As everyone probably knows by now, I am back home in Canada.
The last night, I had my going away party. It was mainly Rotarians as well as host families and friends.At 3am the next day, I left for the airport.We got my baggage situation solved before I boarded the plane. My first flight was to Frankfurt and I had a 5 hour lay over there. The flight from Frankfurt to Philidelphia was 9 hours and spent watching movies. It took 1hour and 30minutes to get through American customs and I ended up missing my connecting flight. After waiting 4 hours in Philidelphia, I was finally home.
Since then I have been to a week long hockey camp in Peterborough.
Thanks, Kate
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As probably alot of you know by now, I will be going home on the 29th of June (WHY?!? WHY?!? WHY?!?). As a result of that, this will be my next to last blog posting (I figured I would do a wrap-up one right after I got home.) So in the last few weeks, I have.......
School. I think that by now that it doesn't need that much explination. The last few weeks of school were pretty much spent watching movies (including a crazially thrilling Sami film (SARCASM!!!)) and doing other filler activities because our final grades were already given. We did have spoken exams though but thanks to the Norwegian school system (not everyone has to take them. People are randomly choosen to talk for 15 minutes to an examiner about a certain topic. And what is even better than that is you find out if you must take the exam just TWO days before hand.) I was only really at school for one day in the last week so I am not to sure what they did. But I was there for the last day of school. I had to first return my school computer which I had loaned for the entire year (and dearly miss especially those extra Norwegian letters). One of my homeroom teachers was there so she talked to us for a bit before giving us a scavenger hunt. We had to run around the surronding area, trying to find things such as one Nike shoe and how to say "You are my favourite teacher" in 5 different languages. My team unfortunately didn't win. The school board gave each school 25kr (around $4CAD) to each student to buy food for the wrap-up. After we had finished eating, we were free to go (about 1030am). Instead of going home, I got to go up to the principals office because I had to get my transcript. But I did get a gift from the school, so I guess that it was worth it.
On the 9th of June, I took a vacation of sorts. I have an exchange friend (who goes by the name of Hannah) that lives in Stavanger (on the West Coast). I had wanted to go to the west coast since the beginning of my exchange so I jumped at the oppurtunity to go visit someone there. I took a plane (it was the shortest plane ride that I have ever been on: 50 minutes) to the airport outside of Stavanger and a bus into town. (One thing that you should know about Norway is that the language (Norwegian) is divided in two parts (Bokmaal and Nynorsk). On top of that, each region and city have their own dialect. In my region, it is Bokmaal with my city having its own dialect. In Stavanger, it is a little bit different. I had to really concentrate in order to understand what they were saying.) Stavanger is a harbour town and is one of the big oil cities in Norway (plus a popular cruise-ship destination). The streets are whinding and cobbled stoned. Hannah currently lives on a island outside of Stavanger, so we took a ferry to get there (it has the feel of a bus though). Since it costed 30kr to go one way on the boat, we just hung around the island for the next day which was fine with me because it had some interesting rock pools. Another exchanger, Lauren (a fellow Canadian who lives in Bergen) also decided to come down for the weekend. Stavanger had at the time a touristly little market which was perfect for us to get free samples. We also tried to play Norwegian Scrabble which was hard because some times you end up with way to many Ks. We spent the next day rowing around the inlet and laying in the sun (which is not that common for Stavanger). Supper was smalahove (sheep's head) which is a traditional meal on the west coast. The meat didn't taste to bad, its just the eyeball that throws you off (you have to take of the cornea and then put the rest of it right into your mouth. It has a gummy texture. NOM!NOM!). The girls wanted to go swimming in the fjord so that is just what we did. I could not stand the cold water but jumped in and even swam around for a little while. Hannah and I left the next day.....
Well, the story does not end there. Hannah had decided to come see the east, so she flew back with me. We waited 3 hours at the airport which is completely unnecessary for a local flight). And on top of that, our flight was delayed, so we missed the bus back to my town and had to wait 2 hours for the next one to arrive. While I was away, Lake Mjosa flooded (due to the melting of the snow in the mountains and the amount of rain that we had been having lately), so the areas around the late were full of water, including the parking lot to the shopping centre. Another exchanger, Jourdy came and visited us for a day. We spent the day walking around. It was funny to watch Hannah walk up "the hill" to my house (due to fact that the hill is incrediably steep). She came along for the Rotary Shrimp and Hand-over dinner. We tried to go to school for a day but it didn't go the greatest (people were staring at her as if she was an animal at the zoo). She did though help me pack before she had to leave.
The weekend after school was finished, my town hosted a festival of sorts for school bands (which Everton is involved with). There was different competitions and a concert with all of the bands sleeping in the schools around the town. Everton's band ended up winning first prize. In that same weekend we took a boat trip to the other side of the lake. It started with beautiful weather but it ended up being very cold. Due to the flooding, we had to walk through the water to get to our boat.
We have been doing on thing out and about each day this past week. On Monday, we drove to Brummandal to visit Proysenhuset and the COOP (a Costco style supermarket). (Alf Proysen was a Norwegian writer and songwriter who lived on the other side of the lake. The musuem featured examples of his work and one of them being Mrs Pepperpot.) I bought my 1 kilo of brown cheese to take home with me. Not too much happened on the Tuesday but it was the longest day of the year. (We had around 2-3hours of darkness.) We took a trip on Skibladner on Wednesday. (Skibladner is the world's oldest steam boat that is in use). We took it from Gjovik to Hamar and back again (about 5 hours in total). The weather was cold, so we spent most of the time in the saloon in the bottom of the boat. That night, we went to the movies and saw Paul (a film about 2 nerds and an alien). The next day, there was a showing of glass at Vitensentret. It featured glass from artist from all around Norway. On Friday, the town had an event on the main street with all of the stores being open late and massive discounts (plus a few stands that sold junk). I think that there must have been around 10000 people there. (The strangest thing that I saw was some Native American dancers which seemed so out of place.) Finally today, we took another boat trip.
3 days left.........
School. I think that by now that it doesn't need that much explination. The last few weeks of school were pretty much spent watching movies (including a crazially thrilling Sami film (SARCASM!!!)) and doing other filler activities because our final grades were already given. We did have spoken exams though but thanks to the Norwegian school system (not everyone has to take them. People are randomly choosen to talk for 15 minutes to an examiner about a certain topic. And what is even better than that is you find out if you must take the exam just TWO days before hand.) I was only really at school for one day in the last week so I am not to sure what they did. But I was there for the last day of school. I had to first return my school computer which I had loaned for the entire year (and dearly miss especially those extra Norwegian letters). One of my homeroom teachers was there so she talked to us for a bit before giving us a scavenger hunt. We had to run around the surronding area, trying to find things such as one Nike shoe and how to say "You are my favourite teacher" in 5 different languages. My team unfortunately didn't win. The school board gave each school 25kr (around $4CAD) to each student to buy food for the wrap-up. After we had finished eating, we were free to go (about 1030am). Instead of going home, I got to go up to the principals office because I had to get my transcript. But I did get a gift from the school, so I guess that it was worth it.
On the 9th of June, I took a vacation of sorts. I have an exchange friend (who goes by the name of Hannah) that lives in Stavanger (on the West Coast). I had wanted to go to the west coast since the beginning of my exchange so I jumped at the oppurtunity to go visit someone there. I took a plane (it was the shortest plane ride that I have ever been on: 50 minutes) to the airport outside of Stavanger and a bus into town. (One thing that you should know about Norway is that the language (Norwegian) is divided in two parts (Bokmaal and Nynorsk). On top of that, each region and city have their own dialect. In my region, it is Bokmaal with my city having its own dialect. In Stavanger, it is a little bit different. I had to really concentrate in order to understand what they were saying.) Stavanger is a harbour town and is one of the big oil cities in Norway (plus a popular cruise-ship destination). The streets are whinding and cobbled stoned. Hannah currently lives on a island outside of Stavanger, so we took a ferry to get there (it has the feel of a bus though). Since it costed 30kr to go one way on the boat, we just hung around the island for the next day which was fine with me because it had some interesting rock pools. Another exchanger, Lauren (a fellow Canadian who lives in Bergen) also decided to come down for the weekend. Stavanger had at the time a touristly little market which was perfect for us to get free samples. We also tried to play Norwegian Scrabble which was hard because some times you end up with way to many Ks. We spent the next day rowing around the inlet and laying in the sun (which is not that common for Stavanger). Supper was smalahove (sheep's head) which is a traditional meal on the west coast. The meat didn't taste to bad, its just the eyeball that throws you off (you have to take of the cornea and then put the rest of it right into your mouth. It has a gummy texture. NOM!NOM!). The girls wanted to go swimming in the fjord so that is just what we did. I could not stand the cold water but jumped in and even swam around for a little while. Hannah and I left the next day.....
Well, the story does not end there. Hannah had decided to come see the east, so she flew back with me. We waited 3 hours at the airport which is completely unnecessary for a local flight). And on top of that, our flight was delayed, so we missed the bus back to my town and had to wait 2 hours for the next one to arrive. While I was away, Lake Mjosa flooded (due to the melting of the snow in the mountains and the amount of rain that we had been having lately), so the areas around the late were full of water, including the parking lot to the shopping centre. Another exchanger, Jourdy came and visited us for a day. We spent the day walking around. It was funny to watch Hannah walk up "the hill" to my house (due to fact that the hill is incrediably steep). She came along for the Rotary Shrimp and Hand-over dinner. We tried to go to school for a day but it didn't go the greatest (people were staring at her as if she was an animal at the zoo). She did though help me pack before she had to leave.
The weekend after school was finished, my town hosted a festival of sorts for school bands (which Everton is involved with). There was different competitions and a concert with all of the bands sleeping in the schools around the town. Everton's band ended up winning first prize. In that same weekend we took a boat trip to the other side of the lake. It started with beautiful weather but it ended up being very cold. Due to the flooding, we had to walk through the water to get to our boat.
We have been doing on thing out and about each day this past week. On Monday, we drove to Brummandal to visit Proysenhuset and the COOP (a Costco style supermarket). (Alf Proysen was a Norwegian writer and songwriter who lived on the other side of the lake. The musuem featured examples of his work and one of them being Mrs Pepperpot.) I bought my 1 kilo of brown cheese to take home with me. Not too much happened on the Tuesday but it was the longest day of the year. (We had around 2-3hours of darkness.) We took a trip on Skibladner on Wednesday. (Skibladner is the world's oldest steam boat that is in use). We took it from Gjovik to Hamar and back again (about 5 hours in total). The weather was cold, so we spent most of the time in the saloon in the bottom of the boat. That night, we went to the movies and saw Paul (a film about 2 nerds and an alien). The next day, there was a showing of glass at Vitensentret. It featured glass from artist from all around Norway. On Friday, the town had an event on the main street with all of the stores being open late and massive discounts (plus a few stands that sold junk). I think that there must have been around 10000 people there. (The strangest thing that I saw was some Native American dancers which seemed so out of place.) Finally today, we took another boat trip.
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| SHEEPS HEAD!!! |
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| part of Hannah's island |
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| Hannah, Lauren and I |
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| Stavanger |
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| me at Proysenhuset |
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| a walkway flooded with water |
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| 1100pm |
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| Skibladner |
Monday, June 6, 2011
MAY!!!!
From my arrival back in Norway to now has been almost a complete blur.
The weekend of the 14th of May was a long weekend for us. Norway's National Day is on the 17th (which was a Tuesday, so the schools were nice enough to give us Monday off as well. The 17th of May is way more serious than Canada Day (which is normally spent just relaxing around the house and maybe going somewhere for dinner). We were up at what felt like the crack of dawn (in reality it was around 630am). Everton's school band was playing at a raising of the flag ceremony at his school. A lot of the people were adorned in their bunads (the traditional Norwegian garment which I absolutely adore). Some of the band mates were Russ students (Russ is the third year of what is their equivalent to our high school. The students have parties throughout the whole year. 3 weeks before the 17th of May things really kick off. They also have red overalls that they where for the whole period.) so they were looking pretty rough. The band then marched to different old-folks homes in the area playing the national anthem and other Norwegian hits. All the school and city bands gathered at my school for breakfast before the main event started. All the school children in the city gathered in the soccer stadium.In Norway, the parade that goes through the town is a children's parade. They paraded all the way down to the park in the centre of town where everyone sang songs. (Later on in the day was the Russ parade, where they go through the town with their vans and buses passing out fake business cards to the little kids (its somewhat funny because some of them have things written in English on them that are not appropriate for the kidies). A lot of the children's schools put on parties for the national day, so we went to my host brothers' school in the afternoon. I would say a good way to some up the day is ice cream and hot dogs (which we ate a lot of that day).
Another whole day test took place (I know that this is exciting), for Naturfag (Science) this time. The morning was spent in 2 workshops to go over what we need to know. The first one was informative (Chemical Reactions) since I missed some of the weeks that we were working with that and the other one was pointless. It was about Bærekraftig Utvikling (Sustainable Development, thanks to Google Translate). We were given the afternoon to write the test. The multiple choice portion was easy but I had a few problems with the long answer questions.
I tried roller skis for the first time a few weekends ago. (For those of you who do not know what roller skis are, they are 2 rods of metal with 2 roller-blade style wheels attached at both ends. You then use cross-country ski boots attached to the bindings and poles to help push you along.***Safety equipment is recommended***)Everything was going great until I tried to turn a corner. I turned it as if I was using roller blades (which have great ankle support) and ended up falling on my side. It wasn't that bad until I actually looked at the damage. The top layer of skin was gone but the real damage wasn't noticeable until 2 days later when a nice bruise developed. People were staring for at least 2 weeks.
I had the strangest gym class 2 Wednesdays ago. We showed up to class and the teacher told us that it was our choice training and we were allowed to train off campus. (I will definitely miss the freedom of school here next year.)
The next day, we had a "field trip". It was a whole day of gym. My class and another class were lead by our two teachers on a hike. We started the day of at our school and walking up to the top of the ski hill. From there we walked back down and had a "nice" 30 minute hike up to Øverby (a cross country ski track). We divided into groups and did orienteering up there for 2 hours (which was basically just walking around in circles). We continued our hike up to a electrical tower which is the highest point in town. Once up there we played some strategy games (and at that point it began to rain). We walked down the hill and back up to Tranberg Gård and finally ended up back at the Videregående Skole. I was ridiculously tired after that day.
Therese and the children went to Germany for a weekend for a first communion so just me and Wolfgang had the house to oursleves. The first night we had a dinner party for the Rotary club and the next night we had people over for dinner.
This past weekend we had a huge gathering at our house for a combo of baptism and first communion (Noa and Hanna had their baptism and Everton had his communion). A portion of the family from Germany arrived in Gjøvik on the Friday (Wolfgang's sister, Therese's parents and her brother with his family). There was a lot of German being spoken during that weekend. It was so warm that day that we had a water-gun fight. We had so many people staying with us that we had to eat our meals in the party tent that was set up outside the house. All of the kids were taken on a boat tour (while I stayed back and helped Noa and his cousin fish). A portion of the next day was spent in preparation for the party on the Sunday. I baked a poundcake (for the first time in my life which turned out beautifully). My host mom also took the godparents and the kids to the church in Lillehammer to have one last run through. All of the kidies went down to Fastland (an outdoor swimming pool that is more like a pond than a pool). It was ridiculously cold but it was nice to lay in the warm sun (since we had been having so nice weather with the exception of today). The next day we were fed, dressed and driven to the church very early. The church was jam-packed because there was another boy being baptized and the kidies had so many guests. Both the baptism and communion went smoothly. All the guests came back to our house. The food was from Tapeo (the new tapas restaurant in town). Noa, Everton and Hannah all received many gifts. All of children ran around, played fooseball and on their electronics while the adults sat around. The night came to an end with everyone leaving satisfied.
School is almost finished with just spoken exams left( the way these work is you talk about a topic to and examiner. The system is totally random so only certain people have to take them). We are done next Friday.
Sorry for the lack of photos but i havent taken too many in the last few weeks.
The weekend of the 14th of May was a long weekend for us. Norway's National Day is on the 17th (which was a Tuesday, so the schools were nice enough to give us Monday off as well. The 17th of May is way more serious than Canada Day (which is normally spent just relaxing around the house and maybe going somewhere for dinner). We were up at what felt like the crack of dawn (in reality it was around 630am). Everton's school band was playing at a raising of the flag ceremony at his school. A lot of the people were adorned in their bunads (the traditional Norwegian garment which I absolutely adore). Some of the band mates were Russ students (Russ is the third year of what is their equivalent to our high school. The students have parties throughout the whole year. 3 weeks before the 17th of May things really kick off. They also have red overalls that they where for the whole period.) so they were looking pretty rough. The band then marched to different old-folks homes in the area playing the national anthem and other Norwegian hits. All the school and city bands gathered at my school for breakfast before the main event started. All the school children in the city gathered in the soccer stadium.In Norway, the parade that goes through the town is a children's parade. They paraded all the way down to the park in the centre of town where everyone sang songs. (Later on in the day was the Russ parade, where they go through the town with their vans and buses passing out fake business cards to the little kids (its somewhat funny because some of them have things written in English on them that are not appropriate for the kidies). A lot of the children's schools put on parties for the national day, so we went to my host brothers' school in the afternoon. I would say a good way to some up the day is ice cream and hot dogs (which we ate a lot of that day).
Another whole day test took place (I know that this is exciting), for Naturfag (Science) this time. The morning was spent in 2 workshops to go over what we need to know. The first one was informative (Chemical Reactions) since I missed some of the weeks that we were working with that and the other one was pointless. It was about Bærekraftig Utvikling (Sustainable Development, thanks to Google Translate). We were given the afternoon to write the test. The multiple choice portion was easy but I had a few problems with the long answer questions.
I tried roller skis for the first time a few weekends ago. (For those of you who do not know what roller skis are, they are 2 rods of metal with 2 roller-blade style wheels attached at both ends. You then use cross-country ski boots attached to the bindings and poles to help push you along.***Safety equipment is recommended***)Everything was going great until I tried to turn a corner. I turned it as if I was using roller blades (which have great ankle support) and ended up falling on my side. It wasn't that bad until I actually looked at the damage. The top layer of skin was gone but the real damage wasn't noticeable until 2 days later when a nice bruise developed. People were staring for at least 2 weeks.
I had the strangest gym class 2 Wednesdays ago. We showed up to class and the teacher told us that it was our choice training and we were allowed to train off campus. (I will definitely miss the freedom of school here next year.)
The next day, we had a "field trip". It was a whole day of gym. My class and another class were lead by our two teachers on a hike. We started the day of at our school and walking up to the top of the ski hill. From there we walked back down and had a "nice" 30 minute hike up to Øverby (a cross country ski track). We divided into groups and did orienteering up there for 2 hours (which was basically just walking around in circles). We continued our hike up to a electrical tower which is the highest point in town. Once up there we played some strategy games (and at that point it began to rain). We walked down the hill and back up to Tranberg Gård and finally ended up back at the Videregående Skole. I was ridiculously tired after that day.
Therese and the children went to Germany for a weekend for a first communion so just me and Wolfgang had the house to oursleves. The first night we had a dinner party for the Rotary club and the next night we had people over for dinner.
This past weekend we had a huge gathering at our house for a combo of baptism and first communion (Noa and Hanna had their baptism and Everton had his communion). A portion of the family from Germany arrived in Gjøvik on the Friday (Wolfgang's sister, Therese's parents and her brother with his family). There was a lot of German being spoken during that weekend. It was so warm that day that we had a water-gun fight. We had so many people staying with us that we had to eat our meals in the party tent that was set up outside the house. All of the kids were taken on a boat tour (while I stayed back and helped Noa and his cousin fish). A portion of the next day was spent in preparation for the party on the Sunday. I baked a poundcake (for the first time in my life which turned out beautifully). My host mom also took the godparents and the kids to the church in Lillehammer to have one last run through. All of the kidies went down to Fastland (an outdoor swimming pool that is more like a pond than a pool). It was ridiculously cold but it was nice to lay in the warm sun (since we had been having so nice weather with the exception of today). The next day we were fed, dressed and driven to the church very early. The church was jam-packed because there was another boy being baptized and the kidies had so many guests. Both the baptism and communion went smoothly. All the guests came back to our house. The food was from Tapeo (the new tapas restaurant in town). Noa, Everton and Hannah all received many gifts. All of children ran around, played fooseball and on their electronics while the adults sat around. The night came to an end with everyone leaving satisfied.
School is almost finished with just spoken exams left( the way these work is you talk about a topic to and examiner. The system is totally random so only certain people have to take them). We are done next Friday.
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| childrens parade |
Thursday, May 19, 2011
EUROPE TOUR
This blog will be quite long because it will cover 2 weeks. I have been for the past 2 weeks on a Europe tour with the other Rotary exchange students from around Norway. The trip was from the 27th of April to the 10th of May. I think it will be the easiest if I work a little about each day.
APRIL 27TH:
Every one assembled at Gardemoen Airport. I took the bus from my town that goes directly to the airport. There were 22 exchange students from Norway and we were joined by a boy who is exchanging in Iceland. We had 3 chaperones; Tove (or Mom), Morten and Gunter).The plane that we took was not very big and most of us did not sit together. The first stop on our tour was Berlin so the flight was not relatively long. We hopped onto the bus that would be with us for the rest of the tour. The first 2 nights was spent in a large youth hostel. I had 3 other roomates which was good except that our room was ridiculously small.
APRIL 28TH:
We toured around Berlin this day. Our tour guide was an American who is living in Berlin. It was mostly a bus tour. He took us past the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Bradenbug Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and other monuments around Berlin. We were allowed to get out of the bus for a short will. We walked passed the Reichstag, the Bradenburg Gate, a Frank Gehry building and a Jewish memorial. We were given free time after lunch, which Noellen and I used that to walk around and did a little bit of shopping.
APRIL 29TH:
We left Berlin that morning and drove to Dresden. Gunter gave us a walking tour (and since Gunter's walking is basically running) we were able to see most of the old town in 25 minutes. After lunch in Dresden, we continued driving to Prague. The landscape of the Czech Republic is full of trees.We arrived late at our hotel, and went straight to dinner.
APRIL 30TH:
This was our tour day in Prague. She began our tour in at the Prague Castle and worked our way down the hill to the clock tower. We pasted by St. Vitus Cathedral, and Charles Bridge along the way. Since it was still Easter week, Prague had many Easter markets. They were full of painted eggs and Prague souvenirs. There was one really good bread thing which was a chunk of bread that is wrapped around a metal tube. After that it is dipped in sugar. In the Czech Republic, they use their own currency which was somewhat of a pain because all I had was Euros and most of the clothing boutiques would only take Czech kroners.
MAY 1ST:
We had another morning free in Prague. Weather-wise, it was the worst day of the whole entire tour due to the fact that it poured rain. Noellen and I (as per usual) did a bit of exploring (since we did most of our shopping the day before). We hopped onto the bus and drove to an outlet mall near the Czech-Austrian border to eat lunch. We spent the night at an modern hotel in Vienna.
MAY 2ND:
We had a guided tour of Vienna. She took us around St. Stephens Cathedral, little walkways, by the place where Mozart lived, and the Austrian Royal Palace. We were given 1 hour of free time, which was dedicated to power shopping. They had an amazing H&M which is in this amazing old building. After that, we drove to Salzburg. We had dinner theatre that evening. They sang Austrian folk songs and ones from the Sound of Music.
MAY 3RD:
Morten lead an running expedition up to the castle before breakfast. The morning on the bus was spent sleeping. Our rest stop was way up in the Austrian mountains, we were so far up that they still had snow which was not good for me because I was wearing a summer dress and sandals. Since we drove through the belt of mountains between Austrian and Italy, we drove through many tunnels. It was ridiculously warm at our pit stop in Italy (actually it was just me who thought it was warm, it was a total shock stepping out of an air conditioned bus and into the hot Italian weather). We were staying the beach town of Lido de Jesolo. It was filled of typical beach side hotels which were pretty much empty due to the fact that it was just the beginning of the season. Everyone changed into their bathing suits and ran down to the sea. It was somewhat wavy and very salty (which was totally normal for the Austrailians). Supper that evening was served in a strange way, first lasanga, then meat and that was followed by salad and dessert.
MAY 4TH:
Hannah, Nina and I thought that we would go swimming before the day begun but it was freezing out. The group took a bus (that was jammed with tourist) to the docks. From there we took a boat. On that boat was Victoria (a girl from my district back home who was on her Eurotour). Our group was given a tour of Venice. She took us through St. Marco's Plaza and cathedral as wall as some back alley ways.Noellen and I decided not to take a gondola ride, so we just explored the alley ways, did a bit of shopping and ate gelato.
MAY 5TH:
This day was our longest driving day. We drove 7hr 30min to Lyon. Most of the day spent sleeping on the bus.
MAY 6TH:
We drove from Lyon to Versailles. We were given free time to explore the Palace. For me (being a fan of the Marie Antoinette film), it was very exciting. A bunch of us went around giving names to the statues around the castle. The garden was absolutely stunning. We continued onto Paris. A bunch of us decided to go see the Eiffel Tour at night. It took one our of walking but we finally made it to the tour. It is so much more beautiful at night. On our way bunch from the tour, the funniest thing happened. Noellen had a nose bleed and since we had no kleenex so she used a tampon. The best part was a passing car seen here a started laughing.
MAY 7TH:
We did not have a guided tour around Paris. Instead they took us around the town, quickly on a bus and then all the way up the Eiffel Tower. The lines there were crazy. The view from the Tower was fantastic. We took a boat down the River Seine and it passed the Tower, state buildings, and the Notre Dame. (It actually passed by more but it was so warm that I fell asleep on the second half of the tour.) We had some more free time after lunch to do more power shopping (though the shops were pretty busy, making it hard to do any serious shopping). After dinner, a bunch of us went and sat outside the Louvre.
MAY 8TH:
We left Paris that morning and drove to Calais. We hopped onto the ferry that took us from Calais to Dover. It was strange to be surrounded by English speakers again (they spoke so fast that it was hard to understand them). We were staying near Nottinghill. A bunch of us decided that we wanted to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry potter. We took the tube to Kings Cross.
MAY 9TH:
Our tour guide gave us a bus tour of London. We droved by Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge and Tower of London. She took us out of the bus to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The Australians and I found an Canadian/Australian store. They had Labatt Blue, Kool-Aid, Timmies Coffee, Mars and Kraft Dinner. We did some more shopping along Oxford Street and took the tube back to the hotel. The last night of the time was spent dyeing my hair, packing and trying to pull an all nighter (there wasn't really any point in sleeping because we had to be up at 430am).
MAY 10TH:
We were dropped off at Garwick Airport to take our flight back home. There was many goodbyes at the airport.
Thats just a brief summary of my trip. (My favourite city was Vienna.)
APRIL 27TH:
Every one assembled at Gardemoen Airport. I took the bus from my town that goes directly to the airport. There were 22 exchange students from Norway and we were joined by a boy who is exchanging in Iceland. We had 3 chaperones; Tove (or Mom), Morten and Gunter).The plane that we took was not very big and most of us did not sit together. The first stop on our tour was Berlin so the flight was not relatively long. We hopped onto the bus that would be with us for the rest of the tour. The first 2 nights was spent in a large youth hostel. I had 3 other roomates which was good except that our room was ridiculously small.
APRIL 28TH:
We toured around Berlin this day. Our tour guide was an American who is living in Berlin. It was mostly a bus tour. He took us past the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Bradenbug Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and other monuments around Berlin. We were allowed to get out of the bus for a short will. We walked passed the Reichstag, the Bradenburg Gate, a Frank Gehry building and a Jewish memorial. We were given free time after lunch, which Noellen and I used that to walk around and did a little bit of shopping.
APRIL 29TH:
We left Berlin that morning and drove to Dresden. Gunter gave us a walking tour (and since Gunter's walking is basically running) we were able to see most of the old town in 25 minutes. After lunch in Dresden, we continued driving to Prague. The landscape of the Czech Republic is full of trees.We arrived late at our hotel, and went straight to dinner.
APRIL 30TH:
This was our tour day in Prague. She began our tour in at the Prague Castle and worked our way down the hill to the clock tower. We pasted by St. Vitus Cathedral, and Charles Bridge along the way. Since it was still Easter week, Prague had many Easter markets. They were full of painted eggs and Prague souvenirs. There was one really good bread thing which was a chunk of bread that is wrapped around a metal tube. After that it is dipped in sugar. In the Czech Republic, they use their own currency which was somewhat of a pain because all I had was Euros and most of the clothing boutiques would only take Czech kroners.
MAY 1ST:
We had another morning free in Prague. Weather-wise, it was the worst day of the whole entire tour due to the fact that it poured rain. Noellen and I (as per usual) did a bit of exploring (since we did most of our shopping the day before). We hopped onto the bus and drove to an outlet mall near the Czech-Austrian border to eat lunch. We spent the night at an modern hotel in Vienna.
MAY 2ND:
We had a guided tour of Vienna. She took us around St. Stephens Cathedral, little walkways, by the place where Mozart lived, and the Austrian Royal Palace. We were given 1 hour of free time, which was dedicated to power shopping. They had an amazing H&M which is in this amazing old building. After that, we drove to Salzburg. We had dinner theatre that evening. They sang Austrian folk songs and ones from the Sound of Music.
MAY 3RD:
Morten lead an running expedition up to the castle before breakfast. The morning on the bus was spent sleeping. Our rest stop was way up in the Austrian mountains, we were so far up that they still had snow which was not good for me because I was wearing a summer dress and sandals. Since we drove through the belt of mountains between Austrian and Italy, we drove through many tunnels. It was ridiculously warm at our pit stop in Italy (actually it was just me who thought it was warm, it was a total shock stepping out of an air conditioned bus and into the hot Italian weather). We were staying the beach town of Lido de Jesolo. It was filled of typical beach side hotels which were pretty much empty due to the fact that it was just the beginning of the season. Everyone changed into their bathing suits and ran down to the sea. It was somewhat wavy and very salty (which was totally normal for the Austrailians). Supper that evening was served in a strange way, first lasanga, then meat and that was followed by salad and dessert.
MAY 4TH:
Hannah, Nina and I thought that we would go swimming before the day begun but it was freezing out. The group took a bus (that was jammed with tourist) to the docks. From there we took a boat. On that boat was Victoria (a girl from my district back home who was on her Eurotour). Our group was given a tour of Venice. She took us through St. Marco's Plaza and cathedral as wall as some back alley ways.Noellen and I decided not to take a gondola ride, so we just explored the alley ways, did a bit of shopping and ate gelato.
MAY 5TH:
This day was our longest driving day. We drove 7hr 30min to Lyon. Most of the day spent sleeping on the bus.
MAY 6TH:
We drove from Lyon to Versailles. We were given free time to explore the Palace. For me (being a fan of the Marie Antoinette film), it was very exciting. A bunch of us went around giving names to the statues around the castle. The garden was absolutely stunning. We continued onto Paris. A bunch of us decided to go see the Eiffel Tour at night. It took one our of walking but we finally made it to the tour. It is so much more beautiful at night. On our way bunch from the tour, the funniest thing happened. Noellen had a nose bleed and since we had no kleenex so she used a tampon. The best part was a passing car seen here a started laughing.
MAY 7TH:
We did not have a guided tour around Paris. Instead they took us around the town, quickly on a bus and then all the way up the Eiffel Tower. The lines there were crazy. The view from the Tower was fantastic. We took a boat down the River Seine and it passed the Tower, state buildings, and the Notre Dame. (It actually passed by more but it was so warm that I fell asleep on the second half of the tour.) We had some more free time after lunch to do more power shopping (though the shops were pretty busy, making it hard to do any serious shopping). After dinner, a bunch of us went and sat outside the Louvre.
MAY 8TH:
We left Paris that morning and drove to Calais. We hopped onto the ferry that took us from Calais to Dover. It was strange to be surrounded by English speakers again (they spoke so fast that it was hard to understand them). We were staying near Nottinghill. A bunch of us decided that we wanted to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry potter. We took the tube to Kings Cross.
MAY 9TH:
Our tour guide gave us a bus tour of London. We droved by Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge and Tower of London. She took us out of the bus to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The Australians and I found an Canadian/Australian store. They had Labatt Blue, Kool-Aid, Timmies Coffee, Mars and Kraft Dinner. We did some more shopping along Oxford Street and took the tube back to the hotel. The last night of the time was spent dyeing my hair, packing and trying to pull an all nighter (there wasn't really any point in sleeping because we had to be up at 430am).
MAY 10TH:
We were dropped off at Garwick Airport to take our flight back home. There was many goodbyes at the airport.
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| the gate in Berlin |
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| Tower Bridge in London |
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| St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague |
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| just chilling in vienna |
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| dinner theatre in salzburg |
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| st. marco's plaza, venice |
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| place of versailles |
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| outside the louvre |
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| eiffel tower |
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
PÅSKE
This blog is a little bit late but I have just gotten back from a 2 week vacation so this is the first chance I have had to write this.In Norway, Easter is called Påske. All of the students are given approximately 10 day (including both of the weekends) free from school. My påske was more on the down low but it as exactly what I needed. It started with a birthday party for my host sister who was turning 9 (basically a bunch of kids running around the house).Also the painting of eggs occurred. Fransisco, an exchange friend who lives only an hour away (its sad that he is one of the closest in distance) came and visited me. The time was spent exploring the shops. The whole family went on an adventure to Sweden on the Thursday. Our destination was a shopping center the was 3 hours away. We bought tons of candy and lactose free products (my host siblings can't eat milk). I also got my first hair cut in 9 months (it was a bit shorter that what I would have liked but I was not sure of the hair terminology). It took around 3 hours to do because I got it done by an apprehensive apprentice. My family is Catholic so I was able to attend a mass for the first time in 9 months. We actually went 4 times (Palm Sunday, Holy Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday). The format of the mass is almost the same as at home (the main difference being the Norwegian) but I find myself forgetting the words to the prayers even in English. The celebration of Easter was a little different. Instead of hiding many small eggs that can take up to 1 hour to find, they hide huge cardboard eggs filled with candy and other goodies. Thats it for Easter.
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| Hanna's birthday |
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| my hair after the cut |
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| look what i found in a toy store: a coffee maker!!!!!(only in NORWAY!) |
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| ridicously large candy store in Sweden |
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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 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
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.
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| the side of my house (when we still had snow) |
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| my house is on the left hill. |
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
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| the snow starting to melt about 2 weekends ago |
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| NORWAY VS. CZECH REPUBLIC |
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| the reading of my poem |
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| the contents of the amazing easter package from my aunt and uncle |
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| me in larvik |
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| noellen's crazy school |
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| the sleds from the finnskogen weekend |
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| a part of the cabin |
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| the productive orientation in Porsgrunn |
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| the group in porsgrunn |
Sunday, March 20, 2011
BESØK FRA MAMMA (MARCH 10TH-19TH)
I know what you are probably thinking: "TWO BLOG POSTS IN JUST OVER ONE WEEK? WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Well, something big has happened to me and i figured that I should write about it mow when it is still fresh in my mind. For those of you who had not heard, my mamma came and visited me for 9 days.
DAY 1 (March 10th):
The school had given me the entire time off, so I had nothing to worry about there. My Rotary counselor, Marianne, picked me up at my new house and we drove the 1 and 1/2 hours to Gardemoen Airport. She walked out the exit doors with the rest of her flight. I was so excited to see her agian (I was antsy the entire morning). and it was amazing to hug her again. (It was somewhat strange to see her face-to-face after so long. Skype was a little bit friendlier to her.) Mamma was very excited during the car ride back to Gjøvik, asking all sorts of questions about Norway. After we were dropped off, Mamma unpacked all of the goodies from home that she brought form me (gum, magazines, chocolate,etc..). She thought it would be best if we went for a walk after this so that she wouldn't fall asleep. We went to the local Rimi (a grocery store) for her to see what a typical Norwegian grocery store looks like. We also took a look at my school. She had trouble walking up the massive hill back to the house (Tilbury has no hills whatsoever). Mamma met my host family (Wolfgang, Therese, Everten, Noa and Hanna) during supper. It was a relatively early night because Mamma was so tired.
DAY 2 (MARCH 11TH):
We spent Friday exploring Gjøvik. We first started looking through the shops downtown (chocolate factory, shoe store, book store). Mamma bought me a stove top waffle iron to use at home from a second hand shop. We continued our journey onto CC Shopping Centre where we bought (what would become our almost daily) lunch. After that we visited Gjøvik Glassverk and Gjøvik Gård. A hot chocolate break was then required. The town was having a performance in celebration of the new culture house opening. They had "wall dancers" (a man and woman attached to harnesses doing acrobatics) along the wall of the town buildings. The crown prince Håkon was there for the opening but we only caught a glimpse of him.
DAY 3 (MARCH 12TH):
Apparently, I slept talk in Norwegian (YES!!!!). My host family, Mamma and I drove to Lillehammer. My eldest host brother had a competition there with his school orchestra. They were playing at the Maihaugen Museum. We stayed for his orchestra's performance (Everten was playing the trumpet). We toured around the Maihaugen Museum after that. The museum had stuff about the history of Norway (the Danish and Swedish rules, independence, wartime,etc..). It was good because we don't learn much about Norway in our schools back home. We then explored the town of Lillehammer. Mamma bought a cheese slicer (which is a Norwegian invention). There was a performance by an older orchestra before the awards ceremony. Everten's orchestra received 3rd place. Mamma had her first experience with Norwegian shrimp.
DAY 4 (MARCH 13TH):
This was my 7th month anniversary for being in Norway. The host family and us (Mamma and me) loaded into the car and drove to Hafjell ( a ski resort that was used during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer). We rented our equipment from the hill. I mistakenly took regular alpine skis instead of snow-blades (I was uncomfortable the entire time). Hafjell is set up as narrow at the bottom and it gets larger as you go higher up. It takes several lifts to get to the top. Mamma and I skied for the whole afternoon without taking a break. Mamma was looking somewhtat siff after having not skied for 2 years. We got the car stuck in a hole near the Children's School. It took another car to get us out.
DAY 5 (MARCH 14TH):
We hopped onto the train early in the morning to Oslo. Mamma spent the whole time looking out the window. Our first stop when we got into Oslo was the Opera House. We were not able to go all the way to the top because of the ice. Next, we got onto a bus out to Bygdøy. Once there, we visited the Norwegian Folk Museum. There were 2 sections of teh museum, an open-air section and indoor exhibits. The open-air museum had buildings from the last few hundred years from different regions around Norway. The indoor exhibits were a variety of things (Samis, Bastøy, bunads, etc...). We decided to make our way to our hotel. Along the way we passed the Ice Bar ( a bar which is completely made out of ice and open all year long). After dropping off some of our luggage, we back out. We did some shopping along Karl Johans Gate. Mamma finally replaced the boots that I have been wearing since October. We decided to have dinner out a Thai restaurant (only the 3rd time for me eating out since being in Norway). We went to the El Dorado cinema to see a film (with subtitles of course). The only option for us to see was "Just Go With It" (all the others were in Norwegian and Swedish).The movie was absolutely horrible. Mamma was surprised to see a lady walk into the theatre with skis.
DAY 6 (TUESDAY, MARCH 15TH):
Mamma was able to try Norwegian waffles with breakfast. We found a Catholic church that was close to the hotel. Mamma wanted to take a look (it was my first experience with religion in seven months). The graveyard where Edvard Munch is buried was close by so we decided to go and find his gravesite but to no avail. We went to the Royal Palace and Mamma got her photo taken with a Royal guard. On our way to meet Devin (an exchange student), we stopped at Akershus Fortress. Devin, Mamma and I took the tram to Vigelands Park. I t has many naked sculptures that were somewhat disturbing. One of the more famous ones is the Angry Baby. We took the tram to a rougher part of Oslo. We then navigated ourselves to the Munch Museum. There was very high security to get into the museum (almost like going into the airport). Suprisingly, the musuem was free. It was about the Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch. His most famous painting, The Scream was in another museum. We left Devin shortly afterwards. We walked around before catching the train home. We stopped at Steen & Strøm ( a department store that is comparable to Saks Fifth Avenue or Nordstrom). We left Oslo at 7 pm. Our train had to stop on the tracks because of an animal.
DAY 7 (WEDNESDAY MARCH 16TH):
This day was more laid back. Turid (a Rotarian) came and picked us up because we were staying with her and her husband for the next 2 nights. We visited Fredheim's Barneskole (Mamma was surprised to see the similarities between the school here and the schools back home). We also visited Fjellhallen. We had dinner with my second host family.
DAY 8 (THURSDAY, MARCH 17TH):
Mamma and I took the bus to Hafjell again. It was very cold outside. I was able to use snowblades today and was much more comfortable. The runs were not that busy, many people from other parts of Europe and young children. The sun finally came out in the afternoon but it didn't help. We took the bus back to Gjøvik in the late afternoon. Turid made Mamma Norwegian meatballs for supper. My host family came by for a goodbye coffe and cake.
DAY 9 (FRIDAY MARCH 18TH):
Mamma boarded the bus to Gardemoen.
Kate
DAY 1 (March 10th):
The school had given me the entire time off, so I had nothing to worry about there. My Rotary counselor, Marianne, picked me up at my new house and we drove the 1 and 1/2 hours to Gardemoen Airport. She walked out the exit doors with the rest of her flight. I was so excited to see her agian (I was antsy the entire morning). and it was amazing to hug her again. (It was somewhat strange to see her face-to-face after so long. Skype was a little bit friendlier to her.) Mamma was very excited during the car ride back to Gjøvik, asking all sorts of questions about Norway. After we were dropped off, Mamma unpacked all of the goodies from home that she brought form me (gum, magazines, chocolate,etc..). She thought it would be best if we went for a walk after this so that she wouldn't fall asleep. We went to the local Rimi (a grocery store) for her to see what a typical Norwegian grocery store looks like. We also took a look at my school. She had trouble walking up the massive hill back to the house (Tilbury has no hills whatsoever). Mamma met my host family (Wolfgang, Therese, Everten, Noa and Hanna) during supper. It was a relatively early night because Mamma was so tired.
DAY 2 (MARCH 11TH):
We spent Friday exploring Gjøvik. We first started looking through the shops downtown (chocolate factory, shoe store, book store). Mamma bought me a stove top waffle iron to use at home from a second hand shop. We continued our journey onto CC Shopping Centre where we bought (what would become our almost daily) lunch. After that we visited Gjøvik Glassverk and Gjøvik Gård. A hot chocolate break was then required. The town was having a performance in celebration of the new culture house opening. They had "wall dancers" (a man and woman attached to harnesses doing acrobatics) along the wall of the town buildings. The crown prince Håkon was there for the opening but we only caught a glimpse of him.
DAY 3 (MARCH 12TH):
Apparently, I slept talk in Norwegian (YES!!!!). My host family, Mamma and I drove to Lillehammer. My eldest host brother had a competition there with his school orchestra. They were playing at the Maihaugen Museum. We stayed for his orchestra's performance (Everten was playing the trumpet). We toured around the Maihaugen Museum after that. The museum had stuff about the history of Norway (the Danish and Swedish rules, independence, wartime,etc..). It was good because we don't learn much about Norway in our schools back home. We then explored the town of Lillehammer. Mamma bought a cheese slicer (which is a Norwegian invention). There was a performance by an older orchestra before the awards ceremony. Everten's orchestra received 3rd place. Mamma had her first experience with Norwegian shrimp.
DAY 4 (MARCH 13TH):
This was my 7th month anniversary for being in Norway. The host family and us (Mamma and me) loaded into the car and drove to Hafjell ( a ski resort that was used during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer). We rented our equipment from the hill. I mistakenly took regular alpine skis instead of snow-blades (I was uncomfortable the entire time). Hafjell is set up as narrow at the bottom and it gets larger as you go higher up. It takes several lifts to get to the top. Mamma and I skied for the whole afternoon without taking a break. Mamma was looking somewhtat siff after having not skied for 2 years. We got the car stuck in a hole near the Children's School. It took another car to get us out.
DAY 5 (MARCH 14TH):
We hopped onto the train early in the morning to Oslo. Mamma spent the whole time looking out the window. Our first stop when we got into Oslo was the Opera House. We were not able to go all the way to the top because of the ice. Next, we got onto a bus out to Bygdøy. Once there, we visited the Norwegian Folk Museum. There were 2 sections of teh museum, an open-air section and indoor exhibits. The open-air museum had buildings from the last few hundred years from different regions around Norway. The indoor exhibits were a variety of things (Samis, Bastøy, bunads, etc...). We decided to make our way to our hotel. Along the way we passed the Ice Bar ( a bar which is completely made out of ice and open all year long). After dropping off some of our luggage, we back out. We did some shopping along Karl Johans Gate. Mamma finally replaced the boots that I have been wearing since October. We decided to have dinner out a Thai restaurant (only the 3rd time for me eating out since being in Norway). We went to the El Dorado cinema to see a film (with subtitles of course). The only option for us to see was "Just Go With It" (all the others were in Norwegian and Swedish).The movie was absolutely horrible. Mamma was surprised to see a lady walk into the theatre with skis.
DAY 6 (TUESDAY, MARCH 15TH):
Mamma was able to try Norwegian waffles with breakfast. We found a Catholic church that was close to the hotel. Mamma wanted to take a look (it was my first experience with religion in seven months). The graveyard where Edvard Munch is buried was close by so we decided to go and find his gravesite but to no avail. We went to the Royal Palace and Mamma got her photo taken with a Royal guard. On our way to meet Devin (an exchange student), we stopped at Akershus Fortress. Devin, Mamma and I took the tram to Vigelands Park. I t has many naked sculptures that were somewhat disturbing. One of the more famous ones is the Angry Baby. We took the tram to a rougher part of Oslo. We then navigated ourselves to the Munch Museum. There was very high security to get into the museum (almost like going into the airport). Suprisingly, the musuem was free. It was about the Norwegian painter, Edvard Munch. His most famous painting, The Scream was in another museum. We left Devin shortly afterwards. We walked around before catching the train home. We stopped at Steen & Strøm ( a department store that is comparable to Saks Fifth Avenue or Nordstrom). We left Oslo at 7 pm. Our train had to stop on the tracks because of an animal.
DAY 7 (WEDNESDAY MARCH 16TH):
This day was more laid back. Turid (a Rotarian) came and picked us up because we were staying with her and her husband for the next 2 nights. We visited Fredheim's Barneskole (Mamma was surprised to see the similarities between the school here and the schools back home). We also visited Fjellhallen. We had dinner with my second host family.
DAY 8 (THURSDAY, MARCH 17TH):
Mamma and I took the bus to Hafjell again. It was very cold outside. I was able to use snowblades today and was much more comfortable. The runs were not that busy, many people from other parts of Europe and young children. The sun finally came out in the afternoon but it didn't help. We took the bus back to Gjøvik in the late afternoon. Turid made Mamma Norwegian meatballs for supper. My host family came by for a goodbye coffe and cake.
DAY 9 (FRIDAY MARCH 18TH):
Mamma boarded the bus to Gardemoen.
Kate
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| Mamma on the first day |
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| mamma going on the bus back to the airport |
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| at the Maihaugen museum |
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| mamma with my host parents at hafjell |
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| Mamma painting Hanna's nails |
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| the view from the opera house |
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| Mamma with an old school house |
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| an exhibit at the folk museum |
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| Thai restaurant |
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| Royal guard |
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| Devin and mamma in Vigelands |
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| Steen and Strøm |
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| Fjellhallen |
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| Skiing |
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| goodbye cake |
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