My experience being a ‘Fadder’ in Bergen:

By Georgiana Marinescu, University of Bergen, Norway

In February, during my second semester at the University of Bergen, I had the opportunity to be a mentor (or as they like to call it: Fadder) to the new International students coming for the second semester.

Unlike my welcome week in August, this welcome event only ran from Friday the 2nd of February (or for us mentors the night of the 1st..) until Sunday the 4th of February; Although my job as a mentor did not end there as I kept in contact with my mentees throughout the semester and encouraged them to join more events.

(A picture of one of my mentees, me, and another mentor taken before I left Norway)

The weekend began with a welcoming lecture where all of us fadders would be paired with our groups of ‘kids’. Once our group had formed, we created a WhatsApp group and planned to meet up in the evening for some games and challenges before going out. Our ‘kids’ had a list of challenges to do which would gain the group points that would be tallied at the end of the weekend. Amongst those challenges were: making a TikTok with people in the group, learning how to say party in 5 languages, and making a human pyramid (pictured below).

The next day each group was given a theme that they had to dress up as for a party and the best group theme would win points that night. Our group theme was glitter so we headed to the shops and glittered ourselves up. (P.s. we won the theme).

We then headed to a bar with everyone and played games such as darts, pool and shuffle board.

On the Sunday we decided to do a quiz where I found out that reindeer’s eyes turn blue in winter in order to capture more light during the darker months.

Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun and I would recommend being a mentor to anyone wanting to build their confidence and try something new. It was also really great for meeting new people and making friends.