First year student Daphnie Knoll writes:

Life at UWC Red Cross Nordic can sometimes be very intense and stressful. So for Inga and me – it is ‘Lucky us!’, as we have the opportunity to go to a local host family for some weekends during the year.

Our host family live on the island of Atløy, which is about an hour away from the College. In the family there are the parents, Oddgun and Dag Grane, and their three daughters Dorothea, Frida and Thea. Going to the host family is something Inga and I really look forward to for many reasons. First of all, being in their house gives you a bit of a feeling of  home which is something that we sometimes miss at the College. Our host parents are very welcoming and it’s wonderful to have meals with them and learn more about local culture and it  is so very interesting to get a different perspective on the life of those who live in our host community. Dorothea, the eldest daughter of the family is our age so we get to spend a lot of time with her, and this helps to make us feel closer to our local peers. During the weekend we get a lot of rest, we eat good home made food, we have great conversations and lovely exchanges of cultural values as we tell our stories, and they tell theirs. Having a host family is definitely a great opportunity we have and we are very grateful to the College, and to the Grane family for all their kindnesses. We are both looking forward to our next weekend there!

After a day-long visit to the county archives, First year student Valery Vakhitova writes,

On Tuesday 10^th February, first years students (studying IB Group 3 subjects) were given the opportunity to visit the Archives of Sogn og Fjordane. We were met with a very warm welcome and it was lovely to speak to all those people who make so many efforts to preserve information and save the history of the County. First, we had a brief introduction to the Norwegian system of regulation (Parliament, Country Council and municipalities) and after this we received a presentation of all of the contents of the archives.

We also had a small excursion inside the archives where we were explored the storehouse and the many dozens of shelves. After lunch we had 6 workshops. One of the workshops was entitled “Historical photos/ private archives: Malla Moe – Norwegian missionary to Africa”. We had about 10 letters from Malla Moe – the first was written in 1929 and the last one in 1951 (two years before her death). Looking at these letters and photos we were challenged to find which mission she had in Swaziland and what her purpose was in writing the letters. It was an amazing workshop full of brain storming and different puzzles and clues to this one character.

The day ended with a delicious dinner in a Chinese restaurant.

Thankyou to our teachers for putting on this wonderful trip for us. We all enjoyed it!