Visiting Larvik and Bergen

Lauren, Devin and I have been planning to have our own "mini exchange" during our time here in Norway for at least a month now.  We planned that we would go to Larvik and Bergen to see other parts of Norway.  The Western part of Norway not only has a different climate and vegetation, but also a very different dialect; more surprisingly, it has the same culture. 

Last Monday night, Lauren took a night train to Larvik and arrived early in the morning.  We walked back to Langestrand, where I live, and made ourselves cozy.  We both fell asleep for a few hours, but I woke up in a panic and realized we were wasting the day.  I opened the door outside and, to my surprise, it was 11 degrees Celsius - roughly 52 degrees Fahrenheit.  I haven't been in weather higher than single digit Celsius and in the thirties Fahrenheit for MONTHS.  I opened the door to the patio and left it open to get some air into the house.

I made pancakes while Lauren was asleep and accidentally woke her up by dropping something while carrying everything outside.  She also woke up in a panic but then we "kos'd" ourselves with pancakes, VT maple syrup and milk in the warm sun.  As we sat ouside overlooking the fjord and Larvik while sharing something from our homes, I experienced another moment of love for what I'm doing here in Norway and Norway itself. 

The warm sun prompted us to get in our bikinis and "tan" on the patio.  I'm not sure why two gingers thought we could tan, but hey, it's worth a try!  We laid on towels and read some Cosmo mags in English and Norwegian.  Line came home and eventually made it outside with the extra pancakes and her new bikini. 

After we were done "tanning", we decided to go on a walk through town and to my school, Thor Heyerdahl Videregående Skole.  The size of my school is quite normal to me at this point in my exchange, but watching somebody else's reaction to its size reminds me of how lucky I am.  I took Lauren on the half hour walk to THVS when I knew we'd arrive after school was out.  This way, we could be "tourists."  I saw my bus go by with Sondre on it just before we arrived at school and saw some of my teachers still walking out to their cars - it was the perfect timing.   

From there, we walked over to the Kiwi to find ice cream and candies to kos with, but we decided it would be better to go into town to get softis.  I showed her my "little town" which has a higher population than Rutland - the largest city near where I live in USA - but more spread out than at home.  We walked up to near Maja's and then through the main part of town and back up to Langestrand. 

The next day we walked to and from school taking a bus trip halfway to Sandefjord in between.  Lauren was impressed by how close my friends in the music line are with each other and with me.  We took the bus to Sandefjord again to meet up with Miki, from Australia.  We met up at the bus station and went to McDonalds and wandered around the city.  Might I add that we got quite a few stares while walking around and sitting in MickyD's because, not only were there three gingers walking around, but we were speaking English and being very loud.  We eventually ended up at her host family's house. 

Thursday we went to school so that I could help Martine with our conducting project for the infamous "Tomorrow" from Annie.  We left after I was done, walking back home.  It was so nice to walk everywhere.  We saw Bølgen and the Farris Bad Spa, which are some pretty cool places right near where I live in Larvik.  We spent that night watching the Week 10 performance and skyping with Devin, who we were going to meet up with in Drammen on the train the next day.

Friday came, and another embarrassing exchange student moment happened.  We got to school so that we could pick up Line and Mari to come over to make chocolate chip cookies and just be koselig, but no one was upstairs.  Actually, the lights had automatically turned themselves off and were on motion sensor when we walked down the hallway.  There was NO ONE there!  I called and texted my class and found out that it was a day for Russ!  We met up with them in the gym to find them wearing drunk glasses and getting free stuff!  Good thing we came to school today... Then we all walked over to the fire station to watch a mock crash.  They had a car go 50 km/hr and run into a stationary car without anyone inside.  Then they showed us how to help people in a crash and what would happen if your car caught on fire only from spirits spilled on the inside of the car and how fast it would happen. 

Lauren, Mari, Line and I walked to the school and got the bus to stop in the middle of a roundabout to let us on :D  We took the bus into town and then got out and bought more ice cream.  We wanted the feeling of summer to last.  Then we all walked to Langestrand and listened to music, ate pizza, played UNO and baked chocolate chip cookies.  We all took the same train to Drammen, but Line and Mari got off in Tønsberg. 

In Drammen we waited an hour and then boarded the train to BERGEN where we found Devin seated only diagonally in front of us.  We spent that night watching movies and passing around Devin's sketch book illustrating pictures one line at a time and writing stories that made NO sense.  We finally got sick of being quiet around 3 or 4 AM and went to the dining car to talk.  Around 6.40 AM, we arrived in Arna! 

When we arrived at Lauren's host family's house, we set up beds and fell asleep for a few hours, then we were off into town!  We drove with her host parents to Fløibanen, a cable car that goes up a mountain above Bergen to take pictures.  We ended up walking down the mountain to save five bucks (only in Norway) which was totally worth it.  We were dressed in "normal" clothes and had our bags with us, while everyone else had hiking/running clothes on. 

We walked into town and saw the famous houses and went into some sort of a market where we only bought pancake things with sour cream and jam.  We walked around a lot, mostly aimlessly, but also to find canned pumpkin.  We have had such good luck making pumpkin pie for our host families, etc, that we wanted to find some pumpkin to make some for Lauren's first host family.  We ended up searching through a few sketchy world food stores finding everything else known to man than pumpkin.  We decided from there out that we would make lemon meringue pie - cause that's not difficult, right? 

We spent that night in the kitchen making lemon meringue pie while skyping with Miki in Sandefjord.  Then we went downstairs and went on chatroulette trying to get people to talk to us - we resorted to singing Barney songs and La Perla over, and over, and over, and over, as people clicked next when they saw us.  We decided to dress up in the most Norwegian-flag-oriented clothes we had with us (including russklær) and sing La Perla and Alt for Norge, again, over and over. 

The next morning we woke up very late and mostly slept all day...

But then!  We thought, for whatever reason, that swimming in the fjord late at night was the perfect idea!  (Hey, may as well get one russeknut, russ knot - bathing outside before April 1st!)  We left after it was pitch black outside without flashlights into the woods... good thing I'm afraid of the dark o.O  We ended up at the beach and as we got down to our "bathing suits" while shivering, we realized it was low tide so we'd we wading in on rocks.  Yes, this was poor planning, but we had fun!

We spent Monday in the city drinking coffee and eating ice cream and mostly wandering aimlessly again.  We went into a church and got hit by rain (Bergen gets an unbelieve amount of rain each year.. I've heard it can be about 250-300 days of rain per year).  But hey, we got some free "porridge" in town, so what's to complain about?  We also got some great pictures of devin running through a flock of pigeons in town...

Then we bought some påskeggs, Easter eggs that are chocolate with cream filling.  We came home and asked if we could have waffles with coffee after dinner, so we ran to the market down the street and bought eggs and milk.  We wanted to trick Lauren's host parents into thinking we bought the påskeggs to make the waffles with, so we came upstairs with only the milk and chocolate eggs (they are almost the same size as regular eggs).  Devin and I kept saying, "Vi trodde at de er den beste å lage wafflene... We thought they were the best to make waffles...  Vent, de har sjokolade?  Nei!... Wait, they have chocolate?  no..." I don't think her host parents were impressed with our weird sense of humor...  We ate SO many waffles after. 

We spent the night up watching movies and eating pancakes because Devin and I were leaving the next day (yesterday).  We got on a train at around 10.30 and left for Oslo and Larvik.  Devin and I spent yesterday sleeping, watching movies and talking on the train.  I walked home from the train station a little before 7 o'clock yesterday evening, and it was STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE! 

Some random quotes to remember our week by, thanks to Lauren, Devin and me:
"Jew salad?"
"There's so many people speaking French here..."
"You mean you can't make waffles with påske eggs?"
"Melk? Oh, I thought you were saying 'Mark...'"
"Folken fra Larvik snakker ikke fint"
"This tastes like... onions!"
"Hei, kan du ta et bilde av oss?" "Ehh... Oui?  Qu'at dit elle?" "Oh wait, they're French... uhh... kamera...vær så god!"
"Ingen kims, ingen kos!"
" Vi hørte en sang... over and over again!"
"I won't take any pictures so we don't see the ghosts."
"It's just a serial killer sharpening his knife..."
"What?  We're gonna eat the town?  Vi skal spise byen?"
"I was Russ 60 years ago..."
"Duvay monster tired!"

<3 It's not just the friendships that you make with other exchangers or at school, but that you know they'll be a part of your life forever.  Line B. said to me earlier this week that she wants to host an exchange student when she's older because of Lauren and me.  That was my mission and I feel now like I have fulfilled it here in Norway.  I'm gonna miss this place...

påskeggs

This week is heldagsprøver at school - whole day exams - so I don't have to be there because I'm not taking any.  Oh, the life of an exchange student... Click HERE to read Lauren's blog about our time together!

Russefeiring!!

Upon learning that I would be an exchange student in Norway, I recieved information in the mail from Rotary Norway about my upcoming year.  One of the rules - no buying a part in russebil - came as a surprise.  What is a russebil?

Rule # 17:
"In Norway we have a very special kind of graduation celebration, which in most student cases includes buying an old car with a group of classmates/friends. These cars are called “russebil(-cars)” and the graduate students in Norway are called “russ”. As mentioned before Rotary students are not allowed to drive motorized vehicle. As the driving pressure in a “russebil” normally is very strong, due to the fact that most students want to drink while celebrating and not drive, we do not allow our exchange students to buy part in a “russebil”."

Okay, great!  Russ buy old cars with their friends... what's the catch?  And why are the russ celebrating so much before they graduate?  Thanks to Norwegian friends/host families and the internet, I finally understood. 

"Russ" is a traditional name for the graduating students from videregående skole in Norway who participate in a the special graduation ceremony called "russefeiring."  "Russetid" is generally from May 1st to the 17th (it ends on Norway's National Day) but it is normal to have different "Russekro", or clubbing parties, throughout the year.  According to wikipedia, during May 1st to the 17th: "Participants wear coloured overalls, drive matching cars, vans, or buses, and celebrate almost continually during this period. Promiscuous sex, drunkenness and public disturbance on a mass scale has been the most prominent impact of the celebration in recent decades."  (Why do I have a bad feeling my parents just had a heart attack when they read that...) 

As for the Russebiler - the russ cars - my host sister Line bought one with her friends.  The color for our school is red, so their russebil is red.  Each russebil has a theme - this one from russfromtheinside.wordpress.com is entitled "Frustrerte Truser"... Frustrated 'Briefs'...

As you can see, there are many... undergarments... on the vehicle.  Whatever the theme is decided to be for the russebil is how it is decorated.  I am not a part of any russebil, but I'm glad for that because it costs quite a bit of money and time.  It will be very fun to see how all of the cars/buses turn out!

On Friday, we recieved the russeklær, russ clothes, we ordered.  If you notice in the picture above, the russ are all wearing red overalls; this is a traditional part of the ceremony.  These are worn from the 1st to 17th of May and decorated with badges and writings from other students.  We also recieved russeluer, russ hats, which are red with a long tassle.  This tassle has a specific meaning - not the same as a graduation cap in the united states, mind you.  The tassles are very long so that the wearer can put certain "knots" in the cap or special items.  These are acquired only after completing an "assignment".  Some include: spending a night in a tree, eating a Big Mac in two bites, break up with a random 16 year old in public, put a "for sale" sign on a police car... etc...  For sleeping in a tree, your token would be a stick from the tree; for eating a Big Mac in two bites, the token would be a piece of the wrapping... etc...  In the states, if the wearer of the cap has the tassle on the left side, they have graduated (a part of the ceremony); in Norway, if the wearer of the cap has many knots in the tassle, they are worshiped.. okay, maybe not worshiped...

Another part of the deal is Russekorter, russ cards.  They are traded and given away to younger students.  Here's mine for an example:

"Noey" is my russenavn, russ name; my address is Norway, USA; telephone number 362451 (all musikk linje has this); Rotary Youth Exchange 2010-2011; "Hug an exchange student"; "Can you speak more slowly?"; "Don't make me snap in the z-formation; and "I LOVE NORWAY".  As a tradition, you write nonsense on the cards - plus, I really wouldn't want to just give my address and phone number to random kids anyway...

This ceremony is very special and is only celebrated in Norway (by my knowledge).  The differences between the states and Norway for the graduation ceremonies are huge, as you can see.  At Woodstock, we celebrated only the night we graduated, which was a party thrown by the school and monitored by the school to keep us safe, whereas in Norway, Russ party until graduation and the parties are very different, although held by the school-oriented-russ-commitee. 

For those of you reading this in Norway who don't know what graduation nights are like in the states, I'm glad to explain it: we had something at my school called "Project Grad" which was held mostly by parents of graduating students.  This commitee was in charge of getting an event set up for the students the night of graduation so they don't "get themselves into trouble."  My father was on the commitee as well as many parents on my friends.  We had a party at a ski resort's work out center and pool in my town, Killington (which, did I mention, was said on TV here in Norway the other day when they were talking about the Dew Tour and Winter X-Games... I'm so proud).  We had Black Jack tables and other card games, food, drinks, access to the indoor pool and hottubs, a free photobooth, a dancefloor with DJ, a magic show and tons of prizes just for showing up instead of going out and partying.  I remember I won three different gift cards: one to a pizza place and two to Walmart (time and money well-spent...ha!).  The event ended early in the morning and the parents came to pick us all up. 

In Norway, I couldn't tell you too much about the time between the 1st and 17th of May because I haven't experienced it, but I have heard that kids come to school hungover a few times and party on some school nights.  I can tell you about Russekroene, the russ parties before May.  I have been to two and the russeball.  The first one I went to was back in November (November Russekro) which was a lot of fun.  You can click on the link to read about my night.  The second one was last night.  This theme was "Paradise-kro" about a TV show here in Norway.  I ended up just wearing a skirt instead of doing the paradise-theme (didn't really bring so many clothes for warm weather in Norway...) and went to Jani's house before with some other girls from the dance line and music line.  We walked over to Calle (the club where the kro was) which was just down the street.  There were so many people dancing and drinking and having so much fun.  The energy is so great at russekroer.  Everyone is celebrating together and having a great time.  After the kro was over, Line and I walked back up to Langestrand and made another meal at 3AM. 



June 12, 2010: Caitlin, Julie, me, Kelly before we graduated



Didrik and me after I graduated (yes, my big brother came all the way to USA for my graduation!)



Friday, when I got my russeklær!!!

The only thing I can think to sum this post up is: "Who knew there were so many different cultural differences in a graduation ceremony?"

Jeg gleder meg til russetid!  Jeg skal ikke være i Norge for de første ti dager, men det skal være kjempegøy!!

Rotary Exchange - The Three Year Exchange

I'm not actually sure what I'm going to write about in this post.  I have been reminiscing during the past few weeks about my stay in Norway and the year before.  As we have been taught (and which I totally believe), an exchange student goes through 2-3 years of change in their lives.  The year before we leave we experience excitement and preparation; the year abroad is the culture learning and experience; and the year we return home we go through an extra year of adjusting back to our own culture and fitting our new selves into our old societies. 

Just the other day, I realized that I was close to only four more months in Norway.  Yes, I say "only four more months" because the seven months that have already past have seemed to fly by, and thinking I am more than half way is a little depressing. 

My "Year Before My Year Abroad" wasn't only a year before I left for Norway.  My family has hosted nine exchange students in our home with countless others during the Rotary Killington Ski Weekend and other events.  I have been lucky enough to have been home for eight of the nine exchange students who have each lived from a couple weeks to almost five months at my house.  When I was only three or four years old after my baby brother was born, we hosted our first exchange student, Gabi, from Brazil.  It was a great experience for me as a young child because I wasn't the oldest "kid" in the house anymore; I had an older sister.  Starting with Gabi and continuing on to: Celine, France; Didrik, Norway; Vera, Hungary; Lena, Germany; Fabricio, Bolivia; Matteo, Italy; Sophie, France; and Umur, Turkey.  I have continuously grown up with "older siblings" (now they're becoming younger, starting with Sophie), all of which I consider to be my extended family, and different learnings of each culture they came from.  Gabi from Brazil now has a baby boy, as does Celine from France.  I joked with my mom one time (it was only once because she got upset) that she was a "grandmother" in a weird sense - can you see why she was upset?  ;)  So, for me, it felt like a "right of passage" to become an exchange student.  I had always been quite involved as were my parents with the exchange program.  The actual "Year Before My Year Abroad" didn't feel real.  I went on interviews, filled out intense paperwork, was chosen, went to Rotary meetings, found out my country was Norway and I would be living in Larvik, finished high school, went on orientations and finally left. 

"My Year Abroad (So Far)" has been more than I could ever describe.  If it wasn't for the year(s) of build-up before actually becoming an exchange student, getting my blazer and stepping on that airplane to Oslo back in August, I don't think I would be here.  It's thanks to all of the exchange students who came to Killington, VT who convinced me to be an exchange student.  Not only have I met (what seems like) a hundred new people and kept up with "my big bror" Didrik while on exchange, but I have learned so much about Norway and myself.  I dear, dear friend of mine, Michelle, commented on a picture of me the other day saying "i don't know the non-noellen being... but this is glorious".  She wasn't commenting about me looking different, but rather that I seemed to be "acting" different.  Although I've experienced a lot of happy and sad things in my lifetime that have made me who I am, Norway has changed me much more in a shorter amount of time.  Being far away from anyone that you know (I'm lucky to have Cathrine, Didrik and his family) for a whole year is a lifechanger.  It feels almost as though you're finally on your own.  It was interesting looking at all of my friends who are in college's statuses near Thanksgiving: "Wow I'm going home after so long!" or "Here I come, Vermont!" and thinking, "Not me.  :)  I get to stay here!  Lucky me!  i get to continue experiencing the best of life.  I am one 'heldiggris.'"  I seem to be rambling now, but I'm going to keep going with it.......... It's amazing to read all of the other kids from my district at home and those in Norway's blogs too.  They seem to have also changed so much.  I re-read my first blog post in Norway and the one before I left and could only think to myself, "I knew nothing!"  (first blog post: First Day in Norway Post and first day at school blog post: First Day of School in Norway Post)  Read them for yourselves.  I seem to cringe when I read them!!

"My Rebound Culture Shock Year" will be very strange.  Not only will buildings and cars look a little different, but the people will seem different to me.  I will be on the outside once again.  I will be looking in after living in another culture for a year.  I'm looking forward to what that will be like, but as I've said, I'd rather stay here a bit longer ;)  I can't tell you much more about it, because I have yet to experience it, but I know it will feel like nothing has changed and that I have. 

I want to end this post with a few pictures of during my exchange and saying that I am so proud of myself.  I feel okay saying this because I have done something not very many people get to do in their lifetime and that I have experienced so much.  Thanks to everyone at home for making this possible.  Thanks to my mom, dad and little brother for letting me go at the airport og takk til alle sammen i Norge som har gjørt så mye for meg her og til alle vennene mine som jeg er veldig glad i og til vertsfamiliene mine som jeg er veldig glad i også!!!

all of my host families

Oslo

Winter camp with Rotary

Ice Bath (Ice Woman 2010!!)

At the top of Dønnamannen in Northern Norway

After the premiere of the Week Ten performance "Lyden av Livet"



Lyden av Livet

 Takk for alt.  Jeg veit ikke hva jeg kan si . . . for mye å si.  Jeg er glad i alle her i Norge og hjemme.  Jeg kommer til å savner Norge.......  Men!  Jeg har fire måneder i Norge!!  :D  Jeg har hatt sju kjempebra måneder i Norge.  Jeg er en "heldiggris."  :P

Uke 10: Lyden av Livet!!

Within my first week of my exchange in Norway, I had my first day of school - on this day I first learned about the week ten performance for the first time.  Everyone in Larvik knows what it is: it's the week where the music and dance lines combine and give a show at the culture house, Bølgen.  This week was Uke/Week 10. 

In most of our classes we have been preparing for this show for more than a couple months now.  For an example: in choir we have been learning a song in Swedish (Klinga mina klockor).  I sang this song, but I played the saxophone for the rest of my time on stage.  This show is a very big deal to the teachers, students, their families and the musical community in Larvik. 

The title of this particular show was "Lyden av Livet" which translates to "The Sound of Life".  Some of the songs were were: Don't Stop Believin', Car Wash, Somewhere, She Wants to Move, Klinga Mina Klockor, La Source, My Song, Creep, Speilbilder (a number that Sondre and Alice wrote the music to, the dancers choreographed a dance and the media class made a film of), Call Me Al, Walking in Memphis, Love Gun, .... and the final song was Music.  We spent all week at Bølgen Kulturhus getting ready for the concert instead of going to school.  It was a much larger performance than any school performance that I have ever been a part of.  We had professional lights and sound and access to a fantastic stage. 


yes, we got to wear kiss masks!!

 For those of you reading this who don't know how my past school concerts went, this is how it would happen: we had photocopied programs, access to two or three microphones (small soundsystem), a light booth (no digital/pc lights) and no costume changes.  I LOVED having those concerts, but having a very "professional" one like the one we just had at Bølgen shows a different side to it - very cool!

We had one show for the ninth graders and our premiere on Thursday night.  Didrik came to the premiere!  It was so nice of him to drive down all the way from Oslo to see the show!!  It was also very cool that he was able to meet a lot of my friends from Thor Heyerdahl VGS.  After the premiere we even had a premiere party!  We all went to Farris Grand Hotel a short walk away from Bølgen and ate tacos and watched the video from the show.  As many of the kids said: "We are our own best audience."  Everyone was cheering and clapping after each number, out-applauding the recorded audience.  I felt like I was part of the music/dance line family there and then.  :o) 


primere party

 Friday we had two more performances and my two first host families were in attendance!  Both sets of host moms and dads as well as both sisters and even my host grandmother was there!  I remember thinking at one point, "Weird - my parents won't be here..." but it was definitely made up for with my host families. Something that is really cool about switching host families is which stage each family has you in during your exchange.  The Stensruds had be at the beginning when I was just learning about the culture and langauge; Trond, Helle and Line have me during my normalcy period and much higher language skills; and I can imagine that the Bugges will have me in my emotion stricken last few months - excited to go home, sad to leave and final steps in my language learning.  When I saw the Stensruds after the final show, I spoke only Norwegian with them, which was a huge step for them to see.  Normally at their house, I would try my very best to speak Norwegian, but would have to fill in a lot of English words.  This time was pure Norwegian and they were impressed.  Yay for Norwegian!! :D



my norwegian "teacher" sondre

 Something I have noticed lately is that I have been using more correct grammar (when I speak Norwegian) and then double thinking it becaus I'm so used to being wrong.  It's strange to think I have more correct moments than "feil" moments. 

After the show, we cleaned up and went to a couple of after parties.  I went to Sondre's house with a bunch of kids from the music line.  The third graders were so sad to be finished with week ten for the last time.  I wasn't very sad because I had never experienced it before, but I was sad because only yesterday it felt like I had my first day of school when I heard about week ten for the first time.  But really, it's been seven months (totally just realized it is seven months on the dot TODAY) that I arrived in Norway.  It's one of those bigger signals that my time on my exchange is running out.  Some of the other kids' families are visiting (mine come in June) and as of tomorrow, I have four months left in Norway - 16 weeks.  I have been in Norway for about 30 weeks now.  Time flies...

I'm beginning to miss it already. . . . . .
http://www.op.no/kultur/article5523033.ece (pictures from the performance)

Rotary Weekend at Holmenkollen

Lauren and I arrived at the Lysaker station in the afternoon.  We were greeted by a Rotarian and driven to the hostel called "Emma Gjestehus" which is just outside of Oslo.  It was so great to be reunited with the Rotary kids again!  It had only been about three weeks, but it was too long! 

Connie, Miki, me and Lauren: gingers/rangas



Victoria, Fransisco and me



in the Aussies' room watching Yes Man

We spent the first night introducing everyone that wasn't at winter camp to the new Aussies and Argentinians and reconnecting with everyone.  The Rotarians made the mistake of stocking a fridge full of soda because we all took as many as our arms would hold up to our rooms to bring on tur with us and to Holmenkollen.  Enough to last us the whole weekend.

On Friday morning, we woke up pretty early and left with our blazers to go meet the mayor.  We walked all over to try to find where we were going, but eventually got there, had a breakfast of bread and lettuce with salmon, shrimp or eggs on top.  (Fancy, huh?)  Then we went into a meeting room and sat where the representatives sit and had a long talk with the mayor.  He talked a lot about how he thinks women are going to take over the government or at least become a larger part of it.


sitting at one of the desk/tables



Devin, Lauren, me and Jessica at breakfast

Kate and me



the building

the meeting room

Afterwards, we went to the viking ship museum.  I have already been there a couple of times, so it was a repeat for me, BUT I learned so much more with a tour guide.  We learned more about the ships and the skeletons.  It was very interesting!  We also got to put on some viking gear. 

jumping infront of the viking ship

Noellen Norsk, the viking



Me, Laruen, Victoria and Hannah

After the viking ship museum, we went to the Fram museum, which is of a boat that was at both the North and South poles.  It's a giant building that was built around the ship.  You can go inside and see how the people lived and such and we had a guide that told us all about Nansen and the others on the ship.  It was really interesting, but I understand why I'm not THAT adventurous... that was crazy!  On the North Pole trip they left the boat and were gone for almost THREE YEARS. 




the tour guide telling us about Nansen





Lauren and me in front of the ship





the ship and building

Afterwards, we went to another museum and saw a movie showing different parts of Norway and how the sea/ships/fishing affects the life. 

After we saw the movie, we went to a giant mall and went shopping.  Here's an EXTREMELY norwegian advertisement that we saw along with some VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP:

After shopping (I got a pair of pants and a purse) we went bowling!

"Pregnant" Lauren with Fransisco

The next day we went to the WWII museum, the Nobel Peace Center (where I saw some people from New Hampshire) and then to HOLMENKOLLEN! 

Holmenkollen was amazing.  There were thousands of people there and, although we were in the standing section and only got to stay for a few hours, it was really fun.  Lauren, Kate and I stayed together with Lauren and I sitting on a squished cardboard box in the mud.  The energy was high and everyone was routing for someone.  We were routing for Norway (and Canada).

After the long day we ate dinner all together for the last time and I played the piano - while I was playing a vase fell onto the keys and shattered and I sliced my hand, but not very badly, just some blood.  It was hardcore. ;)

On Sunday we visited an old ski jump where the king would even go watch in Skui.  It was so crazy, we got to climb up, too.

 We all had to say goodbye after, but here's one last ginger/ranga picture.  We are called Rangas in Australian English because it's the same color as orangutans. 

Mostly picture post, but I hope you enjoyed anyway! :D