Vesterålen

Okay, it has been a long time...and I have about two weeks of excitement to fill in, so bare with me here. I got out of school last Friday for Fall break and dont have school again until tomorrow....so a whole week off. On Saturday morning Ivar, Trude, and I packed up and headed to Gardermoen Oslo Airport and meet an old soccer friend of Trudes and her children. All seven of us boarded to plane and headed up North. We were in Vesterålen. Nooooooorth! I loved it. Its like the American steriotype of Norway. With grass on barn roofs, sheep...cattle, mountains....it goes on and on. We arived at the airport in the north around 11ish after a cute little breakfast on the plane, where the flight attendants passed a basket of bread rolls, and gave us those little packages of butter or whatever. So adorible. We got a handfull of treats like yogurt and such. Anyway, after we landed, we got off.....into the freezing cold, ha....and into the airport. (Which I've got to tell ya, might be competing with the Monmouth Airport...size wise.) Solfrid, Trudes friend, and her children (Siri (18), Heidi (16), and Morton (9)), Trude, and I wated around for our bags, while Ivar went to get the Rent-A-Wreck van..ha. It was awsome. I definetly took some pictures of it. :) While we were waiting for our bags though, we discovered that there were two bands on the same plane as us. One is known...and the other aperiently is quite famous in Norway. Siri asked one guy where they were playing and when. :) Although I had never heard of them before, its kinda neat to say I saw them....ha. Okay, so....we got our lugage, and piled into the nice little van (Fernando style) and drove about 2 hours to Sortland where we stoped to visit Jensine, Trudes 95 year old grand mother!!! Sennøva, Trudes mother, was already there, and she provided us with a nice cup of coffee and some cake. We headed on out to the old house where they used to live, and unpacked our things. I didnt have to much, since we were only stayinig until Tuesday. It has been so long, I wish I would have written sonner so I could explaine every single detail. :( Anyway, throughout the trip we did EVERYTHING. Everything from hicking, to sitting next to the cozy coal stove, to playing cards, to site seeing....I think you get the picture. We had went out in the van to see the moutains and the senerie , and got out and walked for a bit along one of them and down to the little beach area where we wrote in the sand. :) It was so cold, we had our coats, and hats, scarves, and mittens on. The wind was fierce, but it didnt stop me from noticing all the sites there were to see. The mountains came straight up out of nowhere. It was like oh...look at the ocean and the waves hitting the rocks and the BANG mountains. ha. I loved it. So very very different from home. We had attended a birthday party for the neighbors, and had some lasagne and cake. Although there were many people there, Siri, Heidi, Morten and I sat together and played different card games. I loved it, now I just have to remember how to play them all. :) They next morning I woke up early and..........SNOW! Ha. Very exciting. They day before it was all green and kind of fally looking, and then all of a sudden, it was Christmas. :) I took a shower, and when I got out, Ivar was up and had started the stove, so it was nice and toasty in the kitchen. After breakfast, we drove to Nyksund and got to see the cutest little harbor ever. Google it! Morten wanted to go fishing and had been asking all day every second..ha...so we gave it a shot. Nothin. :) It was fun though. The harbor was kinda like a broken down deserted town. So adorible. Now its starting to come back though for the summer tourists and it has a couple of small resteraunts. Solfrid, Trude, Heidi, and I went on a hike to Stø. We started there on the edge of Nyksund, and then left Ivar, Siri, and Morten to go and do whatever for about 3 hours until we arived at our desination where they picked us up in the van. We walked over a mountain.....im not kidding here. I loved it. We walked and climbed, and getting closer and closer to the top, we were pretty much standing parallel with the mountain. The top was amaising. It was soooo cool, you could look down both sides. On one side you see the coast, and on the other you can see exactly where we came from and the little tiny houses down below. :) I have a million pictures, but unfornuatly none of that. I will have to ask Trude for them. The first day, the beauty was so overwhelming, that I took too many pictures and the batterie on my camera went dead. oops. ha. So, I will have to see if I cant find some other pictures from somebody else or something. Anyway, we went back to the house again to find Jensine and Sennøva there.....waiting with a nice apple cake and we had supper shortly after we arrived. All in all, it was an amaizingly awsome trip. If I ever had the chance to go back again, I would take it in a heart beat, no matter what the price. Its the new Heaven on earth. There are soooo many details I have missed, but I should leave now, I am about to go on a little toury trip with my "cousin." At least now you have a small glimps of what I have been doing. I deffinetly have a HUGE suprise to tell you later on about once I got back from the north. Later for now....and although it might not seem like I am keeping my promises about adding pictures.....you just have to have patience. I'll get them up here some time. Later.

Lnuage Camp

Its been a while...yes I know. I have gotten many emails from all of you, asking whats going on. :) thank you. I was at a Norwegian Language camp from Thursday until Tuesday. I had a blast....weather I was learning or not. :)
Thrusday: So I got out of school early and was picked up from Kirsten from Washington and her host father. We rode out to Sundvolden Hotel...the three of us....talking about how their last meal was Cow lungs....yum yum. :) When we got there, we were warmly welcomed by a group of exchange students from around the world. I think once everyone arived there was like 26ish people and two adults...the teacher, and Herman!!! There was a sit down supper with 12 plates, 5 glasses, and a million forks. I had no idea what I was doing....and watching the others didnt help. We all were lost. ha. I had always heard work from the outside in.....but heck, there were silverwear above the plate as well. And dont tell me that it was for desert, because I have never heard of eating desert with a spoon the size of Texas. :) We got a speach about the importance of learning Norwegian and listened to all the rules.....no staying up past 11:00p.m. ( oops) Anyway. That night we played Mafia- taught by Emily(Texas) and Henry(Minnisota). Afterwords we went out in the dark and played sardines- taught by Ruby (Wyoming) and then we played Murder in the night- taught by me....well acually I learned it from Bekka, my brothers girl. We sat outside and spun and then ran, and tried not to hit a tree...etc. many many games. ha. Enought to keep us all up past 2 a.m.
Friday: I got up around 6 and went for a run. Daniel (California) was going to go with me, but he never woke up...ha. I went up the road maybe 2 and a half or 3 miles then back to the hotel. It was very very nice. I looooooooove the scenery. I went up and took a shower afterwords and then headed down to the biggest breakfast buffet I have ever seen. I ate more just during that breakfast that I have ever eaten in a whole day....and Im not kidding. This hotel was tooo fancy for me. At around 7:30-8ish Jean-Baptiste (France) came down to eat. And thats when the fun began. Around 8:15ish all the kids started comming down and the oooing and ahhhing began. Everyone was asotnished. I got ceriel...then went back for fruit....then noticed they had eggs and bacon....then saw some kids had bread strudel things with chocolate inside....then all of a sudden, i noticed nice huge fluffy pankakes. :) I just couldnt hold myslef back. Then...school started. Everyone had to be in the conference room by 9 and we began. It started off nice and slow. But then.....vroooom, I lost em. All of a sudden, their all speaking norwegian and Im like a deer in the headlights. Naw...it wasnt that bad. But it was like I just hit a brick wall...but I think it was the same for everyone. We did many tasks together as groups. We would practice what we learned with eachother. My partner was Emily (Maine) We had lunch, another buffet...new food, new choices....it was bitter sweat becuase I loved alll the differnt foods, but I dont think Im mature enough to stop myself from trying them all yet. My plate was overfilled. :\ ha. Then, back to school until 4. When we got out, some of the kids split and did different things. I know some went to try out the pool,but as for me.....We- Daniel (California), Camilla (Brazil), Genley ( GenGen, Brazil), Jean-Baptist (France), Kayla (Canada) and Marie (Guatemala) - went on a walk in the oposit direction of where I went running in the morning. It was so nice. We saw a lake with a swan. We tried to take some pictues, but it didnt work so well. ha. We had set up the cammeras to where they would take automaticly in like 10 seconds or something...and well, while running back to the picture place, Camilla triped and fell all the way down the little dirt pile where the cameras were placed to begin with. It was halarious, but terrible at the same time. That little dirt pile was torterous. Camilla fell down it, Kayla fell down it, and Jean-Baptist triped the whole way down, but cought himself, so he never reallly fell face down. It was so funny though. Good times. Anyway, supper was at 6 where we had another sit down meal where I was completely lost. It was delicious though, so that made up for it. The rest of the night consisted of hopping from room to room and talking to everyone. Each room had a differnt game....fun fun. Anway....after making a skype acount and talking to my aunt,couzins, and parents for the first time since I left...I went to bed at around 3:30ish.
Saturday: So, because of the late night, no running this morning. I did awake earlier than the others though, and Jean- Baptist adn I went to breakfast together. We both were the early risers of the group. After discovering that French people think ceriel is the weirdest thing in the world and shouldnt be mixed with milk....we started class at 9 again. More learnign....and I think, yeah, we learned some...i still feal like it went to fast though...especialy for those learning norwegian as their second language. It was a little easier for those of us who alredy knew two or three languages, because we could compare words, and can understand the difficulty of a new language. But you could tell that those who only knew english, were really strugeling.....I think. So, lunch= buffet...still not old...love it. I think I could get used to living like that every day. Well, acutally not, I kinda like my simple farm life that consists of some mornings even without breakfast. ha. k...more learning, and then we got the news...."the" news. That on Sunday, we would have a .......test! yeah....my mind started to panic. oh no! so, that night we all studied up. JOKE. ha. Actually, to be fair, that night was probably the biggest party night ever. I stayed in my room the whole night though. I got bored, but didnt want to get in trouble by leaving my room, so called my parents again. My mom was there and we talked togther with some of the other kids who didnt go to the roof as well. We were good little kids. :) Anyway, that was probably the night i went to bed the earliest with a recod breaking 3:15. wahoo! Some of the girls and I studied our Norwegian for a while though, but other than that, I would have been ready for bed long before then. At least we have a legit reason for staying up....:)
Sunday: So, about that test....hmmm. Well, lets just say that when I got done, I looked up and saw only three people left....myslef, Emily, and Kayla. Ha....the three who studied the night before. And we were the last ones done with the test. I know that doesnt mean anything, but I was so embarased to walk out of the room last. ha. But, later I learned that most of the kids left options blank and stuff. But...still....I hate to say it.....ouch.- I got a 67% on it.- ouch. argh. I was so mad at myself. I get frustrated easily and want to just know Norwegian now. oh well. Nobodys perfect. A group of us went swimming again today. ( Yeah I forgot to say that...but we went yesterday as well. ha.) It was very fun. I raced them all.....im a speady little fish. But to be fair, the guys hadent came in yet. I wont say what the scores were like then. :) We figured out that the girls locker room had a sauna...but not the guys, so we all went to the girls one together. :) While someone was on the look-out for girls walking into the locker room. Nothing happened, so I guess it was okay? ha. The sauna was unberable...seriosuly...I couldnt even touch the floor or the chairs or my feet would "burn". It was so stuffy I could barely breath. How do people find that relaxing? Anyway, we ran out of there after around 10 to 15 minutes, and jumped in the pool. It actually did feal refreshing, kinda neat. Cold, but neat. After we all cleaned up and ate and stuff, everyone went up to the roof and played this "haha" game. You lay on the ground in a big circle, and each persons head is on anothers stomach. One person starts and says "ha" the next one says "haha" and the next one says "hahaha"...and so on. It was halarious. We could never get all the way around the circle. We would get to Anchor (Taiwan) and everyone would laugh because he was just so darn cute.
Monday: So, monday morning and day was pretty much the same as the others. It still felt fancy to me and after three or four days, I still wasnt used to the whole fancy hotel deal. But anyway, monday night, we had a tallent show for Herman, our main Rotary guy. The talent show consisted of one song on the electric guitar, by Lucas ( Washington) while everyone else pretty much talked the whole time. It was so lame because it was actually pretty neat. Sooooo....we left, to the roof, once more, and had ourslevs our own little dance. It was at first just GemGem, me, Lucas, Emily, Daniel, and Camilla....but then, we were having so much fun, that everyone showed up....and then we got kicked off..ha...oops. GemGem was amaizing though. He would sing along and stuff...he was so addorible. And during one song, Camilla sang while Luke played. We had so much fun....until I played a country song on the electic guitar. ha. That was just creapy. :) But we all had a good laugh, it was neat. Then after we got cicked out, we all....ALL....crammed ourselves into Kaylas room and sang our national anths. It took forever, and France was the best\worst. It was halarious, and when translated, its even better. ha. Anyway, we all drug our beds into the halls, like the past nights, and we sat there and sang songs, exchanged pins, and talked...etc,etc. Then around 1, Emily, Camilla, and I went to Marias room to watch the movie Yes Man. I could say its good, but I dont know. We tried to watch it Sonday night, when I fell asleap 3 mintues in.....and then today too....and again, I fell asleap. I dont know why, it seams like a perfectly halarious movie. But yeah. I was so tired that while I was laying on my back, I tried to drink a glass of Sprite...from a normal glass cup. yeah, how rediculous. It went all over me, my hair, my computer, and the floor. When I woke up in the morning to leave, ha, my feet stuck to to ground.
Tuesday: the last day....awwwwmmmm. I had a blast here...and I loved it. I miss our own personal waitress...that was amaizing. ha. Tuesday was brutal. ha. We had an oral exam and had to speak....argh. I guess that was the point of Norwegian camp...but I didnt really enjoy the translating of a whole paragraph out of a book. I got it done, but jeepers....that was too much I think. Im glad I was pushed though, or else I probably wouldnt have pushed myslef through. ha. It was nice to have someone rooting for me. hehe. Well, today was also the day Emily took over my facebook page. ha. We all had lunch and then said our good byes as people arived for their students. :( I already miss them all. Every last one of em. Well...pictures tomrroow, its late...Ha det bra, Sara

Kebab

above: the final score by the end of the game....we lost :(..
Left: Therese in the middle in the white. Most all my pictures were blury like this one....sorry

above: an action picture of Pia's sister (the one in the white shirt bent over) stopping the other team from scoring.
Left: This is Pamela. I used flash on this one, so it actually turned out darker....wow, I'm not very good at electronical things. :)

So, a quick (very qucik) overview of the past couple of days: On Saterday was the Confermation..you already know about that....then on Sunday, I woke up early, read a bit, and worked some more on my Sosiologi og sosialantropologi homework. By 9 or 10ish everyone was up and we had a nice breakfast. Then, obviously, cext came Lunch....and then we relaxed a bit and had a slice of cake once Liv, Ivar's mom, arived. The 6 of us ate the leftovers of "The Worlds Best Cake" that Ivar made to take to the confermation. I think its name certainly fits....it IS the worlds best cake. Liv left, Vegard and Katrine went to a friends house to catch up, and I walked over to Therese's where she, her parents, and I headed for Drammen to watch Therese's first håndbal game of the season. You probably wont be very happy with my, but most all of my pictures from the game are so blurry. I still need to practise using my camera....sorry. We ended up loosing, but they played really well. Actually, I have no idea if they played well because I've never watched a game before and I dont know what is normal and what isnt....but it sure looked intence and it seemed like they all were playing really tough. Good job girls! After the game, We went to Narve's sisters house to pick up a trailer and I saw....you ready for this.....a tiny dog without any hair, but it had a puff on its tail and its ears looked a little furry possible..ha. It was kinda discustingly cute. I think its some type of Chinese chawawa or something? Im not so sure. Anyway, we also got to see this patio\ fire pit type place behind their house that they have been working on and building. It really looks nice. I would never be able to do anything remotly close to that. It really did look nice with stones on the walls and a spot for grilling and cooking out. Once I got home again, we had supper and then Vegard, Katrine, and I played a game of Chinese checkers...Katrine won.....and then a couple games of Jenga. The originol tower started at 12 stories, and our highest game got to 21 or 22....I cant remember. It was really fun, kind of stressfull, ha, worrying when it might fall. Naw, I had a lot of fun. In the morning I had to get up for school. Usually I come straight back afterwords, but today I had my norwegian lessons, so I rode the bus to Anne-Marit's and studied until 5:30. While we were there, I got to say "hi" to Per, John and Anne-Marit's son who lives in China with his wife (who is expecting a baby in December) and his son Hans who is 1ish. I think they said that their 6 hours later than us here....I think.....so that made it like 10 at night his time, so they only talked for a short while. Once my lessons were over, I walked to Numnum (or as Henrik calls it... the Yumyum) and arived about 10 minutes past 6. Katrine (not my host sister...the one in the "friends" blog) and I planned to meet there and have a kebab. Which....I had never heard of before. Katrine arived about a minute after I did...and then we ordered. We got a coke and a Kebab...which is kinda like the things, you know, where we have tacos in a bowl made of crispy toasted bread...ecept this one is like an icecream cone in a way. :) ha. Its a soft thick bread in a cone shap and filled with meat (sometimes chicken) .and then letuce, tomatoes, and corn...all the usual taco fillings, except this time it had two differnt types of sauce on top. Im not so sure what they are...but it was delicious. I enjoyed the night, and after visiting with a friend who lives down the road from where I do, Katrine and I started to walk home. Maybe we can have another kebab picnic party some other time again. I would like that. Then, at around 9:30, Ivar and Trude had to go to where the boats are tied and watch over them during the night. Twice a year, they have to take watch over all the boats. Everyone who ones one takes turns keeping watch, so last night was their turn. I stayed home and watched Mama Mia. It was okay, I enjoyed it, but was so excausted, I kinda started doozing through some of the parts. Today I had school....again, ha. In Trykk og foto class we are starting to print on shirts. We had to draw a picture that follows the theme of story, fairytale, mythical....creatures. I chose to use the stone statues from Easter Island. So, we draw our own version of whatever "creature" we chose, and then we have to cut them out of a harder type of paper. You have to make like a million of the same picture. You decide how many differnt collors you want to use, and then you cut out everywehre you want red...for example. And then on the next picture you cut out everywehre you want green or something. I will be using three colors, although I still dont know which ones yet...I havent decided. Anyway...I made the front of my shirt as just the one picture and the back is a teselation of many put together. Since I will be gone at a norwegian course from Thursday until Tuesday, I have to work to get as much done before I leave. So, during all my free times, and at home in my room, I have been working on it. It seem like art is always fun for the first like 10 minutes, then I loose interest. Well, thats what I gotta go do now. Later. oh. p.s. I just had almost an entire conversation on MSN in Norwegian...with Kari. It may have only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, but hey, its a start.

Håvards Konfirmasjonsdag

Yesterday, we all went to the confermation of Håvard and had a fantastic time. Again, all the pictures are out of order starting from the bottom, ha. Eveyone had their Bunads on, and I took many pictures of them this time. :) The church service was a little different from ours at home. Here, it was gorgeous in the church with the stain galss window in front above the alter. There was a trumpeter and an organist who played some familier songs as all those getting confermed walked down the isle in what looked like the same type of gown that our alter servers wear during mass. When it was time, the kids stood up and made a cemi cercle around the alter. When the priest indecated for all to kneel, he then placed his hand over each kids head and said.....Im not really sure what. ha. something in Norwegian. :) When the ceremony was over and the parish was outside on the front yard of the church, the kids came out the doors with their white gowns off, wearing their bunads and nice outfits. They were all so cute. Then, after some pictures and conversation, we walked down the road to Beatha and Bjorn's home. There, we sat and visited, met other members of the extended family, and then had a delicious, very full, meal. First we had rømma grøt ( a porridgy type of meal), then like a million different types of meat acompanied by asparagus, potatoe salad, and a winy juice type of drink. I was so full by the end of it all, and we still haden't even had cake yet. ha. And below you will see all the differnt types...and of cource, you had to have at least one slice of each! ha. They were all so good, I dont think I could have picked a favorite. I got time to digest my meal first though, ha, becuase then we watched Håvard open presents and read cards. Some of which, I might add, were beautiful. I really enjoyed the evening,, especially when we drank some coffie and watched a tape from when Håvard was little. Sooo cute. It made me want to pinch em. Very addorable. Anyway, now for the pictures...start wherever you want because they are so out of order. :)


The next 5 pictures are of all the different cakes. All the different DELICIOUS cakes.
The cake above was made by one the company of one Trude's cousins , who, if I got the story right, is a baker....I think. :) Either way....dosent it look too good to be true?

A chocolate, banana cake...I think (by the way it tasted anyway)

Im not so sure what this one would be...but I think we have something similar. It is jello on top, a cream, and then a crust bottom. It tasted similar to something we have at home, but Im not so sure. :)

This one Ivar made. Directly translated, its called...The Worlds best cake. :) And it was.

This is an almond type of bready thing. ha. That doesnt sound too good, but it was, believe me. The things on the sides (the silvery blue things) are little popper joke things. Henrik (Håvards brother) and I did this one together. Aperently you hold on to a paper that sticks out of the sides of each end, and then each person pulls. Its like a game?....Im not so sure I got the whole story on that one. :) Inside of each popper, is a little joke. Ours read: How is the capital of USA pronounced. Nu York or Nju York? Answer= Washington. Ha. And...at first I didnt get it, I was still trying to pronounce New York..ha. embarassing. Oh, and also, there was a little hat inside. Like a burger king hat, except made out of tissue paper. Kinda neat.

This is a brass brand who stood outside the church after the confermation and played in the yard while everyone stood around talking and congratulating.

The family kids. First we have Katrine (my host sister), then Håvard (My host couzin who got confirmed), Then Henrik (Håvards brother). The little ones are Steine and William. They are couzins of the others. They would be another of Trudes sister's children. They are so cute! And guess how old they are....9 and 7...can you believe that? They are tiny. :)

Beatha (Håvards mom and Trude's sister), Katrine, Steine, and then Unn (Bjorn's sister). I love this picture because it shows all the girls wearing their Bunads. So cute.

The preist with his hand on one of the girls heads. Håvard is three people to the right of her and second from left of the cemi circle.

The stain glass in the church. It was gorgeous.

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.