The best things

The past few weeks really haven't been easy but instead of writing about that I'm going to write about all the stuff I really enjoy. Maybe it will help me be more appreciative of the amazing experience I am having!
1. Norwegian chocolate. I probably eat way too much but it is perfectly creamy. Way better than cadburys!
2. Seeing the sun. Sounds a little bit strange but after such a dark winter there is nothing like the feeling of the sun. Even if it is still minus digits outside.
3. Food in general. Risgrøt, waffles, salmon, wholegrain bread, pastries, cakes with lots of cream, fresh berries and the list could go on!

Muskat and I having cuddles one day after school.

I make tea on Thursday. On this particular day I decided to try making risgrøt and I think it worked pretty well!

4. My host families cat. After I have been here for 6 months she has finally started liking me and now we are best friends.
5. There is a general appreciation of the outdoors here which is really cool. Something we need to learn more about in New Zealand!

In what other country does barbie go to the cabin for the weekend?!

6. Public amenities here are really good. My town has an awesome library. The schools are really good, the hospital looks like something from the future (hopefully I won`t have to make use of that!) and most  neighbourhoods have a little ice skating rink!
7. Busses go everywhere and run really often. It makes things very easy. I will admit that it did take a little while to get weaned off the tolcarne taxi system but I haven't taken the wrong bus for a while now (touch wood)
8. Towns are not made for cars. In fact they are made to be incredibly annoying if you try to take your car to town. This is good because roads and parking don't dictate the town!
9. Strong traditions because its such an old country. And there are special foods for every occasion!
10. My host family. I'm lucky to get to share this year with great people who enjoy sharing their culture as much as I like experiencing it!

Last, but defiantly not least, I got my first mark on a test which I had written in Norwegian! It was in geography and I got a 3 which is equal to a low achieved in New Zealand. 

Time flys when you are having fun!

So believe it or not but I am now over half way through my exchange. And I'm really not sure how I feel about it. Of course it will be awesome to see everyone back home but back home won't be the same now that all the friends who I was once in the same corridor with have been scattered about the countryside! And of course I will miss Norway terribly too. The hardest bit is knowing that I can't just fly the 40 hours back whenever I feel like it... That was something I never thought about when choosing somewhere on the other side of the earth! I always remember thinking before I left about how cool it would be to fast forward time for a minute or two and see what my life in Norway would really be like. And I had masses of unique questions that weren't the kind you could just google or ask another afser. I guess that is what excitement is, really. Anyway I am going to try and remember what these questions were and answer them here!

Q: What will school be like?
It's super hard and very different. I have got to the point in classes where I can understand the topic that is being taught but I am not good enough at writing to be able to do the assignments or tests which is incredibly frustrating. School is far more casual here also, more similar to a kiwi university than a kiwi highschool. People just come and go depending on when their classes are. This makes it pretty difficult for an exchange student and I would say it is the most challanging part of my exchange. I guess it helps prepare me for the real world but I also found out I had expectations that I didn't even realise!

Q: What will my host family be like?
Obviously, different. Coming from a only child boarding school type scenario suddenly living in a family again takes a wee bit of adjusting. But it is incredibly fun and I get along with everyone really well.

Q: Will there be heaps of snow? How cold will it get? What will the skiing be like?
In terms of snow I am feeling a little hard done by. This year is the warmest they have ever had. I didn't get a white christmas but I'm going to be back for that! Last year on christmas eve it was -20 this year it was around +5. The coldest I have been in since I am here is -17 but I am told that is nothing. Still, I had to take a picture of the thermometer.
The skiing is not at all like the snow farm. Because of the lack of snow this year the only track which has snow is a short 5km loop. So of course everyone from top athletes to mum, dad, 3 toddlers and the dog is there. It makes for a cosy ski.

Q: How long will it take me to learn the language?
I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with my level of language, you can ALWAYS know more. But this has been one of the hardest things for me, before coming to Norway I had never heard norwegian spoken and only briefly practiced learning colours on an app on my phone. It takes a long time and it is easy to feel discouraged!
I feel ok about the language now. It is one of those things that you get out what you put in but I remember when I had been here for two months and someone said to me that if you get so carried away with the language that you stop enjoying yourself then you need to re think your priorities. There has never been a truer word spoken!

Q: What will I miss the most?
Jimmies and apples and tomato's that aren't fluffy. Going to the beach and just seeing the sea meet the sky. Tolcarne. Oh and Taylor.

Christmas!

My stocking I brought from home (the knitted one on the left!) amongst the others!

Christmas in Norway is massive considering most New Zealanders and familiar with a laid back summer holiday one day type ordeal. Christmas lasted for the whole month of December! The whole town was decorated with lights which is very pretty because of the short days. The shortest day was the 23rd of December and we only had sunlight from 11 - 2 ish. You can understand why such a big deal is made of christmas because the dark time can be quite depressing!

Food on christmas eve. Home made herrings to the left and cloudberries and strawberry jam to the right... Yum!!!

Mitten knitted in a traditional style which I was given for Christmas. They are called Selbu mittens.

So after the month of christmas, the major celebration happens of christmas eve. On Christmas eve we had a dinner with traditional foods such as cloudberries, cold meats and different kinds of bread like lefsa (looks a bit like a tortilla but tastes a little bit sour). Then after that we opened presents! Imagine being a kid in Norway... I have so much respect for their patience. They wait the whole day with a slow family dinner and then cakes and tea and polite chat before they can open their presents. And I always thought it was hard enough waiting for all the aunties and cousins to wake up!

My favourite food from the christmas breakfast, home made liver paste (it tastes so much better than it sounds!)

Christmas eve is followed by several days of constant eating including a 'christmas breakfast'. Christmas breakfast is a 5 hour brunch in which you have several courses of meats, fish and my favourite, christmas cakes and tea! I am still recovering from the baking which I justified by it being a once in a lifetime experience! (Another Fat Student here I come!) But, I am proud to say I tried everything that was put in front of me and there was only a few things I didn't like!

Now christmas is over and its back to school. Only one week holiday for christmas in Norway! I have a lot more to write because it has been a long time since I have written anything on here so watch this space!

A tiny bit of the christmas baking. Ginger nuts, kransekake, notterkake (almond biscuits).

Nearly Christmas

A few weeks ago I found this rainbow on my way home from school!

So yesterday was my last day of school before the Christmas break. It is nice to be finished and I am really really looking forward to Christmas! In Norway its not like New Zealand with just Eve Mee engaging in the christmas spirt by herself. I haven't heard anyone complain of christmas carols yet! And it is everywhere, in the streets there are lights hanging above the street and very pretty star shaped lights which people have in their windows. And because it is so dark here (only light from 10 - 2.30 at the moment) it makes everything feel very cosy!

Christmas lights back when there was snow

Today I went to the church with my school which was the first time I have been to a church service in Norway. It was very different. They had different people performing and it was much more casual than your average chapel! Also I was surprised because it wasn't compulsory but most people still went which was really nice. I'm not sure you would find so many kiwi teenagers voluntarily going to a christmas church service! Afterwards my class had a really nice christmas lunch and said goodbye for the year.

The school church service... Sorry about the head.

Risgrøt

Risgrøt is my favourite Norwegian food! It is like a rice pudding made with short grain rice and milk. Traditionally it is a christmas food but norwegians eat it all year round for dinner which at first I thought was a little strange. At christmas time they take the skin off an almond and mix it in the risgrøt. Who ever finds the almond gets a marzipan pig (so I'm crossing all my fingers and toes)! I have found a recipe on the internet which resembles what I have made. If you are feeling adventurous or just missing me you can try making it!

Here is the link:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/40830/norwegian-rice-porridge.html

Christmas food is a major exchange highlight.... So much baking. AFS has a duel meaning everyone knows (Another Fat Student). Something strange here though is everyone eats mandarins here because it is a traditional christmas food! In fact most of my teachers brought mandarins to school in our last class for us to eat. I will post plenty of pictures of christmas food after it is over with but I have a few favourites for you in the meantime!

Kransekake my hostmum made

Krumkake my host mum made. They are made in a special iron which gives them a really pretty pattern!

Homemade pepperkake

Most Norwegians will stay home for christmas which makes sense as it is a very cold, dark time of year. This is very different to what I am used to and when I tell people my parents are going to the beach they have trouble imaging it! I was hoping to have a white christmas in Norway, but of course the one year I am here they don't. No snow is forecast for a long time and we have had very warm weather recently which melted the huge dump we had a few weeks ago.

But thats all, merry christmas or as the Norwegians say, god jul!!!!

Photos of late

Today, feeling slightly lazy but feeling I need a new post anyway I have decided to post a link to my photos on Facebook so even if you don`t have facebook or don`t want to be friends with me you can still see them! Here is the link, I`ll try to post something properly in the weekend!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.649402811744703.1073741827.100000249698231&type=1&l=0a3a5d8cef

Winter is here!

I think it would be fair to say that winter has now arrived in Trondheim. We have had several dumps of snow in town but they have been followed by warm spells so there is not much snow around. It is funny in Norway because they are so used to the snow that no one comments or gets excited when they see snow (some even look a little sad) and this is where my foreign nationality becomes very obvious. I guess this is mostly because snow is New Zealand would always mean no school which was the biggest perk of all. Here, it is life as normal except with maybe a few more clothes when you go out. Another thing that busts my disguise is my total inability to walk on ice. It is hard for me to decide if this is because of my terrible coordination or just something that my unadapted gene pool was missing but all Norwegians manage perfectly. There is a way they walk all taking very small steps and standing very upright that works even for people wearing high heals (getting passed by women wearing high heals while I walk to school in my yax tracks is a little humiliating).

Walking home from school... In the snow and dark. Quite different from the bush track!

It has also started getting really dark really early. Today it got dark around 2.30pm and it is still three weeks until the shortest day! This is really hard because it makes you feel exhausted all the time. For norwegians they are used to it and everyone has their own little strategies for coping with it but for me it is really difficult. I never want to go outside or do anything that requires energy because when my body sees the first little glimpse of darkness I am totally exhausted. But I guess I'm starting to find my little ways to cope with it too.

There is something really cool about the darkness though... In New Zealand I know people would say 'oh it's dark and cold and snowing and I can't possibly go outside! I defiantly can't walk and I probably shouldn't drive either'. There is none of that attitude here! If it is dark you can still carry on doing the things you need to do. You can go walk or run after dark and if it is cold, well you just need more clothes! But it has taught me a really good lesson about how to just get on with things!

The finished sweater.... Well I thought it was finished!

This dark weather has its uses though and it happens to be particularly good for knitting! I had almost finished my sweater when I decided to take the torso piece off the needles to see if it fit me. It was so massive I could wrap it around myself twice and I knew that unless I went on some serious anti dieting or took on the true afs title (another fat student) I was never going to fit it.... So last Saturday afternoon I painstakingly undid the whole thing with the help of Kine. It was hard but I want it to be perfect because the wool cost me a small fortune.

After: The balls of wool all ready to be re knitted.

Anyway, this was longer than I intended! I better go work on my knitting now...

Electric cars

In Norway it is very common to have an electric car and some, to be honest look totally ridiculous. Most of them are from the manufacturer 'smart', have three sets and look like an egg carton. They are very quiet to run and it can be quite terrifying if you are walking because you cannot hear them coming behind you. They come in handy however, as you can often drive around traffic barriers in them and get into parking buildings for free. Also, many places in town have parking places reserved for these cars and you can charge your electric car while you shop.

I found both of these green ones on the same day. Not sure if it is cute or ew.

Not even sure what this is... But it made me laugh

However, I spotted this electric car the other day while out walking. It is the only electric sports car on the market in Norway. Because it is electric it is subsidised by the government so it is a reasonably affordable. Because of this it has now become very popular.

Electric sports car.