I'm here!!!

We arrived at my school, Sunnhordland folkehøgskule, on Friday. We had to take a ferry from Bergen to Leirvik and then switch ferrys to go to Ranavik which is on the island that my school is on, Halsnøy. After getting to Ranavik we caught a train to the school. The raods are terribly skinny (one laned) and people drive so fast, I was sure we going to die as the bus driver sped his huge vehicle about the many curves of the road, barely getting out of the way of other traffic.

When we got to the school the bus would only drop us off at the end of the road…we had to go 200 meters still to get to my school. So here we were, my mom and I, lugging 4 suitcases, 2 carrey on suitcases, a backpack and my bassoon uphill on a gravle hill 200 meters to my school….it kinda sucked. My mom eventually stopped and had me go see where exactly we are supposed to go so we didn’t go past it. That is when I met Lars, the theatre instructor, through a window on the side of a building. He was in jean capris, a white beater, and checked vans with a fo-hawk for a hair style…he was young too. Really quite cute actually but never mind that. One thing I’ve noticed here is that the teachers are mostly really young with a couple old fogies thrown in here or there. Anyway, Lars came and helped us with the luggage and led me to my building, Tuneheimen. I found my dorm and settled in. I did have a roomate but she has panic attacks and needed a single room. We are friends though.

Lars showed us around the school and buildings a bit. It is a lot like camp actually. Very hilly, the rooms are set up the same, there is a gymsalen (a gym), a matsalen (dinning room), and the løa (which means barn but is just called that because there used to be a barn there) where the main asemblys are and the main music building. I do feel like I am living at camp, its kinda surreal.

Lars informed us that the island doesn’t have any police. The used to come every Tuesday but found it a waste of time so now they drop in one Wednesday a month or so just to make sure the drinking is under control.

So me and my mom got to the school a day early and since the island is so tiny we stayed there Friday night. Well, since we were early there was no food so we decided to go into town and get some. We walked part of the way and then found a bus stop but when we got into town everything was closed. (it was only 6 o’clock.) Apparently there was a wedding and the island was so tiny that everything closed down so people could attend it…this is going to take getting used to. We found out the bus didn’t run past 6 and had to call a taxi to get back to the school.
The taxi driver pointed out a gas station with a fast food place that was still open so we stopped in but everything was meat, mainly sheep meat. So my mom got a frozen pizza and I got a loaf of frozen bread and a slab of cheese. On the way back the taxi driver pointed out a yellow building on the other side of the island and said that the very first Viking ship to sail to America was built on this island at that building. I found that pretty interesting.

Saturday went by without much event and Sunday was the opening day for school. We met some nice people that invited us to go along with them in their car to explore the island. There are about 83 students this year, I know there are only 8 theatre people and some art and majority is dance and music. At the opening ceremony we got to see 3 of the teachers do a little…”skit” -for lack of a better word- the choir teacher sang a beautiful opening and one of the music teachers played an interesting solo on his trombone while one of the dance teachers did and interpretive dance to the trombone playing. It was very interesting. Then we sang a song and got a presentation on mat pockets (again, very like camp)- you see, it’s a Norwegian tradition that when you eat breakfast, you create a sandwich for later to eat as your lunch with some fruit and juice. After that we got to see another very interesting “skit”. This one including an art teacher blowing air and strumming the keys of his bari-sax, every-so-often letting a high note or a string of low notes in while the lights were out and two dance instroctore did another interpretive dance, this including a flashlight and a bunch of string being tied about…my teachers are freaks.

I am the only american here. While most people speak English, not all do. My problem is that I learned Bokmal Norwegian, the oslo dialect, and most of these people speak different dialects and talk so fast I might as well not know any Norwegian at all. There is one teacher, a music teacher thankfully, that I can understand as if he were speaking English, he comes from oslo so there you go. I feel kinda like the retard of the school being the only one from america. All of the teachers try to help me, which is nice, but its kinda embarrassing when the head of the school goes about asking people to hang out with me so I am not left out. The people here are nice enough, most can remember my name since its so unusual but if not I am known as the american girl, The USAer, just plain america, or even states. It was kinda funny when we had to split up into groups when we were doing an orientation activity and these guys are like, “dibs on the american girl!” I don’t know if that’s bad or good…It kinda sucks not having a roomate, no one to talk to if you don’t know that many people, but it’ll get better, it always does =)

So I am the 2nd bassoonist to come to this school in 50 years, the last one was 16 years ago. I have to go down to Haugesund to take lessons from a very talented bassoon teacher. Its about an hour and 15 minute ferry ride and then a 45 minute bus ride to get there…fun, fun, fun. I don’t care really, it’ll be nice to get out there and see the locals. I have also been invited to join the main islands wind band. I’m excited, they are paying for the transportation and it is conducted by one of my music teachers. We are going on tour in June to Austria so I am going to see if I can stay long enough to join.