Katrine og Vegard

Alrighty, today I went to school, had a great time....had Spanish class...fun, fun. ha. I finally get to participate in a class at school and not feel so out of place. (Even gym can be dificult because I dont understand the activity and the rules and stuff.) So, before Spanish started I noticed that my sister, who is in Spain, was on MSN. I was able to talk with her (Henrik did too...ha.) and get all the news from home and family. So far, everything sounds okay, even though I'm not there. ha. Just kidding. Anyway, back to spanish class. It is the one place I can feel "home". I can talk with the teacher, I can participate, and I can...for once...do something many of the other kids can not. Most of the kids can speak pretty good English, so they can talk with me about things, and then switch to Norwegian when there is a secret. I find that frustrating because if there is somethig I dont want someone esle to hear, I cant just talk in English...because most people know it. ha. So today, I finaly got to talk with my sister in Spanish, and nobody knew what we were saying. Even though it was a conversation that lasted about a minute, it made me feel a little special inside. It doesnt really matter though, because so far I havent found a need to say something to someone without others knowing...gosip hasnt been an isue. Okay, so, after school, Trude got home and finished the Lamb\Cabage supper thingy we started fixing last nigt. We had a big supper because Katrine came home today (Vegard too:) Ivar wasnt able to catch his flight back from Austria, and will be comming in on a different plain sometime tonight. After our delicous meal, two of Katrines friends came over and the five of us sat upstairs and watched Twilight over a slice or two of chocolate cake and Colombian coffie to celebrate one of their birthdays. It was delicious. (Thank you Katrine!) Now though, I have to write a paper for sociology class about the differences of Power and Influence while giving four examples of each...along with some information on Opec and Saudia Arabia, and Shia and Sunni Islams. Let me know if you have any ideas. ha. :) Later for now.

My friends

So, these are my friends...dont judge if they look different from Americans. ha. I didnt get any good pictures of their outfits though, sometimes they can really wear some weird things....like purple pants for example. :) But yeah, I will now introduce you to my firends...

Ida og Christina.
Katrine og Maiken sitter i skogen....Katrine and Maiken sitting in the forest.

Maiken returnes...dum dum dum.
Maiken er kul.

Sexy beast! My bestest friend in the world. Henrik the great.

pictures

Start looking from the bottom....please
This is just a cute flower I found along the pathway...i wanted to see how well my camera would work.....and I like it. :)

The view from our trail...not quite at the top yet though.

After supper

Before supper.....

Three generations (kinda) ha.

The new hicking shoes that Trude bought for me!!!!

This is the book, after it had been signed by us all. :) I felt kinda special

This is an upclose picture of the tin box. Inside is a book that you can sign and date to say you were there.. It was really cool!

This is the big rock tower thingy that is up on the mountain and shows boats where to go or whatever...i dont know, something like that. ( see the tin box there in the middle?)

Here are those white "tractor eggs" again. They are so neat. :) I finnaly got to see them close up. Very neat.

So, Trude showed me this delicious mushroom ha...just kidding. I guess it is highly posenous, and they told me to not even touch it. :) But I thought it looked kinda neat with the bight marks already out of it. :)

Hey, I was finally able to find my pictures again. For a while it seems like I had lost them all.

Nobel Peace Prize garden

I cant get more pictures to load, I will try agian someother time later. Sociologi is starting now. Later. Maybe just two pictures will be good for now. Ill try again later.


So, obviously, this is the good ole Theodore Roosevelt. There were a ton of people, all of their names were on the sides of the walk way in brick type things like this one.

This is the Peace Garden in Risør that looks like a wheel. On each spindel, there are names along the sides that are carved into granite of the people who have won the Nobel Peace Prize in the past. This is the center of the garden.

Risør 2

We just got back from Risør. We left on Friday evening after Midag. Sennøve, Trudes mother, came with this time. I had a blast. So far I have had it off pretty easy with knowing people that know English ( well, everyone but the bus drivers. ha.) But other than that I havent had a terrible time with trying to understand people, becuase if it is important, I can just ask, and they resopond. On this trip it was a little different. :) Sennøve knows just about as much English as I do Norwegian....so you can imagine how our conversations went. ha. It was neat though, kind of like a living game of Schirades and Catch Frase. It's too bad the word "fish sticks" never came up....because that one I could have gotten quick (wink wink Anita). Anyway, no, we got along wonderfully. After going into town Saturday morning for a haircut for Ivar and rain pants for Sennøve, we all got ice cream cones (ginormous ones...might I add...ones that are impossible to eat without eventually wearing half of it by the time you are done. ha.)Back at the cabin, we had Lobster for lunch, yum, yum (new experiences again...they never run out). The three of us "ladys" went out for a hike and I got to try out my new shoes. I love them....Thank you Trude! Once we arived to the top, our destination, you could see forever. We could even see the area where the "giant potholes" were. Remember, last time we went to Risør we visited them? Yup, anyway, you could see for miles (or kilometers. ha.) There was a marker...a big tower thingy made out of granit rocks. Inside the side of the tower there was a little tin box with a book inside where you can write your name. It was so cool. Anyway, we made our decent on a differnt trail. While we were gone, Ivar stayed at the cabin and worked some more on the new bathroom addition. When we returned the new door was up and the outside lights as well. Now you can see better when you wake up at 3:00 in the morning trying to find your way outside to the outhouse. :) Just kidding, its not that bad, but you can see better now, which is really nice. Its quite luxourious now. :) Saturday night after a supper of lamb with a soupyier type of mashed potates, Sennøve and I played cards. I tought her how to play Speed while she tought me how to play Casino. Try learning a new game in a new language. fun fun. ha. Sunday morning I woke up a couple of hourse before everyone, cleaned up, then went and sat up on the "mountain" rock place and read A Thousand Splended Suns. It was nice to just be alone and enjoy the scenery. I think I read like one page every 20 minutes becuase I just couldnt concentrate. I kept watching the water below and boats going by. :) Once everyone was up and we had ate breakfast, we started to clean and pack up the cabin for winter. Since we probably wont be going back, we picked up chairs and flowers, bed spreads, and towls, and tables.....etc. Ivar and I went fishing for a while. When we got back, Trude and Sennøve had made a pasta....good thing, because we didnt catch any fish. :) I dont get how people can ever get anything. Steve....I need some advice! Anyway, it is gettin late. I can post some pictures maybe tomorrow....of our trip.

Trude's Aunt

Wow, it's been a while. Lets see, yesterday Trude, her mom, and I went over to her (Trude's) aunts house. She lives fairly close by, and it was a beautiful trip there. I love the scenery...I am still not used to it. We ate some little sandwiches Brød og ost. ;) with some kaffe. We played the guitar, and ate some type of typical Norwegian cake or somethin. Very delicious, and very fun. I wish I had brought some of my guitar notes with, because right now, I can only play what I remember by memory. My Norwegian is so terrible...ha...I had asked Trude's aunt if I could go to the bathroom on her. ha. I wanted to ask if I could go to the bathroom. Do is "bathroom" and du is "you". We had a good laugh. Oh well...I tried. ha. Anyway, we went home afterwords and looked at some pictuers of the Hansen family and cousins...pictures that Trude's mom had brought. Fun, Fun. I have pictures of friends from school as well, but I need to ask them if I can put their picture on here before I do. So, maybe Monday or something...because this weekend we are going to Risør again. I can't wait.
Ha det bra,
Sara Marie Martin

I am in school right now

So, I got a new laptop at school today. I am in a free period right now and have an hour or so to "waste" and I have already studied too much Norwegian for today.So, you are getting your blog entry today by it. All asignments and work are turned in by the computer. Wierd. Now, I wish I would have paied attention better to Mrs. DeJong when she made us use our school e-mail and do some assignements on the internet. I am not used to this at all. Especially how we didn't have laptops in school or cell phone. Ha. What a change, especially comming from a school where electronic devices were taken away when seen. :) Yesterday, Trude and I went out for a walk and tried out our new hiking shoes. I love them. Also, yesterday before I got to Johns house for my Norwegian classes, there was an accident on the road infront of the bus where we had to wait nearly an hour. Once we started passing the site, we noticed that there was a motorcycle and a car with the whole back window missing and dented. Today at school I learned that it was a kid who went here. I didnt know him, but many of the kids did. Um, let see, what else....I think thats it for news. Today after school I am going out with Ida and Katrina. I'm not sure what we will do or whatever, but I can wrtie afterwords and let you all know.So, I have to go to Sociologi og sosialantropologi at 13:20. They use differnt times too. ha. So, much to get used to. I am learning about the famous singers in Norway. They are all in English :)