from Moisund, Norway...

I made it. I can���t believe it. I can���t believe anything including this Norwegian keyboard that will take a lot of getting used to. They have different characters (��, ��, ��, ���) than we do and some of their keys are shuffled around. My daddy warned me about that. I didn���t believe him though. Signe has her laptop all in Norwegian and it���s been a little challenging but I���m figuring it out. ���Lester��� means ���loading���. I want to ask her to change it to English but then I also want to get good at speaking Norwegian. Her mom and her computer only speak Norwegian. I���ll be living with both. I���ve already learned some words. ���God Morgan��� is ���good morning���, ���ost��� is ���eggs���, ���god nit��� is ���good night���, ���Lagre��� means ���save���...and upstairs where her bedroom is where we���d call a ���loft��� is also a ���loft��� in Norwegian. But there is a strong difference of accent and that is where it���s hard for me to do the things with my tongue. Maybe though in 8 weeks I���ll have forgot all my English and be rolling my r���s like crazy. Maybe.

I have words for each second. I journaled the whole way here in little bits. If I could describe Norway to you in 3 words here is what I would say: (in only 3 words) Lakes, Trees, and beautifulgirls. It���s true. Norway has them in full. They���re everywhere, each one of these things��� taking you���re breath away. I like it. They are three of God���s most amazing creations and this land is drowning in them. I want it all in writing because there���s so much to say and I know most of what I���ll experience, I���ll forget���or maybe the small enjoyable details, like the Norwegian chocolate last night and the delicious coffee that Signe���s mother kept refilling in that beautiful blue pottery mug...or like going to meet Borge, Signe���s brother, and standing on top of his deck that overlooked this insane lake, bordered with millions of trees and horses. Or how on my first night was the first ���episodo��� of 24 Season 6 here in Norway and how symbolic that is because it���s Signe���s and my first 24 since the ship where we use to watch it all the time together on the floor in my office. But in Norway there are no commericials, only one set and it starts at 9:30pm and goes until 10:15. Oh and it doesn���t get dark out here until 11pm which they call 23 o��� clock. There are so many details and I think I���ll get used to them and that is just it. I don���t want to. I don���t want to get used to these mountains that I���m staring at from Signe���s living room or the constancy of lakes and the sweetness of their chocolate. I want it always to be my treat. And I want my words to capture it. But I���m going to pray against anxiety attacks because I can���t capture every sweet detail but I can live them and I can be thankful and I can smile at my Signe a lot. This is what I will do. Gratefully, I will live out my details and weekly I write on one, some weeks maybe two. I love writing here. So I will keep it up.

The picture above is our first one since one year, one month and one week ago. I did not realize it had been that long. I thought one year but Signe reminded me that it has also been one month and one week. I could hardly keep my grateful emotions bottled on my final 3 hour bus ride to Arendel, where Signe would be waiting. The water and the trees and the funny accents of those around me took my breath away. Signe getting nearer and nearer took my breath away. The perfect soundtrack of Regina Spektor in my ears took my breath away (I think she will become my Norway soundtrack. Signe and her mom love The Jayhawks and Catpower that I���ve sent them���I know they���ll love Regina. I can���t wait to introduce them all). With headphones in my ear and anxiety all throughout I held onto my book that Drew made me get for this trip. It is called ���Sophie���s World��� and is written by a Norwegian author, Jostein Gaarder. I was scared at first because it is a book based around the history of philosophy. I dropped my philosophy course after my first class at Covenant last semester. When Drew said Philosophy I wanted to drop (kick) him too. But then he said, ���Sienna, it is a book written to a 14 year old girl. She is the main character.��� Okay then, I thought���I may get this one. I purchased it one hour before my plane left and it has been beautiful detail throughout my travels. It really is written to a 14 year old girl and it is right up my alley. I get this author. His words resonate with me. They inspire me. They challenge me. He talks of wonder in one part and I thought of you right away. I wanted you to be reading it with me but I will type it out here since you weren���t���

���The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder. Babies have this faculty. This is not surprising. After a few short months in the womb they slip out into a brand new reality. But as they grow up this faculty of wonder diminishes. Why is this? Do you know (Sophie)? If a newborn could talk it would probably say something about what an extraordinary world it had come into. We see how it looks around and reaches out in curiosity to everything it sees. ���But long before the child learns to talk properly and long before it learns to think philosophically ��� the world will have become a habit. My concern is that you do not grow up to be one of those people who take the world for granted, Sophie dear.���

He goes on. Much further on about how crucial and beautiful it is to have eyes that wonder. I looked out my bus window afresh with more gratitude then I had 10 minutes before. I did not look at the lakes and trees anymore with simple eyes but I wondered deeply and happily about the mysteries and awesomeness of their Creator. I wondered why he so graciously has brought me back into Signe���s life, someone that I cannot even begin to tell you of her importance and impact to me��� why God? Why me? Why did you allow me such a precious friend and why is she allowed to come back into my life for 2 precious months? And yet it is not so curious to me as it is fascinating and mostly, humbling.

We hugged for ten minutes. That is a long time. I shook the whole time���little bits of ice started falling from the sky and I kept saying over and over again ���I can���t believe I���m looking at you and not your picture.���

Family and friends, it was SO weird.

It was weird as well how everything in her town looked so familiar and I knew my way around her house and where her room was and what colour her bathroom is now because of all the letters, packages, and pictures that we���ve kept going between us (on average 2 a week!). I knew my way around. Her yard was just how I remembered, her mom too but so incredibly sweet and excited and said in her few bits of english she knew and presh accent, ���we be three sisters at end of 2 months!��� She is funny. She thinks I am too. We (Signe���s mom and me) both live off coffee. I know she will be my sister by the end of two months because coffee brings people together in the strongest sense of the word. She refilled my cup 3 times last night. We���re going to be REALLY good friends.

It is 2:24 in the afternoon now. Signe and her mom are at work. I just woke up an hour ago which would be 7am Cambridge time. In Moisund, Norway I am 6 hours ahead. I slept for 13 hours last night and am feeling quite refreshed. The wonder and excitement is keeping me going. I���m so happy to be here now, to be at my home for the summer. I can unpack now. I can buy a toothbrush now. I have my bed now (shared with Signe :) I can put out the few pictures now that I brought (one of the wallballers, of course :) near my night table. I can start a routine and sit on this brown couch every morning with my cup of coffee and Signe by my side and I can count on this for 2 months.

I love being able to count on things. Much more to come...