Norge; mitt nye hjem~: the BEST day everrr

Today is seriously the BEST day ever!!! I received the greatest news today! 1) I will be traveling home for Christmas and 2) my visa to stay in Norway has been finalized! I am having trouble comprehending the situation... I'm just SOOO ecstatic, it's hard to put into words :D I guess my mother was planning on buying me a round-trip ticket as my Christmas gift, but was planning on waiting to surprise me with it... I thought I was planning to come home after Christmas this year, but over the weekend I was having second thoughts. I have many years to enjoy and experience a traditional Norwegian Christmas, but I really would like to be with my friends and family this year. It's going to be SUCH a breath of fresh air, because I've had a lot of obstacles to overcome during these last 4 months!!! I haven't set the dates yet, but plan to come home for at least 2 weeks, regardless! My Norwegian class now goes until Dec. 21st, but I'm thinking that I will head to NH the weekend before my class is over, which won't be a problem, because I asked today! I may or, may not stay in The States for New Years Eve, but we'll see, if I can make plans. I should have the ticket bought by this week! I still can't believe it!!! Today is the best day ever.

But, anyways... my visa, come to find out, was finalized last Friday, so bright and early tomorrow morning I will go to the police station to get my sticker in my passport! It's that easy. But, then I must go to register myself in the Oslo "population count" in which I will receive my very own Norwegian personal number (same as social security in the US). I will have this number for life and will finally be able to start working part-time, open a bank account, etc! I won't be getting it tomorrow though, because it takes a week or 2 to get it, but hoping I can plan on it not taking so long. I'll find out tomorrow the amount of time I've been granted on this particular visa, but my guess is that it is for at least 1 year, but could be for 2! We'll see.

Everything is falling into place :) Since I will now come home for the holidays, everything works out perfect for me, school wise as well. I had another meeting with my school counselor last week and she introduced me to a new class that I have the opportunity to take at the beginning of January. Not only is it a Norwegian class still, but it is also an internship part time as well! I can choose from a handful of areas to do it in, but will definitely decide to do it in a kindergarten or after school program, because I want to work with children, regardless of what I'll be doing in the future, so this will be such a great foundation for me and a great thing for future employers to see that I've accomplished when the time comes! It's for 6 months (January-June) and is pretty intensive. Of course I am still granted time off, just like any other school, but if you sign up for a class like this then you must be dedicated to seeing it out. You must apply for the class though, so I must find out more information about it ASAP, so that I can guarantee a spot in the class! It'll be a very beneficial experience for me, and it's something I look forward to! I may even be able to get some kind of salary when I'm in the kindergarten, actually working, but I'm not 100% sure and must also look into this as well. It will be approx. 30 hours a week, I believe, but that still gives me free time to work part-time at the flower shop too!

Over the weekend, as I mentioned in my previous post, Anders and I hosted a Halloween party at our new apartment! It was a costume party, of course, and we had so much fun!! We invited about a dozen of our friends and had a blast! We went all out--we decorated the living room with fake spider webs (with spiders!), had lit up Jack O' Lanterns on the window sills, Halloween candy and more! All of our friends probably didn't know what to expect, because it's not a traditional holiday, but everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! It was pretty hilarious to see a bunch of Scandinavians dressed up in costumes. To me, it's normal dressing up every year, even at 22 years old! It's such a great tradition and I'm glad everybody liked it. I'm sure we'll continue the tradition next year as well!!