Math Exam :-o

This past week we have been getting ready for a test in math, and I just assumed it was like all the other ones- an hour or two and you turn it in, right? well today we started testing at 10, and stayed testing in the same room until 3:15. We even ate bagged lunch while testing, and had to have an escort to the bathroom! It was a really short test (only about two pages) but unlike every other standardized test I have taken in my life, it was NOT multiple choice! So It was really long and boring, made ten times worse because big fat snowflakes where falling outside! It is pitch black at about 4:3o now, but it can be sooner if it is gray weather. when it is clear at night though, the stars are so bright it is amazing! I can't see the northern lights from where I am, but If I go to a feild or something and look up, you can see swirls of grey and far away stars all mixxed together, and it is beautiful.
Saterday is when Christmas celebrations begin, at least for us youth. Saterday night Ole and I are going to a Christmas party, so tommorow I really need to find a dress to wear!!! I didn't find one I liked last week, so this time Im going to have to go into Hamar. it is nice having so much free time Thursday, because It gives me time to do get anything I need when I am already in the City for school. Løten has a few shops, but not very much. Well, I better get off here- I have homework :-p

Some pictures and "Løten Lys"

This is Løten lys (candle) factory- the one tiny part that still actually produces candles.

Me and bet - The smallest one- getting ready to ride. She is my favorite I think- Its really funny because when she sees me coming (Im always on a bike) She trots to the gate and chases all the other horses away. Its quite flattering really lol. Nina, Mortin's wife, just told me that she is pregnant, and thats why she hasn't been racing. She is due in March or April- I will be here still!!!

The Polar Bear room- It looks better than this, but my flash kind of messed it up :D

This is what it looks like before the snow gets dirty! You can kindof see the lake and the mountains in the backround.

Løten Lys is a candle factory about two miles from where I am staying. this evening Solvieg took me and we went through it- It was NOT what I expected really- It was kind of like an indoor market/ Christmas show. It was completely packed with candles, soap, candle holders, chrismas decorations and the like. Evidently it is open almost all the time in the winter. It was a lot of fun to go through, especially since in random places there where these sets- like at Discovery Place when you are a little kid and there is that room full of moving dinasuars and the fake caves? Well those where here, and one room had an "Ice Cave" full of moving Polar bears. Another room was like a cavern, and it featured a giant stone head in the wall. I have posted some pictures above. it is snowing again, but quickly turning into Ice. It is so slippery outside, you always have to hold onto something, or you have to use your shoes like roller skates.

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but It is of Eline trying to teach me to walk on ice, since I am incredabley ungraceful and look more like a penguin than anything else!

Well,I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I called home to say hi, and it was quite good to talk to everyone. It also worked out well that that same evening I Went in my Rotary jacket to a community fair I guess you could say, to talk to students about Rotary Exchange, so I was to busy to even think about being homesick! Supposidly this is the time when I should start to get a little homesick, what with Christmas and such approaching, but So far it has not been a problem, since I have found a barn full of horses and have such a great host family. I really got lucky with them for sure- It makes a big difference. Speaking of which, It is time to eat dinner- fresh Moose steak Mmmmm!

Icey Roads and Christmas Baking

There has been a coat of really slick ice over everything for the past few days now, and it is so bad when Me and my friends went down to Maxi on monday, we didn't pick up our feet once- we just slid all the way there like we were using roller skates! Everything looks like a black and white picture because it is all coated in ice- It is quite lovely I think, unless you have some where you need to be!
Today me and Solvieg went to our neighbor's house to make "Christmas cakes" for the big Christmas party coming up on December Second- The second day of Christmas as it is called. I actually ended up making jewlry with a girl named Anne Marie while the grown-ups turned the kitchen into a full blown breadstick- factory. The reamaining question is How big is this party, because there were an awful lot of breadsticks! (minus the two Anne marie and I ate!)
I am looking forward to tommorow because it is a free day, which I still don't understand, butI sure won't complain! School is still going well- I have finally gotten used to haveing different classes every day of the week- It is quit nice really, because it stays interesting. In Norwegian I gave an oral book report in Norwegian. It was very short, but it was understandable, and that's what Im going for :D It is nice that we have the same group of people for all our classes I think. Our class is very close and we all know each other well, so there are no cliques and you can just talk to anyone. But outside of class, we have enough free time that you can have friends in other classes as well.
Well, I better get off here- busy day tommorow!

Another horse Day!

Well I know this didn't take long, but I had to correct my former entry! That was NOT fast. Today I took rode two warmbloods, the latter of which was a 17.2hh 4 year old mare. Mortin brought another pulling a surry, and said that this time to bring my horse up beside his and run like it was a race. It WAS SO COOL!!!!! My horse, Idella, completely flattened out and just bolted at a trot so fast I couldn't even reckognize the gait. There is a speed gauge on Mortin's cart, and we ran 1 kilometer at 51 kilometers an hour, which is 31.7 mph!!!!!!! It is so much fun and like nothing I have ever done before, because it isn't just flat, it is cross country and cold and you really have to be strong with your arms to stay in control. well, Dinner time!

For you horse lovers!!!!

Wow, the weather is really starting to change here- It has not been above about -3 Celsius this past week during the day, and as cold as -15 at night! All over there is a thin powdery layer of sleet/ snow that has been here this whole time, and so all the roads a icy and slick, but people still drive as usual. It is also Dark quite a bit of the time now. When I get to school at about eight, I can watch the end of sunrise from the cafe, and when I get off the bus at about 4, I have about 30 minutes before dark! This is quite hard to get used to, especially since I like to spend so much time outside. Now three days a week I take the bus from the city, so I have a freezing cold bike ride every Mon, weds, and Thurs! I am such a wimp that I have deflated my tires a bit, so I have to pedal twice as hard and I can get warm fast! I think my best investment here so far has been a pair of impossibly warm gloves- I would not survive the mornings without them!
Last Thursday was an interesting day for me- I didn't have class until noon, since I have Spanish and everyone else in my class has German, So I walked from my school to the large city nearby (maybe about 4 miles, which is nothing anymore!) to look around and see if there was anything going on (there is usually a concert or music festival somewhere, not to mention there are about 10 malls!). Well I ran into three lost American kids my age, who were staying in Europe, and were in Norway for the weekend. We started talking, and I ended up taking them around the city, showing them all the places I thought were really cool. It was a lot of fun I think, because I felt like a native. It was very strange for me to speak so much English at once, and to be able to understand a conversation completely, and It was funny because I kept forgetting the English words, and saying sentences like in Norwegian. We had lunch and then I had to take a bus to get to class on time, but it was definitely fun, mostly because I am getting a bit homesick now, and it was nice to have that.
Today was a wonderful day also- this morning I was bored to tears because I hadn't made any plans, so I got on my bike and went out for a while. Now you know how if a smoker suddenly stops, they get to be quite strange and unpleasant? Well I have been a bit like this without horses- Not unpleasant though, just not to sure what to do with myself. So today I went by this really pleasant looking stable with about seven horses or so, and on a whim I pulled over, knocked on the door, and asked if I could do something- anything- with a horse. The lady there told me to talk to the man in the barn, so I went in and asked him the same question. He smiled and said "will you ride?" I about died right there, because I just wanted to touch a horse again, I didn't even hope to ride one! I said that yes, I thought that would be just fine. But I had no idea what I was in for! First, he let me borrow these really cool sort of riding coveralls, and really strange helmet. Then he sent me out to catch what was probably the tallest horse I have ever seen. She was built like a TB, but even more leggy and narrow then most, and she was five years old and quite nervous. The man- His Name is Mortin, and He is really cool- just gave me her tack and hitched up another two year old to a two wheeled cart. Now my first clue should have been the fact that it was a racing cart, and the second clue would have been the fact that his helmet had Racing goggles, but I still didn't know what I was in for. Well he led the way down the road and I just let my horse follow his, and then we turned on this really long sand path. It was coated in about 4 inches of ice and snow, and all up and down these hills I might not have tempted on Candy. He turned around and said "hold on really tight" TO WHAT??? it was an English saddle! Then he took off, and my horse right behind him. It was the fastest I think I have ever gone on a horse- and get this- It was trotting! Indeed, i had unknowingly mounted a trotting horse sporting spiked shoes, and all I could do was try not to fall off. We just went and went, and it wasn't until about the first ten minutes that I started to get used to it and enjoy it. The gait is so rough I couldn't sit it, and when I defiantly couldn't post without my horse freaking out, so I just stood up. I can't really describe how cool it was, but maybe if you have seen the racing on TV, you can imagine what it was like to RIDE one. we went for a loop about 15kilometers around an iced over lake, and it was so much fun! When we got back to the barn I helped him line drive a two year old, and then walked with another one while he put the cart behind him for the first time. The best part is- He said I can come and ride anytime I want!!!!!So now I feel a million times better knowing that I can get on a horse whenever I feel like it!