Some Random Ramblings

Hello.

So. It is Dec 6th today. This means I will be going home in...get this...TEN DAYS!! I can't even believe it. The day I go home I will have been in Norway for exactly four months. Is that crazy or what?! Four months! That seems like a long time, and yet, it feels like I haven't been here that long at all. Maybe because I've done a lot while I've been here...travelling etc...

I had my literature exam on Friday...this one was extra hard because I had to write in Norwegian. Basically that meant I had to read Norwegian literature, understand it, then analyze it all in Norwegian. It was like the biggest nightmare exam ever. I studied for like 8 hours a day every day last week. It helps that I'm officially done with classes, but still. Luckily, the exam consisted of a question I had (unbelievably) written a whole essay on last spring in my Women's Literature class. I had read through my old essay before the exam, just in case it happened that we would get this question. Amazing luck.

So I have one more exam on Tuesday (Norwegian), Obama comes on Wednesday (we might sneak a trip up to Oslo to view the craziness), and another on Friday (Midwestern Texts). Then...all is DONE! I will travel to Gjøvik on Saturday to spend the rest of my time in Norway with Knut and Kari, which will be wonderful. They are the nicest people and Kari needs to teach me a little bit more about knitting. I am hopeless.

Then, next Wednesday, I will spend 12 hours or so on a plane which will take me to my home of Seattle, WA, where my grandma will pick me up at the airport and take me to my home of Poulsbo, WA, where I will proceed to have a great time hanging out, seeing my best friends Kelsey and Alex, and eating way too many cookies. I can hardly wait.

My friends and I have been talking about the things we will do first/look forward to the most/etc when we are back home. It's kind of interesting what we talk about. Here's a list:

• Top on everybody's list: food. We all miss a different kind of food. I really crave a big Denny's breakfast, with pancakes and eggs and bacon and syrup, etc. Anjuli wants IHOP and Kady wants Mexican.
• Another top: we all miss eavesdropping. It's very hard to eavesdrop on stranger's conversations here because, well, they're speaking Norwegian. I mean, I was thrilled when I was on the train in Sweden and heard this random American businessman talking into his cellphone. It was great. I kind of can't wait to get plopped down into SeaTac Airport and hear American English alllllll around me.
• The other half of all our wardrobes. Obviously we couldn't pack all of our clothes coming to Norway, and we're all very sick of the ones we have. We can't wait to be reunited with our other clothes. This one isn't as bad for me because...ok, I admit it, I packed a ton of clothes.
• Full-length mirrors. None of us know what the entirety of ourselves have looked like the last four months.
• Cheetos.
• Driving around. One day I said, "I think when I get back I just kind of want to get in the car and drive all around." And everybody said, "YESSS" immediately. It could have something to do with none of us driving ourselves in the last four months, or just having traveled mostly by train, etc while here, or maybe just wanting to get reacquainted with our American surroundings. Who knows.
• Seasonal Starbucks coffee drinks.
• Our moms.

Those are the important ones I can think of right now. Basically I am really excited to get home. On the other hand, however, I'm VERY grateful that I get to come back here for spring semester. I think I would be super bummed if I had to leave here forever...there's so many other things I want to do while I'm here! And I should be back in time for an awesome New Year's party in Larvik...we'll see :)

Kady and I devour pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving...yes.