Norway is a country with great nature, kind people and accessible work market. English is a common language everyone can speak. But still to know Norwegian language is very appreciated and essential when applying for a higher position. Summer in the south of Norway is surprisingly warm and beaches are fully occupied when the tropical temperature is present. I fully recommend.

Oslo is a great city. Not too huge not too small. Wherever you go you can get very fast. Using city bike service is very popular among many people. When you reach a traffic jam in the peak hours you realize the benefit of using bikes. Oslo is surrounded by beautiful nature, large lakes, dense forest. It is a perfect place for jogging, sports in general.
The night life in Oslo is the same like in another countries. The price of beers might be a limit for some people which keeps you sober in fact. After 6pm you cannot buy any alcohol either in supermarkets nor in any local shops.

Except from surrounding of Oslo I visited Besseggen. It is a huge ridge situated in Jotunheimen national park. It takes around 4-5 hours to get there from Oslo by car (a bus goes there as well). For those who like hiking it is a heaven. It goes all along a glacier lake. The hike takes around 7-8 hours. Usually people take a ferry from Gjendesheim to Memurubu (20 minutes) and get back or other way around. The location is beautiful.

Exact Survey AS. It is mainly a geodetic company. Exact is an international company having offices in Czech, Sweden, Estonia and Norway indeed. It is one of the biggest company in Norway in its field. The company do basic surveying tasks at construction sides, mapping, DTM, laser scanning etc.

The first 2 months I spent at construction site of a new National museum in Oslo. I replaced local surveyors from AF Gruppen which is the main constructor of the building. I worked with brand new total station Leica MS60 - one man station. Since the price of such instrument is very high one cannot find such instrument in Czech very easily. The tasks covered staking points of all construction elements like walls, columns etc. Moreover laser scanning was used for volume computation or formwork correctness.
Few days I spent in the company itself having some small tasks. For other 2 weeks I was sent to Bergen where was some leveling job and some work at construction site as well. The last 2 weeks I spent in Diagonal project next to Opera house in Oslo. The main constructor was Veidekke. There I supported local surveyors. The tasks were similar to previous construction site.

Salary (18000NOK) was sufficient to live from the money and have some small savings. It depends a lot how lucky you are about finding accommodation. I shared a room for 3500NOK/month. Normally trainees pay around 5000NOK. It could go up to 8000NOK. The food is about 2500NOK/month when you care about money. It could be much more of course. From the salary we payed 15% tax. It should be all refunded at the end of the year.

Fluent English is recommended. The minimum is B2 level.

Organized by local IAESTE group. As mentioned above 3500NOK per shared room. It was the cheapest when I compared to other trainees. The apartment was beautiful, fully equiped, in the center of Oslo.

Personally, I was picked-up by a friend who shared a room with me. Other trainees there were picked-up by local IAESTE members. The first day I was accompanied to work so I do not get lost. With other trainees we were in touch via Facebook group. Several times per week there was something to do together. It was us, trainees, who came with suggestions what to do. The local members of IAESTE did not take part much.

As mentioned in previous part. We kept in touch via Facebook the most. Many things we organized beginning with pub meetings, hikes to nature, museums etc.

Oslo is full of parks where people go jogging, relaxing, biking. As well it is full of museums, concerts etc. Simply you can find there whatever you like.

The most common and cheapest stores are Kiwi and Rema1000. Small local shops are handy when it is late but it is expensive of course. Usually, we cooked once per day. There are many fast foods all around but it is a matter of money like always.

I did not have any need to contact anyone from Czech IAESTE when being on internship. If so, the email correspondence will work the best.

If IAESTE finds an expensive accommodation for you you can always search for something else by yourself.

Enough clothes for hot summer. Oslo is not that cold like you might have said.

experience, contacts

The cooperation was mainly in the beginning. Later on there was no communication.