Hva nå?????

Hei alle!
Another week gone, seriously I want to know where it goes. Anybody have a clue? It has now been five weeks since I left my home state of Minnesota. Its nuts that it has been that long, because it sure does not feel like it at all. Although I lot of stuff happened this last week, especially this weekend, lots of stuff happened in a short amount of time but it was a blast.

Starting with last wednesday, not much else happened after I posted, although that night I went to a friends birthday celebration. Played some games, had fun and called it a night.

Thursday again was pretty boring, although for lunch I went with some friends to the school restaurant. (I just got the nachos because I had already eaten most of my lunch, plus I didn't want to send much). It was a cool place, the food was good and not totally expensive, it was actually cheaper than it would have been to go to McDonalds. The people that make the food are all students learning to become chefs, but it is quite good (and affordable!). Got home from school and ust chilled out (thats getting to be the usual thing). After dinner (fish cakes, they were really good) I went on a roller ski with Oseberg Skilag again, did some intervals and sprinting drills with the guys. I am still out of shape but it is getting considerably better each week.

Oh what a fun day Friday was. We had Norwegian for our fag dag, so I had Norwegian for the entire day. It started out okay, we watched a movie (in Norwegian, thankfully though they put on english subtitles). I am still confused about all that happened though, it was a hard movie to follow. After that we went to our classroom and worked on the tasks for the day (writing assignments to do with the movie), so that is when the real fun started. So I sat there and attempted to translate the assignments while the rest of the students worked on their papers. After about 30 minutes I finally figured out what the first part of it was... (no computer, so I had to sit and flip through a Norwegian-English dictionary). For lunch though I was excused because the rest of the exchange students plus their families were having lunch with the Head-master at the school restaurant. It was good food, and I talked to someone and got my math switched to the hardest the school offers!! YES!!! Now I won't be sitting and falling asleep in math! Then after lunch went back to attempting Norwegian (I failed), I caved and went to the library to use a computer there to translate and attempted to right. However my brain was turned to mush and any writing just sounded like senseless rambling. After going home and eating dinner and such (its basically the same every day now), I went to a friends house for "guy night," had fun, watched some tv chilled out and ate some pizza.

Saturday is when the real fun begins! We woke up kind of early and left for Oslo for the day. My host sister from Bergen was came down to Oslo Friday night and was meeting us at the Opera house Saturday morning with a friend of hers. The main reason for the trip was that my host parents were going to a book fair that was being help over the weekend and while we were there my host sister, her friend, and my host brothers girlfriend, were going to show me around the city. So we got there, went down to the Opera house and met up with everyone and went to this talk about a couple of books and an interview with 3 of the past state ministers of Norway. Everyone thought it was supposed to be like 30 minutes or so but it ended up being an hour and a half. (I fell asleep a couple of times because it was pretty difficult Norwegian and after a while my brain couldn't take it). After that we te lunch and split up into our groups. First thing we did was go up onto the roof of the Opera house, it was really cool. We proceeded on a tour of most of the other attractions in the city, it is such cool place. We went all over, I will try to post photos because there is too much to try and explain. After walking through the city for a few hours we headed back to my host brothers apartment (via subway!! my first time on a subway). We had a traditional Norwegian dinner called "Fårikål (some kind of lamb)," I can tell you that it smells pretty odd when it is cooking but it is actually very good. Dessert was really good too, a traditional dessert (I think??) and it was really funny because directly translated it means "covered cow girls" or something along those lines. We headed back home later that night (I fell asleep after about 15 minutes of driving).

Sunday was a really nice day, we went to Andebu (where my host mother grew up). A really cool place, and went to a lake called "trollsvann" which means trolls water in english by the way. We hiked to a spot to eat lunch (not on trollsvann because there were so many people), but after lunch we went down to the lake and me and my little host brother took a bit of a swim. The water was pretty cold but wasn't as bad as I thought from such a small lake. After dinner and everything my host sister, host dad and I went to see a movie called Varg Veum (is that spelled right?), it was a pretty sweet movie, although it was a little hard to follow because of the Norwegian but I actually was able to follow most of it, except for a few complicated parts with more words and less action.

Back to school again, although it was actually kind of sweet because my schedule moved around a little since I made the switch in math. So now I have a free period in between Norwegian and physics on Mondays!!! It was actually really nice to just have a period to relax in between classes. Stopped by the post office and picked up a package from home (its really hard to bike with a backpack on and a box in your lap by the way), complete with some candy, maple syrup, and a few things I forgot to bring. After opening the box my host brother, host sister and I played a game (sorry I can't remember the name right now), but lots of fun. Had dinner, farmor came over for cake and kaffe. Later still my host sister left, it was a lot of fun to get and meet her and I can't wait to head out to Bergen in just under 2 weeks!!! (I know your reading so....see you in a couple weeks :D )

Oh look another day of school, although I am starting to get into the swing of things, but I never liked getting up so early (even back home). Thats why I oved my college classes so much last year, and not having to be at the school till like 10. Anyway, started off the day with Norwegian (for the exchange students), and went to my other classes, including gym (we got to throw javelin and discus, along with a little running), biology, and my sports class (orientering, it was a lot of fun, and quite a bit of just tromping through the woods). Came home, dinner was a very Norwegian meal (I'm told), wasn't bad, a little different taste though, went to cheer my host brother on in the run with the ski team and then biked into town and ran some errands. I went to bed earlier than usual (it was so nice just getting that little bit of extra sleep).

Last but not least today. It was my first day in the harder math (no more falling asleep!!), this math will be so much better, I will actually be learning some new stuff! I'm excited if you couldn't tell. I have also come to like having a break in between classes instead of ust going from one to the next, it gives my brain some time to recover. (plus I didn't have any classes till 9:30 :D ). Thats about all I have to say for now.

Sorry if I bore you with some of the details, I just can't seem to write in any other way, but I hope you enjoyed reading. Until next time!
Jon