We are family!

'Family is not an important thing, it's everything.' -Michael J. Fox

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to meet some of my distant relatives here in Norway. Jonas Haugersveen contacted me on Facebook in early September. He had been told by his grandmother that I was studying in Norway. I think we determined that Jonas's grandmother is my Grandma's cousin (Is that right, Grandma?). He lives with his parents in Risør, a smaller town right on the coast south of Bø. My family (Grandparents, Uncle and Mom) have met his mother, Torhild, a few year back. 

Friday early evening I took about an hour train ride and then met Jonas at the train station. We drove back to his home about a half an hour away. There I met his mother and father, Bjørn. Soon afterwards his younger sister, Juliana, came home from her folk school with a friend. We had dinner- homemade pizza. Afterwards, I spent the evening talking with their family. I learned that Juliana goes to the same folk school that Jonas went to for 2 years. At the school, they take classes for the first part of the year and then travel doing some mission work. Jonas had gone to Mali a couple of years back and Juliana leaves for Uganda this coming Saturday for 5 months. Jonas starts university in Australia this January, where he'll be going for a bachelors in Psychology and Social Work (just like me!). They have an older sister, Helena, who got married this past summer and now lives in Oslo with her husband where she's finishing her undergrad in Physical Therapy. 

On Saturday morning after a light breakfast, Jonas took me on a hike down to the coast. Here he showed me something that directly translates to "Guessing pot". It is a giant cylinder hole in the rock which was created when a glacier came through and put pressure on a rock causing it to spin and dig a whole in the ground after many years. They actually have the largest one in all of Europe in their town. Afterwards, we went up to an outlook above the city. Risør is known as the "White City" because mostly all of the buildings around the coast are all white. It was really beautiful. We then hiked around some old WWII trenches are bunkers behind the outlook. We then headed back home to shower off and dry out- it was a pretty rainy day. 

We then had some dinner- stroganoff with reindeer meat. It was so delicious! After dinner I went onto Facebook to show some pictures of my family and school to Torhild. I was then quizzed by Jonas in how much Norwegian I know, which wasn't too bad, but I'm still a long way off of speaking enough to carry a conversation. We then ate some waffles and had some tea as a snack and watched a movie. The movie was in English with Norwegian subtitles, which is how they watch most of their movies. 

The next morning, my train left at 10.50 so it was an early breakfast and then Torhild drove me to the train station. It was such a wonderful weekend- delicious food, great conversation, beautiful Norwegian home, and warm-hearted family! I feel so blessed!

Well, nothing too exciting this next week- lots and lots of research and studying to write some midterm papers. I have to get a lot of extra work done this week, so I'm all ready for my adventure to Prague next week/weekend! So wonderful!

I love and miss you all back home so much!
-Marissa