This month is very exciting for me. I have 3 friends and my mom visiting, within the next four weeks. Besides missing them like crazy and how excited I am to see them, I am also extremely excited to do more traveling. Within the next month, we will be traveling to places such as Bergen, Lillehammer (where the 1994 Winter Olympics was held) Gol, and Oslo. Who knows, we'll most likely be spontaneous and travel other random locations as well, but for now, that's the list. We are all extremely excited.

So what have I been doing since my last and only blog post? Well, I have been up to many things. As I had mentioned before, in my last post there are many things to do outside here in Norway. This is certainly a place for those who love to be outdoors. There's a saying that goes, "Norwegians are born with cross-country skiis attached to their feet." Quite a popular thing to do here, you see many people outside on their cross-country skiis. As a rookie in the world of cross-country skiing, let's just say I don't have the natural talent that my friends have here.
I have been out with my snowshoes, which are quite fun. However, every time I bring them out to go, my roommates laugh at me. They think I look ridiculous. Apparently snowshoeing is not all the rage here. I had to learn the hard way. I don't mind the mocking, I think I look stupid as well, but it's good exercise and a lot of fun.

Another fun thing to do is to go sledding. We went up to an area called "Ringkølen" the other day and had a blast. I couldn't feel parts of my body by the end of the day, but every moment was worth it. (The hot cocoa and Norwegian Freia chocolate goodie certainly helped to finish off a fine day of sledding as well.)

I have already been in Norway now for about a month and a half. I arrived here on New Year's Eve and brought the New Year in with a fresh start! I was slightly disappointed when I turned in my last paper only days before Christmas and then had to start school again on the 2nd of January. So although I was extremely jealous of my fellow URI students with the long break until January 23rd, I was thrilled to be embarking on a new adventure!

Norway is an incredible place! For a girl originally from Alaska, this is my kind of country. I think that may have been some of the deciding factor in why I chose Norway. If I was not used to the climate of Alaska and the long winters, Norway may not have been such an easy place to get used to at first.

I was met at the airport by a lady named Anne. I must have looked very confused and very American, because she ran up to me right away and said,

"you must be Katie,"

with a big smile on her face. I was grateful to have someone meet me at the airport! As we loaded my two massive suitcases, guitar, snowshoes, laptop, and stuffed-to-the-brim napsack into her tiny little Toyota, I think it hit me:

" you're here for 7 months!"

Instead of getting sad though, I got excited! This was really going to be an adventure!

Anne drove me from the aiport in Oslo, the capital of Norway, to Hønefoss; about an hour drive. What a beautiful drive it was too! The entire drive was through the mountains, and all you could see for miles around was mountains, trees and snow. Snow was everywhere! The roads then, and even now, were covered in snow. (I have yet to walk on solid ground to this day.) It had begun to snow when we walked outside of the airport and it continued to snow throughout the evening. It seemed as if the day was over already, with the sun setting at 3:30 p.m. Luckily, I had expected that. Anne brought me to my house on a street called,"Tandbergmoveien," helped me bring my things in, kindly let me make a call on her cell phone to mom, and then she was off. There I was : Hønefoss, Norway.

Thankfully I had been in contact with another student over here before I left home, and we had planned to get together that evening. So, my friend Henriette picked me up at 7 and drove to her house where we celebrated New Year's Eve! She, her boyfriend and a few friends and I ate a traditional Norwegian meal, consisting of moose, mushrooms, onions and potatoes. It was delicious! We had a great time that evening!

(I probably should mention the fact that I barely knew any Norwegian,"Norske," before I arrived. I had gone to Barnes & Noble to pick up a language learning cd a little while before I left the states, but I apparently did not pick the best selection. I was told applying to this school that language would not be an issue, but I wanted to make sure I knew the basics. Luckily for me though, Norwegians take English,"Engelsk," in school from an early age, and so there are many people fluent in English here. I have had, thankfully, only a few awkward moments with language being an issue so far! I am trying to learn Norwegian as quickly as I can though, pracitcing with my roomates everyday. )

The evening continued with many discussions about politics and world affairs. They wanted to know how I felt about President Bush and they certainly gave me their opinions! I got the feeling I was not in a "Bush-friendly" part of the world that evening. I enjoyed the discussions we had and we had them up until midnight when everyone was to meet outside. New Year's Eve is the one night out of the year, I was told, that everyone is allowed to light fireworks. We all ran outside, not forgetting to bundle up, because it was still snowing, and ran to the middle of the neighborhood. There we watched everyone light their fireworks and at midnight, bottles of champagne were cracked open and everyone yelled out,

"cheers!,"

or

"skole!,"

as they say in Norwegian.

"God Nytt Ar"

was the other phrase yelled out that evening, meaning

"Happy New Year!"

Needless to say, in one day, I had truly had a first-hand Norwegian experience and I loved it!

I had a bit of jet lag and so the next day, when I figured out the hard way that I had brought the alarm clock from home that didn't work, I was shocked to find out that the day had already come and gone. I woke up at 4:45 p.m.! I was going to use that Sunday to find my way around town, because I was to start school the very next morning, but instead, I ended up sleeping through the entire day! Luckily, I met two of my four roommates that day.

The first roommate I met was Robin. Robin is a 17 year-old Norwegian boy/guy studying at the local school to be a plumber. The other, is a 33 year-old Chinese lady, named Jiang, who is studying economics at the school I am attending. Robin, thankfully, walked with me down to the college and showed me around so I would at least know where I was going. I was ready to start school the next morning, after arriving roughly a day before, thanks to a borrowed, working, alarm clock.

I am going to end this blog here for now. I will write more within the next few days. I am excited to share with you the fun Norwegian experiences I have had since I've been here the past month and a half! New roomates, friends,school, travel, exploring, food and more! Norway is a fascinating place and I hope that I can relay to you just how incredible of a place it is! Until then...ha det bra!