The summer is over, and tomorrow I´ll start working again. I am looking forwards to going back to my former working place, Kampen Skole, but it is weird that I am not going back to Nairobi, back to Rosslyn, back to the Norwegian compound, back to my friends in Kenya. I miss it a lot.
I don´t miss the driving, though, even if learning how to drive a car in
this country has been quite a challenge! Everybody drives on the right hand, and on the road! No overtaking in the ditch, no zigzag driving on the highway, no matatus or cows or hand carts on the roads... And a big smile was glued to my face a long time after my first crossing of a zebra crossing, when I realised that the cars stops for pedestrians here. I have to admit that it´s a lot harder to do it myself...
The summer has been good, and here is a brief look at what I´ve been doing since I came back to this beautiful country up north:
* One week of doing nothing at all, just trying to settle in Norway, staying with my mum, getting back my tiny little flat.
* One week together with my eldest brother and his two kids in Oslo/daytrip to Sweden/some sunny days at my cottage in the forest. Fishing and sunbathing.
* A few days in another cottage, belonging to my aunt. Myself and all the people mentioned above met my sister and her family, and we stayed 11 persons in a cottage with 5 beds. Nice and cramped.
* A couple of weeks at Jæren in the west, eight hours drive from Oslo, where my sister and also my youngest brother live with their families. Quality time with my eight nieces and nephews! Tropical heat the last week I was there, and a lot of sunbathing and swimming in small lakes. No
morning baths, though :o)
* A visit to some Kenya friends at the idyllic south coast. We spent a wonderful day, sailing to a small island where we stayed all day together with their friends and family.
* Meeting the Kiplesund family in Tusenfryd Amusement Park today, my last day of vacation. Great to see them again! And the children dragged me into all kinds of roller coasters, which made me quite dizzy for my drive back to Oslo... Still - a wonderful way of ending the summer vacation. From tomorrow it will be work, work, work....
After two extremely busy weeks of school I finally got a little bit out of town yesterday. Refreshing! The trip to one of the beautiful lakes in the forest just outside of Oslo was short, but then it was possible for Isak (4 years) and the two tiny little dogs to walk all the way by themselves, and it was also possible for me to join just for the afternoon. I would have stayed for the night if I could, as I really miss camping!! But since my choir was going to sing in church today, I had to go home by bus later in the evening. I was happy for the few hours I got to spend with my friends, though, walking up in the afternoon, putting up their tents, and looong hours of barbecueing. Great food and wonderful weather (as a typical Norwegian is very concerned about..) ! Only the toughest had a swim - I was not among them... 
And also - since they say that one of the dogs are snoring, my own bed was probably the best place to stay last night anyway...
