Rebecca in Norway: June 2013

Last Visit to Oslo

Well, I have been to Oslo many times this year, but this weekend was my last.

I was able to see our exchange student we hosted last year, Jenny, and say goodbye to we and her family. Then after I ate dinner an dessert with them I met Cristina (exchange student from Italy) and some of her friends to go to the VG Lista concert. The VG Lista concert is a free concert that has 20 artists that play. It is 20 of the artists that have had a song on the top 20 list in Norway. So there was a mix of international and Norwegian artists. The more popular artists that were there were Jason Derulo, The Wanted, LidoLido, Truls, and Kurt Nilsen. It was fantastic. It rained almost the whole concert though. But that didn't stop anyone. Apparently, Norwegians said it is a tradition that it rains on the day of the VG Lista concert. But they also say that just adds to why they call "VG Stemmning" which translates to VG Mood or VG Spirit. I thought it was fun, and I think it was almost more fun that it rained. I had a blast dancing and singing in the pouring rain. Though my makeup didn't agree with the rain and I looked like an angry raccoon by the end of the performance, it was still fantastic. I don't know if I will plan to go back again, it was fun once, but there were hundreds of people there and I don't know if 3 1/2 hours standing in the pouring rain would be fun multiple times.

A really bad picture of The Wanted

Cristina's friends: .., Julie, Solveig, and Harald

Cristina and me

Cristina after her makeup went crazy

Me and Cristina after 3 hours of standing in the rain.

Afterwards, Cristina and I went back to her house and made pasta for a midnight snack and had a cupcake, then went to bed.

The next day we planned to wake up early, but that didn't work out to well, unless you call 11:30 early. Then we had breakfast and were on our way to the city center at about 13:30. We walked around the town a little bit and went to a little market with only natural food. There we taste tested honey, chocolate, and salami. We also had a delicious burger with cooked onions for lunch. We then walked around and looked in some shops, but we didn't let each other buy anything because neither of us have any room left in our suitcases.

eating the delicious burgers

Me and Cristina shopping!

We then met Alessandro (exchange student from Italy) at Oslo S. Once we met him we started to walk around the town again, but we saw a street performer. This performer was from Australia and I thought he was funny, but then again I am a sucker for Australian accents. He did juggling and ate a balloon and managed to escape from a straight jacket and chains. We went up and talked to him afterwards and he said he actually lived in Italy, so Cristina and Alessandro tried to talk to him in Italian, he wasn't the best, but then again that is me talking and all I have learned to say is "I am Italian and can't speak English". And that's not very useful considering I am not actually Italian and my mother tongue is English.
We then went to the main square and there was a Brazilian movement that is trying to help change the government in Brazil. We took part in that and sang and chanted with them.

Then we went and ate at Subway, which Cristina believes is one of the best restaurants. And afterwards I had to say goodbye to them, until I find the time and money to visit Italy next year. And I took the train back to Sandefjord...

Mine and Cristina's cookies

Alessandro and Cristina

The Beach!

Yes, Norway is known for being one of the coldest, or maybe the coldest, country in the world. They are famous for snow and skiing. But, where online in Norway is called Sandefjord and has the nickname of Sommerfjord which translate to Summerfjord. It is the place with the nicest weather in all of Norway. So as you can imagine it is actually kind of w and nice to go swimming. The water is cd, because if you think about it, the water was just frozen over about 2 months ago. But on Thursday I did go swimming in the fjord.

Thursday was the last day of school and they just had a little concert and a few people gave speeches. It was nice, but also sad. That was the last time I will ever go to school in Sandefjord.

We were done by 11 am. So I biked to the beach with my friends and went swimming. I am trying to think of a word to explain it, but all I can think of is in Norwegian, and there is really no English translation for it. Det var deilig!

Katinka was tired and decided to take a nap

Lahelle Beach

Me and Ingvil swimming

Klasse Avslutning!

We had an end of the year party with the class on Tuesday. It was kind of a celebration to making it through the year and a little goodbye party. I am leaving to go back to the states and there are about 10 others from my class that are going to change classes, so they won't be in the same class anymore either.

I love my class and I am going to miss all of them. School was never boring with them, it was fantastic. So, as you could imagine it was hard to say goodbye to all of them.

Where the party was

The party was fun. We had it at a beach. We grilled hotdogs and I even brought things to make s'mores! Just by the way, I have met no one yet who doesn't like s'mores! How could you not like chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers combined, it is just a pile of sugary goodness!

Then guy from our class, Daniel, had a little motor boat. So we took that put on the water and he had a tube that he pulled behind it. That was fun. I never actually fell off, but I fell out of the tube when I was trying to get back on the boat. But I wanted to go for a swim anyway, so it was nice. The water was still a little cold, but it was refreshing. The only bad thing was that I got stung by jellyfish... But it's ok, I had a good time!

Me and Daniel

Katinka with her "crown"

Chanett, me, Maria, and Amanda

Jenny, Evanna, Johanne, and me

Me and Heidi in the sunset.

Heidi and Daniel

Me, Heidi and Daniel swimming

Then we took pictures, I wanted to take pictures with everyone from the class, and I managed to take pictures with most of them. The best thing is that we were at the beach until almost 11 pm because it was still light outside, it actually is never completely dark at night now. But there were a ton of mosquitos, I hate mosquitos!