The Twelfth Week

Last week, my twelfth week, I was lucky enough to get to go on two trips to Oslo. Once with my school and once with my local chapter of AFS.

I was also lucky enough to get the day before the Oslo trip off from school! They had a teacher's day or something, I think.


OSLO TRIP NUMBER ONE (SCHOOL)

So, on Wednesday, I went to Oslo on a double decker bus with the Music and Drama students from my school.

Leaving Halden, heading to Oslo.

I just HAD to have a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks. (The closest Starbucks to me is in Oslo, nearly 2 hours away...)

Also, I introduced my friend Oliver to his first Starbucks EVER!

We ate at T.G.I. Friday's that evening, and I ate some very expensive Mozzarella sticks!

I saw the palace for the first time at night.

During the trip with school, we got a nice tour of Bårdar, a performing arts school. We also got a tour of 'Det Norske Teater' (The Norwegian Theater). We had some free time for lunch, I ate a Max Burger (A Swedish burger company) with Oliver. They took us to a very, well, interesting museum. At the end of the night we went to see 'Spelemann på taket' (Fiddler on the Roof). It was in Nynorsk (Not the type of Norwegian that I am learning... I am learning Bokmål). So that was interesting, and then a nearly two hour bus ride back to Halden.

OSLO TRIP NUMBER TWO (AFS ØSTFOLD)

On Saturday, I got on a train to Oslo from Halden with Time around 10:05 am, met the other Østfold exchange students in Fredrikstad and got into Oslo Sentralstasjon around noon.

Halden Togstasjon

Oslo Sentralstasjon

From Oslo S, we went to Oslo Operahuset (Opera House) to take some cool pictures and a group photo as well.

AFS Østfold Students

From there, we took a stroll down Karl Johan's Gate and over to Nobels Fredssenter (Nobel Peace Center) and took a look around the building and inside.

Of course, a selfie had to be taken!!! USA and Venezuela!!!

We were then released to have some free time. As I walked back towards Oslo Sentralstasjon I took a few pictures.

National Theater in Oslo

There was also a demonstration outside of the Norwegian parliament building.

It was a good time because while walking down Karl Johans Gate, I got to see a huge group of AFS students from both Region 1 and Region 2!!! Some people who I had not seen in almost THREE MONTHS! It was also nice to see the people from my own region too! 

From there, I met Paul from Germany at the train station, had some coffee and hung out a bit for the rest of the evening.

Oslo, by night! (This is probably around 4:30pm... So Dark!)

After walking for a bit, I asked Paul what the time was... it was 4:40 (I had to be back at Sentralstasjon around 4:45, my train left at 5:02) We walked quickly to the train station (I made it there around 4:55), said goodbye and I made it onto my train along with the rest of AFS Østfold!

Upon returning to Halden, we celebrated Time's birthday which had been the day before this trip and we showed the other students a little bit of the town (namely the Fortress), hung out and had a good time!

So, that was my week :)

(You can also watch the video from my trip to Oslo on Saturday on my youtube channel!)

Thanks for reading,

Ethan Block