I’m gonna take some time now to write about a very special person in my life here in Norway. Her name is Luiza, and she lives around the corner and down the street from my house–my fellow Hortensk exchange student semi-neighbor from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

It’s very strange and interesting to see my relationship with her develop throughout these six months. I honestly can’t imagine life in Horten without her now; funny to think that at the beginning of the year, I didn’t even want anything to do with her!
I think both of us thought similarly; after all, we were in Norway to get Norwegian friends, not to hang around each other, right? But as the months rolled by and our novelty in town wore off and the weather got colder and the times got harder, it hit me–here was a girl who was going through the exact thing that I’m going through, I should be supporting her, not competing against her for “hvem har det bedre i Norge!”

So in these past two months, we slowly began to spend more time together, mostly in the form of half-hour/hour long late-night walks around the neighborhood. And we began to talk: at first just common, superficial banter–what we did on a certain day, school, AFS gossip–but lately, more personal issues: our fears, our pasts, our goals. (I’ve actually just come back from one of our walks. [It was koselig, she sang me the "Norwegian birthday song," gave me a beer at midnight for turning 19, and then ended up drinking most of it herself. Typisk Luiza, haha.] Our topics du soir were Rio de Janeiro, our first condoms, being yourself, our dads, “professionalism,” how we want ourselves to be, being bullied, and snap judgements.)

I never thought I could learn so much from her. But I suppose knowledge and wisdom is imparted in unexpected ways. I think just by getting to know her, I am already seeing so much–beyond myself, my life, my experiences. And, although I’ve gotten to know people, I’ve never felt like I really learned anything about myself in the process. But us two–we come from such different worlds, yet it surprises me how well I am able to understand her. Because we’re so different, it’s kind of incredible to see that we’re still on the same wavelength regarding many things.(Excuse the metaphorical paradox. I’ve had one-tenth of a beer too many. And it’s late.) I think this is heightened by our unconventional way of…befriending one another; I have seen her both as just a casual person and as a close friend now, and the views and opinions that I have of these two characters are so drastically different. (It goes to show just how much you really know someone.) I could never have guessed what was on the inside just by looking at the façade.

And you know, for a girl who still can’t manage to say “I’m freezing!” (we’re working on that, by the way), she has a lot of smart thoughts. (In fact, just tonight, she said something to the extent of: if you don’t like them then why walk with them?…or something like that. Shit, my mind is turning into tomato paste. But believe me, it was really pertinent and epiphanous.) One that I really like: Don’t start a fight, just finish it.

Luiza: Estou muito agradecido que cê está aqui. Estamos juntos por apenas um ano, mas cê sempre será meu amiga.