Harry Tur and Such

Last weekend I got to go to Sweden!! It really wasn't that big of a deal because it was just over the border to do a little shopping because it's cheaper there, BUT I can say that I've shopped in Sweden now. :) When people take trips across the border to Sweden like that, they call the trip a "Harry Tur" or a Harry Trip. For some reason if something is kind of a dumb thing to do they connect it with the name Harry....so since the Norwegian government doesn't benefit at all if people go shopping in Sweden, some politician called it a Harry Tur. So I went on a Harry Tur to Sweden. I wanted to get a picture of a Welcome to Sweden sign...like they have for all the states when you drive, BUT there was no sign! What a bummer. They need to invest in a sign so I can take a picture of it.

Also, I gave my church talk in Norwegian last week....yes, in Norwegian. That was soooo very stressful. I had to write it in English first way in advance and then get it translated by a friend into Norwegian. It's hard just to write it in English in advance, I usually don't do my talk until the night before or morning of, so that was a bit of a struggle. So....I read the talk in church and it may have been the longest 10 minutes of my entire life.....but I got through. I've never not wanted to give a talk so much as I didn't want to give this one! Everyone said I did a good job afterwards, but I think part of it was them just being nice.......I hope I don't have to do that again any time soon.

Last weekend I stayed with my branch president's family (the Breiviks) and on Friday night Sister Breivik was cooking dinner and I wanted to help. I decided to be clever and try to use the Norwegian that I know, so this is what I said: "Kan jeg hjelpe deg med ingenting?" After I said this, she started to laugh....that means I said something wrong....uh oh....so I asked and she said I asked her "Can I help you with nothing?" Oops. Still learning.

Classes are going great! Today I learned about wolves for hours and I was in heaven, if only every day could be so great! Friday we are taking a field trip north where we get to track wolves. So so so fun. Pretty exciting if you ask me!! We tracked moose last week and my group won ourselves some chocolate because we got the closest in our tracking exercise. I have discovered that one way to my heart is through Norwegian and Swedish chocolate. I am getting fat because of it. Oh well, at least I'm happy.