Rosendal, Norway!

..this is just crazy being here. I have never even been anywhere other than around the US. Now I am across the globe, with 4 other girls, living in a cabin on a fjord, student teaching in a completely different setting/country. It is unbelievably amazing!

The view from the back of our cabin.

Our travels began in Cedar Rapids, IA. Myself and one other girl, Maggie, flew from there to Chicago, our flight was only about a half hour! And then we flew to Frankfurt, Germany. That flight was about 8 hours..crazy long, but nice to be able to watch some movies and catch up on reading! And finally we arrived in Bergen, which is where we met up with Kaitlin! We had about a 3 hour wait until our bus came to take us to our fast boat, which was about a 2 hour ride to Rosendal. We met up with Stein, the principal of the secondary school, who took us to his house for a meal with him and his wife, Elka, who was wonderful. We then came back to the cabin, unpacked and settled, and went fast to sleep!

The view right off the dock right out back of our cabin, so beautiful!

Saturday morning Stein picked us up from the cabin around 11:30, he took us around the "village" (that is what he likes to call Rosendal, rather than a town). He showed us the grocery store, shops, restaurants, ATM, and other  places and landmarks around Rosendal. We then went to the town hall and had pizza with Stein, Asbjorn (the superintendent), Inguill (primary school principal), and Lise (teacher at the primary school). They were all so welcoming and friendly!

 

Kvinnherad Church, dating back to 1250!

Later Saturday night we went grocery shopping for the first time! It took us quite some time to figure out what we wanted, how much everything was, and how much to spend. We used our best guessing and pictures as much as possible. We also got to go back through and spend some extra money on whatever we wanted, I got some other snacks, cookies, and chocolate (of course!)

The food we ended up with! This cost about 1000 kroner, or 173 US dollars. Expensive!

Saturday night I had some trouble falling asleep, I think I am still getting used to this whole thing. Kinda crazy, overwhelming, and exciting..