Long time no see, I apologize for that. The last few weeks have been full of fantastic experiences and great people! I have much to tell. I guess I should start at the beginning, with Ankomstleir Region 1 (Arrival Camp Region One).
-Thursday October 16, 2014-
After school, Time (Thai exchange student in Halden) and I met at the train station to begin our journey to Vestby, Norway. The camp was held at a place just a short bus trip from the town.
An interesting story...
Taneli (From Finland) and I were also on the train and as everyone was getting off, I had forgotten my sleeping bag and umbrella on the train. Taneli reminds me that it's on, and then the doors close... I continuously press open, but the doors will not open. Oh crap.
We continued until the next town called Ås (like 5-10 minutes by train) and had to wait 40 minutes for the next train back to Vestby. Luckily we found a REMA 1000 and bought some candy as well as a coffee shop where I got more excited than I should have. I bought a latte :). We caught the train back and turns out, the bus was late as well, so all of the other students were there and it was cool to see them all again.
I had expected a small car or something to take us to the camp, but instead I got the whole family!
Meet the AFS Family:
Most of the evening was full of everyone in Region 1 catching up with how everyone's year has been thus far, and also waiting for the food to arrive! We ate some kind of American stew that tasted very good.
-Friday and Saturday October 17th and 18th, 2014-
I got somewhat of a good rest that night. The heating wasn't working, and it had just snowed outside... So yeah. Luckily, they had showers. I managed to take a nice shower (the temperature took a little bit to control, but I got it eventually.). Breakfast was typical. Brødskive (Bread with toppings of some kind of spread, some kind of meat, possibly cheese, etc.).
The day consisted of classes, reviewing the rules and stuff. We had a decent amount of free time to hangout with friends which was awesome. We did some other things and whatnot. The days always seem to blend together when you're having fun.
I can remember that I played an awesome game of cards and won 21 kroner (That's between $3-4 I think.) and Paul from Germany won 1 kroner. It was fun.
I also remember everyone hanging out Saturday evening in this old white house, for a long time... I thought it was fun to just hangout and not have more classes, rules, etc. and to just chill with your friends. I left the party around 2am, but I heard there were people there until 5am!!! I needed some sleep.
We ate bread, a lot. Breakfast and lunch usually consisted of Brødskive...
-Sunday October 19th, 2014-
The last day of camp. I showered, got ready, ate breakfast, etc. Then, the announcements for clean-up duty came (Dun dun dun).
They began listing groups of people to clean the rooms (cue suspenseful music). I was not one of them.
Then came the news for who will be cleaning... THE BATHROOMS *shriek.
They called my group... They also chose four other people who were not in my group to assist in cleaning the bathrooms... Two of them were sitting next to me. "This was not random, they hate us." Oh, good times, good times.
Anyway, after we finished cleaning, it was time to pack up and go 😭
Here are some pictures from the last day. Courtesy of Jessica over at http://sanfranoslo.tumblr.com:
And the family again:
Side note: I swam in the Oslo-fjord after dark, while it was raining, and below 8 degrees out (Celsius), It was windy and the waves were powerful. The water was FREEZING. I believe we stayed in for about 5 minutes maybe? Too cold to keep count. As soon as we got out, we go to the warm showers. Anyway, that was fun.
-Keep posted for the next blog post coming within the next few days-
Takk,
Ethan
