Starting School

         On Sunday we had our opening banquet, and school officially started on Monday. These first ten days are supposed to be about social distancing and trying not to let anything spread, being extra cautious, but that has been difficult so far. The building and hallways are small, and there are about five doors I need to open to get from my room to the cafeteria, so if we go down, we go down together. Hopefully everything will be fine though, and we can start school like normal next week! 

        A weird side note about the doors is that they are all impossible to tell which way they open. Each looks like it should be a push, but sometimes you have to pull and its very disorienting. We keep laughing at each other for how many times we walk into doors, expecting them to open in. 

        We have assigned seats in the dining hall to avoid spreading anything, and my table has two guys, from Japan and India, and a girl from Germany named Sofia. My class has fifteen people in total, but so far only 14 are here. There is a girl from South Korea who is supposed to come within the next few weeks because she was delayed in getting her visa. Everyone that I've met has been really friendly, and my classmates all get along very well. Here's a picture of last night's dinner. 

        These first few days have been about getting to the know the school and each other, and going over what we hope the year will look like. Every morning we eat breakfast at 8am and then have an assembly from 8:40 to 9 where the vice principal goes over the daily schedule. I think once everything starts up the assembly will be run by different groups of students each morning--singing songs, telling stories, or doing activities. 

        After the assembly we go to class--NLC--and then have a warm lunch at 11:30. We have dinner at 2:45, which has been very strange getting used to, and a light meal at 7pm that consists of bread and sandwich fixings. On Monday we had a BBQ outside which was very fun! We also took a tour around the area, seeing which bus stops will take us to Kristiansand, and walked to the store where we can buy groceries and snacks. Here's a picture of some giant containers of lingonberries I found--but sadly didn't buy. 

        Yesterday some of our class had to go into the city to check in with the police and get our residence cards. My appointment was very quick and easy, but the German girls took a long time, so Bjorn and I got sushi while we waited--with delicious Norwegian salmon! It was nice out yesterday, perfect for waking around and exploring Kristiansand. Later some students had appointments with the tax office, but we were back in time for our afternoon dinner!

        Today, Marianne--my teacher--wasn't in because she had a cold (hopefully it's nothing more than that) so a few of us spent this morning preparing for the Friday presentation, where each class performs something. We still can't decide what we are going to do because it's supposed to represent us, but we are a very diverse group. This is a picture of a fountain in Kristiansand. 

        I've spent the last few evenings in the NLC living room area--which is full of comfy couches--watching movies and hanging out with my friends. Yesterday we went down to make hot chocolate, but ended up staying to watch tv. Then more of our classmates showed up, so we all watched Star Wars together! The movie ended around midnight, which we had planned for since today is Marielle's birthday (from France). Overall it's been a chaotic and fun first few days! (I was just interrupted by our fifth fire alarm, so really, what's new?)