Wind and Rain.

Last night outside my window there was treacherous rain and blustering winds combined to create quite a scary sight, so I was lounging around all day yesterday inside. Everyone kept telling us that the weather we have been experiencing since arriving in Norway is not typical because it usually rains a lot more and is a bit warmer. Last week seemed to warm up but it didn't rain, but now it is suppose to for the next few days. At least we will get to experience some typical Norway weather I guess?!

The crazy stormy weather.

The calm before the storm..it was SO lovely the night before.

Last Monday the 5 of us girls were lucky enough to get to travel to Odda, a nearby town where there is a waterfall and glacier. Because it snowed last weekend it wasn't very safe to be hiking up to the glacier so we were not able to actually go on it, but we got to see it from the distance. Stein (the secondary school principal) and Asbjorn (the superintendent) took us on the trip and we had lots of other little stops along the way, like in the 13km tunnel, a couple of old churches, and the waterfall. Then we had a very nice traditional Norwegian dinner at a cute little restaurant. We were served Norwegian stew/soup (a variety of meat, vegetables, and potatoes) and flat bread for our main course which was very good! We had milk cakes for dessert with some delicious coffee (finally got to enjoy some coffee with cream and sugar!) Milk cakes are very similar to crepes in America. They are very very thin pancakes with butter in the middle and then you top them with some jam.

The frozen waterfall. 

 

Me in front of the frozen waterfall. ha

The long tunnel we drove through..like 13km long!

Way in the distance is the glacier.

The old barn where we had dinner. It was so cute and nice!

Norwegian Stew.

Milk Cakes (melk kaker)

Tuesday night Maggie and I hiked up Skaalafjedl with Truda. This is the same mountain we hiked a few weeks ago with Siv but this time we did it for a workout- so really fast! When we went with Siv we stopped and took breaks so it took us a couple hours but with Truda we hiked right up without stopping and it only took us about 40 minutes! I was very tired when I got to the top, I am definitely not conditioned to hiking up mountains yet! I really enjoyed it though. It is worth is when you get to the top and get to look out over the town!

Maggie and I at the top!

Thursday night we went over to Stephen's house for dinner. Stephen is a high-school teacher who works with Lindsey and Katlin and we also play volleyball with him on Tuesday nights. He cooked us some homemade pizza which was so good! His daughter also made us a Pimms drink. Pimms is a liquor from England that is kind of sweet. She made it with fresh cucumbers, oranges, and lemonade, It was very good! We also spent some time on youtube sharing our favorite songs and music videos!

Yummy glass of sweet red wine with the pizza. perfect.

Friday night we helped chaperone a birthday party for some girls who turned 18. It was a private party about 10 minutes away from Rosendal in a barn that you can rent out to have parties. Since 18 is the legal drinking age here there was a lot of that going on. There was also a DJ so that made things fun too. Everyone got really dressed up, girls wore fancy dresses and guys wore ties and dress pants. It was interesting to see how they party here. It was really weird because they seemed very young and looked so young but they were drinking and smoking so much! There were about 20 chaperones there and close to 200 teenagers! The chaperones were there to make sure everything was going okay and to help with any problems that may arise. There wasn't any major issues but I think it was very smart to have chaperones just for the safety aspect. I think it was quite of few of the teenagers first times drinking so the chaperones was definitely a good idea!

Inside the barn at the party!

Last week I was able to teach my second graders a lesson about body parts. It was exciting because it was one of the few whole class lessons I will probably teach here. The second graders are so smart and seem very advanced with their English so it was fairly easy for them to understand my lesson. They also seemed very familiar with body parts so it was a lot of a review. We had a lot of fun with Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes though, we went through it a few times and progressively got quicker and quicker. It was funny to watch them!

Materials from my body parts lesson!

First graders in gym.

  Time is really starting to go fast and I only have 15 days left until I am back home. It is crazy that I have been here for 6 weeks now and only have 2 left! I have really been enjoying it but I am also glad to be coming home soon! It is still crazy to me how delicious the chocolate is here. I have been trying so many different kinds and they are all SO good. I am definitely going to have to bring a stash of it home with me!

I am beginning to see flowers on my hikes/runs! lovin it!