School, Food, and the "Three Fs"

A few days ago I attended a family reunion of sorts. Reunions with your own family can sometimes prove a little awkward. Now imagine about 100 people that you don’t know all speaking Norwegian. Yeah. Thankfully I had my host sister with me. Seriously.

The food at this massive family gathering was pretty good, although I’m still not sure what I was eating the whole time. One dish in particular. I know what it was but I have yet to figure out who the hell thought of it. It consisted of clear, tasteless gelatin full of peas, carrots, corn, and shrimp. I took a tiny bit, figured I may as well try a little of everything…and then someone told me that the reason people made it was because it would last in the fridge for a year. Needless to say that part of my plate remained untouched (it was a very small portion, like two peas and a carrot). My favorite part about the gathering, (aside from discussing Norwegian and American cultural differences with Ingrid :D) was seeing all the different national costumes. It’s amazing how much they vary!

As for school, I still find it insanely confusing. Today for example. I arrived 15 minutes before the normal school start time of 8am only to discover that my first class wasn’t until 50 minutes after 8. …Really? At least on Thursday I get out at half past 10…I think. So every day I sit in class and make a very valiant attempt to figure out what is going. But after about 15 minutes of sitting and listening to someone ramble on in a foreign language from which you can only comprehend words like ‘and’, ‘source’, and ‘cheese hot dog’ (Ostepolse for those wondering, don’t lie I know you were) anyway moral of the story is I have spent the last week of school sitting in a chair for hours staring at walls and thinking about how all the people here remind me of someone back home. As for differences between the school here and WHS (which I actually kind of miss at this point) there are many, more than I expected at least. First of all, they have no clocks. I never ever know what time it is. Secondly, each student here gets their own personal laptop. This would be really cool if I knew how to use windows. Unfortunately…I don’t. But at least the fact that everyone is always on facebook (usually playing Farmville) during lectures makes me feel better about not understanding since they aren’t listening anyway. And finally (for now) the teachers. All my teachers in America would joke, laugh and generally have fun in class. The teachers here seem set on being really, really boring. They usually use some sort of powerpoint presentation and then talk for like 3 hours. It’s great fun. cough cough. And I know they aren’t boring people, I’ve talked to all of them outside of class and they all seem really nice and at least a little fun…but apparently fun and learning can’t go together. Mr . Benner I have never appreciated your in class activities more than now. Maybe it’s a blessing I can’t understand… The one class I can actually stay awake in is, unsurprisingly, my english lit class. It's taught completely in English.


In regards to food. I have now eaten liverpaste, reindeer (I haven't seen any yet Hannah, but eating one could kind of count...right?) and little shrimp with their heads and legs and tails still on which we had to remove-the worst part was their eyes, staring up at me as I broke off their heads...It was tough. My parents told me before I came here that I would be eating fish and potatoes every night. While it is true that I have eaten quite a bit of fish and potatoes, I would just like to mention that I have also eaten tacos, hamburgers, pizza, etc. It turns out American dishes are quite popular here. That said, I would also like to mention that if anyone has goldfish, strawberry pop-tarts, or funfetti cake mix that they don’t want, it would be greatly appreciated over here.

And before I forget. The bus system. I have started to realize that in America we take much for granted. Like dryers and the fact that pretty much everyone has their own cars. I have now missed the bus a total of 7 times. I'm sure most of you know I can never get anywhere on time so trying to catch a bus at 7:30 in the morning....so false. Quite possibly the worst bus experience I've had to date was last thursday. I fell asleep on the bus. And when I woke I had no idea where I was. So instead of staying on until the bus went back around like a smart person, I decided to get off at the next stop. I think I wandered around for about 2 hours until I found a familiar road...

Lucky

Soooooo School. Yeah... Quite possibly the most insanely confusing situation I have ever been in. The building seems to have no practicale layout, all of it's staircases are styled differently and needless to say I have gotten quite lost on several occassions. Not to mention schedules are pure chaos. I don't think I'll ever fully understand this system... Also as most of you know, WHS has double doors. My new school here in Nesodden also appears to have double doors. Key word being appears. I have found out multiple times now that only one side opens. Meaning yes, I have walked into several doors/windows/walls. It's great. Aside from all of that school itself has been...well rather dull honestly. I can't understand the language yet so basically I just sit in rooms for a couple hours listening to people ramble in norwegian.

There is one class, however, that I find to be quite awesome. It is my English Literature class. And it's taught in English!!! YAY!!!!!!! I just hope we read in English... (And yes mom, I am doingmy best to learn the language, it's just nice to have something familiar in the place.) This is also the only class I have on Thursday from 8-10:30. Awesome.

The people I have met so far have all been really wonderful!!! They are the kindest most wonderful people ever!!! I'm positive that it's thanks to them that I haven't been feeling too homesick. So if any of my Norwegian friends are reading this, tusen takk!!! I love you guys!!!

In a lose situation

Wow. I must say I'm a bit impressed. I haven't even posted anything yet and I already have 'followers'. Ah, I'm so popular! ...ees a joke...haha...anyway...

Now that I've finally gotten around to writing this bloggy thing...I'm not really sure what you all want to know so I'll just write some stuff and I guess you can just tell me what you find boring or interesting and whatnot.

Soooo Norway. I admit that Norway is not quite what I expected, but regardless I think It's wonderful! I've been here for four? Five? days...I've already lost count. It's like one of those movie scenes when the character has been drinking or doing too many drugs and the room starts spinning, that's kind of how I was/am...but without the drugs or alcohol.

A couple days ago Astrid, who will be leaving for canada soon, took me to Tusenfryd with a couple of her friends, Magnus and Bjørnar. Tusenfryd, if you don't want to look it up, is an amusement park, complete with rollercoasters, candy shops, the works. Anyway it was really fun, I forgot how much I love rollercoasters. Astrid has been really wonderful to me, showing me around Oslo and introducing me to people so I at least have acquantances when she leaves, which will be a very sad day for me.

When I came to Norway I thought it would pretty much be like America, just with people speaking Norwegian and better chocolate. That certainly isn't the case. The toilet for example. In order to flush it you have to pull up on this little nob on the top. It took me a really, really, really long time to figure that out.

Alright. That's all I'm writing about for now. But I start school on Wednesday so wish me luck!
(BTW this computer does not have automatic spellcheck so until I figure it out don't kill me for any spelling mistakes. Takk!)