31. desember

Today is the last day of 2009! 

How crazy.

It's been a really good year though! 

I spent half of the year with 2 of my favorite people: Goncalo and Maaike <3  

I had the most amazing summer with all my friends :)

I came to NORWAY! 

Part of this year has been filled with struggles though.

Learning norwegian

making norwegian friends

adapting to a new culture

But guess what?

It has all been worth it! 

At 6pm all my parents friends came over to celebrate New Year's Eve.  I played Mazurka on the violin with my parents friend Øystein on piano.  It turned out really well, even though I was kind of nervous during part of it.  

And my audience :)

Afterwards we went outside to have a parade through Blokkebærveien, our street.  It was so interesting!  A bunch of us held torches and we walked up the road to my parents friends house and sang a song to them.  It was really funny and a lot of fun to do!  

It was definitely something I have never done before! Maybe we can do it on my street in the us next year haha.  When we got back to the house we put all the lights in the snow kind of making a path up to the house.  





Det var koselig :)


Then we went inside and all ate dinner.  We had so much different food and it was all really good.  The kids all ate right away so that they could leave to go out to parties with their friends.  Here is the food we had:








Dinner was really nice.  I got to talk a lot to the people around me and I actually understood most of what everyone was saying, which of course made me really happy!  After dinner we had dessert and just sat and talked for awhile.  Julie invited me to go with a party to her but I decided not to.  I was happy just being with my family on New Years Eve.  I mean I am only going to be here one year with them, I honestly want to spend all the time I can with them.  Because they are the people I really really care about.  And celebrating New Years Eve with them was perfect!  I usually celebrate with my family at home also. I only have actually spent the whole night with my friends at a party once, and that was last year.  Its so cozy to just be with your family I think.  


But anyways, then we had a quiz thing type game.  My parents made up a quiz where we had to answer questions or write down the name and artist to a song after they played like 5 seconds of it.  We were split into two teams.  It was pretty fun, but I knew barely any answers haha.  My team ended up losing by 3 points I think.  Then everyone played some Geni and talked until it was time to go outside.  I played some guitar while they did that! I really really want to learn how to play guitar, like really well by the time I go home.  And I figure now is a good time to learn because my dad plays guitar really well here! So I think he can help me to learn :)


At midnight we all went outside and shot off fireworks! It was absolutely amazing.  And they weren't small puny fireworks.  They were the ones that are illegal at home to shoot off!  The HUGE ones! It was great.  A bunch of people were shooting them off, it was like the 4th of July!  I loved it!  And it was snowing outside, which was nice.  I love the snow too haha.  We also had huge sparklers and a blue smoke bomb and little fireworks that spun and changed colors.  Then everyone hugged and said "Godt Nyttår!" It was so koselig! 















My lovely family <3  but my sisters are a little blurry :(



So we tried again, and this time I am blurry. oooppppssss





But they are still both good pictures :)  I had a great night with them, I love them all so much! I am so happy that I got to celebrate New Years Eve with them! 


So then we all went back inside and we had a tower building contest out of paper and tape haha.  Girls vs. guys.  We ended up tying actually.  It was pretty entertaining.  By that time I was getting pretty tired.  So I ended up going to bed, after a great night that I will never forget!  


Believe it or not, at 5:30am my time in Norway I woke up to talk with my parents in the US so that I could say Happy New Year to them at midnight! I know its pretty crazy but it was worth it.  I talked with them for a half hour and then went right back to bed haha.  But it was so nice to see them and the animals again! I also tried to watch the ball drop, they held the computer up to the tv, but it didnt work really well so I just listened.  They seemed to be having a really good time, which makes me really happy! I still miss them though!