Evelyn's Year in Norway

           Apparently it's a tradition here at Aurebekk to jump in the waterfall in the freezing cold on Christmas! Alina and I were warned before we came that this would happen, and we both dreaded and looked forward to it. On Christmas Day, we spent the morning taking a walk around the area with Anne Tone's family. Here you can see the frost on the ground!           Around 4, we were all down at the mill, ready to jump in. I say ready, but I mean standing in our jackets, teeth chattering, wondering what life decisions we had made that led us here. It went like a parade, with Audun and Odd Magnar leading the way. We all went in wearing our bathing suits and wool socks--how Norwegian. The water was freezing, and not even waist deep, so we went in, ducked down to the shoulders, and immediately jumped out!           Almost everybody went in,...

        After settling into our Norwegian home for the holidays--hanging out with the kids, and bonding over pizza, popcorn, and movies--Alina and I were very excited to spend Christmas with Anne Tone and her family. In Norway, Christmas is mostly celebrated on December 24th, with a nice Christmas dinner and presents in the evening.           The morning of the 24th, Helge (Anne Tone's husband) drove Alina and I to town to pick up some packages. Both of our families have sent gifts for the wonderful people who took us in for the holidays, but the post has been extremely overwhelmed, and nothing is arriving on time. Alina was notified that her package was being held in town, and I saw that mine had arrived at the depot, so we thought it would be a nice Christmas miracle if we could grab them in the morning. We ended up on a wild goose chase, as each place we went sent us somewhere else. In...

           I'm a bit behind here, but I haven't had so much time to write in the last few days, so here's a little about what we did before we came to Aurebekk. Sofia, Alina and I got back to the school from Eskil's house the evening of the 19th. On the 23rd, Sofia was leaving to spend Christmas with her reading buddy, Maria, near Oslo. Alina and I had a few things left to finish up before we headed to Aurebekk, so we decided to stay with her until the 23rd. (Alina couldn't go back to Germany because of covid, and was going to spend xmas at the school, but my family here said she could stay with us!)           The weather was pretty nice, so on Sunday Alina and I walked to Tangvall to do some grocery shopping (about an hour walk). We coordinated with Sofia and decided to make burritos one night, quesadillas the next, and the third be on our own (ramen, frozen pizza or something). The meal...

           After returning from Harstad I came back to the school to spend the night. Sofia made us delicious quesadillas, full of corn and mushrooms and peppers, and by 7:15 the next morning, we were on the bus heading to Kristiansand. We took a train to Stavanger to visit our friend Eskil, and meet up with Alina, who had been in Stavanger with Ananda and some other friends from school. When we arrived--after a three hour  train ride--Eskil and Alina met us at the station, and we went to the store to stock up for the next few days.           When we arrived at Eskil's house, we had a pretty chill afternoon. His parents are with family in the Netherlands, but due to covid he couldn't visit them for Christmas. Instead, he'll be staying with his girlfriend and her family, but wanted to get home for a few days during our long break.            We--a bunch o...

           When we woke up Monday morning, we had our covid test results back--both negative--so that was a relief. Kristine's parents had to work, so we decided to go down to the city and check out the downtown and the malls. Like Rockport, there's a giant tree in the middle of town (but I'm pretty sure Santa doesn't come by boat to light it). There are also a few tree decorations made of lights around town, and those were very pretty! I tried to get a picture of the decorations on the streets, but I don't think my phone camera was liking the cold.          There are two malls that we went to, and I tagged along while Kristine finished up some Christmas shopping. Despite the test when we arrived, everything felt extremely normal, very different from back home I think. While we were in the second mall, it began to snow! I was excited, but Kristine had to drive so she wasn't thrilled.  ...

           For the first few days of Juleferie (Xmas break), I traveled with my reading buddy Kristine to her home in Harstad, in Northern Norway. We took a plane to Trondheim, and another to Harstad, all together about 2.5 hours of flying. The first flight had almost ten students from Agder FHS on it, so we all went to the airport together. The second flight was just us and our friend Gunhild from Global, who lives even farther north. Arriving at the airport was probably the hardest part of the trip, because immediately Gunhild rushed to her boyfriend, and Kristine was welcomed home by her parents with lots of hugs. A stark reminder that I was just vacationing, while they were actually going home for Christmas.           It was night when we arrived, so it was very dark. Harstad is above the Arctic Circle, and the sun doesn't rise in the winter. When we were driving h...