Three-O

Today marks my 30-days-to-departure. It's actually insane, because it's come so unbelievably quickly. I mean, I just turned 17 (in March) and now I'm moving away from this small town where I've lived my entire life. Right now I'm very excited still a little bit sad. But since I am coming back it's more exciting than sad. Since today is the day when things are really becoming real to me, I'm going to use this post to talk about what I know for now!

Just a google photo, it says Engi, but not sure if it is!

It's a little bit over a week (approximately 9 days) since I got an email saying that I was to live with a family in Engi, Glarus. As far as I've understood Engi is a small (very small) town a bit up in the mountains and the canton of Glarus. I went wiki and checked out Engi; it's tiny. In 2003 it had a little bit over 650 people living there. This is.. tiny. But I think Glarus (population

5500) is close by because that's where I'm gonna be schooled and (hopefully) swim. I'm also going to live not too far from Zürich, which I think is an awesome city. If Engi was further away from society it would've bothered me. But it doesn't. I think it's gonna be positive for me to live in such a small environment and this will help me integrate easier.

I have perfectly cropped in this arrow to show you where in Switzerland I'll be placed. Unless my geography skillz have been completely outdated, I would say this isn't too far from the Alps!

I've only heard from the mother of the family (who's name is Claudia) once. I don't know if my mail wasn't sent or if they are too busy. I hope I'll hear from her again soon! But I'm going to have two host sisters, and I've been exchanging mails with them on Facebook! They seem really nice and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them! The oldest sister is my age (actually I'm only a few weeks older than her) and is called Lisa, while the other sister is a year younger than me and is called Hannah. They both seem like really nice and cool girls and I hope we'll become great friends. The father is called Kaspar, but I haven't been in contact with him yet. But the family seems real nice and that gives me a great mood!

The smile on my face!

Since I'm going to live in such a small town, I'm a little bit worried about my swimming, but I hope I'll be able to swim at least three times a week. If I have to take the bus to training I'll probably not be able (or arsed) to swim more than that. But I guess I can jog a bit and such. And I'm also looking forward to finding out what kind of sports there are there, I would like to try out something new, like Yoga or dancing? I don't know, but it would be really cool! One other thing is that Engi has a skiing center. I can't begin to describe how cool that is! I have high hopes for the Swiss winter, and think I might be able to actually become a decent snowboarder! And another thing is I'll be able to snowboard in Switzerland, which in itself is kinda cool.

It's just a googled photo, but I think this is the facility! I'm seriously looking forward to be blazin' down this hill!

Since my departure is only a mere 30 days away, I've been beginning to think about what to pack, what I have to do before I leave and getting nerves that I'll do something stupid and miss my flight or something else that will fuck up everything. I'm trying to cool down though, and concentrate on being positive.

A photo of a part of Glarus (according to Google), not sure if this is Engi, though..

Pack :

(this is where you stop reading and look at the nice photos I've put up here and there)

I'm bringing four trousers, and I know which ones. After that everything gets a lot more difficult in the clothing department; style is very important to me, but lately I've been changing style every week, and dunno how it's gonna be a month from now. I know what shoes I'm going to bring though; a pair of winter shoes, my Nike's (from London), my new white summer/spring shoes, a pair of sandals (new ones too) and that's it. I think that'll do for basic shoe garments, I might have to bring a pair of nice shoes too... holy shit, I've forgotten all about having to think about bringing clothes to wear to such occasions. Shit. Shit. Shit. Goddamnit. Now I just became upset with myself. But whatever (please forgive me for just rambling on, but that's why I'm writing this). It's alright though, there has to be something in my closet I can bring. If not a dress I at least know of a nice skirt.

I'm glad my suitcase is bigger..

My main problem with clothes is that I have an urge to dress summer and spring all year around, which often ends up with me freezing various body parts blue (no dirty thoughts, I'm thinking about feet, arms etc). And I'm going to be living 800m above sea level, which I think is pretty cold. So I'm trying to go against my natural urge to pack lots (or only) of tops and shorts (I'm obviously gonna bring lots of t-shirts and tops to wear underneath warmer sweaters and stuff). I have much hope in myself and think it's gonna work out.

Me during winter, pretty much.

Apart from that I want to bring the family some gifts from me, but I dunno what to give them. The normal thing would be bringing some chocolate from Norway, but dude, I'm going to Switzerland, wtf like. They're world famous for their chocolate, and'll probably think ours is pish. But I'm going to bring some music both Norwegian and other to show them some Norwegian music (bringing one of my dads' albums) and to let them get to know my music taste (even though my music taste has no beginning or end). And I've also been with my grandma and found some books that show the environment I'm used to living in (Sunnmøre).

This is the stuff that's gonna make me add about a 10000kg to my current weight. Worth it? I think so yes!

Apart from the packing issue there are lots of paper work to fix (with my retarded school), lots of people I have to say good bye to, and not to mention I'll be gone the 4th of Aug to the 15th/16th (not sure when I get back?) on a swimming camp in Sweden. So when I get back from swimming for ten days (obviously tired as hell) I'll have approx three days to finesse everything before I head down to Oslo to say goodbye to my "second" family (Jeff and her mommy) and then leave not to return back to Norway for ten months. It's kinda insane, right?

Anyway, cheers for now

Sunny

(I'm not going to post any photos of the family before I'm down there and have talked to the family about it, because it's plain stupid to do such a thing without their consent)