First Impressions

Norway. What a welcome! Upon approaching my new home, a ferry announcement proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to welcome you to- our hotdogstand"? Per and Lill gave a much more appropriate and warming welcome. They recognized me right away, like my friend on the plane, by my red Montreal Canadiens hat. They have a very nice appartment and we enjoyed Friday night's fresh shrimp and white wine while taking in a panoramic view of Sarpsborg. After finding a new guitar, Per and I drove to their mountain cabin. There, we had a very relaxing evening as we "appreciated the silence and stillness of the mountains, the sweet fresh air, and the warmth of the fire" (my attempt at poetry in Per and Lill's guest book).


Since then, Per has generously completed the long drive to Valdres Folkehogskole. He stayed to take in the opening ceremonies (which I am quite sure he understood far better than I) and a cold lunch. From this moment on, I have been extremely busy. Meeting many new friends, including my room mate, Sundre, has taking up most of my spare time. It is impossible to remember all of their names, and in some cases, simply pronouncing them is a challenge. Sadly, the names are the easiest part, and as you may have read on facebook, I have learned to "laugh when they laugh, and pretend to understand" when bombarded with foriegn words of hidden meanings. On the other hand, nearing the end of my third day here, my vocabulary is consistently expanding (very slowly, but consistently).

With four meals a day, and a significant lack of sleep, I am leading a healthy just-started-living-on-your-own lifestyle. It's a pretty tight schedule, but we've been taking in a lot of information (some of us successfully) and doing typical beginning-of-the-year type things. After the next week, we start our regular programs and the routines should set in a little bit more. Then I can hopefully get back to the training which has somehow seemed to elapse for a certain undisclosed period of time. I have been playing ping pong but this exersion isn't quite keeping up to the counter-active endeavors in the cafeteria. A bit of fotball, volleyball, basketball, etc. as well. Far more exciting though, is playing Blip-Blop. But you pretty much have to be there, so maybe I'll put some pictures up later (it involves mouths full of water and a lot of laughter). It's the beginning of what I think will be many good times.

All for now. |(Sorry no pictures this time, I'm too busy to bother with a camera).
 
And for some live streaming, I just inhaled a significant portion of Norwegian ice cream and uncooked cake.