Internet!!!!

sooo...best news since we got here...we now have internet in our cabin!! we finally figured out how to get wireless so we don't have to go to the school anymore to get on. wooohooooo! J  

amaaaazing.

So yesterday, we had the great idea of playing volleyball twice.  First we went and played with the students and principal at 4:30-6 and then decided to go back and play with the adults from 8:45-10:15....BAD IDEA! My arms have seriously never hurt so bad. I feel like I have bruises all over them and they were bright red last night. Apparently I forgot that I haven't played for like 5 years. And it didn't help that they were using a really hard ball during the adult games. It was a ton of fun, but very painful! Also, it was pretty comical of course. Kristina has never played before so we get to constantly remind her where to be and also laugh when she misses the ball and just goes "whoops!" J And Stein, the principal, is still very competitive which is absolutely hilarious.  Whenever we're behind he gets all serious and tells us to focus and he gets really mad when he makes mistakes. I honestly don't know if my arms will be better to play by the time next Tuesday rolls around though!

Between playing games, we went and watched some of the 9th and 10th graders play soccer which was fun.  Then after volleyball got done and we were completely worn out, we decided to lay outside on our dock for a little bit and look at the stars. It's amazing here because we can actually see a lot of the constellations! Last night we saw the big dipper, cassiopiea, and orion...probably many more too, I just don't know them. It was a nice way to relax after our busy day.

If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad

“Abroad is the place where we stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves wide open" -Pico Iyer

Friday night we went to one of the teacher’s house for pizza…and it was absolutely delicious! He made homemade pizza and one of the kinds had a garlic pesto sauce with bacon on it and it was awesome. Afterwards, we went with two of the teachers to the Snikkeriet (pub) and it was karaoke night. It was a lot of fun to watch different people sing and we may or may not have sang a couple songs ourselves.  Also, we have gotten to know a singer who is there every week and he is great and so fun to watch.  One of the songs that he sings every week is The Story by Brandy Carlile and it’s a great song, I recommend looking it up! Although I'll be honest I think it is better when sung by our Snikkeriet friend on Friday nights. We told him he should get a record because he can play multiple instruments and is a great singer….way better than some famous singers.

Saturday we went with Georg (Stein's son) to visit Husnes. It is about 30 minutes from Rosendal by car (29 km). This is the town where the "high school" is located so all the older students in Rosendal take the bus 30 min to Husnes and back each M-F for school. We met up with Georg's friend Puso and did some shopping at their shopping center. I couldn't believe Norway actually had such a thing. We felt bad for the guys who just waited while we shopped…I’m not sure that they understand that shopping doesn’t always consist of buying things, sometimes it just means going in 30 stores and looking around for 3 hours. J  When we got home Saturday night we spent 8:30-9:30 by candlelight for Earth hour because I had been teaching about it to one of my English classes.  Sunday we went for a nice hike around past the church and then back up by the waterfalls. It was a rainy day but Norwegians say "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing" and I’m definitely starting to agree with that! I used to hate rain, but here I actually kind of like it. Also, I swear they don’t have worms…which is about 85% of the reason why I usually don’t like rain.

Sunday night, Kristina and I went to play soccer at the lit up field by our cabin. When I say play soccer, I mean kick the ball around and pretend we're good. And when I say we pretend we're good...well, we know we're not…but it’s still a lot of fun! Anyways, we got totally spooked by some guys doing donuts in the parking lot and couldn't decide whether we should stay or go, then the lights shut off. That helped us decide pretty quick! We ran through the field arm in arm in complete darkness hoping we wouldn't trip on anything and nervously/awkwardly laughing but scared out of our minds. I think we've seen too many scary movies.

Monday we took another 6 mile walk to Seimsfoss and back because it was nice outside.  Basically we try to spend as much time outside as possible.  Everyone keeps saying that it’s way better here in the summer because it’s nice outside and everything is green...looks like I’ll just have to come back sometime! (or move here...who knows right?)

Also, I seriously think my roommates are the funniest people I have ever met. We started making a list of PYP moments (mostly comments from Ashley and Kristina…Kristina because shes seriously the most optimistic/naiive person I have ever met who randomly says “uff da” or “I don’t get it”, and Ashley because shes the wittiest person with the most one-liners) but seriously, I don’t think I have ever laughed so often. I’m pretty sure I will end up peeing my pants from laughing at some point before I leave. Also, Kristina and Jenni  have started a war of scaring each other (I’m not involved yet) but Kristina got Jenni pretty good a couple times last week. One time, Kristina got back from a run and saw that Jenni was doing dishes with the window above the sink open and she popped up from below and said hi and I thought Jenni was going to throw the pan that she was holding in the air because she jumped so far.  Then another time, Jenni was in the bathroom (in the dark…Earth Hour) and Ashley and Kristina went outside and knocked on the window and she screamed so loud and actually started crying a little because she got so scared. I’m trying to stay out of this battle, but I enjoy watching. J

Also don’t be surprised if my blogs start sounding like someone else wrote them. I’m getting sick of blogging, but trying to keep up with it, but I may just start copying Kristina’s, who sometimes copies Jenni’s who sometimes copies Ashley’s. Because let’s face it, Ashley is the funniest one and she writes the best blog. So we may all just start copying hers every day. Also, she does the best keeping up with it. So just a heads up J

Here are some more pictures from the last week.

 

 vegetarian lasagna-delicious!

also...picture of the new scarf I'm knitting!

Vær så god

Well, this week hasn’t been quite as exciting as the others because it’s unfortunately been pretty rainy.  I did get in a nap a couple days though, which is always good J Wednesday night we decided it would be a good idea to play some soccer on the field behind us in the rain…it was so much fun! It’s nice because the field is right behind our cabin next to the school and they leave the lights on til 9:45 or so, so we can play soccer whenever we want.  Also there’s a track around it which we plan on using.  Last night the local Rosendal men’s soccer team was playing on the field so we got to watch that for a little while.  Crazy to be watching a soccer game with the mountains and fjord right behind it!  I forgot how much I love going to soccer games!  Some of my students have a game at home next week so I plan on watching that too.  I guess the girl’s team is supposed to be pretty good.  (probably could have guessed that since they kept kicking the ball when we were playing volleyball Tuesday….strange rules over here..)

Last night we invited our principal and his wife and son over for dinner at our cabin.  They are seriously the funniest couple ever and we love hanging out with them!  We made them lasagna for dinner, and once again, my roommates are amazing cooks! One of them made a vegetarian lasagna with a white sauce and the other made a meat lasagna and they were both delicious.  Our principal was very impressed.  Also, Ashley has started making some homemead and she made a loaf for dinner which was also great.  I better start taking pointers from these guys!  (don’t worry Kenz, I’m getting some of the recipes J)  For dessert, we decided to make them s’mores!  We have a little fire thing in our cabin so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to roast some marshmallows.  They had never even roasted a marshmallow before so they thought it was the hilarious.  I think watching our principal roast a marshmallow was probably the highlight of my week! We got some great pictures.  They thought the s’mores were pretty darn good!  All in all, it was a great time and we’ll definitely be inviting them over for dinner again!

Yesterday was also a good day because I got to skype Matt, all of my roommates, and talk to my mom on the phone all in one day!  So good to hear from everyone J

Tonight we are going to one of our teacher’s houses for homemade pizza…yum! Tomorrow afternoon we are going to Husnes, a town about a half hour from here, to go shopping! Sunday we just may climb a mountain…no big deal.

vær så god is the response used when someone says takk (thanks)..it's kind of like "you're welcome"

Tuesday, March 22

After school, we decided to join the weekly volleyball game at 4:30.  Every week the principal and a group of students play a few games of volleyball for fun, and he talked us into participating. It was a ton of fun! I can't even imagine principals back home playing volleyball with their students every week...how cool is that! And the best part is that Stein (principal) is probably one of the most competitive people I have met. He keeps trying to get one of us to race him in the pool (too bad none of us can really swim..haha. All of my swimmer friends back home would be disappointed in me) So that was pretty interesting, and we're definitely going back next week!

Also, I have decided I am going to start keeping a list of things I have accomplished/learned while here. So here's what I've got so far:

-acquired the taste for black coffee

-learned how to knit

-ran more then a mile straight (probably the first time ever)

-went cross country skiing

-tried brown cheese

-learned that I can survive without tv (missed 3 weeks of American Idol and One Tree Hill so far…sad)

-walked about 121084 miles

-went 3 weeks without fast food (until Saturday)

-tried a kebab

-went deep sea fishing

-went an entire week without talking to my mom (sad, and probably the first time in my life)

-learned to put up with living with 4 random strangers (just kidding J)

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way. –Dr. Seuss

Us 4 girls spent the weekend in Bergen, Norway and it was a blast! The Dr. Seuss quote was written on a wall in our hostel and I thought it was very fitting. We all got up early Saturday morning and took the fast boat to Bergen at 9 a.m.  The boat stop is right in the center of Bergen, so that was convenient.  The city was really cool and of course we took about a million pictures. When we got there, we immediately started looking in shops of course! One thing I found out in Bergen…apparently it costs money to use the restrooms in public places in big cities in Europe?? What?! This doesn’t work so well for people that have small bladders (me)…especially since it costs about $2 each time! After walking around for a little bit, we all had to go to the bathroom and didn’t want to carry our backpacks anymore, so we decided to check into our hostel.  We got off to a bad start because apparently our hostel reservations were made for the wrong day…so we were a little worried.  Turns out they had an opening for that night in an even cheaper room, so it all worked out! The hostel was really nice so we were happy about that. (but expensive…like everything in Norway) It was right downtown so that was nice because we could walk anywhere we wanted to. 

 

After checking in, we decided to head to Fløibanen funicular which is a little train up Mount Fløyen.  When we got to the top, we could see a great view of the entire city and suburbs…it was pretty cool! We took a bunch of pictures from up there and went in the gift shop.

For the rest of the afternoon, we spent our time walking through the huge city and going through shops.  I was very happy to see that they had a McDonalds…and of course I got a happy meal for lunch! (only $8…but totally worth it! J ) I think we walked about 321310 miles total for the day, but it was great to see the whole city! There happened to be an outdoor concert in the middle of the city so we stopped to watch a little bit of that.  For dinner, we got kebabs from a little shop. Many of my students told me I HAD to try one, so we decided to give it a shop.  I thought they were pretty good, but kind of different.  Jenni has had them in Germany and said they tasted a lot different..she liked the ones in Germany better.

At night, we were all pretty tired from a day of walking.  A couple of us decided to go to a local pub to hang out for a little bit, and we found one near our hostel that had live music.  Apparently it’s a really small world…we happened to be talking to someone at the pub who had a sister who studied abroad at Iowa State. We thought that was really random, but the even weirder thing was that his sister lived with a family in Ankeny while she was studying. How random!

On Sunday, we got to spend some time with Kristina’s distant relative.  She has relatives that live in a couple places in Norway. (we don’t even know much about the guy or exactly how they’re related so we were a little worried…but he turned out to be a great guy and showed us a lot!) He picked us up from Bergen and then took us to see Radoy island to see the house where her great-great grandpa was born and lived…pretty cool for her! We got to go back to his house afterwards and have some delicious tacos and hear some stories about his life.  He also took us to see Grieg’s house, the place he composed in, his grave, and a concert hall at the site that’s in his honor. (I don’t even know who he is, but he kinda looks like Einstein.) Ashley is a music major and was very excited to get to go there! (apparently he’s a big deal or something??) We could only see the home from the outside though because they don’t start tours til May.

That evening, we took the fast boat back to Bergen to get some rest for another school week. It was a great weekend and nice to get away and see some more of the country!

Eg elske Norge!

Well…looks like it’s Friday and I forgot to blog all week…woops! Guess that’s what happens when you’re busy with school, hikes, zumba, reading, knitting, laughing, telling stories, and taking trips to the store! For once, I don’t even have many pictures to document the week, I better get on that. So, I suppose I’ll just give a little rundown of the week.

Monday: On Monday, I had the students write letters to me in English. I told them they could write about anythign they wanted, as long as it was in English and it was about them. They were given the whole class to write a letter telling me anything they wanted me to know. When I read the letters that afternoon, I was very impressed! Their English skills are really good. There are some common mistakes that I am starting to see that I hope to work on, but for the most part, they wrote some really detailed letters. Also, it was sooo interesting to learn about their lives.  They shared some really cool things with me about their lives and their families.  I’m really glad I had them write these letters! My cooperating teacher was really impressed with how much they wanted to share with me so that’s a good feeling. I’m also hoping these letters will help me start to learn their names. (half of which I can’t even pronounce if I do remember them! Doesn’t help that they actually have 3 more vowels than we do and I can’t even make the sounds correctly) For dinner, Ashley and Jenni made homemade mac and cheese which was delicious. I’m soo glad I have them here to cook for me J I help out when I can…I’ve gotten really good with a cheese grater haha

Tuesday: We went to Svein’s house for dinner and he cooked the fish for us that we had caught on Sunday. It was absolutely delicious, by far the best fish I have ever had! He cooked it with onions, leeks, carrots, other vegetables, and a creamy sauce and we had potatoes with it. It was sooo good. Apparently some of the past groups of student teachers haven’t like fish that much, so they were excited to hear that we all love it! None of us are picky at all, so that’s great. Svein also showed us some videos and pictures from trips he has taken and told us some stories about his life.  It was a lot of fun and we were there for about 5 hours! He lives in Seimsfoss which is a town near Rosendal, so we just walked home when we were done.  It was about a 3 mile walk which was right along the fjord. We’re getting some good exercise here!

Wednesday: After school, Jenni, Kristina, and I went for a run which felt great. Then we decided we should have American night and cook some burgers and fries! We also made chocolate chip cookies and put green food coloring in them for Saint Patrick’s day. It was really nice out, so we got the great idea to try to eat on our dock. We got the picnic table set up and everything out there and about 5 minutes into dinner, we decided it was a little chilly and windy so we ended up coming back inside. It was pretty funny though and the food was good! I’m really starting to miss fast food from back home…I could really go for some Fazoli’s or B-Bops! If someone wants to ship me some, that would be great J I also finished reading Charlie St. Cloud this week which was really good..definitely recommend it!

 

Thursday: Yesterday we were pretty active! One of the teachers from the elementary school took us on a hike and showed us a bunch of different trails we could take when we have some free time. This was great because we weren’t really sure where we should all go! Then at night 3 of us girls went to a zumba class which is kind of like a dance aerobics class.  One of the teachers from the school told us about it and took us to it. I had never done it before, but it was a lot of fun! In the video, they have little clips of different types of dances and one of them was called American dance. We about died laughing when they start doing country line dance and Elvis style dancing…I’m pretty sure I have never done any of those when I have been out dancing! I have been having the students teach me different phrases and words in Norwegian. A student taught me how to say I understand what you’re saying (Eg Svjonner va du sier!) in case I ever notice that students are talking about me..pretty funny!

Today I helped some students with a math problem that they couldn’t figure out, and I’m pretty sure they think I’m a genius! J They were working with area of trapezoids and they couldn’t figure out how to find the missing sides of one of them and I helped them out…it was great!  

Tonight, we are going to head to the local pub again and possibly test out our singing voices! I think we’re going to sing a song as a group, just not sure which one yet. Tomorrow we’re taking a girls trip to Bergen. Aaron is going in the beginning of April to run a half marathon, so he decided not to come with us. I think he’s about ready for some alone time after spending 2 weeks with 4 girls! We’re going to spend Sunday with some distant relatives of Kristina and they are going to take us to see an island and cook dinner for us. On Saturday, I think we’re going to do a train ride up a mountain and visit some other sites. It sounds like there’s a lot to do in Bergen! My students also insisted we try kebabs for lunch.

We’re also hoping to get our travel plans for Easter break finalized tonight. As of now, we’re pretty set on spending the week in Oslo, Norway and Ireland! We’re hoping to spend a couple days in Dublin and a couple in Cork. Hopefully we get it all figured out!

oh, and I got my bangs cut...hahaha

Well, that’s enough for now…should be a good weekend!

Eg elske Norge = I love Norway!

Fisken - Sunday, March 13

Today was one of the best days so far! To start off the day, I woke up to find that Kristina and Ashley had made chocolate chip pancakes, potatoes, and scrambled eggs for breakfast...yum! :)

Then we got a text from a friend of our principal asking if we wanted to join him deep sea fishing today...of course we said yes! So we all bundled up and headed out. It was soooo much fun! We were out fishing for about 3 1/2 hours or so, and we had some great luck! All 5 of us went out with Svein and one of my students whose dad is a teacher at our school, and we caught a total of 5 fish. They said this is better luck than they usually have! I didn't personally catch any, but a couple of the others did. Aaron caught a couple smaller fish that we're going to cook sometime, and Jenni caught a 6.7 kg (13 pound) Tuskfish! It was huge! She says it was the happiest day of her life J My student caught 2 Tuskfish that were both around 9 pounds or so?? I was a little grossed out watching them gut the fish though...yuck! He also said he may take us sailing sometime and we also plan to fish off of our dock sometime too! Svein said he would cook the fish for us Tuesday night, so we're going to go to his house for dinner then! We're really excited to try some fish that we actually caught!!

Jenni and her huge fish! J

Fisken = Fishing!

Saturday, March 12

Today we got to sleep in which was really nice, and Ashley made us eggs for breakfast! Good start to the weekend!

Also, today I actually went on a run….I know, crazy! I don’t remember the last time I ever ran, maybe high school?? Haha In the end of April, they have a 10k race in Husness that our principal is trying to talk us into participating in.  He’s also trying to talk us into a half marathon in Bergen, but that’s definitely not happening! I’m actually slightly considering the 10k because it would be pretty cool to say I had done it, but I probably wouldn’t be able to run more than 3 miles of it haha. Guess I’ll just have to start running more and we’ll see, who knows! Along with going on a run, we did some more exploring and found this beautiful waterfall. I don’t know how I’m ever going to leave this place!

Tonight I think we are going to have a cozy night in watching High School Musical and knitting :) we're so precious. We are also starting to prepare a song to sing as a group at open mic night next week, any suggestions?? Also looking for any suggestions on interesting lessons I can teach that incorporate math and English...please help :)

Short and sweet!

Fredag - Friday, March 11

I’m still absolutely loving school! The students love to talk with us and the teachers are glad because it’s great practice for them! I spend a lot of time just working with them and asking them questions to get them to use their English. Also, today in math they were working on volume and surface area of cones and cylinders, so it was fun to help with that! They do a lot of independent work time instead of a structured lecture so I just went around and helped the kids. They are learning math in Norwegian, so some of the words are different, but we were able to translate so that I could help them.  Once I can read the problem, it’s pretty easy to explain. Also, a lot of the students have been asking us to come to their activities. Kristina is teaching elementary and she has kids ask her to come to their sports/music performances like every night…so cute! She tries to go to as many as she can.  The soccer field is right behind our cabin and apparently their club team has a game next Tuesday so I’m going to try to go. A couple of my 10^th graders are on the team and the team has players up to 35 or so, so that should be pretty fun. I think they just play against a team from a town around here.

One thing that I didn’t expect is how much they know about the culture of our country.  Because they know English so well, they actually have seen a lot of our movies and read some of our books.  I had a girl talking with me today about how much she loves Twilight and Nicholas Sparks books and how she reads them in English because it takes too long for the Norwegian copies to come out. Also, they listen to a lot of our music and know about our celebrities. (during their crafts class…they were listening to artists like Eminem and Akon unedited..which was pretty weird!) I told them about some of the musicians that I have seen in concert and they were completely jealous…especially because I have seen Travie McCoy, whom they love.  I was happy to find out that they also love the Script, which makes sense since they are from Europe! They’re pretty excited because Linkin Park and Rihanna are both coming to Norway this summer. One student told me that their radio stations won’t even play Chris Brown because of the whole ordeal with Rihanna, I thought this was interesting! Another thing I found out today is that the crime rate in Rosendal is apparently very low, they said they never have anything bad happen. I was very excited to know this! Also I found out today that a lot of the students work a couple hours a day and they make around 100 kroner an hour…that’s about $17.54 an hour! No wonder everything is so dang expensive here! When I told them that kids at home usually made around $8 an hour or 45.6 kroner, they thought that was hilarious. I made sure to remind them that our stuff is way cheaper, though J

I told the kids today that I tried cross country skiing, and they were impressed! They did laugh when I told them I fell down about 10 times though…apparently they think skiing is pretty easy.  Maybe that’s because most of them started learning when they were about 3-4 years old! Guess I’m going to be pretty embarassed if we go skiing with the school!

Some of our teachers told us about a small restaurant/bar that they go to sometimes on the weekends, so we decided we would try it out tonight. It was a great time! We learned to swing dance, and they were having open mic night so we got to hear some great singers. Also, Ashley is a music teacher and she has a great voice, so she sang Brown Eyed Girl which was really fun to watch!

 

Fredag = FRIDAY! (the kids tried to teach me the days of the week today)

Snø - Wednesday, March 9

We got our first snow in Norway! Beautiful outside. The kids weren’t as excited as me, though. They’re ready for the snow to be done for the year because usually they don’t get much in March, but I thought it was really pretty! Last night it was super windy…a little scary looking outside and seeing the water so rough. They said we shouldn’t be worried though because they haven’t had problems with our cabin before. One of the teachers stopped over last to drop off some fishing poles which we are very excited to have the opportunity to use! Cheap food and fun! Especially since we can go fishing right in our backyard.  I asked some of the students about it today and they said you can catch a lot of fish right in our fjord. One of the student teachers with me eats fish a lot in the summer and knows how to catch and prepare it…so that’s great! Good thing I like fish! Also a guy that is friends with one of the teachers stopped over to let us know that he would take us fishing on his boat sometime and maybe sailboating…how fun!

Tonight I went cross country skiing with Aaron and one of the teachers….it was way harder than I thought it would be! I fell down a lot…haha. It was a good workout though! We went on a track that was up in the mountains. It’s interesting because it’s actually free for them to go which is pretty cool. We just borrowed some skis from one of the teachers. I guess the teacher goes like a couple times a week so we might be going again sometime! Apparently the entire middle school and elementary school might have a day next week where they leave school and go sledding/downhill skiing/cross country skiing…how crazy! It’s so cool because all of the teachers, students, and principal want us to experience everything here so they offer to take us places and show us things. It’s amazing how much they love their country and want to make sure to share their culture with us! They tell us things we should see and try while we are here. 

one of the many times I fell :)

 

Snø = snow

Ungdomsskule - Tuesday, March 8

Today was my second day of school, and I love it! The students are so friendly and are anxious to learn from us. They are very good at speaking English, though some of them are still shy to speak in front of us. 

During most of the classes the last couple days, I have just been introducing myself to the students and learning about them.  I had them each write 5 questions in English that they wanted to ask me, and then we went around the room and they each asked me a question until they were out of questions.  They had some really good questions! They asked what the difference was between our schools and theirs, whether I liked Norway, why I wanted to be a teacher, and many other things that they wanted to know about me.  I was really impressed with their creativity.  One of the questions that I asked them was what we should do while we are in Norway…I got some really interesting answers! One of the classes wants me to make a check list and cross them off when I do them and they say I’m not allowed to leave until I do them all haha.  They think I should try cross country skiing, go to one of their soccer games, try sheep head (yuck!), go to each of their towns where they live (most don’t live right in Rosendal), climb a mountain, swim in the fjord, try their brown cheese (which I heard is very good!), go to Bergen and visit the aquarium, science museum, stadium, and go shopping, go hiking, and go to Oslo and see the opera.  I’m not sure we’re going to be able to accomplish all of this while we’re here…but we’ll try!  I asked the students what their favorite food is, and a lot said pizza and tacos..apparently that’s popular here too!

Their school is very laid back, which is pretty nice.  The teachers wear jeans every day and they let the students call them by their first name.  No one goes by Mr. or Mrs, not even the principal.  The students are really well behaved, but the teachers don’t seem to be that strict.  I feel like the students seem to have a lot of respect for their teachers so that’s why they behave so well in the classroom.  They seem to get along with them and the teachers act like they really care about their students, it’s great!  The students are also really good at participating and they aren’t nervous to try to use their English even though they know they aren’t perfect.

We're all trying to learn some Norwegian too...which is pretty funny! It's hard to say their words because they talk from the back of their throat more than we do. So far I have learned my numbers, some of my colors, and a few other phrases.  The students try to teach us stuff at school...and then they think it's hilarious when we completely mispronounce it! oh well!

Ha Deg Bra - Saturday, March 5

Today we decided we needed to do some more exploring of Rosendal! As a group, we are all pretty outdoorsy (well, I wouldn’t always call myself that, but in a place this beautiful, it’s impossible to not be!) so we have decided we want to spend as much time during the day outside as we can! We put on our hiking gear and set out to see the Baroniet and go on a walk. We walked for about 6 miles and we saw more of how beautiful this town is! We walked up through the mountains and took about a million pictures.  Here are a few of the pictures from our walk.

We are hoping to be able to climb a mountain and possibly go fishing while we are here! I may even have to do some running/jogging…which would be a first! But it wouldn’t be so bad if you’re running through scenery like this!

Tonight we made tacos for dinner which were great! (apparently this is very popular in Norway also??) So far, it has been easy to find food that we like in the store and the fruit and vegetables are very good. We also realized that we are going to have to start getting plenty of bread and milk because with 5 of us we go through about a loaf and a liter each day. (I’m not much of a milk drinker, but everyone else is!) The bread is really good, so we eat it for almost every meal. It’s also pretty cheap, so we have decided it’s a good thing to have around!

Today we started talking about some of the things we might want to do over break. We all definitely want to travel, we just aren’t sure where. We were considering possibly staying in Norway and spending a few days in Oslo and Bergen because a couple people in my group have family from there.  We think we may actually go to Bergen a different weekend instead and go to Oslo for the end of break. We have 10 days that we can travel because there is no school the week before Easter or the Monday following.  We are now considering travelling to Ireland, Germany, Paris, London, or Scottland…tough decision! We are thinking that we may be able to meet up with some of the student teachers from Rome or Spain which would be a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we are planning to go to church at 11 a.m. and then spend the rest of the day relaxing and getting ready for school Monday. We are all nervous but very excited for our first day!

Two things that are great in Norway: coffee and chocolate! I will definitely be bringing some of both home. We have a coffee shop down the street that has great café mochas, but we also have our own coffee pot and we love the coffee from the store.

Ha Deg Bra = good bye!

Takk for Maten - Friday, March 4th

This morning Stein and Marit picked us up at 11 a.m. and we found out that we were actually going to visit two different towns today. We thought we were going hiking so we were all decked out in hiking gear…woops! Oh well! We were very excited to see some other parts of Norway, though!

We drove in the car for about 45 minutes to a town called Odda.  On the way, we stopped to see a waterfall which was amazing. In Odda, we got to go inside some old houses that were lived in by people in the 40s in 50s when they worked in the factories.  They were decorated in a way that was similar to how the people used to live there.  This was really interesting and we loved to hear about their lives.  After going through these houses, we drove to Tyssedal and saw their hydropower plant.  We got to see how they use their waterfalls to make electricity and tour one of their old plants.

After that, we drove back to Odda and got to go out for pizza…which was absolutely delicious! I was very excited that I will still be able to get pizza and coke while I am here J

Here's a picture of the group at the hydropower plant!

The weather here is very similar to in Iowa, except not quite as cold. There isn’t any snow on the ground besides in the mountain.  It has been in the 30s or 40s since we got here and we have had some sun.  We hear that it gets very windy and there is some snow and rain, but I think the weather will be perfect for me.  Also, their spring is starting in April and they say it is very beautiful when things start becoming green!

The group of student teachers that I am here with is great…I don’t think you could find a group of more compatible strangers! There are 5 of us and only 2 of them knew each other before. We get along really well and I think it will be a great group to be with for 8 weeks! We are constantly laughing and making jokes and we are excited to share our teaching strategies with each other.  Two of them are elementary teachers, one is a history teacher, and another is a music teacher.  I think we will all be able to learn a lot from each other!

On the topic of learning from each other…today I learned how to knit! I have started knitting a scarf that will be dark and light grey striped. Here’s a picture of what I have finished so far…I will add updates when I get farther J I also plan on teaching the other girls how to french braid hair, since we learned today that I am the only one who knows how! haha

Takk for Maten = Thanks for providing the food (this is a phrase that is commonly used after lunch/dinner to thank them for the food. We learned today to never say “I’m full” when we are finished because in Norwegian this means “I’m drunk”. We will have to try very hard to remember this!)