Well everyone it is official, I am back in Ely, my first home. Anyway this might very well be one of my last posts on here, except for a possible random one here and there. However I am thinking about starting another one, but it depends on the feedback I get for it.
Now down to the last things I did in Norway. My last week in Tønsberg me and a friend decided to pull an all nighter on the longest day of the year. We started by chilling out at the beach with a bunch of friends, of which only one wanted to stay up with us.
We stayed up until the sun came up (4:00 in the morning), the coolest part being that the "night" never got dark enough to see any stars, it stayed twilight all the way through. For me it was one of the coolest things, at first when it started getting light so early I was kind of annoyed, but once I got used to it I really liked it.
The day after I had a going away party with all of my closer friends from school and everything. It was really nice but kind of disappointing knowing that I would not see most of them again before I left.
Next on the agenda was a boat trip with some friends of my host family for St. Johns eve (can't remember how to spell it in Norwegian). It was so sweet because we were on a huge boat and also because there were so many people out on boats (I will be adding pictures sometime this week so you can check them out).
We ended up boating out to an island and eating some dinner with some of their friends and then heading back in and watching all of the bonfires on the way back. In Norway on this holiday it is a tradition to light these massive bonfires on the coast.
The next few days were not all that exciting, I went for a bike ride with one of my friends if I remember right. Did some stuff with my family, and ended up spraining my ankle in a running race so I came back a little injured :P. The highlight though was actually as I was leaving, a handful of my friends met me at the train station just as I was leaving.
It was really unexpected (I only thought there would be one), but I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise and something I will NEVER forget. Leaving town was one of the hardest things, I know I will probably be going back but leaving after being there a whole year and coming to call it my home was hard none the less.
My last few days in Norway was spent between my host mothers sister and an AFS end of stay camp. Both were really good and a lot of fun but eventually they came to an end at the airport.
It finally hit me as we pulled up to the airport that I was going home, and soon. Me and a couple of the students that I was talking to really started to feel it as we pulled up and unloaded all of our bags.
Me and the other Americans also happened to be on one of the earliest flights which means that basically everyone was still there and trying to say goodbye at one time. Emotions were running wild and I hope everyone made it through okay, but we finally got all of our baggage checked and got to our plane with not a whole lot of time to spare.
The flight was fairly uneventful, we went from Oslo to Stockholm to Newark and then we split up as well, with me continuing to Minneapolis and everyone else heading their own directions. It was weird to be back in the US again after so long especially because almost everyone was speaking English.
Eventually I made it to Minneapolis and was greeted by my family and also by some old friends from Faribault. I can not tell you what was going through my head at the time, it was just a generally weird and totally unique feeling.
After a few days with my Aunt and Uncle down in Minneapolis we finally headed home, and yesterday afternoon I walked into my house after almost an entire year. While it felt good to be home I also miss Norway quite a bit.
There you have it. Thanks so much for following my blog this year and maybe I will be creating another one to go further.
Jon
P.S. Alle min venner i norge, tusen takk for et kjempebra år i norge, dere har gjort dette år uforglemmelig. Der er så mye jeg har lyst å si til dere men for nå takk for alle dere har gjort og vi sees igjen! :D
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