Evelyn's Year in Norway

           Each year, the Global class holds a school wide fundraiser for the charity they support in Mali. Usually, they would have traveled there, but of course this year that was impossible. This charity--that recycles littered plastics to create school desks--is very important to their class, so they went all out raising money by holding a Sponsorløp, or charity run. Everyone at school made an account that others could send donations to --either as a one time payment, or a pledge to give a certain amount for every loop the student made around the 1 km trail. Big shoutout to Valeria's dad for sponsoring both of us! :)          Before the event started, we all gathered down at the lake. Nearly everyone from school was participating, teachers included, and we kicked it off with a warm up dance to YMCA.  Part of the fun of the day was that people were encouraged to wear crazy costumes, and their fr...

           Before Christmas, the Mariannes--our Marianne and the art teacher Marianne--arranged a Night in Nature seminar where a bunch of students spent the night sleeping outside in hammocks and gapahuks at Helleviga. I didn't attend, but because it was such a hit, they arranged another one for the spring. Unfortunately, due to weather and other circumstances, it kept getting delayed. Instead of returning to Helleviga, it was decided that the second Natt i Naturen would be held on the school lawn.           Around that time, students who wished to return to AFHS in the fall had just submitted their Stipendiat  applications. As a result, they were all trying to kiss up to the staff, so Marianne made sure to utilize the help. (The teachers got to vote on the future stipps and Marianne is very influential).  Some of my friends who had applied spent the day before carrying supplies down to ...

           One of our last trips together was to Stavanger with the Art Class. We left on a Thursday morning, with plans to return Saturday. It was a bit of a stressful time because a number of the NLC (and a few international Art students) were taking the Norwegian speaking exam on Friday. There are two tests, spoken and written. Due to covid, the first exam was taken over zoom instead of in person in Stavanger, but we'd already planned our trip so we decided to go anyway!          It was about a three hour drive, and we stopped partway for a bathroom break at a rest stop. While we were there another bus pulled up, and out streamed a mass of children. You'd think we'd entered a zombie apocalypse with how quickly we got back into our bus. Coming from around the world and facing the travel and quarantine, the NLC students had always been a bit more aware of the pandemic than the Norwegians.       ...

           Each morning we have an assembly after breakfast with the whole school where we get announcements about the upcoming week and any activities in store. One class is in charge of hosting each week, and must provide some sort of quick morning entertainment. It can be a skit, a kahoot quiz, a dance battle--anything you can think of. Then we end the assembly with a song from the songbook and head to class.           It was NLC morning assembly recently, and Sofia and I were partnered to come up with something. The night before our day, we still had no ideas. After talking with Bjorn, we decided to use our morning assembly as a silly prank on Tommaso. He's sort of our class clown, the typical Italian, and our good friend. But he's also known for sleeping in and walking into morning assembly half asleep.           His family ...

           Last week the Friluftsliv (outdoor life) class hosted a seminar called Mat på Bål, or Food on the Fire. They tested it out a few weeks before, and luckily decided to share the fun with the school. We have quite a few grills and fireplaces on the lawn, so we got a bunch of fires going and set up a long table full of food. The goal of the day was to make pizza on the fire, but there were other options as well.           There were only a handful of pans to cook the pizzas in, so we each had to take turns. Kristine and I were in line for a pan, but decided to see what else there was to do in the meantime. The class had carved out a bunch of fruits that we were meant to stuff and wrap in tinfoil to put on the fire. There were apples with a cinnamon filling, and oranges with brownie mix. Obviously we chose to make brownie filled oranges, so we...

           I'm not in the International Food class, but I somehow always end up there. It's not hard to see why, when we make such delicious meals! Last Thursday Valeria made food from Mexico, so of course I had to be there. When I arrived, she was explaining the food; in typical Valeria style she had gone above and beyond, and had a multitude of things planned.           My first task was cutting onions. Fun, right? Wrong. Since we were cooking for 80 people, Bjorn and I needed to slice up 35 onions. I was completely in tears by the end, but my next task was slicing watermelon and that was much more fun--and much more delicious to snack on as well!          We made guac, watermelon juice, chicken tacos, and cheesy potato burrito things. For dessert we even made  churros! I helped stuff the burritos, and Eric fried them. I don't know what I'd e...

           Every Thursday all of the classes gather in the Aula for a seminar, but a few weeks ago it was Earth Day and the weather was nice, so we took a trip to the beach instead. It's about a 20 minute walk from  the school to the beach, and when we got there we all settled in to enjoy the sun. There's a playground right there, so of course we acted like the 19/20 year olds that we are:             After a little while, one of the teachers arrived with a volleyball net which we set up together. There are two volleyball classes at school, so most of us have been playing all year. We got a group of 12 or so and started playing, but were interrupted before we could finish the game by the arrival of another teacher with a car full of pastries! There's a local dessert called Høllenboller  that is a cream filled pastry, and it's absolutely delicious!         ...

         I completely forgot to mention, but my last post was my 100th post!!!!! I never would have expected to blog as much as I did, or that so many people would consistently follow! Thank you! Now back to business. Here's one of the videos that didn't load on my last post, that basically highlights the entirety of Day 2:            On the morning of the third day, I knew that I had to get out of bed, but I was way too cold! The fire had gone out and the cabin was absolutely freezing. Ananda wasn't there when I woke up, so I assumed she'd gone to the bathroom--a public restroom across the bridge, and the only place with heat and wifi. Turned out that she and Heiden had both woken up early and just hung out in the bathroom for two hours, charging their phones and warming up.          Tomimaru and I still had hotdogs left that we were going to eat for br...