My first day at university of Agder was not the actual first day of the semester, but however it was the first day for me. I have missed the study start festival, as i reached a bit later at the campus.Well this was just the begining. New country, new place, new people, new language,it was time to embrace the new.
Studying at University of Agder, grimstad
So now after the first semester, I have made some friends and started to enjoy the study and dorm life!!. That selfie in the middle was from my birthday party.
My first euro trip in first christmas
At my first chrismas in Grimstad, as I knew university is going to be closed and everybody going to go home. So i planned a 3 weeks long huge trip with my friends. I went to berlin, aachen in germany, amsterdam in Netherlands and Brussels in Belgium.
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Studying and exploring in Grimstad
Grimstad was a beautiful small city with loads of natural beauty. it was full of sea and nature. As it was coastal city, you could see the ocean any time from home.
Making friends
Making friends was not easy in the begining. As I reached at the university in Norway a bit later after the study start festival, i did not get the introduction with all the other students. I went to class right away after i moved in to my room at the dorm. I found out i was the only one from my country. but that did not matter later on, as i started to know my classmates, people living in the same hallway and the building. I got to know people from all around the world, from Asia, from Europe & from Africa. In my dorm there lived more international students than locals. But i did get to meet local students too in the dorm.
Finding work
My education or tution was free at the university when i got the admission, but i had to cover my own expenses. As grimstad is a small city, there is very few work opportunities over there, if you dont speak norsk. So I went to other cities nearby like Kristiansand & Arendal. Both of the cities were around 50kms away from my city in opposite directions. But i found a part time job at a resturant in Kristiansand. I travelled 120kms everday for that job for a long while.
Exploring Norwegian Study system
My first semster went on a rush, before i realized. My grades were not so good, by the end of the semester. I realized it is a different system here, have to adapt, so i did that later on in the next semester. I tried to choose system development & machine learning as my major, but i understood coming from electrical engineering, I am not ready yet for that. So i have chosen mobile & wireless communication as my major. The study facilities were quite awesome to begin with. The university had group rooms for study which can be booked online, with big screens with HDMI cables. There was an IT department, where you could even borrow a projector for your presentation practice. I have even borrowed that, for watching world cup matches in my room. The universiy had a 24 hour study room which can be accessed through the student ID card anytime. I found out the exams are quite precise & all about concepts. Concepts of open book exams & critical assignments taught me a lot. Some courses had new assignment with a new coding language every week, which was challenging and taught me to come out of the comfort zone & explore the new knowledge.
First paid project with the university
After the first semsester, I had gained good reputation with one of the professors at the university. He offered me and a classmate of mine from Nepal to do a paid project for the summer from the university. I was so excited to have the opportunity at the time. So we had to make a web service to illustrate data from boat sensor. A boat comapny was funding for the project. I remember we struggled a lot in the begining, but did manage to do it in java with proper requirements. At the end of the project we had to give a presentation to the company with our professor. In order to test our new built system, we got a ride on thoe luxury speed boats with them for an hour. This was my first boat trip in Norway.
First Summer in Grimstad!!
Summer in Grimstad is bright and sunny. Though it is not that hot as you imagine. But the weather, the sea, the mountains, the booming flowers makes the nature absolutely beautiful.As the semester finished, I was working a lot in summer, still got to enjoy the nature.There used to be a summer festival called SKral,and I got the chance to be there in the festival.
Trip to Prague & Warsaw
After working the whole summer we were getting tired. We knew classes will begin soon.I wanted to have a chill relax time before we get started with the semester again. So i me and my friend Ayaz went for the trip with another friend joining from Berlin.
Beautiful people
In this journey of my life, I have met a lot of peope, who i became friends with, and some of them for life. People i have shared time with, had fun and left an wonderful people. Some of the best friends i have to mention was Ayaz from Pakistan, Shahab Norsk-iranian, Amir from Iran, Magnus from Norsk-scotish, Tarek from France, Qiushi from China etc. I have so many other people to mention but its going to get too long.
Graduation Ceremony
At last the graduation ceremony came close. Finally i am getting graduted in my msc from university of Agder. It was summer. A beautiful day. That was a day to remember on this colorful journey. I thought yes, I did it. But little I knew that it was just the begining of real life.
Trip to Bangladesh
On december 2015, i made a trip to dhaka,bangladesh for a month. Home sweet home. That 1 month, time flew like the flash. It was nice being home, no cooking, no stress, just chilling. Roaming around with my friends & family made me weak to go back so fast. So i postponed my return trip back to Norway for 2 weeks more.
Transition from student to a graduate
The day I had the graduation, i started to feel the change right away. I thought now, i am not a student anymore. Now I have to find a job. Maybe have to move too. So i did not move right away. I started to do this networking certification from Cisco at the university meanwhile started to look for a job. Now i got the realization that knowing Norsk is a big factor. Even though i went to language school at the commune for two semesters, i realized that was not even close to enough.I had applied to many positions, but most of them requied to speak & write Norsk. So i had to change my strategy and apply for more international companies & positions. Then i understood the market is quite small & not international at all. But if you are a programmer , there are opportunities, which i was not at the moment. I had to apply for job seeking visa to Norway & as a back up applied for green card/work permit to Denmark.
