Thank Goodness I'm a Geek... It Opens So Many Doors!

So, this post was going to be titled something very long that basically said "I've forgotten all of the titles I was going to use, and I couldn't decide which to use anyway so... FEEL MY PAIN!" But 2 hours later I have finally found a good title. YAY!!!

First in the news, straight from Devyn's mind (I'm sorry) is that unless I visit the computer man my computer will die a slow death... my charger seems to be broken. don't ask me how, but it is beeping incessintly and not seding power to my hungry machine... I think I will use my broken charger as an excuse to escape from utvekslingstudent norsk for a little bit... :) usually I ask if I can go get food, but it is so expensive at the little store across the street... sigh. I'm becoming a female version of dad, stingy and overly worried about funds... but I have random moments where I blow alot of money on random things (plushies being the most common thing, my giant totoro and Penicilin are the most recent... I dont regret it a bit :) ) so I guess not completely like dad...

Okay, how about I tell you about my rather uneventfull saturday? I actually got up before Pappa and Karro! I was moving by 7:30! I took my shower and got dressed in a pair of sweats and a shirt (one would hope huh? :P) and read my book and ate some bread and jam... a typicle (sp) breakfast. Then Mamma remembered that I had a package at the post office! So, we scampered down and picked it up, then stopped at Rimi to get pizza makings. We forgot something (flour) and stopped at another little grocery on our way home, and I wrestled with the tape completely encasing the box that held my precious nook. i finally got it open to find it sitting there encased in bubble wrap and yet more tape... this provedto be impossible to remove without sissors, so most of the way home I kept staring sadly down and the slightly exposed purple leather case... then when we got home I ran to help bring in and unpack the groceries so I could turn on my nook and finally finish Sense and Sensability and Sea Monsters (which isn't as good as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and start on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Then I found out that my dear parents had apparently not turned off my dear device, so I had to plug it in and wait for about a half an hour for it to get enought power to turn on. When that happened I excitedly tried to register it on Barns and Nobles... 5 times... then I realised the little cellphone bars that indicate 3G accesse were absent from the top of my screen... After waiting for who remembers how long I realized all the work that people went through was for naught... I was sent the wrong type of replacement. I sent 2 e-mails to dad, and waited until it was about 1 pm there, then realized that I had sent them to his work account, so I forwarded them to his home account and waited for another couple hours, by this time I was feeling very distressed that he was not responding, so I sent another e-mail explaining that I would really like a reply to my e-mail before we were schedualed to speak on sunday... it did run through my mind that maybe they were in Harpswell so maybe they were not aware that I had sent an e-mail... but I didn't really care, i was irrationally angry with him... I realized when I had calmed down (the next evening) that it was probably a full moon that night, which might account for my unstable mood swings...

It also probably didn't help that I tried to make a pizza and realized too late that I had put too much sauce on it... :P Then after I made sure not to put red peppers on half Karro still picked off the remaining veggies I had put on it. She also took off the cheese so she could eat it seperatly... I was slightly annoyed that she wouldn't even try it as I made it. :P

During the whole time that I was waiting for the failure replacement nook I played on my ipod with Karro and read manga when she wouldn't let me play too... Im not sure how that happened, but she managed to arrest my ipod from me and keep it for extended periods of time... *shakes head*

After that it was Sunday. I got up earlier than I would have on a normal weekend, because Karro had a Håndball tournament and we had to leave and 9. And there were pancakes... :D Mum says that she will send me maple syrup with my christmas package! I grabbed my nook, even though it cant connect to the internet almost everywhere, so I could read during the break between the first and second halfs of the game, and the game that took place the 2 games we were there for. I forgot my ipod though, so I had to listen to bad music while the teams were warming up. :P

I really enjoy watching håndball. I really wish there was a begginer's group for people my age, but there isn't. :(

Karro's team has only lost 1 game so far in the league, and there is only 1 team above them, they haven't lost yet. but then, they haven't faced Karro's team! *fist punched into air with overconfidence!*

Pappa drove Karro and me home, Mamma walked home with Kazan. Karro and I spent the day hanging out on my bed like we did the day before. it's kinda fun to hang out with her... though I could do without the badly drawn cactuses on my lower back... :) Then it was time for middag.

It was this semi-spicy soup that was a mix of cod soup and tomato soup... I tried it after being told I had to try it, but I didn't eat alot because I was meeting the AFS Harstad group in a couple hours. it was okay, better than cod tongues but not as good as fish dumplings and fish cakes. :) then we had vanilje ice cream (i cant remember how to spell vanilje in english, and I dotn feel like waiting for my browser to load another window... too slow) and apple cake! I only had a little bit of thatas well :)

I met Ole-Peter's girlfriend... if I remember correctly, her name is Ellen... though it's probably spelled Eilin... :/ she is ver nice, a quiet sort of person, or maybe that was the situation. Anyway, she gave me a ride to Peppes Pizza so I didn't have to a) walk to the bus stop and b) take the bus. A note on how dark it already is. This morning the sun didn't start coming up until almost 8. and it is getting dark at around 4 and is dark at 5... :/ I am apprehensive of "fall back" because that one hour change will mean that it doesn't start getting light until 9 and it unfortunatly it will start getting darker earlier anyway... so it will be night at 3 or soon there after. :@

It was really great to spend time with my fellow AFS-ers and some returnees as well! I arrived at the pizza place 10 min early, so I waited in the entry way until other people showed up. It turns out that Sebastian (the only guy in attendance) was already there, so I could have gone in and sat down, but the little while gave me some much appreciated alone time. I just listened to music and started to pull out my nook when Morgan and ... a returnee... arrived! It was fun to just hang out and talk about how things were going. It was really funny, at one point the question "so how's school going?" was asked. I answered with the usual, "good except for history." all the norwegians in attendance were slightly confused about that and asked "you don't like history?" then I informed them simply that "I have Bente." Immediatly there were looks of simpathy aimed at me, and I was washed with loud "Oh my god, I am soooo sorry!" and "that's horrible! Do you know her nick-name?" I am going to talk to my advisor tomorrow to drop the class. I am not going to put up with it.

Anyway, it was fun! we got 3 pizzas, and I requested that we get the spicyest pizza on the menu. The Knock-Out Chicken. :) I brought the remains home of that one and after sharing half a piece with Karro I told her of my plan to eat the rest for my tirsdag (tuesday) mattpakke! yum!

Then after I got home there was a frantic run for the upstairs computer. I tried frantically to get my headphones from my ipod to work, then realized that since they plug in with 1 cord and dont have seperate cords for the mic and the headphones they couldn't hear me but I could hear them. we managed to find a headset that had one working headphone and the mic worked, but only if you held it to your mouth and then began the struggle for the web-cam... we managed to get it to work, but the webcam was on auto focus, so it kept going in and out and focusing on things behind me.

It was really nice to see my family and hear them. Despite my previous mixed feelings about the meeting (I considered blogging about them, but then decided that it might make Mum say we should hold off until I was completely ready) I was and am glad that I did see them. I am also glad that I held off for 2 months as AFS suggests. I got to see my wonderful cat! I miss her sooooo much, and she misses me too, even though she will give me the silent treatment when I get back. She informes my family that she misses me by hogging their beds and being a general pest. :) she's sooo cute! I also saw Snip the beagle, she is obviously thinner and greyer... she is 9 i think now... such and old lady!

I would like to take a minute to let everybody know how proud of my brother I am. He is getting the 2nd highest grade in math available at our school! This is after years of him refusing to do math without eaither bribery, threats or hours including several breakdowns from him and our poor mother. I am glad that he is finding it easier to do math, and I hope he always gets better grades than I did in the subject (I always passed! Not to make it sound like I was a bad math student...). I am proud of you Gareth, and I might let you keep your Dr Horrible goggles because of it. :D

I got news that the house should be ready to be moved into in about a month! and (more importantly) the basement is water free and safe for the many many many boxes of books that have been moved from the pod into it! MY BOOKS ARE FREE!!!!! (not meaning anybody can take them mind... meaning they have escaped the depths of the pod) I also learned that there are large foxes (larger than normal foxes have any right to be) that walk around all over the place... it is decided, Thistle (my baby (cat)) is forever an indoor cat now. She is not going outside when she may get eaten by giant foxes. >:(

Dad got the message about my nook, and he will be calling the company when he wakes up and gets to work... I hope. Mum is busy busy busy with her studying. They are all realived that there is heat in the apartment now and that the hot water was turned on again. (understandable, but I still had to wonder if they really needed to turn the heat on yet... I am already used to the temp being between the 20-30's... so in my mind it seemed that since I am somewhere with a completely different temp pattern it couldn't be cold enough there for them to need the heat yet.)

We talked for over an hour and a half. closer to 2 hours actually. I didn't start crying until I started talking about the cards they had sent me and the letter grandma had sent... Then it was time to hang up, Mum is worried that I'm not getting enough sleep. That was really hard. It kinda surprised me, I thought the whole thing would be hard, and that I would have been ready to stop talking and try not to be home sick. But I was definitly not ready to stop talking with them, I felt like I could have chatted and teased them all night. It's really hard to turn of skype and realize that you cn't do that every day. The 6 hour time difference make it really hard to do anything like that, and you know that even though you are related and very much a part of each others' lives... you kinda aren't any more. You are over seas and have a new school that they know nothing but what you tell them about, you have a family that is letting you live with them even though you've probably never met them before. You have friends that they have never met, and you are learning a language they dont know.

It's kinda lonely if you think about it. I ended up bawling after I got of skype until my head hurt. I was so emotionally and because of that physically tired that I decided not journaling was excusable.

Which leads us to mandag.

Today I woke up and checked my e-mail like I always do. I don't know why, I don't usually have anything interesting in my inbox, and it makes me sad when I dont have any FB notifications... but I do. I was rewarded with an e-mail from mum today telling me she had posted pics of the house on er FB! She also posted a picture of Dad's exploded ipod and an unforgivable pic...

I also feed and clean my virtual fish and make sure I am not dying on Vampires Live! then I race to take a shower. I think the little sadness that I went to sleep with carried over today. I have been a little down, and I really miss cuddling with my parents on the couch as we watch a movie. I haven't watched a movie with my norwegain family yet, it is something that I associate with pizza and family time, so maybe I will suggest it.

My Norsk teacher is sick today (maybe tomorrow?!?!?!) so I only had 1 real class today. We had International Dag during the 3rd period, and thinking it was something like what happened at the language camp I attended about 3 years ago I was really excited. I was exxpecting music and games and food from around the world, sure it couldn't have been as extravagent as what happened at Concordia College Language Villages, but it was sure to be exciting!

Obviously I was wrong. Nope, I was presented with sitting in Kantina for an hour or so watching a powerpoint and PSA thing on poverty and child welfare in Brazil. Why? Because on thursday we are participating in Operasjon Dagsverk... it's a day where we have to work to get money to send to Brazil... Honestly they could do something so interesting and have a dance like we did at CBHS to raise money and awareness instead of having a BOOOORRRRIIIIINNNNG presentation... sigh.

After that I decided that I wouldn't wait until I was in the middle of class until I asked to go to get a new charger... It was a quick fix, and I informed the poor computer men that I had no intention of visiting them again any time soon. I was heading to the hall that we usually wait for Knut in when the younger computer guy (the one that does parcore) caught up to me to ask me if I play Magic. :D I told him I do, but it's been a while. He asked if I had a deck, but unfortuantly the deck I use is a) in the states and b) not actually mine, I borrow cards from my parents). He asked because he has a friend that he thinks is getting tired of playing against him and winning all the time. He said that his friend might have an extra deck that if I was interested playing I could use. I said I was definitly interested, and I am now asking that if "my" deck is unpacked and available can it be sent in the christmas package? :3

I am currently waiting (and hoping that he forgets) for Knut the exchange student norwegian teacher... If he doesn't appear then we are all going to leave, and I will go to byen to try and find the present I have in mind for G's christmas present. Also I think I need some postcards... so, in your drowzy state of mind (besides Mum who has probably been studying for the past 3 hours and is already at school) keep your fingers crossed! oh, never mind, he's here. But he needs to leave at 3, so I should have time to get down to the city!!!!

I am going to fill sand bags tonight. Each sand bag filled get 10 kroner for the håndball team! YAY!!! It willl be 6 o'clock when we get to this, so it will be dark. :/ thus I am posting this while I am at school. Oh, and I would like to thank my friend Werewolf for looking after G at school! You are so kind! *hugs*

ok, ha en fin dag! og en god uke!