Polaris

I did not do much today to be honest, I basically sat in my room the entire day. I finished my lesson for my communications class that is due next week, found a few more sources for my research paper, and started watching season 3 of House of Cards. Then, later on I filled out an application to work at Polaris this summer to make some money, which I will desperately need after this semester. I'm hoping it will be nice out tomorrow so I can go for a walk and go to the grocery store after, but I won't get my hopes up because it has been kind of rainy and cloudy here almost all week.

Research Paper

I had class until 2:30 today and afterward I tried to work on my research paper for my comp class. After comp today, I found out that the sources I had found were not going to work, so I spent about 2 and a half hours after class today trying to find new sources. Then, I had some supper before Natalie's friend came. Natalie and her friend Marit are going to London this weekend and because they have to take a bus from Moss to the Rygge airport at 5:40 in the morning, her friend decided to stay here for the night (she lives in Oslo so she would have had an hour long train ride to get to the airport). Natalie going to London this weekend is really making my want to travel, I'm actually starting to get a little frustrated being "stuck" here in the Moss area.

Smash!

Since it was my dad's birthday today, I Skyped him while he was at work to wish him a happy birthday (and as it turned out, I also let his coworkers know it was his birthday because they were eavesdropping). My original plan was to start singing "Hurra for deg" as soon as he answered the call, but luckily I decided not to because everyone would have heard me. After I finished Skyping with him, I worked on my research paper about a sustainability issue (I'm doing my on golf courses). Then, I went to the mall to pick up a few groceries, which is when I bought Smash! and my world was forever changed. Smash! is chocolate covered Bugles and it is amazing, I don't know why we do not have this in the states because it is so delicious. After I had discovered what I had been missing out on my entire life, I worked ahead in my communications class. Lita and I didn't go to Samspillband tonight because she was busy setting up for her daughter Mie's birthday party tomorrow and I was busy discovering Smash! and doing homework.

Peanut Butter Bars

This morning I almost had a heart attack because I shut my alarm off instead of hitting snooze and woke up 45 minutes later. Luckily, I wake up so I have almost an hour and half to get ready i the morning, so despite sleeping in 45 minutes, I still had 45 minutes to get ready. Then, we finished our lab early so I had 2 hours for lunch, which was really nice. However, when I went back to school for my comp class, it turns out it was cancelled and Becky didn't come into tell us until 15 minutes after the class was supposed to have started. Our teacher was picking up his family at the airport, which also meant that our film class started late. After I finished with my classes I came home and natalie and I made peanut butter bars. They didn't turn out as good as my moms, but they still taste good and are a good substitute for Reese's (which are not sold here). Then the rest of the night I spent talking to my friend Andrea. 

Finished My Book!!!!!

I finally finished that stupid book today!! Well the book wasn't that stupid, but I was really getting sick of reading it. After I finally finished reading it this afternoon, I wrote my reflection paper on it and submitted that right away. By the time I had finished writing my paper, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon, so I figured I might as well start making myself something for supper. So I made some pancakes and talked with Natalie for awhile, which we both realized it is already February 23rd so we only have 2 and a half months left! I can't believe how fast this is going by! When I had finished my supper and had cleaned up the kitchen, I watched highlights from the Oscars since I couldn't watch it live. Then, I had choir practice at 7:30 and our choir director wasn't there so it didn't go very well, especially considering we had new music and half the people don't know how to read music. When choir practice was done, I came home and made sure I had finished all my homework for tomorrow and put everything in my backpack so it is ready to go in the morning.

The Last Day of Winter Break

Sadly, today was the last day of winter break and I didn't do anything exciting. Lita has friends from Bemidji staying at her house this weekend so we didn't go to church, which meant I had more time to read my book. I read over a 100 pages in that stupid book today and I still have 85 more pages to go before I'm done, I hate reading so much. I also painted my nails today and cleaned my room. Natalie had made "healthy"lefse yesterday, but not the kind she had the first time; this time around she used my mom's recipe but instead of using cream she used milk and instead of white flour she used whole wheat flour (or oat flour, I'm not sure which). She let me try a piece today and it was actually really good, I would definitely eat it again, but I still prefer my mom's over Natalie's (I mean how can you beat the taste of the unhealthy ingredients, that's what makes it so good).

Tacos

I realized this morning that I forgot to write on my blog last night, so I figured I should do it right away this morning then. It looks like we got a really light dusting of snow during the night, only the roofs of the buildings have snow on them, the roads and sidewalks have nothing. Anyway, yesterday I read a little bit more in my book and then went to the mall. I bought a few things and then bought some groceries. I decided to make tacos last night because I haven't had them since before I left, so I was starting to crave them (it's the same with pizza too). Then, I watched Lie to Me the rest of the night, which I am very addicted to, so luckily there are only three season and I'm halfway through the second season, so it shouldn't be too much longer before I'm done with it.

Lazy Day

Even though it was nice out today, I decided to stay home. I forced myself to read more in my book and once I had finished reading about 70 pages, I decided I had done enough homework for the day. The rest of the day I spent catching up on TV shows  from this past week. I was even too lazy to make any sort of "real" food for supper so I had Kraft EasyMac.

Sweden...Again

Lita took Jeanette, Natalie, myself, and her daughter Mie to Sweden today, just right across the border so about an hour trip, but it was Sweden nevertheless so we still got good prices on everything. First, she took us to downtown Svinesund to go to a fabric shop so Mie could look for curtains. I feel like this is the kind of store my mom and Becky could spend all day in. It was jam-packed with stuff, not only fabric, but just random things like little chicken figures (which I was tempted to get for my grandma) to pillows to bathrobes. After we left the store, we decided it was too cold to do anything downtown so we just headed straight for the mall, which is about 10-15 minutes out of town (closer to the border). We spent about three and a half hours at the mall total. We first went grocery shopping because that was our main reason for going. In Sweden the meat, alcohol, and chocolate is way cheaper than it is in Norway, but some items are actually more expensive in Sweden than in Norway; therefore, I loaded up on meat and chocolate. Once we had put the groceries in the car, we had some lunch and set a time to meet back at the entrance so we could all go shopping where we wanted to go. I went with Natalie and Jeanette, which meant that we went to three sports stores and a store that sells protein powder and stuff that people who work out all the time use. We also went to a couple of clothing stores, but I don't want to spend a ton of money on clothes because I won't be able to take fit everything in my suitcases. So the only things I bought in Sweden today were groceries and then the food I ate while I was there. When Natalie and I were home and had unpacked our groceries, we both sat down and had some supper together before we both went to our rooms for peace and quiet. I spent the rest of the night in my room trying out some of the candy I had bought in Sweden and the Oreos with chocolate filling, which were delicious.

Catch Up Day

So I decided to use today to catch up on my laundry, which needed to be done, and also on cleaning the apartment since we usually do that on Sundays. I also sat down and forced myself to read my book for my Women and Children's Rights class. After I read about 100 pages I decided I had done a good job and quit for the rest of the night. Brigitte and a friend of hers came home around 7:30 tonight (her friend will be here until Friday). Lita is taking Natalie, Jeanette, myself, Mie (her daughter), and possibly her husband to Sweden tomorrow to go shopping. I plan on stocking up on a lot of for because it is cheaper there (pretty much any place is cheaper than Norway) and we'll see what else I end up buying when I'm there. I need to think of someplace to go on Friday though because it is actually suppose to be sunny and nice out, so I might get lucky and see someplace when it is nice and I can enjoy it.

Gøteborg, Sweden

I went to Gøteborg today, but I had to get up at 6 this morning and be on the train by 7:45, which just about killed me. I made it to the train station with 10 minutes to spare and got all settled in for my 3 hour train ride. After an hour, the customs agent came through and asked me if I had anything I needed to declare before entering Sweden, to which I said no. Then she asked me if I was planning on buying anything when I was there, which I also said no to. By this time she seemed a little skeptical of me and asked if I was alone and had any baggage, when I said no to both questions she asked me what I even planned on doing in Sweden. I told her I was just going for a day trip to do some sightseeing, which she seemed to be fine with and told me to have a good day and moved on to the next person. When I got to Gøteborg, it was starting to rain (which seems to happen every time I go somewhere no matter what the weather says), but I just started walking around. I eventually found the Gøteborg City Museum and decided to start there (pretty much just so I could get out of the drizzling rain). It actually turned out to be kinda neat, they have it set up so you start at the Viking Age and work your way up through the building all the way to Present Day. I snuck pictures in the Viking exhibit, but I couldn't in the rest because there were other people walking around. After I finished at the museum, I walked around and found Kronhuset, which is one of the oldest buildings in Gøteborg, it was built in the mid 1600s to store military uniforms. I couldn't go inside, but I took pictures of the outside. After I found that I walked around some more and found the Christinae Kyrka, which is a church in the city center from 1748. Then, I walked around Gustaf Adolf's Torg, which is the central square, it has a statue of the city's founder Gustav II Adolf and is surrounded by political buildings; such as, old and new City Halls, the City Council, and the Commodity Exchange. After that it was really starting to rain so I decided to go to the mall that was right across the street from the square. I walked around the mall for a couple of hours and since the rain hadn't let up, I decided to just head back home because I think the city would be much prettier and funner if it was nice out. When I got to Central Station, a train for Oslo had left 5 minutes before I got there, which meant I had to wait around for 3 hours. While I was walking around the station, I was constantly being asked for money and I seriously mean constantly. I was even asked by the same people multiple times! I was so happy to be on the train heading back home by 5:55. On the way home, when the customs agent asked me if I had anything to declare and if I was traveling alone, she wasn't even skeptical like the first one; however, she did ask to see my residence card, but I think that is just because I was entering Norway again and I was speaking English. When she moved on to the next person, I heard her say, "Just a minute I have to go run this through the system first." Then before I knew it there were two Somalian guys sitting in my train car with the two customs agents sitting across from them! When the train stopped in Rygge the agents escorted the two off the train! It was pretty awesome. When I was finally home again, Natalie and I sat up and talked about random stuff for about 2 hours before we decided it was probably time to go to bed. Overall, Sweden was pretty cool and now I can say I've been to two of the four countries where my ancestors were from. Personally though, I still like Norway better.

This is Kronhuset.

This is the Gøteborg City Museum.

This is the church, this was the best picture I could get of it.

This is Gustaf Adolf's Torg.

This is the view of the canal from the street.

Oslo

So yesterday when I said I would go to Halden today, well I lied. I actually went to Oslo today for a couple of hours instead. When I was looking at things to do in Halden, I found there wasn't a whole lot to do and I couldn't go visit the prison there. The prison in Halden is known as the most humane prison in the world, so of course I wanted to see it for myself, but you can't visit it. So I went to Oslo for about two hours and just walked around Karl Johan's Gate. I went into a bunch of stores, but didn't buy anything. I even went into Burberry and Louis Vuitton and just walked around drooling at everything. After I had been to all the stores I cared about going into I decided to leave, which was of course during rush hour. When I got home I made some supper and then had to go to choir practice. Lita is still sick so I had to walk to practice and once I was there everyone was asking me where Lita was. After some of the women I was sitting by found out I was going to be walking home, they immediately insisted that they take me home because they didn't want me walking home alone. Tomorrow I'm going to Gøteburg, Sweden, but I have to get up at 6 because the train leaves at 7:45. It's a 3 hour train ride there, but I'm still excited. 

Homework Day

Today I did all of my homework that is due next week, so that means I can travel the rest of winter break! Except, I have to read a book for my Women and Children's Rights class and write a one page reflection paper, but I figure I can read it on the train rides to different places. I decided to attempt making the macaroni and cheese again, but when I was getting everything out and ready to make it, I realized I didn't have any half and half and because it's Sunday no stores are open. So I had to search for a different recipe and luckily I found one where I actually had all of the ingredients and it turned out really good! Natalie even tried making a new recipe, but her's was rice with shrimp, apples, and sweet and sour sauce. She kept offering for me to try some if I wanted, but of course I declined. I also had some skole brød, which translates to school bread, it is a traditional Norwegian treat that many school kids buy on their way to school, hence the name. It is a huge bun with a lemon? filling and some coconut shavings on top, which I don't like coconut except on this. After we had finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen we both went to our bedrooms to watch videos for our classes. The first one I had to watch was a documentary called The N Word and then I had to watch an episode of Lie to Me. I'm surprised I hadn't discovered the show Lie to Me yet because that is my kind of show. I actually watched quite a few episodes before I even wrote my reflection paper about it. This really isn't a good thing that I found another show to watch when I have way too many already and especially when season 3 of House of Cards is being released in two weeks, which I will most likely watch the entire season within a couple of days. Anyway, tomorrow I think I'm going to go to Halden for the day and maybe have choir practice tomorrow night, I'm not sure if we have it or not.

This is skole brød.

Valentine's Day

It wasn't very nice outside today so I decided to just stay home and besides I had the whole apartment to myself again, except for 5 hours today instead of 3 hours like yesterday. I did some of my communications homework and then decided since it was Valentine's Day I should celebrate. So I watched movies the entire day and did my nails and that is seriously all I did today. Tomorrow I'm not sure if I will be going to church or not, but I think in the afternoon I'll try and do as much of my homework as possible so the rest of the week I can travel.

Fredrikstad

Today I was supposed to have the knitting group at 11, but Lita emailed me around 9 saying that she was sick so she would have to cancel it. I was a little upset, but on the bright side I got to go to Fredrikstad instead! I decided to wait and make myself some lunch and take the 12:45 train instead of hurrying up to take the 11:45 train. I made myself some french toast for lunch and I surprised myself because it was actually really good; I made food that was edible!!! Then, after I had cleaned up and grabbed everything I would need, I set out for the train station. It took me about 20 minutes to walk there and I was about 10 minutes early for the train so I had plenty of time to buy my ticket, which I found out I really didn't need. When I was on the train and seated the conductor came through and just looked at me and kept walking, he never even took my ticket so I basically wasted 67 kroner. It's only a 25 minute train ride from Moss to Fredrikstad so I was there at 1:10. I really don't know what way to go to find the ferry to get to Old Town Fredrikstad, but I knew that all I needed to do was go toward the river, so that made it pretty simple. It only turned out to be a 5 minute walk straight down a road from the train station to get to the ferry and about a 2 minute ferry ride to get to Old Town. Fredrikstad is one of three Norwegian cities to have been fortified and is the last town to have the fortifications still intact. The construction started in 1663 and was based off of Dutch designs, which meant having a moat surround it. The fortress was only attacked once, in 1814, and it continued to be a military base until 2002, but now it is basically just a tourist trap. While I was there, I walked the entire perimeter of the town and walked through the streets before deciding to head back. Because it was drizzling off and on all day, I only spent about an hour and a half there before taking the ferry back and heading home. I did buy a ticket for the ride back because it was the start of "rush hour" due to winter vacation and people leaving work early, so I knew the conductor would be checking for tickets, which he did. I got back to Moss around 3 and decided to go to the grocery store quick on my way back to the apartment.  When I was back at the apartment around 3:45, Natalie and Brigitte were already getting ready for the premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey. They left around 5, so I had the entire apartment to myself for about 3 hours tonight and it was glorious. I made myself a nice supper and just sat in the kitchen eating and watching Netflix until they came back. Then of course when they came back they had to tell me how good the movie was and show me everything they had received in their gift bags. After we had finished talking, I went back to my room and starting deleting photos off my phone to try and make room for new ones; I got a message today saying that I was running out of space on my phone and being I have about 8 GB of photos, I figured I would start there. I also debated going to Halden tomorrow (and I still am debating) or just staying home and working ahead on homework.

This is an image off of Google, but this is an aerial view of Old Town surrounded by the moat and river.

This was the sick bag on the train. I thought it was funny that it said "Uff, da!"

This was the train station in Fredrikstad.

This is the view of Old Town Fredrikstad while waiting for the ferry.

This is a street leading up to the city center.

This is the statue in the middle of the city. It's a guy named Fredrik, go figure.

Some of the remnants of a building on the fortress.

More remnants.

The bridge in Fredrikstad. They put "suicide fencing" on the bridge to prevent anyone from attempting or succeeding with suicide.

Winter Break

Today is my first day of Winter Break!! Well, technically tomorrow is the first official day, but since I only had an exam at 9 this morning, I consider today part of the break. After my exam, I came back to the apartment and recorded my presentation for my research paper in my Women and Children's Rights class because no one else was home yet. Once I had submitted my video and paper to my teacher, I made some lunch and went to the grocery store. Today, to switch things up a bit, I decided to go to the big Rema 1000 because I wanted to be sure that I would be able to find what I needed. I bought my macaroni noodles and a huge bag of them too. I actually picked up everything I would need to make macaroni, french toast, garlic cheese bread, and an Oreo milkshake. When I got back from the store I took the time to sit and peel a package of carrots and make some carrot sticks because I don't really care for their baby carrots here. I then made some mac and cheese for supper, but because they don't have Velveeta cheese here, I had to buy a bag of a mix of cheddar and mozzarella. The mac and cheese didn't turn out that good because of the stupid cheese, I will have to go to Coop Mega and fork over the money to get some cheddar because I am determined to have good macaroni and cheese. I also decided to make the Oreo milkshake, which turned out to be very good, so I'm happy at least one of the things I made turned out good, even Natalie agreed that the milkshake was good. After I had cleaned up the mess I had made in the kitchen, I went back to my room and looked into what to do in Fredrikstad and train times tomorrow. I think I might go there tomorrow because it's only a half hour train ride from Moss; although, I have the knitting group at 11 tomorrow morning so I'll have to see how long that lasts and whether I want to go afterward.

Macaroni and Cheese

So today I decided that I would attempt to make homemade mac and cheese, which meant I had to go grocery shopping. I actually had a long list of groceries I needed so I wasn't making a special trip or anything, but my main priority was getting the ingredients I needed for the mac and cheese. I ended up spending almost 400 kroner on groceries and as soon as I set my grocery bag down on the counter I realized I had forgotten to buy macaroni noodles. I was so mad at myself, I mean the one thing I absolutely needed to make macaroni and cheese I spaced out about getting. I had even looked at them when I was at Coop Mega (the first grocery store I went to) and told myself to wait and buy them at Rema 1000 because they would be cheaper. So anyway, I was very upset that I wasn't able to make it today, but I'll go to the store tomorrow and buy some noodles and pick up a couple of other things I forgot that were less important. After I put my groceries away when I got back, I don't really remember what I did that lasted 2 hours, I only remember sitting on my computer, so it obviously wasn't something productive. At about 5:30 Lita picked me up to go to Samspillband and once we were in the car she told me that she thinks she is coming down with some sort of cold. I do not want to get sick while I'm here because what fun would that be. Of course once we got to the band and started playing, one of the members became sick and started throwing up. Luckily, they have a hand sanitizer pump there that I used a lot and as soon as I was back home I washed my hands thoroughly before doing anything else. Also, when we first got to band tonight, one of the ladies that volunteers there and is also in the church choir, gave me a bag with two skeins of blue yarn and knitting needles, which were all brand new! She said she was thinking of me for Friday because some church ladies agreed to come and help some of us students with knitting, whether they are beginners like me or want to learn how to knit something different like socks or mittens. When I got home after band, I studied for my Global Physical Environment exam that is tomorrow and started making a list of things a need to do tomorrow when I'm done with my exam.

School

Today was a really busy day, I had class from 9 until 5:30 with a 20 minute break for lunch. Plus, I had my first exam of the semester today. Overall my classes and exam went fine, especially since my comp class finished 20 minutes early so I was able to just sit and relax for awhile before my film class started (which happens to be with the same teacher as my comp class). In film class we watched Blue Velvet and I don't even know what to say about it because I've never seen a movie like it and I don't think I plan on ever watching a movie like it again. Our teacher told us before we started watching the movie to pay attention to the sounds because we have to write a paper about how the sounds influenced the movie and us as the audience. To be honest, I don't care if I ever hear the song "Blue Velvet" again because that song was constantly playing throughout the movie. After class, I started thinking about what I wanted to say and use as a visual aid for my presentation on my women and children's rights project (which is due Thursday, procrastination at its best). The rest of the night I looked into what days I should go to different towns over winter break and what I'll be able to go and see in those towns.

Walk to Jeløya

It was 45 degrees and partly cloudy today, but there was virtually no wind so it was beautiful outside. I decided that I should go for a walk and get some sunlight and fresh air while it's nice out. I walked over to Jeløya and walked pretty far along the boardwalk and walking paths that run alongside the fjord. When I got to a small beach I just sat down on a nearby bench and took in the amazing view I had. Then, I started walking along the beach and came upon a starfish that was a dark purple! It looked pretty cool, but of course I didn't touch it because that would be disgusting. When I was walking along the beach I noticed some people climbing up on to some rocks on a little trail, so I decided to go have a look at it. Once I had climbed up over the major boulder and gotten to a point where there was bushes and grass growing, I saw a bunch of little trails going every which way, they almost looked like little mouse trails because there were so many. After I had explored where most of the trails went, I got back on the main trail and went to the other side where I hadn't explored yet. When I got there, there was a nice little park with a beautiful view of the fjord and what I believe was actually Rygge (the neighboring town) across the fjord. I of course turned around to take pictures of the houses that were there (I am obsessed with Norwegian houses because I think they look so perfect and quaint) and I saw a house with white siding and a red/orange roof, just like Lita's house. Then, I remembered that Lita had a view from her house similar to the one I was seeing from the park, which was kitty-corner across the road from this house. So I moved a bit closer to the street and noticed that it was in fact Lita's house; I had walked all the way to Lita's house without even realizing it! Once I realized how far I had walked, I figured it was time for me to head back to the apartment to do some homework. When I was walking back, I followed a lady and her dog the entire way from the board walk until I turned to walk into my apartment building. The entire walk back she would turn around to see if I was still there and kind of look at me like she was wondering why I was following her, when in reality I had no intention of doing so. When I got back two and a half hours later, I made myself some popcorn because I had had enough of being "healthy and active" for one day. Then, I sat down and did some homework and later Natalie, Brigitte, and I all worked on our Global Physical Environment lab together. After I finished my homework I watched clips and read articles about the Grammy Awards from last night the rest of the night since I couldn't watch them live or anything.

This is the view of the fjord from the bench I found on the beach (it was actually much brighter out, but whenever I tried to take it picture it was basically just white, so I had to focus it on something dark).

This is the starfish I found.

This was the beginning of the trail starting on the beach, I was standing on the big boulder. 

This was the view I had of the main trail when I turned around.

 This is the view when I was standing in the park. Lita's house is the one with the red/orange roof.

One Month Down!

I have officially been in Norway for one month now! I'm surprised how fast it went by and I also think the rest of my time here will go by like the blink of an eye. So far I'm not homesick or anything; I'm actually dreading having to leave Norway because I absolutely love it, but I think four months from now I'll probably be ready to go home. Anyway, back to today. I had to go to church today because our choir was performing and I wasn't even nervous once church started because there were maybe 10 other people in the church that weren't singing in the choir. The service went well for the most part; however, at the end when our choir director was playing the song the pastor walked out to, things got a bit weird. I recognized the song as soon as he started playing it, but I couldn't remember what song it was so I figured it was just a common hymn I had heard a lot. Then, when he started playing the chorus I realized he was playing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables! That was the weirdest thing and Lita told me afterward that he does that all the time, he has played "My Way", "Tears in Heaven", and even a children's song about clowns! Growing up in a very traditional church, that was quite a shock to me. After church, Lita and Odd invited me to join them and their daughter Mie to have lunch at McDonald's for Morsdag (Mother's Day). So I said yes of course because that meant one less meal I had to cook for myself. It was really fun and I think they enjoyed learning more about me, such as the fact I'm an only child (which I thought they already knew). After we had finished lunch, they dropped me off at my apartment and Lita gave me lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and chocolate chip cookies so I wouldn't have to worry about cooking a meal while I'm busy doing homework. I'm really beginning to love Lita. Once I got back, I had zero motivation to do anything so I basically just sat around doing nothing the rest of the evening. I did talk to my roommate Natalie for an hour or so and found out that her and Brigitte had won tickets to go to the Fifty Shades of Grey premiere here in Moss! Natalie was very excited because not only do they get to attend the premiere for free, but they also get complimentary snacks during the movie and a gift bag from Amfi (the mall here), which every store in the mall put something into. Later on, I tried knitting some more and I think I'm a lost cause.  I looked at how many stitches I had managed to drop and it turned out to be 7 stitches. I hope on Friday when the ladies from the church help some of us with knitting, they can help me because I all want to know is how to knit Norwegian mittens. I don't care if I learn how to knit anything else as long as I can knit mittens. Also, I decided to have some of the Hershey's chocolate I had brought with and it tasted bitter to me! I've gotten so used to the Freia chocolate, which is much more milky and sweeter than American, that I don't really like the Hershey's chocolate. I think I'm going to suffer going back home and not having the good Freia chocolate in the grocery store.

45 Degrees and Sunny!!!!

Today was the nicest day we have had since I've been here. It was sunny all day with barely any clouds in the sky! Plus, it was 45 degrees so it was "warm" and made me want to go golfing. I decided to go to the mall today since it was so nice outside and just take my time walking there and back. When I was at the mall I finally broke down and went to Vita, which is Norway's equivalent of Sephora/Ulta, but I didn't buy anything. I also got my residence permit today! So I am now an official resident of Norway until August 31st. When I had gotten back to the apartment and had put my groceries away, I sat down and started working on my paper for my Women and Children's Rights class. After I had finished it and clicked save, a message popped up saying it couldn't save the file. I just about had a panic attack because I have had enough problems with my computer already and I did not need another. About a half hour after trying different "solutions" that the Apple forum said to do, I remembered that Pages documents (Apple's version of Word) can be exported as Word documents. So I copy and pasted my whole paper into a Pages document and thank God it actually worked and saved as a Word document. After that whole fiasco with my paper, I decided I had had enough homework for the day and decided to try reading my book that I have to write a report on. That lasted about 20 minutes and then I got distracted and ended up siting on my phone, which just led to me watching Netflix the rest of the night.

The view looking toward Jeløya and the fjord walking back from the mall.

Homework and Planning

Today I planned nothing except to try and work ahead on some homework before winter break. I actually did get a paper wrote and some of my Global Physical Environment homework done today. I still have a couple of papers to write tomorrow, but they shouldn't be as bad as the one I did today. I also did some planning for my winter break today. Because my parents don't really want me to travel alone and the person I had talked to about traveling with already had plans, I decided to look into just going to some towns that close enough to take a train/bus to as a day trip. I found a about 6 towns that seemed to have a couple of things to do that might be interesting. Oh and I had bought some creme brûlée ice cream yesterday and decided to try it today, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping it would.

FredsLab and Fastelavnsris

Today for my Women and Children's Rights class, we had to go across the street to old factory building, which they have turned a room into an interactive game (FredsLab). The group is planning on having schools in the Moss region come and participate, so we acted as their "guinea pigs" and played the game. The game consists of two fictional countries that have been at war for over 40 years and Norway steps in as a mediator; therefore, at the beginning we were spilt up into groups, each group representing a country. The goal of the game is to reach some sort of peaceful agreement between the two countries. The entire game was in Norwegian, my group wasn't exactly the greatest at translating everything that was going on, and I had to leave early for another class, so my experience there was pretty boring and I would have rather sat in class hearing a lecture. After my composition class was done, I had to walk over to the church to help Lita set up for the kids activity night. Once everything was set up I pretty much just sat there until we started making the Fastelavnsris, which is birch branches tied together with feathers all over them and you take them home and put them in water so by Easter they have new blooms to represent new life. After we had made those and had supper they did a raffle, which according to Lita is a very Norwegian tradition, and I actually won some blocks that spell out home.When everyone had finally left and we were able to take everything down and put things away, Odd brought me home. However, once I got back in the apartment and put my prize and fastelavnsris away, I went directly to the grocery store. I desperately needed groceries because I haven't gone to the store for over a week now, so it was a very long list of things I needed. Once I was back and had made some supper, I basically sat in my room watching some TV since I know I'll be doing homework pretty much all day tomorrow.

This was my fastelavnsris.

Samspillband and Bunads

Today turned out to be kind of a hectic day. I got up this morning and decided I should probably try and do some homework before Lita took me anywhere today. Well, Natalie and I were working on our Global Physical Environment lab and all of the sudden Lita emailed me and said she would be picking me up in 15 minutes, so I had to get dressed and get my stuff together; needless to say I did not get as much homework as I had planned done. She took me over by where she goes to workout and we were climbing all over the place trying to cut branches off of birch trees. She needs the branches for this activity thing for children at the church tomorrow, I guess it's for getting ready for Lent and Easter, but I'm not 100 percent sure. After we had been all over the place cutting branches she took me to the glass shop (ViDa Glass) she works part-time at. It was really cool because they have it totally open so you can sit there and watch them make the glass, but they don't let you take pictures. They have some pretty neat stuff there and they are actually having a sale right now, so I'll have to go back and buy some things for gifts. It got a little weird before we left though because the owner and Lita were talking and I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying because I was watching the guy make a light fixture. Pretty soon I heard Lita saying something about a guy being too old because he was 33 and she is 18, which really sparked my suspicion as to what they were talking about. Then, Lita said something about I don't know anyone her age and the owner said her son was 19 and by that point I was looking at the both of them, which is when Lita turned to me and translated what the owner had just said. All of the sudden they were asking me what my interests were and what  I was majoring in and I was caught completely off guard by the fact that they were basically trying to set me up with the owner's son. I don't know if that is a normal thing to do here or what, but I did not know what to say or anything. Luckily, Lita and I had to go because her husband Odd needed the car, so Lita dropped me off at my apartment for an hour and a half and then she was back to take me to Samspillband. At band Bjørn (the director) came up to me and said that he had talked to his mother and she said she has about 4 or 5 different bunads that I could choose from to borrow for May 17th! I was so excited when he said that, I'm still so excited at the fact that I get to have a bunad for Syttende Mai!!! Also at band they found a little bell set for me to play instead of just standing there not really doing anything, I'm not sure if that is all I'll do from now on or if this is just temporary until they find something for me to do. After band I really didn't do much besides doing a little homework and watching a some Netflix.

Class and Movies

Today was a pretty typical day, I had class from 9-5:30 today and didn't have anything extra going on afterward. In my film class we watched A Christmas Story and after the movie our teacher proceeded to tell us that we had to write a paper comparing the short story and the movie in a minimum of 2 pages, but he is expecting about 6 pages! So of course when I got back to the apartment I did absolutely no homework because I have tomorrow to stress myself out with homework.  After I had made myself some supper, I FaceTimed with Andrea for awhile. Then, I caught up on a few of my TV shows and watched Into the Woods. Lita said that she would take me to this glass blowing shop she works part-time at and she's taking me to Samspillband tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Sarpsborg

I had to wake up at 7:30 today to go to Sarpsborg to get my residence permit. So when my alarm went off 5 hours after I had set it, I reluctantly got up and got ready for the day. I definitely know this is a small school because Krista (the president of the school) took Hayley (the student activities director) and I to Sarpsborg in her mother-in-law's car, which was a very nice Audi. Sarpsborg is about a half hour drive from Moss and is where they found one of the Viking ships in the Viking Museum in Oslo and I guess they have a lot of the Norwegian rock carvings in the area (I don't remember what they are technically called). When we got to Sarpsborg we were about 15 minutes early for my appointment, but I was able to get in 10 minutes early and it only took about 5 minutes total. I didn't receive my residence permit while I was there, but they took a picture of me for my permit, took my fingerprints, and had me sign for my permit. Hayley and I took the bus back when I was done and we talked the entire way mostly about her experience here while she was a student and what it was like for her coming back to the U.S. When we got back I sat down and watched the Super Bowl commercials again because last night when they were playing everyone was talking so loud I couldn't even hear the commercials, well except for the Budweiser commercial which everyone got dead silent for. Then, I made myself some pancakes for lunch and did my reading assignment for Composition and Literature into Film. I actually had my "first" communications class today at 4:30, we all had to go to the school and Skype with our teacher who lives in Florida. That class took about an hour and a half, so just enough time for me to come back to the apartment and have some supper before choir practice. While I was having supper I was looking into some places to possibly go over Winter Break because I found out Jordan already has plans for Winter Break, so it looks like I'll be traveling alone as of right now. Lita came and picked Henriette, Alex, and myself up around 7:20 to go to choir practice and this time practice was actually good because our choir director was back. It's funny during practice because most of the time I just kind of tune out the director and what he is saying because it's in Norwegian and he talks way too fast for me to catch anything, but every now and then I'll catch him saying "på englesk", which means "in english", and everyone turns and smiles at me. I hate it when this happens because I usually am not paying that close of attention to him so I don't know if he is making a joke about me or just telling Lita to tell me what he is saying in English. Anyway, after choir I came back to the apartment and went to bed early because of how tired I was.

Super Bowl Sunday!

I know this is a day late, but the Super Bowl was on last night and I had to get up early this morning so I went straight to bed last night. Anyway, yesterday morning I emailed Lita and told her that I wasn't going to go to church because I had homework I needed to work on (but it was pretty much so I could sleep in). For lunch I made myself some Kraft macaroni and cheese and it was so good, I didn't think I would miss American food that much. I did work on homework for a couple of hours, but I had to get ready for the American Culture Night we had at Stallen. At seven Hayley (our student activities director) had put together an American supper for the Norwegians. The supper consisted of nachos as the appetizer, sloppy joes and chips as the main course, chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and of course we had saft and water to drink (which I'm really starting to love saft). After supper she had made a little quiz of fun facts about America and we were in teams. So of course the people I was sitting next to immediately told me that I was on their team. The questions were actually pretty difficult, I didn't know a lot, but I did know some of them; my team did come out victorious and we all were pretty excited and gloated a little bit. After the quiz was done and we had all eaten, Hayley informed us that we could go home for a little while and come back at 12:30 to watch the Super Bowl live. So I went back to the apartment, showered, got into some comfy clothes, and then Natalie and I left around midnight so we could get good seats. When we got there was only about 6 of us there so we got pretty good seats. Hayley had made popcorn and had a ton of chips and other snacks for us to eat while we watched. By the time the game had started there was about 25 of us there and everyone was really excited to be watching the Super Bowl live, with commercials! On normal TV here when you watch football you don't get any of the same commercials of course, so it was awesome to get to have the commercials too. It was really fun because all the Norwegians were really getting into the game and yelling about calls and everything. However, after the halftime show I left so I could go to bed (which was about 2:30 in the morning) because I had to get up at 7:30 to go to Sarpsborg to get my residence permit. So that was my day and I'll have a post about today up later.

 This was my view during our Super Bowl party.

Boxes from Home!

Today, I had only planned on staying in my room the entire day doing homework and watching movies. However, when I got up and went to go get some breakfast there was a letter for me on the table saying I had boxes ready to be picked up at the post office! I had no idea where the post office was so I had to wait until 1:30 when my roommates came back to ask them where it was. Once they told me where to go I immediately set out for it; it happened to be in the mall inside one of the grocery stores. It hardly took anytime at all to get my two packages and return to the apartment. Just a side note - I'm going to hate going back to the states and having to deal with our cheap plastic bags at stores, I was able to use a bag for a 20 pound box and carry it for over 10 minutes and the bag didn't rip or anything. When I got back to the apartment I of course ripped into the boxes because I knew there was good American food in them, most importantly my creamy peanut butter. Once I had unpacked the boxes and put everything away, I went back to my room and started doing some homework. After about 2 hours of doing homework I decided to quit and watch some movies. That's basically what I did the rest of the night, except for skyping with my parents for a bit.