Today is June 3, 2025. Today has been filled with such fun and new experiences that I am so excited to share. We completed our second day of clinicals! We were paired up with one other classmate and I had an amazing time with Maria. We were assigned to go follow along with a home health nurse. This was such a great experience, many of the patient population consisted of elderly patients. I was so grateful when many of them were able to speak English. It brightened my day to be able to talk to them and share our experiences as the nurse was also able to show us various aspects of home health. I have never experienced home health so this was such a great opportunity to be able to experience this with such a kind preceptor.

Home Health Office building.

Fun times with Maria.

The sustainable development goal that I would like to focus on would be Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production. This was something that I strongly noticed within Norway. I was informed by the Norwegian students that you are able to return empty cans or bottles to any grocery store and get a certain portion of money back. If you do not choose to get your money back then you can donate the money to the Red Cross. I believe that this is a great practice for people to either get their money back, return any plastic or aluminum waste, or even for the homeless population to gather these bottles in return for some money. This is a great system to help keep the area more clean.

Information located on back of can.

Today is May 29,2025. We had many activities planned for the day! I have successfully beat jet lag. This definitely made the first few days a bit of a challenge, however I am fully comfortable with the time change now. Again I started my day off by working out. Today I wanted to try something different than running. I decided to try out a gym that some of my classmates had recommended! This was very close by, maybe a 10 minute walk from the hotel we are staying at. It was so amazing to see such a wide variety of ages that were at the gym, from 20 year olds to 60 years old. I was comparing the similarities and differences of the gym compared to an American gym. Something that really stood out to me would be that there was plenty of natural lighting entering the building. Today is a holiday celebrated in Oslo, Norway called Ascension Day. Even on a holiday it was so amazing to see people prioritizing their wellbeing by having an early morning workout.

Similar gym equipment as the U.S!

Great natural lighting in the gym!

The sustainable development goal I would like to focus on would be Goal 11: sustainable cities and communities. I have greatly been able to observe this as we have been walking around the city to get to places nearby or even taking the bus/ tram system throughout the city. Not only is Oslo a very walkable city, but there is a great public transportation system set up to take you just about anywhere in Norway! I have been able to walk around to just about any place including shopping stores to restaurants. It is so great to see such inclusivity of the city to focus on less pollution emissions while also prioritizing their own health!

Beautiful walk to the Folk Museum!

Today is May 26, 2025. Today is the third official day here in Oslo, Norway! Today is our first day of classes. In order to get off on a good start, I was able to go on a run around the city before class! I wanted to focus on good health and wellbeing. Not only was I able to get some exercise in, I was able to take a tour of the city of Oslo! I loved being able to see the various architecture styles of the buildings. There were many others out around the city that were also exercising. This was a great sight to see at such an early part of the day! The past few days were a bit rainy, so it was such a great sight to have our first warm, sunny day.

Beautiful views around the city, Oslo.

Beautiful views around the city, Oslo.

Beautiful views around the city, Oslo.

Oslo is a very walkable city! I have been able to observe this through my morning run. Additionally, all of us students that have traveled here to Oslo have decided to walk to the Lovisenberg campus as a group. I can really observe the focus on wellness as there are many people walking around the city to get to work, class, or to see friends. It was such beautiful weather allowing us to observe the path to school and have great quality time with our peers and professors! 

Walking to campus.

The city and school have been very welcoming to us! As we were having discussions prior to our first morning class, we were provided with free coffee and Norwegian chocolate! It is so great to observe the differences between the USA and Norway. They provided the coffee in these little cups that also had small handles attached to the cups! This was such a useful and cute touch to make the cups more functional.

Functional cups and free coffee.

Continuing the day off strong, we attended our first course. This course was “Intro to course: Urban Health”. It was so amazing attending our first class in a Norwegian classroom! We were able to discuss the meaning of marginalized groups as an introductory topic for this Urban Health course. This helped provide an overview of the course and helped us think a bit deeper about the course content as we are getting started!

First class at Lovisenberg.