Name: Komsan Nakavid.
Sex: male.
Age: 14
Place of birth: Trang Thailand

I live in a place called Kolsaas just outside Oslo which is the capital of Norway. In Norway there are approximately 4.5 million people. It is one of the smallest countries in Europe, but it has the longest border of all the European countries. So as you understand it is a long country and the northern part is above the arctic circle. Norway is rich in several things. It is one of the largest producers of oil in the world and one of the biggest fishing nations.

I came to Norway two years ago because my mother married a man from Norway (my real father is Thai). After a lot of paper struggle with the Norwegian government I got the visa to come here too. When I walked down from the plane I was thinking that it cannot be as cold as mum had told me, and guess what, I looked at the thermometer and it was close to minus 7 Celsius and I started to freeze and thought "I will miss Thailand". After one month in Norway I found out that it was not a bad place at all.

Before I came, the first thing that worried me was food. I was afraid that there would be no Thai food here but I was wrong. There are plenty of Asian shops with all sorts of food available, even fresh vegetables from Thailand. The second thing was the weather. When I came it was at the end of the winter season. Norway has four distinct different seasons like many other European countries. The summer is warm and you can swim in the sea, but the temperatures are not like in Thailand. I still think it is a bit of a cold place. The coldest temperature I have experienced so far is a bit below - 20 Celsius. The third thing was the Norwegian language. It is a bit more difficult than English. It has some words from both English and German but this is mixed with the old Northern European dialects.

When I came here I was sent to a special International school not far away to learn the language and to be prepared to start in a normal Norwegian school. Last autumn I started in the Eighth grade which is the first year in Junior high school. My best friends so far are boys I met in the international school. They are from China and Kenya. At my new school I also have got many new friends, but still the three of us from the old school hang together very much. I am very happy that the people in Norway accept foreign people and culture in the same way as I accept them and their culture. When living in a foreign country you meet a new culture with new customs and many things are different. Of course you have to adjust yourself to the local customs, but that is not the same as forgetting what you have learned in your old country. The positive thing of free religion is one thing that all countries should respect.

Teachers in Norway are very different from Thai teachers, they are very kind and they are really trying to help us learning the things we are supposed to learn in school. Here you also can have opinions different from the teachers and have free discussion about problems. The teachers respect that you can have a different opinion in many matters such as politics and how to solve a problem. That is what I really like about the schools in Norway.

My hobbies are fishing in the sea and the fresh water lakes. When we have holidays we almost always have opportunity to fish. Because of the different seasons fishing is something you can do only in the spring, summer and early autumn. When it is winter there are other things to do such as skating, skiing and snowboarding. I tried snowboard the first time only a few weeks after I came here. In the beginning it was a scary experience but now I have a lot of fun using my snowboard. I also have another hobby which is model railroading. Together with my stepfather I am making a railroad that is a copy of a European place from 1970. We have named it "Small-town" and we can run 4 trains at the same time carrying cargo and passengers. We have made landscape and houses to make the scenery as correct as possible. Everything is controlled electrically so operation can run smoothly. I am also a Playstation maniac. Whenever there is time I play games alone or with my friends. Some of the games are really difficult but if you take time and use the internet you will always find your way out of the problem.

I have been back to Thailand one time since I came here. That was last year at Songkhran. That was a strange experience I suddenly was feeling like being a tourist in my own country. The contrasts are so big. I am not missing the life in Thailand so far, but the rest of my family is still living there and many times I miss them. Luckily there is something named telephone and e-mail so when I miss them I can make a call or send mail, but it is not the same as talking face to face.

Regards

Komsan Nakavid
komnak@yahoo.co.uk

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