Daylight Day and Night

The sun now literally never sets. Around 1/1:30 at night it gets dark but that is only until about 3:30 in the morning.  It is so weird for me to look out my window at 9pm thinking it is 3 in the afternoon because it really looks like the middle of the day. Right when I came back from the Euro tour the weather suddenly took a drastic change. These past two weeks it has been nothing but sun, and hot. Everyday has been between 80 and 90 degrees outside, and it such a nice change. I am hardly ever inside anymore.

We recently celebrated Norway’s national day, the 17^th of May, in Oslo. I was lucky enough to get to wear my host sister’s bunad, Norway’s traditional outfit. I went with my host family out to Oslo to really get the full on experience. It was crazy how many people there were in Oslo that day. And they were not only Norwegians; there were lots of Swedes that came to see it, along with Germans, some Americans, and even French. We waited outside Karl Johan’s castle to see Norway’s King Harald and Prince Haakon. During the national day everyone lines the streets, and here in Oslo the streets were completely crowded. It looked as though all of Norway was in Oslo for the event. All the kids in elementary school parade the streets in their national costumes and everyone is holding a Norwegian flag. There were hundreds of marching bands that also paraded the streets. And all the students in the final year of high school march through with their Russ clothing, to show that they are done with school. It is a very patriotic day for Norway. Everyone is in such high spirits, and it is so much fun to be a part of. And on this day it is tradition to eat lots of ice cream, and that is just what we did.

My friends Anne and McKenzie

My host mom, Else Marie and me

Oslo on the National day

Gøran, Else Marie, and Svein-Arne

Me in front of Karl Johan's castle

All the people in Oslo

My host dad Svein-Arne

We took a little tour of one of the boats to my host dad's friend

On the 20^th of May, Gøran, my host brother had his confirmation. And confirmations in Norway are a really big thing. When you turn 15 every single Norwegian is confirmed either through the church or humanly, if they are not religious. There was a short ceremony in the church to confirm him and his classmates. After we were in the church we had a huge catered lunch with all the family and friends. After the lunch we went back to the house to have cake and coffee with everyone. There was tons of food and everyone was so festive in his or her traditional outfits. On this day the one who has been confirmed receives lots of gifts and money, and there sure was lots and lots of gifts. It was really special for me to get to experience a Norwegian confirmation and it was a lot of fun to meet all the family and friends.

Gøran and me on the day of his confirmation

Some of the food for Gørans confirmation mmm

Eating lunch after the ceremony

The delicious Marzipan cake

And the rest of the cakes

Anne- Tomina, Mari, Jan Tobias, Gøran, and me

I took my two final exams, one in Norwegian and one in Spanish. I find out the results in a month, so I am hoping they went well. Now I am basically done with school. Our official last day is June 22^nd because that is when the last exam is given. Each day of school is basically pointless for me because everyone is just studying for exams, but I am done. Now that the weather has been nice, we have all been out at the lake getting in our sun because here, we never know when the weather could suddenly change.

Andres and Juliana

Morten, Andres, Juliana, me, and Sousan out at Koigen beach in Hamar

Maren and me out for a night swim at 11pm

Svein-Arne out grilling dinner

We took a day-hike out in Valdres

Gøran at the top of Nøsensfjelle

The view from Haugsettsfjelle

It was about 85 degrees out and we were still hiking in the snow

And in a couple of days my sister, Nina, is coming to Norway! It has been so long since I have seen any family and I cannot wait. It will be fun to show her my Norwegian life.

One-month to go, and now the time is flying by faster than ever. 

Ha det bra for nå,

Imogene

Euro Tour 2012

I just recently came back from the rotary Euro tour, and it was by far the best trip I have ever been on. If you did not already know, exchange students are the coolest people on earth. And when all of us exchange students get together, well things just get a little crazy. We are one big, loud and fun family. We were a total of 30 students plus two advisors. We were 25 exchange students living in Norway, and five exchange students living in Iceland— that went on the trip. We spent a total of two amazing weeks together traveling all over Europe. We began by flying from Oslo to Berlin and then our bus tour began. We had the same pink bus for the whole tour and we sure drove a lot of miles. We began in Berlin, Germany where we stayed in a youth hostel right in the middle of Germany’s capital.  There we visited various museums about World War II, and on that first day we ate a very special German meal, called Spätzel, which is similar to noodles just that they are potato based and much more tasty.

All of us on the plane ride to Berlin, Germany

A memorial park for to represent all those that lost their lives during World War II

Duncan, Josh, and I inside the memorial park

The delicious Spätzel

Duncan and I in front of Berlin's parliment building, "dem deutschen volke"

Giuli

After Berlin we traveled further south in Germany to the city of Dresden.

Josh, Anne, me, Duncan, and Karlie

All of us exhange students

Karlie and me showing our California love

All the brazilians Juliana, Luiza, and Juliana

From Dresden we made our way into the Czech Republic where we stayed in a hotel up in the hills of Prague, the capital. It was a huge and beautiful city. It was also very interesting to hear a Slovak language because it is so very different from most Germanic and Latin based languages.

Looking out over Prague

All of us dancing

Karlie and I in Prague

Running out in Prague's countryside

Karlie, Gustavo, Juliana, Juliana, and Luiza

After Prague we were off to the beautiful Austria. During our days in Austria we ate a lot of Schnitzel and Apfelstrudel. Schnitzel is the typical German dish and it is usually either fried chicken or pork with a bready outer shell. Apfelstrudel is their famous apple pastry, which is very delicious. Austria was one of the more quiet countries of the tour. It was very peaceful and beautiful and its nature was just breath taking. The first city we visited there was Vienna. 

The Schnitzel

And sometimes we got a little bored on the long bus rides- and painting nails was a result

Inside one of Austria's famous churches

The famous Apfelstrudel

After a night in Vienna we took the bus to Salzburg, and that city is the true heart of Austria. It is where the movie, “The Sound of Music” is based. One of our nights here we were lucky enough to see the musical reenacted.

Me with my big German chocolate pretzel

Anne and me, we decided to be twins for a day

Looking out over Salzburg

Karlie, me, Anne, Duncan, and Ellen walking to the musical

Juliana, Gustavo, and Juliana

Giuli, Karlie, Angela, and me

With the cast 

After Salzburg we had a long bus ride to Lido de Jesolo, a city in Italy right outside of Venice. We were in a hotel right on the beach to the Mediterranean Sea, which I can now say that I have swum in. We spent a full day in Venice exploring the historic city and all of its water canals. In the days we spent in Italy, we had nice and hot weather, a nice change to the cool Norwegian spring.

Benja and me

The Italians sure like their nutella

Benja and I on the boat to Venice

The delicious Italian pastries

Giuli and me

The beautiful Italian masks

Out at Lido de Jesolo

The interesting Italian stand-up toilets

Following Italy we made our longest bus ride, about 10 hours, to Lyon, the cooking capital of France. There we stayed the night and the following day we drove to Paris. Along the way to Paris we stopped and had a tour of Marie Antoinette’s house in Versailles, which was one huge house with 700 rooms! By nightfall we were in Paris.

The beautiful ruins of Lyon

Anne and I on our morning run through Lyon

Lyon, France

And once again we got a little bored on the bus so I braided Anne's hair into corn rows

And the result of the corn rows

Marie Antoinette's palace in Versailles, France

Inside the palace

Giuli, me, Karlie, and Lia outlooking the garden

The beautiful garden

In Paris we did a lot of walking. Our hotel was right on Lafayette Street, one of the most expensive streets in Paris. And we were about a half an hour walk from the Eifel Tour, right in the city center. During our time in Paris we climbed the Eiffel tower, toured the Louvre, ate delicious macaroons and baguettes.

The Eiffel Tower

Karlie, me, Angela, Anne, Josh, Duncan, and Giuli on the top

View from the top of the tower

Giuli, Karlie, and me in the center of Paris

Duncan and Anne eating baguettes

The Louvre

Me and Mona Lisa

After France we took a boat over to Calais, England. From there we drove to London. The weather in London was not the best but it didn’t do anything to change our experience. It was really weird for me to be back in an English speaking country. But it sure was fun to pretend that we were Norwegian tourists in the city. We got a lot of questions about what language we were speaking. In London we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace. We took the tube, the underground rail system, all over the city. We went to the covenant gardens, to Oxford Street, and Harrods.

Ellen, Angela, and me

Angela, Karlie, Duncan, and me out on the streets of London

Karlie and me showing off out London spirit

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Karlie in front of the London Eye

Countdown to the London Olympics

Oxford Street

Throughout the trip we were very lucky with the weather. We had sun almost everyday with the exception to the rainy London weather.  It is a trip I know none of us will ever forget. We saw, experienced, and learned so much about the different cultures and all of us students became even closer to one another (and I am pretty sure that it is impossible to become any closer because we are just one big family). It was one of the hardest things to say goodbye to all these people that we all have done so much with over the year. We are students from all over the world living in Norway. We have learned so much about each other’s different cultures. We understand what it is like to live on our own in a whole new country. We understand that with exchange come a lot of high points and also a lot of low points. Together we all share so much in common, and we understand what it really means to be an exchange student.   We are all best friends and we are all family—and we all understand one another so well. There were definitely a lot of tears shed in the airport as we departed back to our Norwegian families. And that is one of the hardest things on exchange. Over the course of a year we tie ourselves to a completely different culture, we venture out of our comfort zones to experience a new way of life and living. We go to school, we make friends and we become one with this new culture. Things that before seemed so difficult don’t seem to matter that much anymore. And the things we value most after a year on our own, some people back home just won’t understand. I have begun to realize how much I have changed as a person, how now I hold myself to different standards than I had before—balancing these two completely different worlds, trying to figure out what to hold on to and what to leave behind is one of the hardest things. We, as exchange students, really understand the true meaning of friendship.  I have but only a little over a month left of my exchange. Leaving this country I have grown so accustomed to, leaving all the new friends I have made is not going to be easy. I look forward to this last month; I just hope it does not fly by too quickly.