Business As Usual

Ok, so it's been a month since my last post... oops! But to be fair, it's not like I have interesting things happening to me all the time now. It's all very normal expect that normal just happens to be in Norway. I wake up, go to school, do homework, attend lacrosse practice when I can, and sometimes, on Fridays, I eat tacos. Yes, Taco Friday is a thing here and though they aren't Torchy's, it's meat in a tortilla with avocado and cheese and therefore still pretty awesome.
It sometimes amazes me how normal things now feel. The first weeks in a new place are always exciting, your senses are constantly being simulating by new sites, smells, and people but I honestly prefer this feeling, this...calmness. After all the glitz and glamour of moving to a new country wears off and after the pressure of trying to experience everything all at once wans, you suddenly wake up and realize "hey! this is home!" I don't know if I'm describing it accurately but I think everyone who has ever lived in a different country knows the feeling. People will ask you after you get back, "how was living in Norway?!" and you'll stop and think and all you can say is "it was just living!" Of course that's not to say things aren't different but it almost hard to describe how they're different, what that old "normal" used to be...........ok, I'm rambling. It seems like my ethics class is turning me into a philosopher....
Anyways, what's happened since my last post. My parents and aunt Neva came to visit which was very nice because I had a reason to do some of the touristy things I normally put off, like visit museums and churches. Of course, eating at some of the best restaurants in Trondheim was definitely the highlight of their visit. It's inspired me to check out some of the local cafes and bars more myself and to really put the whole "it's expensive" thought on the back burners. In fact, I'm really just sick of hearing people talk about expensive everything is (and try to stop myself from doing the same) because it's just become a boring subject matter. Yes, beer costs about $15 for a pint and yes, that's ridiculous, but I refuse for that to be the reason to keep me from going out to get a beer if someone invites me. I'll just drink one beer instead of the two (or three) I would normally drink back home and not only does it come out to about the same but a healthier life for me! :)
I also made it out to a cabin for a nice little weekend trip in the forrest. Getting out of the city and going to a cabin for the weekend is a very Norwegian thing to do, every family seems to have their own cabin in the mountains. There is also a student organization here that maintains several cabins for the students and it's a really activity popular among the foreign students to hike out and spend a night or two at the cabins, The cabins are very basic but the one I went to was super cozy.  Smores over an open fire, playing cards by candle light, good times with friends, it's just the perfect evening.

Hiking up to cabin

Preparing our firewood for the evening

The views from the nearby hilltops

Smores and wine by the camp fire. Didn't do that as a girl scout!

 I also took a trip to up to Lofoten, Norway with several people from my program. It's an archipelago above the arctic circle know for it's scenery: high cliff mountain cliffs near the sea, small white beaches... it really was one of the prettiest and unique landscapes I've ever seen. The image you get in your head of the fjords in Norway is what they look like in Lofoten. The weather wasn't even that great when we went and it was still beautiful, especially with all the trees changing color.... unfortunately due to technical difficulties (my sim card locked and I couldn't remember the code to unlock it) I didn't take any picture with my camera. Oops! But if you're on Facebook you probably saw some recent tagged pictures of me and they were from Lofoten. Hopefully I'll be able to steal some of these pictures soon for my own private collection....
And finally here are a few picture from a day hike I took up a mountain about an hour outside of Trondheim with my Norwegian friend Silje:

 My next big trip will be to Reykjavik where I'll get to see Cory and Katy (and possibly Nadia)! Very excited. Until then I'll just have to satisfy myself with more hikes, good times with friends, and enjoying this lovely fall weather before it gets bitterly cold and dark.