I find it hard to believe that I’ve already been in Norway for over a month, it’s really flying by! Fair warning, this first blog post may be a little boring to read because it will be a lot of explaining. However, my posts in the future will likely be a bit more exciting :)
To tell my story about my time in Norway, I’ll start from the very beginning. It’s nearly impossible to put into words how difficult it was to say goodbye to my family and friends back home in Minnesota, knowing that I wouldn’t see them again for almost a year. There were many tears shed, I’ll put it that way.
Many people have asked me since I got here if I miss home. I do miss it, but to me, it’s worth it. It’s tough being away from everything that’s familiar for me, but having an experience like this is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life and I’m so thankful for this opportunity.
From Minnesota I flew to New York, where we had the AFS-USA orientation at the Hilton. Here, I met many interesting people who were on their way to a wide variety of countries (mostly European countries). From New York, we flew into Oslo. In Oslo, we had a 3-day orientation with all AFS students in Norway (148 I think?) where we played games, learned some basic Norwegian phrases, and were prepared by our leaders for the year ahead.
A group of leaders and AFSers at orientation when we went on a nature walk!
Also at orientation, while we were waiting to meet our host families!
At the end of the orientation, I met my host family. I was introduced to them in front of a room full of people and I finally got to see them in person for the first time. It was so fun to finally meet them, after months of knowing them just through Facebook. They are incredible people, and I feel extremely blessed to have been placed with them! We get along great, and they’re already teaching me many things about the Norwegian culture! I also love their house, which has a mini ski hill (with a lift) in their backyard! It’s also up the hill from sentrum, the center of town, so we have a beautiful view of Brumunddal every day. My family has a lot of family time, which is great for getting to know each other. One of my favorite family events is the Friday night pizza. Every Friday, my mom makes two delicious pizzas, and we have a nice, long family dinner. Another thing that I do with my family is work in my mom’s store, called Gurimalla. It’s a gorgeous interior decorating store in the mall in sentrum. Most days after school I stop in there on my way home to see if it’s busy and if they need help, because I really like working there!
My host parents, Henry and Aud. Such great people!
School is definitely not as easy here as it in the US, mostly because I have a hard time understanding what any of my teachers are saying. The classes here are also harder because the grade I get in a class is almost completely based on how I do on the tests. Homework doesn’t count for any part of my grades, so the tests are really important in order to get good grades. Right now I’m taking math, spanish, english, design & architecture, norwegian, photography, history, and gym. Thankfully, there’s another exchange student at my school. Her name is Andréane and she’s from Québec, Canada. We are very close friends, and we have many of the same classes which is nice so we can work together if we don’t understand something. I’m so happy that I was placed with another exchange student in my school, because I don’t think I would have been as comfortable in school if I was alone (especially in the first couple weeks).
Andréane and me on her birthday, before we went out to dinner.
Andréane and I were put in the 2nd year, even though the students my age are 3rd years. This often is the case for exchange students because our exchange program (AFS) doesn’t want the exchange students to have to take the tough end-of-year exams that the 3rd years have to take. I think we still have exams towards the end of the year, but they won’t be nearly as hard.
When we were at orientation, we were warned that Norwegian people are often very shy and sometimes cold around new people. Thankfully, that was completely wrong when it came to the people at my school. Everybody was so welcoming and warm! This was such a pleasant surprise for me to have people be so outgoing and ready to help. I now have some really close friends in both the 2nd and the 3rd year at my school, both boys and girls. All of my friends are such fantastic, fun people and I’m so glad they were all kind enough to reach out to me when I arrived! They are always willing to help me when I need it, and they invite me to many events with their friends, which I’m so thankful for because it has allowed us to become even closer friends! Also, it has given me a chance to meet more people, which is always fun! There are two girl who have been especially helpful since the very beginning- Synne and Marika. Synne is a 3rd year and Marika is a 2nd year, and they are both very nice and outgoing girls who I can’t thank enough for all they’ve done! Below are a few pictures of some of my friends at Ringsaker.
Below are a few pictures with some of my friends from Ringsaker!
Here are some exciting things that I’ve done since I arrived in Norway:
With much help from my parents (both my natural parents and host parents), I was able to track down my Norwegian relatives (many of them live very near where I live in Norway). It turns out that I am 100% Norwegian, because when my ancestors immigrated from Norway to the states, they continued to marry Norwegian people. This was really cool to find my roots and visit the farms that my family comes from!
I also went with some friends to a skateboard competition at a park called Koigen, where I learned how to skateboard on a mini board! It is definitely a more popular sport here than it is in Minnesota, so it was cool to see a real competition. I hope to learn how to longboard or skateboard on a regular sized board while I’m here as well!
Marika and me at Koigen on a rainy day!
I’ve been to many soccer games, both boys and girls, and I am also playing on the Brumunddal girls soccer team here, which is extremely fun but hard since I haven’t played soccer since last fall. I really miss playing hockey and lacrosse, but lacrosse and girls hockey are both sports that are very rare in this part of Norway.
Fans at the Brumunddal/Moelven soccer game!
Last Friday I went to Hamar Mart’n, which is similar to a mini Minnesota State Fair! There were many food stands, a midway, and a concert at night. I went with my younger sister, and we went on a couple of rides (my favorite was the teacups), as well as to the concert, for which we were in the front row!
My host sister, Åse, and me at the concert!
A few weekends ago I went to the mountains about 2 hours away for a gorgeous daytrip with my family. The picture here shows me after running through what I thought was going to be a field, which turned out to be a swamp. This was probably my favorite part of the trip because we got such a good laugh out of it!
Last weekend we had the AFS camp in Stange, where we played games, ate a ridiculous amount of food, had a dance party, ran on big bails of hay wrapped in white plastic which we named ‘marshmallows’, and a bunch of other shenanigans! It was nice to meet back up with everyone again and hear their stories about their different experiences in their families, schools, and extracurricular activites. It will definitely be interesting to see what everyone has done when we meet up again for the mid-year camp!
AFSers at the Stange weekend camp!
I’ve had the chance to go to a few parties since I arrived, and they have all been extremely fun! The difference between American parties and Norwegian parties is that in America, the party is at one house and everyone stays at that house for the entire time. In Norway, there is the pre-party, the party/going out to a bar or club, and the after-party. This is normal for every weekend, which is much more exciting than the American party schedule. Party music is also different, because here they have a lot more dubstep. This also means that they dance a bit differently here, but I won’t get into that... :)
A couple of things that I’m excited for that are coming up are:
The Russefest that’s coming up this Friday! Russ is a celebration that all 3rd year Norwegian students get to participate in. It’s basically 2 months of concerts, costumes, parties, and other fun things. Russ is an extremely important part of Norwegian students’ lives, because they’ve been waiting anxiously for their Russ year since they were young. Thankfully, Andreane and I get the chance to be Russ this year even though we’re only 2nd years!
I'm also looking forward to skiing and snowboarding this winter! I love both, so hopefully I get a chance to ski and snowboard at least a couple times this winter.
Here is the view from our kitchen window of the mountains and the lake!
As far as learning the language goes, Norwegian is really tough. Since my friends and family know that English is my first language, they usually choose to speak to me in English because it’s easier and they think it’s fun to speak English. This makes it tough for me to learn the language, however, so I like it best when people speak Norwegian to me (but very very slowly)! So I guess another thing I’m looking forward to is for my Norwegian to improve so communicating with my friends, family, and teachers will be much easier.
I think that’s all I can talk about for now, so until the next post, hadebra!
XOXO Karma
