Other than having feelings of exhaustion and a little jet lag from the 6-hour time difference and lengthy airplane ride, I can say we have made it safely to our final destination in Oslo, Norway. We all got great rest last night and are ready to embark on our adventure!
Yesterday was a day dedicated to figuring things out. Figuring out how the bus transportation works, getting our groceries for the week, and getting the chance to meet a few of the LDUC nursing students that we will be working with over the next couple of weeks. We spent the afternoon going to the Vigeland sculpture park and split up into small groups, with each group having a LDUC student as our guide.
Being here for such a short amount of time, I have already seen the ways in which the public health competency 1B11 to, “Identify the assets and resources that can be used for improving the health of a community” is being achieved (The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, 2014). One example of this was visiting the Vigeland Sculpture Park. This park encompasses Gustav Vigeland’s life work, with around 200 sculptures in total that reflect the diversity of human experiences and relationships across the lifespan. Initially, I was surprised at how expansive the park was, and could not even think of a single park in our community at home that could compare. Something we noticed was how much green space there was beyond the sculptures. We saw lots of tourists walking along the sculpture walkway as well as many locals walking, biking, and playing games on the green space that expanded for what seemed like miles on either side of the sculptures. It was clear the space was vital to the health and wellbeing of visitors and locals alike by encouraging physical activity, social interaction, and getting people to spend a lot of time outdoors.
Photo from Vigeland Sculpture park that depicts a taste of how expansive the park was and amount of green spaces.
Since we have arrived, it has been evident that Oslo embodies the sustainable development goal number 11 for sustainable cities and communities (United Nations). They achieve this in several ways, but what has been most prominent in the last 24 hours is the number of people who walk, bike, and use the public transportation systems provided rather than using cars. Beyond this, they really encourage the use of electric cars rather than traditional cars by giving tax exemptions and parking privileges to those who have electric cars. From talking to the students, it seems parking and driving in the city is very challenging, so it does not even make sense for people who live here to use cars as their main way of transportation. For those who do drive in the city, they have created tunnels that direct cars away from places that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, making the city even more walkable. It is not unusual to see streets through the city center with filled lots of people walking through rather than cars. By having these resources in place, they are able to have less air pollution from car exhaust. We have all been joking that the air seems so much cleaner here, but I believe there is a lot of truth to that. The transportation system seems to be directly influencing the environment in a positive way.
An example of an alternative transportation to driving cars in Oslo, the streetcar.
A street near the city center – it was interesting to see only people walking in the streets and no cars.
Another, more modern, mode of transportation in Oslo – motorized scooters.
We also had the opportunity to visit a small grocery store near our hotel. At the store, you needed to purchase plastic bags. I thought this was a great incentive to bring in your own bags and contribute to less plastic waste, as the current way our society uses plastic is not sustainable. It will be interesting to observe the other ways Oslo strives for the sustainable cities and communities SDG in the coming weeks.
Sources:
United Nations (n.d.). Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/
The Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice (2014, June 26). Core competencies for public health professionals. Retrieved from http://www.phf.org/resourcestools/Documents/Core_Competencies_for_Public_Health_Professionals_2014June.pdf