AFS Weekend and International Women's Day

A week ago last Friday I took the train with Mila to a town called Levanger. We met all the other exchange students in our local region (Nord-Trøndelag! ♥).  There are 13 of us total, but Luca wasn't with us Friday so the other 12 of us gathered at Alex's house (Hong Kong to Levanger), got through our greetings then ate sodd for dinner.

The proper American Greeting.
Left: Sofia (Seattle, WA to Namsos)
Middle: Marika (Japan to Namsos)
Right: Avery a.k.a. ME! (Vermont to Hegra!)

That is a better greeting
Avery and Sofia!

Apparently throwing eggs at each other is how Italians say hello...
The victim: Gianluca (Italy to Verdal)
Lower right: Nicola (Italy to Levanger)

If you can't tell by the look on my face
I quite enjoy being around these people
...Just don't ask what I was doing in the picture
I have no clue....

Dinner! Sodd: A very traditional Norwegian meal.

 It was amazing how much the opinions on dinner differed between the 12 of us. For some, it is their absolute favorite Norwegian meal, others just can't stomach it. I'm indifferent. It isn't my favorite meal of all time, but at the same time it definitely doesn't taste bad!
After dinner we walked down to the town because Friday night there was a very special event. Every year there is a torch light parade through the streets. There is also a market similar to the one in Røros, but we were only there for the parade.

Avery, Sofia, Jessica (Germany to Steinkjer) and Mila (Italy to Stjørdal)

We each got a torch and were set free to wander the street with the crowd and check everything out. There were a ton of people walking with torches and lot of other people along the side of the streets doing different things. 

It was really amazing to see the number of little flames. It stretched on forever both ways down the road.

They cut stumps into quarters, but they don't make the cut all the way down so the pieces stay together. Then they light the inside and they burn for a very long time.

You can kind of see me and Jessica in this picture

The only thing about this was all of us were very stressed about catching someones hair on fire or somebody catching ours on fire. This has been happening for so long I really am curious how many times people have caught on fire during it. 

Around every bend there was a band playing music...

There were people selling food... Like giant waffles!

There were people skiing in the streets

And us!
(Jessica, me and a bit of Sofia)

And more bands...

Everything was so cool!

We got our noses painted.
Later we realized that it was almost only little kids that had that...

There were also people juggling fire!

We wandered a bit more around town. Jessica, Sofia and I found a store that sold German chocolate. It was delicious! We also ate some home made pretzels, courtesy of Jessica. 

 The funny thing about this picture is that we were comparing how it was supposed to look vs. how it actually looks. We were laughing so hard! We looked at the picture directly after it was taken and I was still holding the pretzel. 

My response to the picture?

I said (all in one sentence) "Ew, I look so fat in this picture, can I eat this?"

Now, in my mind that had been two totally different thoughts having nothing to do with each other. 

In my mind I had paused for quite a while between the statement and the question. 

In my mind it sounded OK. 

Jessica and Sofia just looked at me for a second then they cracked up. 

We all were laughing so much that we were nearly falling over. 

People started giving us weird looks....

There wasn't enough room for all 12 of us in one car so Sofia, Jessica and I had to go wait at a store for another person to come pick us up there. We didn't mind. We found a way to have fun.

We were the last ones to the cabin (which was the same cabin that we were at for our mid-year stay... Don't know what that is? Click HERE!)

We got to pick our own rooms this time! Sofia, Jessica and I dropped all our stuff in the room at the end of the hall. The hallway seemed like a ghost town.. Only a few rooms were taken and all the others just remained as an empty reminder to me about how much I miss all the other people in my region...

THROWBACK

Mid-year stay... Oh how I miss these people!

Especially these two.. It seemed so empty
without mi hermana and the Kiwi...

Friday we were all so tired so the lack of energy in the house made it seem even emptier. We could all feel it...

But then! Some of the host parents there were there taught us how to do some traditional Norwegian dances! We learned a few, or we tried. Then we learned a polka and a little bit of swing. That got the energy back up a little!

We stayed a little late and ate chocolate and caught up on everything that has happened in our lives since the last meeting.

     Sofia                                    Jessica                              Avery

I ran at full speed across the parking lot and tried to jump up onto the snowbank but it was a bit slippery so I didn't get a good jump and wound up just crashing into the bank at full speed and sliding down a little (my mark is all the way to the right). Sofia and Jessica laughed so hard then decided to do the same thing..
We climbed up a hill and played around for a very long time. We got covered in snow because most of us didn't have sleds so we just rolled down the hill.

The snow was so deep so it was much easier to crawl up the hill

We made it!

Crash!

Snow everywhere!

Rolling down together

I accidentally pulled her mitten off

Avery, Mizuki, Noemi, Sofia, Jessica and Patricia 

Mizuki and I :)

After we played for a while we went back inside and (those of us that had it) got our ski gear on.

At least it LOOKS like I'd be good
at skiing....

Jessica and I ♥

It was a beautiful day!

We skied down to the lake and then we went ice fishing!

Nobody caught anything but I actually really enjoyed it! It was nice to be out in the sun on such a lovely day.

Don't I look thrilled?

For lunch we cooked hot dogs and hamburgers over a fire. It was so nice. For dessert we roasted marshmallows.

Waiting for lunch.

It got pushed onto my face. Then it froze.
I was not amused.

They built a bench in the snow so we could all sit in the sun :)

After lunch everyone played around in the snow for a while.

Luca and Jessica

Mila and Gianluca

Jessica and I

Everyone vs. Gianluca

Alex vs. Nicola
Ninja-off!

After a little rough housing and horsing around the people without skis went back to the cabin and the people with skis had the option to go on a ski tour. I went with Jessica, Alice and Luca. We didn't really wait to hear when we had to be back... we just left out on a one of the trails (same one we took last camp so we knew where we were going and how to get back).
After skiing for a while it finally occurred to us that we had no clue when we had to be back at the cabin for dinner and none of us had brought our mobiles.

Should we turn back now?

We were just about to turn around when Gianluca came along the trail. He didn't know either but it made us all feel better that we weren't the only ones that were that far out.
During our little pause Gianluca's host father also caught up with us and told us we didn't have to be back for quite a while so we decided to keep going. We finally got to the end of the trail we were on (where we had turned around last time) and Gianluca and his father were waiting there. After a while a few more host parents and exchange students came gliding along the trail. Some turned back and went home but a few others took another trail. I decided to go further too. We got to a cabin that was totally buried in snow and took another short pause. I decided I wanted to go back to the cabin so I left quite a while before everyone else. I was so thirsty!
Eventually Gianluca caught up and passed me. However, I was the second one back to the cabin. I was so proud of myself! I went 14 kilometers, which for my non-metric folks is more than 8 and a half miles!
I was exhausted.
We had Italian food for dinner because it was Mila's birthday. After dinner we performed little sketches. There were four groups. One had to write about their first Norwegian sentence they ever said. Their play was really funny because it was about learning to say "Jeg heter..." which means "My name is..."
There was one about how we felt when we got off the bus to meet our host family. They talked about how nervous they were but as soon as they met their families they felt comfortable and were very excited for the year ahead of them.
The third group talked about their second day of school. Gianluca accidentally walked into the girls locker room so it was really funny to see that reenacted. If I had been in that group it would have been a little more boring because after an hour on my second day of school I threw up and Johan had to skip a class to drive me home. And now that I think about it, that was actually probably the lowest point of my year, lying in bed and crying because I was so embarrassed and felt so sick. Things have only gotten better since then...
My group talked about Christmas in Norway. We focused on all the preparations in the month before Christmas.
After that we went on a walk and looked at the stars in the sky. I take that for granted but a lot of the other students here live in cities at home so they aren't used to such beautiful nature and clear night skies sparkling with stars.
We stayed up late again, knowing full well this was our last night all together until the year is over. It's something none of us like to think about. It is the one bad thing about going on exchange...
Sunday we got up relatively early and after breakfast we played out in the snow again for a while.

Baseball anyone?

Group picture!

Rolling down the hill again... I dropped my hat.

Jessica and I tried to go together

We crashed into each other.

We ate lunch together with all our host families then came the moment none of us like to think about. We had to say bye (but only for now).

Just before everyone started leaving....

The next two are really bad pictures of me but I think they are worth sharing...

My fellow American...

Saying bye to Marika :(

If a picture is worth a thousand words then I think this one says it all...

So then it was back to reality. The week at school seemed to go by quickly. Wednesday I went with Pappa to help handicapped people ride horses. It was so much fun! Everyone is so nice there.

Last Thursday was international Women's Day!

Google celebrated!

A couple of engineering students came to talk to the girls at Ole Vig about the possibility of choosing a career in engineering. Some speakers were very boring but others were quite interesting (and YES! I understood what they were all talking about this time! So much different from The Least Funny Thing Ever.)

After the speakers, they gave us all cake.

It was massive.

It was magnificent.

It was chocolate.

Someone said it was 300 kilograms of cake. 

How much is that in pounds?

661 pounds.

SIX HUNDRED and sixty one pounds of chocolate cake.

It took up four tables..

All of us girls took our helping. Then the boys moved in on it. Next the faculty and staff had a go. 

I figured since Ole Vig is such a large school that the cake would be nearly gone. 

After everyone in the whole school had eaten their first helping more than half the cake was still there. That's right, we didn't even come close to finishing it. 

Slowly as the day progressed people hacked away at it and the last time I saw the thing it was about halfway gone. I ate one piece and felt sick to my stomach because it was so rich and sugary. After my tummy settled I ate another piece. Again, I felt sick. I felt sick for the rest of the day. Most everyone was in the same boat as me. It was such a delicious cake all you wanted to do was keep eating....

I guess it didn't help much that I had cookies too that day...

The shirt! It was perfect!

Finally I can post this... I've been working on it since I got home from the local chapter meeting last Sunday. I have no clue why writing on my blog takes me so long... I mean today I whipped out a good sized poem for some people about what I think of Norwegians... It took me less than an hour.

And now I will leave you with one final picture and quote (which I think is very applicable to the picture). I hope you enjoyed reading this post!

We are more like a family than anything. I love them all so much. 

“Even though we've changed and we're all finding out own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.”