Christmas tree

A little addition: here can you see what kind of changes our tree experienced..

Jul

Now will you see how Norwegian Christmas in my hostfamily is. This is our "official" family foto which was on all the Christmas cards.

Lille Juleaften (small Christmas Eve) is the evening on the 23 December. My hostmother decorated the Christmas tree and Harald, Anne Marit and me were playing settlers and drinking a Juleøl (Christmas beer). On this evening I was before by my girlfriend. We watched some movies, for example "Home alone". It was nice because I saw this movie maybe 5 years ago the last time. By the way Harald won this game. Anne Marits comment: "Harald wins allways, when we're playing a tactic game".

This is our Christmas tree. He will stay til ca. 20 days after Christmas Eve. Because it is a fresh tree likes Anne to have it that long.

This is the Christmas gang :-) without Thorvald. I want to thank Anne, Thorvald, Anne Marit, Harald, Tormod and Nina for this homy evening. The food was very good. We ate ribbe (rib from pork) with medisterkake (meatballs) and vegetables. For dessert ate we fruitsalad...delicious! :-)

After eating sat we in the living room and sang some songs. We were waiting for..

..the Julenisse. You can see him on this picture. It was really funny because he tried to speak German but unfortunately should he practise it a little bit more. ;-)

This is the Norwegian traditional costume called "bunad". Here a list of the presents I got: A poster with a picture from Prekestolen which I took, a teddy moose, cookies from my granmother, a scandinavian guidebook, DVD from a comedian, a Norge bottle, a Halden book, money, CD from my favourite band "Gotthard", tickets for a musical in Oslo opera house, "moods of norway" pyjama pants, prekestolen tourist T-shirt, chocolate and a lot of cards. I want to thank everyone who sent me a card! :-)

Before Christmas / Før Jul / Vor Weihnachten

Finally was also in Halden a little bit of snow. I was already looking forward to white Christmas but the weather report says that it will be plus degrees tomorrow. So all the white will disappear and everything outside will get muddy. What do you think? Is a muddy Christmas not wonderful?

The last school day ended with kind of a show (Juleavslutning). Some students were performing a show-dance (which was not really good (and this is very polite said)), some schoolbands performed some songs and some students got a diplom for a good mark in a math test. Honestly: I saw already better shows. At least I could see once more or less all the students from my school, ca. 800.

A picture of the julegata (Christmas shopping street) in Halden. The decoration isn't very big but it is a christmassy atmosphere there.

Today I was with Thorvald, Tormod and friends of them in the forest to looking for a Christmas tree. It is one of the only when not the only tradition in my hostfamily where just men participate. All the others are already pensioned and in this year was it the 40th time they did this. We drove to this one place where we met the other men and then we drove with this tractor in the forest.

We found two very nice Christmas trees.

The tradition is: 1. Finding a Christmas tree. 2. Drinking coffee which is cooked over the fire. 3. Going on this one hill and singing a Norwegian Christmas song there. 4. Going back and see each other in the next year again. I think it is a very special and nice tradition. The coffee was surprisingly good. Maybe it is just because of a rule one of the guys told me: "I skogen smaker alt godt." => "In the forest everything tastes good."

The picnic is every year at the same place by the big old tree. The tree is several hundred years old.

On this hill they sing everytime a Christmas song. The owner of the forest called this hill Holmkollen because his family name is Holm.

I wish everyone who reads this merry Christmas and happy New Year. Thank you for reading my blog.

People

 

 I want to introduce you two very important girls for me her in Norway. The girl on the picture on the top is my girlfriend Helene. We are together now for two and a half weeks. 

The girl on the picture below is my hostsister Anne Marit. I am very glad that I have such a nice hostsister.

   
I like the Norwegian sunrises and sunsets. It has happened quite often that I saw out of the window and then was there a beautiful evening sky.

Today was the "Juleavslutning" (a little event before christmas) from the basketball club in Halden. My hostsister and my hostbrother Tormod are both in this club. It was really fun. First could we eat cake, then made we four teams and played a little tournament. I was surprised how good some small children were with the ball. On the picture are Anne Marit, Maria and Siri (two good friends).

Oslo and Fredrikstad

Kim my best friend and I met us in Oslo on the 2nd of December. I took the 7 a.m. train so that I am early in Oslo. We had a lot to tell after we didn't see us 3 and a half months, even though we skyped a lot. So were we just walking planless through Oslo and had fun. Everytime we saw a McDonalds, entered we it and ate something. In Oslo are 7 McDonalds and we were in 4 of them. Funnily enough, that 3 of them didn't have a toilet. Here are we standing on Akerbrygge. The photo took a German tourist who still thinks that we are from Norway, because we spoke Norwegian to her and she communicated on English with a very typical German accent.

Panorama-photo from Akerbrygge

Akerbrygge again, ca. 15:15

Back on the trainstation was a lot of snow. They were building a snowboard park.

A very nice evening ambience from the top of the opera house.

On Saturday had we a meeting with the AFS local chapter in Fredrikstad. I could drive with my local contact. We were going to watch a theater which was moving through the old city from Fredrikstad. Here are my localcontact Kari (right) and her daughter Elisabeth (left).

It was nice to see the other exchange students again. Front row: Houjie (China), Fine (Thailand). Back row: Nacho (Mexico) and me.

The pizza after the theatre where everyone freezed because it was outside, was delicious. In addition to the exchange students who are in Norway were there also two girls from Norway who are going to make an exchange year. It was a very nice day.

Things which happened the last 10 days

Tormod, my hostbrother, got 31 years old. I was baking him a cake. What flavour? Cake flavour, of course! :-) (to understand this joke click here) It was a chocolate cake, how you can see on the picture, with a secret recipe which I got when I was 10 years old.

On Saturday I had with my volleyball team a volleyball tournament. It was amazing. Our team played as good as never before in this season and at the end were we on the second place. In the group matches did we never lose. So were we directly in the semifinal. There we played our best match ever and after a very exhausting match won we 2:1 (in the last set just 15:13). Unfortunately had we to play the final following without a break between.

On Sunday I was with Helene on the little christmas market in Fredriksten Festning Halden. That is the fortress in Halden. You could also go in the museum there for free and so were we visiting it. It had some nice stuff in there but actually was it just a museum. I learned also something about the history from Halden. For example that the city was called in the past "Fredrikshald". 

There was a problem to turn the picture around, so I just uploaded it like this. Typical tourist photo ;-)

Today I was in a children theatre for which I got tickets from Anne, because she says, that is Norwegian culture and tradition. It was a story about animals in a forest (hakkebakke skog = hakkebakke forest). To translate "hakkebakke" doesn't make much sence. It would be something like "hack hill". It was sweet to see, how fascinated the small chldren were. For me was it a bit tiring to listen to the Norwegian, but I understood almost everything.

True facts

Norway is the country where:

- teachers trying to hit the basket with a basketball backwards from the other side of the field during the lesson. (and students are filming it)

- Christmas, to bash and basting is an analogue word: Jul, jule opp and juling.

- along the road every hundred meter a speed camera is.

- some Swiss exchange students coincidentally live in a sveitsisk hus (Swiss house).

- teachers answer the phone in the middle of the lesson, so they know if their Zelda game on Wii (which they re-ordered) arrived.

- when you are speaking about skiing, everyone means you are speaking about cross country skiing.

- you are eating bread everytime.

- at least half of the population under 25 years couldn't live without facebook.

Volleyball and Lasertag

We had last Friday a volleyball tournament instead of school. Every class which wanted to have a team could participate. I didn't know what level I had to expect, but then I saw that the people from my class were really good. The first match we lost curt, but that didn't matter. Every other match we won. One match was everytime best of three and one set was on 11 points. Suddenly we were in the final and there we met the team we lost at the begin. First set we lost 1:11! and I already thought that is going to be shame. In the second set were we 2:5 back, but then with some good serves from me and good points from some of the team we won this second set. The last set was then now problem anymore and we won the tournament and a film-evening with pizza for the whole class :-). That is the winner foto.

On the same Friday we went to a bowling and lasertag center in Sarpsborg. It was the birthday present from Anne Marit for me. It was great!

In lasertag played we girls against boys. When you want to see the statistic, just click on the picture and then you see it in full size. The girls won very clear :-) and how you can see on the paper I shot myself 14 times. I have no idea how that could happen. For those who don't know what lasertag is here a little explanation: Lasertag is a game where everyone has a laserpistole. Each person is wearing a jacket with four spots on the front and four on the back where you can be shooted. When someone hit you with the laser beam on this spots then you die and have to wait ca. 10 seconds til you can play further. By hitting someone you get points and when you get hit then you lose points.

Once again a very nice sunset. Picture from the top of a little hill in Halden.

Monster Sunday

Finally I remembered to write in my blog again. :-)

This evening is the end of little holidays for me. Friday, Monday and Tuesday was no school and so I had some free days. On Thursday Anne flew to London til Sunday with some friends.

Sunday was a really good day. I had two volleyball matches in Ås (a town one hour driving from Halden). The first one won we relative clear, because in the opposing team were just 5 persons. Officially won we 25:0, 25:0, 25:0, but that it is not going to be so boring we played the match anyway. The second game against the local university team lost we very curt. In every set missed we only two points. The end result was 23:25, 25:27, 23:25.
When I came home from the two exhausting matches was I very surprised, because Tormod (my hostbrother) bought speakers for my room. I am listening now often to Norwegian radio and I hope I learn in this way more Norwegian.
In the evening went Anne Marit and me to Emely and Henri (best friend from Anne Marit and her boyfriend). We were just hanging around and didn't know exactly what to do. Suddenly Emely (I guess it was her) had the stupid idea to make a spontanous roadtrip anywhere. Ten minutes later we were all sitting in the car :-). We were picking up Helene (a girl I met here in Norway) and then we started driving towards Gøteborg. When we arrived Grebbestad we decided to stop driving further. In the nice harbour of Grebbestad took we some pictures and then we returned. It was a great day.

I hope next time I have again some pictures for you, but that supposes that I don't forget my camera everytime. :-)
Have a nice time!

Happenings

On Friday, one day after my birthday, Nacho came to me. It was a surprise because everytime when I called him if he is coming now, he said "Maybe, I can't say it.." and suddenly he was ringing at the door. Anne-Marit organized this little surprise. We were going to eat pizza by "Peppe's", this is a good pizzeria in Halden. Ten people couldn't eat 4 pizzas. They were to big :-)

On Sunday Ana (exchange student from Brasil) came to Halden for visiting her hostsister and of course had we also to meet us. I showed her little bit the town and the fortress in Halden, where this picture is from.

On Tuesday had we the "OD-dag". OD stands for "Operasjon Dagsverk". It is a day where all the students can work instead of going to school. Everyone have to earn 400 NOK and this money is going to a aid organisation for a project in Rwanda. My job was to get the boat which we have on Koster. So Tormod (my hostbrother) and me took the nine o'clock ferry to Koster and then we drove back to Strømstad with the boat. After a little bit shopping in one of the biggest shopping malls in Scandinavia "Nordby" in Svinesund was the "working" day already over.

The same day on the evening was the OD-concert in a very very old theatre in Halden. When I remember it right is it from 1750. I know four of the seven people which made the concert. I didn't know what I had to expect but then it was fantastic. They are really good musicians.

King Frederik II. Statue in Gamlebyen (old city) in Fredrikstad. Frederik II. was the Swedish king who was been killed in Halden.

On Sunday Marco (Italian exchange student), Nacho and me planed to meet us in Fredrikstad. My hostsister got the driving license last week and so she liked to drive me to Fredrikstad. 30 minutes later then planed I arrived because we didn't find this silly trainstation. Marco was waiting but Nacho was nowhere and he didn't come. So Marco and me were visiting Fredrikstad with its very beautiful McDonalds :-)

Fredrikstad's Bridge

Nice cathedral in Fredrikstad

This evening I was with Karolina, Maria and Anne-Marit (two friends and my hostsister) in Nordby this very big shopping mall in Sweden. Unfortunately visited we almost just girl clothes stores :-)

Hei guys, I found the paradise on earth! :-) A huge candy shop with almost everything what people like. I bought 600 gramm candy.