Peek-a-BOO!!

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