Hei Alle!

As usual it’s been quite a while since my last post. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

– Our little PLU family has expanded! Two girls (Becky and Alison) from the University of Washington have arrived and are both teaching at Charlottenlund. It’s really great to have more native English-speakers at school! Plus, now Megan and I have people to sit with at lunch! Hooray!

– On March 17th our school had its ski day. This is very common here in Trondheim. The entire school (students and teachers) loaded up on buses to Mer�ker. Fans of the blog (or people who can actively use the scrolling function of their browser) may recognize Mer�ker as the place I nearly died attempting to learn how to downhill ski. Needless to say I was a bit anxious about this trip. Our teachers had been telling us/warning us/secretly plotting against us about ski day pretty much since the day we arrived at Charlottenlund. After my adventures downhill skiing (and on the evil chairlift/ people-mover) I was not too keen on finding a pair of downhill skis to borrow. I asked around to see if anyone had extra cross-country skis but to no avail. Each teacher was responsible for manning an activity so I decided to go sledding (or sledging as they call it here). Of course the day of the trip I had about four teachers tell me that I could have borrowed their extra cross-country skis. Too late. : (

Becky and Megan getting ready for their cross-country skiing adventure!

Overall the trip was awesome! We had absolutely incredible weather (very different from the last time I was in Mer�ker). The sledding hill was more like a sledding cliff so I did not participate. I ended up just hanging out with students who did not feel like participating in any of the activities. It was really great to talk to some students who I would not have normally had the opportunity to interact with. Megan and Becky (one of the teachers from UW) were able to get cross-country skis and let me borrow them for a little bit to try. I actually really liked cross-country skiing! I wish that I were able to get skis earlier in the trip because it would have been a blast to go skiing every weekend. This is one activity that I think I will try to continue next winter back in the States. For lunch we sat around a large grill and cooked hot dogs. Interestingly enough this trip was BYOHD: bring your own hot dog. I figured that if the school had enough funding to send 400 students and their teachers on a free skiing trip they would provide lunch, but whatever. Here in Norway we eat our hot dogs (or p�lse as they are called) wrapped in something called lompe, which is kind of like a potato tortilla. Super delicious. It was super fun just hanging out with all of the teachers and students.

– Ski day also fell on St. Patrick’s Day! St. Patty’s Day is not super-popular here because no one is really of Irish decent. However, Norwegians are always up for a party so it is celebrated. Megan, Becky, and I went to the only Irish pub in town (Cafe Dublin) and paid an exorbitant amount of money for green beer but it was fun regardless.

Becky, myself, and Megan celebrating our Irish heritage in Trondheim. (Please remember we had been outside all day! =])

– This past Monday (21 March) my supervisor from PSU visited Charlottenlund to observe me teach. I think it went well! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good report so I can officially become a certified teacher!

– This past Friday Megan and I finally made it to the Ikea in Trondheim! We literally pass it everyday going to school so it was fun to finally go. I LOVE Ikea (I think its fun to go through all of the mock houses) and it was Megan’s first time so we had a blast walking through the store. The Ikea here in Trondheim looks exactly like every other Ikea I’ve ever been to but instead of the just the furniture names being in Norwegian/Swedish, EVERYTHING is in Norwegian/Swedish. We had a late lunch at the cafe…the food was delicious! We took the free bus from Ikea back into town, which was super convenient. Fun fact I learned from that trip: it’s actually pronounced EE-KAY-AH. Who knew?

My new friend I made in Ikea. Who says vegetables can’t be fun? =)

– For the past week Norway has been experiencing some of the most miserable weather I’ve ever seen. I’ve named it the snowicane or snowpocolypse (mainly because I am a big How I Met Your Mother fan). We have experienced all sorts of precipitation: rain, snow, sleet, hail…everything. Oh, and gale force winds. Awesome. I think that the worst part is the fact that it will be snowing/sleeting sideways and then 10 minutes later be sunny. Ten minutes after that it will be hailing. Sideways. The pictures below are from my room in Steinan. They were taken less than 10 minutes apart.

– This upcoming week is my last week here in Trondheim. It’s really bittersweet. I’m excited to go home and see my friends and family but I’ve become quite attached to my life here. Charlottenlund is one of the greatest schools that I’ve ever had the opportunity to see/be a part of. I know that there is no school quite like this in the States: the teachers have a lot of autonomy, the students have a lot of personal responsibility, the teachers and students have open communication, there is no dark cloud of state and federal standardized testing looming over everyone’s heads. It really is a wonderful place to teach and go to school. I’m really going to miss everyone that I have met and worked with, both teachers and students.

That’s pretty much it for now! I’ll try to get in another post before I head back to the good ol’ US of A!

Location: Edgar B Schieldropsvei 42-18 7033 Trondheim Norway