By Imke Smit, PhD Student at the University of Pretoria
My experience as a PhD student from South Africa visiting the BTF lab.
When I started my PhD in 2025, I was elated to hear that there is funding available for me to go on a research visit to the BTF lab. The day finally came in 14 June when I would embark on my Scandinavian summer and spend a month in Bergen. Now, as I fly back on 14 July, I can reflect on my experiences and ask myself whether I learnt anything.
During my one-month visit, I actually spent very little time in Bergen. I spent ten days in Spain to attend the IAVS conference in Gijón, visited my supervisor, Dr. Aud Halbritter at her house in Lom and went to the Finse research station to assist Ida Nielsen with fieldwork for her PhD. During the few days I was in Bergen, my favourite thing to do was walk around the city centre or the coastline and look out across the fjord. Bergen looks like a page right out of a storybook, where gnomes and fairies inhabit wooden houses with pointy roofs and speak an adorable language. Summer in Bergen felt feverish, as the plants, birds and people make use of every minute of sun.
The highlight of my trip was my long weekend in Lom, when I saw the Norwegian alpine for the first time. I experienced the high mountain as a strange and inhospitable, but strikingly beautiful place. I was amazed at the “fields” of lichen, which cover more surface area than the vascular plants! I was thrilled to see the sorted stone patterns created by the frost activity, which I had only seen in textbooks before. The first time I saw a glacier, I felt like I was in a national geographic documentary. With the wind howling in my ears, and my fingers stinging from the cold, I felt for a moment that I was making a grand new discovery. However, I remembered quickly that these glaciers are retreating, and felt a bit sad knowing that this glacier was even more impressive just a handful of years ago.
After my first week in Bergen, I travelled to Spain with Aud, Vigdis, Dagmar, Sonya and Kristine to attend the IAVS conference. I presented a poster on a paper I am writing for my PhD, and to my surprise won the award for the second-best poster! During the course of writing this paper, I often felt like it is very theoretical work and that few people are interested in it. However, many people at the conference were interested in the poster, which motivated me to continue. The organisers placed a large emphasis on experiencing the culture of the Asturias region in Spain where the conference was held. We attended beach bonfires, drank local cider, and had dinner at 23:00 every night. As a consequence, we sometimes suffered from short attention spans, although I’m sure I’ll remember this week in Spain for the rest of my life.
As a Saffa (South African), it is impossible not to look at my experience through the lens of emigration. Many people with tertiary education choose to leave South Africa, in search of better salaries, better quality of life and refuge from crime. I have always been curious about the life of an expat, and I think my month in Norway gave me small window into that life. After partaking in the daily 9-5 grind in Bergen, I have to say that I get it. It is easy and safe to commute to work. All the roads are clean and in good condition, and it seems like a far more socially equal country that South Africa. One thing I am particularly jealous of is that PhD students are treated as employees and receive a salary along with all the associated social benefits. This salary is almost 8 times the value of a PhD scholarship in South Africa, where we are regarded as students. The question of whether I would emigrate to Bergen is too big to answer here. It would be nice to earn money in Bergen and spend it in South Africa, although they of course have rules against that!
One thing I am not jealous of is the high cost of living in Norway. I suppose it’s more affordable if you’re being paid a local salary, but I would find it hard to give up the wide selection of affordable local produce I’m used to in South Africa. Transport is also expensive, although the spectacular scenery along every road or train track may just make up for that. I was warned against the cold and reserved nature of Norwegians, but everyone in the lab was friendly to me and some even attempted a conversation (on second thought, that person may have been Dutch).
Now that this dream of mine has come true, I shall just have to think of another one to chase. Thank you to everyone from the BTF that helped to host me, and I hope to meet all of you again on the twisting pathway toward a research career.