"Just a Hill"

There are a series of mountains that you can hike up and get marked off on a special card. If you climb 10, you get a free mug. It's called "Ti på Topp". Today, we climbed one of those mountains.

Right after starting out. Pictured: the family dog, Milo.

At the base of the actual mountain, before we really needed to work.

From left to right: A friendly stranger we met (she thought I was really Norwegian!), Fredrik (one of Troy's friends), Ellen (host-mom), Sonja (Fredrik and Ludwig's mom), Ludwig, and Troy.

This was pretty high up, I was taking a break and appreciated the pretty colors of the blueberry plants.

Nearly there! Taken at the top of the mountain, but not the end of the trail. It doesn't look that high!

A very tired, very happy Catie at the top of the mountain.

Talk about the perfect house!

Me and Milo at the end of the trail.

Ludwig, Milo, Me, Fredrik, and Troy

Bonus sheep I saw coming back down.

Meeting Fredrik

My host family has 6 members. 

My host-mother, Ellen-Christine; my host-father, Stein; and four brothers. Leon, Troy, Fredrik, and Didrik. Leon, Troy, and Didrik all live at home (except that Didrik lives in an apartment beneath the house, but he often joins us for dinner). Fredrik is in the military several hours away and he has a limited amount of free time on weekends. 

But on Saturday, we got to visit him and bring him back to Harstad with us for a few hours!

Fredrik (tall) and Troy (short)

Troy blinked.

Oops.

Homemade Indian food with Troy, Fredrik, Didrik (not pictured), and Ellen (also not pictured)

Food!!

Hopefully I can get more pictures of the whole family next time everyone is here!

Getting Settled (HOUSE)

So, hi! Let me sum up what's been going on since I got to Harstad.
My host-mom picked me up from the airport and it was a short (30 minute) drive to our house. A yellow house near the sea. Literally. The ocean is right in our yard!

^ Outside the house. ^

^ From the front deck. ^

Note the ocean.

^ My Room. ^

^ The Kitchen. ^

^ The living room. ^

Most evenings after dinner, we watch sports or a TV series.

Pictures of school (maybe some friends) to follow. Hopefully I can get a good picture of the whole family sometime. :)

Just when I was getting homesick.

Guess what I found.

In Harstad

Hi everybody! I've been in Norway for a grand total of 4 and a half days now, and I've been with my host family for three days. I love it here! It's beautiful, no matter how cold it is (and it is a bit cold).
Here are two pictures of the lake outside the hotel I stayed at in Oslo.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the view outside my bedroom in Harstad. Yes, that's the ocean. The ocean is in the yard. 

More pictures to come!

School is going to be a bit difficult. I can't read Norwegian very well, and writing is kind of hard. Norwegians in the north also have a different dialect than the Oslo dialect I learned at camp, so there's a lot of "huh?" and "repeat that?" moments. I also managed to contract a cold. It's stubborn, too! I've tried everything to make it better. I've gone through so many tissues, I don't know what to do with myself. So far, I've been drinking lots of hot water with lemon and honey, that helps a bit. I'm staying home and resting today, hopefully I'll be better for the coming week!

Guess what, everybody!

It’s official! I’m going to be living in Norway for an entire year. Starting August 24th, I’ll be living with a family of 6 (suddenly I’ll have 4 brothers, oh my goodness) in HARSTAD, NORWAY!


For those of you unfamiliar with what Harstad looks like, here are some lovely pictures I found.

In other words, it's pretty much perfect.

Goodness gracious!

Up to 700!!