My second month in Norway was slightly less exciting but certainly important. I was still adjusting to life in my new country, but I had my feet under me. I was able to get a bus pass so I could visit friends and go climbing much easier. I could finally start taking steps to obtain my visa. Once I got my visa I would also finally be able to get a bank account set up.
After arriving back home to Stavanger from Lyngdal I was able to start going climbing regularly at Sørmarka Arena. This was a graduation present from my dad! Sørmarka is one of the best facilities I have ever climbed in. The facility includes a skating rink, a speed skating track, a gym, a cafe, a curling rink, a bouldering wall and climbing sections for beginners and advanced climbers. The area I climb in is 55 feet tall. There is one wall that doesn't have climbing wall on it and it retracts up and down. This lets their lift machine into the climbing hall so that they can reset routes. I don't have many friends with proper climbing experience so I spend most of my time on the auto belay systems that the facility offers. It's really nice because this lets me take my inexperienced friends and still be able to climb rather than just belay them the entire time.
In September I really started bonding more with my friends at school. We started getting together on Wednesdays because we get out of school at 12:30 on Wednesday. We went to several activities including the trampoline facility, the climbing hall, a pool hall and going bowling. It was nice getting out of the house and becoming closer with the people that I'm here with.
On my birthday I went out to a lovely dinner with the Silseth's. The dinner was actually planned before I arrived to celebrate Kamilla's birthday which is on September 10th. It was a pre-set menu with several dishes. The best was the deconstructed rhubarb crumble that we had for dessert. After dinner I got picked up by my friends Lisa and Amalie and we went to Lisa's house. We had a lovely evening of celebrating with movies and plenty of snacks. It was my favorite evening by far. They let me know how excited they were to have an exchange student in their class and wanted to let me know that they're very excited to include me and how important it is to them that I feel included and happy while I'm here. It was incredibly touching as I had been prepared with the idea that making friends would be very difficult while on exchange. The next morning we awoke on the most beautiful island that Lisa lives on. I hadn't noticed the evening before as it was dark when we drove to Bru. To me it represented classic Norway. Rolling green hills with sheep wandering about, a small winding road and all surrounded by the fjords. I was truly awestruck as we walked past everything in the morning while we took her dog Luna for a walk.
September was also the first time I got to meet my rotary club. They are based in our sister city of Sandnes. Which is a 15 minute drive away from Stavanger and is much smaller. It was lovely being able to introduce myself to my club members, only two of whom, I had met before at the airport when I arrived. It was wonderful being able to tell them all bout myself and how the last month in Norway had gone for me!
In the last week of September my host family took me to their cabin in Lillesand, a small city next to Kristiansand. The cabin is overlooking a small by with lots of small islands surrounding it. It's a large white cabin with over 12 beds, room for the whole family. In Norway every cabin and even many houses have little lawn mower robots to mow the lawn for you. At the cabin there are two robots that I affectionately named Michael and Stephen. While we were at the cabin I played ping pong, took photos and explored the area a little bit. The second day we went out and explored Kristiansand to see the city and take photos. Unfortunately while out taking photos my camera died shortly after we arrived. However, it was a beautiful city with a big open court space out in front of the largest church in Kristiansand.
I spent a lot of time with my new friends, getting to know them more and they showed me lots of cool things in Stavanger. September I was finally able to get a bus pass so I could explore a little more and get to climbing. This also meant I have a whole new way to get lost! The last days of September were spent learning Photoshop, climbing and generally just exploring my new home here.