My First Goodbyes...

Last Monday I had to say my first goodbyes. On Mondays I went to dance classes. I took jazz at Spotlight Dance Studio. It was fun, I met a lot of new people, and Kine was the nicest dance instructor I could have asked for. But last week was the final dance class. And I had to say goodbye to everyone in my class. It was a slap of reality that I actually have to leave and say goodbye to everyone. That was a hard realization, that in just 46 short days I will be leaving Norway and on a flight back to the US.

To top it all off, on Monday I received an email from AFS about the last camp for all the exchange students before we leave Norway to our home countries. That was a real wake up call. I did realize that I had to leave, but just seeing the paper and realizing it was only a matter of weeks until I would have to leave for the US. I feel like I have to leave home for the second time, instead of leaving to go back home.

  It is only 45 days until I have to go back on the plane to the US (and I don't want to go so soon).

Oslo...again!!

This weekend I took the train to Oslo, again. I love going to Oslo and hanging out with my exchange student friends. We only have 8 weeks left until all of us take a flight back to a different part if the world. It will never be the same again, where I can just ring up an Italian and sleepover at her house or meet a French, Chilean, Brazilian, and Mexican in town for a coffee and a movie. I love my friends from all over the world, and to think that we won't be able to hang out like we do now, just in a matter of months, that is going to suck. That might actually be the worst part of this year ending and me leaving: that nothing will ever be the same as it was this year. I have had the best year of my life, and a lot of that is due to the awesome exchange students. :-)
Anyway, this weekend was fantastic. Now, all of us realize that we don't have much time left and we want to spend as much time together as possible. So I took the train in on Saturday and got into Oslo at 1pm. There I met Alessandro(Italy), Titi(Chile), Lou(France), and Andreane(Canada). We then proceeded to wait for Cristina(Italy), who used being Italian as an excuse that she was about an hour late :-). In that hour though Berkan(Turkey) ran up to us and hugged us and talked to us for five minutes, then he left again. It was a little strange, but hey, it's all good. Then we met Cristina and walked to the center of the city. There, we went to McDonald's. When we were there we met Claudia(Italy), Angel(Mexico), Demian(Argentina), Marcos(Venezuela) and 3 Germans(that I'm not exactly sure what their names are). After McDonald's we went out and walked around town a bit. Then a few left to go do something else and the rest went to Wayne's Coffee. We chilled out there for a while. After that we all took the busses back to where we were staying (I was staying at Cristina's house). And we agreed to meet up later to go see a movie. When we met up again we agreed that movies were too expensive, so we just hung out in the city. But, now it was just me, Cristina, Titi, Andreane, and Angel. We hung out, talked, Cristina sang some opera, it was a great night!

Dancin' in the street

On Sunday we planned to meet the other exchange students at Songsvann to have a little picnic thing. But I had the worst luck on Sunday! First, we figured out that it was impossible to have a bonfire there, like we thought. But that wasn't a huge problem, we just bought 2 of the one time use grills.
We got on the subway and were at Songsvann in 30 minutes. There, we met the others, grilled hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, and listened to music. I even got the others to try s'mores!! They loved them, no big deal. We were there for a few hours before we went back to the city.

Chubby Bunny

Me and my homie

We got on the subway, and I had forgotten to buy a ticket. I bought one on Friday, but for some reason on Saturday it slipped my mind. And it was perfect because there was ticket control people at the second stop on our way. So I had to pay a 750 kroner fine for not having a ticket :-(. I tried to explain the situation, and I tried to start crying and acting like a really confused foreigner to see if that would get me out of it, but no. Not fun!! Then, that made us miss our subway and we had to go back to Cristina's house to get my bag, and then we we were one subway to late and I missed the train I was supposed to take home. Then, an hour later I took the train home and I was back in the comfort of my own bed again :)

1. Mai

May first is Labor Day in Norway, so we had Wednesday free from school. On Tuesday night, while most of the young people of Norway were out partying and getting drunk, I went to the movies with one of my friends. We saw Spring Breakers. Let me just say that that was on of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was really impressed with the actors, because they went from high school musical, pretty little liars, wizards of waverly place, and.... To being bad ass drug addicts who partied hard and killed people in Florida. Even thought I was impressed with the actors, I was not impressed with the movie. There was absolutely no story line, and the movie was just kind of creepy.
Then on Wednesday, I or to sleep in :-). Then my friends (Solveig and Emma) and and I rode our bikes to a beach and had a picnic. It was nice we had sandwiches and brownies and Reese's and other goodies. But, it was colder at the beach than we thought it would be, so we kind if Kind I looked like dorks laying altogether covered up with the only planet we had. It was good we were about the only people to go to the beach that day :-).

Min første gang i Danmark!

My first time in Denmark.
I went on a tour to Denmark with my choir. It was bundles of fun. I got to hang out with friends, meet new people, see a new city and country, and have a good time.
We met at the ferry terminal at 06:30, just a little early. My friends at school were jealous that I got the day off, but when I told them what time we were leaving they were glad to start school at08:20. Anyway, the ferry left at 8. We had to get there early to put everything in the bus and get our tickets and everything sorted out. On the ferry we got the breakfast buffet. That was good, and I haven't had a buffet since I left the US. I guess it's not too common in Norway. So on the ferry we basically ate, sat and talked, and some went to the tax free store. The ferry ride was 2 hours and 30 minutes from Sandefjord to Strömstad, Sweden.
Once we got to Sweden we got off the boat and onto the bus. We were on the bus for 5 hours before we stopped at a mall in Sweden to buy lunch. Then, after that 30 minute stop we were back on the road. On the bus we watched the movie A Walk to Remember, let me just say, that is not a bus ride movie; it is sad and i cried, but when you are on a bus you really do t want to ball your eyes out in front of everyone, so you put on your sunglasses and act like you are coughing :). For another 3 hours we drove, until we finally arrived at the hostel we would be inhabiting in Denmark! After about 20 minutes in the hostile, just enough time to get our keys, find our rooms, and move in, we left in the bus again. But this time we were on our way to Tivoli.

Tivoli is an amusement park in Copenhagen. But to me, it felt like more of a carnival. It had games, rides, and restaurants. But you had to pay for tickets to each ride. But it was really fun! We ate at a Chinese restaurant in the park. Then we walked around, it was a very cozy park. Then me and 2 other went on, what I would call the Supreme Scream because that is what it is called at Knott's Berry Farm, back where I live in the states. But if you don't know why Supreme Scream is, then it is the ride that you go really high up, then it drops you down really fast. It was fun. But, what I learned is Norwegians, in general, are not very fond of roller coasters. They thought almost every roller coaster was big and too scary. I didn't understand, because I have been going to amusement parks and I have been on roller coasters since the age of 5 (or as soon as I was tall enough to ride them).

Then there was a concert in the center square of Tivoli. And afterwards I bought a cotton candy, I wanted to be really cliche.

Jenny and I 

A ride at the park

The concert

Then, we all met up, took a group picture and were back on the bus by midnight.
At the hostel, we basically all just died and went to sleep.
The next day we had breakfast at 09:00 and by 10 we were on the bus and driving into the city. Today we were just hanging out in Copenhagen. I would have loved to have gone sightseeing, but no one else wanted to and we weren't allowed to I alone. Everyone else wanted to go shopping. Copenhagen ha better stores and things are a little cheaper than in Norway. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy shopping, I am just saying that now I want to go back to Copenhagen to see the sites :-).

Me in the city center

The city center

People playing music in the main square

A random train in the city

They had a lot of American stores there and all the Norwegians were really excited to shop there because they had only heard about these stores.

Anna's first time in Sephora

Me and Anna

For lunch I had a typical Danish, red hot dog. It tasted like a regular hot dog, but it was red.

Me eating the red hot dog

Then after a long day of shopping, the whole choir met up and we went out for ice cream. Then we walked back to the bus and back to the hostel. We had 2 hours to relax and get ready for dinner. For dinner we went to an Italian buffet. (Another buffet! The weird thing is I used to be able to eat maybe 4 servings at a buffet with different foods, but at this buffet I could only have one serving before I was stuffed. I think my American stomach has shrank....).
Then, there is a bridge in Copenhagen where people hang locks. It is usually where couples go to hang a lock and throw the key to show that they will be together forever. But, everyone in the choir hung their own luck and wrote whatever they wanted to on it. In mine I wrote on one side: having the experience of a life time USA --> Norway. And on the otherwise I wrote: never stop enjoying life. 2012-2013.

Where we hung our locks

My lock

After we hung the locks we all went to the movies together. We saw Silver Linings Playbook. It was a really sweet film. And thank the heavens it was in English, because if we saw a Danish film I believe I would have understood next to nothing. Yes, Danish and Norwegian are very similar languages, Norwegian kind of, in a way, came from Danish because Norway was under Danish rule in the past, and when you read Danish it is almost deny octal to Norwegian. However, when you hear Danish it sounds nothing like Norwegian, at least not to me. Norwegians say that Danes speak like they have a potato in their throat. I don't know if that is true, I just know that when they spoke Danish to me I just smiled and nodded and hoped they don't say anything important.
After thy we went back to the hostel and slept.
The next morning we had breakfast from 08:30-09:00 and were on the bus at 09:15. We drove to the Norwegian Seaman's Church. There we attended the Sunday service and sang 4 songs for them. It was really nice. The we had a coffee and some cake there and themes were back in the bus and back on the road. Again, an 8 hour bus ride, with one stop half way through, then a 2 and a half hour ferry ride.
The ferry ride on the way back was awful. We had a dinner and dessert buffet, which was good. But basically right after we finished the buffet the waves got big, it started raining, and the boat was rocking a lot! I am glad I don't get easily sea sick, but I know a lot of others did. We got back to Sandefjord at 23:00. And I was happy to be on solid ground again. When I got home I took a shower right aw at, because I had forgotten my shampoo at home, so at the hostel I washed my hair with body lotion (not a good idea and I don't recommend it). Then, after my shower I basically died from exhaustion Then, lucky me, I had school the next day :-)