After flying for a total of 20 hours, eighth grader Summer Villanueba stepped out into Norway, exhilarated for the days ahead.

Villanueba regularly travels with her grandmother to the Caribbean island of Barbados during the summer. But when she asked about traveling to Norway over Christmas break, her grandma obliged.

“I went on the trip because I wanted to get away from Fresno for vacation,” Villanueba said. “My aunt asked me to visit her in Norway one year, then I asked my grandma if she could take me. I hadn’t been wanting to go to Barbados, so this time for a winter experience we went to Norway.”

In addition to Villanueba’s reasons, the trip came to pass because Norma Henry, Villanueba’s grandmother, had wanted to see her grandchildren in Norway.

“She is good company,” Henry said. “She talks a lot, so it makes the time pass away. I wanted to go see my grandchildren because I hadn’t seen them for a long time.”

Villanueba’s visit to the Scandinavian country lasted about a month, providing her with plenty of time to view sites with her family, she said.

“We were in a city called Oslo, which is one of the biggest cities in Norway,” Villanueba said. “We drove around and went to the movies and stayed in my aunt’s apartment. My favorite site was the movie theatre, which was in the mall. It is really fancy and unbelievably cool and modern.”

A new kind of winter

Among her many experiences in Norway, Villanueba especially valued her first sight of snow — something not normally found in the Central Valley.

“I haven’t really seen snow before, so I wanted to see it and also visit my two grandmas and grandpas, aunt and cousins,” Villanueba said. “I don’t know how to describe it. It was kind of like Christmas, when you get your favorite toy that you’ve been wanting forever.”

However, her enthusiasm for the cold weather diminished as the trip progressed.

“I didn’t really like how cold it was,” Villanueba said. “It was not what I was used to at all! You constantly have to wear a jacket or glove. And every time I would go out, snowflakes would get in my eyes, so I couldn’t see.”

Though Villanueba said her favorite part of the trip was staying at her aunt’s cottage in the mountains, it also was the scene of a seemingly scary adventure.

“My first time skiing, I was going up the ski lift and I fell off,” she said. “I was halfway up and hanging for dear life. They had to stop the ski lift to save me. And that was my first and last time I’ll ever go skiing.”

In addition to downhill skiing, Villanueba had the opportunity to try cross-country skiing and other winter activities.

“It is a lot harder because there are no slopes or anything, and you are constantly moving,” she said. “If you do something wrong, like cross your legs, you fall; but I liked it better than downhill.”

“We took it day-by-day because they [relatives] weren’t really on vacation yet. So we had to stay home sometimes, and I would go out in the yard to shovel snow for my aunt; or at night if I got bored, I would go ice skating.”

Despite the obstacles, Henry said she enjoyed seeing her granddaughter try to ski in the snow.

“I liked seeing Summer and my grandchildren on the slope on skis and watching her learn,” Henry said. “It snowed every day, and the trees looked like Christmas trees, and you couldn’t see the dirt on their [relatives’] land at the top of the mountain.”

Memories of Norway

While spending time at the cottage, Villanueba shared meals with her family. To fully grasp the Norwegian culture, she tasted some new foods.

“All we did up there was eat,” she said. “You would gain like 10 pounds, then you lose 15 pounds while shoveling the snow. I got to try moose, and it was way better than cow. I was surprised that I liked it.”

Since she had never before met her Norwegian relatives, Villanueba spent a lot of her time celebrating Christmas with them, she said.

“I liked Christmas because we sat at the table and talked and ate,” Villanueba said. “It was fun because I didn’t know them that much until that night, and they were easy to talk to. It was a warm and comfortable feeling.”

Looking back on the benefits of her experience, Villanueba suggests that others visit foreign countries.

“People should go for the experience, and you never know what you might find,” she said. “You get exposed to a new language and you can try something new.”

For more coverage of travel in Europe, read the Sept. 22, 2010 article, European tour enhances cultural appreciation.

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