Peek-a-BOO!!

Sooo sorry about not writing a post last week. Nothing too darn exciting happened. I mean, stuff did happened, but I was feeling down most of the week, so I was never too darn excited. But I am better now! ^_^

SO this week we stared the Christmas Musical. The title of the show translated into english is actually "Now We Have Washed The Floor". It is a line from like the most famous norwegian christmas song. But to an american it kinda makes no sense. Pretty funny...well at least I think so.

The Christmas Musical is mainly for children. Which is why the kids loove it. They sing along to the songs and clap and we can just see them jumping and dancing around in their chairs. It's so CUTE to see them. We have had many kindergartens come to see the show. ^_^ I LOVE KIDS! But that's part of whats sad about the musical. We have some kids in the cast and after/between shows I soooo wish I could go talk to them and visit with them, but I am not far enough in my Norwegian skills to do that (kids are really hard to understand). So I watch other people like Erlend play with them and I feel left out. I guess I just have live vicariously though them. yup.



Now lets see...what else happened. UmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmYESTERDAY i made american breakfast for my class. My mother had sent me bisquick pancake mix in the mail as well as some maple syrup, so i decided to make a yummy breakfast for everyone. We had american pancakes, fried eggs, "maple" bacon (we put syrup on the bacon while we fried it), dunn bros coffee, and tropicana orange juice. Oh the way i say American Pancakes is because they eat a different kind of pancake here in Norway. And they eat it for dinner. Not breakfast. And not with maple syrup. I really enjoyed eating American breakfast. I dunno about my class mates, but they told me they liked it. (but who really knows.)

So like i said, last week i was pretty depressed all week. The reason for that is, as some of you might know i really deal with like...confidence issues as far as my friendships go. I know i can be a loud and annoying person at times, so as a result I am kinda in constant fear that i am just annoying the crap out of everyone around me and that the friends i have are just pitty friends that feel bad for me so they hang out. If you think about it, if a person ever asked you if you thought they were annoying or ask if you really were friends, most people would say no you are not annoying and yes we are friends. EVEN if it is not actually true. I myself have been guilty of this. I feel bad to say that i have been friends with people just cuz i feel bad for them. But then that is a whole other debate i feel. Whats worse, being friends with someone just cuz you feel bad for them, or just letting them be all alone? But anyways, I am always paranoid that my friends aren't really my friends, that they are just people that can tolerate me for that moment of time. HOWEVER i do not actually believe that this is true...well i do...but i don't...but i do...but i don't. But the past...well this is the 4th day...i have been trying to be more confident in myself, my personality, and my friendships. I have a habit of assuming peoples thoughts (and they are always negative). So i decided to stop doing that cuz it just gets me down and it's a stupid thing to do. So though out the day i have just been reminded myself over and over and over "be confident be confident be confident". Someone (probably through the grace of God) it has been working. These past few days have been really great. I just hope i can keep it up. But ya know, God created me who i am the way i am, and he loves me and he has sent me here to love others. I need to not be afraid or hide who i am. yeah. so i am pretty sure that whole paragraph was worded very poorly but you get the idea.

On another note, the snow here has been beautiful. I heard that the snow in MN has been pretty crazy (poor metrodome). Here it is not as crazy, but it has been clinging to everyone. I have never seen snow cling to trees and plants quite like this before. It's SO PRETTY!



Welll Amalie's Jul (did i tell you about that norwegian christmas tradition? It's a norwegian TV show that shows one episode every day of advent, and we have been watching it here. It is totally poor quality and ridiculous, but it's tradition. It's cute.) so i better be finishing this up!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Fin

This week had 2 big events. Thanksgiving and a fake roll wedding.

Now you may be thinking, what? Thanksgiving? In norway? IMPOSSIBLE!!

But no my friends. it is not. FOR ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH. (pretty sure that is not what that verse was referring to but...whatever).

So as i was thinking to myself, "self. thanksgiving is coming up. how are you gonna make all that food? and who will you invite? more importantly...who will you NOT invite?" and that just stressed me out. So i thought maybe it would be worth a try to ask the kitchen if they would want to make it. So November came along and i told them about it and what it was and what food we normally eat. At first they seemed not up for it, but then in the week of thanksgiving they decided to do it! So i found recipes for them for all the dishes they didn't know how to make such as stuffing, pumpkin pie and green bean casserole. On Wednesday they had a few other people and me make the desserts. We made 2 "sheet cake" versions of pumpkin pie, 2 of apple pie, and some people made the jello for the fluff.
The pumpkin pie story:
SOOO norwegians don't really eat pumpkin pie. At all. Does not exist. Sooo anyways, on Wednesday we are in there ready to make pie and they give me the pumpkin they got. It was a sort of canned pumpkin. But not like what we have in america. noooooo it was pickled pumpkin. Like sweet pickles. Nasty smelling chopped up cubes of pickled pumpkin. Gross. And it was not even enough for the recipe. So we soaked it in water and added sugar and tried to make it taste as good as we could. It turned out okay. It tasted fine and you really could only taste the pickled undertones if you knew to look for them. But it didn't taste like normal pumpkin pie. So i will FOR SURE need to get some when i come home for Christmas.



So anyways. Thanksgiving came and i was in the kitchen helping, just to make sure that everything looked and tasted okay (since they have never seen or tasted many of the dishes). We had the works.
Turkey
Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Carrots
Corn
Rolls
Gravy
"Cranberry" Sauce (we didn't use cranberries. we used another berry that they have here that is similar in taste)
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Fluff



YUMMY!! Most of the people seemed to like it. Some people said it was the best meal so far. I was like HECK YEAH! It was lots and lots of fun. The kitchen was SO WONDERFUL for putting it all together for us. ^_^ YAY!


SOOO the other big event this week was the fake roll wedding. About a month ago we all got an invite to a wedding. On the invite everyone was given a roll to play. For example: one of my friends was a secret agent, and the whole time she was question people suspiciously throughout the night. Other people had bigger rolls and things to do at the wedding. For example: my friend Hans Kristian was the father of the bride. So he had to, ya know, walk her down the isle and give a speech and whatnot. Others had groups to work in. For example: I was apart of a break dancing crew. We were all adopted by missionaries from different countries all around Africa. And we had to perform a dance during the reception. And our mom was there (but we didn't know this until the actual wedding) and she was a super strict Christian who thought that dancing was EVIL. So yeah.
So like lllllaaaasssst week i think.....maybe???...we started this "bachlorette" show thingy bingy bingy bingy. One of the girls in the school was the Bachlorette and there was 5 guys that were all in the competition to try to be with her. There was a ghetto guy, a really competitive weight lifter guy, a male model full of himself guy, a obsessed with reality TV really cheesy guy, and a really rich chauvinistic guy. Each "episode" they had to do something else and one guy was kicked off. On the day of the wedding, there were 2 guys left (the rich guy and the reality TV guy) and she picked the rich guy and the other one ran out of the "church". Then they got married. Like wedding vows, ring, kiss the bride. Everything.

Then after we went and had a dinner. The "environmental workers" served us a fancy meal and there were toasts by the family members and the maid of honor and the best man. Everyone had really funny characters. The best man proposed to the bride during his speech.


Then we had the reception. Many different people performed. There was a gospel choir (of three people), a poem or two, our break dance, a 2 fortune tellers telling them 2 different futures for their wedding, a preggers lady gave birth and superman came to save her, my "mom" kept freaking out over the dancing then showed pictures from Africa, and other fun things like that. Everyone was really into their rolls. Lots of crazy outfits to fit their rolls and people stayed in character pretty much the whole time. kinda. sorta. yeah. It was super fun and pretty crazy.



However an interesting issue came up for me in the midst of this. Like i said, my roll was with a bunch of people who were all from Africa. And they all through it would be a good idea to put on make up to look like a black person. So basically they all wanted to do black face. and i was like NOOOOOO that is racist. And they could not comprehend why i would think that that was racist. There has actually been many situations where there will be something that is considered racist in America, but not in Norway. I think it is because the racist things came from America originating in slavery, and Norway never had slavery. So they don't really get that the racist things are racists. So I refused to do black face, for even though it may not be considered racists for norwegians to do, it is considered racists for an American to do. So i said i was for Egypt. yeah. I was a very interesting issue that i am still very conflicted about. Even teachers could not comprehend why i would consider black face to be a racist thing. Even when i explained the history behind it. It was pretty crazy.



So that was my week. It was fun.

LOVE YOU ALL!

FIN

Again I waited a few days to write my post, so what I did last week is a bit fuzzy. oooops. Well in class we started working on our Christmas Musical. It's cute. Defiantly for kids. So we worked on that in class every day and we will be working on it/performing it until Christmas break.

This weekend was where the adventure was. We had a long weekend (from Thurday after classes were finished until Monday (meaning we had monday off and Tuesday classes started again)). Josefine (a girl from my class) invited me over. But she didn't have a place for me to stay so Erlend offered since his parents have a spare bedroom. But as it turned out I only got to see Josefine on the train there and back and for like an hour or 2 on Sunday. But it was fine. Erlend is a good friend and his family was really nice. His brother Jorund is 16 and super funny. I also met Erlend's best friend and Josefine's brother, Mag (short for Magnus). It was really fun meeting him cuz Erlend and Josefine talk about him a lot. Yeah the name of the place I was most of the time was Stokke. But i also visited Sondefjord and Tonsberg. Good time. It was nice to be in a house and not at a school. yeah.

So yeah I have noticed a few fun things about Christmas traditions that we don't have in America. Here are a few fun ones.
1. Julebrus-translated Christmas Pop. Every region has their own version of Julebrus, and everyone says that the one that is from their home is the best. It made me laugh.
2. Advent Calendars (GONE CRAZY)-not just a little window for everyday. Not just a little window with chocolate in it every day. BUT A PACKAGE EVERY DAY! okay no everyone does it. but i have not heard of anyone in the states having such an intense advent calendar, but many people returned from their homes with little gifts to open for each day of advent. SUPER CUTE! I WANNA TRY!
3. Nissen. Don't actaully know the full story of what Nissen are. They are like the norwegian version of santa, and many norwegians think it is the same. But it is so not. Nissen are like little men...that look santa...but small. It's more like a creature then a man if you will. like a gnome. Each farm...i guess...has a Nisse and they are little mischief makers. so you feed them and they are nice, and if you don't they play pranks on your through out the Christmas season. There are a lot of different stories about stories. Somehow in the mix of stories we get presents in the mix. yeah. so not Santa. at all really. =P They just look like santa.
4. As many of you already know, Norwegians celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day itself. Some people don't do anything at all on Christmas Day. They are all about the Eve. I personally like both!!


I guess that's enough for now. More later!

LOVE
FIN

So sorry for not writing a post last Sunday. I put it off, then just totally forgot. And i sure can't remember what i did last week either. probably stuff involving acting =P

SO this week was CRAZY! The acting track performed 3 times!
First it was our Fairy Tale projects. Our class got divided into two groups, one did some norwegian fairy tale Per, Paal, Espen Askeladden and my group did Hansel and Gretel, but we changed it so it was Hans and Henning. And i say Hans instead of Hanel cuz norweigans are stupid and don't call stories by their real German names! Stupid. I wrote that just for my friend Hans Kristian. ^_^
It went well and most people said they enjoyed it. I was a bit nervous about acting in Norwegian, especially since we practiced in English, then decided less then a week before that we were gonna make it all norwegian, soooooooo i had like 3 practices in norwegian. But it went okay i guess. It was fun ^_^


not a very exciting picture, but this was most of our set. yup.

Then on Wednesday we were in charge of the service (cuz we have a service every wednesday night and the different classes take turning doing it) so we did two of our clown pieces. That's right, clown. But not scary clown. No creepy make up and weird hair. Just funny clothes and noses. yup. We speak in gibberish so that when we go on missions anybody can "understand" us no matter what language they speak. It's really fun, pretty darn tiring, and the audience laughed, so that's a good thing.


Ain't we just soooo cute!

THEN the final performance was for Hostfest (more info on that in a moment). We performed The Old Shoemaker. The story of an old, poor shoemaker whom the Lord says he will visit, then he helps people and at the end of the day the Lord says he visted him through those people that he served. The whole "do unto other/whatever you did to the least of these you did to me" thing. I am pretty sure the goal of performing it at Hostfest was to make parents feel bad so that they would donate to help people during our missions trips. YAY GUILT TRIPS!

Apparently if you are poor you have dirt all over your face. yup. Well we were both playing kids so i guess it is more acceptable. I WAS A BOY! YAY! =P does that mean i have performed in drag? awesome. HEY! i didn't get any tips! that's crap. hehehehehe

SO hostfest! Directly translated it is FALL PARTY!!! yay! Basically we invited the families of all of the students, plus last years students to come visit for a weekend. On Saturday at 6:30 we had this big presentation where each class did something. The music did a song, we did our shoemaker play, dance did a dance, creative showed stop motion films, disciple got interviewed, and x-sport, sports and snowboard all did a trampoline show together. It was all pretty fun.



suuuuuper coooooool!!!

Then later that night the Dance and Music tracks had this big concert together. it was pretty cool. pretty legit. the dances were probably my favorite part. Not to bash on the music track at all, i just LOVE watching dancers. I mean, I can listen to music any day, and I see people singing all the time (especially here), and it's not every day that you get to see a good dance. ^_^ It was pretty fun. i liked it. I know that everyone worked very hard on it and it was worth their effort.

The stage we have at Toppen is pretty awesome. we set it up in the gym...hall..thing. and They set up this huge thing with lights and craziness. it's pretty darn awesome.

So this post took me hours to write. haha hope you like the pictures.

Better end this now before i start rambling for another 10 min.

LOVE YOU ALL!

FIN

So I totally neglected to write an update last Sunday. But basically, nothing too darn exciting happen. The only thing that happened was me getting my lip pierced. I have wanted to get my lip pierced for about 5 years now, but many things kept me from getting one. The two biggest ones were my fear of needles, and theatre. In order to take my piercing out for long enough to perform in a show, i would need to have many months of heal time without any theatre. And that's just gross. And my fear of needles is pretty bad. like really bad. liiike thinking about needles right now makes me shiver. yuck. BUT after much thinking, i did it! It HURT. But the pain went away, and now i have a spiffy hole in my lip! YAY!

This past week my class went to Oslo from Monday until Thursday night. That was a lot of fun. It was so nice to be in a bigger city. We did lots of fun things; saw 4 stage performances, toured 2 theaters, went to 3 acting schools, took a method acting class, went to the iben museum, and just hung around Oslo. We saw the musical Next to Normal. I was super excited to see it. Next to Normal is my favorite musical at the moment (which changes from moment to moment, unlike my favorite musical of all time). It was in nynorsk, so i couldn't understand anything, but i had the music memorized, so I heard the words in my head. It was super good. I loved it.

Over all, it was a good trip. It was so nice to be just with my class. Something about bonding together as crazy theater people. pretty great.

Then this weekend we had 2 events for the community. On Saturday we had the Red Carpet Party. Basically it's a big party that we put on for the teens in the area to celebrate Halloween. Everyone dressed up as a celebrity or something like that and we put on this big party with music, wall climbing, foods, foam pit jumping, random cars to take picture with...weird...video games and yeah. It was pretty fun. Everyone looked great.

Then on Sunday we had Hallovenn, which is a play on words, since venn in norwegian is friend. It was a Halloween party for families, mainly kids. Again we dressed up, no scary outfits, and had this hug party with sooo many things to do. I got to jump out of a window, play with remote control cars, jump on one of those big inflatable castles, climb on a bunch of recycling bins and dress up like a fairy, all before the kids were even there! ^_^ I was in charge of the big jumping castle thing with two other friends. it was really hard working with kids, since they don't know english and i still am not that good in norwegian. It was sad cuz i LOVE kids but i couldn't really have fun with them. sad day. The whole thing was quite tiring, but very fun. The kids loved it. I think they said we ha like 400 kids...or maybe guests...either way...a lot.

All around it was an eventful week. Lots of fun things. It's nice to just hang with friends and strengthen bonds. I love the people here. I hope to get to know them more and more, but again, the language thing can get in the way. Perhaps i need to be trying harder. yeah. probably. anyways....i'm done rambling now.

FIN

So this week was fall break. At first I was really nervous. I didn't want to leave the school. But, of course, it ended up being a good time. I went to Trondheim for the week, well mostly a small town outside of Trondheim called Lensvik. My family has friends there that we have known for many years. When my mom went to Hedmarktoppen one of her teachers took her to their family's farm for Christmas and Easter, and we have been in contact with them ever since. When my family went to Europe in 1098 me and my brother stayed there for about a week while my parents went on a missions trip. Then again when i was 12 i went and stayed there for 3 weeks. by myself this time. haha kinda funny looking back. So anyways, many times when i think of Norway i think of Sletta (the name of the farm) and the people there.

The week was really relaxing. I am pretty much fully healed from my cold. It was good to sleep and take it easy. Jorid (the mother of the house) was so wonderful to me. Her hospitality and warmth made me feel so much at home. She was very motherly, which is always a wonderful attribute to have. So overall it was a calming experience, which is good, but for me get's kind boring. =P So not too many eventful things happened while at Sletta. Only a few. And here they are:

1. I crochet a little stuffed mouse for Jorid and Torbjorn's (the father of the house) grandchild. my first time crocheting a stuff animal.
2. On Wednesday i took the boat to Tondheim and hung out with Torstien (the youngest of the kids, who is my age) and Monica (Lars' girlfriend. Lars is the 3 child a bit older than me). Torstien and i went to a new museum called RockHeim which was like a museum about rock history, mainly in the different decades and in norway. it was pretty fun. then we went and saw a movie. it was just fun to walk around the city some.
3. On Thursday we went to the only thrift store i have heard about in all of norway. pretty intense. =P
4. also on Thursday i played handball for the first time. I was pretty darn clueless, but i got the hang of it after a while. Pretty fun!
6. On Sunday (this is out of order) (did anybody notice that when i first posted this i forgot to write something after "this is out of order") we took a hike to this AWESOME little cabin...more like a hut...that Torbjorn and the others had built in the woods by a lake. it was BEAUTIFUL.
5. I had many conversations with Torbjorn. This is probably the most exciting thing because of one very important factor..........Torbjorn does not know english! so we had to communicate all in Norwegian if Jorid or the others weren't around. which happened quite a few times. It was pretty hard...but we did it! YAY!!! The last 2 times i went i could not say anything to Torbjorn. It felt good to have conversations!

So that was my time in Lensvik. It really was beautiful.

On Friday i took the boat to Trondheim again to spend the last two nights with Kristel and her mom. That was pretty fun. Got to see some more of Trondheim. It was super nice to be with a school person. Had a nice time with her mom and her. ^_^

So now i am back at school, and glad for it. I missed it dearly. I realize that when I go back home when this is all done, I will miss Toppen even more. I kinda set a trap for myself. When i am here i miss America, when i am in America i will miss Norway. Such is life i guess.

FIN

So i forgot to make a post on sunday again! YAY ME!! And now i cannot remember what i did last week. So how 'bout i just put up a few pictures from my adventures! Sound good? SOUNDS GOOD!!





yay!!

FIN

Every Sunday it feels so hard to remember all that I did. Perhaps I should update twice a week?? Meh. I would probably forget.

Anyways, this week I have been sick (as the title suggests). This has kinda made the whole week a blur of coughs and headaches. But it has still been a good week none-the-less!

In class we have been working on turning a story into a play. It's the story of the old shoemaker, and the Lord says he will visit him, and the next day he takes care of 3 people in need and it's the whole "whatever you have done for the least of these, you do for me" thing. So that's been going good. I get to play a starving street kid who steals food from an apple lady. It's pretty fun. I get to be a little boy! Yay for playing different genders! ^_^ I think next week we will be done with that for a while and pick it up again when we are closer to the day that we perform it. It's for some celebration...I don't quiet know when.

The play did lead to a very interesting realization for me. We were talking about the goal of the play and what we wanted the audience to see, and someone said that we were basically trying to give them a guilty conscience about caring for those less fortunate. And I was thinking, well that would be hypocritical if we said they needed to take care of others, and then we didn't do that same thing. So I asked May Brit if there were any homeless shelters here and Norway and she said no. Apparently, nobody is homeless. She said there are a few homeless, but they tend to be homeless by choice or drug addicts. Either the real poverty is well hidden here in Norway, or there really isn't any. Norway is the richest country in the world, so I guess it would make sense. It's just so weird for me. I know it's a good thing that there is no poverty, but at the same time it just makes me feel like there is something missing. Christ came to preach the good news to the poor, and we find him amongst those in need. When there is no poor, people's perspective of wealth and money gets distorted, I feel. I dunno. But it will be good to go to Mexico later. For some it might be the first real poverty they see. Weird.

Anyways! There was also a few guests this week, one from India and one from.....FLORIDA! Apparently he lives in Sweden now. but still. =D well i think he does. it all kinda confused me. ANYWAYS! The man from the US is named...um...andrew?...and he is a worship leader type. So for the worship time we have on Monday and on Wednesday he played, and it was super powerful and really really great. I loved it. And the man from India spoke about the untouchables, and how God is moving in that part of India, and how it is super important to pray. Both of them spoke in English, so that was nice for me. Whenever someone is giving a sermon or a devotional, I feel like getting translation would be inappropriate, since we would be talking. So whenever someone is doing one in english it is sooo nice. I found out that there is a church on sundays that has english translation! i am so excited for that! I will for sure go there!

I suppose that is news enough for the week. I always write too much, sorry folks!

Thanks for your prayers and support! Much love!

FIN

fun news for this week, since my student visa still has not processed, i am now an illegal immigrant! yay! I hope everything processes quickly. I don't want to have to go to Sweden for a bit. I don't know how long I would have to be there.

Men men, week number 4 flew by. I can hardly remember what I did!

In class we took a day to learn how to do stage make-up. That was fun. But hard. Sometimes when people are very into what they are doing, they don't have time or energy to translate for me. And since everyone was putting on make-up, it was really hard to get what we were suppose to do next. I feel bad that they even need to translate for me. it's not their job to do such a thing. So nice they are to try when they can. Anyways, make up was fun. We also started working on something else, that I am not allowed to talk about yet in case HEDMARKTOPPEN PEOPLE read this. Which apparently some of them do. Which i think is weird. =P silly Norwegians. But anyways, I will tell you guys all about that later.

Um...lemme think. This week i have had a really hard time focusing on God. I am quite homesick, so it is very easy for my thoughts to just go to home and how much i miss everyone, especially Tom. But i am gonna try to get into the word more this week. Hope i can do it!

So today we went to a local hockey game. The team is called the Storhamar Dragons. We all went as a school and cheered and what not. It was a lot of fun. In choir on Thursday we had learned all the fun cheers, so we were prepared today. All of the "environmental workers" had shirts and stuff. Perhaps I will get a scarf if we keep going. But that was fun. My first hockey game that i have never been to. What kind of northerner am i??

Also this morning i made "american breakfast" for myself and 4 others. We had friend eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, and dunn brother's coffee. SOOO good. I missed fired eggs. Every day we have bread with different spreads and toppings for breakfast, lunch (for most of the days) and kveldsmat (their fourth meal of the day).

This week i got to know some more people. Which is good! more friends=happier boo! That's how i roll. =D

Thanks everyone for the prayers and support. much love!!
FIN

So i guess i never did write about my second week here. Well basically what you need to know is that i made some friends, started learning Norwegian grammar, got used to class more, and now have a prayer group every night in the super cool prayer room. That's a good summery i guess. =D

So this week i had kitchen duty. Having worked at the kitchen staff of trout before, i figured it would be no big deal, even fun. Turns out it was super difficult and tiring. There were fun parts, like serving the food during Middag. But since norwegians have 4 meals, it felt like i spent FOREVER there. Dishing really was horrid. The dish room they have i not efficient at all. I think they usually have the sprayer scrub the pots and pans. sooo slow. Plus i had to wake up at 6:30am every day. laaame. So my week was mostly a blur of kitchen duty, classes, and being tired. I had to time to hang around friends, so i also got kinda depressed. And since i was so tired i never had to energy to try and learn more norwegian. Which makes me feel bad. So this week was a hard week. But at the end of today i am DONE with kitchen duty and get back to normal life! YAY!

so as long as my update on the week was so short, why don't i share some about Hedmarktoppen to get you a bigger picture of what life here is like.

Hedmarktoppen is actually an old resort that was turned into a school. It is placed on the top of a hill (as the name implies if you know what it means). At the bottom of the hill is the town of Hamar. You may know the place from the Olympics many years ago. Hamar is your typical European-style small town. A mixture of super boring, and super fun, as well as super cute. I actually find the greatest amusement going to grocery stores and seeing all the weird food. Well not super weird. But still weird and different. I found Topicana Orange Juice! Apparently it is the most expensive juice you can get here. Kinda funny.

Anyways, like i said the school is on top of a hill, so the view is beautiful, as i said before. It overlooks the biggest lake in norway (which i forgot the name of at this moment). Even though fall is totally coming there are flowers everywhere. Norwegian flowers are hardcore. It's super pretty.

Here at Toppen there are 150ish students, plus staff. There are many different lines you can take. Acting, Music, Dance, Sports/Camping, X-sport, Snowboard, Creative, and Disciple Training. My class has 10 students...i think....plus 2 "environmental workers". I quote "environmental worker" cuz that would be the direct translation, but in reality it is something quite different from what that sounds like. They are young people who have been at the school a previous year, who help out in a specific line (or as i just found out, area). The two workers in my class are named Janne and Erlend. Janne is pronounced with a Y and Erlend says his name so weird so i just call him Ireland.

The food here is interesting. Some i expected, some i didn't. Most of the meat is processed, and dinners tend to be meat based. Needless to say, one could not easily be a vegetarian here. It's usually taste, but sometimes it's a bit to processed meat filled for my taste.

So yeah. that's a broad idea of what Toppen is. More later i guess.

FIN

So I totally forgot to write something for last week. I am gonna update every Sunday. Sooo I will just post about last week now and this week tomorrow. Sounds good!!

So the first week was very very hard for me. I felt so clueless and alone. But I was able to make friends. Thank GOODNESS that all norwegians know english! I was able to get to know people even though i only knew basic basic norwegian. good stuff.
On Tuesday we went on a trip to the mountains! We went to a small town (small even for norway) called Hemsedal. It was BEAUTIFUL! I have pictures up on my facebook. I took a lot. maybe too many....naw. The first day we had a bunch of initiatives in groups. It was good, cuz it forced us to meet people outside of our lines. And it was a lot of fun. The next day we went climbing in the mountains. There were 4 trips, 1=easy and 4=most difficult. I went on the 2nd one to the top of a water fall. It was BEAUTIFUL! Some of my group stopped at the water fall, but I went on with another part of my group up higher it the mountains. The view was stunning. Then a group turned back around and another group continued on. We went around the lake that provided the water for the falls. That was fun, but the Director of the school was leading that and he walked very fast. I felt like i was running. We left for home (Hedmarktoppen that is) the next morning. It was quite fun, but it was super nice to be back.
Class started on Friday. In class I was scared to death that my teacher hated me because I could not speak more English. But the I was able to talk to her about my fears and we got that all straightened out. She said she does not mind at ALL that i need translation. she just wants to encourage me to learn. which i understand.

everybody is very supportive with the learning norwegian thing. I still feel super stupid, but they say i am learning at a good pace. I feel like a cheat every time i speak english or let someone speak english to me. but i do need to develop friendships as well. it's all kinda confusing.

In general the first week as very hard, but the Lord got me though it. He is giving me the grace everyday to help me learn norwegian. I owe a lot to him.

thanks for your prayers and your love!!

Well i am here in Norway and all moved into Hedmarktoppen. It is hard not knowing the language. I feel very left out of conversations, and i think a lot of people are scared of me. Just as i am scared of them. Hamar is beautiful, and the view from Toppen is just wonderful. People are kind to me, though i feel my american-ness and the speaking english annoys them. who knows. i say a lot of awkward things. My mom left today, and it was very hard, it made me cry. A lot of my time here has been spent fighting back tears. It is very hard being far from home, not knowing the language, and having terrible jet lag. or whatever that is called. But the Lord is good and he will have grace on me. Prayer is much appreciated, as is notes of love. I am on skype when i can, booannej, and checking my e-mail often, boojohnston@gmail.com.

The first week shall be hard. i hope it will get better. Maybe once actual classes start. Love!

FIN

So i leave for Norway on Thursday. It's kinda crazy. I am actually going. Life has been crazy. I had my going away party (THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME!) and I have been hanging out with friends while I still can. I still have to pack, that's what I plan on doing all Wednesday. I am spending every evening with Tom, which I am sure is making him quiet tired. But this time I don't care. Muahahaha! =D So yeah, leaving soon. I plan on updating you all (all meaning either people who actually read this or the empty space of the internet) at least once a week while I am away. Hopefully I will have good stories to share about adventures and how the Lord is working in my life.

So in these for days before I go, I have a few prayer requests.
1. that the Lord would prepare my heart and that I would be strong leaving my friends and family and (hardest of all) my boyfriend, Tomas.
2. that Norwegian would come easily for me.
3. for safe travel.
4. that the Lord would provide people in Norway that can be a support system for me right away. (also that Tom would have the same thing.)


Thank you for your prayers/good vibes (as I know not all my friends believe what I believe). Sorry that I cannot hang out with every single person before I go. You shall be missed!

OH PS!
Skype!! My name on skype is booannej
find me. add me. we shall talk (if we can)

So I had somewhere around 43 days left in the US last I counted a few days ago. It's a coming up! I was reading my last post and goodness is the Lord GOOD! Since then i have been in contact with about 4 people that will be going to Toppen at the same time. I am excited to meet them. It is so nice to know a few people before hand. ^_^ Still kinda stuck in the money department, but it's okay. I CAN use my savings, i just didn't want to. But it's all good. My family is moving right now into a small small house, so i've started thinking about what i can put in storage while i am gone, or trying to find people to take things like dishes and my couch. Trying to find a place for my bird, Peony. I may just have to ditch tom with her. We'll see. It's nice to get my things in order so that it will be easier to pack and such later on.

well, better keep packing for the move.

FIN

So i have gone through a lot of craziness about Norway. emotionally i mean. excitement. stress. terror. sadness. anxiousness. joy. but for the past month i have been terrified. I am scared to death about leaving my love, Tomas, behind. Fears of feel so so so alone. fears of teachers being annoyed that i don't know Norwegian. Fears that some of the kids are gonna dislike me because i am American. Basically, i am afraid of the first 3 months. But, i am starting to get better. I have been encouraged by many friends that have helped me deal with some of my fears. I think what i really need to do is pray.

I do know people in Norway, and a family right near my school. But i need to pray that the Lord will give me friends there BEFORE i even go there! or kindred spirits that i will be able to befriend easily. especially my room mate!! i really need to pray away these fears and have faith in the LORD that He will help me through it all. I have seriously considered canceling the trip because i am SO SCARED! But fear is not a good reason. I am pretty darn confident that going to Norway is what the LORD wants me to do. Mr. Buttface Satan is trying to scare me away from it!!! man, that means i MUST go! if Satan does not want me to do it, that means GOOD will come out of it.


i need focus and prayer in my life. i need a support group here to prepare me for Norway, but i don't know who to turn to. Please! if you feel like you would be willing to help me prepare spiritually for this trip to Norway, tell me!! cuz i really have no clue who to ask.

FIN!

Saving up for Norway is pretty hard with no job. i have been selling knitted/crochetededed things and i have made a decent amount of money off of that. Plus babysitting. But babysitting is ending soon. lame. So i need to figure out more ways to keep making money. I have thought about doing a support letter and stuff. i just added myself into the database of some research/survey place that pays for research stuff. unfortunately, that is not too often, if ever. so here is the idea:

get sponsored. i heard a story from a friend that she knew some kid that was doing a study abroad program and he contacted apple and said Hey apple. i will wear apple t-shirts and promote apple stuff while in this other country if you sponsor me and help me pay. apparently apple paid for his whole trip. i do not know if this is 100% true or how he went about it. I called up the other day to figure out how apple goes about sponsoring people. the operator lady gave me the e-mail address of the sponsor person, but she only said it once and i don't know if i got it all down right. plus i don't know what to write. SO! if anyone has info on this, please do tell!!

oh i got an e-mail from hedmarktoppen today. i don't know what it says yet. =P yay.


well then.


FIN

So a few people have told me to make a blog for when i go to Norway. Yes it is a while before i go to Norway, but i figured there were other things leading up to norway that may be fun to write about. it will help me process through it at least. so yeah. first post. we'll see if i keep this up at all. meow.

FIN