BOOTS

It kind of hit me on Saturday; the whole idea that I'm going away for a whole year. I thought I wouldn't be affected, but I was really mistaken. ...And I know that this isn't going to be the worst of it. I'm not saying that I'm having second thoughts about Norway. I'm as sure as ever that I want to do this, but I'm just a bit saddened by it. I guess it's probably because I'm a tad dependant on a lot of the people around me to keep me sane and happy.. :-|

Mum and I have started talking about the little things like how I'm going to take money over and what shoes I'm going to get to be better equipped for the weather(Doc Martens :-D)(Doc Who?)(...I'm confused, are we talking about Doc Martens or Doctor Who?). When thought goes into it, it seems a bit more like reality... I don't want to have to think about which clothes I can't take over. I don't want to think about what limits I'm going to put on myself for checking emails. I don't want to think about power adaptor converter thingys!!! ...it's much less scary to think of Norway as a place that's within earshot of my house. With skype, I guess that Norway WILL be within earshot :-P (Bad Wolf)

Shoes that I want:

Shoes that I'll be getting instead:

They're both awesome, but mum wants waterproofness of shoes... so the black leather ones are probably the go-ahead. ...the red tartan ones are awesomely cool beyond comparison of any living shoe (although shoes are not actually of a living state...) and I'll buy a pair when I'm rich and can afford them with my own money, but in the mean time, I must let mother do what she will with her money.

Love across the divide!

- Caity

xoxo

First Attempt

I'm starting to remember why I wanted to stop learning a second language in year 10...
Languages can be awesome fun! ...I still use the little German I know for comic relief ...and I sometimes like to tell people about "mon crayon jaune" (my yellow pencil) in French, but there's always a panic and sense of urgency lingering in the back of my mind. In year 10, it was the panicky feeling of not knowing how to use verbs properly and that if i didn't learn them, I'd fail my German exam. With Norwegian, I'm torn between doing all of my homework or knuckling down to learn some Norwegian because ...if I don't learn Norwegian, I'm going to have great difficulty trying to get along with people in Norway and if I don't pick it up really quickly while I'm over there, I might even be sent home! ...eep! Panicky feeling overload!

I'm trying to be a bit more moderated with it at the moment; getting all my school work done and then laughing at myself as I try and work out how to say "I have a runny nose" in Norwegian. I say that I want to learn that phrase because I had my first attempt at it today when I was talking to Steph about how I'd get this stuff for my ever occurring runny noses through customs in Norway... "Jeg har et... runny nose?" ...I then tried to mime it, but it just looked like I was trying to mimic sniffing cocaine. ...I've always wanted to get caught for drug trafficking and I think I'm getting one step closer each and every day :-D

My first attempt at speaking Norwegian in public came across as me being a druggy. It was a great start to a great, linguistic relationship <3

Distracting is Exchange *nods*

Dear Blog,
Mood: apathetic.
My life is spiralling downwards...
...
...
I kid!

Moving on...
It's been 2 days now since the Rotary Exchange Briefing and I'm still being distracted by it! Googling about Norway and trying to learn how to say "submarine" in Norwegian (it's "ubåten" by the way) seems so much more interesting than knuckling down and getting my homework done. It's starting to settle in as a reality (this is mainly due to having contact with people going on exchange at the same time), so now there's so much more to think about! Like: should I get a simcard over there to put in my phone? ...or maybe I should just stay on my plan and get charged roaming fees? It's not like I'm going to txt people a whole heap; I think I'd just have my phone with me for emergencies... Like if a viking from way back manages to rip through the fabric of time and tries to take me back to get the blood stains out of his furs... Do you think I could get coverage a thousand years ago? I'm sure if the drain girls managed to get on phone facebook, I'll be able to send a txt from 1066. ... Then there's luggage to think about! Should I just buy a whole heap of long sleaved shirts? WHAT SHOES SHOULD I TAKE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

inserted randomness as a change from psycho shoe girl:
luftputefartøy = hovercraft! I need to ask Ingrid how to say these words...

Ben and I are trying to get Trephina to start a blog... But since she lives in Woopwoop, all she has to blog about is her breakfast.
I started writing "Trephina" before and it made me think of a heffalump for some reason.
She shall now be known as "Trephalump"!!!!

...SHOES! SIM CARDS! LUGGAGE!

Love, Caity xo

Briefing Weekend in September

Yesterday, all the inbound and outbound Adelaide exchange students had to go to a briefing weekend. Apart from the fact that we had to get there at 8.30, it was good fun! All these kids from places like Waikerie, Port Lincoln and Alice Springs (...yes. Alice Springs.) had left home in the middle of the night to make their way to Belair. Pure insanity!

It was so much fun to meet all these kids that had been on exchange, were currently on exchange and would be going on exchange soon. It was sort of like watching the various states of evolution from monkey to man all standing together in a room and drinking coffee. There were a lot of really interesting people there and a lot of really interesting conversations ...especially about sexual harassment and its badness. If you've ever seen an older man trying to demonstrate if someone wants you in the pants by sitting next to a teenage girl and acting like he wanted her in the pants then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then you've missed out on one of the awkward situations ever and I can't help but feel happy for you.

I met a girl called Trephina who knows my Auntie's sister because she was her temporary Rotary counselor. It's a random connection between two people, but good enough to base a day of hanging out together on. Trephina's going to Finland, so we'll be Scandinavia buddies! I also met a boy called Ben who is going to have a lot of fun in Japan being a ranga. Apparently, they will stroke his hair even if they don't know him because of the red rarity of it (???).

I also met another person who I'm still excited about (even though I met her about 24 hours ago) :-) Her name's Ingrid and she's on exchange in Adelaide at the moment. She also happens to be from Norway and I'm going to be living with her and her family for a few months next year! I've added her and her family on Facebook and we've started talking to eachother.

Not much else to share...

I have lots of homework and I also need to fill out my Norwegian Visa application, so I'm going to end this with a "God morgen!"

Love, Caity.

Norway

Okay!
So I'm going to Norway next year on an exchange through Rotary and I just thought I'd start this little blog of solitude.. fortitude.. dudeness.