It all started in the summer of 2021, when I started to think about places to go to and things to do from September. I went on the Workaway website every single day, sent letters to hundreds of hosts in different countries. I really wanted to go back to California, but the borders weren’t open back then yet, so I started looking in countries where it was safe to go to, Covid-vise. I’ve always loved the Scandinavian countries, so I kinda leaned towards them, and looked at job ads in those countries.
In the beginning of September I got accepted to a musher company in northern Norway for 8 months. I was still working in Hungary at a wakeboard cable park, when they texted that all the workers should be there by the end of September, to be able to start in October. Which let me no other choice but leave the wakeboard park at the 16th, be with my friends and family for 2 weeks, and fly to Norway.
What was it like to be a musher in -30C ?
I was super excited in the beginning, new place, new country, new job, new colleagues,… and I looooove new things!!! until I realized I don’t even like it that much…
This dogsledding company had 50 dogs, all kinds of huskies, whom I loved! I reaalllly liked spending time with them, but what I didn’t like was the cold and one of my colleagues. I will only just say that he was our mini boss who taught us everything, but as soon as I had an opinion about how it should be done to make everyone’s job easier, it all became a disaster because I was the bad guy for saying a word. So that didn’t make it easy for me.
About the cold… I thought that it won’t matter since there are thousands of people doing this, there are clothes designed for this cold, I will be okay. Well I guess me as a summer girl, just simply hate the cold. No clothes were good enough for me, I had the same on as the others and while they were fine for the whole day, I started to freeze after an hour being outside.
I kept going because I knew it’s supposed to be an awesome experience with the huskies, northern lights and sledding. But by time I realized I couldn’t wait to lie down, watch my tv show, and I started to lose my motivation for work, and started to be a little depressed. That’s when I started to look for other jobs, and left the company in December.
In overall I like the fact that I experienced living in the northernmost part of Norway way above the Arctic circle, seeing the Northern Lights every second day, tried dogsledding, and felt what’s -35C feels like. I realized it’s not for everybody, I shouldn’t push myself to do it just because I was so excited about it, when I don’t even enjoy it. I don’t regret trying it and don’t regret leaving the place. The cold is not for me!!
