music quiz and muffins from Costco. Most of these events happened at school in a room where you would have snacks and maybe make Valentine’s cards and play bingo, she said.
Although Ella reported that the American school system is more fun and interactive, she felt professors were more relaxed about academic demands and found it easy to get good grades here. She studied Translation and Intercultural Communication and said student life at BSU was interesting and exciting.
“I had the greatest experience ever with the teachers,” she added. “The lectures were great and the teachers were super available.”