This trip has been something else. The eight hour plane ride home gave us an excellent opportunity to watch movies and catch up on sleep, but also time to reflect on the past few weeks. A friend told me that whenever it comes to traveling abroad, the best way to answer the question “What did you do while you were abroad?” is to tell them the top three things about this trip. So here are my top three:
1. Learning about Water
I’ve learned a lot in the past four years, and mechanical engineering has been a challenge, but a very rewarding one. Being able to use the knowledge from college and be able to apply it to a new area, one that involves natural resources and providing people with something they need, is important in this day and age. After going on this trip, I hope that some day I can get involved in this industry and make a difference.
2. Weekend in Oslo
I can never really decide if I’d live in a city or live in nature for the rest of my life. It changes often enough, but Oslo was an excellent place that I would like to return to some day. The architecture is beautiful, there are sculpture gardens that are beautiful or hilarious, depending on who you ask, and you can go to the beach. Although the weather was unusually fantastic for this trip, there are places to go and things to see that you could never find in Midwestern America. While I’d prefer to have more money the next time around, Oslo was definitely an excellent city to spend time in.
3. Gerainger Fjord
Kayaking in the Gerainger Fjord was amazing. It’s as simple as that. Go there. The hiking and scenery is amazing, but if you would like the best experience; get a kayak. See the Seven Sisters waterfall, wake up early in the morning, go for a run, but do whatever you can to spend as much time seeing the fjord. You will not regret it.
At the end of the day, the experience wouldn’t have been the same without all of the people that were with me on this trip. All of this time, joking around, sharing the experience, and creating memories made it an excellent experience.