Nacho, my Mexican friend.

    France, Italy, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, China, Thailand

In the last week happened very much. On Wednesday 21 September we had our first meeting with the local chapter from AFS. We were 6 exchange students with their hostparents. Every student had to have a short presentation about his home country. And almost in every presentation heard we the sentece "It is easier for me to continue in English then in Norwegian". It is not that difficult to learn Norwegian, if you speak German. The grammar and some words are very similar. But for a Chinese person it have to be very hard.
On the 22th of September began the Ankomstleir 2 (Arrival Camp 2). All people from region 1 had to drive to Mesnali, that's a village near Lillehammer. So I had to drive 5 hours by train, yeah! It's my hobby driving as long as possible with trains ;-) But it was not that boring because after the first 20 minutes came more and more people in the train. The camp was awesome. It is very interesting to hear how the other exchange students experienced the begin of their exchange year. We had all smaller or bigger problems and we tried to solve it together. We got tips like let the door open when you are in your room, because then it is not like you don't want to speak with the other people in the house. I think one of the most difficult "challenges" here is to get friends. My tip was you can be the clown of the class. Sometimes when I'm sitting by some people and they speak very serious about a topic I ask in a silent moment "What did you say?". And it is guaranteed that the people will laugh.

 My group on the active day in the school. Exercice: Make a fire as fast as possible!

    I took the photo from the front door of our house.

Exhausting

I didn't know how strong you can have aching muscles till last Friday. I was with Knut and Eirik (two guys from my class) in the fitnesscenter "Spenst". I got 5 free days for use the fitnesscenter and after that I have to decide if I want to buy a year licence. It was so exhausting, because we pushed one another up. One day later I got aching muscles and it didn't stop yet. -.-
Anyway, the weekend was very nice. On Friday was the party from Anders (friend of me). He got 18. It was funny because we were more or less the same people as on Anne Marits party.
Today I got two very nice mails. One from my grandpartents in Germany and one from my mother in Switzerland. When I read those e-mails and watch some videos on Youtube about Solothurn, then I got a little bit homesick. But I have it so good here that I never had a big crisis till now. I hope it will be left like that.
Apropos homesick: when we spoke in the Arrival Camp 1 once about problems we maybe get in the exchange year and the topic was homesick, a girl said "You have to go to the doctor for to get a medicament!"
Is homesickness an illness? ;-)

On the viewing platform in Høiås, just forest!


Iddefjord and a part of Halden


Up in the fortress


Sunnyhillway

Third weekend

Last Friday I made brownies with Maria (a friend of me) for Karolina (also a friend of me). The reason was, Karolina got 17 years. In the lunch-break we were eating the brownies :-) hmm.. very good!
On Saturday I went on a little bike tour with Thorvald (my hostfather). We were biking to a viewing platform at a place which is called "Høiås". After we enjoyed the great view, we were biking further to "Tistedal" which is a part of Halden. And from there we drove to the famous fortress "Fredriksten". I was twice before there but it is a really nice place to be. After a delicious soup were we biking home.
It is a very short story when I have to tell what I did on Sunday: "Nothing!.. Just relaxing.."
And when now somebody says: "But to relax is not nothing!" then.., THEN.. ok, I relaxed.

Kick-off 2011

Last time, I forgot something to tell you. On Monday I was with my marketing class in the neighbour city "Sarpsborg". We were visiting Kick-off 2011. This is an event on which some people have a presentation about to start a business. The whole event lasted ca. two and a half hour. The most spoken things I didn't understand but then came the last man who wanted to have a presentation. He said (in English with French accent) that he is a French business man. I thought "Yes, I can understand something!" but then he said he operate much with Norwegian people, so he can speak Norwegian. But the presentation was so funny with his French-English-Norwegian that it wasn't boring. At the end when all people clapped, the man said "Stop stop, I'm not French. I'm a normal Norwegian guy." and he began to speak normal Norwegian. He told us that he speak French, British English, Norwegian, Spanish, American English, English with Indian accent..etc. I admire such persons. We all believed that he is a French man.

Birthday Song

At Sunday was family party. The people were all very nice and I felt comfortable. I was just wondering about the Norwegian birthday song. I thought it is the melodie of "Happy Birthday to you" just with a Norwegian text. But it is a complete different melody. Click Hurra med deg for to listen to the Norwegian birthday song on Youtube.

I have to tell a little story: I know a birch tree which is allergic to birch trees. :D One guy in my class is called "Bjørk" as lastname which means "birch tree" in Norwegian. And this guy is allergic to birch trees. I like irony.

Today I was eating pizza with some friends. "Pizza Komet": tomatos, kebab meat, chips. It was a delicious pizza but now "jeg er veldig mett". That means "I am very full".

My new home


Italia! :D


Mexico, Spain, Germany


My first food in Norway


A little drink in the airplane

Two weeks

Today it's a relaxing day. My hostsister got 18 last Wednesday. So we had yesterday a homeparty in our house here. It was great. When you come from a another country you always have something to talk with all the new people. And of course got it a bit late yesterday and so we're relaxing and cleaning today.
Tomorrow is the family party. And I'm looking forward to meet all this people.
The last two days when I came home from school I was mowing the lawn. My hostfamily has a very nice lawn mower. You can sit on it and drive over the grass. After some hours I finished the work. It is a really huge garden.

Deutsch:
Heute ist ein Relaxing Tag. Meine Gastschwester ist letzten Mittwoch 18 geworden und darum war hier bei uns im Haus eine Party gestern. Es war grossartig. Wenn man von einem anderen Land kommt, hat man immer was zu sprechen mit all den neuen Leuten. Selbstverständlich ist es ein bisschen spät geworden und darum steht heute einfach nur chillen und putzen auf dem Plan.
Morgen ist noch das Familien-Geburtstagsfest. Ich freue mich riesig meine ganzen Gast-Tanten und -Onkels kennenzulernen.
Die letzten zwei Tage habe ich, als ich von der Schule heimgekommen bin, den Rasen gemäht. Meine Gastfamilie hat einen supercoolen Rasenmäher auf dem man sich draufsetzen muss. Erst nach einigen Stunden Arbeit war ich dann fertig und ich kann euch sagen: Dieser Garten ist ziemlich gross.