My Norwegian Adventure
Hello again. I realize it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I was too busy relaxing. Still enjoying Juleferie, my host family and I have been relaxing this week. I went for a walk and took some pictures of the cathedral and other Trondheim scenery. I've also been going through my books quite quickly.
I am very sorry to say that, very early this morning-yesterday evening back home-my mom called me to tell me that my dad had passed away. It was very sudden and unexpected. I am very sad that I wasn't able to be with my family at that time and I, of course, miss my dad more than words can say. Today, when the news had spread, I was overwhelmed with condolences from friends and family. Many, many people contacted me offering their help if I needed it. This was incredibly touching to me, especially when many were exchange friends I had only met a few times, if at all. So thank you very much to all of you who have offered your sympathies and prayers; it means a lot to me and my family. This morning, my host family and counselor helped me arrange to go home for a yet undetermined amount of time to be with my family.
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God Jul/Merry Christmas from Norway!!! Norwegians celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so I've already celebrated and I had a fantastic time! On the 23rd, I went to my Rotary club's Christmas meeting. One of the local bishops is a member of the club and he read us the Christmas story and talked a bit about the meaning of Christmas. In the evening I watched Love Actually with my host parents and then all the kids had to go to bed so that Julenissen (Norwegian Santa Claus) could come. On Christmas Eve morning we opened the gifts we had gotten in our stockings. Then Sissel and Jose's mother made breakfast. I made a pumpkin roll to be dessert for dinner and then the whole family sat down to watch a Disney Christmas special of clips from old movies. I helped Sissel prepare for dinner and then changed into nice clothes for the dinner. We ate dinner at 5 o'clock; dinner was very good, consisting of meat cakes, ribs, and some vegetables. For dessert we had my pumpkin roll, which everyone liked, and a caramel cake. After dinner and dessert we got to sit down and open gifts. I got a lot of really, really cool gifts and am incredibly grateful. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing until we went to bed.
I'm so glad it's finally Juleferie (Christmas break). Friday was my last day at school, though two of my host brothers, Luis and Felix, had their last day on Thursday. Thursday evening, my host dad's parents arrived from Spain, so I've been practicing my Spanish with them. Friday morning, I had Spanish class, but our teacher was sick, so we joined another Spanish class and watched Home Alone (the movie was in English with Norwegian subtitles). Afterwards, I went with friends to Nidarosdommen, the cathedral in Trondheim, for a concert put on by the music and dance students. The cathedral is absolutely beautiful. And much, much bigger than Resurrection. The music students were excellent as well. It was very koselig and I'm very glad I went. After the concert, there was some social gatherings in the vestibule at school, where everyone went around wishing each other "God Jul". Then, I went with some of my classmates to a friend's house for her birthday party. We ate, played a quiz (my team won!), she opened her gifts, we had cake and talked. The party was also koselig. Later in the evening, my Rotary counselor, Roar picked me up and took me to his parents' place. He and his wife, Torhild, were going to a show, but I was spending the weekend with them. I ate dinner there and then we all watched some TV. When I got to my counselor's house, we watched some more TV before going to bed. Saturday, my counselor's wife's brothers visited for a little while with their significant others. Torhild and I went to a pub in the city for lunch, and in the afternoon, Roar's band gave a concert there. The concert was very good, but Torhild and I didn't stay for the whole thing. When we got back, I helped Torhild prepare for the lutefisk dinner they were having that evening with Roar's family. I tried a small slice of lutefisk. To be honest, it smelled pretty bad and a lot of people had been telling me how they didn't like it, so I was very nervous, but also very determined to at least try a little bit. I ate it with some potatoes, peas and bacon, but it really wasn't that terrible. It was definitely not as bad as the rakfisk I tried earlier this year. Still, I doubt I'll ever eat it again. For the second round, I tried the pinnekjøtt, which is mutton ribs. It was much better than the lutefisk! The dinner was also very koselig. (Really, my whole weekend was koselig, meaning it was nice and a good time). Sunday morning, I went with Roar, Torhild and their son to pick out their Christmas tree. They went to a farm where you could cut your own tree, but they chose to buy a tree that was already cut. Torhild's brothers stopped by again for a little while. After that, we went to the birthday party of one of Roar's nephews. We watched the Women's Handball Championships, which was Norway vs. Netherlands. Norway won!!! and I was really proud of my "adopted" country. After the party, we went back to their place. This morning, Roar and Torhild both had to go to work, but their son dropped me off in town to meet with friends for breakfast.
It's my last week of school before Christmas (Jul). On Monday I didn't have gym class. Tuesday, most of my classes were games or other fun activities. In Math we played Jeopardy and we got out of Spanish early. Wednesday we had a scavenger hunt/quiz in History. Today we watched a movie in Psychology and did some quizzes in Norwegian. Also in Norwegian we each wrote our name on the back of a paper plate and then passed it around the room and everyone wrote a short, nice compliment on it. I wasn't sure what to write for most of my class since I really don't know them all that well, but it was okay. It was really nice to get my plate back and see all the nice things people had written about me. Tonight my host dad, Jose's parents are coming to stay with us for the holidays. Tomorrow is my last day of school before the break, but Luis and Felix had their last day today.
This past week I had exams at school in English and Norwegian and I have a few more exams coming up this week. Thursday I was able to work from home in the morning, so that was nice and relaxing. In the evening, I went to the school of my oldest host brother (and also Ylva, my previous host sister) for a concert. Each of the classes performed a song. It was very fun and all the classes were very good. On Saturday I went Christmas shopping with a friend. We went to the Julemarked-the Christmas market. There were a lot of people and a lot of cool things to buy. Last night, I went with the parents of my Rotary counselor to a Christmas concert for the band that my counselor is in. The concert was very good; they performed some American Christmas songs as well as some Norwegian songs.
This weekend I switched to my second host family. Just to be clear, I loved my first host family. They were wonderful people, very fun and nice. Part of Rotary's exchange experience included switching host families to experience different traditions and such. Fortunately for me, my second host family doesn't live very far away and they're very good friends with my first host family. I was a little nervous at first, because my second host family has three sons, all younger than me, but I think it will be a good experience for me. I found it strange though, that as I packed my things, the room I had come to think of as my room became more strange and foreign to me. I had put up postcards from my family back home, and as I took those down, I realized how empty the wall looked. Once most of my things had been packed into my suitcases, boxes and bags, the room seemed very strange to me. It's a hard feeling to describe. I unpacked my things in the afternoon and then had dinner. After dinner, I showed my new host family the scrapbook my Mom had made of my home, family, and friends in Wisconsin. Then I gave them their host gifts. The boys all seemed to like their Packers jerseys (though my host Dad is a Jets fan). I went over the "first night questions" and that was about it.
Thursday was Math fagdag. We had an exam on all that we had learned since the beginning of the year. Even though I had studied a lot before, I was really, really nervous about it. The test was fairly difficult, but the language had very little to do with that; even my friends agreed it was difficult. Everyone in the class used all three hours, and some people even said they didn't finish every problem. In the afternoon, Norwegian class was dismissed early, so I went to Trondheim Torg with some friends. We ate at Rosenborg bakery and talked about school. They were very curious about how I found Norwegian school and what American high school is like. Friday I had Spanish, Math, and Chemistry. Spanish we prepared for our exam next week. In Math, we discussed the test and played Jeopardy. I wasn't much help to my team, but I did know the answer to a few questions and was able to figure out what a few of the questions were asking too. I spent Friday night at home with my host parents; we watched Jessica Jones on Netflix and they skyped with Runa for a while. Saturday morning I finished up my packing except for the things I still needed. In the afternoon, I did the little bit of homework I had and relaxed. This evening I attended a Rotary meeting held at one of the local book shops in Trondheim. There were two authors who talked about their book "Historisk Trondheim" and then two ladies from the store talked about some of the books at the store. It was very fun and I had a good time. This week I am getting ready to move to my next host family. It snowed on Monday, but then rained, so everything is still very icy and slippery. Tomorrow I have my math exam, and I've studied, though I doubt I'll do very well (math is far from being my strongest subject).
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