I'm gonna feel that one in the morning....

So I realized I've written about all of the exciting and not-so-ordinary things I've done so far, but I have yet to post about the regular, every day life that I'm living here.
But wait!
Before I get into that, I should tell you about orienteering. I forgot to write about this because I was busy with the AFS camp... Anyways, last week on Monday, instead of going to classes we had gym all day and we went orienteering!

Under all that grass is water....
lots and lots of water...

I honestly had no clue what that was, but it is a sport invented by Scandinavians where you run around in the woods and through myr (a.k.a. bogs) trying to find different posts. There are different types of Orienteering depending on what kind of map you get i guess. Some maps have all the posts you have to find on them, others only have one post. Once you find the one post on the map, you need to go back to where you started and grab another map with a new post to find.

Yay! We found a post!

We worked in partners, so Kristin and I worked together. At the first post we found, there was just some random zip line. Pretty sweet..
It was kind of a miserable day, it was cold and rainy and my shoes got soaked (sneakers... what was I thinking? I probably should have learned my lesson from this (click here to see what I mean!) and I didn't even have wool socks on... Herregud!)

Lunch break! I was hiding from the smoke...

We got a long lunch break. People built fires and I talked to one of the gym teachers, whose wife had lived in New Jersey for a few years. After lunch we only had one more station to go to. We had to use our compass on the smaller map in order to get the direction in real life. I wasn't very good at it.
Overall it was a very fun day (and eventually my sneakers dried so no damage done).



OK. Now back to everyday life:


Monday morning:
7:00 a.m.-clock alarm and cell phone alarm go off.
Half-awake-Avery turns off the clock alarm and snoozes the cell alarm.
Between 7:00-7:03 Pappa calls from upstairs a cheery "God morgen!"
Half-awake-Avery does her best to croak out something that sounds similar to "God morguhhh...."
7:03- ipod alarm goes off.
It promptly gets shut off.
7:05- Cell phone again.
Soonze.
7:10- Snooze.
7:15- Snooze.
7:17 (ish)- Half-awake-Avery remembers since it's monday she has to be ready to go at 7:45. Bolts up in bed. "Oh god! It's getting late! Time to get up.."
7:17-7:33- Get up. Stretch. Brush teeth. Wash face. Get dressed. Make-up. Brush hair. Jewelry. Socks. Shoes.
7:34- stumble up the staris.
7:34-7:43- make lunch. bread + butter + meat + cheese = lookin' good to me. Grab a yogurt and apple. Shove everything in backpack.
7:45- Off to school.

Now: imagine that morning four more times (but these next four times I leave at 8. I don't know where those extra 15 minutes get used up, but some how they always do).

I got to school 5 days a week (just like a good kid should). Every day I start at 8:25 (even on Mondays.. I just have to leave earlier because that is when I can get a ride in the morning).
There is a 10 minute break between every class. Also, if I don't have a class (a.k.a a free period) then I hang out in the kantina, either with others who are free that hour or if not, then I write in my journal or work on my blog.
On Mondays and Thrusdays I get done at 15:30 (3:30). On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm finished at 14:25 (2:25)
Monday is the only "strange" day at school because we have gym. The gymnasium at Ole vig is currently under construction, as I think I mentioned in an earlier post, so we have to drive to a different place for gym class.

When I get home from school, we normally have dinner very early. Around 4 or 5 I think. After dinner, Johan and I do our homework (if we have any) then we watch some TV. I often go on walks with Mamma, Bonnie and Clyde in the evenings. Depending on how tired I am, I might stay up and watch a program at 10 with Johan. He translates for me so I understand a little bit about what's going on. I generally go to bed around 10 or 11, but sometimes its closer to midnight. I set all my alarms, then repeat the same process in the mornings.

Thursday evenings I help my cousin Ragnhild with handball practice for 10 and 11 year old girls from 5 to 6:30. It is so much fun! I don't know anything about handball and I still can't communicate with the girls, but I like them so much! They are adorable, and yesterday one of them gave me a hug. I always look forward to it.

Well... "always" is a pretty general term. I can't honestly say I was excited about it at first yesterday... Why, you may be wondering? Well, my reason is pretty valid.

Yesterday was a pretty unusual day. Johan and I were finished with our classes for the day at noon, so went home. Mamma wasn't working until the evening so the three of us were going to eat lunch together, but we couldn't really figure out what we wanted.
I had just recieved a box from home and inside the box, there was another box!
What was the other box?
A box of Bisquick!
I offered to make American Pancakes for lunch. They both liked that idea. They also liked the idea of putting chocolate chips in them! It was delicious.
After lunch, Ragnhild and Berit (two of my host cousins) invited me to go horse back riding. We got the horses all set (Berit's horse is home now, so when Ellen (their little sister) arrived home from school she decided to come with us too). I rode Milli, again. We rode through the woods for a while then down the dirt road and past our mail boxes (which are quite a distance from the house). Eventually we diecided to go back home. On the way up the hill we were going at a pretty good speed and all of a sudden I started to slip! I guess thats what happens with you ride bareback... I figured there was no way I was getting back onto the horse so I should just put my feet down and I'd be OK. Afterall, falling on my feet would be better than slipping under her hooves. So, I put my feet down... then I put my hip down... then I put my shoulder down... then I put my head down. Yeah, I guess I put myself down a little harder than I meant to.
I sat up and tried to breathe. I couldn't move my left leg.
I looked up to see three very shocked and worried expressions staring down at me.
"I'm ok! I'm alright.." <Oh god.. Is my hip dislocated? No.. No way. There isn't nearly enough pain for dislocation... Right? Stupid leg, you can still move! Stop playing dead..>
Indeed it still could move.
"Ranghild, I don't know if I'll go to practice tonight..."
I sat for another minute then slowly Berit helped me stand up. I walked to Milli, but I walked like a decrepit person, all bent over with my hand on my back.
<I'm gonna feel that one in the morning....>
When I was learning how to ride as a young girl, I was told that yes, at some point your life you will fall off a horse. It is inevitable. However, the important part about falling off is what you do after. You have to get back on, if you don't then fear may get the better of you down the road.  So that's just what I did- with some difficulty- I climbed back on and rode the rest of the way home. As we were riding I changed my mind and told Ragnhild that I would go to practice.
My cousins invited me up for dinner and we had Norwegian pancakes!
Practice was a lot of fun and I'm very glad I didn't skip it.
I went to bed pretty early Thrusday night...

So now you know what a week-in-the-life is like!... and what falling off a horse is like...

MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!