Hi everyone, be it friend or stranger – thank you for reading this! I’m not sure how engaging or riveting this blog will turn out to be but I hope it can be a space for me to archive my memories of exchange and a platform where my friends can keep up-to-date about my life, for the time that I’m overseas.
For everyone who doesn’t know me, here’s a brief introduction of myself: I’m Daniel, or Kai, as my close friends and family more endearingly know me by. I turn 25 this year and am a Year 3 English major studying at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) back in Singapore. I’m currently on exchange in Universitetet i Oslo (UiO), or University of Oslo in English, in Oslo, Norway.
In addition to what was mentioned in the first paragraph, this blog is also an attempt for me to satiate my desire to craft beautiful pieces of writing – which due to a dearth of practice is something I’m truly lacking in at the moment. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to balance frequent posts with quality writing because I’m someone who needs time and space after each piece of writing I produce in order to reset and get into the right mood again so idk, we’ll see.
Exchange is a huge thing for me because ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to migrate from Singapore and this represents my first real opportunity to live outside of Singapore for a prolonged period of time. Before this, all I could do to quash the fire was to go on many vacations, but that’s vastly different from being able to settle down and experience the rhythm of everyday life in a country. In the former you’re merely a tourist, in the latter there’s a semblance of being a local.
Disclaimer: Before anyone bashes me, I just want to put it out there that I recognise the privilege of being able to travel frequently and that many don’t even get to do that.
Honestly, I could turn this into a lengthy post detailing my emotions going into exchange, etc., but I’m quite desperate to finally get this blog online and going. So I’ll probably share more abstract thoughts in future posts but for now, hopefully this will suffice!
#kaINorway🇳🇴
P.S. Just to explain this hashtag in case anyone doesn’t understand it, it basically reads ‘Kai in Norway’; I know it’s a feeble attempt at a play of words but I quite like it so yay.
kaINorway 