Name: Håvard Wattum
Age: 20
Nationality: Norwegian
Hometown: Stavanger
Does living in Liverpool meet the expectations you had before you moved here?
I think it has become much better than I expected. Liverpool has the little extra that makes it the ultimate student city.
Tell us about your home town…
Stavanger is one of the major cities in Norway and there are a lot of internationals living and working in the oil industry, which is located in the city. It is a quiet, small town and there is a short way out to the green areas, the mountains, the beaches. Yes there are beaches with sand, and the fjords. If you like to go skiing it is two hours away to the nearest ski place called Sirdal, where you meet a lot of the people you know from Stavanger during the winter.
Stavanger has a lot of shops and cafés and it is really lovely to sit in one of those cafés when it is raining outside during the autumn and winter. My country has mountains with snow even in the summer, there are the fjords on the west coast and there is the midnight sun during the summer and the north light during the winter in the northern part of the country.
What is the biggest difference between Liverpool and your hometown?
The biggest difference between Liverpool and Stavanger is that Liverpool is a much more open city and you see different people all the time. There is also a major difference in the nightlife and there is much more to do all week here in Liverpool than in Stavanger.
What is your favourite place in Liverpool?
My favourite places in Liverpool are the Liverpool One shopping area and the Albert Docks.
What was the strangest thing you came across during your time in the UK?
The strangest but the best thing I have come across here in the UK is the polite people and that people explain everything a lot of times. It is also really strange that the British people don’t clothe themselves after the weather and use thin clothes even during the winter.
What advice can you give other international students who come to Liverpool?
My advice to other international students who come to Liverpool is live in halls, do a lot of funny and social events, make loads of friends and contacts, be a member of a society in the LSU, visit the LSU regularly and be open minded.
Håvard graduated in July 2012