It's Been Awhile

Hello friends, family, acquaintances, and everyone in between - 

I apologize for being away from my blog for so long, and with that, I apologize for the length of this post. It has been over a month since I last updated you all on my happenings in the Faroe Islands, and so much has been going on - I hope I can remember it all to share with you.

First and foremost, I have switched host families ~

I moved from my first family in Hoyvík to my second family in Argir on November 17th. Switching host families was one of the only times in my life where I felt five vastly different emotions at once. Extreme gratefulness to my first host family, sadness for having to leave them, nervousness for having to learn everything over again with a new family, excitement to live in a new place, and happiness for getting to experience all these emotions at once. That is the best way I have to describe it. Needless to say, there were many overwhelmed tears. I was sitting in my new host families house, drinking tea, and my first host sisters and I were all crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm really excited to be here it's just... hard!" I said, laughing and crying at the same time. I meant that 100%. I still don't know what was happening.

Remember in my first blog post, when I told you that I hope leaving the Faroe Islands will be harder than leaving America? I already know this will be true, and I am dreading the day that I get on the plane to go home. (Sorry Minnesotans, I still miss you buckets).

My first host sisters and I, the third day I was in the Faroe Islands. We have made many memories since then. They gave me this picture in a frame when I moved out, and I got a bit choked up. I was so blessed with this family!

So now, I am in Argir. Argir is on the opposite side of Tórshavn as Hoyvík. It is farther away from my school, but closer to downtown Tórshavn. My second host family is lovely. They have a daughter who is my age who is on exchange in Taiwan right now, so I am sleeping in her room. I also have another host sister, Sanna (13). My host parents are named Katrin and Eyðun. They are incredibly sweet people, and I am so excited to get to know them over the next three months, and spend Christmas with them! Katrin, Sanna and I have already enjoyed many relaxing afternoons at Kaffihusið, and hopefully more to come. They are also fantastic at speaking Faroese to me - which is going extremely well, by the way!

Here's what I have been up to ~

My class consumes most of my weekends with what is called a "flokksball". "Flokksball" directly translates to "class party". We have had many birthdays in our class in the last month, which means many "flokksball"s. I have been so lucky to land in such a great class. I get along with almost everyone, and they are extremely fun to be with. I enjoy every minute! They are extremely helpful in my learning Faroese, and I try to help them with English as well. They are so caring and are really some of my best friends in the Faroe Islands. 

We read The Hunger Games (Hungursleikirnir) in Faroese class, so when Catching Fire came out into the movie theater (two days before in America - HA), we all went to see the midnight premiere. That was SO fun. 13e took up about 1/5 of the theater, and we were definitely the loudest...

My class, 13e. I realized I had not put our class picture on my blog yet.

Faroese ~

The Faroese is coming along so much better than I could have ever imagined.

There are a few things I have discovered when learning a new language in a new country -

Almost all American's only speak one language. Yeah, ok, you take language classes like Spanish and French in school, but you don't really "speak" Spanish. You don't use the language. I think American's are extremely under privileged in that way. I have a friend who is Faroese, and went on exchange to Spain last year. She is fluent in Faroese, Danish, English, Spanish and German and she told me this once - "Yeah, sometimes if I am talking to my friends, we just start speaking a different language, because we can't express what we are trying to say as well in Faroese as we could in Danish". All Faroese people must learn Faroese (of course), Danish second, and English third. And they all speak, like really speak, these languages. This is one of the main reasons why I think everyone should have the experience of going on exchange. To learn to speak another language. Yes, it's hard, but it's an amazing thing to do. I didn't know the absolute beauty of it before going on exchange. I will be messaging all my classmates and Faroese friends on Facebook in Faroese, and then go to message someone from America and have to sit for a moment and think to make the transition back to English. It's the weirdest and best feeling in the world, in my opinion.

Ok, soleiðis.

That's all for now, but expect a new post soon about Christmas in the Faroe Islands - which, to no surprise, is MAGICAL.

Hope you all had a good November, and a delicious Thanksgiving! Talk to you later.
Katie