on a more serious note:

I'm chilling at home today. I'm doing some laundry, and by "some" I mean A LOT. Pretty much all of my clothes are dirty. So right now I'm sitting at the dinning room table with a cozy little fire in the fire place... just kidding.. I DID have one, now its dead. I decided it was the perfect time for a blog.

One of my reasons for having this blog was in hopes that a future exchange student will find this and learn what being an exchage student entails, and also, when they're down in the dumps, they can look at this and have some hope that things will get better. All my posts before have been about how much fun I'm having. As much as that is true, it's not the entire truth. So, I've decided to make this post a little more honest.

So to start off, Blog readers, meet my journal...

Torn...
from everything I've ever known,
from comfort,
from home.
Placed in a foreign land where nothing is familiar,
where comfort isn't easily found,
and where home is 4000 miles away.
Yet this wasn't a forced torn.
In fact it was quite the opposite.
This was my choice.
I chose to leave comfort,
to pursue a dream.
A dream filled with adventure, discovery, and freedom,
but also with confusion, pain, and awkwardness.
I have hope that things will get better,
they already are.
Friendships are being formed.
The language is being learned.
Soon this foreign land will feel like home.

I wrote this the other day when I wasn't feeling the greatest.
Don't get me wrong, I AM having a great time here, and I DO love it here, but at the same time it's hands down, the hardest thing I have ever done. Everday brings a handfull of confusing, awkward and tough situations which most of the time I fumble around with and rarely come out of the situation victorious. I can't remember the last time I felt comfortable at school. It's not the people at school, they're all great! Everyone is really friendly! I guess it's just me worring that I'm doing something wrong. I HATE how being a foreign exchange student has made me so insecure. I'm also tired of being so uncomfortable. I've been forced to go WAY out of my comfort zone in order to be as outgoing as I possibly can. Sometimes I just want to be alone in order to relax and not have to worry about misunderstanding someone, or doing something wrong, but I'm afraid people will take it the wrong way.
BUT this is what I chose, and I don't regret one bit of it. I know things will be tough for a while, but it's all apart of this year long dream of mine.
Don't worry Mom and Dad.. I'm ALLLLLRIGHT!

On a happier note, I made a checklist of random things I want to do this year... some of the good ones are:

• see and take a photo with a seal.
• take a photo on top of the giant tiger outside of Oslo S.
• write a letter to the king.
• eat dinner with the king.
• go mountain climbing
• visit Bergen
• get a trendy Norwegian haircut
• exit the school though a window.
• read the first Harry Potter in Norwegain.
• buy over priced Mountain Dew from Deli de Luca
• feed bread to the bums in Oslo
• pan handle
• learn Norwegian
• get a Norwegian sweater.

and the list goes on.

As always I'll leave you with some photos.

(Sarah came down and visited and sayed at my host families house for the night! We had a good time!:) )

(let me introduce you to The Rotary Blazer. This beauty is what sets Rotary exchange students from the rest. Every Rotary exchange student has a beautiful blazer like this which they adorn with pins given to them from other exchange students, and other radom items that hold some sort of memory. This is me wearing mine before my failed Rotary presentation. All of my hardwork that I did on my presentation was for nothing. None of my photos showed up on my powerpoint. BUT I did impress everyone with my Norwegian!

ANND this is me really excited to be eating cereal for the first time in over 2 months!

And that is all.

2 months

Today marks my 63rd day in Norway....aka 2 months and 2 days. I think I'm finally getting a grasp on the Norwegian life. I am eating more bread and cheese than I ever imagined possible, I have finally mastered the art of eating food with a fork and knife, and I finally have my bus schedule memorized! Okay so thats not really the norwegian life, but whatever.
Not too much has happened since the last post. A lot of school, which by the way is getting better. I don't dread going to school THAT much anymore. I still don't understand a single thing that goes on at school unless someone explanes in english.. BUT, I have figured out how to pass the time and it usually happens in the following order:

• Facebook stalk
• Read blogs
• Read sites such as lamebook and fail blog (usually results in me laughing and trying my hardest to keep quiet, which doesnt work well, and I usually feel really weird for laughing)
• Write letters
• doodle
• and when I get bored of the internet, or feel ambitious, I break out my Norwegian workbook, and lean some Norwegian

Last week was Høstferien (fall break). YAY no school! YAY sleeping in! YAY being lazy! That pretty much sums up my week.

On the Thursday of Høstferien, I was invited to a party. It was a good time, and I met a lot of new people.

Something came up about my blog at the party, and all of the girls wanted to get a picture with me and make it on my blog. Vær så god jenter!

Last Saturday, Kurt and Gro (yes new names, they're my 3rd host parents. I've been staying with them for the past week, because my 1st host parents are in the US) took me to the Edvard Munch Museum

Edvard Munch is a Norweian artist most known for "The Scream" as seen below...

Note the awesome tourist photo.

I had a really great time there. I LOVED his work, and got a lot of inspriation from seeing it. Needless to say, Munch is now one of my favorite artists.

After the museum, I had my first IKEA experiance.... it was nothing like "500 Days of Summer" I was slightly disappointed. (if you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch "5oo Days of Summer", you wont regret it.)

In more recent news, today my religion teacher finally found out that 1. I am in her class, and 2. I'm an exchange student. I knew she didn't know I was an exchange student, but I didn't realize she didn't even know who I was. Today was the first time in 2 months of school that my name was on her attendence list. She got to the end of the list and I could tell she was confused about a name. She made a couple wierd faces and finally with a confused tone says "Deeeeviiiinn???" I just laughed and raised my hand. She then comes up to me and starts asking me something in Norwegian. At first I asked her to repeat just to see if I could possibly pass as a norwiegian, but I didn't understand a thing. So I use my best known Norwegian phrase "uuuuhhhh...Jeg snakke ikke Norsk" ("I don't speak Norwegian") After a couple seconds of shock she replies, "well... that's difficult" She then asks me if I have a book, and then left me alone for the rest of the class. I enjoied that a lot! :)

Thats pretty much all thats been happening lately.