Peek-a-BOO!!

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