Norwegians are Born with Skis on Their Feet

‘Skiing is a dance, and the mountain always leads.’ – Author Unknown

So I know I have not written in a while, so I’ll do my best to catch you up on everything that’s been happening! So first, I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! Hope all the travels were safe, food was delicious and football was exciting. On Thanksgiving night, all of the American international students and a few of our Norwegian friends got together and cooked a really traditional Thanksgiving meal- turkey, green bean casserole, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, corn! Everything except the pumpkin pie because they don’t have any pumpkin here. And I was so happy because we were able to live stream the very end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Also, since I have such a wonderful Daddy, we were able to watch Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving. Finish the day with skyping with my family and it was a wonderful Thanksgiving away from the states.

On Friday after classes we walked about 1 ½ miles to Bø museum because they were having a Christmas fair. There was a lot of homemade crafts and food to buy. So I even got to do some Black Friday Shopping, but mine wasn’t nearly as crazy as it was in the states. I bought some gifts and this cute mug for me! But I can't show you anything else because they are gifts!

Saturday night we American students hosted a Thanksgiving potluck and party for all of our other international and Norwegian friends. There was lots of food to go around and we taught them all how to play Beer Pong, which I learned is a very American game. It was a lot of fun, but it also made for a late night. Sunday was spent slaving away over final essays and a group project for the beginning of finals starting on Monday. I had 2 finals this past week- Ecophilosophy and Modern Norwegian Film and Fiction. So that’s 2 classes down and 4 to go with 5 finals still ahead. Yup, that’s right, one of my classes has 2 finals. Blah!!

Today I had my last class of all. We took a field trip to Morgedal, a city a little under an hour’s drive away. Morgedal is known as the ‘cradle of skiing’. We were told by our guide that ‘Jazz lovers go to New Orleans, and ski lovers come to Morgedal’. Sondre Norheim was born here and he is known as the father of the modern ski and more specifically of the Telemark turn. We were able to hike up to his house and then took a nice tour around the museum about his life and skiing in general. We then watched a nice movie about it, but unfortunately it was a long day and my eyelids were too heavy to stay open for the whole thing…

I've also been busy planning some trips- meeting a friend in Oslo, going to London right after finals, then meeting some relatives for the holidays followed by New Years in Sweden and Finland! Very excited and buys trying to find tickets and hostels and tours- including one of the Harry Potter set!

I did get a little homesick this past week because I learned that it is highly probable that I am going to be in Norway a month longer than I original had expected. I had thought I’d be done and heading home around mid-May. However I learned this past Friday that, because May is Norway’s month with most holidays, finals stretch all the way from the 1^st of May until early June. So I won’t be headed back to the States until early/mid- June. There is the chance though that my finals could get done earlier, because I only have 4 classes next semester, and I’ll be able to come home a little earlier. But there is always a silver lining- this just gives me more time to travel and I can celebrate Syttende Mai, Norway’s Constitution Day!

I'm thinking of you all as the holidays approach. And I'm sending my empathy to all of the students as your finals season comes. It sucks no matter what country you are in so I'm there with you! Sending my love and good vibes back home to you all!

Hugs and kisses always