Going abroad again (and blogging)!

- The very first article of my new Erasmus blog -

Hello to whoever is reading this!

First, let me state the obvious: I'm back to blogging! After my Erasmus semester in Maynooth, Ireland had ended, I couldn't really keep up the blogging spirit - although I have been travelling a little bit afterwards (mostly thanks to people from my semester abroad and people from my home university, University of Mannheim, who decided to spread all over the world after their bachelor's degree).

Anyway, since blogging about my semester abroad was fun in 2014 (self-promotion: for my Ireland blog, click here; FYI: I switched from German to English in the middle of the semester), I definitely wanted to do it again in 2018, so: here I am!

Short update: I started with my management master at the University of Mannheim (yeah, I changed the subject only, not the university) in autumn 2016. And Mannheim university is basically the lived stereotype of German organisation, so the process went roughly like this:

Beginning of September: start of the master studies
End of September: deadline for double degree application
End of October: deadline for regular semester abroad (no matter if in autumn 2017 or spring 2018)
interviews, if applicable (mercifully not in my case!)
Middle of December: letters of acceptance (just during my first master exam period :P)

So I got my email letter of acceptance more than a year before actually going abroad! That made it a bit unreal, because it seemed so far away... Well, this year has flown by quite fast, so it's now time to start writing about going to OSLO! (Which the blog title already gave away, I know.)

Unlike Maynooth, Oslo is a city, and I would assume people know where it is, but I'm still inserting a map here, just to make sure:

Google (Maps) is my friend. :D

I don't really know if it's necessary, but I'm giving you a few quick facts about Oslo anyway, starting with one suggested by a friend:

• not in Sweden
• capital and by far largest city of Norway
• in the south of the country (still further north than the south tip of Greenland though!)
• ~670.000 inhabitants
• formerly called Kristiania

And yeah, I'm going there tomorrow, 6th January, so I'm slightly excited now (and not done packing yet...)! I will keep you up to date, but for now, I'm gonna leave you with a "Ha det bra!"* (Bye!) - and with a flag:

Norwegian, not Swedish! :P

* I'll write this blog in English, I promise, but I might throw in random Norwegian words from time to time. Having taken two Norwegian language courses must be at least of some use!