Winter to Spring

Rotary tells you a lot of things before you leave to go on exchange. They sit you through orientations and teach you about cultural differences by putting you into groups and making you build towers out of pasta and mashmellows while half of the group is acting out different cultural extremes. We sit for hours while they show us charts and statistics to tell us a generalization of how the year is going to go, though all 70 of us are going to have completely different experiences. They tend to focus on the first six months, they tell you everything you're supposed to go through and ways to deal with it. But they don't say much about the second half of the year, after Christmas is this phase where everything's setteled and you're pretty much happy, and that's all they comment on until telling you how to prepare to go home at the very end. They say during that phase is the happiest and busiest part of your year. This is the part of the year to look forward to.

This is going to incredibly long, so get ready. The past two months have been non-stop and incredibly busy. I'm going to start with when we got back from Bodø because that's where I left off. I remember we got back to a good amount of snow, and for once I wasn't excited because I figured it would just go away after a few days, because that's what kept on happening. I was wrong. It snowed and snowed and snowed for two weeks straight, almost everyday. By the end I think we had over 4 feet of culmative snowfall. Most days it just snowed a few inches. But there were one or two days where it snowed a foot. I distinctly remember one day where it was basically a blizard outside, it snowed half a foot while I was at school. But Norwegian's have this thing about not letting the weather get in the way, so somehow I found myself kicking through snow to go to lunch in town with my friends. And also Norwegian school is only ever cancelled if there's so much snow that they can't open the door to the school. That afternoon I went to see some friends on another island than where I lived and we had to go up a hill in two feet of snow to get to the house, and ended up sliding down when we left. I loved the snow though, it was really pretty. The first time I looked down at the snow on my gloves and realized they were perfect little snowflakes I was really excited. I spent those two weeks between Bodø and Wintercamp hanging out with my friends and playing the snow. It was actually really nice to just be with my friends and at home with nothing major happening. But that changed pretty fast.

In the second week of February I went to Wintercamp in Nesbyen with almost all of the other exchange students in Norway (28 out of 30 of us). Us oldies (ones that have been here since August) got to meet the new kids that came in January because they live in the Southern Hempishere. They were really cool and they fit with our group really well. We spent the week doing winter sports and activites and just getting to hang out with each other. We stayed in cabins, we skiied during the day, and crammed all 30 of us into the biggest cabin to hang out at night (which started at 5:30 when the sun went down back then...). There were three groups; North Americans, Austrailians, and South Americans (and the France and Taiwanse exchange students). Of course I was put in North America, who were all the best because other than Florida many places in North America have the capability for winter sports. I campaigned to be moved to the South America group after the first day, because 1) climate-wise, South Florida is South America, 2) some of them suck and unlike competitive North Americans they wait for each other. But I never got moved and was happy by the end of the week when I was finally good enough to be toward the front on the way back from our 12 kilometer cross-country ski trip. We also did some downhill skiing, I had a really bad start at that, and the instructors weren't "real" instructors. So once they left me alone I figured it out and by the end of the week I got it down. I was not allowed to try snowboarding because I was told I would be "a danger to myself and the people around me".

Apart from skiing, we also had two bonfires and a moose hunt. Sadly we did not find any moose. Every night after dinner we had free time so we went to the biggest cabin to hang out, and some nights we would separate a bit into a few of the other cabins. No one was actually there to watch anyone at night so we were free to pull pranks on each other and stuff. One night I somehow managed to talk some of the South Americans into running around outside through all the cabins shirtless. There was another night where two people went around all the cabins and through snow in everyone's faces while they were sleeping, because they were bored at 4 in the morning. One night the Brazilians had a mini carnival in the cabin because it was carnival in Brazil and they were homesick. Almost every night was something different, but most nights we went to sleep by midnight because skiing all day was so exhausting. But anyways, thank you Grandma and Grandpa for paying for me to go to this trip, it was really fun!

When I got back from Wintercamp I had approximately 3 days at home and one and a half of those at school before I left to go to Belgium to visit another exchange student, Emma, from Florida. I got a huge culture shock from going to Belgium, because I had not been away from Norway and Norwegian culture for over six months. It was cool to see how another and it's exchange students work, because since it's such a small country with so many exchange students, Rotary there is very different from Norway. It was really nice, but in the end, I have to say I prefer Norway. I left my house in Arendal at 8 o'clock on Wednesday, from there I took a bus to town, then walked 15 minutes through a tunnel I didn't know existed to the train station, then I took two trains to Oslo, waited an hour in Oslo, then took another train to Rygge, the town with the cheap airport, then took a bus to the airport, then got on the plane 3 hours after arriving at the airport, then arrived in Belgium, and got picked up at the airport by Emma and her host parents. I got to their house at 11 o'clock at night. It was a very long day. The first full day I was there we went to Brugge in the Flemish part of Belgium. It was about 2 hours by train and near the ocean. Brugge is called the Venice of the North and going there felt like stepping back a few thousand years. It was really pretty and we took a boat ride through the canals and walked around for  few hours, then bought french fries and waffles. That night we went to Tournai by the French border to meet up with some other exchange students for a few hours, I didn't see too much of that but it looked really nice. We spent the entire next day in Brussels, we went shopping and saw some of the tourist stuff and then met up with exchange students again that night and went all around Brussels again. On my last full day we went to Liege and took a train from there to go to Maastrict in the Netherlands with Klaudia, who is also from Florida. That was really cool because even though the train was only like 20 minutes, you could tell you changed countries. The Netherlands was really cool, and I could understand a lot of Dutch because it was pretty similar to Norwegian. Then that night we went to Liege to see exchange students again. That's what I mean by exchange students in Belgium are different, they see each other pretty often, when I went four and a half months without seeing my exchange student friends in Norway. But I think I prefer that because I had the opportunity to make Norwegian friends and immerse myself in the culture a bit more. On my last day in Belgium we did not do anything because I was suffering from extreme blisters on my feet (a big thanks to my converse) so I just slept until we went to the airport in the afternoon.

I think it was good for me to leave Norway for a bit at that point after I was settled in. I started to really miss Norway when I was in Belgium. I missed Norwegian and all the little things that I do everyday that are Norwegian. I think it was good for me to get away and have a chance to see what I have here and miss it. When I finally heard Norwegian again when I was getting on the plane to go back to Rygge, I was so excited. I automatically understood what people were saying again, and that's a nice feeling.

After I got back from Belgium I had three days of Winter vacation before I went skiing with my host family. It wasn't so "winter" though. All the snow melted while I was gone and I came back to 65 degrees and sunny weather. So I spent those three days wearing shorts with the window open while sleeping and packing a bit because I had to move soon. I only went to see my friends once when we went to the cafe, but that was mainly because half of them were gone or busy during the break. On the first day of March I left to go skiing with my host family for the last four days of break. It was great weather at their cabin and the first day we just hung out outside and I didn't even need to wear a coat. The second day we went on a 16 kilometer ski trip all day, I was scared to fall this time because the snow was rock hard and melting, so there was nothing soft to break my fall. I only fell once, luckily, but it hurt really bad. It was a really nice trip though, and hopefully not my last this year. Though it's hard to tell, it's been a very warm March and the snow might have already mostly melted in the mountains.

I finally got back to school after Winter vacation, but I spent the week finally having to deal with Norwegian school without a computer for distraction for the classes I can't really participate in. I also had to pack to get ready to move, and figure what to do about my computer. That Friday I took a bus to Oslo with Brock for the Holmenkollen weekend with Rotary. It was really nice having everyone together in Oslo, because it's the last time all of us will ever be together again, because we won't really ever get to see the one's not going on Eurotour in May. We all got to Oslo in our own disastrous ways on Friday afternoon. We really just hung out in the hostel Rotary got for us. And Rotary finally learned that we don't do well around other people, so we were the only guests in the place. I roomed with Mackenzie and got a total of 10 hours of sleep in 4 days, nobody ever really slept at all and a lot of people just went from room to room each night. On Saturday we went into Oslo and saw the Akerhus fortress and the World War II history museum. Then we went to the Nobel Peace Prize museum, and then they set us free in Oslo for the afternoon with vague directions on how to get back to the hostel. It was really warm there and a really nice day, so for the most part it was a good day. The poeple I went with went shopping for a bit, and then over to the Opera house for a while, then we basically got kebab and tried to find our way to the hostel. To get back we had to take a 40 minute bus to Sandvika, and then wait 40 minutes, and then take a 5 minute bus to where the hostel is. I had to ask the bus driver to stop at the stop where Emmas gjesthus was, and he laughed because I pronounced it like "Jesus" and then stopped at the stop for us. The only problem is that we had to find the hostel from the stop and we were only told to go up the hill. But Sandvika, where we were staying, is filled with hills. So we ended going up the wrong one and wondering hopelessy around the hills, up and down, and up, and up, and down, and up again, for over an hour. We were late to get back and have to ask 5 different Norwegians for directions. When we got back we were supposed to have gone bowling, so when we met all the others at the bowling alley everyone cheered and freaked out because we weren't dead. Then we bowled and I failed horribly because there were no bumpers, until I figured out how to change the scores and the names on the screen. Then we went back to the hotel and ended up not sleeping until 4 AM again, and somehow that night 5 people ended up sleeping in Mackenzie and I's bed. So I was not well rested for the Ski Jump competition's the next day at Holmenkollen. If you do not know what Holmenkollen is, look it up. I don't know hot to explain it. We all painted our faces the Norwegian flag, and carrying around our own country's flag. Except for me, who somehow ended up with an Australian flag as a cape. The competition was fun, we all went crazy and ended up getting on TV. And we met a lot of cool people from other countries. Then we had free time after dinner, and we played probably the best game of charades ever. Then we split off into a few different groups, some people stayed up the whole night, but I opted for bed at 4 AM...again. On the last daywe packed up in the morning and then had lunch with the mayor of Sandvika, and then got a tour of City Hall. After that we went to the Oslo Viking Ship museum, which was really cool and we had a really good tour guide. And then we went to the Maritime museum and watched this movie about the coast of Norway. It showed about 10 towns on the coast and I got really excited because Arendal was one of them and they showed a really good view of the islands and the downtown. Then they showed all these old pictures of Arendal because it used to be Norway's biggest shipping town. Then the funny part was right after that they showed international ports in connection to Norway, which was actually only Rotterdam and Fort Lauderdale. So I got excited again. After that we toured the ship that sailed across the North Pole and then we had to say goodbye. It was really sad because we had to say goodbye for good to a few people, and this is also the last time we get to be together in Norway. But we're all lookign forward to Eurotour, but also not so much at the same time because then most of us are almost done. And that's hard to deal with.

When I got back from Oslo I barely had time to catch up on sleep because I had one day to pack, and then I switched host families. I have no idea where all this stuff came from, but it's going to be really interesting to see how I'm going to get it all back to Florida in June. So I moved in with my new family last Wednesday, and on Thursday I went to school for an hour and then I went to this RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) thing that my club hosted in Arendal until Sunday. It was some kind of seminar about business and leadership for Norwegian youth ages 17 to 25. I went because the club asked me and I learned a long time ago that you always say yes to Rotary. I was actually really good for me because I spoke only Norwegian all weekend and met a lot of other Norwegians. Even though I really had no interest in starting my own business or business at all really. But it made Rotary happy to see me there and that's important. So I finally got a chance to breath, at least for a few hours on Saturday. I hung out with one of my friends in the evening, and spent Sunday unpacking. This week I've been busy with a lot outside of school and Rotary. It's apparently spring now here though. It's been very warm and sunny. Today I even saw some people wearing shorts. It's been very nice. But now it's time for me to focus on seeing my Norwegian friends again, and getting resettled in school after being away so long, and settled with this new family. But I'm still busy. I have a good friend of mine's birthday party tonight, and tomorrow we're going to Oslo all day. I'm very busy and as soon as I think I have time to do nothing, something new comes up. I realized I actually have very few free weekends left in the 3 months I have left here. So I guess it's time to make the most of it. But I'm looking forward to this spring and summer and everything that it bring until I leave on June 29th.

Pictures should be on my photo blog. I'll try to update this a bit faster next time. And by the way, the most dangerous part of Norway is walking down the hill from school when it's covered in ice and snow. Apparently sliding down on it is a sport here. I decided to never attempt it after I saw a massive pileup one day, resulting with a lot of cold and wet people.