Life at the Dartons

Everybody wonders how my host family is like. For your information I can tell a bit J Quickly, I have found my place in the house of the Dartons. Hostmother, Gillian, is a caring woman who has many to take care of. In addition to being a teacher, she has three children, a Mum with Parkinson’s, two (barking) dogs and, as a tip of the ice berg, a crazy Norwegian girl living in her house. Haha. My two oldest host-siblings, James, 19, and Hannah, 18, have both recently moved to London to go to Uni, all though James probably will come back within weeks because he don’t feel too well being away from home. Yeah right, I think… If I can move to England then he should manage a student’s life in the city that never sleeps!

Anyway- I really like both of my host sisters; Hannah (who I wouldn’t see before Nov) and Abigail, 14. Before Hannah went down, I started working at the same place as her, The Maze, where I met lots of nice people. Unfortunately, the Maze is now closed for the winter, so I only worked two weekends. Nevertheless, those two weekends where lovely and a great fun in addition to earning a portion of desperately needed money. The pounds disappear quickly in this land, even though I am quite economic. Some of the other Norwegian girls have al ready spent a whole fortune over here, which is, in a way, understandable. “Money is supposed to circulate,” a sentence of wisdom my Dad once taught me!

To be honest, I sometimes feel a bit down. What tend to bring me down are the extremely long days at college (as described earlier). It is really hard to keep concentrated during such a long time, and sometimes I just want to be taken care of. Fortunately are there a lot of people to cheer me up if I need it, and I also help others in need. It’s like the group of Norwegians at the college support each other and it works like a safety net for us. We are 40 girls in all and only two boys. Quite fun, actually. We stick together even though we all are starting to get to know more English people. I’m sure that after this year they will be like my third family, because it feels a bit like home when we can have a normal conversation in Norwegian.

I hope to give you an accurate description of how I feel. That is why I’m honest. If I had not, you wouldn’t actually believe me when I’m telling you how wonderful it is as well. Because it is. Here I can be whoever I want to be. I will always be myself, but I will also develop my personality while I’m here. I’ve al ready started. I start to know myself better. I know where I’m from, and it’s good.

Also, I learn to appreciate things. Things I would usually take for granted, I now see in a different perspective. Such things as Norwegian (or Danish for that matter) rye bread and warm bathroom floors are both something I haven’t found her yet. I doubt I will ever find anything reminding me of freshly baked rye bread! I really understand how much I have got at home: A whole life which I’ve switched to pause for a while. Here I have a new life to live, and it is very exciting. Gain new experiences every day and discover a new City.

To sum up today’s writing I have to mention what a sweet and historically wonderful York is. When I walk through the streets, looking around me, I catch myself thinking how lucky I am.