From March 14-23, students in the fourth Cohort of the University of Saskatchewan's Master of Northern Governance and Development (MNGD) program are travelling to Northern Norway as part of the program's international field school. The students, who take the program from communities across Northern Saskatchewan, are undertaking lectures, field research, meetings with industry officials, and other forms of experiential learning that will help contribute to an internationalized perspective. Here is a first-hand account of a student experience.

Learn more about the MNGD program by visiting its website. The application deadline for fall enrollment is May 1, 2014.

Tansi, and greetings from Norway! We've been here just a few short days and already our time has been filled with good adventures and new learning experiences. 

Getting Here

As you may know we departed Saskatchewan from the Saskatoon Airport on Friday, March 14 at 10 a.m. We were very excited and looking forward to our trip which we had prepared for through some distance courses and background research activities.  

We flew to Toronto and then, from there, to Frankfurt, Germany. What a long flight! After being in the air for approximately seven hours, we were quite tired and starting to feel some effects of jetlag.

In Frankfurt, we had a short period of time which we spent at the airport. After that, it was off to Oslo, Norway where we would spend the night before departing for our final leg of our journey to Kirkenes, Norway. Kirkenes is where we will spend the rest of the week. Norway has a seven hour difference from Saskatchewan so there was certainly some adjustment that our tired bodies had to make along with the jetlag.

Norway is a beautiful country and very similar to northern Saskatchewan in terms of climate and topography. Kirkenes is full of snow with some mountainous rock. In Oslo there was no snow—so quite a difference from one region to another.

The weather itself has been very similar to Saskatchewan and, in fact, some of the locals indicated that the weather had been unusually mild at around minus 10 degrees Celsius. It's definitely been good brisk weather to walk around in and see the sights when we have some time to ourselves. 

Monday

After a morning of presentations from the local business association, organized by the Barents Institute, we were provided with a foot tour of the area. The evening was one of relaxation and a wonderful local meal of raw reindeer carpaccio (I prefer my meat cooked), and a main course of Arctic char which was very delectable. I should note that those of you in Saskatchewan were probably just starting your lunch meal as we were finishing our late evening meal!

Tuesday 

Today has been another great day of listening and learning about the local activities, as well as some history of Kirkenes, and a bit more sightseeing. We had an opportunity to take a tour bus and visit the Agricultural and Bioforest Centre. Here we were presented with some information on the research they do to determine the effects of the nearby nickel mine, as well as to generally protect the local environment. We also attended a presentation from the local mayor on the history of the community and the contemporary issues that they deal with as a municipality.

Our bus tour also included a visit to a local cheese farm and an Arctic char fish farm. There were a lot of interesting concepts shared with the group, as well as good discussion on how these types of activities are part of the culture of the local community. At the fish farm, we had an opportunity to try fresh raw Arctic char (again I will note that I prefer my meat cooked!). I figure you should try something once though, and I didn't want to be an ungrateful guest.

At the research centre, we were provided with information about the local animals that inhabit the forest. As noted previously, the landscape is very similar to northern Saskatchewan—and so too are the animals. Here they also have bears, moose, wolves, ducks, etc. The main difference is the presence of reindeer which, as our tour guide indicated, are largely domesticated in Norway.  Hopefully we will get an opportunity to see reindeer and possibly a Sami community (Norway's Indigenous people). 

Hiy hiy and thank you for the opportunity to share my experience.