Evelyn's Year in Norway

         Thanksgiving was a truly wonderful day! Everybody chipped in, and we had a hugely successful dinner--nearly on time!           The day started with the NLC class giving a presentation on their home countries/states/towns. I talked about Massachusetts history--Pilgrims, Revolution, Salem--some big events like the Super Bowl, and eventually got more personal until I was talking about Rockport and Gloucester, and some of our favorite traditions--Santa coming by boat, the Greasy Pole, etc. I wore my Patriots jersey, and talked about how it was Thanksgiving. I told the school what the holiday is about, and what we traditionally eat. The presentations were only supposed to be 10 minutes long, but in the rehearsals, all of us had 20-30 minutes, so we had to go super speedy though most of it. It was still fun, and a lot of people commented after about how nice it was.           After lunch, some of my friends walked to Kiwi, but I stayed at the school to make a game plan for the day.

           Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday--there's something so special about spending time with family, cooking, and then sitting down together to enjoy a meal you've all worked hard on. So it was very difficult this year knowing that I would not be home for Thanksgiving. I had planned to go to Aurebekk for a Thanksgiving dinner with my Norwegian family, but due to the Covid situation, that was not possible.           My amazing teacher, Marianne, knowing how much this meant to me, decided that we would host our very own Thanksgiving for NLC. We were supposed to be in Oslo this week with the art class, but instead we are all going to have a Thanksgiving feast. I was put in charge, and had to come up with a list of all of the foods and ingredients so that the school could order them.           We have classes in the morning and don't have all of Thursday to cook, so Wednesday we decided to get a head start and make the pies, the cranberry sauce, and begin the stuffing.

           Saturday morning Ananda and I geared up for the pouring rain--in rain pants borrowed from Linn, and our hiking shoes on--and began the hour long walk to Tangvall. We didn't tell anyone where we were going, because Ananda wanted to buy a birthday present for Alina, so we sneakily slipped out before breakfast.  It was pouring rain, but of course the Norwegians  were unfazed, so we weren't the only ones out and about. When we got to Tangvall we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at a bakery and bought a gigantic thing of bread called a milk cake. I don't know how we finished the whole thing!           After eating we wandered around a little bit, got Alina's gift, and checked out a few of the other stores. There was a second hand shop that we wanted to look through, and it was full of cute and fun clothing. The man that owned it was extremely nice, and talked with us about his passion for clothes, and helped Ananda find some great stuff. She tried on a vintage ve

           I recently switched rooms, moving in to a different hallway, which means that I am now in a new dorm section. Each dorm section must host a Bogruppekveld for the whole school--evening activities and snacks. The hallway that I switched into hosted theirs a few weeks ago, and the one that I left hosted theirs on Thursday. (Perfect time to move!)          Even though I wasn't involved in the planning, I helped out on  the day with setting up the peisestue for the activities. The first game was Limbo. Everybody lined up, and music played as we stretched backwards and walked under a pole (aka a shower squeegee). We went around 7 times or so, until suddenly Frederik and I were the only people left. We both failed on the last one, and when we tried again, Frederik made it. It was a fun game, but I didn't think about how sore my back would be the next day!          The second activity was Duck Duck Goose. Everybody made a huge circle in the Aula (the gym was being used by a

           Yesterday as I was heading to Ball Games, I ran into a bunch of the Friluft class hanging out in the hallway. That seemed sort of strange, but they were all crowded outside of the gear room--where we have all of the NLC and Friluftsliv supplies. I went over to see what the commotion was about, and was met  with the sight of a deer hanging from the ceiling.  (I need a picture because the first picture is always highlighted and I think some people might not want to see a dead deer. I was going to pick a picture of Bambi but then I felt bad, so here's Thumper).          The class has been working on getting their hunting licenses, and are prepping to take the test on Monday. They went out on  Wednesday with some professional hunters, who took them in groups to stalk deer--only the hunters had guns. I guess the students were loud or something, because it was the hunter without a group that actually shot the one deer--a six point buck. These deer are smaller than the ones I k

           Saturday was busy with the Friluftsliv Agderlørdag, but in the morning there wasn't much to do. Some of my friends went into the city, but I didn't feel like it since we've been advised not to go unless necessary, due to the threat of bringing  covid back to the school. I was instead woken up by the sunshine--the sunshine??? Yes, the sunshine. It was a perfectly sunny morning, just inviting us outside. So, taking the hint, Sofia and I spent the morning canoeing. We got the paddles and life jackets from the school, went down to the lake and put the canoe in.  As you can tell, we were having a great time: (There's no Thanksgiving here, so Norwegians just skip right to Xmas after Halloween)          We wore our layers--can't forget our wool--but it ended up being great weather. The lake is beautiful, and our surroundings were almost perfectly reflected in the water. We paddled around the lake, snapping pictures and chatting, and when we got back it was just

           Friday morning--Friday the 13th to be exact--I woke up a little before 8, got out of bed and went to the bathroom. Nothing unusual about that, but when I opened the bathroom door, my little dorm group hallway was filled with people!          We are having an extended Christmas vacation in December due to Covid--we had no fall break--and because of that we are not going to be in school on December 13th for Lucia Day. Instead, the staff all dressed up on Friday, and walked around the dorms singing and handing out cinnamon rolls. It was lovely!       I've never really celebrated Lucia Day before, so that was a wonderful surprise to wake up to. And a delicious one too! You could hear the singing all throughout the dorms. Here's a video of the song--I was just standing in the stairwell. 

           As you all know, I've been absolutely living it up in my double room all to myself. It's been great! I pushed the two beds together, completely filled both closets, and really made it feel like home. However, what's life without change?            I went out the other night with some friends, and two girls were talking about their rooming situations. Essentially, one of  them had a single room, and the other had been crashing on the floor because she couldn't stand her roommate/dorm-mates downstairs. They had decided they wanted to be roommates, but there were no more double rooms available.           I think I need to explain the dorms, but it's kind of confusing, so bear with me.  The dorms are divided into 6 sections, two on each floor--basically there's a really long hallway with doors in the middle dividing the sections. (Each 'hallway group' is in charge of cleaning their own dorm kitchen, living room, hallway and stairs each week. The g

           I mentioned last week in a post that I'd been incredibly busy due to having kitchen duty. For those of you who don't know what that means, let me explain. Each week, from Monday to Sunday, six students are in charge of setting up and clearing away the meals. That includes wiping the tables, doing the dishes, mopping the floor, putting away the food, and tidying up the peisestue.  It may not sound like much with a team of six, but there are 100 students at this school, and we eat four meals a day!           The job begins after breakfast, and the team is split into three groups. One has dishes, one has the dining hall, and the last has  the peisestue. The peisetsue is a very easy task, so when you're done, you're supposed to come in and help with the tables and mopping. The longest task is the dishes. The school has an industrial dish washer where each load takes about 4 minutes, but there are so many dishes that depending on the meal, it can take over an hour

           Friday, the entire school took a field trip to a ropes course and zip lining park. We left early, right after morning assembly. The school has two minibuses, but they only fit thirty or so people all together, so they also hired a huge tourbus type thing. It was wayyyy more comfortable than the mini bus!          We split into three groups to get ready and watch the safety video. I've been zip lining before--but never done a ropes course--and it's always been structured, where you go along a certain path in a group with an instructor. Here was very different. Once we completed the training bit--where we learned to put the zip line rig on, and attach ourselves to the course--we were free to wander and do as we liked.           You start by hooking yourself in at the beginning, and then until you finish a course, you can't get out of it.  There were different levels of difficulty, so right away Ananda and I broke off from our group to follow Heiden and the Reiseliv

           Hey! I haven't posted in a bit because I've been working on a vlog (video blog) of Halloween that is taking way longer than I anticipated. I've also been completely swamped with Kitchen Duty--which I can explain more thoroughly in a separate post--and I'm running on five or so hours of sleep due to post election stress, so I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a blog.           Things are pretty normal here. We've started a new version of Mafia, where now you don't kill your person by getting them alone and saying 'you are dead,' but instead have to get them in a certain room and give them a certain object. It doesn't matter if anyone else is around to hear you, but some of the things are extremely difficult (ex: ping pong ball in the kitchen, silverware outside, bread and cheese in the classroom). Mine is hard because it's a deck of cards in a classroom--with a person that I hardly ever talk to, and would never be in a