Back to Reality

As is obvious, I have taken a brief hiatus from the blogging world upon my return stateside in late December. For the past five months I have been blogging about my time, experiences, and my thoughts whilst in Norway, but as that adventure has come to a close I think that I will try and continue blogging about my time, experiences, and thoughts about life in Minneapolis as well as mixing in my memories and feelings surrounding the transition back into life at home.

Yesterday was a big day both for me and for my country...we had a new President sworn in (despite a few freudian mishaps) and classes started for the semester at the University of Minnesota. Now, I do not want to try and make the argument that such events are equal in magnitude and historical importance, because that is definitely not the case...I merely want to highlight their significance in my life...for the both were.

Much like my arrival and stay in Norway, where I never really felt homesick and was just having a blast from start to finish...my return home has been very good with lots of enjoyment, friends, family, and little sadness surrounding my "not being in Norway". I would say that for better or for worse, I am a fairly rational and level headed person who tries not to make a huge deal of or over dramatize events. Thus when leaving Norway I tried not to get all emotional and nostalgic about it, for I knew that the people I really want to see again, I will see again, and it would do me no good to cry about it. Now that I know sounds quite cold, but I think that it is just how my brain functions, how I deal with emotion, and there is not much that can be done to change that...which I think is why yesterday was such a strange day. As I said it was the first day of class at the University of Minnesota, so for me it was the first day of a semester filled with business classes..."back to reality" as I joke with a buddy here. And while I have been wondering how it will be, how I will like my classes, how hard they will be, how much work I will have, etc...all of those thoughts have been about an event in the future and I had yet to actually confront them. But with the start of class yesterday, I was thrown full on into the shark pit of the business school and I just felt out of place. First of all, the undergraduate program of the business school has shifted to a new building this year. It is a nice building (brand new), but to me it seems cold, corporate, huge and un-welcoming. In addition to a new building, I had all new classes with all new professors. With the new building, the undergrad program started an expansion that has doubled the size of the program....so all of the required "core" business classes doubled in size as well, and I was assured that the quality of the class, the quality of the instructor, etc. would not diminish with this size increase....but I was duped. Of the three classes I had yesterday not one has a tenured professor for an insturctor, two have P.h.D candidates as instructors, and none of the three speak English as a first language (which I would like to point out is not normally a problem, after all I was just in Norway for a semester...however, some of my instructors here are very difficult to understand, which makes it much more difficult to learn...)...essentially I was thrown right back into normal life at the University, but I was just not ready for it. Additionally it was a long day (Tuesdays are my longest), and so by the end I was drained, tired, (and here was the unexpected part)...I missed Norway. I missed discussing the current political happenings with Eamon. I missed sharing meals with Tim. I missed doing a little dance with Kate. I missed runs with Steve. I missed sitting in U1 with Marianne, Helena, Peter, Sophie, etc., I missed Angelos Koret on Tuesday nights...I straight up missed Norway....and I suppose that that shouldnt be a strange feeling, I mean I just returned from 5 months abroad...but for me it was. For me, getting "back to reality" was more cold water on the face than I expected. The comfort level I had reached with my life in Norway has been thrown off balance, and I am now having to reestablish myself in Minneapolis. And I guess because my moving into a house with some good buddies has gone so well and been so great, I assumed classes would be the same way...but they are not...and so I have to keep working at that reestablishment. But its hard...

One of the great things about yesterday, was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. It was a historic moment no question...but for me it was so much more. It was the swearing in of a movement, an idea, an expectation for the future...it was hope, it was change, and it was exciting. Barack Obama is just one man...but there is so much wrapped up in this one man, what he represents, what he symbolizes is so great and profound it is hard to articulate. Yesterday, the realization began setting in that this person, this idea, this movement, is now my President....and I am proud.

So while yesterday was tough in some regards, I was also reminded that hope can prevail. That just because it is hard now, does not mean that it will always be hard. And that while I may really want to be in Norway some days, I also really love life here too...