Sebastian Karlson

2012-13 Outbound to Norway

Hometown: Fleming Island, FL

School: Fleming Island High School

Sponsor: District 6970, FL

Host: District 2275, Norway, The Rotary Club of Sortland

Sebastian's Bio

Hi, my name is Sebastian Karlson. I am a freshman at Fleming Island High school and also a rotary youth exchange student. Next year I will be spending a year in Norway!

I have two siblings, both of them are older than me. My oldest one is my sister, who is 18 and a student at Texas A&M. I also have an older brother who is 16 and is spending the year in Thailand on an exchange with the rotary. I love to play soccer, I play for Fleming Island High School as well as the Clay County Soccer Club. I also enjoy just listening to music or going out with friends. And i also have a job! I am a referee for youth soccer games. There were two people who mainly influenced me on my decision to do an exchange. The first one was my first exchange student, his name was Eric and was from Sweden. Before we got Eric if you had asked me if I wanted to to an Exchange I would tell you never in a thousand years. But after having Eric I was really began thinking about applying to be an exchange student. The second person who really made me want this exchange was my brother. As I have mentioned earlier he is an exchange student in Thailand, and after talking to him and hearing him speak another language and seeing pictures of how much fun he is having and all of the new experiences he is having I knew I wanted this exchange more than anything! I am most exited about going to Norway because of the language, and the snow. I have never lived where it snows like it does in Norway.

Thank you Rotary Youth Exchange for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Sebastian- Outbound to Norway

November 2012

It's been a little over three months since I have arrived here in Norway, and I have loved every second of it. One massive difference I can think of right now is all of the snow! It started snowing around the 20th of October and it hasn't stopped since. And as I found out I am not very good at winter sports as I have never really seen snow before now. For instance skiing on the water in Florida is much different than skiing on the snow in Norway. On the subject of sports I have finally been cleared to play soccer for a team here in Norway, and I get to play in my first match on Sunday. I also do a lot of different sports here than just skiing and soccer, the class I am in at school is a sports class so we do a lot of different sports almost every day. Some of which I would not think of to be fun, but to my surprise was a blast! For example I've done gymnastics a few times since I started school here and enjoyed it quite a bit.
I must say I got extremely lucky with having such an amazing host family. I have a great host dad and host mom and awesome host siblings. In fact I have three host brothers, so I am never bored at home. I have also met and been in contact with my second host family quite a bit and they seem great as well, so like I said I got extremely lucky with the host families.

It's honestly hard to believe that I have already been here for three months as for I have constantly been doing stuff and time has flew! I have been to southern Norway for an inbound orientation camp and have also been to Tromsø, a city about five hours north of where I live right now. It's amazing that I live so far north now so yes it is extremely cold but also there are amazing Northern Lights here. I have seen the Northern Lights probably about five times now and once was with other exchange students that came to visit me.