It has been a busy, busy time since I last posted. The big news is that it's holiday season!
We had a Halloween celebration here, complete with pumpkin carving. Halloween isn't really big here, although candy and pumpkins were still on sale!
This is our jack-o-lantern. It's a moose if you can't tell! Thanks to my flatmate Aisha for the photo!
We also had a Thanksgiving celebration last week, with all the fixings! We didn't get the turkey until the morning of, so a few morning shower-takers were greeted with this:
Our turkey thawing in the bathroom sink. It took a bit of work to get the giblets out, but it ended up delicious and right on schedule!
Digging in! These photos are from my friend Caitlin. That's my aforementioned flatmate Aisha in the photo above (hi Aisha!).
I also got to call home for Thanksgiving and say hello to my extended family! It wasn't as good as seeing everyone in person, but I loved talking to everyone. It made me much less homesick- skype has been a lifesaver this trip!It is also Hanukkah this week! Here's my makeshift menorah from Thanksgiving night. Sunset is so early that they were actually out long before dinner.
We're getting ready for Christmas too. The holiday spirit has been in swing for a couple of weeks here now. We've decorated our kitchen, and have been making lots and lots of cookies (three batches so far, and one more planned tonight!).
Holidays are not the only thing going on around here! It's also getting much colder, although we have still only had a tiny dusting of snow (about a week and a half ago). We had a warm weekend before the cold set in, and went swimming in the fjord! It was very cold indeed, but really invigorating!
Here's another picture of Aisha, warming back up after our dip. For proof, those are our swimsuits drying in the sun next to her!
Just a nice picture of me post-swim. It was such a beautiful day!
It got much colder after that though. We had a week or so constantly below freezing, with temperatures in the teens. I took this picture up at Sognsvann, the lake near our dorm.
There is a lake in this picture! It was frozen all the way across, although not thick enough to stand on yet. It's warmed up a bit since then, but there's no doubt that we're in full on winter now!
It hasn't all been fun and games of course. I also had my first exam last night. Exams here are a bit different because you only have one per year, and for most courses they count for almost your entire grade. That makes them very structured and kind of stressful! I'm pretty sure I passed though. I'll continue on in study mode for the next two weeks, and then there is only a week left before Mom, Dad, Kate and Paul get here!
We did unfortunately get some very sad news today; our dog Daisy died over the weekend. We had her for about 12 years, and she was an amazing dog. One of the worst parts of study abroad is that when things like this happen, it is really hard to not be home with your family.
Still, overall, this has been a very good month. I'm sending my love to everyone!
