So, don't be surprised that write in English, but it just feels right :). I talked English all weekend and I feel like I can sum up this awesome time only in English :D

Pictures on www.friesens.de/schweden

I was in Oslo over the weekend. It was a trip organized by my organisation here in Sweden. There were students from all over the world who are staying now in Sweden, Denmark or Norway. Actually, we were only 11 people, but we had such a great time and I made soo many new friends. There was Kerstin (from Germany, staying on Gotland, Sweden), Silva (Germany, Stockholm), Rebecca (Philadelphia, USA, Sundsvall, Sweden), Wilma (Finnland, Norrköping, Sweden), Maddie (Sydney, Australia, Denmark), Tegan (Adelaide, Australia, Stockholm), Lauren (Adelaide, Australia, Skåne, Sweden), Xander (Victoria, Australia, Denmark), Nick (Sydney, Denmark) and Mitchell (Melbourne, Australia, Oslo, Norway). This was such a great group!!!

I took the plane to Oslo and one of the staff of Explorious, Rikki, met me at the airport in Oslo. We talked a little while waiting for Maddie and Nick. Then we took the train to Oslo Central Station and from there it was only 10 min walking to our hostel. When we came there, everyone else was already there, including Kerstin. I met her before our exchange year, in May in Berlin. and we were sooo excited to finally meat again. I talked a little German with her, but it felt weird, talking German from person to person :). On that evening we only went out for dinner because we were all very tired and everything. I went to bed early, but I think some of the others stayed awake quite long.

One of the best things about this trip was that we talked English all the time. I always liked talking English, but I've never had a chance to talk English with a native speaker or about something not-school related. And I loved it :) Maddie said that my English was so good that she can only hear that I'm from Germany because of my accent. I think that's a compliment :). With Kerstin I talked English-Swedish-German. And it felt right to talk English or Swedish with her. But it was exhausting to do 3 languages at a time.

At some point I decided that I don't like German any more. That sounds probably a little weird, but it just feels soooo strange for me to talk German. You can't express yourself properly in German. and it sound rude and harsh all the time. Haha. I hope that changes again when I'm back in Germany...

On Friday we went first to the “folkmuseum” and watched how the Norwegian ancestors lived 300 hundred years ago. That was kinda interesting, and it didn't rain (though the clouds didn't seem very good). After this we went to the Viking ship museum. There were real Viking ships, really, really old. And they were graves at the same time or something. But I thought they've been huger... Then we ate something and took the tram back to the city to see the Royal Palace. The Palace it pretty amazing and we even were allowed to take pictures with the guards. I think it's a bad job as a guard. You have to walk weirdly and you're not allowed to smile or anything... He couldn't even shake his head!

Well, after this we had some free time and Xander, Maddie, Rebecca, Nick, Wilma and I went to the Opera House. This was sooooo amazing. First, I finally smelled the North Sea again (Though I'm surrounded by the ocean here in Luleå, it doesn't smell like this because there's almost no salt in the water) and the Opera House is sooo beautiful. It looks a bit like the Opera in Sydney. And you can go ON the Opera house and walk on the roof and there is a wall with some spotlights and then you can see your shadow, but much bigger that usually :). And it was windy and cold and everything but it was the best time of the trip. We had music ("dancing queeeeeeeeen") and made some awesome pictures and had some dance parties and laughed soo hard. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

We ate at a pizza restaurant near our hostel (I love how Americans and English and Australian people pronounce Pizza. So cute). We made a map of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway out of Pizza :). And in the evening we played a cool game: Everyone has to write some names of famous people on small sheets of paper and all names are gathered in a box or hat or something. Everyone of the players has to know the name, so it had to be someone really famous, so that he/she is known in Australia, USA, Germany AND Finland. And then we played in pairs. In the first round you have to explain as many names as you can to your partner in a minute. This goes on until there are no names left in the box. This was pretty funny :). But the next round was even better. All the names were put back in the box and this time we were only allowed to say one word and your partner had to guess who you mean. So we had to remember what we said last round. But the names were pretty funny too. There were three Obamas, Taylor Swift, George Bush, Barney, Tigger, Harry Potter, Dumbledor, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Heath Leadger... I can't really describe how funny that game was, you have to play it yourself. In the 3rd round you have to show it and in the last round you were only allowed to make noises :)

On the next day we went to see a sculpture park. There were hundred odd naked sculptures, made by only ONE man. I think this man was pretty crazy. After this we ate Waffles (<3, insider joke), and then we had free time again so we went to the sundown at the harbour and there was even a little part of the Christmas market open, so I bought a butter knife for my host parents :P and THEN we went to see NEW MOON. I had said before that I HAD to see the movie on the opening weekend, and there were 4 other people who wanted to see it too, so we saw it.

***SPOILERS***
It was sooo AMAZING. This movie was soooo much better that the last one and I could watch it in English. I'm definitely Team Taylor, and I was almost a little Team Jacob :). Everything was perfect about the movie, except for the actor and actress for Edward and Bella. Kristen and Rob are both really great actors, but they just don't fit in their characters. There is this one scene were Bella says "It's my birthday, can I wish me something. Kiss me" and when she says "Kiss me" she lifts her eyebrow awkwardly. We made fun of it before and we had to laugh sooo hard when we saw the scene on the big screen. Alice is such a great actress and she fits perfectly, Laurent was really funny. Taylor is just HOT. How could some 17 year old guy have these muscles????? And he's a great actor, too. But the funniest person was Aro. How he speaks! Hilarious!!! "Fascinating!" haha <3. I think also that the director made a better job than the last. So to sum up, it was a great movie. I still can't believe that I actually SAW the movie. I will see it again on Friday!
***SPOILERS END***

After this we were all really tired and the next day we were even more tired :). It was sooo sad that we had to say goodbye. The Australians stay only for 3 months and came 3 weeks ago, so they will fly home in February. We decided to meet again in January, all together. And Rebecca and I will meet, because Sundsvall is only 5 hours or so away from Lulea :)

So, jetzt kann ich weder auf deutsch schreiben :), das ist nicht ganz so komisch wie deutsch zu sprechen! Heute hatte ich nur eine Stunde Unterricht, d.h. ich war längere Zeit im Bus als in den Schule... Aber dafür muss ich jetzt die nächsten Wochen wieder ziemlich viel für die Schule tun, Klausuren, Referate. Außerdem muss ich mich ja um diverse Weihnachtsgeschenke kümmern und ich hab auch noch ein Weihnachtskonzert am 16. Das Problem ist, dass ich am gleichen Tag nationale Klausur in Mathe habe und wir eigentlich morgens schon ein Konzert für die Grundschulen haben. Muss ich mal gucken, wie ich das regeln kann.

Aber sonst will ich jetzt endlich Weihnachten haben. Oder zumindest Adventszeit. Ich höre schon die ganze Zeit Weihnachtslieder. Hier ist der Link zu meinem Lieblingsweihnachtslied für dieses Jahr: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw6CN56kbIw :P

So, jetzt hab ich auch nicht mehr viel zu erzählen... Muss jetzt Mathe lernen und für Schwedisch eine Argumentation über Kernkraft schreiben. Keine Ahnung, wie ich das machen soll...

Und ich will ENDLICH Schnee haben. Das Wetter ist total behämmert hier! Wahrscheinlich krieg' ich hier gar keinen Schnee bis Heiligabend oder so... Naja, Freitag erstmal ins Kino <333 und dann muss ich mal einen Weihnachtsmarkt auftreiben, um Geschenke zu kaufen! Und ich muss auch dringend Plätzchen backen. Scheint wieder eine wunderbar stressige Weihnachtszeit zu werden. Warum muss man alle Klausuren im Dezember schreiben??? Das ist nicht wirklich klug!

Schon 'mal fröhliche Adventszeit, 'mal sehen, wann ich wieder schreibe!

Puss och Kram
Anni