I have been here now nearly a year, and I thought that I had learned a great deal; but when I heard what those who passed the examination knew, and considered that they would not amount to anything either when they came into contact with foreigners, I became very despondent.

And then the soil here in Norway is so poor compared with what it is abroad; it does not at all repay us for what we do with it.
Moreover, people will not learn from the experience of others; and even if they would, and if the soil was much better, they really have not the money to cultivate it.

It is remarkable that things have prospered as well as they have.
I am now in the highest class, and am to remain there a year before I get through.

But most of my companions have left and I long for home.

I feel alone, although I am not so by any means, but one has such a strange feeling when one has been long absent.