Evelyn's Year in Norway

           Lately, the sun has been shining and the weather has been fantastic, so quite a few of the Friluftsliv  students have been going fishing. Tomimaru from NLC also loves to fish, and goes quite often with his friends. You can always tell when they catch something because they cook it up right away and the hallway smells like freshly fried fish.           Today, Tomimaru and his group left early, but my friend Ida from Friluft stayed behind and had planned to go fishing herself later in the day. I asked if I could join her, and she said yes! We got ready and walked around the lake at 12:30. There was only one fishing rod so we decided to take turns, but since I don't actually like fishing, Ida did most of the work.  (I was there for chit-chat and moral support).          Unfortunately, we  didn't catch any fish, but that didn't stop us from having a really ...

           Yesterday our principal took the NLC class on a day trip to Lista Fyr, a lighthouse about an hour and a half away. Friluftsliv has gone to Lista a few times, and I have been wanting to go for a while. Last week after Friluft came back from a trip I asked Marianne if we could go, and what do you know? NLC to Lista on this week's schedule!           We took one of the minibuses, and instead of going right to the lighthouse, we stopped in a nearby town where our principal's family was from. We walked around a little, and I saw the first flowers of spring. The area was quaint and very scenic, and Reidar took us to a small church that his family used to go to. It was a gorgeous day out and I'd borrowed Emilie's nice camera, so my friends and I had fun walking around and taking pictures.           We ate our lunches when we ...

           One of the electives at school, Framtid og Handling--dedicated to the future and the environment--held a spring cleaning day Sunday. The weather has been warm and sunny recently, and we've all been anxious to get outside. Sunday was 50 degrees, so helping clean the area around the school sounded like a fantastic excuse to be outdoors.           There were about 15-20 of us that joined, and we split into groups across the property. My group was in charge of raking up leaves and sticks, as well as picking up trash along the front of the school. Despite feeling we'd been slightly tricked into doing  yard-work, my friends and I had a lot of fun! We used Sofia's speaker, and danced around while we worked. While we were very productive, getting everything done we'd been assigned, we also goofed off plenty.            After we were done, and all of the bags, g...

         A few weeks ago, the school introduced a new valgfag ( elective) called Gå På Tur. The class meets every Wednesday and goes for walks around the area. I haven't officially joined the class, but I've gone with them on two of their three trips. This past Wednesday we took a nice walk up to a lookout point. The weather has been gorgeous recently (for Norwegian standards), and the snow has almost completely melted.           I walked mostly with Alina and Hanne (hann-eh) and we had a great time! The most interesting thing was the way that everything looked just like home. I've often said that this part of Norway resembles Rockport, but walking through those woods, if I wasn't paying attention I might have thought I was walking to the quarry.           The hike there took around 45 minutes, and then we hung out at the top for a little while, taking in the view...

           Trying something new, my English translation is below. I am learning and thought this could be good practice :)           Hver år trenger NLC elever å gjøre ei Språkpraksisuke i nærheten. Det betyr at vi må jobbe på en butikk eller andre sted i ei uke og snakke norsk med kolleger og kunder. I går kjørte Marianne meg til Tangvall fordi jeg skal jobbe på Tangvall Biblioteket neste måned. Jeg hilste på damen som jeg skal jobbe med, og hun viste oss biblioteket. Hun snakket norsk, og jeg forsto mye, men ikke alle. Det var litt pinlig, men jeg gleder meg til å jobbe hos biblioteket. Det skal være god praksis.           Etter vi besøkte biblioteket, kjørte vi gjennom Søgne til den gamle kirken. Klassen min hadde gikk fra skolen, og de ventet der for oss. To snille folk var der, og de viste oss rundt kirken. Kirken var så pen, og hadde mye fine bilder på veggene og taket. Den så litt kjede...

           Today our class took a trip to Kristiansand to go to the theater. We were seeing a short show for children that featured three actors telling a variety of fairytales. The language wasn't that difficult, so I was able to understand most of it if I paid  attention.           What was really distracting was that one of the actors looked extremely familiar. In class we have a textbook, and the online version of the textbook features video sections where a man teaches us how to pronounce words and phrases. When the actor walked out on stage, I  immediately thought that he looked just like the På Vei guy.           After the show we were discussing our reactions, and Valeria mentioned that he looked familiar to her as well.  Suddenly the whole class was talking about how similar they looked, and how it couldn't possibly be him. Marianne was a l...

           Every couple of Thursdays we have International Food, where one of the NLC students prepares food from their country for the school. A few weeks ago it was Tomimaru's week--Japan--so he made sushi! I'm not in the International Food class, but sometimes when they have a lot to do, they ask for volunteers. I love sushi, and it's been a bucket list thing of mine to make it, so of course I offered to help.          I arrived a little late because I'd been at ballspill, but when I got there, there was still lots of work to be done. I sat down and was immediately given a bamboo mat to roll the maki, and instructions on what to fill them with. We had seaweed, avocado, carrots, cucumber, and rice for the vegetarian rolls, and we added salmon for the rest. It was kind of difficult rolling them, but I had a lot of fun, and they turned out really well!           W...

           I'm a really big football fan, so this year has been strange without sitting down each week to cheer on the Pats, Packers, (and Tom  Brady). Despite not watching any of the regular season, I was determined to watch the Super Bowl. It's more than a football game. It's an ~experience~ and I wanted to share it with my friends here. Due to the time difference, the game wasn't set to start until half past midnight. We put an announcement in the Facebook group, but I wasn't expecting many people to show up.           After dinner it was snowing, but Bjorn, Heiden and I decided to bundle up and walk to Kiwi to get some Super Bowl snacks. Most of the usual foods, snacks, and dips we're all used to are impossible to find in Norway, or nearly impossible to get the ingredients to. We wandered around Kiwi for about an hour, thinking and planning. We ended up with chicken wings, hot sauce and bb...

           Life at a folk high school is pretty amazing, but that doesn't mean we never need a break. In total, the school has about 90 students, and it can feel a little claustrophobic sometimes. Coming from Rockport--a small school--I've always wanted to get out and go somewhere huge. (See: Purdue University--my plan for next year--with an undergrad enrollment of 35,000).          The past few weeks have been a bit up and down, and I was feeling anxious to get out. I was talking with Bjorn and Sofia one night, and they were feeling the same way, so we decided to skip class last Tuesday to head into the city. We wanted to be back in time for volleyball (aren't we such terrible students?) so we only had about an hour and a half in Kristiansand, but it was perfect. Somehow--as small as our indiscretion was--the feeling of actively changing up the schedule and doing something spon...