i'm here!!!

after a flight to toronto (where my montreal project friend Chara came to give me a hug at the airport!), a long sleepy flight to frankfurt Germany, then learning my first norwegian words from a norwegian man on a flight from frankfurt to oslo, and getting to practice my french on the bus from oslo to my univeristy with 3 other international students arriving from france, and one lost-but-now-found snowboard... i've arrived safe and sound at my new home for the next couple months! =)

im here in As, Norway, just south of the capital city of Oslo... i'm 9 hours ahead of vancouver here, so 6 ahead of ontario people! =)

what exactly am i doing here? well, i'm not really 100% sure myself! im studying Global Resource Systems at UBC, my home university in Vancouver. its kind of vague what i study, but something along the lines of International Development, in Africa in particular. so i'm here at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences taking some classes in their International Environment and Development Studies program, and will be doing an exchange from here to Uganda, East Africa in August-September. i'm not really sure what to expect, but it'll be fun as I find out!

my first couple days here have been great! my friend Debbie, from SFU now studying here, met me when i arrived and invited me to join her and her sister, who was visiting, for dinner! she made us a big trout (not a delicious bass, but still tasty!) and chocolate cake! and my friend meredith from UBC, who graduated from the GRS program last year and is now doing here masters here, joined us too!! i didnt even know she was here until recently! definitely a very warm welcome! yesterday i wandered the university a bit and did groceries with the 3 french students, and we hung out in the evening playing cards... i practiced my french with them and they practiced their english with me, it was good fun! ive been very blessed

the university seems quite pretty... snow covered, so ive made excellent use of my new (and first ever) winter boots! =) quite a few small ponds/lakes frozen over, saw some people playing hockey on it yesterday! ive got my own cozy little room, in an apartment i share with 5 other girls. ive only met one of them, the others are still away for the holidays, but my roommate Rose seems really fun. she's from cameroon and speaks french too!



it's a pretty small town here, bigger than trois pistoles in quebec where i lived this summer though i think. i found the As church this morning, just a 10ish minute walk from where i live. im pretty sure the service will be in norwegian cuz all the signs were in norwegian, but ill go anyways! its always cool worshipping God in a foreign language! =) i cant get my mouth around most of the norwegian sounds yet... "how are you" is "hvordan gar det". i completely butcher it but will work on it! i've got "tusen takk" for "thank you" down pretty good. its still humbling as new languages always are but fun. i have so much change in my wallet because i never know how much stuff actually costs when the cashier tells me in norwegian, so i just smile and give them a big bill and hope it was enough! im looking forward actually learning the language in the next couple months!

well.. theres some random tidbits of life in norway so far! i've been doing a little bit of exploring and have taken some pictures... i'm using a friend's computer right now but i'll put up some pictures soon when i get internet on my own computer!!

talk to you all soon! and definitely please leave me a msg or drop me an email to keep in touch!! =)

love you all!

rainbow =)