Rekkevik, Svarstad, Langestrand, Kjose

We have a state song in Vermont that's called, "These Green Mountains".  For those of you who don't live in Vermont or just don't know very much about it, it is considered to be the "Green Mountain State".  Killington, where I live, is in "the heart of the Green Mountains" which is a mountain range right down the middle of Vermont.  In this song, there is a very good line that says "They say home is where the heart is."  I totally agree with that.  But, what if your heart is in more than one place?  Does that just make you lucky that you have more than one home?  Or is it just wrong?! 

 For me, as an exchange student in Norway, it is hard to keep my heart in one place.  A little piece of my heart will always be in Vermont, but when I have had such an exciting year as this one, that heart lies in many places!  As I said, first and formost is it in Vermont, but it shares a big chunk of my heart with Kjose, Langestrand, Rekkevik, Larvik as a whole and anywhere my exchangers may be.  My heart lies in different places now, not just in one place. 

As I have been writing this, I updated my status on facebook to "home is where the heart is" and I have just recieved a notification that Roland, an exchange student from Hungary last year in my district at home, commented "an exchange student's heart is everywhere. 'cause we feel like home almost everywhere".  This must mean that we can either be very prone to homesickness, or that we can feel like we're home almost anywhere, therefore we feel no homesickness.  I have not felt very much homesickness for Vermont because I know that I will return, but forsee homesickness for Norway in my near future because it is uncertain when I will be back here.

-------

My last day of classes was yesterday.  I played "Papageno" on the piano as an accompaniment to Magnus and Caroline in the second grade for their singing test/exam.  We also started practicing "Someone Like You" for the graduation which is on June 15th. 

I spent today all around Larvik.  I went to Langestrand to talk with Helle about when my mother and brother come to Norway (two weeks from today!!) and then I went to Kjose for dinner with the Stensruds, my first host family.  We had the best weather today, so we sat outside to eat after I kicked the soccer ball around with Jon and Eirik and played the piano and spoke with everyone.  Solfrid also drove on Kjoseveien which was very exciting!  We ate lamb and potatoes and talked very much; both reminiscing about my time in Kjose and talking about the future.  It was sooo very koselig! :D

Yesterday was very fun at school because we just played music and burned DVDs from the Uke 10 performance and I taught Dina how to tap dance! :D

Also yesterday, I was in Svarstad for a Rotary meeting.  There was a problem about how I would go to Svarstad because the bus after school gets there about two to three hours before the meeting started and the second bus that goes there would arrive fifteen minutes after the meeting started.  Plus, if I took the first bus to Svarstad, I would have no idea where i was going when I got there!  I am very lucky that Per Henning lives in Svarstad because when I told him my problem he said that I could just come over and chill at his house and that he would take me to the meeting.  PH and I took the bus to Svarstad, which took almost an hour because, not only of the distance and stops, but because there was a bicycle race going on that day on the main road, so traffic was a little backed up.  As we got closer to where he lives, outside looked more and more like where I come from in Vermont.  Svarstad also has a downhill skiing center, just like Killington, so it really felt like home being in a ski town.  We ate dinner and went upstairs to watch TV and talk.  It was extremely koselig!  I had a lot of fun :)  From there he drove me into Svarstad to show me the little town and to the building where my meeting was. 

The meeting went really well!  Everyone was so kind and welcoming, which was very refreshing.  Sometimes I get the feeling that Rotary clubs feel nagged about hosting and sending out exchange students, but once they have one, they are hooked!  So yes, it was a good feeling to be welcomed into the little community with open arms.  They were very complimentary about my Norwegian and one lady even said she wasn't sure if I was an American or a Norwegian!  THAT was a very cool compliment!! :D  The meeting was also very nice because I got to see Håvard, who was an exchange student in California the year before and of course, Tone, my district chairwoman.  She is so nice and helpful!  And, selvfølgelig, I played Piano Man... WITHOUT BREAKING ANYTHING! x)

Tomorrow I'm going to catch a train to Oslo and sleep at Didrik and Cathrine's and meet up with Devin and Francisco.  Saturday we have the outbound meeting in Oslo and Sunday we're going to some free concerts at a festival.  :D  This has been one of my favorite weeks in Norway so far. 

--------------