A Canadian Exchange Student in Norway: WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO WINTER??????

This is my second attempt at trying to write this blog posting. I had begun it last weekend but somehow it got deleted.

My host dad was reading my blog a couple weeks ago and he was wondering why I had only talked a little bit about my family. So, I figured I would do a little introduction of them. ( I moved here before my mamma came.) My host parents are Wolfgang and Therese (he is an engineer and she is a psychologist). They moved here from Germany about 13 years ago (both are members in my club). They have 3 children, all of which they adopted from Brazil. They are Everten (12), Noa (10) and Hanna(who will soon be 9).We live at the top of the hill (when I say the top, I mean the top, there are no houses behind my house) in a "salmon coloured house. It reminds me of being at home because someone (do you know whats sad? I actually first wrote somewho instead of someone) always has to be somewhere. This is my last and final family.

the side of my house (when we still had snow)

my house is on the left hill.

The weather has changed drastically in the past 3 weeks. It almost seems as if we had snow just for Mamma's visit and then it decided to start melting. For a few days, we had this lovely brown snow. But after my weekend in Larvik, it seems to almost completely be gone. The temperature is high most days, around +13.

Hockey has come to a close. We had a little wrap-up get-together with pizza. They gave out sarcastic prizes like megaphones and clocks. I was given my jersey and a photo (which I can show you if we ever talk on skype). (My blade on one of my skates broke right before the end, which was then replaced and then the other one broke. This was ok since it was near the end of the season. The good thing is I get new skates when I get home.) There was also a Norway vs. The Czech Republic hockey game in my arena. My team sold popcorn to raise money. The arena was basically empty (there was around 150 people there and the arena sits 5000). Its strange because back home, a game like that would have been packed. Norway lost both of the games. In the mean time, my host mom and I are playing badminton. There is a group of people who play in the Tennis hall every Monday and Friday. It was very strange to play again, since it has been almost 11 months since I lasted played. My right arm (the arm that I was) is still sore.

For the last little while at school, my math, English and Norwegian teachers have been focusing on getting us ready for our whole day tests (they set up around 400 desks in the gym and we are given 5 hours to write and answer the question). I had English today, Norwegian yesterday and math the day before. I had decided to just wing it, giving that the tests were mostly written essays (with the exception of Math). I was somewhat worried about my English test because my English teacher the other day told me that my English is bad. Though I think it went ok but I was surprised by how little questions we were given (we had 5 hours to answer 3 essay format questions, back home if teachers had that much time, we would be writing numerous essays). All of my other teachers are continuing to prepare us for our exams (which we will write in May).

The last weekend in March was a Rotary weekend for my district. All of the inbounds (Rocio, Francisco, Flavio, Abby, Monica and I) went to Finnskogen (which is kind of near Kongsvinger and the Swedish border). I guess you can say that the point of the weekend was to make a music video about exchanging in Norway that we would show to the outbounds the following weekend.We stayed with Flavio's first host family in the most amazing cabin (5 rooms upstairs, boardroom, jacuzzi, etc...). The first night we used the sauna. You would sit in the sauna for 20-30 minutes (and for any one who knows me, you know that I absolutely despise another remotely hot, it was torture). Then, once you are good and sweaty, you would run out of the sauna (wearing socks) and jump into the whole that they had cut into the ice. I repeated that about 3 times and my legs received the beating. The next morning (after Flavio had returned from his ice fishing expedition), we piled into 2 cars and drove to Sweden. There wasn't much to do there, but we stopped at a cafe anyways and had some baked goods. After getting back to the cabin, it was time to go "play" outside. They had a 6-wheel ATV with 3 sleds attached to the back. I could not, for the life of me, steer that stupid sled and was constantly falling off. It provided everyone who was watching with some laughs. Later that night, we had to come up with our song. Finally after 2 hours, we had something that we could sing. (It was one of the most embarrassing things that I have ever done. Sunday basically consisted of driving home and sleeping.

The first weekend in April was also a Rotary weekend. This time it was an orientation for the students who are going out in our district. It was at a private farm outside of Moelv (which is just across the lake). There is one person going to Canada (he is going to Saskatchewan) and when he asked me question about Canada, I had problems coming up with answers. Almost 2 hours were spent on this and I struggled the whole time. We needed to have a presentation for the parents the next morning, so we learned to line-dance (I am ready for the weddings and stag-&-does this summer). The next day's orientation was in the building where the Moelv Rotary Club meets. There was not really a point in us being there. Though Abby made me a poem, which all of you get to experience (she realized that there are many words that rhyme with Kate):
KATE, KATE, KATE, MY DEAR KATE,
WILL YOU BE MY DATE?
IT THINK ITS FATE.
MABYE WE COULD MATE.
ALTHOUGH WE MIGHT NEED TO INNOVATE(being as though we are both girls)
KATE, KATE, KATE, MY DEAR KATE,
BECAUSE YOUR EYES, THEY QUINTA-LATE,
I CAN NOT WAIT.
KATE, KATE, KATE, MY DEAR KATE,
I JUST SEEM TO HATE,
THE WAY YOU LOOK AT NATE,
BUT I WILL USE MY BAIT,
TO WIN YOUR PLATE,
AND I WILL WALK YOU TO YOUR GATE,
AFTER WE ATE.
KATE, KATE, KATE, MY DEAR KATE,
I PROMISE I WON'T BE LATE!
BUT WILL YOU RECIPROCATE?
THAT'D MAKE ME JIRATE
BUT DON'T WORRY, I WON'T URINATE
KATE, KATE, KATE, MY DEAR KATE,
I HAVE LOVED YOU SINCE YOU WERE EIGHT,
YOU HAVE MY HEART IN A CRATE
OH KATE, PLEASE BE MY DATE!!!
KATE..KATE

by: Abby Erdman

(As you can see, it was a very productive day.)

And then, on April 7th, I hopped on a train to Larvik. I went and visited Noellen (who you can read about in past postings). The train from Oslo to Larvik is much nicer then the train from Gjøvik to Oslo (they even have free internet). I arrived in Larvik at about 1100pm. Noellen decided that the next morning we should go to school. Larvik is much flatter than Gjøvik and the houses are closer together. We walked about 20 minutes to Noellen's school (on almost completely flat ground!!!). Her school does not even look like a school. I reminds me of the Eaton Center in Toronto. Her school is called Thor Heyerdahl Videregående Skole. It has 5 floors and it completely black and orange. She has about 13 students in her class and it seems that they are very close. I experienced a music class. We got to clap. She also had history, so we watched a film about the Cold War (the accents in the movie sounded ridiculous). We hopped onto a bus, with Noellen's friends, Sondre and Marthine, to the centre of town. We walked around the town and shopped candy and some films. (It seems that whenever Noellen and I are together, we watch movies.) The next day, Noellen's Rotary District had an orientation for the outbounds (3 Rotary weekends in a row? YES!!!!). It was in Porsgrunn, a 20 minute drive away. Her district has about 13 people going out. There was little point in us being there and we spent most of the morning reading our books. After an amazing buffet lunch, the inbounds (Victoria,Nina, Noellen, Kelly, Michael, Miki and I) were given some free time to walk around the city. Our day concluded shortly afterwards. Saturday night was spent watching movies (of course). Sunday was spent that way as well, until I had to take the train back home.

Easter Holidays next week!!!

Kate