Hei hei!
Jeg heter Laura og jeg kommer fra Minnesota, men nå bor jeg i Lillehammer! Jeg drikker kaffe og skriver et blogginnlegg til dere. Jeg laere norsk og jeg snakke litt norsk nå. Jeg har det bra!
Translation:
Hi hi!
My name is Laura and I come from Minnesota, but now I live in Lillehamme! I am drinking coffee and writing a blog post for all of you! I am studying Norwegian and now I can speak a little bit Norweigian. I have it pretty good!
As you can see, life is really really good. I'm sitting here in Størhove, our little flat, sipping a cup of coffee (mmm, typical Laura behavior), watching the snow fall outside my window, listening to Mumford & Sons, and marveling at how wonderful everything is at this particular moment. Ahh...
The past week has been quite lovely! Last weekend, all of the international students from HiL (our college) packed up for a weekend in the mountains. Wilderness time was so welcome! We spent the weekend with the other international students and our Norwegian buddies chatting, playing outside, and getting to know each other better, which was fantastic. The lodge we stayed at was out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful mountains...it was awe-inspiring and I felt so small in comparison!
When we got back on Sunday afternoon, Courtney (one of my lovely roomies) and I got creative and started baking with what we had at our disposal! What do you get when you mix five apples, a pear, half a jar of strawberry jam, granola, sugar, flour & cinnamon together? Answer: pure deliciousness! We've gotten quite handy in our baking skills, paricularly in terms of our innovative skills for using what's available! Sunday night concluded with a group meal at Joy's (our trip advisor) flat: chili, cornbread and our apple(pear)crisp! Mmm...a very midwestern meal & an altogether wonderful way to wrap up a great weekend!
Monday morning brought in Valentine's Day...and a sweet surprise! Our lovely male roommates, Erik & Dave, left Emma, Courtney & I a lovely Valentine's Day card and candy, which we found when we woke up on Monday morning! Awww~it made us really happy! These guys know how to make us girls smile! The rest of our day of love was spent in class, followed up by a trip to town for some grocery shopping (read: chocolate), candelit applecrisp eating, family photos AND some travel planning. Which leads me to some VERY exciting news....
I booked a flight to Tromso, Norway (wwwwaaaaaayyyyy North~up past the Arctic circle) to go see some dear friends next weekend! My first solo excursion...uffda! I'm super excited to see Darin, Ann Christin, Kamilla, Jonas & Sigrid, a family I've known through various camp experiences for a few years now. So, next Thursday, I'll deviate from the rest of the group (who will be spending our long weekend in Stockholm, Sweden...kinda jealous!), and set out on what's going to be a slightly terrifying/exhilerating experience of travelling on my own!
And the rest of the week has been equally wonderful! We're in the process of making plans for a weekend trip to London in March, as well as planning our respective Spring Break trips. As of now, Al, Emma, Courtney, Dave & I are tentitively planning on France, Spain, and either Italy, Ireland, or Austria. Sounds good to me! Along with all of the excitement of travel planning, it just feels good to be established here~to come back to our flats after a weekend away made me realize just how quickly this place has become comfortable. I am so blessed to live with such great people (our flat has so much fun together! It's kinda ridiculous how much we like each other.), and beyond that, I feel so fortunate to be able to soak in this experience: I'm not super busy, so I have time to devote to learning Norwegian, to discuss our classes and the cultural differences we're encountering, to spend a random Wednesday afternoon strolling through downtown Lillehammer. What a refreshing change of pace; I think it's good for me.
Prayers & peace~L.
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