Last Sunday we went to Midtåsen A mountain that you go on top of and you can see the whole city and three different fjords. It was stunning. Then when we walked up another hill there was a mansion where one of the richest people in Norway used to live. There was a small art museum that was open to the public and another fantastic view. We were going to go see a Viking ship, but then it started to rain and we didn't really want to walk very far in the rain.
The view of the city
I am falling down to the city. There was a sign that said not to throw anything or anyone off the rock.
The art museum next to the mansion.
The view of the fjord
The mansion
My host family
On Monday I went to school. Sounds fun right... Well at least today I received, what I think is, my final schedule. I now have Spanish class added to it. So now I have Spanish, T Math, Visual Arts, Design and Architecture English, Norwegian, Beginner's Norwegian, and Gym. Yeah! for school.
This is my schedule. It is even in red, white and blue!
On Tuesday, nothing much really happened other than school, and I only had two classes that day.
On Wednesday, there was school yet again. I had deign and architecture today, and we are constructing a chess piece. My chess piece is the king, it is a pharaoh. I honestly have no idea what I am doing in that class, so I sit there and draw sketches and today I cut out four circles. I am supposedly using those four circles to build my pharaoh. Tonight I went to volleyball with Solvieg. I guess you could call Solveig my "host cousin", she lives right up the street from us though. She is one year younger than me and she is very nice. Volleyball was fun, it was from 8-10PM. I was really confused almost the whole time though because the instructor spoke Norwegian and everyone who was participating thought that I spoke Norwegian. One of the women there started to tell me how to do a drill in Norwegian, I had no idea what she was saying so I just did what she was doing, I stuck a volleyball between my knees, then began to waddle away because I thought she was done talking. She wasn't and she finally got the memo that I didn't understand. I was actually supposed to just pick up the balls and give them to her.
On Thursday, after school and dinner, Marit took me to the mall. I got the "official Norwegian teenagers" rain coat. It is blue, red, and white, with a neon yellow hood. Nearly every student at my school has a similar jacket. AFS did tell us to try to fit in. All I have bought, and worn, since I have been here has been sweaters and jeans.
On Friday, I had school again. But Fridays are my favorite school days because I only have two classes and neither require that much thinking: English and Gym. After my classes finish, at 11:35, I am free to go home and enjoy my weekend. When I got home Marit took me to the post office to pick up a package that my mom shipped me, with my rain boots in it. Then we went to the bank. Well, as it turns out, this year I will have absolutely no cash. I am going to be the only exchange student that did not go broke buying clothes and nessecities in the host country. My credit card really only works at H&M and the bank doesn't even have the technology anymore to use the American credit card. If you don't have a pin code for your credit card here, you cannot survive. When I tell people that I do not have a pin code, they look at me like I am crazy and say "NO PIN CODE, ARE YOU SURE?!?" I determined that Norway requires two numbers to survive: 1) social security number 2) pin code (for your credit card). As of right now, I have neither!
On Saturday, we had our usual lazy weekend breakfast. I live for those! Then I met my contact person for my exchange for coffee yesterday afternoon. Fist of all, Norway has the best iced coffee I have ever tasted. Second, my contact person is really nice. She went on an exchange in the Dominican Republic two years ago, her name is Martine. She offered to teach me how to sail. She also said that she has to come meet my family and make sure everything was okay, then she wanted to take me to meet her family. She said that she has a brother in my grade, but he is very in to soccer and working out, and he even goes to a tanning salon. I thought that was a little weird, until you consider that it is Norway, and that is your only option if you don't want to be extremely pale. Then I walked home, on my way home I stopped at a store to buy some dental floss, guess how much it costs... 40 Kroner, that is $6.50!! It is expensive to keep these pearly whites looking good. Then my host dad made stir fry for dinner and we had chocolate mousse and coffee for dessert.
Now it is Sunday, and it is supposed to rain today. I am not really sure what is in store for today, but it is my week to clean the bathroom, so I know I have to do that. Also, Jaran, my host brother is coming home today. He was away at law school in Bergen. So I get to meet him for the first time. Well, actually I did meet him over skype once but I basically just said hello then he hung up because the connection was bad. Well, I just got called to go up for breakfast. YUM!
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