This morning I cancelled all of my credit and debit cards. It really isn't fun, but I am going to call the bus station tomorrow morning when they open to see if they have my wallet. I really, really hope they do!
Around 12:30, we met up at the docks and went on a short trip up the fjord to a place where they have reconstructed and refurbished old norsk houses and such. The trip was by foot, although we were all told that it was a boat trip. We did a bit of hiking with the rotarians at the conference. Before we went on the walk, we had fish soup with the rotarians.
From there, we said goodbye to the Aussies and Michael, Kelly and I went on a boat-taxi up the fjord to another town and we got on a bus to Fredrikstad. When we got there, we were told to either catch a bus to Halden or take the train. Just as we arrived, we got a call from Tone, who told us that the train station was closed. And then we checked the bus times and it said that there weren't any buses to Halden.
Anway, after many calls back and forth to our contact in Halden and walking all over town, I finally decided to call Didrik's father, Svein, who I knew lived closeby. I initially wanted to know if he knew how we could get there without all the hassle, and he ended up offering to drive us to Halden! We met up with him and (stopped at McDonalds first hahaha) and he drove us all the way there! We called Didrik, who I'm assuming he told to speak engelsk with someone he "couldn't understand," and he was so surprised when he figured out that it was me!
So, now that Iæm here in Halden, there are about 20 of us and we went walking around... we are at an old military site! Itæs so cool :) We went up to the top of the hill and it was beautiful at night with all of the lights! We took some group photos and had a lot of fun. Now we're all sitting in the hallway of the rooms with our computers and we start classes tomorrow at 9 am. :D
Noellen,
ReplyDeleteYou should probably let your host club know about being stranded. Your host club might want to get in touch with them (district conference officials/language camp officials). That problem needs to be cleared up in the future so other exchange students aren't also stranded. You were lucky you had Svein close by. The next exchange students may not have that luxury. Glad everything worked out to your advantage without our even having an inkling you were going through all this. We didn't know any of this happened until we arrived home from Nanny's late afternoon on Monday. You took care of all of it by yourself and I am very proud of you. If I had known what was going on, you know I would have been freaking out! YOU DONE GOOD!!
As you wish,
Mom