It's all coming to an end. So here's the last few weeks!

With just 20 days left in Norway, my time is limited. I have two weeks left of school, which will probably be the last time I'll see most of my friends as most will be busy and so will I over the Christmas period. This afternoon, I will be bringing out my suitcase and beginning to pack, I have already packed some things. It is a lot harder then I expected it to be, but I will get there.

7 - 9 December

Last weekend I spent the weekend at Kyra's families cabin. It was so beautiful there, it was a three hour drive with Christmas and Norwegian music. As we left at 3 or so, by the time we were there it was pitch black so I couldn't really see much. Though we arrived and unpacked the car, ate dinner and settled down. The cabin also happened to have a sauna, so Kyra and I made the decision to sit in the sauna and then proceed to roll in the snow outside. At this point I should mention that it was probably -20 out. It was extremely painful, but so much fun! We were in hysterics, it was definitely something I will never forget. After that endeavour, we were quite worn out so we relaxed with some tea and soon went off to bed.

Saturday we woke up to plan our of skiing. We eventually got dressed, it took a long time as it seems that Norwegians have particular clothes and such that they like you to wear when skiing. Dressed and ready we were off... but not long before we were both on our bums. Kyra didn't fall after that, though because of my unique gracefulness I preceded to fall over multiple times, with the memory impressed on my sore bum. It was quite fun though being out skiing when it was so cold, we had ice on our eyelashes and my hair even turned white! Once we returned to the cabin we warmed up with tea and chocolate. That night was spent playing games and learning how to make a traditional Norwegian Christmas dessert, which  turned out to be a lot harder then expected.

Sunday we woke up to a fresh layer of snow, it was so beautiful. With all the snow we decided to head out and go bum boarding as I like to call it. This was so much fun. It is my personal favourite snow activity! After playing in the snow we said a sad goodbye to the cabin and began our journey home. The journey ended up last four hours instead of three as the conditions were so bad. At one stage we ended up stuck behind a snow clearer and I can tell you now, that is not a fun experience! It was impossible to take over it as every time you drove to close to snow would become to thick and you couldn't a foot in front of you! Though I did make it safely home where I settled down in my pyjamas and snuggled into bed.

30th November - 2nd December

This weekend I spent a the red cross youth camp. It all began on Friday afternoon when Beatrice picked me up, we had our pepperkake (pepper biscuits) and jar of home brand nutella and we were off... or so we thought. We soon realised that we had no idea where we were going. So we checked facebook and we were back on tracked... for a little while. So we did the intelligent thing and asked a random man on the side of the street he preceded to tell us we were heading in the complete wrong directions, he told us were to go (in Norwegian  and we headed . Though after a while of driving in the middle of the forest we thought that maybe we understood him wrong, or maybe he was crazy. So we stopped at the next house we saw, now I must say that this house was in the middle of the forest with no other houses in sight, creepy right? But we put our brave faces on a jumped out of the car and cautiously walked up to front door. Suddenly we were surrounded by 5 or so cats, we had discovered the crazy cat ladies house! Though we never actually found out if a crazy cat lady lived there as nobody answered the door, so we proceeded to run quite fast back to car and drive back in the direction we came. Our next decision was to find another house, but one that actually is near civilisation, so we found another house with no answer and walked next door, where we saw a baby carrier through the window so figured they should be nice. They were and they told to turn back round and head up the road we came from and we will see signs. So we hopped back into the car and cheered when we came across the sign. We were finally there!

We arrived just in time for dinner, which was quite tasty thankfully as food a most camp centres is horrible but I was pleasantly surprised here. After dinner we were split into groups and told to re create the little red riding hood play in a different theme, my group received over dramatisation. It was quite hilarious and I think we did a pretty good job, if I can say so myself. Not much else happened that night we just spent it drinking tea, playing games and talking it was quite cozy.

Saturday morning started at 8 with the leaders walking around with speakers playing loud music. It was an interesting way to wake up. We went down ate some breakfast and began with our first aid course. I was expecting this to be quite boring, but I leaders were hilarious and made it a very interesting and memorable experience! We ended the day with a fire, waffles and marshmallows!

Sunday we were woken up in the same fashion and as it was the first Sunday of December we lit a candle and mouthed the words to the traditional Norwegian song you are meant to sing. Then we went to the introduction to Red Cross youth course. I must this was also quite funny as it was originally meant to presented in Norwegian though they were translating it as there was quite a few people there who were unable to speak Norwegian  so just listening to their translations was hilarious. Soon after it was time to head home and say our goodbyes. I met so many interesting people there, learnt about many different cultures and countries. I really enjoyed learning about countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Nepal, finding about their way of life. All in all it was a great weekend.

23 - 25 November

This weekend my host family, uncle, aunt and me went off for another cabin weekend. This one much less eventful than the last two. We arrived to a gorgeous cabin, with an indoor pool, spa and sauna, the perfect place to wind down.

We spent the weekend baking muffins and eating them rather quickly, swimming and just spending time together. I must say my favourite part about the weekend was the swimming pool, though I did realise I would never become a swimming teacher as it is quite stressful trying to watch over two toddlers. Though it was the first time that Christoffer had swam by himself so I was quite proud of him.

The weekend resulted in some weight and complete relaxation, perfect way to spend one of my last weekends in Norway.

Visa troubles

I guess nothing ever works out how we expect it, definitely when there is a visa involved. So my flight to return home was on January 7 and my visa finishes December 31. I was told by my company just to extend my visa. So off I go to the police station to find out that not only does it cost $300 to extend my visa, the type of visa I'm on may not be accepted to be extended. So there I am awkwardly needing a new flight home, I have been trying to organise this for the past week and hopefully by tomorrow I will have at least a slither of information from my company about what is happening. Though, pretty much I will be flying home before December 31. Therefore I have less than two months and with the latest date being December 31 maximum 54 days left in Norway!

Enough about that. Last weekend my host family, family friends and me went to an apartment even further south than here. The main attraction for going was a swimming place with lots of different indoor pools and such. It was actually really nice I think we spent about 2hrs in the pools. I got time to relax in the sauna and forget everything. Also last weekend on Friday night we had an exchange student night, where al of the current exchange students went over to one the houses and brought a dish from their country. It was really koselig (best way to describe it there isn't really an english equivalent, but something along the lines of comfortable and cozy) and we ate lots of food until my belly hurt.

At the moment I'm not sad to leave Norway I am in an excited mood, but it usually changes day to day The idea of being home back into familiarity, not having to worry about things. I mean I love my host family, but it isn't the same.

On a sad note, I would like to add that the gaining weight on exchange thing that most people experience and I've managed to avoid. May have caught up with me :( I think the problem is that my mind is set to you only have two months left why not? Bad attitude, though I don't really care cuz I only have two months left!!! My last chances of eating all yummies norway has to offer. I just need to exercise more, not sure if that will happen...

Well that's all for now, I would add photo's but they're on my other computer at the moment so next time I will have lots :)

The bus stages.

So as I take the bus to and from school most days I have started to notice something. Norwegians do not tend to like to sit/talk to people they do not know and this is demonstrated on the bus. Here I have drawn diagrams of the stages of being able to sit next to someone on the bus.

So in stage one, the person sitting in the seat will probably be quite happy to let you sit next to them.

The next stage is the person sitting next to the window with their bag on the seat next to the aisle. Here they are saying you can sit here, but preferably if there is another free spot sit there.

Stage 3, person sitting on the aisle seat whilst the window seat is free. Now this person is saying I really don't want anyone to sit next to me, so please don't ask.

The last and final stage. The person sits on the aisle seat with their bag against the window seat. This means do not sit next to me. Will not move obviously my bag has taken that seat.

P.S. This may not just apply to Norwegians, but is quite obvious here.

New future plans.

So I've changed my mind since my last update on my future decisions, so I thought I would inform.  I will be returning to Australia to begin a primary teaching degree, I always said I wouldn't follow what my mum had done, though secretly I always new that I would most likely end up teaching. Though being me that isn't it, the idea of spending four years in uni, is dreadful. And here comes the fun part. I have found that the university that I'm applying to has an exchange program with partner schools. They're in many countries, but I have chosen the US. Though there are may universities to choose from in the list, but at the moment Clemson University is my favourite. I wont be doing this until August 2014, so it is a while away, but it gives me plenty of time to find a job and save up lots of money to be able to go. I am also undecided about how long for, I would really like to go for a year but am some what uncertain, so I'm tossing and turning between a year semester. Hopefully this all works, if not I'll find something :)

Once I have completed uni and worked for a few years I have plans to go overseas and teach in another country for year, but that is a long time away so many things could change.

That's all my plans for now :)

First snow

“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;

Strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.”

- C.S. Lewis

I stumbled upon this quote and decided to make it the quote for this year, even though it is almost over, it's always nice to have something to reassure yourself. So I picked this quote. I'm a person who loves to doubt my decisions and am very accustomed to regretting things, qualities I would very much love to change. So when I start to regret something I have done, I think about this quote and it brings me back to reality. Another thing I'm trying to do is look on the optimistic side of things instead of going in to a downward spiral. I mean I could be spending my time moping about leaving, but I'm trying to plan things with my friends here and really enjoy the last couple of months.

So what has been happening.... well at the moment my little brother and sister are sick with the chicken, which I have already had, so chances are I'm immune yay! Though that doesn't stop me thinking every itch is the start of it.

Last weekend was a meeting with YFU in Oslo, there was 21 of us all together. Now this wasn't the usual cosy hotel or nice B&B sort of stay. No, this was good old Norwegian style cabin trip. So my journey started on Friday, I went home with Belen (exchange student at my school) ate dinner at her house and set off on the three hour drive to her grandmother's house. On the way I saw 5 deer!! Damn I was so excited and they have fluffy white bums, sadly though I didn't get any pictures because we were in the car and they went by fast. During the car ride Belen's host father took it upon himself to be the tour guide (whilst I wasn't sleeping . He spoke in only Norwegian  which was a bit difficult because:
1. He had a different dialect
2. He was sitting in the front seat and I could hardly hear him
Though I still managed to understand most of it Wooo! And when I didn't I promptly replied with a jaaa or a kult. Which he seemed pretty pleased with.

After staying the night at Belen's grandmothers we caught the train into Oslo. We caught it in early so we could spend sometime looking around, sadly though we didn't end up with much time, so we quickly looked at a few things, bought a hot chocolate and rushed of to meet everyone. Though we ha no idea where in the building we were meeting but luckily whilst discussing ho we should call, we bumped into some fellow YFU people and quickly found the group. We all then hoped on the bus to the cabin. We arrived to a really beautiful cabin, even though it lacked running water and a proper toilet, it was really nice. Our bedroom was interesting to put it as it was the attic. This is were we slept probably 18 of the students with mattress squished together on the floor, though I must say it was cosy.

Really we didn't actually do that much on this trip, we mostly talked. They tried to get us outside to play games, though being out there for only 5 minutes, sort of makes you loose feeling in your toes.. so game plan was to stay inside. Inside we played many games including chubby bunny, which ended with plenty of slobber. When it came time to sleep, some people decided that there wasn't enough fresh air, so decided to fully open the window. Now keep in mind during the day standing outside for 5 minutes was freezing my toes off. Luckily I was on the opposite side of the room where the heater was on. So I remained relatively warm. After a not so bad sleep I woke up to people yelling snow, snow! So I quickly looked out the window and there it was the first snow of the season! It didn't last so long and it didn't stick, but non the less it was snow :D The next day went along quite the same as the last though, we had to leave the cabin, which was quite sad because I am not sure when I will see these people next. Though as we were walking to the bus stop from the cabin we must walk down some wooden steps, as I said before it had been snowing, which soon turned to rain so they were quite slippery. Just as the girl in front of me says "These are so slippery I hope I don't fall" BAM! Down I go, right on my ass. As of today I still have a bruise. I guess it isn't a proper trip until I manage to embarrass myself some how. After the incident I returned safe and sound home. Though on the bus ride back I decided I feel like coffee so I got a coffee on the bus, which was plain black coffee and found that I really enjoyed it, so maybe I like coffee now.

The Beginning of the End.

In one week I only have 3 months left, that may seem like a long time, but when I think about the fact that I have been here for almost nine months. I know that the next three months are going to go so fast and I don't know how I feel about that. So I have all my flight details and I will be leaving Norway on January 7th, which means I get to have a white Christmas and celebrate New Years in a new time zone.

Nine months from one point of view it's a really long time, but put into perspective with my life it's a small space of time. I mean during this time I could have had a baby ( aren't we all happy I came here instead :p) I really couldn't resist, had to say it :) Now when I feel like I'm really starting to enjoy myself and feel comfortable with my life I'm living here, I have to start thinking about leaving.

So at the moment there is a war in my head, it's a battle between feeling sad about leaving and overly excited about coming home. So I sort of get left with this awkward happy/sad weirdness. It's like when I was leaving Australia, but it's different because when I think about leaving here I don't have a time for when I'll be back again. I know I will come back and visit, but that could be years away. Leaving the family that I would now call my second family will be horrible and my little brother and sister. I will be so heart broken. Though I do get to tell them embarrassing stories to them when they're older :)

On another note, went to my first Russ party (serious let down). Russ is... too hard to explain put it in Wikipedia and you'll get the idea :D But it was fun to just go anyways and the next one is Kristiansand, which is like the closest city (it's quite small). Not yet sure if I'm going because trying to get home at 2am from there may be a challenge. Though hopefully I can figure something out. We also had a class party which was really nice. And I've been eating way too much bad food with friends, so maybe I will come back with a little extra round the edges.

The seasons have also changed it's now autumn and my god did the leaves change fast and did the sun decide to actually sleep a little. Sometimes I just feel like everything passes in a haze.

Well here are some photos from random stuff:

Making traditional polish dish.

Class party

Russ 

Class picture

Skillz

So excited when I found a red mushroom!

They are so damn tiny and cute!

School photo

Lots has happened :)

So the last time I posted was after Denmark and I have done lots since then but right now I can't be bothered to try and remember all of my holiday. So for now I'll just talk about since school has started back.

So I started back at school this year (really strange a new year starting in August) and I was in the same base class as last year (Norsk, religion og etikk og historie- easily translated). I hadn't really gotten along so well with this class, so I decided to change to another.

Also this year 5 other exchange students started at my school. When I changed class I was moved into the class with all of them. In this class all except for 3 people are previous exchange students or exchange students. So this class is really fun because every one has exchange in common. It's also fun because they're all new so everyone thinks I also just came here, which means I can hide my horrible Norwegian skills :) But the new exchange students are really nice, so it's good fun.

I also have all new classes this year. I am now taking norsk, religion og etikk, historie, trykk og foto (print and photo), sosiologi og sosialanthropolgi, og reisliv og språk (tourism and language). These classes are much better then last year I'm not bored out of my brain 1. because I actually like the subject and 2. because I can understand more.