Quarantine Part 1

-

    It's Saturday night, and I've been at Agder for 3 full days! My first day was more exploratory than anything. There's a lovely lake about a 3 minute walk from the school, with a great path around it. I walked the path, and explored some of the surrounding area, including the way to the ocean, only about a 15 minute walk from Agder. At 2pm that day, I logged on for a Zoom workout with my mom, and Community Fitness of Cape Ann. It was great seeing everybody, and while it was 8:00 in the morning for them, I was wide awake and ready for burpees!

    On Friday I met the other student quarantining here, a boy named Bjorn from the state of Washington. He was very nice, and we decided to go swimming in the lake. The weather was in the high seventies, and we both wanted to make the most of Norway's limited warm and sunny days. We walked to a little beach area, where there was a family swimming off of a dock. The water was tropical compared to the ocean! In the middle of the lake are a few small islands, and we could see a picnic bench on one of them so we decided to swim there. 

    It turned out to be farther away than it had seemed, but after a quarter mile swim we finally made it to the island! It was great getting outside, and it made for a nice bonding experience, because we are the only two people here most of the time. We cut across and swam the short way back, then walked to our shoes. That night we pooled our food and made delicious taco bowls! 

    Today I slept in, and then read some Les Miserables (I joined an online book group that's going at a very slow pace, yet somehow I'm still 150 pages behind). Then Bjorn and I took a walk around the lake, searching for a fire pit that we both remembered seeing on our own. Somehow we walked passed it twice, and made a few giant loops, adventuring through the paths until we found the area we were looking for. Side note: you wouldn't believe how many houses have trampolines! Our final destination had a few tables and a spot for a fire, and a nice dock over the ocean. After lunch we threw a frisbee around for about 2 hours (we're not bored, I swear!) and then I made myself a BLT for dinner. 

    The sun rose around 5:50am and set at about 9:15 tonight. The days will be getting shorter soon, but for now it's nice having long days. This weekend some of the alumni are moving in, and they will be helping with the school and classes. Hopefully we will get to meet them, and they will be nice! It will be good to have some more company, even wearing masks. (Nobody here besides Bjorn and I wear masks, and we won't have to once our quarantine is over). 

    Somehow I did so much doing that I forgot to take pictures! But I will remedy that and possibly put up another photo post tomorrow :)

    

Comments

  1. Sonja MerzAugust 15, 2020 at 5:35 PM

    Love hearing about your days!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoyceAugust 16, 2020 at 5:04 AM

    Nice hearing your quarantine adventures!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill KrausAugust 26, 2020 at 2:23 PM

    I'm Bjorn's dad - love reading about your experience while in quarantine.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trip to Town

-
Image
           I don't have any classes on Friday afternoons, so yesterday Ananda and I decided to walk to Tangvall. It's a little town with a shopping  area--the closest place for us to go between the tiny grocery store down the road, and all the way to Kristiansand. The walk is almost 5 kilometers, it and took us a little under an hour to get there. We could have taken the bus, but for dinner we ate giant baked potatoes with all sorts of toppings, so the walk seemed necessary.           The weather these past few days has been very dreary, raining through the day and night. Yesterday it only rained at intervals, so we suited up in our rain gear before we left. There were so many other people out walking, running and biking in their rain pants and jackets that we fit right in!          We had to go to Tangvall because Ananda had ordered a package that needed to be picked up at the large supermarket there. She's been very excited about her order--new shoes--and told us that thi
Read more

Bookbinding Seminar

-
Image
           I wasn't going to post about this because it's probably going to spoil a few people's Christmas gifts, but I had so much fun that I wanted to share it! Our most recent Saturday seminar was Bookbinding, taught by M+M (Marianne from art, and Marianne from NLC). I was so into it that I didn't take any pictures, but I have some pics of my finished results that I will share.           The teachers set up a bunch of tables for us to work at, and a huge table filled with different types of patterned craft paper, magazines, old books, and postcards that could be used for our covers. We used a bone tool to fold blank pages, then ripped them in half and folded them again. Once we stacked 10 pages, we could find a cover that we liked, measure and cut it, and begin sewing the books together. At the end, we used a large slicer to even out the edges. The result was adorable notebook style books.           When I finished the notebook I was supposed to make, I saw the postc
Read more

Back at School

-
Image
           We're back at school now--our vacation is officially over--but it hasn't exactly felt like  normal. For the first ten days that we are back, all of the classes must distance from one another. That means no sitting together at meals, watching movies in the classrooms, or hanging out in each others dorms. We also have no electives for this period, so we suddenly have lots of time on our hands.           So far, I've spent most of my time in the peisestue doing work and reading. It's a nice place to be because so many people come through, so even though we can't hang out or play games, we can sit apart and chat briefly. I've missed my friends here, and it's very strange not being able to be close to them.            The cafeteria might be the weirdest part. They have extended the room into the aula--by a removable wall--and placed tables a meter apart from one another, in groups separated into classes. We also eat at timed slots now, so my class goes
Read more