Kjempebra!

Last weekend Region 4 (which is the Trøndelag area.. (If you don't know what that is, click on the word and Wikipedia will explain!)) had our first AFS weekend! It was so much fun!
Wednesday night I scrambeled to pack my towel, sheets, sleeping bag, clothes and other random necessities into a large hiking backpack that mamma let me borrow. It was huge! I was so worried I was going to be the only one with a bag as big as that one.
Thursday I met Mila after lunch (around noon). Mila is another exchange student who attends Ole Vig. She is from Italy. We walked to her house, which is very close to the school, then we bought some chocolate and she packed. I felt a little better about my bag after seeing hers. We went to the train station and bought our tickets. The train arrived at 2:52. We were about to get on it when Mila had the great idea of asking to make sure it was the right train. She asked the people next to us if it was going to Trondheim and they looked a little confused and said no, then pointed at the other track. The train we were getting on was going the opposite direction! We waited a few more minutes and another train came rollin' down the track. This was the right one. There were quite a few other exchange students on it! It was great to see them. When we got to Trondheim we met up with the rest of the students in the station. I was really glad to see everyone again (also I was really glad to see my bag wasn't the biggest one there!)
We walked through the city for a while, it is very beautiful. Then we got on a tram that took us a few minutes outside the city. We hiked up, up, up! and eventually came to a cabin. It looked really small for 30+ people! I was the first to get my room assignment. I had 3 room mates. I got to sleep on the top bunk!
The cabin was arranged like this: You walked in and there was a mud room where we all left our shoes. To the left there was a dining room/common room. Straight ahead there was a kitchen. To the right there was a very large room (that we used mostly for dancing... Oh and group activities) and a bathroom. The boys slept in the big room on mattresses they pulled out of a clothset. Right next to the front door there was a staircase down to a hall way with a boys bathroom, a girls bathroom, a boys shower and a girls shower. Connecting the two shower rooms was a sauna. The girls stayed in the rooms that were on the opposite side of the hall than the showers. There were 4 people in every room.
For dinner, they fed us hot dogs. After dinner we were broken into 4 smaller groups. Then we had some free time!
So... You might be wondering what happens when 30 kids from different cultures all over the world, who speak different languages and don't always understand eachother are put in a secluded cabin on the outskirts of Trondheim in Norway...
Well the answer is quite simple actually:

DaNcE pArTy!!!

I think I danced more in those 4 days than I have in the past 4 years!

The first night there was a little bit of confusion about bed time. The schedual said "Stille" at 11, which means "Quiet". Everyone thought that meant that we could be brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed quietly, but some of the leaders took that to mean "in bed, asleep" at 11. They weren't particularly happy that we weren't ready for lights on time. When we were all in bed, they came in and sang a norwegian lulliby to us. It was so nice!
After they left, two of my room mates (Anna Sofia from Mexico and Noemi from Italy) talked for a while... Our other room mate was asleep. Since our room was right next to some of the volunteers room, they heard we were still awake and we got scolded. Oops! It was worth it though, we had fun talking and there was no real damage done.
Friday was the "boring" day. We had to go over all of the rules. Again. And again. The volunteers even apologized for Friday and said that Saturday would be better. We did a lot of group work and we talked about how school was going, how we liked our host families and what we thought so far of Norway. We had to draw our host family (Yay stick figures!). I included the animals and someone told me that the dogs looked like foxes (as in, I was bad at drawing dogs), and I said "yup, they do" It took them a while to understand that the dogs actually do look like foxes..
Friday night we went in the sauna after we had our "girl talk" (The boys had "boy talk"). The sauna was so nice! but i got a cold bucket of water dumped on me by the Italians. My only towel was sopping wet. Not very useful as a towel goes..
At 10 we had to start getting ready for bed so we could be in bed, lights out, asleep by 11. They sang to us again, but this time there were more volunteers there so it was absolutley wonderful. We talked a little bit more, but I didn''t really want to get scolded again so I went to sleep relitively quickly.
Saturday was, as promised, a very fun day! We had breakfast then made matpakke for lunch. We went outside and played Monster and the Pip pip! It's a little kids game, but its so much fun (it is a more complicated version of tag basically) Basically the monster has to try to catch the pip pip.
We had to do a little more official AFS stuff then we got to gå på tur! We got to go on a hike!

It was lovely. We left at 2 and we walked through wet fields and in mud. After a while we made it to the lunch area, and we ate. Then people had a choice, they could stay there, or they could continue hiking. Of course I wanted to keep hiking! We walked for a while longer. Everyone was muddy and soaking! Then the group split again and people could

turn back, or continue on to the top. About half of the people turned back. We hiked basically through myr (bogs) and up to a lake. It was gorgeous! You could see all of Trondheim! We decided instead of going back the way we came we would find a loop to get back. It seemed to take forever but finally we got back to the cabin. It was after 7. I took a really quick shower then went upstairs and had TACOS! for dinner. It was great. A few of us ate in the big room with the volunteers instead of in the crowded dining room with the other students. Simon (from Belgium) hooked his ipod up and we listened to the Tallest Man On Earth while we ate. After dinner we rocked out to the Beach Boys! Of course, not long after that there was another huge dance party, however, I missed most of this one because I had to do my interview. The volunteers were pulling aside students individually all weekend just to check up and ask them a few questions about how their year was going and to see if they have any problems.
When I got back upstaris, there was a group quiz happening. It was The Americas vs. Europe vs. Asia vs. the Norwegians. Asia won. They got 3 big candy bars, America and Europe each got one (consolation prize I guess).
"Stille" was at 12 on the schedual, but we all stayed up a lot later than that. We hung out in the kitchen and a little after 12 we were all hearded into our designated sleeping areas and told to get ready for bed (they were a little more linient than the 2 other nights). Sofia, Mila, Noemi, Anna Sofia and I stayed up talking for a while. We were careful to be quiet! When we looked at the clock it was 2 am!! We decided it was probably a good idea to go to bed then.

Clean up! Clean up! Everybody do your share!

Sunday we had breakfast at 8:30. We packed our bags and cleaned the cabin. We played a few games then it was time to go. We hiked down, down, down to the tram station. When the tram arrived they told us it was free! Yay! It turns out that that particular line and the actualy tram cars were 110 years old that day so our of tradition we didn't have to pay!

This is the 110 year old tram!

At all of the stops there were people taking pictures and waving, it was a pretty big deal I guess.

We arrived at the Trondheim train station and had a few hours until our train (everyone was leaving at different times, my trian was at 3:10) was leaving. So I wandered around the city with Simon and Jessica for a while. We weren't allowed to wander by ourselves, but since Simon lives in Trondheim we were allowed to go with him. We wound up finding the other exchange students taking a picture in front of the big church, so we sprinted over and joined in!
Then it was time to go. I said bye to everyone. It was very sad... I will miss them all so much! The train ride was only about 30 minutes. Johan picked me up at the station and we went to Pappa's dad's house for dinner. We had fårikål, which is boiled sheep and cabbage. It was very good.

Oh, there is one thing I forgot to mention: The whole weekend was conducted in Norwegian. The volunteers only directed/talked to us in Norsk. At first I was very discouraged but as the weekend progressed I started understanding more and more! However, I still need to be spoken to very, very slowly!! The slower people speak, the more I understand.
This past weekend was wonderful and I can't wait to see my fellow AFSers again!