SURPRISE POST!!!! HAHAHA!!!!!

So! Since I am feeling like I have something to talk about that is semi interesting I will.

Well, first I would like to share my excitment at having 3 days of vacation!!!! well, really 6-ish since I am going to Tromsø with Mama on monday! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am hoping that I will be able to meet up with both the dean of Skogfjorden (Mama and her are freinds) and also some of my AFS buddies in Tromsø!!!!

Second I will exspress my happyness at the realease of the next book in the Wheel of Time series! I am not the only geek at my school who has read those wonderful yet really aggrivating stories... one of the boys in my sociology class is also a fan. Him and my other friend in that class are trying to get me to join them in quild wars, but so far I am holding out until college when Dad and I will have WOW accounts... and not any sooner Dad... You heard me before I left and now you're reading it again... If you read this...

Oh, another thing that relates to Dad. There have been so many commercials that have been for Lady Antabellum's CD. And they always play I Just Need You Now, which I consider Dad and my's song. It makes me wonder how much the CD costs here as compared to in the states... then I remember that it would justbe cheaper on itunes... fail.

I have been watching people, or rather a person, almost every day. When Pappa drives me to school we drop Mamma off at work first, which means we always pass the red house with the driveway on the roof, which always has a Harly parked there. Then only a few houses down in another red house is a man who always wears a white t-shirt. whenever I pass, no matter what time of day, he is always sitting there. Usually he is eating and staring over the street towards the harbor, but once I saw him talking on an older white cord phone. I always wonder what he is thinking of when he stares off into the distance, and I always wonder why he never wears a red shirt or a grey shirt... something other than white. He is interesting... maybe before I leave I will go try to meet him...

I just recived a letter from Grandma. And after deciphering your wonderful handwriting I decided to note that Sadie (a dog noted in a previous post) is not the most spoild dog in the world. The title really belongs to her sister Misty, who has home made gormet food made out of real people food. Sorry Grandma and Sadie for the mix up. Also, thanks for the letter, it made me smile. I'll try to send a response as soon as I think of something interesting that I haven't already blogged about.

Oh! I am going to pick potatoes tomorrow morning! Which means that I get to bring back a big sack! YUMMY!!!!

Okay, end of surprise post. I was going to attach pictures, but that would require finding my camera, which I am to lazy to do.

Okay, if non of my wonderful readers at least say "hi" to me then I will begin to belive that my wonderful Mum and Grandparents are the only ones reading this, which would make me rather sad... so at least once in a while say hi! Please!!! :D

Vi snakkes!

BÅNGÅ!

HEIA!!!!

So! Again, I believe that even though I was cold and damp through out my weekend it still beats yours! HAHA!

So, after I posted on Thursday I caught a ferry to Finnsnes! It left at about 7:15 and got there at about 9:45... long, but lots of fun. Morgana (jente fra italia) and I sat across from each other and played tic-tac-toe, and hangman using words we found around the boat. then we dicovered the instructions for if the boat is sinking...

We especially liked the instruction "Avoid panic, remain calm" and my ability to read the whole thing without laughing and in the same tone that you hear on planes when they are explaining what to do if we are crashing or we need to wear our oxygen masks... and hour and a half of entertainment!

When we finally got to camp we leaarned that we were not camping, but sleeping in a hunting lodge, that also has a shooting range out back. it was quite humorous all weekend when something that somebody said was puntuated with a gunshot... :D

On friday I got to sleep a whole hour and 20 min longer than I would have if I was at home... unfortunatly I hadn't slept all that well since my sleeping pad was about the thickness of one of the ones that we had on outwardbound, and I only had 1... so I felt like I was sleeping on the wooden floor... oh well.

Breakfast was the normal brødskive og brunost, syltetøy men vi også hadde nugati!!!! yummy yummy in my tummy! Sorry for the random sentace på Norsk, but i felt it was needed. I also decided to try putting the (Note to self: bringbær = raspberry devyn... remember english?) raspberry jam on my brunost and buttered bread... much to my surprise it was delicious! :D

Oh, also note, that my name sounds very close to a swear på Norsk... it sounds like my name means "Devil"... all the leder did double takes when I introduced myself... it made me laugh :D

So after breakfast we played a couple games, monster and pip-pip, and pung... which was renamed bångå at some point that day... and then after that we were seperated into groups to talk about our expectaitons and goals... again. Okay, so maybe that wasn't fun, but at least we got 2 sessions of it done in one! that meant that we got to speak a little norwegian and play games like the human knot (I taught it, everybody loved it). Luch was left over soup from the night before, but the woman in charge told me and a few others of the secret for the next day!

Saturday was one of my leder friends' birthday! she turned 19, and Brit-Eve (woman incharge of the food) told me she was going to make a BIG cake and if she had time, waffles for dessert! YAY!!!

so, back to friday, we played lots of games after lunch, then had a girls talk, which was as always sworn to secrecy... but i think I can let out that at the end we had to either blow out a candle if there was something we didn't like in Norway, or light one if we did like something in Norway. The best one got a long, loud and very enthusiastic round of applause. One of the girls said that she didn't like that all the boys in Norway wear their pants off their butts, so everybody can see their boxers... everybody cheered as she blew out that candle! So, I am kinda hoping that it gets around to all the norwegain guys that none of the girls think that it looks good to have poorly fitting pants and overly colorful underwear... :)

Then there were more games. By the end of the day I was noted to be extremly good at the foot game, (when you move one foot and touch the next person's, then they have to move the foot you touched to the next... you are holding hands in what tarts out as a circle,but often becomes a knot the fewer people you get... and yes, you find yourself in the most akward positions... ugh) so nobody but 2 of the italian boys would stand next to me... lol.

I didn't get to bed until about 1 in the morning... then we were woken up at 7... :P we had breakfast (more of the same... bread, cheese, jam, butter, and nugati) and then were called out for a photo shoot! I am officialy fameos (sp) again, as I am in 2 news papers. one is Nordlys, and the other is Troms something or other... :) I was not interviewed this time, they just wanted me for my body... (Oh, and they did some wierd photo shop to my face, it make the visible half look all bloody, but I hadn't picked at all before that point!)

Then we were back in groups to do a rather stressfull game about picking a culture based on pictures... It was really hard, and I would have chosen one except that they had child soldiers, another had police that looked like they were out to kill everybody, another's main religion was Islam (and being female I would not fare well in that society) and was surrounded by the remaines of a volcano, and the last was the last strong-hold of the nazi police... literally... these were all fictisious (sp) cultures, but I really couldn't decide... ARGH!!!'

then after lunch we played games for a while, then when the rain lightened a little we were driven to Finnsnes videregånde skole to go on a hike to a teepee structure! YAY!!! it was fun except for one of the italian boys kept trying to run me over and tried to kick my legs out from under me while we were crossing a swamp! but he soon learned that not only can he not manage it, i am not scared of him, and I am stronger than him... HAH! he thought that just because he was a rugby player.... ;P

When we got back to the lodge there were pretty tea lights set around the tables and when we finally sat down and were quiet we got to eat PIZZA!!!!!! It was soooo good! but unfortunatly I made the mistake of sitting with a group of Italians... and they just couldnt have PINEAPPLE (!!!!) on pizza! that was just wrong! this was not a good pizza because of that! I had mushrooms and buffalo chicken on my pizza... it was so spicy it reminded me of Mum's cooking, except not in it's usual form! YUM!

Then we had waffles and extreme chocolate cake! It was a bunch of fun because we all sang happy birthday in our own languages! It didn't sound very good, but it was a bunch of fun and Christine (the leder) eventually admitted that it had been her best birthday yet!

Sunday we didn't have anything really, we played some games and packed. We did have to go around and write down questions about: verts familie, venner, kontakt med hjemland, skole, og fritid... then we answered them and talked about them. after that there was one more thing, we sat in a circle (oh, so casco bay!)and there was a positive and a negative chair. We were all supposed to sit in one and say something we would like to change about the camp and what was good about it. One of the leder sat in the negative chair and told us that she and all the other leder wished that they had gotten more hugs... this was the leder that we only saw at meal times or when she was running a group or giving orders. Only 2 maybe 3 leder out of 7 leder came out and played games with us and hung out with us instead of sticking together and staying in the leder room. After a few other people left I went to the negative chair and said that I didn't like how all the leder sat at one table together in the middle of the room, so they were seperate from us and we couldn't talk to them or hear their stories. I was then told, quite indignatly, that they were not supposed to tell us about their exchange year's. All of my fellows and Christine agreed that it would have been better if they had come out and visited us more, then we could have known them better and then they would have gotten more hugs.

As it was we decided by silent vote to lure the leder into a group in the middle of the circle and give them a "Winner's hug" that means a big group hug. It usually involves many people getting their toes stepped on, but is alot of fun!

Then people were leaving. We all hung out and tried not to be too sad, thankfully I was on the 2nd bus, so I only needed to watch one group go... :( It was rather hard to come back to school and away from all of the others. Norwegians aren't big on hugging, and everybody at AFS is... we actually talked about how we should change the name... Also we all can identify and sympathise with each other. So, we are all kinda sad about not being at the camp any more... :/

Today I had my full day of school. I missed the test on friday (!!!) so I'm kinda happy about that :) and we have moved on to graphing equasions which I find much easier than logarithms. We read 2 short stories in Norsk, one was called Karen and the other was Karens Jul. They were strange and kinda sad... :(

Then there was gym... i really dislike gym... or running rather.

Then there was biology, because my exchange student norwegain teacher is in spain... :D YAY! LESS BORDOM IN MY DAY!!!! I got my test back and i got a 4!!!! a 4!!! if I was still in CBHS I would be even more excited... now it is 4 out of 6... but it's still a passing grade! anything 2 and over is a passing grade... but I am feeling pretty good about it!

I was going to go over to a friend's house today after school, but she is sick so i came home instead... and on the way to the school i farted... (thanks Karro... but actually I didn't this time) actually I stepped in dog poop on the way to the college and didn't notice it until I got in the car and noticed a mud like smear on my shoes. after closer inspection (aka, trying to brush the dirt off) I realised that it smelled and it was poop... ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ("ew" på norsk)...

So now I am waiting for the washer to finish, so I can throw my shoes in the dryer with the rest of my clean clothes. urgh... waiting... waiting... waiting...

Oh! Other big news! I asked Odd and Marit if it would be okay if I called them Mamma og Pappa... So, I have officially fufiled (sp) one of my goals... :D

Only 2 classes tomorrow! then maybe Mamma and I can go to the yarn shop, because she is going to knit me a fair isle sweater... :) I'm excited!

Okay, that's it!

Vi Snakkes!

Excuse me for being early... but tomorrow I'm camping

God dag! So how have the past two and a half days been for you?

Well, I'm okay. It's been a little tought this week, not home sick exactly, but I am kinda missing all the hugs I would get through my day. I get maybe a couple a week now... so, when I get back expect some clingage... My teeth still hurt, and a recent development is now they are very sensitive to te cold... ugh...

Yesterday was fun. I have been writing a story that i came up with a long while ago. It's really fun, especially since I was harrased by one of my peers in sociology into letting her read my dictionary for the story, then she was reading my story. she is going to help me finish it, and I am going to try and help her write a story too! yay! and no, no vampires, but there is blood drinking because of magic and such...

I am really tired today... not sure why... I have been taking my viatmins, but I still feel a little run down. I am also having a slight foot pain, my right foot has been hurting on top for a while, but recently tingling down the toes too... odd and slightly annoying... sorry, i just realised that im complaining quite a bit... ok, changing from complainy me to reporting me...

A couple of days ago I turned 17.5! I had my half birthday, cool huh? so I am well on my way to being of the legal drinking age in Norway... not thati plan on doing much (any) drinking. My friends say that they don't really drink, maybe have a glass of wine while watching a movie etc...

So I am going to Finnsnes in about an hour... well, I'm going to the docks to get a ferry at half past 7... but since Karro and Odd have to go to håndball practice I am going to be there a little early... about a half an hour early... oh well...

So nothing much has happened, as you might have noticed, except that Karro finally managed to get me mad at her, she wiped her sweaty knee pads on my face twice after I had asked her to stop.... i had to threaten her with not being able to play on my ipod to get her to stop... ewwww...

so, im signing off... maybe take a power nap...

ha en god helge!

Have YOU ever been googled?

Please exscuse my failure at posting yesterday, the internet was wonkers and I couldn't figure out how to fix it... that and there was kineke (sp) brod and appelsin marmalade... :)

So this weekend I met Guro! She makes me feel short, and inactive, because she is a great håndball player... If we had handball in the states I would have definitly played. think soccer but using hands and not feet, and lacross without the sticks... FUN FUN FUN!!! I would have really enjoyed myself, but since these crazy norwegians have been playing since they were about 4-6 if I tried to start I would be clobbered... sigh... Mum would have enjoyed it too!

We had Grandiosa pizza! yum, and slightly ironic since I always thought that we would make our pizza, not buy it. That was friday evening... actually night, it was about 9-10 when we made it, but we stayed up another hour due to the adreniline and caffiene. :D

Saturday I slept in until about 10. at 11 Karro came to get me because there was a woman from Portland (our PO, as in in ME ) that was competing in the American Gladiator! She did win the gladiator prize! GO PO MOMS!

Then I managed to get ready in 20 min to go to a håndball game, which was thrilling! Then we came home and had grot! yummy! after a quick nap, Karro came pounding on my door to inform me that across the field infront of the house there were a couple of moose! he exact words were "Devyn! DER ER ELGER!" I would have taken a picture, but the zoom on my camera wasn't good enough... sigh. Then we went to another håndball game, and came home for home made pizza.

I finally finished the 3rd season of true blood! and just to re-iterate... I AM AN ERIC FAN FOREVER!!!! :D

Sunday we slept in again, but then had a wonderful breakfast that involved bacon... but the promised pankaker were absent... sigh. After breakfast Guro, Karro and I looked at pics for my russekort! I will send some to people if they want them, when i get them... :) Then Guro left to rejoin her team and go back to Tromsø, and Karro and I went swimming in the Grottebadet!

The pools were built inside a mountain, they were beautiful and the ceilings were so high! The company that Odd works for was the company that actually escavated the building... cool huh? So we went swimming, and were having a great time until silly me decided to try and climb the iceberg floaty climby thing that was tied down in the middle of the diving pool... I am not sureif the surface was made to resemble and actually iceberg, but when I finally managed to get to the top I tried to get around to the side that you can slide down but didn't quite get there... I ended up slipping down one of the climbing sides that was thankfully empty except for the one little boy who happened to be in the water right under my face.

My jaw smacked into the top of his head at high speed, and my immediate thought was "OH MY GOD I JUST KNOCKED OUT SOME SMALL CHILD AND NOW HE'S DROWNING! I HAVE TO CATCH HIM AND SAVE HIM!" But because he was a child he was still smiling and happy and when I asked him if he was okay he reasurred me he was great!

Thats when I felt a shooting pain in my jaw, and my wire retainer poked my tongue. I had blood in my mouth and was getting slightly dizzy. uh-oh. I got to the edge of the pool to find that all of my front bottom teeth were (are) loose, and the cement that bonded my retainer to said teeth had been pulled off when my upper teeth went smashing into it... It felt like I had gotten braces for the first time. ouch!

We also had reindeer meat that night, but guess who couldn't manage to chew it? :(

The next morning Odd brought me to Karro's orthodontist to see if he could fix my retainer. He took one look at it and said "oh! that's easy!" and 5 min later my retainer was re-affixed to my teeth, good as new. The best part? It was free!!!! the worst part (besides the pain) I got to school on time... :/

School was school, though in my last class, which is norwegian for the exchange students, I got very very bored and very very hungry. so, I asked på norsk if I could go across the street to get myself a pølse. He said "selvføgelig!" (of course!) and I got to leave for 10 min... :D I know it is helpfull for my friend/commerade from Italia to have that class, but im not sure if my commerade from new zeland is actually trying... oh well.

I went home after that and Karro and I watched Miami Ink, which ison every weekday at 4, then NCIS which is on right after that ends. We always have middag (dinner) near theend of Miami Ink and the beginning of NCIS, but we catch most of it!

Karro and I were planing to go to her favorite store today to go shopping, but there isn't a buss around that time for her to come... so it sounds like next monday we will go shopping, which is kinda unfortunate because I am finding I need more long sleeved shirts... 5 just isn't enough... and there are sales this week so I can get a few for around 100 nkr each... which is really exspensive but completely worth it.

In sociology today I learned that the 2nd grade class (what they call the 12th grade) I was origionally in had known about me since last year... they had googled me and found my facebook so they saw that pic of me... So now i feel kinda bad that I switched into the 3rd grade, but not bad enought to switch back... I am going to enjoy being russ!

We also had a conversation about birthdays, because today is my half-birthday. 6 months from today I will be a legal adult... though not completely independant. I will be the legal drinking age in Norway (though the likelyness of my drinking is slim) and I will be the normal age for graduation in the states... but still a year too young here... lol

SO, since I'm in the middle of class (quite literally) I should probably stop here. I'll let you all know if I broke down and went to find a couple of long sleeve shirts (and possibly a hoodie) without my darling host sister, who is still trying to annoy me, and still failing dismally. Thanks G. :)

Until next time! Ha det!

I WONT GO BACK UNLESS I'M COMMITED!!!

There is an explaination... But you all have to wait until we get there.

SO! Tuesday... It's kinda blurry... I guess that it's a trend... BUT I KNOW SOMETHING HAPPENED!!!! *runs to get journal... skims* OKAY! I remember now.

SO! I happened to only have one class, 'cause my Norsk lærer was sick... :D So, Weronika and I went down to the city for a little, I got some new earrings :). (speaking of money! I counted yesterday and I still have half of what I came with! I'm so thrifty :) ) then I went back to school to go to a meeting for students interested on going on exchange. The Italian girl showed up too, but the girl from new zealand didn't... even though she was the one to tell us about it... when asked later she said she didn't know where it was, it wasn't like there weren't signs on everyother class room door that had the one word she should know since it should be her master status (sorry, Sociology is coming back...). UTVEKSLING STUDENT... ok, 2 words... but really...

Then I went home and after supper went to a BBQ for Karro's class... It was fun.we had marshmellows and played truth and dare on my ipod... which i think helped her class's opinion of me which is "very nice!" There was a sign on the way up to the little hut that had the words " fylle folk i skog " under one of the pics of those people often seen on trafic signs that had him crawling to a bottle... I guess very few people notice it, so I kinda want to adopt it...but I resigned myself to taking a pic with Karro's phone, so when she gets back I'll upload a pic so you all will believe me. :)

Wednesday. I had 2 classes... unfortunatly there is a free period between my classes... But I discovered the library, and the room with desks and slightly plushy chairs. It's unfortunate... they seem to have more slightly plushy chairs and textbooks in that library than they have books to read at ones pleasure... :( Oh well, at least I have manga :D

Weronika came over after school. I managed to figure out how to use the coffee maker, though it took a little to find everything I needed. But I made her coffee and logged onto my american FB to show her pics... Only one person was on, so thankfully I didn't feel obliged to start a long distance conversation that had a probability of making me feel homesick... She really liked the pic of G making a rather strange face at Dad who has a huge pair of earphones on... she just wouldn't stop laughing. :) She had work, so whe went to that, then came back at about 8:30 for vaffler. Which you don't eat with syrup in Norway. Nope, you eat it with brunost or sugar, and butter. :) Very yummy.

Yesterday I got out of school and went to a birthday party for one of Karro's cousins who turned 50. He is recovered and is no longer living in the psyciatric hospital (ward... whatever it was) but he had it there. It smelled like a cross between a dentist's office and somehting to eat. Weird. I met an artist who is taking a paid leave from where ever he is working, because he needs a little help... he was very chatty. So if you didn't guess this is where the title of todays post comes from.

Karro and I were kinda bord and a little wierded out, so we escaped to the playground of the kindergarten across the parkinglot. We did have to jump the fence to get in, but I don't think anybody would have minded... It wasn't like we were vandalizing it, we were very obviously playing. :) But we eventually needed to go back, and decided to take a trip to the basement... which was EXTEMELY freaky... It kinda reminded me of how Uncle Charlie's 3rd floor bedroom was when I tried to stay there... 8/

We got back very late, since the party was in Sortland and we needed to take the ferry. But once we got back I did the HMWK due in the morning and made myself lunch and breakfast. I have a mattpakke everyday for lunch, which is usually cheese, butter and whatever meat (usually ham, but i really like the Dansk Salami) we have in the fridge. I have been eating brunost, butter and bread for breakfast as well, but when we have it I eat Prim, which is brunost that is the consistancy of peanut butter and rather sweet. yum :)

So, it turns out I didn't have to stay up 'till midnight to get the HMWK done (it was assigned that day! And I went to the birthday party right after school so it really isn't my fault! I had already said I was going!) 'Cause the group I was supposed to tell about socialism decided we were going to sit in on another group and get the info. yay! but also *facepalm*

I had two tests today. One in Sociology and the other in Biology. I managed to understand the first question on the sosciology test, so I got to bring the rist home and I will finish it. And I got all but the last question on the bio test, but that's because I ran out of time and really didn't understand what it was asking. :/ oh well... I did my best! :)

Guro is coming today, she has a håndball game at 9... so I might be using the coffee machine to regain some aptitude to think... So I will finally meet my older host sister. :)

Things to note: I have managed to talk a little about the differences in the political system in Norway and the US! I don't think I make myself sound like too much of an idiot yet! I have also been asked about the public school system, and I'm unfortuanatly not so knowledgable about that topic. My school is wonderful, and thankfully doesn't follow with the traditional HS... !!!! :D So far everybody is rather shocked that CBHS doesn't have any sports teams besides the ultimate frisbee team. I did expain that students interested in doing a sport can go to another public HS team, but they still were shocked. I also pointed out that it would take quite a bit of each class to get proper sports teams... we're just a little small... they thought that was funny.

I have also fallen in love. There is a commercial that admits that it is only propaganda. The song that plays while showing you it's wonderfull creamy and delicious flavors (and little sugar!) is a happy kinda dreamy tune that repeats "this is propaganda" over and over again... LOL! Maybe it's on Youtube... let me check. yep... here's the link! www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjjKM68PHjU
LOVE IT!!

Okay... coffee is calling me! have a wonderfull weekend!

My weekend went to the dogs... Quite literaly

Æ håp at alle had en god helg! (I hope you all had a good weekend), and I can confidently say that I had the most bizarre out of all of yours! HAHA!

I spent my weekend at my host puppy's family reunion. (oh, actually he turned 5 months this weekend, Karro confused me earlier about his age, so...) I was the only cat lover at a place with 9 english springer spaniels, and a german shepard. They all treat those dogs like babies... Seriously, It's worse than grandma treats Sadie! (for those of you who know my wonderful grandmother and her obese yet very humorus lassaopso) They had more clothes for them than my hairdresser has for her yorkie, and they fed them only the most gormet foods... They were like naughty children, even Kazan's grandmother and mother. Yes, I met them... Unfortunatly Kazan's father lives in Oslo, so we didn't get to meet him.

We discovered that Kazan is a natural at agility, and if he had had more training I'm sure he would have won that compitition.

Oh, I also got jumped by the german shepared. Her name is Tiara, and she is really quite nice when you are standing up... Dont bend over around her or you'll hear a menicing bark and violent growls and then her snapping jaws will be in you're face. I learned this thehard way, I tried to get her leash untangled, but that required bending down and resulted in me running until her leash wouldn't let her get me, her owner reprimanding her and making her realize she is my subordinate (I had to command her to sit then give her some pølse) and then about 10 min of my realizing that I got an adrenilin rush... I dont like those much, they always happen because of bad situations... dog attacks, white box truck wreaks... yeah...

So, that's how I spent my weekend. Oh I also ate a really good burger that has affected my GI tract negativly... I really hope tomorrow is NOTHING like today on that front... And I got to see/feed/pet some wonderful horses! The palimino was especially friendly, but that might be because I am so fond of that coloration after my dear Luke. :) I miss him still. So yeah, thankfully it was outside, so I didn't have a really bad reaction to being around so many dogs... *achoo*!

Today was interesting in the way that I learned absolutly NOTHING! math is more difficult because I cant figure out how to do logarithms (sorry mr Nichols.... they are just WAY to confusing) so I sat and looked through my Ny i Norge books... And except for a few random words there is nothing new in those for me... sadness... I did the same in Norsk, because they all had a test (i did sneak some tetris and soduku, but dont tell anybody ;) ) And in gym I followed Weronika around again... that's my exersise plan, follow Weronika and hope I dont die. We tried to run up and down damp wooden stairs for 20 min today... that went... interestingly... they were not all completly together, and some were at scary angles... and they were also made for someone with legs twice the length of mine! Norwegian class with the onther utveksling (exchange) students was... dull. As I said, I know most of the material, so I am going to start reading an online paper more often and such... :/

Oh! Also on the topic of gym. I would like to admit that i am not as comfortable in the shower/locker rooms as I thought I would be... I really have very litte problems with my chest ebing seen, but that is much easier to hide than lower down... I am proud to say that I am comfortable enough to take a shower with the other girls around, but I think mum managed to get a little modesty drilled into me... :$

Tomorrow there is a meeting for students who are interested in becoming exchange students, so Morgan, Morgana and I will be attending to provide more information. FUN FUN FUN!

Well, I need to make my matpakke and get my stuff ready to go for tomorrow.

Natta!

"Oh! Hey! Are you the American?"

Sooo!!! IM SO SORRY I DIDN'T BLOG YESTERDAY!!! I was really tired and kinda in pain (I'll explain) so I spaced... :) I'll try not to let it happen again!

So tuesday.. I don't really remember... wow... So moving on...

WEDNESDAY!!!! I only had 2 classes on Wednesday. :) The first was Biologi, but we had a speaker who came to talk about how climate change is affect artic/se ice and biological diversity... hm sounds kinda like something I've experienced before... but there were cute pictures and some of the slides were in english and norsk so it was interesting. After that I had a free periond, so since it was so nice out and I really didn't know where to sit inside I went out to sit on the benches... and read manga... it was really warm, I was happy! Then I had my easy class, that is not so easy now that we are starting logarithms... which i STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! Ugh...

After school I took a tour to a nearby town named Borstad... I think thats what it is called... and the best part! it only took an hour and only cost 40 nok! It was a lovely time! I knew som- Okay... I'm done... IT WAS HORRIBLE AND VERY STRESSFULL AND THE STUPID BUSS DRIVER KNEW I HAD BEEN ON THE BUSS ALREAD AND THAT I HAD JUST GOTTEN OFF BECAUSE I WANTED TO MAKE SURE IT WAS GOING BACK TO HARSTAD!!!!! I SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO PAY!!!! X[ I took the wrong buss... I didn't realize it until it was too far for me to walk back in a resonable amount of time... :P It caused me to be unable to go hiking with the college students I think I wrote about... If not, they're from Ghana, and Marit works where they go to school... So that was kinda dissapointing, but I didn't volunteer myself to go, so I was kinda relived at the same time... :/

Instead Weronika picked me up to go bowling! It was really fun! I was 2nd (we didn't use bumpers too!) but Iwas only behind Silje by 3 points! We played 2 games total... :) I got about 3 spares and a strike! HAHAHAHA!!! fun. We all were really lound and discussed the older men's magical bowling balls! They kept getting strikes... I only saw a couple of spares... Magical...

Yesteday, we had turdag! We went up to the folkparke and went up to the summit of the mountain that over looks Harstad... It was so fun hiking up!!! Coming down... was H-E double L... ugh... I went with 4 crazy norwegians who decided to go cross country... :P Both my anckles let out making me fall down steep hills, and when they didn't let out the hills were really steep and covered in dew, so I ended up sliding down on my rump anyway... I also hit my knee when I was tryingto cross a stream without getting more water in my shoes only to not only get my feet wetter, but also get soaked up to my knee... I couldn't let myself fall too far behind either, otherwise I would have been lost... I wanted to cry... But I made it to Musvann, and then started plodding my way down.

On the way down I met a returnee from my school who had lived in the states for a year. His name is Sebastian... And he was the steryotypical norwegian... tall, blond, sporty and great facial structure... He was in the middle of a run with some other guys, but I've heard through Marit who heard through his mother (who works for Heggen) that he want's to be friends... cool huh! Oh, the title of this post is the first think he said to me... It's been making me laugh since...

SO, yeah, when I finally got home my knees and ankles hurt... so I took a shower and Karro made some hot coco... and I relaxed the rest of the day... Oh! Marit and I made kinekibrød too! It is one of my favorite snacks... I like to out butter, jam and bronøst on it... Yummy!

So, today, I only had 2 classes! History and Math... I really, strongly dislike the history teacher... she doesn't understand just how hard it is for me to understand what is going on... she is always bugging me about getting the homework done when she doesn't collect it and she doesn't look at it either... I can barely read a page an hour in that text book and she wants me to answer 10+ questions thaat the answers are spread over 30+ pages... grrrrr... Okay, rant over.

I got home at about noon, and have been enjoying being alone, it doesn't happen often, because I am trying to spend time and get to know my host family... So I barely spend any time in my room... We play games some times, and I'm going to try to bake a cool cake for them... and once I figure it out maybe for my friends too... I'm hoping that norway has the supplies I need... here's the recipe... its soooo cute/cool!

www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake

Well... That's about it... Oh! I'm going to Kazan's family reunion tomorrow... fun... lot's of puppies... oh and Kazan is actually turning a year old... whoops!

OK! now I'm done! ha det!!!

You know you're getting used to celcius when you agree 12 degees is warm.

Hei hei!

SO, I just wrote this, and tried to publich it, but said schedualed (sp) and wouldn't let me change it, so i tried to cut it and put it in a new post, but it failed... so I'll try again.

I forgot to mention in the last few posts that in the last few weeks I have been asked a couple of funny questions. The first was if I was a right-wing christen (I have no idea where this cam from...) and the second two were asked after I explained what the braclet I have with the hebrew letter "daleth" on it. Daleth means "open door, female sex, female breast, lineage, pour, spill, come in, go out, and pulsate"... the questions were in this order with only a short pause for me to answer... "are you a lesbian?" and "are you jewish, then?" It makes me laugh when I think about how different all of these things are... :)

This weekend we went to the hytte again. It was rather bad weather, rainy, windy, cold... so Karro and I stayed inside most of the time and played cards and, after a brief outing to go get butter and magasines, soduko. :) lots of fun and very relaxing :)

I would also like to note that I have had the Decemberists stuck in my head since I left Maine... And it's kinda getting annoying now... :

Today we had gym again :@ and I managed to run 3 km in 20 min! I was surprised I didn't die from either hyperventilation or suffication... I was having breathing problems... but I managed to cut my time by 2 min, so I am rather proud of myself!

I went to a birthday party today... it was for one of our neighbors, who is also Karoline's cousin... She is very nice and had cheesecake for her birthday, which reminded me of my own wonderful birthday... Kayla, if you're reading this, thank you again for the gloves, they are really helpful when I am inside and my fingers are a bit chilly :)

I am going bowling on wednesday! with the girls :) I was also volunteered to go on a guided tour (i think that's what it is... but im not sure) by Marit. The college she works for has it for the students from Ghana, and so when we went to go get my SIM card wwe met a few of them, and they were really excited at the prospect of me coiming with them. Unfortunatly Marit and I forgot about the first one, but it sounds like there is one on wednesday also. We learned this as we were leaving the grocery store, and met them again. Now one of them has my # so that he can get the info about the tour to me... Im not quite sure what to think of this, but they seem nice enough. :$

OH! I found that True Blood plays at 8 on thursdays! with norwegian subtitles! making my Alex/Eric fix so much better! YAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is happy! XD

speeking of Skarsgård, a movie with my dear's little brother in it... :D

Oh! Ve and Kayla! how is college going? youve started right?

Karro just came in saying that there is a BIG moose somewhere around the neighborhood, in the woods around the neighborhood... I kinda want to go out and see if i can see it... but i'll be smart and stay in...

I keep having to remind myself that this is not realtime, and that I dont have to apologise for not remembering a word in english right away... I think im going crazyer... oh well...

ha det!

Some pics!!!

So I have finally gotten my school comp back, and unfortuanatly it is about the same as laptops from CBHS... my "H" key is going to drive me up a wall.

But even with this annoyance I will try to persevere, i just ope you can read tis wen i decide not to go back and slam on te key...

also, if you go back a few posts and click on the link to my flickr account, I have finally managed to upload some pics :D

Ill really post something tomorrow... but until then

Ha det!

FISH TONGUES!!

Did you know they had them? (meaning fish having tongues) And that some people really like to eat them... I am not one of those people... They taste fine, yeah but the texture is somewhere between jello and the fat in/on pork and steak... Neither of which I care for... so will I eat them again? If there is nothing else then I suppose I must rid myself of my gag reflex...

So! it's the 2nd! Today marks the 2nd week that I left New York to begin this adventure... cool huh? Yeah, I think so too. It's a little cold here, it's about 8 degrees celcius as a high this week... actually now that i check that it's saying 11 for the rest of this week except sondag which will be 12... but still thats kinda cold... use google to get the conversion... I'm too lazy.

I have to take the bus to school for the 2nd time this week, I think, tomorrow. I've been getting a ride in the morning with Odd and Marit. Yay. :) That means I get to school 20-30 min early so I enjoy sitting in the Kantine (think casco bay great space but cafateria style... and they have a stage) and enjoying the early morning through-the-windows warmth... the view is beautiful.

I had a full day today... sosiologi in the morning then norsk, religion and historie... I enjoy all but the last one because sosiologi is fun in general, Thanks Prof. Bertrand, and norsk and religion I get to hang out with my class... Historie too, but the teacher is... annoying/unnerving/weird... and not in a good way. the only thing that makes that class special in a good way is that it has red padded rolly spinny chairs... they bring out my inner child :)

I picked up the package Mum, sent today! Thanks for the gym clothes and the engraving things and Penicillin... and yes dad I know how much room the cat takes up... She attached herself to me very early and has grown ever since... make sure you tell her i love her and miss her very much and want her over here with me, but I'm not sure she'd like Kazan... as he is a puppy...

Oh, Mum, when you get the family pics I wouldn't mind having one...

A family friend from Tromsø is visiting... her name is Sølve. She's nice, but is a little mentally challenged... (exscuse me if im not being politically correct... but you get the idea) and she talks too quickly for me to keep up... oh well. Thanks Marit for translating and answering for me :)

There is already snow in the mountains here... I noticed it while walking to the Hogeskole College where Marit works... I would have taken a pic, but I had a package in my hands and it rained for the past two days and everything is a little damp... or alot damp actually... So maybe tomorrow I will get a pic. :)

Still waiting for my school laptop, but its getting to the point where I might risk crashing the comp to get the pics of Flickr... If you agree its time please say so.

Alright, I hope you guys have a good weekend, (yes you liz, zoë, ve, grandma/pa, and immediate family and whoever else is reading this) and I'll try to post about my weekend on monday.

har det!