Peek-a-BOO!!

I think this post will be rather short, mainly cuz I don't really feel like writing this week. XD

This week I stayed with my friends Kristine and Margaret. Kristine lives on an island outside of Bergen. It was very pretty. ^_^ We had a relaxing time. Hung out on facebook a lot. Visited her grandpa. Saw Helene and kidnapped Frodo.

On Friday Margaret, Kristine, Frodo, and I all met up at the aquarium. We hung out there, saw some cute penguins, seals, fishes, MONKIES (at an aquarium..haha) and had a jolly good time.

From there I went with Margaret, and i have been staying at her place since then. Been having a good time here. Went to her church, visited her family, got to play with some kids (who don't care if I don't speak very good norwegian!!) and other fun stuff.

Basically it's been an extremely relaxing week. Which i am guessing is good, since it might be CRAZY getting to mexico and such. I am really excited to go. I really have no clue what to expect. Mainly cuz I have no clue what we are gonna do! Either it was never really communicated to us, or i am just the clueless american. Or maybe both! Either way, I am nervous and excited. I just hope that God is glorified and that people are touched by his love. I have heard of so many people going on missions trips where they are transformed more by the trip then the people they are going there to serve. I kinda hope that happens with the people in our class. Everyone could use a good awakening to the glory, power, and LOVE of GOD!

So yeah. That's all for this week. I could go on to describe my cultural conflicts with Bergen culture, but ya know, whatever. It's a different culture, and it was a bit of a shock to me, but it is still good. ^_^ Bergen in general gets my Boo stamp of approval. Exept for the rain part. hehe

Prayer for MEXICO! And i am kiinda sick so prayer that i would be totally healed by the time we get there would be GREAT!

LOVE YOU ALL!
FIN

(the view outside the window at Lars Endre's house)

I BERGEN! YAY!

SooOOooOoOooOoOOOooo it is winter break now. Pretty lame idea in my opinion. We have only 6 weeks left at Hedmarktoppen, and here we are on winter break....away from each other....being lame. But I am having adventures in Bergen, so that is good.

This week went by fast. Packing to get ready for the break and the mission. Everyone is going right from winter break to their missions trips with their class. This made packing very stressful for me. Packing for a month for two different climates, yet wanting to pack lightly since i do not wanna be dragging some giant suit case around mexico with me. STRESS it was. My last night at Toppen I had a nightmare about packing. I would put all my stuff in the small bag I wanted to use, but it was too small. So I would put everything in the big bag that I didn't want to use, but it was too big. I would wake up in the night with my heart beating fast from stress. Kinda silly, I know.

Plus the idea of leaving everyone for a month. Ufda! Yeah I will be with people from my class, and that will be great...but I miss them now while I am on winter break. SO MANY PEOPLE TO MISS! I also realized that when I am not with some specific people from Hedmarktoppen, that I miss MN more. My friends have become my coping device for dealing with missing Tom. So when I miss them, I miss him even more. Not good. =P

But here in Bergen as been pretty fun so far. Though I have been ridiculously tired. You see, we have been going to a conference called Radiance at a church that a bunch of people from Toppen go to. But it has been very tiring, trying to understand the Bergen dialect (which is super hard) and like not knowing anybody and being there all day long. So I never really got a chance to recover from the stress of leaving school. So I was so tired the whole time, it was kinda hard to fully enjoy myself. It was still super fun, but it would have been better if I had more energy. Still glad i went. There was one speaker fro Australia, so i understood him. ^_^ It was all really well done. The worship songs were all songs that were written at the church. That was pretty cool. I feel like that is becoming more and more common...well amongst churches that are bigger at least. Pretty cool stuff.

(Toppen friends at Radiance 11!!! <3)


I have been staying with my friend Lars Endre and his parents. They are super nice (his dad is adorably norwegian) and it has been really great staying here. Today I will go to Kristine's and stay there until Friday. Yay for hospitality!

Well that's all for this week. Please pray for the missions trips! For safety, a lack of stress, and most of all that God would move in the hearts of everyone involved.

LOVE YOU ALL!


FIN


(old and famous buildings in Bergen)

ADVENTURES!!

So Wednesday last week as Ski Day. I was unable to pay for a ski rental, but a friend of mine had a SNOWBOARD! So I tried snowboarding for the first time. It took me 2 hours to get down the run the first time. But maaaan as the run long! I had never seen such a long run before! But I guess we were on a MOUNTAIN and not a HILL like in MN. It was pretty cool. Andreas (my sweet fake little brother) took all that time and plus a bit more to teach me how to snowboard. I only really fell fell (not counting just sitting back down while trying to stand up (which is HARD on a snowboard)) like 3 times! All thanks to ANDREAS!! I never actually got to the point where I could snowboard snowboard, but it was still fun. I might try it again sometime.

Backing it up a bit...on tuesday X-Sport was in charge of having a fun evening. We played a bunch of games and had competitions. One of the things that they did was they had 1 person from each class come up and gave them a bottle of coke. They then told them to take off one sock and give it to another contestant. They then had to put the sock on the bottle, and drink the coke through the sock. The BOTTOM of the sock. Poor Ingrid from my class was all excited that she had new, clean socks that day. But then they made her trade with someone else and she was sooo sad. So that was fun. Quite an adventure.


On Friday night Music was in charge of the event. They put on a great show with "famous artists" that came and "visited us". We had visiter like Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Johnny Cash, The Spice Girls, etc. It was pretty hilarious, really good and super fun. WELL DONE MUSIC CLASS!!


"Beyonce" aka Mikael

On Saturday we had "Toppens Got Talent". I decided like a week ago that it would be super funny if i did something totally strange for the show. I figured most people would be doing silly things and that it would throw everyone off completely if i got on stage and did a super depressing monologue. So that is just what i did. I did a monologue by Sarah Kane (depressing) and i told a few friends ahead of time to watch other people's faces. It was super funny listening to them not quiet know what to do. Some laughed. Some where like NO when i said something sad. Other were awkward and quiet. It was a pretty cruel yet funny joke to play on others. Those who I had told ahead of time laughed through the whole thing. One person said she got glared at. =D MUAHAHAHHAA i am evil.


So that was basically my week! Getting ready to go to Mexico! Winter break starts on Thursday, and we go right from winter break into the missions trip. Pray that everything goes well!!

LOVE YOU ALL!
FIN

hehe The title is like The Last 5 Years. ANYWAYS! So I have not posted for 3 weeks, and for that i am sorrrrrrry.

basic summery of two weeks ago 16th-22th:

A close friend of mine kinda did something not so smart and broke a rule and the whole week was just really crappy waiting to see what would happen to him. Our principle was gone so we had to wait all week, a week involving a lot of stress, prayers, piano playing, and a fair share of crying (cuz i am a girl like that). But that week is over and we are moving on with our lives. ^_^

Baisc summery of one week ago 23th-29th:

Um..I CAN'T REMEMBER!! poop. Ummm...well in class we worked on our newest show. It's a comedy about some old guy who is upset about how old people are treated, so he kidnaps a lady and starts a mini revolution. It's kinda ridiculous and pretty funny. I have two rolls: a TV camera guy...well...girl...but guy sounds best with camera guy...yeah.....and a psychologist. The psychologist has lines and i was gonna memorize them in norwegian, but May Brit decided it would be funnier if I said them in english. I don't like the idea too much cuz then it feels like i fail in norwegian. I don't want the kids in my school to think that it was ME that asked to act in norwegian or that i failed at it and she made me speak english cuz i sucked so much. She just for some reason thinks it is funnier...at least that's what she said. So that is a mix of happy and suckie. Yay for getting to act in english! No yay...or whatever...for having to act in english! =P

Um...so May Brit had surgery on her achilles tenon so she has not been able to be in class. So that week we had a sub who was a students and an "environmental worker" at the school before. he was really nice and lots of fun. Besides that...i didn't do too much that week. Just chilled. Kinda recovering from the stress of the week before. Yeah.

Fun events from this past week:

Last weekend was a long weekend, so on Monday i went to Oslo and hung out with Ingrid and Isak. That was pretty fun. I spent the night with Ingrid at her brother's house. He and his wife were both very nice. The next day we met up with the rest of our class and we huuung out in Oslo, went to see a play, and spent the night in a hotel. It was a generally good time. We came back to school on Wednesday. We stopped working on our show for now because of some things in the class. Janne, one of my "environmental workers" had a sister that was very sick from cancer. She passed away just the other day, so she is at home and will not be at school (which is a good thing. She should be with her family). So we started working on something else in class and we might not do our show until after we come back from the missions trip in Mexico.

Few random things that are fuuun:
The other night i saw the Northern Lights. I have seen them before in MN, but not as good as here in norway. They "danced" and turned a bit red. It was pretty darn awesome.
JC
Also a few nights ago i had a dream in NORWEGIAN!! Not all of it. But some! Which is pretty awesome for me. I don't know exactly what that means...if anything. But it's still fun.
A dear friend of my mother's, Marit, came and visited me for a bit. She was my mom's "norwegian mother" when she was here in norway, and i have known her since i was young. So we were talking and i was saying how i was super sad that i could not come back for the reunion next year since it was too expensive for me. Marit told me that she would talk to my mother and that she wanted to help me with that. So now finances are no longer an issue for coming back to norway! Which is like SUPER HAPPY! Now leaving to go back home at the end of the year is not nearly as stressful to me as it was before. ^_^ Such a blessing in my LIFE!! Also, she gave me 500 Kr which is like $100. Awesomeness.

Well yes. That was basically The Last 3 Weeks.

Prayer requests:
Janne and her family.
Augsburg stuff (i didn't mention it, but i applied for Augsburg and for a scholarship, and it's kind hard getting all that organized from far far away)
May Brit and her leg
Getting ready for MEXICO MISSIONS


LOVE YOU ALL!
Fin

After many weeks of non-updates, I am finally updating!

I really should have updated the Sunday I got back, cuz a lot of things happen the last week of school. Finishing up the Christmas Musical, Christmas parties, yummy food, dancing around the Christmas tree, getting ready to leave, all that jazz. But alas, I did not.

Now I am back in Norway. It is very nice to be back. It was suuuper nice to be home as well, but I sure did miss it here. It's pretty funny, i have been asking people what they did over break, and most of them said relaxed, slept, or watched TV. I was busy almost the whole time. Especially the last week. Seeing friends, getting things I needed for Norway, seeing Tom, seeing family, all that craziness. Plus Christmas, my birthday, and new years. It was all lots of fun. Other events like my brother almost dying in a house fire were not so fun. But all is well.

Coming back to norway was a stress. I had only three transfers this time since my first flight was canceled and i was given a direct flight to NYC, which was nice. (ps on my over night on the way home i got to see A Little Night Music and it was AWESOME). But since it was snowing each plane left and landed late. I had to run to each of my connections. Not fun. My jet lag sucks. I hope it goes away fast. But I doubt I will be able to function well tomorrow in class. Pray for me!!


Love love!

FIN

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