There should be a title here somewhere

(This is kind of way personal but I decided to go ahead and post it anyway. Stupid me. I'll probably regret it later.)

When it comes to school and education and life choices, there are a few things I regret. I regret not knowing about the proposal of moving me up a grade, so that I could have contributed to making that happen. It didn’t. I regret writing a crappy application to United World College. I didn’t get in. I regret not accepting the interview from Think Global School (although I had my reasons, which were personal and stuff). It looks like a fantastic school, and I'm not there when I maybe could have been. I regret not looking at more schools that were in a part of the world more different from Norway than USA. I regret, I regret, I regret. I regret.

But.

The people I’ve met here. The things we do here. The opportunities I have here. The experiences. The moments. The people.

And I realize that my shallow yearning for something different, something I might imagine to be better than this, is purely something I use as an excuse. To create a world where it’s okay for me not to be satisfied. Where it’s okay for me not to be grateful.

It’s not. Really. I’m not saying that I can’t be angry or sad or depressed or anything, or have a bad day (or a bad week), but in the real world, this is an amazing place. A place where I have people (that a month ago were mere strangers) who care about me, and whom I care about. A place where no one is “normal”, so we all are. We’re all weird and slightly disturbed and loving. We’re all living in the same community. In the same place.

A place that gradually has become home. 

Woah.

Time passes quickly here! I'm supposed to be doing homework right now... But here are some photos from the last few weeks. They're taken with my cell phone, so sorry for the crappy quality. By the way, there are quite a few bugs here, and a few days ago I saw a rattlesnake. But I didn't take a photo, I was busy backing away without freaking out.

Grilled cheese from In'n'Out Burger. It's actually kind of delicious (and gross but careface).

Our library is awesome with awesome posters and stuff.

Overview of campus. Beautiful? Yes! 

Tarantulaaa. They're actually pretty nice.

Praying mantis in dormparents' house. I always thought they were dangerous but apparently they're not.

This post was supposed to be published on the 16. It wasn't. Heh. 

Lerve, 

Ingrid

Blurgh

Because I have a school email through google, and I blog through google blogger with a different email, I can't be on both and that sucks because I need my school email. Then I don't blog and that sucks.
I also have a lot of homework but I don't have any pictures. I gotta do homework. Or sleep. Either one. Other than that, life here is pretty great.

Update

I'm so done with school already, I've had two whole days, and one of them wasn't even an introduction day, it was almost like a regular one! Bah. No, really, school isn't that bad, I kinda like it. I am now in the process of switching from Math HL to English HL, because Math HL just wouldn't work. Today's Friday, though, so I don't need to think about stuff like homework before around Sunday... Awesomeness!
In other news, I've met and tried to befriend a toad that I named Toadie, and the dogs here are super cool. I've seen two tarantulas, and lots of other critters and bugs. Lovin' it. I just needed to write a short update, tomorrow at 9am we're heading off to Sedona to do some shopping. I feel like my shopping list just keeps growing.. I don't really have homesickness, I just have the-people-at-home-that-I-miss-sickness. You know who you are. I'm really tired so this is rambly and weird but I needed to write about Toadie.

Toadie says hi. 

Masse love, 

The first few days

I'm just about to have lunch (we have a community meeting at 12:30 so I have to be done by then), but because THeory of Knowledge doesn't start until September 9 (or was that CAS? One of them starts at September 9) I have a free period in the fourth period, right before lunch. Thus I get an extra long lunch, so yay! This will be short, and rushed, but I wanted to at least get an update out, and some pictures. It's so gorgeous here, it's like I'm living in a postcard (I can't believe I'm actually living here!). School started today, and it all seems great. So far I've had Bio, which seems great, and when he briefly went through the syllabus I thought "Oh, this is all the things that I like in science! Whoo!" so that was great. It was the first period of the day, and then we had Theater, which I already love. We did this awkward name exercise, and it was incredible. (So was I, we had to choose an adjective to go with our name and I chose incredible. I kinda wish I went by Andrea here because then I could have been Awesome Andrea.) Then there was English, we played 2 truths 1 lie, and that's always fun. And now it's my free period! I thought I could explain more about my schedule, logistics and such later, so I'll do that and just post some photos of the landscape now. They're unedited, so they could be better, but oh well. Did I mention that it's ridiculously beautiful here?

I've been finding little pieces of Milla everywhere. I miss that dog. 

I think that I might have found my spot here. It's great. 

All is prettiness.

The chapel in the distance. 

"My spot". It's a heart. 

Some kid tried to steal my glasses and I got a lot of smudges on them. I love kids. 

We went to Weber's the day before yesterday. I wanted you guys to see what I bought because Kiss my Face don't test their stuff on animals so you should buy it. Arizona Tea is also always awesome. Do you see how huge the bottle is?

So now it's almost 12:00 so I gotta run to lunch. I need to eat something before classes continue. 

Masse love. 

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.

Rondane, from the drive down to Oslo.

More Rondane. 

Because I, along with two other girls, came a day early, we spent the night at the Admissions Director's house. Look at that view! 

That's the sign on my door! And now you all know my name and where I'm from. Don't abuse it. Seriously. 

My bed before I unpacked. 

And then I opened my suitcase.

Oh by the way, if you want to send me mail (PLEASE SEND ME MAIL THAT WOULD BE SO GREAT), my address is:

Ingrid A. T. Sandnes

3511 Verde Valley School Road

Sedona, 86351 AZ 

USA 

So yeah. Send me mail. I'll love you forever. 

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