Winter?

Dear readers,

This is the very first blog post written by your new Norwegian ambassador! I am Sina, I study MA Media and International Development and recently started working for the International Office, which is wonderful! I did my undergraduate degree here at UEA too, so I am a bit of a veteran by now. I love UEA, I love DEV (school of International Development) and am very happy to talk to anyone who is interested. Feel free to find my facebook page (facebook.com/ueanorway) or drop me an email at norwegianstudents@uea.ac.uk.

I wanted to write a little bit about my personal experience with the UK weather – and winter in particular. I am from Hedmark in Norway, a place where January and February can be very cold. On the 10^th of January, when I flew from Oslo to London to come back to Norwich, we had -18°C back home, whereas the UK had around 7°C. My Christmas holiday consisted of a lot of snow and several layers of clothing.

 

In contrast, the temperature in Norwich rarely goes colder than 0 degrees and if we have snow, it is just a joke to me. The grass here is green all year around and flowers start to blossom already in January. I went for a sunny walk on the beach in Norfolk the same week as I was standing on a train station in Norway in -18 degrees!

  

I do realise that this is a very personal experience and I have friends and fellow students from many corners of the world, who miss the sun and heat terribly during the “winter months” here. And I get cold too! I just think the weather here is not a proper winter, it is a mix of autumn and spring. Can't wait for summer, but I am also excited to go home to Norway for Easter in March! 

Please feel free to message me if you wanna say hello to the Norwegian student ambassador!

Sina