A Canadian Exchange Student in Norway: life goes on..... FEB.-MAR.

I think that I should maybe start writing my blog more often. I am having a hard time remembering what has happened to me since my last posting.

Happy Belated Norwegian Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there!!! It was on the 13th of February. (I know that it has been a while but better late then never.)

me playing hockey

Hockey keeps on going (though I think that it will be done soon). Since my ski camp, I have had 2 games (the team has had more but I was away when we had the games). The weekend after wintercamp, we had a game against Skedsmo. I wasn't feeling good and I only played the first period of the game. I went home shortly afterwards (luckily it was a home game), so I didn't watch the whole thing but we won. The weekend afterwards (Sunday, the 25th of February), we had a game against Sørfjell (it's not actually a town, so don't try to Google it). Half way through the first period, my lovely, borrowed, two-piece stick snapped in half, so I had to borrow a stick from another player on my team which did not help my game. The score of this game was ridiculously high in our favour. We won 22-3 (it was almost like they have never heard of mercy hear). The other team had basically given up at this point. I missed a game this past weekend.

For school, I have had the past week off for Winter Holiday. Before that, things were just motoring along slowly. The teachers are trying to get us prepared for "Årsprøvene" and exams. My geography class did though go on a walk one day to a local factory. It was the Mustad Factory (its the head quarters for a fish hook factory).

I do go to Rotary meetings (for those of you who are wondering). Brit was a member of the Rotary club and both of my new host parents are as well.

At the beginning of my winter vacation, my host mom, Brit, came home from Finland with a wicked cold. I sadly (having not yet been sick since I have been in Norway) caught that cold. Brit was in pain when she coughed and moved, so I guess I was lucky that mine was not as serious.

My winter holiday started on the 25th of February. The first few days of the vacation were spent just lounging around the house, fighting off my cold. I did watch the World Cup of Skiing on TV. Canada won its first gold medal in mens cross country skiing, beating out Norway (for those of you who didn't know this, GOOGLE IT!!). I played a little hockey as well. Brit and I drove to Hadeland Glassverk on Wednesday. She had to pick up some of sheepskins that were on display there. It is set up like a little tourist village. It has a bakery, glass shop, tin shop, kitchen shop, etc...We visited many of the shops. It is definitely worth going back to.

The Thursday of Winter Holiday marked the start of the Rotary Holmenkollen Weekend in Oslo. It was hosted by the Kolsås Rotary Club. (I think I am just going to write about it day by day, so that you get the full effect.):

DAY ONE (THURSDAY, MARCH 3RD):
In the afternoon, I hopped on the train in Gjøvik to go to Oslo. I mistakenly bought my ticket on the train which ended up costing me 20kr more. Diego, Flavio and Fransisco (exchangees, *the rest of the names that I will mention will be exchange students) got onto the train in Lunner. Afterwards the train started to fill up with people going to Oslo for the World Cup (a large skiing event: the link is http://www.oslo2011.no/ for more info, though you will have to translate it over). We were picked up at teh main train station in Oslo and driven to Emma Hjorts Gjestehus ( a hostel) in Sandvika. I was sharing a room with Jessica and Kelly (both of them hail from USA). The movie watching commenced once again, this time with Yes Man. The club mistakenly gave us free cases of pop.

DAY TWO (FRIDAY, MARCH 4TH):
All 27 excahnge students piled into some cars and were driven the municipal buildings. We had breakfast with the mayor. Afterwards, he piled all of us in the meeting room to hear him talk about many different things (the speech was hard to follow because he kept on switching topics). We piled intto the cars again. We were driven the Viking ship museum. I have never been there before so it was interesting for me to see. It hosts the 2 oldest viking ships in the world. The next museum was the Fråm which I had already been to with my first host family. The museum was undergoing renovations so the experience was not the same. We walked across the street into another museum, though I do not remember the name, to watch a video about the landscape in Norway. It was filmed from a helicopter. We were given free.time afterwards, so we went to Sandvika Storesenter, which is the largest mall in Norway. Noellen, Lauren and I went seperate from the group. A good amount of time was spent trying on clothes at H&M (I had no money but I still tried on clothing). I don't think that the employees were too impressed. We had problems finding the bus back to the hostel and then when we were on the bus, a nice drunk man decided to sit next to us and have a chat. Bowling was the activity for the evening. (For anyone who knows me, you know how horrible of a bowler I am.) We were given pizza and we split up into lanes. For some reason all of our names were messed up on the screens. I actually came in second the first game but scored only 16 points in the second.

DAY THREE (SATURDAY, MARCH 5TH):
We were driven to the Akershus Fortress. The museum for the day was the Norwegian Resistance Museum. It housed equipment and arttifacts from when Norway was invaded by Germany in the Second World War. Next was the Nobel Peace Prize Muesum. Definitely worth the visit if you are ever in Oslo. We didn't get to see the whole museum becuase we had to catch the train up to Holmenkollen. It was my first experienced on the underground. The stadium was packed. The jumping was crazy. Norwegians are very into their winter sports. We only stayed for 1hr and 30 min. On the train back down into the city, half of our group didn't get on, so we had to wait in the square for them for almost 30 minutes. I was not impressed. Our final dinner as the group was INDIAN (I have been craving Asian food).

DAY FOUR (SUNDAY, MARCH 6TH):
After packing up all of our things, we was drive to Skuibakken. It was a ski jump that is currently out of order. The king used to come there to watch the jumps. We said our goodbyes as people left to catch their rides home. Fransisco and I took the same train. I was falling asleep on the way home.

I have moved families, so if you wish to send me something, just wait until I find out my current address.

Spring has come to Norway. It is now very warm (or maybe that is just because I am used to -20 weather).

My mom is also coming on Thursday.

Klem. Kate