June 26th

I swear I have the worst day for a birthday! Last year we said goodbye to our exchange student on my birthday and this year I had to leave home on my birthday.

My family

On the night before the 26th I didn't go to sleep before 02:30 and I woke up at 07:15. I couldn't sleep, I had way to much on my mind and way to many things to do that I couldn't even think about sleeping. I woke up in the morning and said goodbye to my host dad at 08:00 when he left for work. Then, I started packing. at about 09:30 my host mom came and helped me pack, that made me go a lot faster.So by 11:00 my room was empty, and I was allowed to eat breakfast and have my coffee :). Then, my host mom drove me down to the post office to pick up a package that my mom sent. The package had part of the going away present I was going to give my family. When we got home, my host brother had to leave for work, so I had to say goodbye to him... Then I had some birthday cake and ice cream, because after all, it was my birthday. Afterwards, I gave my host family their present. It was coffee, tea, tea cups, See's Candy, and (extremely good) honey. I also wrote a card to each of them. After reading my card my host mom and sister almost began to cry, and so I started to cry. I hate crying, but the last week of my exchange was full of water works. The night before when I said goodbye to all my friends I cried so much.
For my birthday, my host family gave me really nice earrings, they dangle and are purple and are inspired by the Copenhagen lights. They also wrote me a very nice card.
At 14:00 my sister, my mom, and I loaded my suitcases into the car, then by 14:15 we were on our way down to the train station. The train came and I had to say goodbye to my host mother at 14:38. It was extremely sad because I was close with my host mom, we had conversations (with a cup of coffee) all year about different ranging from politics to exchange students to TV shows to Norway.
I met two other exchange students on the train, and from there we went to Sandvika. In Sandvika we met the other AFSers and went to the camp. Because all the other AFSers lived closer to Sandvika than us, all of their families were there. So it was a train station full of crying people with a ton of luggage.
The camp was really crappy, it was a cap site for scouts. It was dusty and dirty, the mattresses were stained, and there was nothing really fun to do. But it was my birthday, so they sang me happy birthday twice, once in English and once in Norwegian. We did some other stuff for my birthday, but not much.

Me and Camille!