You could never reach the top of a mountain if both sides were smooth.

I want to start this entry by saying congratulations to my cousin, Liz, for doing exceptionally well on the LSATS! I also want to send my positive thoughts to my cousin, Erin, as she is currently in the hospital recovering from complications resulting from a recent surgery. Love to you both.

So, it has now been 3 weeks since I arrived here on the beautiful island of Bjørøy and 23 years since I arrived on earth. Crazy how time flies. Now here’s a tune to read to:

This past week has been interesting, challenging, and wonderful.

Last Thursday was probably my hardest day yet – the communication barrier lingers on and in times of uncooperativeness, the frustrations are amplified. I almost had a meltdown. I found myself sitting on the floor with a crying child in my arms who refused to get dressed as if putting clothes on would result certain death. In due time, everything was resolved and we were eventually out the door, but in the chaos of the moment, I just wanted to cry, too. It was THAT frustrating – I couldn’t say anything to fix the situation, I couldn’t understand what exactly was wrong. But looking back on it, whatevah. So it goes, that stuff happens. I’m still new to them; they are still new to me.

Friday marked my first real day alone with both kids. It was actually only from like 11:30 in the morning til 5:50 at night, but a lot managed to happen during those hours. Throughout the day, probably 8 or so kids from throughout the neighborhood came by, so I was not only looking after 2 kids, but many at a time! It was scary because I obviously couldn't communicate with any of them nor did I know which parents they belonged to in case something were to go wrong. It went okay though. We went on two walks around the neighborhood throughout the day, the second of which I didn’t even wear a jacket…the weather has been THAT nice. That day ended well enough, the biggest bummer was that when I finally had a chance to thoroughly investigate my sore throat; I found my tonsils enflamed and covered in white spots. Great.

Saturday morning began with the first frost of the season, BREATHTAKING! Because Norway is entirely saturated, everything was white. I am starting to realize that I’m in for quite a cold winter – pretty excited for that change/challenge. The rest of the day continued to be great. I made pizza inside of pitas for lunch and the kids loved them! Great success! Then Cato took the kids and me on a drive over some islands and to the North Sea. It was kind of a trippy moment to be looking at the actual North Sea. I’m definitely not in California anymore. It was such a nice ride though, he showed me a really interesting nearby island with a very dramatic, bare, and rocky landscape with lots of trails for me to explore on my own…perhaps this coming weekend. Later that night, Cato and I watched Step Brothers, ate ice cream, and drank a couple hard cranberry ciders. Although I was feeling pretty sick because of my throat, there is no denying that was a pretty good birthday eve!

Sunday, November 13^th was my 23^rd anniversary with life, as well as my parent’s 97^th (give or take a few) wedding anniversary, baby Reagan’s baptism, AND Father’s Day (in Norway). What an important day in history! After breakfast, Cato and I washed a couple of the cars, which was odd because I’ve never washed a car while not wearing something along the lines of a swimsuit. Rather, I was wearing 2 layers for warmth and a shell jacket and pants. I was pretty sure I was going to get frostbite during the washing process, except for the fact that the hose spewed hot water! Ohhh that was a pleasant surprise. Then for lunch, we had the first cake of the day…and multiple pieces of it. Bad idea. We later went into the city and Cato showed me around a really old neighborhood of tiny cobbled alleys and creaky old buildings. This place is right out of a fairytale/history book (kind of the same in my mind...I love history); my heart was melting for this neighborhood. From there, we walked across the city center and had a delicious dinner followed by more cake. Mina told the waitress it was my birthday (of course I didn’t understand though) so she brought out my cake with what looked like a firecracker torch sparkler combo stuck into the top – while it was visually pleasing, I couldn’t help but question the safety of the erupting fire canon on my cheesecake. After dinner, we went to the airport to pick up Solfrid as she returned from a weekend adventure and I was starting to feel sick from toooo muchhh sugarrr.  Eugh, first sign of getting old = not being able to handle much sugar. So then we came home, I skyped with my lovely, beautiful parental units and our pooch, Charlie. He’s so ugly and weird that it’s actually cute (Charlie or my dad?).

And as the day came to an end, I decided I wanted to buy myself a birthday present. Hmm. How about 5 days in Berlin for New Year’s Weekend? Boom. Can’t wait to see Lauren Magill!

Monday – found out I wouldn’t be starting Norwegian class on Tuesday…rather I’d have to change into the M/W class and start a day late. Oiii.

So Wednesday was a different and good day! Woke up early to get ready for my first day of school and left for the city with Solfrid. We went out for “breakfast” and I learned that breakfast foods don’t really exist here…we had sandwiches…which were quite good, but in my mind it was like eating lunch at 9AM. Not going to lie, as a big fan of breakfast foods, I’m really going to miss omelets. Anyway, then she walked me to my class! I was so nervous.

As class began, I knew I was in for one heck of a course. Apparently everybody became fluent on the first day so I was so so very lost. I’m blatantly the worst in the class, but hey, my excuse is pretty valid. So, the class consists of 10 people (only two other girls besides myself) and a teacher who looks younger than half of the students. It’s really interesting though because it brings together 11 people from 10 different countries. I can’t remember where one of the girls is from, but the other students are from Lithuania, Poland (2), Paraguay, Philippines, Greece, Turkey, and Argentina. I’m the lone American and  it's kind of exciting – otherwise I probably would have bonded quickly with another American while there are so many new cultures to learn about! The class is really cool because it is taught in English AND Spanish because the guy from Paraguay only speaks Spanish, so not only will I learn Norwegian but also I’ll get to brush up on Spanish! My Spanish conversations with the Paraguay guy during lunch break were wildly entertaining; I think we will have fun talking with each other in Norwe-anish.

I especially loved the class because it was excellent to socialize with new people a bit. After class, the girl from Argentina, Magali, approached me and asked if I wanted to meet up after Monday’s class to hang out in the city and maybe practice a bit of Norwegian. YES! She’s very new here as well, so this will hopefully be great for both of us. After class, feeling happy and social, I decided to approach a couple of Mormon missionaries just to chat. They’re people, too, and they’re probably tired of being turned down or rejected all the time (Norway doesn’t seem to be much of a religious country), so I just decided to say hi. One was from Death Valley, CA and the other was from Utah. It was nice just to talk to other Americans for a brief moment and their surprise at being approached rather than being the one approaching was priceless.

Wednesday ended on a high note, as well. Solfrid, Cato, and I watched the last episode of the season of Ylvis, discussed fart humor, and played the Norwegian version of Yahtzee (very different scoring rules). Apparently the translation of some saying that basically means "you’re lucky" is that you “have golden hair in your butt.” Classic.

Good weekend, good week, good life. Not without it’s fair share of rough patches and loneliness, but things are lookin’ up. I'd like to end this entry with a bit of Arrested Development greatness....the falling sequence beginning around 5:00 resulted in me having a hard time catching my breath because I was laughing uncontrollably.

Ciao for now.

(Sidenote: As I start to get into a normal living routine, I will have less day-to-day documentation and I expect to shift the focus of these blogs more towards thoughts/ideas, feelings, and significant adventures. Because I’m boring myself with this type of blog rightmeow.)