Okay...so I have two days to make up for. Yesterday Ivar was away, so Trude and I went shopping for hicking shoes. We are going north, north, north for a trip to where her mother is from. After searching through different stores and seeing many different fashion clothing that hopefully never make it to America, ha, we found some shoes. They fit supprizingly well, and I love them. Thank you Trude! After our shopping outing, we went sailing. Wahoo. It is so different, and I love it. This trip was very differnt from my first time. We went quite fast. I'm sure its not as bad as it felt, but at times it felt like the boat was completely parallel with the water. :O I enjoyed it though. About two minutes after we got back from our sailing trip, the phone rang. I was invited to a party with some friends from school. I was so glad, for a while I felt a bit lonely in a new country all by myself, but I have started to get around a bit more, and I like it. We watched movies and had some Norwegian candy. Of course, I took some American candy as well....Gobstoppers, and Mike and Ikes. They liked them....especially the Gobbstoppers. The candy they brought was sour and were kind of like gummy worms, but harder to chew. Black liqourish was a popular one. Yukk! ha. Naw, it wasn't too bad, just very unusal I guess you could say. I got home pretty late, but then finished some homework that is due on Tuesday. Why I didnt just wait and do it today or Monday, I dont know, but I guess at mindnight, anything sounds like a good idea. I had to find two to ten pictures on the internet or magazine or something....that arnt what you first think they are. So, they are kind of like iluusions or something to that effect. Like when you see a young lady, but when you studdy it better, there is also and old lady in the same picture but from a different angle. I found quite a few and it was hard to choose which ones to use. Anyway, after that I finally went to bed.
So, now....today. Today Ivar got home from Denmark at 9ish, but since I was a little foolish and went to bed so late, I didn't get up until around 10:30 or something like that...I dont remember, but it was late. We ate, and then Trude and I went sailing again. The waves were big and we were moving so quickly that I was completely soaked by the time the trip ended. We were out for a couple of hours or so. Another new experience, the rutter (is that what it is called in English?) kind of broke. So for the last mile to half mile, Trude had to use the ores to get the ship back into the harbor. Not such a good experince, Ill tell you what, is getting sea sick. It didnt happen until we took down the sails and started walking around in the boat while we were out on the water. Im not so sure, what it was, but something about the rocking of the boat or something just didnt settle very well with me. I didnt get like "sick" just a little dizzy and an uneasy fealing. I love the sailing part though, so it was deffinetly worth it. :) After sailing, a qick shower, and some supper, Ivar drove me to Oslo to attend mass at St. Olav Catholic Church in English. It was so nice and I am very thankful....I could actually understand. I would like to eventually attend a Norwegian mass, but for now, I enjoy the few moments I get to feel "normal". :) It shocking how similar mass in America and mass here is. I figured there would be some differences, but it was pretty much the same....right down to the songs and everything. OH....on difference, they had like 12 alter servers and used incense the whole time. That was a touch different, but not really too much else. Ha, whats really funny, is that at home we have a priest from the Philipiens.....and guess what....here too! ha. So its very very simmilar, right down to the priest. ha. Anyway, afterwards, Ivar and I stoped at his mother, Liv's, house before going home, where his brother Håvard, and his son, Tor, were there as well. I keep meeting more and more new people every day. I like it though. At first it was overwhelming, but now I enjoy the fact of meeting so many people all the time. We enjoyed some conversation, along with what tasted like an apple cake, and some coffee. The hospitality was very sweet. :) Anyway, tomorrow I have Math for the last two hours of the day, and then after school I have a Norwegian class. So, that should be interesting, and we'll see how much more I can learn. My head is still full from last week. ha. So so many new words and experiences, but I guess thats what I am here for! :) I should go.
Ha det bra,
Sara Martin
Nowrwegian Word of the Day is: Takk- Thank you

Schedual

I got more classes today. It has been a little hecktic lately at the the school, trying to figure out where every kid should be and what classes need to be taken. Acording to my current schedual, I was to be in two classes at one time, :), so one of my friends helped me understand who I should talk to and he spoke to the administrators for me....thank goodnes, because I was way to confused. ha. Anyway, we figured out that I have Media, which as you can guess.....is media. :) I have Trykk og foto ( I probaly spelled that wrong) but that is like pictures and printing in a way. Hard to explain. Then, I got switched to another math class on Mondays and Thursdays. Then...............here's the reall kicker.................I got into a Spanish I class. I was so excited that it would be an easy class, that way when they are learning easy spanish, I can kind of learn backwards and learn the easy Norwegian. Hopefully that makes sence. Anyway, many of the kids that I know, are in this class, which makes it even better. I love it. The teacher is from Spain, and today she asked me to teach the class! Not so much teach, but more like "teach". ha. She had me just sit in front of the class and talk random Spanish. :) I talked about myself, where I was from, my family....stuff like that. Then the kids had to tell the teacher in Norwegian, what I had said. It was kind of fun, I really enjoyed being able to finally participate in a class and not just sit back and watch and listen to words I cant understand so much. I never thought I would like Spanish so much! But, it really gave me a chance to open up and actually participate. The teacher also had the kids ask me questions in Spanish, and I would answere them, while they had to listen and got "quized" about it after each question. It made me feel important. The past couple of days I just feel kind of invisible, and other than free time inbetween classes in the library, and lunch, I never really get to be myself and be free. Math is a little of the same way, but not quite. Since I get the math lesson, I understand what is going on, but I still am not able to participate, since I dont know Norwegian. I suppose I could answere in English, but it just doesnt feel right. That was about it. Trudes sister and husband came over after supper and we had some Colombian coffie, watermellon, and bread with chocolate melted chips inside. :) Weird combination....but delicious. After they left, Trude and I went to the grociery store. Woot Woot! ha. New experiences every day.
Later,
Sara Martin
(Ivar left for Denmark today on a buisness trip. fun, fun.)

School

Another day of school. :) I am starting to get the hang of where everything is, but I still have no schedual. Many of the kids are in the same situation. Two of the girls that are in my class that I have become to be friends with have been moved to a different class. Here we have like 1st 2nd and 3rd grade....and then each grade is split into four different classes or something like that. Anyway, I am in 2STB....whatever that means. :) So, since many of the kids also don't know what classes they are taking, we sat in the library at a small round table and just talked for like 4 hours. It was nice. I got to meet like 15 new people. I'm not so sure I would still remember all of their names, but I recognize them at least. ha. Today I had History, and P.E. That was it. I loved both classes. Usually I dont understand a thing of Norwegian, but today during History, I was able to follow along a little.....a little. :) They were doing a time line and had to match the history and the year. I knew the Columbus one....yeah! ha. We had to know like the years of stuff like Julius Cesar, Jesus, when the modern homosapian was, a couple of kings of some sort...stuff like that. So, it was a bit easier to follow along. Gym was way different than P.E. back home. Today we had four different teams. Each team had to stand in a line on a bench about a foot of the ground. Then, by what the teacher said....like tallest to shortes or somethin....you had to move across the bench between the people on your team and line up in that order without touching the ground. If you touched the ground you had to run two laps around the four benches. It was kind of neat. Our team always lost...ha....they had to take time to translate what position we were suposed to be in, and by the time I understood what they were trying to say, all the other teams were already done. ha. But either way, it was fun. Then we did like strengthening stuff. Like pushups but in weird positions and stuff. I had two hours non stop of it, so we had plenty of time to do many activities. We played a thing where you have a partner and hold hands and then try to step on their feet while watching yours. We arm wrestled, we jumped over people and then crawled under them....kind of like side ways leap frog in a way....ha. We ran around the gym and when the music stoped the teacher yelled out a letter of the alphabet, and all the kids in your team have to lay down on the flore and make that letter together with their bodies. Yeah....so it was really fun. Anyway, thats it for now. ha.
Ha det bra, Sara
Norwegian Word of the Day: Jeg- Me

Hand Ball

Toaday was a little more layed back. I got up and ready for school, as usual, and had a Norwegian class from 8:10 to 9:10 then had a math class from 9:25 to 11:25. Mr. Macintosh would have liked that. :) Maybe not if I was in there that long, ha, but I am sure he would have liked to have all of the kids attention for more than just half an hour. I enjoyed the class though. Already knowing the math that the kids are learning, leaves me time to listen to what the teacher is saying and learn what words match up with what he is trying to teach. It is harder to do that in Norwegian class, because the teacher simply talks the whole hour....about something, as of right now, I am not so sure. :) But with math, even if the techer talks the whole class period, I am still able to match words with numbers, and phrases, and different lessons. One interesting thing, is that the subjects here are way different than in America. Math in America is many different levels. We have Introduction to Algebra, Algebra I, Introduction to Geometery, Geometry I, Algebra II, Pre- Calculous, Calculous....and so on and so forth. Here they have where you learn all of it through out the year in the same class. Each year, you just learn a little bit more about each subject kind of. So, I'll have to see which type of learning I think is better. :) After math, was lunch, and then I had a free period the rest of the day, so I could have gone home, but I had to take school pictures at 2:25. So, we did that, and I stayed and talked with some of the girls for a while, and then headed home at around 3:30. I came home, ate some delicious supper, yum yum, and then went with Ivar to watch a Handball practice. It is so neat. I still don't understand a thing that they do, ha, but it looks neat. :) I think before comming here I had only heard of Handball like once during P.E. and even then, its not the same game as this at alllllll, so yeah, completely different. Maybe, Mr. Mann and Whit can try to teach the "reall" one. ha. Anyway, I definetly have noticed a lot of differences in the way we live. I will be sure to write them all down each time I think of one. :) Later. Sara
Norwegian word of the day: Vest- West ha.

Daddy

Dad,

This one is just for you. We were driving home after our trip to the cabin and I saw these round bales wrapped up with white plastic stuff. I had seen them around before but all lined up like we do. It was just kinda funny to see them already wrapped but still out in the fields. Ivar says that some people call them Tractor eggs. ha. I just thought you would like to see it. Sorry it isnt so clear, we were driving along the road. Hope you like it. :)

Love you,

Sara

Weekend Getaway

So, after school on Friday, we all packed up and went on a road trip! ha. We went to Trude and Ivars summer house a couple of hours away, close to a town called Risør. I had a blast and did a million things I never would have before. I think the highlight of the weekend was when Trude and I went swimming. It was freeeeeeeezing cold. :) After a very hesitant leap, and searching to make sure the jellyfish were far enough away, (I was a little scared of them. :), we were quickly gathereing shells. I have no idea what they are in english. Some type of clamy oystery type thing. :) We caught enough for supper that night, along with some ordinary snail shells. As we headed up to the house, with the breeze actually warmeming me up, ha, Trude spotted a quite larger than wanted aunt house. It was neat to see though. :) Once we arived back at the cabin, we began the preperations for the meal. After the shells were washed, boiled, and.....thats it, we ate them. They were delicious. I loved them. It was kind of weird, but I think I liked the little shells the best. You have to use a tooth pick to kind of pry them out. ha. Delicious. Anyway, that wasn't all that we did. We drove into Risør and the view from pretty much anywhere, was spectacular. We got to catch part of a sail boat race, look through a small meuseum, walk up the mountain to a spot where you could see what seemed like the whole world. :) I loved it. It is so different from home with the trees and mountains, that I think I sometimes get too caried away looking at all the scenery. I do miss the farm, but not enough yet to want to come home. :) I truly love it here. I am kind of writting out of order. The shell thing was the last thing that day. Before in the day, was when we visite the town. Before we left on Saturday to go back to the cabin, we ate a delicious meal fit for a king, at a restaraunt where Katerine, Ivar and Trudes oldest daughter, worked before she left for school this year. Okay, so....now Sunday morning. Trude and I attended a protestant mass. I had never done that before, but it was still very neat, for that day, there were two baptisims. The family and friends were dressed up in their Bonads. You should reserch these. They are so beautiful and each area of Norway has their own designe to help distinguish where you are from. The church was very small and quite old. The inside was beautifuly decorated with some belongings of a ship that, if I understood right, was stranded on the shore near here. I may be wrong, but I think this is the story. The organ, the people, everything was lovely. After mass, and a quick messy ice cream :), Trude and I headed back to the cabin for some lunch. After a while, we jumped back in the car and headed out to a place called Jettegrytene. It means giant potholes. :) It was where some graciers years before had rotated and made holes in the rocks. It was kinda neat. :) We also, don't have those. ha. There were so many new and exciting things that my mind just couldn't keep up. I also learn new words everyday, and about 5 minutes later, I already have forgot them. It is alot harder also, to write a word down, because the next time you go to see it, you have already forgoten the pronounceation. :) sigh. :) Anyway, after that, we left for home Sunday eavining at around 5, stoped for supper, and then arived. I really enjoyed the trip and it didn't last long enough. I can't wait to go back sometime. Hopefully the weather will permit.

So, this is the largest hole that was there on this part of the rocks. There is a picture below of Ivar with the hole, to show the size. Just scroll on down. :)

My little snail shells! How I loved them. :)

Ivar doing a nice job as our tour guide. :) It was quite windy once we got to our destination...if you can tell. I though it was nice to show the size or the hole in comparison to the body. Kinda neat.

The shells! This was so fun. I can't wait to get them again....and eat them again. Yumm!

The sign leading to the big "pot holes". I guess this should have been before the other ones....its kind of out of order. Sorry. ha.

Trude fishing. I looooove the scenery and the way the sun was that evening. I wish you could all have been here to see it too. The picture just doesn't give it justice.

This was some of the sail boats that participated in a boat race that we were able to catch part of. Where we have no seas, the sail boats always catch my attention.

A little star fish!

This is the same place where Trude and I were fishing earlier in the first picture, but this is facing the other direction. :) I couldn't take enough pictures.

This is the view from the cabin. It is sooo lovely. If I had it my way, I never would have left. :)

A Jelly fish. It doesnt look too atractive from this picture, but I had to put it on here....its not every day taht I get to see one, you know. :) I can admit though, I was a little scared to swim in the water with them near by. I did not want to have anything to do with them if they were going to sting me. :)

Norwegian Word of the day: Til- to

Vigeland Park

Wow, today was a much better day. Yes, yesterday was okay, but really I didn't understand a thing, so after today, I think I finally got the hang of it. :) Today I met some of Mari's old friends from school. Mari is my host sister, but is curently doing an exchange in Wisconson! Fun, Fun. One of the girls lives fairly close, so maybe I will be able to visit some time and she can help me find some friends. :) It is a little okward to talk to random new people who just stare at you during calss, but it must be done. ha. I was talking with a girl at the bus stop today, and asked if she went to the same school as me. She said "Yes, I am in your class." ha. I didn't even know. I have so many faces and people to remember, but everyone else only has one. It's not fair. :( ha. :) Anyway, after school I took the bus home by myself. That was quite the experince. ;) I got off at the wrong place. Luckly it was not too far from where my counselor lives, so I went to visit. It was a bit of a suprise visit, but since I didn't really know where I was and how to get back to my house, I just decided to pop in for a while. Hopefully tomorrow will go better. After I got back to my house, thanks to my counselor :), I went to Oslo with my host family. We visited Vigeland Park. I have so many pictures. But for now, here is a couple.

This is Trude and Ivar Hansen, my host parents. They are

standing next to the famous Monolith sclupture.

These are some unusual gates. :)

Angry baby. His hand seems to be a bit popular.

And, of course, you can't go to the park and overlook all the pretty flowers and fountains.

Maybe tomorrow I will put up some pictures that show what I have done the past couple of days. It hasnt even been a week yet, and I have done so much. I can't believe it! I will talk more later, it is a little late. Ha det bra.

Norwegian Word of the Day: Middag- Supper

Aniversary

Okay, so yesterday was the first day of school. There isnt really too much to say about that. ha. Just very overwhelming and mostly confusing. :) But other than that, great! Yesterday was also Trude and Ivars 20th Aniversary, so we had a small celebration supper with both of their mothers and one of Trudes sisters. It was very nice. I cant write too much, school starts soon and I need to catch the bus. Later.
Norwegian Word of the Day: Fra- from

Sailing

So, I didn't write a blog thingy yesterday, there was no time. But anyway, I woke up and started to unpack all of my things and finally got finished around noon. So, I fixed myself some lunch and then headed over to Therese Langeland's house to see if she could come over for a while and help me label all the things in my room. At that time I met her sister. You can tell they are related. ha. They both look alike and they are both so nice. :) Therese stayed after for a while and we visited about school, among many other things. That was nice because I had no idea what to expect. School in America is soooo different. So far all I know is stories. I will find out for myself though today. School starts at around noon today, so I have that to look forward to. ha. Anyway, back to yesterday. So, after our supper, Trude, Ivar, and I went out on their sail boat. It was so nice...and as you can probably imagine, it was my first time. Living in the middle of America, Illinois doesn't really provide the right attmosphere or conditions for sailing. :) It was very different, but very nice at the same time. Also....they have seagulls! ha. There are many around, and they are so cute. Anyway, after a while, we came back in and then went home to study some more Norwegian. :) Now that my room is labled, I am starting to see the same things over and over. It is very helpful. That was pretty much yesterday. So, yeah. I will try to keep you posted on all the hapenings. Bye. ( The spell check is not working, so sorry for all the misspelled words. I think you get the drift though.)
Norwegian Word(s) of the Day: en, to, tre, fire, fem, sex, sju, åtte, ni, ti- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

New Life

Hei,
I am now in my new home. It is very nice and although everyone speaks English, I feal like I am learning Norwegian very quickly. The people here might think it is too slow, but for me, I think I am learning very quickly. I will by staying in this home with Ivar and Trude Hansen for three months or so. School starts on Wednesday and Therese, a neighbor, will help to show me around in the afternoon, since on the first day school will start at noon. Today was a busy day with John, my counselor. We went everywhere in Drammen, a neigboring town, and got all that I will be needing from my residence permit, to my bus transportation card. I also attended my first Rotary meeting here this afternoon. After the meeting, is when I moved over to the Hansen house. I had been staying with John and his wife Anne-Marit since Saterday.
All the houses here are very different in color. Anything from Red, to Blue, to Yellow.....very different as you can imagine. Yesterday we Anne-Marit and I went to and Art show in Drammen where the artists had placed all their paintings up around the bridge and down the sides of the streets and such. Most of theme were pretty amaizing. It made me want to reach for a pencil and start my own. :) After the art show, we went up the Spiral to the top of the mountain and you could see down over the edge. Very, very beautiful. I have many pictures of it, but right now I am nearly getting settled in, an havent had time to download pictures and such. Maybe sometime in the future, I will be able to share some visuals of the adventures I am taking. Mari, John and Anne-Marit's daugter bought a new appartment, and so while we were out walking around, John helped her re-do her place. She has painted the walls and re-done the floors and plans to put in a wall. So, lots of work is still to be done. Well, That is mostly all for now. Of course we did plenty more throughout the day, but I dont really have time for all of that right now. I think I have written enough for one night. :)
Ha det bra,
Sara Marie Martin
Norwegian word of the day: Øst- cheese

Arival

I made it. It is beautiful here. You wouldn't believe the amount of trees and hilly mountainy area they have here. For a first impresion, I loved it. I will have more time later, but for now, just wanted to let you all know that I am here and well.
See you later,
Sara Martin

Tickets!

New News!!!!!!!!!
Alrighty...heres my itenerary. On the 14th, I leave from Moline around 10:00a.m. to Detroit . That little trip takes about two and a half hours (373 miles). I leave Detroit at 4:00 p.m. on my way to Amsterdam. That flight is a little bit longer. ha. I arive at Amsterdam around 6:00 a.m. the next day (3940 miles). And if I am reading this paper right, I leave Amsterdam at 7:00 a.m. and finally get to my destination at 9ish! ( 584 miles) So, if your a clock watcher, now you'll be sure to know where I am at all times. :)
Talk with you all later,
Sara Martin

Change in Plans.

August 9, 2009

So, change in plans....I guess I won't be leaving for another week. I have had some difficulties with my travel agent the past couple of months, so ...now, it looks like I will be leaving on the 14th and arriving on the 15th. I still don't have any news on my real itinerary, so who knows, maybe these dates will be wrong as well. :) I have been looking forward to going to Norway for quite a while now, so it's difficult to not be a little down hearted. I still try to keep a positive attitude and try to see the good in it all. I will keep you posted as to when I will really be leaving and times. I think the travel airports will still be the same. (Moline to Detroit to Amsterdam to Oslo) I just don't know when it will happen. ha. Thanks for checking in on me.

God Bless,
Sara Martin