October 30th- November 15th

A lot has happened  in the past 2 weeks in comparison to my last post.

On the weekend of the October 29th-31st, my first host family and I went up to their cabin in Beitostølen (a ski resort town). It was 2 hours away from Gjøvik. When we arrived Friday, it was dark so we were not able to see the mountains. The inside of the cabin was very nice (was not really able to see the outside because of the lack of sunlight). The weather conditions for the next day were not any better. It rained almost the whole day, so the mountain were not visible. We did a few thiungs around the town like go to a chapel and stop at a few shops. Finally, on our last day the sun decided to come out. We drove up into the mountains for me to get a few photos but the weather conditions were unstable so we made our way back home to Gjøvik.We also went to a troll museum that day. It was kind of creepy, the trolls were robotic. (I bet a few of you are wondering: "Hey! Don't the Norwegians celebrate Halloween? Well, the answer to that question is that they do but not to the same extent that we do in North American. We only mabye had 2 people come to our house and the was no pumpkins anywhere. Most of the older generations do not even know what it is.)

On November 6th, my team and I had a hockey game in Skien, which is 4 hours away from Gjøvik. We took a bus to the game. I basically slept the whole time. We arrived in Skien 2 hours before the game. What happened before the game kind of reminds me of what happens before a NHL game. We warmed up outside for about 20 minutes before we went in and changed into our equipment for the game. Then at about 40 minutes before the game we went onto the ice and warmed up for 20 minutes. The game started at 300pm. One of the players on my teamed coached because my coach was not at the game. We won the game 10-4. I got hit in the leg 2 different times by the puck and am now sporting 2 lovely bruises on the same leg. In other hockey news, my team gets to play a Canadian team on Saturday which I am totally stoked about. I'm just afraid that my team won't be used to their playing style (more passing and more aggressive).

Last Wednesday and Thursday, my school hosted something called "hospetering" which basically meant that the grade 10 students from the area's youth schools would come to our school to see how it works. I think 800 students came in total. Since it would not be possible for that 800 and my school's population of 1300 to all be in the building at the same time, almost all of the classes were divided into 2 parts. One group would come on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. I was in the group that got Wednesday off. I didn't do much that day except for going to supper at my second host family's house. The next day, I went to school. Only 8 of my classmates were there and the rest of my class was composed of 10th year students. We went about as if it was a normal day.

School is school. I am doing really well in English and Math but not as great in all the other ones (Gym, Social Studies, Science, Norwegian, French, Geography). My french in particular is not the greatest at the moment. I keep on getting my french and Norwegian confused. My norwegian on the other hand has improved, I am just having trouble now knowing what to say in response in Norwegian. I can understand most things though.

This weekend past mainly was composed of me packing up all of my junk. (Though I did go to the movies with my friend Maren on Friday and seen the "Social Network" which was not very exciting.) I've seem to have collected alot more items then what I came over with. I moved into my second family's house on Monday. So far so good. My new hos parents are older with all of their children out of the house and having children of their own. My new house is very old, so the second floor does not have any heat. We have to use space heaters. ( Norwegians don't have furnaces!)

On another note: WE FINALLY HAVE SNOW!!!! After weeks of freezing my butt off for nothing, the snow gods have finally decided to bless us. The daily temperature is about -5.

Bye for now!

Me and my friend Maren during class

all this snow fell in one day

my new house