Okay, I know it has been a long time since I have written anything, but that is because I have been SO busy!! But now I am going to take the time to sit down and record everything that has been going on lately so that not only you guys can read about it, but so that I actually remember it because time is seriously FLYING by!! It is not fair! So I guess I will begin with stories from wintercamp.
Here is a photo of a bunch of us exchange students outside of the dining hall in Nesbyen where we had our wintercamp. We all met on the train after a looooong time of not seeing each other, and were really excited to meet the new kids who had just come from Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. We also met one girl who isn't a youth exchange student through Rotary, but a work exchange student who got to come with us on our winter camp--she is from Chile and totally amazing! Te amo, Fran! Our first day we got fitted out for ski gear and went on a little ski tour to try out our skills and get started on learning how to cross-country ski! Then we all went sledding down the hill next to the dining hall. If I may say so myself, I was a pretty good driver! That's right mom and dad :) After that, we were split into groups mainly based off of geography since they figured we might be around the same level: North America, South America, and Australia(+France and Taiwan). We got quite a lot of free time every night that week, and we spent it cozy in the cabins playing cards, dancing, and reading old British Cosmo magazines.
The first day, the North Americans got to go downhill skiing in the morning. I thought it would be a lot more difficult, but it turns out after all these years that the rumors are true (in my opinion): skiing is a LOT easier than snowboarding. Not that I don't love snowboarding :) I mainly spent the day skiing with my Canadian buds, Calvin and Brock, doing all the possible runs on the mountain. They are pretty professional seeing as they are Canadian and all. After that, we went back to the main lodge and went out on a cross-country trip, but it was only five kilometers, and the guides said it was going to take us up to two hours. Calvin and I didn't believe that at all, so we did the round twice in about 45 minutes!! Go professional cross-countriers! After that, we were pretty tired, and then went and watched some of the South Americans snowboarding down the little hill. Pretty successful day :)
Day two: cross-country ski day! We pretty much had free-reign after we did our ski tour of the day in terms of if we wanted to snowboard, cross-country ski, etc. We began with our cross-country tour, and then I set out to the little slopes to teach Brock and some other kids how to snowboard--I've never tried to teach anyone before, and snowboarding is...pretty difficult, but they did really well and I was impressed!
Day three was another day of cross-country and snowboarding and sledding for us. Jonathan, an exchange student from Pennsylvania and I went on a fun excursion that was about 11 or 12 kilometers, and then came back and did another five with the group. We were "skikkelige friluftsfolk" that day!! Then we did a little snowboarding and a little relaxing. The only thing that was not so fun is that I got TERRIBLE blisters on the back of my feet--I had to stop wearing shoes, that wasn't any fun :(
Day four everyone was on the mountain going slalom or snowboarding!! It was so much fun--I went around and took some of the Australians around the mountain, and towards the end of the day, I found another group of kids who were doing some of the ski jumps in the park, so we have a video of me getting three jumps in a row!! It was really really fun and made for an awesome day :)
The last day before we went home again, we were supposed to do an 18-kilometer trip, but my sores on the back of my feet were so bad I couldn't get my shoes on, so I stayed back with some of the other kids who had other injuries and stuff and watched movies, which was fun, but a little sad because I REALLY wanted to go on that trip. That night, we all stayed up really late hanging out and talking--it was a really good time!! It was really hard to leave afterwards but we knew that we were going to see each other at the Hollmenkollen three weeks later, so it wasn't as sad as it could have been, and will be at the end of Eurotour :(
After this camp, I had one week home, and then went straight to Sweden on an eight hour bus to Stockholm to visit my old host family from 8th grade for the week because we had winter break!! The busride there was...not very eventful, but I knitted the whole way!! (a craftsmanship I learned from my friends the night before when we had a knitting evening and I made them macaroni and cheese and we ate hot dogs and made a really good dessert that we found on www.passionforbaking.com) So, in Sweden, I met my old family and stayed with them through the week :) I met with old friends from the exchange and we went out to dinner, to cafés, on walks (Sweden just got a new princess and she is living in this area where we went for a walk), and spoke quite a lot of Swedish (while I replied in Norwegian). It is pretty amazing how Scandinavian folk can just speak together without a translator in two different languages because they are so similar! We also decorated Easter eggs, had movie nights, and went up to the Victoria Tower, which had a really nice view of all of Sollentuna. We also went shopping in Stockholm, of course. All in all, it was a very fun trip, but the eight hour bus ride back was...well I slept most of the way so it went pretty fast.
The next thing I am going to talk about was the Holmenkollen weekend :) We got four days together with the exchange students at Sannvika storsenter and in Oslo. We stayed at a house called the Emma Gjestehus, and it was an old school converted to a sort of hotel. It was really nice! The first night we walked down to Sannvika storsenter and couldn't really do much shopping, but at least got to figure out where it was and have a good time together! The second day we went to a World War Two museum and the Nobel Peace Prize museum. There, my friend Duncan and I took a picture under this screen that was a project of one of this years' winners of the peace prize: she wanted us to write something on our hands that reminds of us peace or togetherness. We wrote this:
It means "cheers" in Norwegian, and in my opinion, is the most festive, and peaceful word there is! Here is a picture of my dear MacKenzie and I in front of the International Peace Prize museum:
Then, we got free time in Oslo, and me and a group of others went to Wayne's Coffee--the best coffee place!!--and shopped around. We went to the castle, parliament house, and many stores. My friend Calvin and I decided to get lost in some of the less-known areas (no ghettos, don't worry), and we found a really good Persian restaurant where we sat for a while, and a couple there who thought we were a couple sweetly asked us if we wanted a picture together, so that was nice!! Then, we made our way back to Sannvika to go bowling!! We went bowling and I...am not very good at bowling, but it was really fun!
The next day, we spent the day at the Holmenkollen ski jump hanging out and watching all the competition. This was awesome, because there were really not very many people there--much less than normal--and we got on the big TV dancing three times!! We all painted our faces and had crazy flags and were very good world-wide representatives. The Canadians had a jumper that they got his signature from :) Did I mention this was the day that Steambotian Bryan Fletcher won the nordic-combined competition?! All the Norwegians were pretty disappointed that it wasn't even a Norwegian that won...but GO STEAMBOAT!!!
The next day, we went to the Viking Ship Museum and the Fram Museum, which both had a lot of boats! The Fram boat is HUGE and you can go inside, and the Viking Ship museum was really interested--our guide told us about dead WOMEN buried in a boat like a tomb that they found!! Women!! Rich ones, too! They still don't know the whole story, but it was pretty interesting. This was also the day that we had breakfast with the mayor of Bærum, which is a municipality in the area. We ate and heard a presentation about some statistics in the area--definitely a little political luring towards the exchange students! But it was fun :) Then, we got driven home by MacKenzie's counselor, and it was very very sad :(
Here are Josh the Aussie and I in front of yet another naked statue in Oslo!! They like them some naked peeps!
Another quick thing I think is worth mentioning is that my entrepreneurship business has taken off! We had our first competition in Skien with our water bottle that filters dirty water, and even though we only have a prototype so far, we still got second place in "best regnskap," "IA rapporten," and won "mest innovative produkt"!! That got us 1,500 kroner and permission to go to the next level of competition which is national! Pretty cool, right? Here is our stand we used at competition: (we are really six people working on the business but we were pretty much everywhere that day!)
You THINK this is the end, but REALLY....I have a LOT more to write, but I am waiting until my next round of pictures on my camera are loaded up! If you want to see more pictures, by the way, check out Rotary's exchange student blog for district 5440 (Steamboat Springs). I uploaded quite a few different photos, and then you can see us with our faces painted at Holmenkollen!
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