Rica Hamar

... bright yellow bike. It is quite the sight! We found out that our house is apparently the place to be. Everyone comes over just to hang out, listen to music, watch tv and just enjoy each others company. One day after thinking about it, I came up with calling the house the bee hive. It fits so perfectly. Our house is yellow, we park out yellow ...

... eventually passed out. Unfortunatly after this the days just sort of mesh together. I remember Kristin, Julie and I talking walks around Hamar and familiarizing ourselves with the town. We had a group dinner at our house with Kyle, Joe, Allison over. We made speghetti. The first week of class was a crash course in Norwegian. Even though I found it pretty boring, I really liked the classes. The first week was mainly used to just bond and get used to the new environment.

... the group... but this morning, I grabbed my cell phone and had this message on my phone: "I think it's time to be quiet girls. People are going to bed upstairs and downstairs, so good night and have fun down town. Love, Heidi" HAHAHA this is my landlord, pretty much kicking us out of the house because we were too loud! OOOOOPPPS! Of course we didn't leave since we didn't get the message until this morning... We were considerate though; we turned down the dancing music and the voices ...

... than anything I've done in the past! It was a lot of fun. We ended up finding a nice little spout of land that went out into the water, with just enough room for maybe 2 people at a time to walk on and it was so cool. I felt very adventurous and outdoorsy. As we were riding, we came to the end of a trail that landed us right on the beach, and to continue the trail we had to ride down the beach for a little. This beach wasn't like Ocean ...

... we were in the US. A LOT OF ALCOHOL! Great fun! We met some really great Norweigns too who were really excited to meet some Americans and talk English (or American like some of the Norweigns say). Met the first CUTE Norweign here... there really arent a lot where we are from... but I think we hit the jackpot with the ones we did meet...I already claimed this one as mine... his name is Rolf; there is a picture of his side profile ...

... Gunner (the children's father) took me to the viking ship a speed skating stadium that was built for the 1994 winter Olympics in nearby Lillehammer. It's an upside down viking ship hull and looks quite spectacular both inside and out. We had the good fortune to see some speed skaters training on the ice. Saturday was a relaxing day and I went sledding with the kids in a nearby field down quite a steep slope ...

... watching her lead the class through dictation, little side-stories and other exercises. I sat with the woman from Iran and her friends again during the break, so that was nice. One of the women at the table was from the class I was visiting today, and offered me a tasty pastry that she had made. When I asked what they were she said they were cookies from Afghanistan. Yum! I couldn't stay for the whole class since I needed to pick up my food stipend ...

... could not have been any better. Everything finished at the same time, it was beautiful, tasty and full of warmth (no pun intended). We invited our five Namibian friends and Anne, an international student from Germany, to dinner. They eagerly accepted the invitation and were very curious to just what "Thanksgiving" was. By 5 PM, we were all sitting down with plate number one ready to dig in. Thanksgiving is about what you are thankful for. I said that I was thankful for a ...

... made from fresh trout or char. The fish is rinsed and put in a vinegar solution for half an hour. After the vinegar has run off, the fish is filled with sea salt and placed side by side in a bucket with the abdomen facing up. Sugar is sprinkled on top of the fish. Then the fish is placed under pressure with a lid that fits down into the bucket. After a couple of days enough fluid should have been formed to cover the fish completely. The fish is left in the bucket for two ...

... hated them. Finally, we have both realized that there is no hate, but guys not knowing how to talk to girls. What a relief, I was worried. Haha. I can work with that. Once they left, I headed back down to Lauren and Marie's room. We watched movie trailers on Marie's computer because tomorrow is half price day at the movie theater. Then I headed up to my room, where I have been on the computer for the last two hours writing this blog and talking to one of my best ...