Three Months Later...
Three of the most exhausting, confusing, disorienting, but absolutely AMAZING months have passed. I've never had such happy happies and such sad sads, but I wouldn't trade the rollercoaster these months have been for anything. Usually, another month is just another few weeks. But when you only have a year to discover a new place, new people, and yourself, each month is a crucial block of time that needs to be taken advantage of. I've met some of the most wonderful people; begun to find my place in a new family, school, and city; and grown stronger and more independent than I can describe. Despite the fact that these three months have enveloped enough growth and development for a lifetime, I'm so glad that I still have 7 and a half left.
Yesterday I was asked if everything has gotten less exhausting, since my Norwegian has gotten so much better and I don't need as much brain power just to make it through the day. I had to think a little before answering, because while it does require a little less energy to understand everything, I'm still pretty darn tired. But it's a different kind of tired. I used to be tired because I needed to concentrate so hard to understand what was going on around me and soak in the new culture, but now I'm tired because I have so much going on. At times it feels like I don't do anything because I come home almost every day right after school and have to lie down for a little, but then I remember that my days are packed full with activities which leaves me no time to breathe and recharge during the day. While it's fun to have things to keep me busy during the school day, it makes a little difficult to have the energy to do fun things on the evenings and weekends. I'm hoping that in the next few months I'll be able to find a good balance:)
This week was just as crazy as ever, but a little less in the academic way and in just about every other way. Monday was just one of those bad days; I was exhausted from the conference in the weekend and my cold came back and hit me like a truck. Thankfully, the rest of the week was much better! Tuesday I had a science test that went well, so that really turned my week around. It was also at the end of the day and since I finished before the whole block was over, I was able to go home early which was nice considering I still wasn't feeling great. In gym on Wednesday we did acrobatics which was a challenge but really fun! Wednesday I usually have an extra Norwegian class with the other exchange students during lunch, but it was the annual KattaWalk, a drag show at school that our teacher let us see instead! It was one of the best, funniest things I've seen in a while and I'm so so glad I got to see it. Thursday I had orchestra practice and then ran straight to the Abel Konkurranse, a math competition. There were about 50 kids who participated at our school, and we had 100 minutes to answer 20 multiple choice questions. We turned our answers in at the end of the allotted time and now we wait to see how we did! It was a little different and more challenging than the math meets back home but still a lot of fun (and it got me out of social studies)! Friday was another choir rehearsal (we also practiced Monday and Tuesday), and not much else.
After going straight through two weeks of school and the weekend connecting them, it was so so great to have a weekend with a few less plans. Saturday morning we had some families over for breakfast and I made about 45 (American) pancakes!! I think I may have converted a few people to the sweeter side of breakfast... Some much-needed relaxing followed the breakfast, and then it was over to my host grandma's for dinner with my host mom's side of the family. It was really nice to get to know my host cousins better (and get attacked by them in an intense round of hide-and-seek)! Today was Norwegian Father's Day, so we had a nice breakfast as a family and the kids presented homemade cards. I got some more (and still much-needed) relaxing time in the middle of the day before heading off to orchestra practice! We have our first concert on Friday (Katta folk: kom kom!! Fredag kl. 12 i aulaen) and ran through all our music for that as well as getting our first Christmas songs!! It's beginning to get a little wintery, and though I got very frustrated seeing all the snow in what seems like every part of Norway except Oslo, that almost went away when I saw that the city had begun to be decorated for Christmas this weekend. I was even listening to Christmas songs this morning!
I hope everyone at Portsmouth enjoyed the short week, and maybe could send me some energy to get me through my first Norwegian exam on Tuesday... I'd even take just some sheer luck at this point! Very few pictures again this week; it's a little hard to find things to take pictures of when life is just life but I'll tryyyy to get better about photographing the things that, although they might seem mundane to me, might be more interesting for the people reading this!
Word of the Post:
snø = snow (in hopes of getting some soon!!)
Picturesssss
Yesterday I was asked if everything has gotten less exhausting, since my Norwegian has gotten so much better and I don't need as much brain power just to make it through the day. I had to think a little before answering, because while it does require a little less energy to understand everything, I'm still pretty darn tired. But it's a different kind of tired. I used to be tired because I needed to concentrate so hard to understand what was going on around me and soak in the new culture, but now I'm tired because I have so much going on. At times it feels like I don't do anything because I come home almost every day right after school and have to lie down for a little, but then I remember that my days are packed full with activities which leaves me no time to breathe and recharge during the day. While it's fun to have things to keep me busy during the school day, it makes a little difficult to have the energy to do fun things on the evenings and weekends. I'm hoping that in the next few months I'll be able to find a good balance:)
This week was just as crazy as ever, but a little less in the academic way and in just about every other way. Monday was just one of those bad days; I was exhausted from the conference in the weekend and my cold came back and hit me like a truck. Thankfully, the rest of the week was much better! Tuesday I had a science test that went well, so that really turned my week around. It was also at the end of the day and since I finished before the whole block was over, I was able to go home early which was nice considering I still wasn't feeling great. In gym on Wednesday we did acrobatics which was a challenge but really fun! Wednesday I usually have an extra Norwegian class with the other exchange students during lunch, but it was the annual KattaWalk, a drag show at school that our teacher let us see instead! It was one of the best, funniest things I've seen in a while and I'm so so glad I got to see it. Thursday I had orchestra practice and then ran straight to the Abel Konkurranse, a math competition. There were about 50 kids who participated at our school, and we had 100 minutes to answer 20 multiple choice questions. We turned our answers in at the end of the allotted time and now we wait to see how we did! It was a little different and more challenging than the math meets back home but still a lot of fun (and it got me out of social studies)! Friday was another choir rehearsal (we also practiced Monday and Tuesday), and not much else.
After going straight through two weeks of school and the weekend connecting them, it was so so great to have a weekend with a few less plans. Saturday morning we had some families over for breakfast and I made about 45 (American) pancakes!! I think I may have converted a few people to the sweeter side of breakfast... Some much-needed relaxing followed the breakfast, and then it was over to my host grandma's for dinner with my host mom's side of the family. It was really nice to get to know my host cousins better (and get attacked by them in an intense round of hide-and-seek)! Today was Norwegian Father's Day, so we had a nice breakfast as a family and the kids presented homemade cards. I got some more (and still much-needed) relaxing time in the middle of the day before heading off to orchestra practice! We have our first concert on Friday (Katta folk: kom kom!! Fredag kl. 12 i aulaen) and ran through all our music for that as well as getting our first Christmas songs!! It's beginning to get a little wintery, and though I got very frustrated seeing all the snow in what seems like every part of Norway except Oslo, that almost went away when I saw that the city had begun to be decorated for Christmas this weekend. I was even listening to Christmas songs this morning!
I hope everyone at Portsmouth enjoyed the short week, and maybe could send me some energy to get me through my first Norwegian exam on Tuesday... I'd even take just some sheer luck at this point! Very few pictures again this week; it's a little hard to find things to take pictures of when life is just life but I'll tryyyy to get better about photographing the things that, although they might seem mundane to me, might be more interesting for the people reading this!
Word of the Post:
snø = snow (in hopes of getting some soon!!)
Picturesssss
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| Have you ever seen such a beautiful breakfast spread?!? |
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| Lies. All. Lies. |
We have snow in the mountains. Cannon, Bretton Woods, Attitash etc... are open, but no snow on the ground in Portsmouth yet. A few light flurries last Friday and wind chill like January woke us all up! Your family put up all their Christmas lights outlining the entire house and the blow up Santa on the roof of course. - you should see the Murphy's house - you know how they like all the blinking lights and lawn ornaments...once again...Just another holiday in the neighborhood ! ox
ReplyDeleteWe actually got some snow yesterday!! I'm so glad the neighborhood is decorating as usual;)
DeleteHey, Isabelle! I just wanted to say that it's been really nice to read your blog every week (you're doing a way better job at being consistent with your posts than I am). It's great to read about how you've been feeling for the past few months because I know I've gone through the same cycle of emotions, and knowing that there's another exchange student out there experiencing the same things as me is really comforting. Keep up the good writing!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh thank you! I've been loving reading yours haha:) And your pictures are gorgeous!!! I'm glad that you've been having the same experiences too, it's really nice to know that I'm not alone in these weird feelings!
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