So, Christmas happened. I did not go to Norway during the holiday, and I celebrated Christmas with my host family. It was awesome and weird at the same time. I missed my family a lot, but I had a great time celebrating here and trying an American holiday tradition.

    In Norway, we celebrate Christmas on the 25th. First, family comes over and then we eat dinner: usually a special kind of pork, with boiled potatoes and gravy. And if you are lucky, fish that has the texture of jello. In the evening, we open up gifts all together. It was kind of odd getting up in the morning at 7:45 (I vetoed getting up at 6 o’clock) to unwrap presents in our jammies. And also we unwrapped presents several times with other family members in the following days.

    After a week of holidaying at home/going to swim practice, we went to the cabin in West Virginia (right after a swim meet). It was cool watching the change in the landscape from flat to less flat to hilly. It snowed while we were there, which was awesome because then we got to go sledding! It was freezing, but soooo worth it. The Schaefer family spent two days with us before they left, and we spent the rest of the time in West Virginia with my host family’s cousins and celebrated New Year’s Eve. We did not, however, last until twelve o’clock. The TV did not work either, so we did not stay awake to watch the ball drop.

Winter in the US is great! If it starts snowing or if it gets cold, school closes or gets delayed. In Norway, school does not close under any circumstances. The neighboring building’s roof blew off, and we still had to go to school. The line “good morning, this is Gary Chapman” is music to my ears. I love getting extra sleep, so I will not complain!

    So, that brings me to our recent five day weekend. Awesome. I finished a really good book series, and got to sleep in. On Sunday, my host family and I went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Ohio Theatre. I loved it! It is one of my favorite musicals, and I have seen the movie version a dozen times. This was the first time I have seen it live. On Monday, I went tubing with the Schaefer girls and my host siblings. The wait was long to get up the hill, but it was a fun thing to do on our day off.