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...