Week 3 : More Skole

Halllo. Well another week has gone by and not too much has happened, which is kinda nice because everything's beginning to feel very normal.
As far as school goes, I moved out of my Architecture class and into History and Philosophy and Spanish. I don't mind it this way because now I get to have a "normal" Norwegian schedule (with people closer to my age) which is what I came here to do.
I was also put into an International English class. The class is part of the regular Norwegian school (there's also an IB program here) but is taught in English. It's nice having this class because for 5 hours a week I actually understand what is going on. It's also funny because in the class they talk about things like American customs and news. For instance, my last lesson was all about small talk. You see, in Scandinavia, people typically keep to themselves. They don't just start talking to a stranger, even if you're both standing next to each other waiting for a bus or something for 20 minutes. If you've ever been on a bus or in an airport or a restaurant here, you'll notice it's much quieter than buses or airports or restaurants in the USA. So anyways, my class learned about what small talk is, when you use it, and what is appropriate and inappropriate to talk about when having said small talk. It's really funny to watch because they'll ask me "Do they really do this in America?" It's also interesting because it's reminding me of all the differences between Norway and the US after I've already adjusted to them. The first day I was in the class everybody had to say what they thought of when they thought of the United States. Most people said things like fat people, Obama, tall buildings, and fast food. I hadn't even noticed that they're are like no fast food places here (except for the McDonalds in the center of town where you can buy an $8 hamburger).
Anyways, I'm becoming happier with school, even though I usually don't know what's going on in my classes until my teacher says something like "by the way we learned about the Ice Age today" as I am about to walk out the door. It was hard at first to make friends because Scandinavians are shy when you first meet them, and I felt bad making them speak English. But apparently they like "practicing" their English on me. And a lot of people will tell me what's going on now, or translate part of the lesson for me (even though I don't think I'm expected to do homework). I mean I understand some Norwegian, but not enough to keep up with lessons. Gym is the most confusing, because the coach screams out directions on games I've never heard of.
Other than school, this week I have gone to the movies twice, and to a museum tour thing of this Iron Factory (where the guide spoke all Norwegian and I gave up on trying to understand after 20 minutes). Next weekend is the District Conference for Rotary, where I will meet the other 11 exchange students living in my area. So I probably won't update this until after that, unless I have something to say.

Also my residence permit stuff finally came in the mail, so I'm living here legally now! Yay!

Week 2 : Skole

Lillesand

So I've decided that writing down everything that I do everyday on here is going to get old fast. So to sum it up this week I started school, walked up some very steep hills, was at the sailing island 3 times, went exploring the city almost everyday, visited the IKEA in Kristiansand (IKEA is much more intense in Scandinavia), and went to Lillesand.

Even though I've been in school for 3 days already, it doesn't really feel like I've been there at all because I have so much less class time here than I did in Florida. Right now I am taking Norwegian, History, "Easy" Math, Gym, Visual Arts, Architecture and Design, and Printmaking and Photography. But I have more time in art class than I do in any of the "real" classes (I only have 2 hours of math, 1 hour of history, and 2 hours of Norwegian a week). School starts at 8:15 in the morning and is pretty much always out by 2:30 (expect I think there is one day my Photography class runs late), but most days I am out by 1:30. On Wednesdays I have a class in the morning, and a class in the afternoon. With a 4 hour break inbetween to do whatever I want. On Thursdays I have a 2 hour break.

Also my school has two different campuses, Tyholmen and Barbu. They are both in town, just on opposite sides of the city and on top of very steep hills. I have classes in both of them and I have to walk between them 3 days a week. Tyholmen's hill isn't too bad, well it's steep but not for too long and most of the walking up is gradual. The walk up to Barbu is another story. The first hill up to the school is straight up, it's just an almost vertical road with loosely paved gravel in some places that you have to get up. One day this week I'm going to take a picture of this hill because when you first turn the corner into the street it's on it is the most intimidating thing ever. I'm pretty sure I just laughed the first time I saw it though. But actually if it was just that hill it wouldn't be too bad. But no there's another. You get to the top and walk on even ground for about two seconds, and then you come to this other steep, looonnnnngggg hill you have to go up to get to the school. And I wish that were it, but it isn't. Nope once I get into the school, all my classes are on the third floor. But I shouldn't be complaining about this now, I'll wait until there is snow.

Well the good thing about the schools being on hills is that when you look out the window from either of them  you get a fantastic view of the city. And Arendal is a very nice city to have a view of, it's a little small but the center has a very pretty church and everything's by the water. And across the fjord from the city center are all these hilly mountains scattered with houses.

Well anyways, I've only really talked to a few people in school so far. It's kind of hard with the language barrier and all. Also I'm at least half a year younger than all my classes, which I don't mind. Except for my art classes are with the 3rd years, who are way older than me. I'm the age of a 1st year, but they put me in 2nd year because I was already so advanced with the classes I had taken in America. But anyways I'm considering sacrificing the Architecture class to switch into 2nd year Visual Arts or something (that doesn't come with Architecture) so it will be easier to make friends. I'll see how this week goes, and I'll talk to my counselor when I see her on Friday for Norwegian lessons.

I'm getting used to the way things are here. It's more different from the US than I thought it was going to be. I guess when I first arrived I never really wrote down what all the differences are, because I thought they were so small that they would sound silly. But when you put it all together, there are many more differences between Florida and Norway other than geography and climate the differences in climate and geography I was expecting. It's a different culture. I knew that before I left too, but I guess I never really understood what it meant.

Here they eat with their forks in their left hands, and their knife in the right. They speak a language that sounds like singing to someone like me who doesn't understand because every word has a specific rhythm. They change clothes a lot because the weather changes so much, but they wear the same clothes several times in a row. Everyone dresses very well all the time, if someone went to school dressed in sweatpants and a T-Shirt like most people do in America, they would probably be shunned. Malls, shops, resturaunts, ect. have a quieter atmosphere than they do in America. There is little to no poverty. Everything is either very old and classical looking or very nice, modern, and efficient. And I guess you could say Norwegians are strange, but in a good way. Norwegian's are just generally happier and more relaxed than Americans. But in the end it's not better, it's not worse, it's just different. The food is different, the people are different, the toilets are different, the grocery stores are different, the Diet Coke iss different. The money system is much different. A cheap shirt costs about 99, kr. That's equal to a little less than $20, but you could pay for the shirt with 5 coins. So basically it's all bigger numbers for anything, but it's all expensive, and the coins are worth more than American coins. The largest coin is 20 kr. which is about ~$4. So I could buy my lunch with one coin. This throws me off a lot, I'm just not so used to that yet.

There's probably a lot more cultural differences, but I've gotten so used to them that I don't notice them anymore, or I've forgotten they're not normal to me. I just remember a lot of things surprised me when I first got here.
And on another note, I can officially buy clothes and order food in Norwegian. 

Week 1 : The Beginning

Well since I've offically been in Norway for one week as of 20 minutes from when I started writing this, I thought it's about time to update this.
Last Saturday I left Fort Lauderdale airport around 1 in the afternoon. I had a 3 hour flight to Newark, then a 4 hour layover before my 8 hour flight to Oslo. It was a long layover but I met Anna from Colorado, whose also going to Norway with Rotary, while we were waiting for our plane. Since we had so much downtime, we walked around the international section of the Newark airport for about 2 hours trying to find some other exchange students. But most of the flights that probably had exchange students on them had probably left earlier in the day, and we only found one boy who was going to Denmark.
Unfortunately I didn't sit next Anna on the flight to Oslo. I sat next to some older couple who may or may not have been foreign. I couldn't tell. It was interesting though, because I have never been on an international flight before. People were speaking different languages (well technically the Newark international terminal had been like that too) and they were passing out Norwegian newspapers, and about half of the passengers were blond.

Anyways I slept for about 5 hours on the plane, which is pretty good. I arrived in Oslo 9:45 local time (3:45 AM Florida time). I made my way through customs and luckily all my baggage arrived with me. By the way, the Oslo airport is really cool looking, the path from customs to baggage claim was  a glass walled walkway that looked over the rest of the airport. Also it smelled like Ikea.
After I got my bags I met my host dad and counselor, Håkon Weierholt. From the airport we drove about 3 or 4 hours to his house, which is 10 kilometers outside of Arendal. It was raining most of the drive but it was still very nice, everything was green and hilly. And the minute we reached the city limits the sun came out.
When we got to the house I met my host mom Camilla, and my host brothers and sister, Peder, Ole, and Aase.
The Weierholt's house is very nice, they live on the countryside right on the water. Surrounding us are forests, a river (that my host family swims in), and some kind of body of water (it looks like a lake but I'm pretty sure it's connected to the ocean, fjord maybe?). It's very pretty here.
But anyways, I'm pretty sure most people that have gone on exchange would agree with me. The first day always feels kinda weird. It's not a bad thing, it's just the way it is. You're jet lagged, and you're dealing with culture shock and language barriers.
My first day wasn't too bad though. My host sister Aase is only 8, so she really doesn't speak any English. But honestly, she's my greatest asset when it comes to learning Norwegian because I have to struggle through speaking in Norwegian when I want to talk to her. The first day she taught me the Norwegian alphabet and how to count to 30, along with some words like 'dog' and 'chair'.
My second day I went into Arendal with Håkon and Peder so I could submit my Residence Permit application at the local police station. After they parked the car in this parking garage inside a mountain and took me for a tour of Arendal. They showed me the City Hall, my school, the mall, and much more. The city is a little small but it's very nice and pleasant. Everything is close together and near the water, which will be nice because I can walk anywhere in town after school.

The dog (hund) Happy

That afternoon I went with my host family to a goodbye party for Peder (who is doing an exchange to close to where I live in Florida) at their Grandma's house. We took the boat there, because I'm pretty sure everything here is connected by water, and halfway there the boat kinda...stopped...in the middle of the fjord (?). So we paddled the boat (it's just a small motorboat) to shore and started walking up this hill until we reached the road. Then their family came to pick us up and that was that. They said it had never happened before, so that shouldn't be regular occurrence...
Anyways on Tuesday I didn't really do anything. It was Peder's last day in Arendal, he and Håkon left for Oslo after dinner. And I got a small driving tour of an island across the fjord from Arendal called Tromøy when we went to go pick up Ole from sailing. It was a very nice island, and apparently my next host family lives on it.
On Wednesday I went with Ole and his friends to this zoo/amusement park in Kristiansand, which is about an hour bus ride south of Arendal. They were 2 years younger than me, which I guess is a little strange, but it was fun and they helped me with some of my Norwegian. The zoo had a variety of animals and a few small rollercoasters. My host mom told me people from all over Scandinavia come to it.
On Thursday I went with Ole and Aase to Aase's sailing lessons on this small island near town. The island is basically two gaint rocks with a big dock between them, and you have to go by boat to get there. It was really cool, but I realized when I got there that I had forgotten my memory card for my camera...so no pictures. While we were waiting for Aase to finish sailing, Ole and I went to this famous island, Merdø. It was very pretty and there were a lot of nice summer homes there. We walked around the island for a while and went to the top of it, then we went to this little museum on it. The museum used to be a captain's house. Det var fint og gammel.
That afternoon I went to to my host club's Rotary meeting at this Hotel on the water in Arendal. There I met my other two host dads, they seem really nice. They both live on islands so I will be taking a ferry to school half the year, but that should be cool!
On Friday I really didn't do anything except for hang around the house and walk the dog. It was a nice day so I read my Norwegian books outside. And at night my host parents went to a house warming party for some of their friends. So Ole, Aase, and I had pizza and watched movies. I like watching TV here because they don't have dubbing except for children's shows, so I can read the Norwegian subtitles and learn new words.
And yesterday my host family and I went to town to buy school supplies. School starts for Ole and Aase tomorrow, but I have until Wednesday. We walked around this big mall in town and ate lunch at a cafe by the water. There was a world championship rock climbing competition going on in the harbor area that a bunch of people were watching. I thought it was kind of random.
And last night my host mom took me to this show thing in this theater made out of red granite on the top of a small mountain, that you have to walk up to get to. It was very nice.
And today in between writing this I went on a long walk through the forest near our house with my host family. It was very fun even though it rained a bit, and apparently a regular Sunday activity in Norway. And that is why it took five hours to write this post.

And not all of them are going to be this long, I'm planning on updating this once or twice a week.

Takk for lesing,
Ellen