people have been in here
Facts about me:
Name: Hans Jørgen Solheim
Born: 3rd of October 1979 ad
Nationality: Norwegian
At time of being I am an ordinary pupil in the 3rd and last grade on Kongsbakken videregående (sr high) school. I was supposed to do that last year, but on the 26 of August 1997 I left for Russia. I moved to the not-so-big (by Russian standards) and freezing (by my standards) city of Petrozavodsk. Petrozavodsk is in the north-west of Russia. I went there with the Barents Plus Exchange Programe and stayed there for a whole year except for a short visit at home around christmas. The object of the trip was purely to learn to speak Russian. Since I have no idea what to do with my life I've decided I'll try and learn as many languages as possible. Except for Russian, Norwegian and English I also know German, some French and the basics of Esperanto. I call it a good start...
The Barents Coorperation is sort of a union between the northern most regions in Norway (including Nordland, Troms and Finnmark), Sweden (Norbotten), Finland (Lappland) and Russia (Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Karelia), with more regions becoming members at time of writing. The cooperation is supposed to develop culture and encourage businesses establishing themselves across the borders, and trying to make it easier for them to do so. At time of writing there is at least one business which has not gone bankrupt...
But they also give support cultural events and various exchange programs, and students who have studied or are studying Russian (like me) in videregående school (sr. high school). unlike other exchange programs the students and their host families get all their expenses paid buy the cooperation.
Links for the particulary interested:
Barents Information System (BIS)
Information about Karelia
A bloody long speach on what is the Barents Cooperation should do...
