Holidays

So my holidays officially started last week!! Though I am now leftt with a lot of free time, so I am on a quest to fill as much of it as possible :) So far I haven't done much too exciting, just normal stuff. Though in 5 days i'm heading off to Denmark for a week. I'm sure it will be fun but another family with twin 2 years is coming with us.... so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Though I thought I would write about going out here. This is what my friend said and I think it perfectly describes it "We'll go to their house and get drunk enough to go out on the town" and that is what happened. They have to do this because if you were to buy your alcohol in town you would be very broke, I think they said something like it's $12 for a glass of beer! Other then that I think it is pretty much the same. Though I live in a small town and there are only two places to go and one of them is so dodgy and creepy feeling. So really it only leaves you with one.

On the weekend the sun also turned and on this night there is usually a big bonfire to mark it, but seeing as though it was raining all that day I don't think many bonfires happened. So now the sun has turned it means that the sun will start to be normal again. Even though I'm here whilst it slowly has changed I have never gotten used to it. I guess I'm so accustomed to the Australia sun that by brain freaks out. But anywayz I think the latest the sun set was at 10:30pm which means that it didn't get pitch dark until after 12. It also was rising at 4:30 or something ( I dunno cuz there is no way I would get out of bed early enough to know :p).

Also there is a festival that happens on a Island in my town and it brings many people as I was shocked to find out this morning. I went into town to go to the gym and BAM there was so many people everywhere, also I thought was quite a good way to earn money. The gym lets the people from the festival use their showers for 100kr (about $20), steep I know, but this is Norway. So once again I got shocked as I walked into the changing room and it was packed full of people (it usually only has 4 or 5). So the festival has definitely brought many people.

Unfortunately (or not) my gym is closing on August first so after that I will have to make sure I exercise otherwise I will become a fat lump full of Norwegian chocolate, definitely in the winter. Even though I don't really go to the gym that often (I do try i'm just so damn lazy).

View from my window 11pm

Båt

So today I went on a boat trip with 3 other girls and it was really fun. It was about 20 degrees so it was a nice temperature, though it was quite windy and we had a small boat which led to an interesting trip. Each time a wave would come it would splash straight into the boat and I happened to choose the side they were coming from, so I stepped out of the boat completely dripping wet and quite cold. But we spent the whole ride laughing our heads off. We arrived at an Island and it was gorgeous as all of Norway is! We then sun baked and tried to dry off as much possible until we went back on a much drier trip back.

Also where I live pretty much everyone has a boat and I met some who owns 5 boats!! It's crazy. There definitely isn't a shortage of boats in this area and I can see why. All the Islands are so beautiful and it is really quite nice out on the water.

Thoughts on next year.

Okay so this post has nothing to do with my exchange but i'm really bored in class right now, so I figured why not write about my future plans. The one time I actually feel like writing here, it isn't even about exchange oops! :D

So my mum has been accepted to go on an exchange to Canada for a year. She will be swapping jobs, houses, cars etc with a lady from Canada, that in itself is very unique. Anyway s because she is doing that it has opened up my horizons because of course she wants me to come visit her whilst she is there, so the ideas on what I could do whilst I was there started flowing.

My top choice at the moment is to return to Australia and work for a few months and then head over to Canada and stay for a bit with my mum and the start work at a summer camp. Summer camps don't really earn you any money by the time i've flown there from Australia it costs more then I get back. But seeing as though I would most likely be going there, why not? Have some fun whilst earning money :)

Another option is to go over in probably still mayish and just live with my mum and find a job for a few months and the return home. But that doesn't have enough adventure and excitement in it for me :D

My last thought was to become an aupair in the same area in which my mum would live. I could do this for about 6 or so months and earn a bit.

So I have plenty of options and there a still more floating around in my head, so decisions, decisions. As you can probably tell my chances of starting university next year are feeling pretty slim. I just couldn't see myself go to school for another year, I need a break. I know this is a break, but i'm still at school, so I want time with no school and exams and everything. Just time to have fun and earn some money and then i'll go to university. That is once I figure out what degree I want to do... Ahhh life choices are so difficult, there are so many options and I don't want to get stuck in something that I wont enjoy and is boring. I need excitement, my most recent thoughts were to study to be a primary school teacher, because i've always loved going to school with my mum. Also there are so many options within teaching, so I'm not just stuck with the same thing all the time.

Okay so that's enough boring rambling from me : D

Update

So lots has happened since I last updated. I celebrated the 17th of Mai. This day is celebrated as Norway’s national day. Everyone dresses up in the national costumes and heads to the town to watch the parade. It was definitely different from Australia day, it was quite formal with many in the national or nicely dressed in comparison to shorts and a shirt sitting on the beach or around the pool all day. We went into town in the morning to watch the parade. All the schools and groups all lined up and walked through the streets. Honestly I didn’t think that there were that many people in my town, it was first time I had seen so many people in Norway. After the parade we headed to my grandads house and had a lunch and spent the afternoon with the family. Then we went and ate pølser and is (sausage and ice cream) which is the traditional thing to eat on 17^th of Mai.

Stine and me also went up to Oslo for the weekend as she had a meeting thing there for work. We stayed with her cousin and it was a really nice trip and got to spend a day walking and shopping around Oslo. I still can't believe how small it is and by then end of the day I already knew my way around. Also there was a farmers strike at the time so they drove tractors through the city. It was a really funny sight to see.

Last weekend I went on a canoeing trip. It was a blast. We were meant to leave on friday afternoon and come back sunday, but it was really bad weather (it even started to hail) so it was postponed to Saturday. The trip was with my contact person's family and many other family, so in total there was probably over 20 people there. So saturday Stine dropped me off at Kirsten's house (contact person) and we ate breakfast and met the family, from there we set off to the place and packed the canoes and began paddling! We arrived after about 2hours or so of paddling set up the tents and got cozy. I also took a bath as they say. It lasted about 5 seconds as it was absoloutely freezing!! I mean I was wearing 3 layers of clothing, so imagine how cold in was in the river! Though it was fun. I also got to sleep in a tepee shaped tent, it was so cool.

A few weeks ago it was so nice and warm here about 25 for a week. It felt like australia wearing shorts, having bbqs and hanging around in my cozzie's. But now it is back to bad weather.. so much for summer. hopefully it will get better.

Summer is starting soon, only a week and a half left. Though I don't i'll be going to school everyday as so many classes aren't on because the teachers aren't coming, which i don't mind. Some nice sleep ins for me :D  Sometime norwegian school is so random, like last week for gym we had orienteering, it was quite boring and my group just walked around and laughed when we saw people actually running (we are too lazy). Also in another class the teacher brought in random fruits from around the world for the class to try. 

Here are some photo's:

17th Mai

National dress

First time eating reindeer.

My room

Baking a cake

Tepee tent!

Made a sail boat with our canoes :)