Min Første Gang På Ski!

Two weeks ago I went skiing for the first time since I was five years old. And when I was five it was a 30 minute lesson, so I don't really count that as skiing. So, I went skiing for the first time two weeks ago!

Jenny, the exchange student we hosted last year, and her family took me to their cottage at Norefjell. It was so nice! They attempted to teach me how to ski. We did cross country skiing, not down hill. So it wasn't that easy. But I thought it was a successful trip, I'm not so sure what everyone else thought though. I learned how to go move without falling (for the most part), go uphill, go downhill, turn (a little bit), and stop (without falling). Before they taught me how to stop, I thought the only way was to fall down. My technique on falling was really good. My technique on falling was probably better than my technique of stopping properly. If you want to know how to fall you should first make sure the ground has some kind of fresh snow so it does not hurt extremely bad. Then all you do is kind of sit down, but off to the side so you hit the soft snow and not the hard snow that everyone else has been skiing in and made trails on. It works very well, usually. There are no guarantees with this method...

We were there for two days and we only did a little bit of skiing each day. But it was still really fun. I had a blast and I can't wait to try skiing again!

Me trying to go uphill (and Jenny helping me along)

Jenny and I when we reached (close to) the top.

Jenny and I sledding!

As you can tell I was very proud of myself after I didn't fall when I went down the hill.

This is not me after I fell! This is the first time I have ever made a snow angel!!!

What can I say? I am a California girl that just doesn't want to accept the cold weather...

Actually, in the cottage there was a sauna and I was told that it was a traditional Norwegian thing to do to roll in the snow then run back into the sauna...

All the girls on the second day of skiing :-)

My Taste of Winter

IT IS COLD!

Mind you, that I am used to southern California "winters" where the coldest I have Ever seen it get is 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Here the coldest it has been is 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius). That is cold, especially when it is windy and snow is blowing in your face. I am very proud of myself, I have only fallen on the ice once. It happened on the way home from the city tree lighting when I was telling my friend how I had almost slipped there the day before, then as soon as I said that I fell. Then I was kind of in a little pain, a little bit in shock, and I thought it was really funny. SO I just kind of laid there for the next couple minutes laughing at myself. Walking to school is a great way to wake up, but it is not always fun. Especially when it is in snowy rain. Here they call that "slud", it is basically just cold rain. It is awful. It looks like snow when it is falling, then turns into water as soon as it hits something. That only happens when it is around 0 degrees Celsius. Now it is colder, so I don't really have to worry about that :)

Me...In the snow...On top of a mountain (very Norwegian)

A view of the Sandefjord Fjord in the winter

Our house in the snow

 On December 1st there was a Christmas parade and a tree lighting in the town square. So I went down with one of my friends, we did some Christmas shopping, had a coffee and a cupcake, then walked in the parade. It was so cozy. The whole downtown was decorated with trees and lights. Then there was a Norwegian Santa Claus, called "Nissen", leading the parade. When we got to the main tow square the Nisse gave a speech and the mayor gave a speech also. Then a local choir sang and the band played as everyone danced traditional Norwegian dances around the Christmas tree. I felt like I was in a movie. It was snowing, there was Christmas music, everyone was smiling and having a good time, we were dancing around an enormous Christmas tree and singing to the carols. It was an indescribable experience that I will never forget.

The mayor giving a speech, wishing everyone "God Jul" or Merry Christmas

Nissen giving a speech.

The local choir singing as everyone goes to dance around the Christmas tree.

I am almost done with my Christmas shopping, I am so proud. I had to send my family in the US presents and that box needed to be out by November 26th, so I had finished nearly all my Christmas shopping for everyone by that point. I am super excited for Christmas. In Norway it seems like there are so many traditions around the holidays and I am excited to participate in them.

I am not really missing home at all. I am really enjoying being in Norway, the one thing I really miss is the shopping. You need so many more clothes here to stay warm, but everything is extremely expensive. And there is not much variety either, because there are not that many people. I also have realized that I am only going to be here for 10 months. I will get to celebrate an American Christmas for the rest of my life, but I only get to celebrate a Norwegian Christmas once. I only get to experience this year once and I don't want to waste it thinking about or talking to the people and things at home. All of that will be there when I return in June.

My English is getting worse as my Norwegian gets better, but my Norwegian is still not good. I have started speaking Norwegian a lot with my family and friends, but English is always there in case I don't know how to say a word. Thank goodness there is spell check on this because my English spelling is getting awful. I used to be great in English, my best subject in school, and now I just tried to spell English as "Inglish" and speech as "speach". Help me! Then don't even ask me about Spanish, when I try and write Spanish it just comes out Norwegian  the teacher said he will try and grade me a little differently than all of the other students because I am trying to learn two languages at one time. Jeg skal snakker bare Norsk nå!

Min første gang i Oslo

On Saturday I took the two hour train ride in to Oslo. I was going into Oslo to see the city because I have never been there before and also to see Jenny. Last year, my family was a host family for a nice Norwegian exchange student named Jenny. She lived with us for a year in El Segundo, California. She is now back in Norway, living in Oslo and in her last year of videregånde skole (equivalent to US high school). It was very sad to say good bye to her when she left the United States and our family, but it was nice to see her and her family again after almost 6 months. It was also nice that she lives in Oslo because I kind of got an inside tour of Oslo, not just all the tourist sights. We actually didn't go to that many tourist places. I took the 8:30 AM train into Oslo and got there about 10:30 AM. We then went to see The Scream painting in one of Oslo's art museums. Then we walked around the city a little bit and saw the royal palace, the parliament building, and the city hall. Net we went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Then we took the bus to the museum of modern art. After that we got Italian ice cream (YUM!). Then we took the bus back to the main road and went shopping. I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping that day :). Then we walked back to her house. There I met her family again and had dinner. One of her friends also came over and ate with us. It was very cozy and nice. It was great to see all of them again. Hopefully next time I go visit I will be able to speak Norwegian with them. I spoke a little bit of Norwegian with them this time, but not a lot. My Norwegian is getting better, but it is still not good. I can read more then I can understand of talking, and I can understand more than I can speak. It is really hard for me to formulate sentences and think of all the words and the order they are supposed to go in. So, my favorite word is "Ja", which means yes.

Me with a royal guard at the palace.

Me in front of the royal palace.

Me in front of the opera buliding.

Me inside of the opera building.

Jenny's family and I at her house. :-)

Høsten i Norge (The Autumn in Norway)

This is the letter I wrote to AFS about my autumn in Norway. I tried not use a translator to see how much I knew. My host parents helped me a bit with some words that I had absolutely no idea about. This letter is probably filled with errors, but I tried my hardest and it is good. AFS asked us to send them a letter about our autumn in Norway and what is new and different and if we think anything is strange, so I told them how it was. If you don't speak Norwegian you can just copy it into a translator if you want to know what it is saying :)

Høsten i Norge

av Rebecca Pedersen fra USA

Denne høsten har være interessant. Jeg har oppleve ting dat jeg har ikke oppleve i mitt liv. Min vertsfamilien ønsker meg å experience mange tradisjonal norsk ting. Jeg har prøve tradisjonal norsk mat som fiskeboller, fårkål, fiskecaker, shøtekaker, pølse, lefse, elg, og reinsdyr. Når min familien forteller meg dat jeg spiste reinsdyr, jeg følte som jeg spiste Julnisse. Mensker har spise mange brød. Brød for frokøst. Brød for lunsj. Ikke brød for middag, vi har poteter. Hvis du liker ikke brød, fisk, eller poteter du skal ikke kom til Norge!

Jeg gå seiling med min vertsfar og en hund i fjorden. Også vi gå på en hyttetur i Fagerfjell. Det var gøy. Dar jeg prøvd vaffler. Vaffler er veldig godt. Også, vi spiste sjokolade på topp av et fjell. Min vertsmor lærer meg hvordan å strikke. Jeg er nesten ferdig med min første skjerf.

Min vertsfamilien og meg se på Alt for Norge. Jeg er fra USA og det er gøy å se amerikansk på norsk telvisjon. Mensker i Norge så på amerikansk nyheter mer enn americansk gjøre. Jeg vet mer om presidentvalget og Hurricane Sandy enn min familien i USA gjøre.

Det er kaldt i Norge! Et varmt dag er 7 grader og et kaldt dag er under null. Jeg er fra Los Angeles og jeg burukte å tenke et varmt dag var 35 grader og et kaldt dag var 5 grader. Jeg kjopter min første par av vinter sko to uker siden og var i snø for første timen en uke siden.

Med venner jeg gå for kaffe eller gå å kina å se et film eller gå å gym eller gå kjoper. Alt er dyrt! Norge er dyrt. Jeg skal aldri tenke anyting er dyrt igjen.

Norge er full av nytt ting og jeg elsker Norge.  

Min klasse (my class)

Meg på topp av fjell (me on top of a montain)

På tur med hund (on a walk with the dog)

På tur med Nezzoz (on a walk with Nezzoz)

Spise marshmallows med min søster og en venn (eating marshmallows with my sister and a friend)

Min første snø! (My first snow)

Seiling med min vertsfar (sailing with my host father)

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...