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...
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