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DEMILITARIZED ZONE

On Saturday August 13th, I made my way finally to the infamous demilitarized zone. I was lucky enough to have a good friend drive us to the location that he did his own military service, and there I was able to meet some of his 후배 (juniors). It was one of the most memorable and incredible trips that I have made on this trip so far. That trip started with jamming to tunes on the 30-ish minute drive from Kipyo (my friend)’s hometown. As we arrived, it was identical to […]

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What a Wonderful Weekend

Another week flew by right before my eyes! It doesn’t help that now I have schedule and things to do everyday, making time go faster. The weekdays this week were spent in class, eating ice cream, and running around town. I had a bit of an emotional tank this week but the highs of my weekend pulled me out of the funk. I decided that next time I find myself on one of these lows, I am going to write a list of all of the wonderful things I love […]

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Un déjeuner de soleil

Un déjeuner de soleil…is the name of my blog that I have chosen. I’m leaving for France in, 1, 2, …5 days! This Sunday. I thought, I could just name my blog Haleigh or something, but guess what, I looked that up and found that there is an American girl, named Haleigh, same spelling and all who is living in Paris, who likes storytelling and photography and so forth. What a small world. Maybe all the other Haleighs with the same spelling out there are all alike. Just a thought. […]

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Welcome to Bergen..Norway..Europe..The world.

Moving 3,374 miles (5429.9267km for my new European friends ;)) to a new country comes paired with quite the culture shock…and, of course, you can never really be prepared.  So here is the story of my humorous adaptation to Norwegian society. Adventure 1: My first day here, Linn took me to the grocery store to stock my empty kitchen.  Though I was aware of the exchange rate, seeing a carton of eggs priced at 49, 90 NOK still gave me a mini heart attack.  After calculating the exchange in my […]

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If not now, when?

​​Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you- it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you; hopefully, you leave something good behind.  Because you’ll never know until you go… As many of you know, I will be leaving for Florence, Italy t o m o r r o w to start my semester abroad through the University of […]

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Sunday Seven – Part I

Just for the fun of it, I will (try to) post a weekly list of the “Sunday Seven.”  It will make it easy for me to write quick updates on my life abroad, and hopefully will be fun for all of you to read. This week’s edition: 7 things I have learned about Denmark so far… The Danes are incredibly nice.  The other day I fell on my bike, and though I was completely fine, every single passerby approached me individually and asked if I was ok.  I feel like […]

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LGBT Copenhagen

This afternoon I was able to go to a culture talk (I mentioned previously). These are sessions designed to give insight about an aspect of culture in Copenhagen. I decided to attend LGBT in Copenhagen. Now I know this should seem like the obvious choice for me, but not in the way I expected. My host dad has basically filled me in on all the LGBT info for the city of Copenhagen, or at least the relevant gay, male info. So what more was there for me to learn? Turned […]

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First Day of Classes and My Week-a-versary

So today was the first day of classes, and I had three of my four classes… back-to-back. Biomedicine in the morning was fairly quiet. Partly because some are still recovering from jet-lag (the weak ones), others because it’s 8:30 in the morning in a hard science class. It was fairly dry, but the atmosphere got better as we all woke up a bit more. I felt really bad though for the girls who had to present study questions, on the first day of class, at 8:30 in the morning. In […]

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C’est encore un rêve

C’est encore un rêve – It is still a dream. As my title suggests, I still can’t quite believe that I will be in France in two days. My suitcase is packed, the credit card company has been called and my French is (somewhat) brushed up on. And yet, I find it crazy that I will be in another country for a whole four months. This may stem from my relationship with the country of France as a whole.  Some kids dream of new toys or lemonade stands, but my desire as […]

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RealTalk

(Sorry, I didn’t finish this post yesterday, so it’s actually a day late. But I’m sure no one will mind! Also, I will likely start breaking down my posts into multiples, queued over time. So there won’t be more than one post a day, but hopefully that means there will almost always be a post a day.) Yesterday, I started reviewing the syllabi and reading and assignments for my courses, since orientation for my core course was this morning (Medical Biotechnology & Drug Development, but Biomedicine for short). In this […]

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And so it begins…

New Places are grand but getting there…now that’s an adventure. Before I get on with sharing my experiences in Norway I’d like to extend a shout out to my friends and family. The day before my departure, my family and friends, Lindsey and Hannah surprised me with a Bon Voyage party and they helped me pack! I am so grateful for all of these people in my life and all they do for me each and every day. Now onto the Norwegian adventures: Phase 1: Getting to Norway. I think […]

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First Observations

It’s been two weeks since I arrived here in Oslo. This past week was Orientation Week, Fadderuke in Norwegian. In between a few parties, touring the city, and getting to know the area, I’ve been trying to become a little more Norwegian. Public Transportation: Aside from just learning the bus, tram, and metro lines, Norwegians sit on the bus a little differently than in America. Personal space is important here, and people generally don’t want to sit next to strangers. On the bus, there are typically only two people occupying each row […]

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