Something.

**I was trying to figure out what to call this post and one of my friends said "just name it something and post it so I can read it" Enjoy!**
                                                                                                                                 


Surprise: an emotional state experienced as the result of an unexpected and significant event.
This definition will come into play later on in this blog post




Last Wednesday I learned a few things:

• I learned that if you wake up at 8 in the morning and you have to leave at 8, you are able to get ready faster than was ever imagined.
• It doesn't actually take us a full 25 minutes to drive to school (thank goodness!)
• It is very convenient to be able to buy lunch at school and not always have to take the time to make it at home.
• Volleyball practice is really late... 9 to 10 at night!
• Being ready an hour early in the evening does not make up for being ready an hour late in the morning.
• The people on the Hegra volleyball team are very kind and patient.
• Volleyball is really fun!

And finally: 

• I am really bad at volleyball.

What I still need to learn:

• How to read a clock.

Thursday was a very special day (for many reasons)
There was this thing called Operasjon Dagsverk (Operation Days Work) that happened on Thrusday. Instead of going to class, most people got a job for that day and earned 400 Kroner to give to this organization that helps people in Rwanda. 
I helped clean the house for my job... It is always washed before Christmas. We started at 10 (Yay! I got to sleep a little bit extra). I washed the ceiling and Mamma washed the walls. When I was finished I washed one of the walls too and Mamma washed the floor. It was actually kind of fun! Cleaning is so much better when you don't have to do it by yourself!
After we cleaned, we went for a walk up the hill. It was so steep! We walked up, up, up! It was exhausting, but it was a very nice walk. We relaxed for a little while. Pappa told me after dinner we would go for a car ride.  
After dinner I checked the clock and said that I had to go to the handball training at 5 and Pappa was like "Nope. Not today. I will call Ragnhild right now"
They told me that they had a surprise for me. They seemed very excited, so I got really excited too. I really wanted to know what we were going to do! Pappa and I climbed into the car and we started driving. We drove through Hegra, through Stjørdal and then we turned in the direction of Trondheim... which also happens to be the direction of the airport. 
"Hmm.. I wonder... Who do Mamma and Pappa know here that I know too..." so I started racking my brain.
I got nothing.
We pulled up to the airport and Pappa was like "Are we picking someone up, or am I dropping you off?"
Oh goodness.. I hope we are picking someone up!
We pulled into the pick up/drop off area and Pappa blinked the car lights and this tall, lovely woman started waving at the car. 
It was Annette! (A friend my Mom met during her days with Up With People) I stayed with her and her wonderful family two summers ago when I first visited Norway. 
It turns out that she had had a meeting in Trondheim and had contacted Pappa through facebook. They were very careful and didn't become friends in case I saw and it would ruin the surprise. They planned the whole thing out and she booked a later flight home so she could spend a few hours with me. We had a lovely time chatting and eating bolle og is (sweet rolls and ice cream). They gave me a nice shirt to help me survive Norwegian winter and their son sent a long an awesome CD (Jarle Bernhoft) which I have already put on my ipod.
I can't imagine a better surprise than that!

One more thing:


Today is Halloween!!


They don't really celebrate it here like I'm used to at home. I saw three people dressed up at school. At my US high school almost everyone dresses up. 
I fully expected not to get any trick-or-treat'ers.
However, a few minutes ago there was a knock at the door and when we opened it, there were three little skeletons standing there, pumpkin buckets outstretched and I'm sure with eager expressions on their mask-covered faces.
We gave them candy and Pappa gave them each a package of sparklers! 


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Nattlysing

In Hegra there are some ancient rock carvings. The oldest is from over 3000 years ago and the most recent is from about 900 years ago.

The footsteps

The other night there was a very special event that happened called Nattlysing.

The boats

Every October a group of people gathers at the carvings. A paper is handed out explaining things about different parts of the carvings and it has the name of a song for each carving.
On Wednesday night, Mamma, Pappa and I got all bundled up (I wore my winter coat for the first time this year!) and walked about 20 minutes down the road to the rock carvings.

The sun. 

The path up to the rock was lined with candles--It was absolutely lovely. When we reached the top there were lights set up on the rocks illuminating differnt parts of the carvings. There was a concert band that played different pieces of music (the ones listed on the paper) for each carving.
Between the songs the lights would be redirected to show different parts of the carvings. There was a song for the boats, a song for the horses, for the people, for the sun and I think one for the ocean. It was a very special event.

The people.

After, we talked a little bit to the people in charge, then we went to a small cabin for coffee and bolle (sweet rolls).
It was a very lovely, cozy, special evening.

Has It Really Been 21 Days?

Time flies when you're in Norway...


Now where to begin? 
My Birthday:
It. was. awesome!!! The best 19th Birthday I have ever had, by far!

September 30th there was the first school party. It was a lot of fun. I danced a lot and talked to a bunch of people I had never talked to before. At midnight a bunch of people came up to me and wished me a happy birthday! It was great.

Just singin' to Grease (or something)

I got home pretty late and slept until mid-morning on Saturday.. I was then woken up in a very special way. 
At 10:30 Mamma og Pappa knocked on my door, opened it and sang to me! It was wonderful!
They gave me a beautiful card and a lovely blue headband with matching gloves and a pair of socks (all knitted by a local woman).

Tusen takk Mamma!!!

At noon the family came over for lunch. I got a some bacon from my aunt and uncle and a nice blue fleece from some neighbors. For lunch, we had lasagna! It was so good! After lunch we relaxed for a little while, then ate cake. It was deeeelicious! I was exhausted so after that I took a nap. Then I talked with my family back home on skype! It was so nice to see them all (Mom, Dad, Parker, Grammie and Bo were all there!) They had a cake for me and they sang to me! It was wonderful. Just as we were about to say bye, Mamma, with her flag og Pappa, with a balloon, burst into my room and Pappa popped the balloon! I screamed then cracked up! 
It is so nice to have not one, but two families that are excited to celebrate my birthday with me. I'm so lucky!
That evening I went down to Thea's flat in Stjørdal (I wish Thea could have been there!) with the cousins (Berit, Anita, Ragnhild and Isabella) to celebrate. Kristin came too! I didn't know how to give her directions, so I met her at Ole Vig (which is very close to the flat). I asked if any of the cousins wanted to walk with me and they all were like "uhm... no... Sorry. Bring your cell phone in case you get lost!"
When I met Kristin at Ole Vig she gave me a pair of big, purple, pearl earrings. I had mentioned to her how much I liked her pearl earrings and she knew my favorite color was purple so they are prefect! It was very thoughtful of her and I love them and wear them a lot!

New pants!

When we got back to the flat (I didn't get lost by the way!) they called me into the living room and all yelled "SURPRISE!" They had decorated it with ribbon and balloons and they gave me a crown that said "19 År". They gave me a beautiful brown scarf, an ear warmer that Isabella made on our way to Galdhøpiggen and a pair of sweatpants. They told me the sweats were the family uniform. I wear them all the time now. 







We all had so much fun together! I ate a disgusting amount of cheese puffs and chocolate. They tired to bake me a cake, but they burned the top before the inside was cooked, so Isabella scrapped the top off and we put it back in the oven for a while. We wound up eating cake-soup, but it was still really delicious!

mmmm.. burned cake ;)

It works..

Par-tay!!

I got to talk to Thea on the phone! I am so excited to see her again.


At 11 we went to Bamses, a bar/club in Stjørdal. We spent a very long time there dancing and havnig fun. Isabella had at least 3 different groups of people sing to me throughout the night. It got really late really quickly. At 3-ish we walked home.. It was very cold and raining out. As soon as we got home Isabella and I decided we were starving so we walked alllllllllll the way back across Stjørdal at 3:30 am to the Esso station (its a gas station) and we bought burgers (for 75 kroner each.. that is about 15 dollars!!) We made some new  4-am-burger-eating-friends; one had a tattoo on his arm that said "God Tur" (which translates to "Have a nice trip") and we had a discussion about how he thought of life as a trip and wanted to wish everyone a good one, so he got that tattoo. When we left he wished us a "god tur" in our lives.
Isabella and I didn't get to bed until very, very early.
We woke up around 11, walked into Stjørdal and bought kebabs and watched "Dude Where's My Car?" Pretty much the worst movie ever, but it was at least amusing.

Best Birthday Ever

The week after my birthday at school proved to be filled with accomplishments..
Well... Mostly one accomplishment:
I participated in class! During biology class we were learning about photosynthesis and thanks to Mrs. Fretta I have a very good handle on that subject (next is cellular respiration! Thank goodness for AP Biology) When the teacher asked a question that I thought I understood I asked the girl sitting next to me what he had just asked. He saw us talking and asked if I knew the answer. I did! He seemed impressed and translated my answer to Norwegian for the rest of the class.
Gold Star! 
Not only did I participate in biology that Monday, but I also participated in Religion! We were brainstorming things we knew about the Jewish religion (I am vaguely familiar with the religion thanks to all my Jewish friends at OV) so I was able to tell the teacher quite a few things to write on the board.
A few of my classmates seemed impressed. I was proud of myself. I think it was a major step for me.

Kristian shot a white tail in the week before vacation! It was very interesting to watch the process of butchering and cleaning the meat.
After that, Johan accidentally closed my fingers in the door then made me eggs and bacon. I'd say that was a pretty fair deal.


The rest of that week at school went by normally and finally, Friday afternoon, we were on VACATION!!
There was a concert at Skatval on Friday night. I went with Maren, Johan, Monika and Julie. We hung out at Julie's house for a little while first. It was so much fun!
Yet again, I made an attempt to learn how to swing dance annnnnd yet again I failed...
Vacation was very relaxing. I was lazy, but it was very cozy. Isabella came to visit for a few days. I spent a lot of my time with Ranghild or Ellen. We went on a lot of horse back rides (I managed to not fall off again!) Ranghild and I played a lot of video games (mostly Call of Duty) on her Xbox.
I started to feel a little bit homesick, but I was able to remedy that very quickly. The best medicine for homesickness is chocolate chip cookies!! I brought some to tante, onkel og Ellen, Bestemor og Bestefar, og Ranghild. I think they all really enjoyed them. Mamma og Bestemor told me I had to make them again at Christmas. I gladly will--and probably before then too!
When Friday rolled around I had a very special visitor come. Another AFSer named Jessica came to Hegra (she is from Germany and living in Steinkjer). We went into Trondheim to see a show at the theater. It was called the Tolvskillingsoperaen (or in English the Threepenny Opera, but it wasn't in English... It was all in Norwegian) I really enjoyed it and the cast was magnificent. They were all amazing actors and singers--They were so good that I understood most of the play (even with my lacking language ability).
On the last day of vacation I went to bed at 8. I was exhausted...
Ok.. Well maybe I wouldn't have gone to bed THAT early, but quite honestly I thought that is was 10 when I had first looked at the clock (no clue how I made that mistake). I said goodnight to Mamma and Pappa and they asked if I was feeling ok because I was going to bed so early. I was feeling fine, just tired from being up late all vacation. In the long run it was a great thing that I went to bed that early... Monday morning was splendid! (and I'm not being sarcastic)
Tuesday I taught the history class! I used powerpoint, a lot of youtube videos and prayed that I wouldn't bore my classmates to death...
My presentation took almost 45 minutes! I taught US history from the end of the Revolutionary war all they way up until 1900. I included all the parts that I thought were important: Lewis and Clark, the Trail of Tears, the California Gold rush and the Oregon trial all were explained. There was a large portion on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War, then I talked about the Transcontinental railroad, John D. Rockafeller, Starndard Oil Co. and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I talked about population growth and industiralization over the years.
The teachers (my regular teacher and the student teacher that assigned me the project) were both impressed with my work and how much material I was able to cover in such a short amount of time. I was proud!
Gold Star!

Woah.. That was a long post.. I hope you enjoyed it!

So much fun :)