January has been the start of many things: the new semester, the new year (obviously) and the start of my snowboarding season. It has been an interesting month for me, but it has been an incredibly good month as well. I have managed to keep myself busy, but with the way my classes are this semester that hasn’t been overly difficult.

As opposed to last semester where I only had class two days a week, I now have class every day of the week. I still only have two classes, but I have managed to take more credit hours than last semester, which is good fun. I have a machine learning class that should be interesting, but I am guessing will be somewhat challenging, and I managed to get into the Norwegian 1+2 class this semester, so I am starting to learn the language! Jeg kan ikke snakke bra, med jeg kan forstå litt og jeg vil være bedre når jeg går hjem. On top of having more time actually in class, I also have much more homework this semester than I did in the fall, but it is not a huge deal.

I am still managing to get in some fun by taking the train an hour and a half to Voss and going snowboarding. I bought myself a season pass at Voss resort because the student price was stupidly cheap compared to the price of passes in the U.S. This month I have managed to go a total of eight times, and two of them were for the night skiing they offer. Counting these eight days, I have a grand total of nine days on a snowboard in my life, and I have managed to progress quite nicely by my standards. I can hit the very basic features and the small jump in the little terrain park, and I can make it down the blue runs confidently. With the season extending into late April, assuming the weather holds, I am planning on going much more and am excited to be spending time in the mountains again.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: University of Bergen