Let it Begin!

The beautiful towns of Norway <33

So I arrived early Sunday and was greeted by an amazing host family, the Voldens. We first went into town to see about my Residency Permit and a bank account, both of which we are still working on. When I say we went into town, we went to Drammen, a nearby city. When I flew in, we drove through Oslo, though, which is a pretty cool city on its own.

Next, we went to the Volden's summerhouse--right by the ocean! It was SO gorgeous out there, really it's beautiful everywhere here! We sat around, played board games, swam in the sea with the brenmaneter(jellyfish), I didn't get stung! and my host sister, Karine, and I made kakke(cake). It really was so fun :) We went out on the boat one day and spent a "day at sea" climbing rocks and swimming on a rocky island somewhere in the middle of the Norwegian sea. It was truly pretty astounding--the scenery here is AWESOME.

I really love my family, the food, the activities, and am having so much fun! Just the other day, we went to Høyt og Lavt land which is called "high and low la

nd" where we climbed through the trees and ziplined through the forest VERY high above the ground! It was crazy fun :) We have been speaking quite a bit of Norwegian--what I can, anyway. I am learning a lot, though! I am definitely learning to GO WITH THE FLOW. Half the time I have NO idea what we are going to do and I just have to be independent and be ready for whatever may happen--it is an amazing feeling.

Anyway, I could write more, but I need to go back to being utvekslingsstudent! Best wishes to all and I miss you dearly as well, even though I am having the best time :) By the way, here is a cool picture--it is a Viking ship they are re-building for placement in a museum as an artifact. It is a replica.