Spanish in Norway

I am learning a foreign language in a foreign language! Every time I am in class I feel like I am cross eyed for the whole hour and a half. It is impossible, mentally, to learn two languages at the same time. The Spanish here is really easy, and if it was taught in English I would have nearly no problem. In the US, it would be equivalent to Spanish I. Reading is fine, because I just need to understand what it says. But, speaking is a whole different problem. Right now my brain is tuned to learn Norwegian. So I am thinking mostly in Enligsh and occasionally in Norwegian, then when I have to speak Spanish I try to speak and it comes out Norwegian  Then, I try again and the first sentence comes out Spanish and the next comes out Norwegian. I have to concentrate and try so hard to speak any Spanish.

Learning Spanish in Norwegian is humanly impossible!

This Week in a Nutshell...

A lot has happened this week.

On Tuesday, I brought Twinkies and Candy Corn to school for my friends to try. My mom was nice enough to send it from the US especially for them. I don't really like either candy corn or Twinkies, bu they are very American, so they had to try them. Most of them didn't like the candy corn, because they thought it was too sweet and expected it to be more like marshmallows. Then only 1 out of 10 people didn't like the Twinkies. But, a lot of people said that it was like nothing they have tasted before. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing...

Then on Thursday evening, the first snow fell. I was so excited. I had just gone down stairs to study for my English test, then my host sister, Synne, calls down and said "Rebecca... it's snowing." I grabbed my camera and ran up the stairs extremely quickly, then put on my boots and went outside. I was so excited. I went outside and just kind of stood there. There wasn't that much snow, but it was still exciting. Synne said it wasn't really real snow because they weren't snow flakes, it was more like hail. But, I classified it as snow!

Me in the snow.

Then on Thursday night, Solveig invited me to a Halloween Party at her school. It was the International School so everyone spoke English. It was nice. It wasn't really what I was expecting and it wasn't like the school dances in the US, but it was still fun. I dressed up as a devil; my last minute costume. She invited me the night before, so I had to run down to the city and go to the only store there that sold anything Halloween. And all that store had was scary masks and a devil set with horns and a tail.

At the Halloween Dance

Solveig and I eating really good chocolate spider cupcakes :)

Well that is all that has really happened. Other than the fact that it is getting extremely cold. I won't surprised if my nose has frozen off before the end of winter. It is also raining a lot. Last week we had 8 days straight of gray skies and rain. But today I saw the sun, so I am happy :). Also, all the leaves have changed color and a lot of them have already fallen off. They are the perfect Halloween trees.

Høstferie!

Last week we had "Høstferie", which is the autumn break. 

It was great to get a break from school and be able to sleep. Ever since I have gotten to Norway I have been extremely tired. Getting used to all these new things, meeting new people, being in new places, and learning a new language is exhausting. I don't want to hear anyone else complain about how tired they are...

A lot of my friends from school went out of the country or had a lot of homework. So I was kind of bored a couple days. But, I did go to the police station and I am now a legally in Norway! I got my temporary residence permit!! After 6 weeks, I am excited. Now, I am just waiting in my social security number. I also had dinner with my AFS contact person, Martine. She made dinner and we talked and watched TV, fun. I also went out to coffee one day with some friends. On Thursday, my family and I went on a "Hyttetur", which directly translates to "cottage trip". We went to a cottage in the mountains at a place called Fagerfjell. While we were there we were lucky and got nice weather. Which basically means it didn't rain :). One day, we had a very traditional Norwegian day: we hiked up a mountain, ate chocolate on the top of the mountain, went back to the cottage, had Norwegian waffles, I knitted my scarf, and then we had reindeer and potatoes for dinner. The next day we walked around a lake, went up a couple mountains so we could eat our chocolate. Did you know that is kind of an unwritten Norwegian rule: you have to go to the top of a mountain in order to eat the delicious milk chocolate?!? Anyway, then we went back and had pasta for dinner. Then I knitted some more. Then we had cheese and fruit, and everyone else had wine, but the legal drinking age in Norway is 18, so I have to wait 2 more years... Then, the next day we woke up had breakfast and cleaned the whole cottage. Then we headed home. It was really fun and everything there was extremely beautiful!

The cottages...with ice on the roofs. 

This was on the way to the top. 

The view from the top of the mountain 

My host family admiring the view. 

 Me on top of the mountain

The lake 

They were selling moose. You could buy a half a moose if you wanted to... 

A boat by the lake 

Norwegian Waffles! Yum! 

Lumber by the lake

A gorgeous waterfall in the forest 

 Nezzoz!

 Nice weather and trees!

 Two trails

I pretty stream in the forest.

ICE, ICE BABY!

Now we are back home and one week of school has almost gone by. Time is going so quickly. I have already been here for almost 7 weeks. Almost 2 months! That is crazy. It really doesn't feel like that long. I am now realizing that a year here is almost no time. I just want time to slow down so I have tome to enjoy everything. My Norwegian is actually getting better. I can understand a lot of what people say now. My speaking skills are really bad though. If you want to know what my name is, where I am from, or that I am an exchange student I can tell you that, but otherwise I speak English. I am not really sure how to form the sentences and I forget the vocabulary a lot. I know it if I hear it I just cannot think of it when I am trying to speak. But people here speak really fast, so it is hard to understand everything they say. And when they speak they blend together all the words so it sounds like a whole new word, that is confusing. But it will get better, I just have to keep trying. I just realized recently how expensive everything is here. When I see the price in kroners it means nothing to me, I always think, "oh, that's not bad," when really that would be $200. That is why I walk around with a converter now. My mom even sent me over a new pair of rain boots and nikes because it is chaeper to buy them in the US and send them over, than to buy them here. I went out with my friends to get coffee the other day and it was 49- kroner, that doesn't sound bad; but that is almost $9. I will never complain about Starbucks prices again! People love to ask me about the weather and love to tel me how cold it will get, it is kind of funny. Also, everyone wants to take me skiing, probably to see me fail, but it will be fun. Everyone here is really nice once you talk to them. Anyway, I am having a great time and I love it here. Even though it is starting to get really cold...