Straight from Winter to Summer

Hello from sunny, warm Norway! Who would have thought it would be so warm here in April?? Apparently neither me nor the true Norwegians. We seem to have skipped right over spring, and the last few days have brought cloud-free skies and temperatures in the sixties (14-20 ℃). While in retrospect that isn't all that warm, coming straight out of a cold, snowy winter to this makes it seem actually appropriate to go swimming. In contrast to my "swimming" two weeks ago, that is. This week has therefore been all about enjoying the sun and warmth, mostly on my new favorite place: the roof. While half of the third floor is a room, my room to be specific, the other half is set up as a porch on the roof. We have some furniture out there, and today Anne hung up the hammock (had to do a little Norwegian to English translating there). I've spent a good amount of time out there this week and don't see that changing before I leave if this weather sticks around.

Otherwise, this week looked a bit like I expect many of the remaining ones will, that is to say random and broken up. We're now in mock exam/midterm season, and that means that the past two weeks and this coming one are disrupted by tests and preparation days. This week started out relatively normal, however, with normal school Monday through Wednesday. Monday was quite possibly the longest day ever; something about it made it go by so slowly. Tuesday went by a little faster, and was especially exciting because it was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's. The ice cream company has one day a year where ice cream is free at most of their locations. I went with some friends straight from school at 2:05 and although the event didn't start until 3:00, there was already a line. We were pretty far up in the line, and after about 40 minutes of waiting we got our ice cream. The line behind us stretched more than a block, and it was a good thing we had gotten there early. The fact that it was free made the ice cream taste even better. I miss the small ice cream shops all over Portsmouth and it was so nice to have that kind of ice cream again:)))

Wednesday was yet another normal day, but I took advantage of the weather and walked around in the city after school for a bit. I'm definitely going to miss having all the city has to offer right there when I'm at school; even though Portsmouth has a lot to offer, it's not the same as a "big city." Thursday was preparation day for English and I went to school in the morning (it's not obligatory to be there on prep days) because we had normal orchestra rehearsal and I thought I would get some prep work done while at school. After rehearsal my friend Beate and I left school and went to see Black Panther. I'm a little late to the party, but it was such a good movie!! Would definitely recommend if you haven't seen it yet.

Friday was the day of the English exam thing, and for those we get two short response tasks we can choose between, and then four long responses to choose from. So in total you have to write one short response and one long response. I was done before time was up but had another orchestra rehearsal at 2 pm, so I went out and ate my lunch in the park by the school and then watched Netflix in the cafeteria. Not too shabby for an afternoon! Then it was about an hour of rehearsal, this time for a group of us in the orchestra that are going to Copenhagen with the choir in May! We got the music we're going to be playing there and started working on it which is super exciting:)

This weekend has been both eventful and chill at the same time which has been super great. Yesterday we went to a flea market at a school near where Espen's brother and his family lives. I think I wrote about these in the fall but I don't know if I explained that they're at schools and are put on by the school bands to raise money. My friend Mathea plays in the band for the school that had the market this weekend, so I hung out with her for a little while she made sveler, which apparently translates to pikelets. If anyone reading this knows what those are they might be better at explaining this but they're sort of like American pancakes. Afterwards we went back to Espen's brother's house and hung out there for a good chunk of the afternoon. I spent the rest of it in the sun on the roof:) Today we went to visit Espen's sister in her new apartment, where we also spent most of the time on the balcony eating waffles. I'm planning on going back to the roof after this, too;)

Word of the Post:
takterrasse = roof terrace (?), basically any sort of area on the roof that can be used by people

Pictures (including the ones from "prom" last week)

FREEEEEE ICE CREAM

Only the beginning of the line, I'm afraid

Happiest on the roof:)) it's also a nice aesthetic for selfies if you were wondering

Look!!! And yes, that is celsius 

New home in my new home

Waffles on the balcony

Here's the titanic picture:)

Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått (Norway in red, white and blue) ended up backwards. Not sure how we managed that.