Påske

After a week short of 3 months being in Norway I have finally managed to start a blog! Sorry to all those who have been waiting for quite some time! Unfortunately I think it will take way too long to update you on ALL that has happened since I arrived in this beautiful country! So instead I have decided to start from this Easter weekend and will fill you up on some highlights of my adventure a bit later.

Firstly I think I should introduce you to my host family! I have been very blessed to come into this country and have such a cool family waiting for me! I live in South Norway with my host parents Ellen, Peter, and host sisters Emma (18) and Klara (9). I also have a host brother Simon (18) who comes home on weekends and during holidays and an older host sister, Ulla (21) who lives in the main city, Oslo. From being the eldest and having Cianne (16) as my only sister, to now being the middle child and having up to 4 host siblings at times is quite strange but very fun as there is always something to do! 

Påske!

Easter with snow!! Now that has really been something! I cant believe how strange it feels to be skiing during Easter Holiday! The first weekend of our Easter break we went up to the mountains skiing with oranges and sunshine! I have been told many times that this is a typical Easter in Norway!

Some other traditions include decorating with little Easter chickens and painting normal eggs to use for decorations.

Decorations of little chicks and painted eggs

Daffodils- The Easter Flower

Lollies!

For the Easter weekend we went up to Peters mom, it was the second time I had been there and it was very interesting to see how different the rolling white plains look with much of the snow melted away as Spring starts to kick in! The farmlands remind me a bit of the South African landscape with the dry velt along either side of the country roads, that excludes the snow patches of-course! But unlike the familiar farmland, this year Easter had many different traditions. Firstly, in Norway yellow is the colour for Easter! Was delighted when I heard that my parents had not heard of Easter being 'yellow' because then it was definitely the tradition and not just me being ... well, me. Also instead of having chocolate Easter eggs and Easter bunnies, each of us get a plastic egg which is filled up with sweets! Us six "kids" -Ulla, Andreas (Ulla's boyfriend), Emma, Simon, Klara and I- went sweet shopping and each got a decent sized bucket to fill as much as we could with many varieties of different sweets!  It was a bit strange to go out and choose the sweets we wanted for Easter as I am used to having no involvement in the decision making of the chocolate eggs, the only part that includes Cianne and I is the finding eggs and eating them!  

So after literally forcing the lids shut on the buckets, we stashed the sweets away and on Easter eve a treasure hunt was made by Peter and Ellen and we were all split in pairs to go out and follow the clues that eventually led us down to the old hollow oak. Here we found our Easter eggs had been put in the tree through the hole that Simon and I had gone through to climb the tree from the inside out last time we had been up to the farm. So finally we had our Easter eggs with the lollies in them! The lollies of course didn't last long! .. or at least for me ... 

On Sunday, Easter day we went to the church to have a nice breakfast which was offered to all who attended that day and of-course it was the usual continental breakfast. After a nice meal it was church and was great to be able to actually understand what was going on in the church and in the songs of praise. The church service ended outside in the graveyard and I felt a sense of peace fall over me as I realized that I was no longer scared of graveyards but instead I actually enjoyed the stillness as the congregation sang the last hymm.

Sunday morning Church

YAY! Found the eggs with lollies!