Ingrid på vei ut : I'm here!

Åh deer la jeg igjen norsken min i Norge. Heahea.

So, okay. I'm here! And now I've been here for some thirty hours. It's great! People are wonderful. Everyone is so helpful, friendly, including and open. I'm loving it. What I'm not loving is my jetlag. Because AZ is nine whole hours behind Norway. So when everyone else is the most awake here, I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open. Thus, participating in conversations of any sort was kind of hard yesterday after 2pm, but that might just be because I feel my English isn't very good. So yesterday, between dinner and check-in, I sat listening to some very awesome people talk. They asked me why I was so quiet and I could do nothing but reply: "Jet lag. Nine hours." They seemed like they understood, but I can't wait until my body gets into the daily rhythms here. I want to be truly awake at the same time as everyone else!

But did I mention that people are awesome here? I have a great Resident Advisor (the best, I think) and great house parents, although I don't know them that well yet. The House Head (that's the guy who does all the administrative stuff for our complex) hands out Otter Pops (which are just frozen sugar water), and yesterday he addressed the no-boys-in-girls-rooms-and-vice-versa-rule, and I love the way he did that. He said that yes, it was a very heterosexist rule (although I'd probably call it heteronormative), but it was still a rule we had to follow. Just by him saying that, it made my respect for the school, him, and the rule grow exponentially.

There's also a dog here that we can't look at because she lives her life in fear. There are tarantulas and scorpions and lots of other creepy crawlies in the rooms, but I've thankfully not seen any yet. Just regular spiders.

Did I mention that people are open and friendly? Everyone says hello and often "how are you", to everyone, and if you talk with people, you might just get their whole life story in a couple of hours. For a Norwegian who comes from the land of snow and silent nods instead of hello's, that is quite disconcerting, but I'm still loving it. It fits me perfectly, and once I get used to it, I'm sure I'll love it even more.

Sorry about this being a rambly post, but it's just 7am (here, at home it's 4pm) and I'm soon heading off to breakfast. But, just to calm everyone back home: I'm fine. A little overwhelmed, but actually more than fine. This morning it was even cold enough to wear sock, pants, and a shirt. Today will be a very busy day, it's Registration Day, but if I'm not too tired tonight, I might just try to update later. Some pictures , though.