Nesten ferdig!!!

Hallo alle sammen!

Det har vaert litt lenge siden jeg ar publisert inlegge, saa kanskje det er paa tid aa gjore det igjen! Naa er jeg kjempe opptatt med skolen fordi det kommer semester slutt snart! Det er bare to uker med vanlig timer og saa er det examer. Alt har vaert bra men jeg kommer til aa savne dere i norge mer og mer, USA er fint, men ikke saa fint som Norge. Jeg har ikke mer tid naa, men bare a fortelle dere litt som skjer med meg.

Vi snakkes,
Jon

Høsten

Nå er høsten nesten helt ferdig her i USA, temperatur har vært i nærheten av null de siste to uker men bare på natta. Så vinter er på vei!! Jeg er så spent å være på ski igjen, det var de Oseberg Skilag guttene som har inspirert denne innlegg. Denne helgen er tur til Tørsby for guttene på skisamling, og jeg tenkte "er det mulig, har det vært ett helt år siden reiste jeg til Tørsby med skilaget," men det har det vært.

Høsten har vært helt fantastisk, det var veldig varm i begynnelsen av oktober men de siste ukene har vært kjempedeilig. Skole har vært okei, men jeg har hatt masse prøver og ett par essayer siste uken og neste også. Hvordan har det vært i Norge med alle dere? Høstferie, skolen og livet?

Bare et liten innlegg men, jeg har ikke så mye å snakke om nå, bare at jeg fortsett å leve og at livet er bra, for det meste.
Takk for nå!

Uh-oh!

Det er vært lenge siden jeg har skrevet her. Men å være erlig jeg har vært sinnsykt opptatt med starten av universiteten og med slutten av sommer. Det har vært spennende og lit kjedelig av og til på universiteten.

Alt har vært bra, jeg har truffet mange nye, bra og spennende mennesker, men fortsett jeg savne alle mine venner og folk jeg hadde truffet i Norge. For dere som leser dette jeg håper alt går bra, jeg vet at jeg har ikke snakket så mye med dere, siden reiste jeg fra Norge.

Dere må alle legge meg til skype, brukernavnet mitt er på facebook. Det er rart a tenke at det har vært nesten 3 måneder siden reiste jeg hjem. Jeg håper å reise tilbake til Norge neste våren men det henger på hvor mye penger jeg har rundt juletiden.

Håper dere som er på siste år av videregående skolen har det bra, og ikke glemme meg :P Kanskje dere har noen ny utvekslingsstudenter på Greveskogen. Ha det så lenge!
Jon

One week

Well everyone it has been a little over a week since I came back to good old Ely Minnesota. Things are going pretty good, a little boring because I am doing mostly job searching at the moment. Although to be honest it is kind of nice to do something else other than jumping into work right away.

Things have been good but pretty weird at the same time, hearing English all of the time continues to throw me off, I am really coming to miss Norway and Norwegian. Since I got back I have only spoken a few little blurbs of Norwegian here and there.

I got all signed up for my classes this coming fall for college and to be honest I am pretty nervous about how they are going to go. Almost each morning I have been getting up and watching the Tour de France on TV, it was really exciting to see Thor Hushovd in the yellow jersey so long, GO NORWEGIANS!!!

Also over the last week I have randomly been running into friends and other people I know, it has been really nice to see them but it is kind of weird because I haven't talked to most of them since before I left. From the looks of things people want me to keep up with the blogging so I will, now to just come up with a new name...

Well that is it for now, hopefully next time I will have good news about the whole job search thing. Also for those of you in Duluth any hints for job searching down there?
Takk for naa!!!
Jon

Last post??

Well everyone it is official, I am back in Ely, my first home. Anyway this might very well be one of my last posts on here, except for a possible random one here and there. However I am thinking about starting another one, but it depends on the feedback I get for it.

Now down to the last things I did in Norway. My last week in Tønsberg me and a friend decided to pull an all nighter on the longest day of the year. We started by chilling out at the beach with a bunch of friends, of which only one wanted to stay up with us.

We stayed up until the sun came up (4:00 in the morning), the coolest part being that the "night" never got dark enough to see any stars, it stayed twilight all the way through. For me it was one of the coolest things, at first when it started getting light so early I was kind of annoyed, but once I got used to it I really liked it.

The day after I had a going away party with all of my closer friends from school and everything. It was really nice but kind of disappointing knowing that I would not see most of them again before I left.

Next on the agenda was a boat trip with some friends of my host family for St. Johns eve (can't remember how to spell it in Norwegian). It was so sweet because we were on a huge boat and also because there were so many people out on boats (I will be adding pictures sometime this week so you can check them out).

We ended up boating out to an island and eating some dinner with some of their friends and then heading back in and watching all of the bonfires on the way back. In Norway on this holiday it is a tradition to light these massive bonfires on the coast.

The next few days were not all that exciting, I went for a bike ride with one of my friends if I remember right. Did some stuff with my family, and ended up spraining my ankle in a running race so I came back a little injured :P. The highlight though was actually as I was leaving, a handful of my friends met me at the train station just as I was leaving.

It was really unexpected (I only thought there would be one), but I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise and something I will NEVER forget. Leaving town was one of the hardest things, I know I will probably be going back but leaving after being there a whole year and coming to call it my home was hard none the less.

My last few days in Norway was spent between my host mothers sister and an AFS end of stay camp. Both were really good and a lot of fun but eventually they came to an end at the airport.

It finally hit me as we pulled up to the airport that I was going home, and soon. Me and a couple of the students that I was talking to really started to feel it as we pulled up and unloaded all of our bags.

Me and the other Americans also happened to be on one of the earliest flights which means that basically everyone was still there and trying to say goodbye at one time. Emotions were running wild and I hope everyone made it through okay, but we finally got all of our baggage checked and got to our plane with not a whole lot of time to spare.

The flight was fairly uneventful, we went from Oslo to Stockholm to Newark and then we split up as well, with me continuing to Minneapolis and everyone else heading their own directions. It was weird to be back in the US again after so long especially because almost everyone was speaking English.

Eventually I made it to Minneapolis and was greeted by my family and also by some old friends from Faribault. I can not tell you what was going through my head at the time, it was just a generally weird and totally unique feeling.

After a few days with my Aunt and Uncle down in Minneapolis we finally headed home, and yesterday afternoon I walked into my house after almost an entire year. While it felt good to be home I also miss Norway quite a bit.

There you have it. Thanks so much for following my blog this year and maybe I will be creating another one to go further.
Jon

P.S. Alle min venner i norge, tusen takk for et kjempebra år i norge, dere har gjort dette år uforglemmelig. Der er så mye jeg har lyst å si til dere men for nå takk for alle dere har gjort og vi sees igjen! :D

Down to two :(

I really have only two weeks left in Norway, two weeks from today I will be back in the States, can you believe it?? As I get closer I am getting more confused about where I really want to be, here or back in the States.

Yesterday we had our closing ceremony stuff at my school, meaning I got my grades and I did surprisingly well considering it was in an entirely new language for me. Although something that was totally unsuspected was that me and the other exchange student at the school got called up at the end, it was nothing major, we got a book about the area and a little silver spoon too. It was just weird to walk up in front of most of the school and be handed a couple of things.

Unfortunately the school ending meant that I would have to start with some of my goodbyes which was a big downer. Hopefully I will be able to see most of them over the last week or so I have in Tønsberg, because I really did get to know a lot of people and would love to see just about every one of them again :D

Afterwards I went to a friends house for lunch with a bunch of others as well. It was a lot of fun, we just chilled out played a couple card games and then went home, which also meant me saying goodbye to several of them because I won't be able to see them before I leave.

Although what was really cool and I am glad somebody had suggested to me was that I bought a Norwegian flag a few days ago and whenever I ran into someone I knew fairly well at school I had them sign it! I don't know how I am supposed to get all of my friends to sign it though because I am already running out of space.

Anyway though I am seriously down to one week left in Tønsberg, meaning I am going to be trying really hard to hang out with just about everyone before I leave, however hard it may turn out to be with my already hectic schedule, I will try!!!

It also doesn't help that most of my friends constantly have plans also, oh well. That is it for the moment, see you next time!
Jon

Unbelievable

It is so hard for me to believe that I have less than three weeks left in Norway. To be brutally honest I don't even have 2 weeks left in Tønsberg, for the last week I will be between Asker and my final AFS camp. Many of the other exchange students that I have found out about that are in the states this yer are actually coming back in the next week, and one of my best friends here from the states is actually leaving on Thursday morning. It is amazing at how fast things can sneak up and surprise you, especially time.

Things have been going pretty good in the last week, I have mainly just been hanging out with the other US exchange student. Saturday we went to Oslo to just look around a bit, met up with some other students from his program, it was not all that much fun though because it rained almost the entire day (and not lightly I might add). I finished with school last week and have otherwise just been sitting around and enjoying myself.

I have been in Norway for nearly 10 months, but I can honestly say it feels so much less than that. While on the other end the 2 weeks or so that I have left feels like nothing and an eternity at the same time. It will be really nice to see my friends and family again but it will also be really hard to say bye to everyone here.

Well there you have it.
Jon

DONE!!!!!

I am officially done with my Norwegian exam!!!!! It feels so good to be finished with it, I have been seriously stressing out the last couple days trying to study for it and everything. Now I just need to wait and see how it turns out when I get the graded result back in a couple of weeks.

Other than the the last few days have been pretty boring because I have just been focusing on getting finished with the exam. Not only am I done with the exam but all of my classes are also finished, the only school stuff I have left is 3 hours on Friday and the closing ceremony next Thursday.

Although while school is reaching it's end that also means that my trip is also coming to an end. I have just over 3 weeks left in Norway, I have been here for more than nine months but it seems like nothing now that I think about it.

Anyway now that my trip is winding down I am starting to realize just how hard it will be to leave and at the same time how nice it will be to com back home again. I have made so many great friends here that I am really hoping to keep in touch with, and thankfully with skype and facebook it it easier than ever.

Well there are my thoughts for now, see you next time!
Jon

En kjempebra helg!

Hallo alle sammen! Jeg bare tenkte at jeg skal skrive en liten opplegg om sisten helgen min, det var sykt bra! Vi hadde noen ekstra fri dager denne uke fordi det var Kristi himmelfartsdagen og det var ett eller annet fri dag på fredag.

Torsdag kveld jeg hadde sett den ny X-men filmen med en venn ned på brygga, jeg tror at den er det beste av alle de x-men filmer fra før. Etter på vennen min og meg gikk rundt i byen fordi det var så skikkelig fin kveld.

På fredag en venn og meg var ut på sykkel tur, jeg hadde fått låne av en racesykkel fra han!!! Det har vært mer en ett år siden min siste treningsøkt på racesykkel. Det var en kjempeflott dag for en sykkel tur, varmt og sol hele tiden.

Seinere på fredag vi hadde en kveld å bare slappe av hos en venner, det eneste ting var at jeg hadde ikke nok penger for å få en nytt bussekort så jeg hadde gå hjem som tok nesten 2 timer, men det var en fint dag så det var helt greit!

Og i går kveld jeg var på en fest med annen utvekslingsstudent ut på Nøtterøy, dette var det høydepunkt i helgen. Det var grilling til start og bare kos etter på. Der var en som var en utvekslingsstudent i Michigan ett par år siden som var der og vi hadde snakket nesten hele kvelden.

Der var fire av oss som var opp når det var soloppgang så vi gikk ut å se det (4:10 om morgen :D), etter på hadde tre av oss sett på twilight (ikke spørre hvorfor) og så sove vi til nesten 12 å ta bussen hjem.

Det var en kjempegøy helgen for å si det minste, med mange ny folk som var kjempegøy og kjempesnill. Det eneste ting jeg tenke på er at jeg har norsk eksamen på onsdag...
Takk for nå!
Jon

Last month :(

I know I say this every post but time goes by so quickly that it seems nothing can catch up with it. Truly and honestly I have less than one month left in Norway, at the same time however I realize just how long I have been away from all of my family and friends back home in the States. At the moment my emotions are mixed about going back home because I really do love it here but on the other hand getting to start college and being able to see friends and family is going to be really nice.

Anyway not much has happened in the last couple of weeks that is worth telling, there are a few things they. One of the exciting things was that I went with a friend to the Champions League soccer game (basically world championship from what I can tell) at the kulturhus in town, where there with almost another several hundred people. It was pretty cool to see with so many people, and some of the reactions were really loud and lasted forever.

My host family and I made a trip to Oslo last weekend to just meet up with my host brother and just chill out up there. I did get sick last week and am still getting over it at the moment so I was down for most of this last weekend just feeling icky.

Yesterday in my sports class I led the class period with track, we have been slowly going through everyone in our class. Everyone chose a sport or something and for most everyone else there were a few that picked it so they would work together, but I was on my own. It did go really well however, it was a little difficult at times because there was so many people, but everyone had fun and my teacher seemed impressed.

There hasn't been a whole lot happening lately just a lot of thinking and a bit of prep for leaving. School is starting to finish up which is nice, I am basically finished next monday with most of my classes and after that I just have the Norwegian exam, which I am actually pretty nervous about but I am hoping it will go ok. That is next Wednesday so pretty much after that I am finished up with school. Just have to wait for my grades in everything now to see what I will get.

Well I think that covers things now.
Jon

17.mai!!!

Well I know I said that I was going to write only in Norwegian until the test but this post is going to be a lot more interesting for everyone back in the states so it makes more sense to write it in English. Anyway this post is mostly going to be about the Norwegian National Holiday syttende mai (17th of May).

For those that don't know it is a very big deal in Norway, everyone puts Norwegian flags out in their yard, anyone that owns a bunad (the traditional dress of Norway) wears it, basically everything is shut down except for a few stores. They have this parade called a barnetog that is a parade that is made up of children from every elementary, middle and high school in the area.

So of course I joined in and I must say it was a lot of fun, I actually carried the school banner which was an interesting way to join in. So I got to walk in front of everyone else from the school carrying this giant banner. The parade goes for a few kilometers before ending at a big park area where there is a few speeches along with singing of the national anthem and the town song.

After the parade is finished everyone goes to different areas of the town to elementary schools for different little activities and stuff there. Last on the main agenda for everyone is the russetog, which is a parade with only those that are russ (the last year students in high school).

The russ is a totally Norwegian thing, they all buy these red pants (they can also be blue, black and green but red is the most common), and they wear them from no later than May 1st all the way to the 17th. The two weeks they wear these pants there is lots of partying, crazy antics and a lot of other nutty stuff.

It is a really funny thing to see and something that you won't see anywhere else in the world. So for their part of the 17th they walk through a different part of town, but almost all of them carry around squirt guns and these things that are called russekort. Russekorter are these little cards that most everyone carries around and hands out to kids who try to see who can get the most.

A lot of the kids along the sides also had water balloons and squirt guns to spray the russ. It ends at the same park as the other parade but instead has a bunch of these buses that some of the russ have saved to buy and make improvements on, with lots of loud music and more crazy people. It is definitely a cool thing to see.

That pretty much finishes all of the stuff that happens in town for that day. Next for me was a dinner party with my host family at our house, not super exciting but it was cool getting to talk with some different people. Later that night I headed out with a friend, watched the fireworks when they went off then headed back home to sleep.

Now that covers Tuesday the 17th, the rest of the week was pretty chill, just school, some training and hanging out with friends. I did also see the new Pirates movie on Wednesday night, pretty sweet movie I have to say, cool in 3D also! :D

Well that is it for now, hope you enjoy see you next time!
Jon

Første del av mai

Hallo alle sammen!!!!!
Det er umulig å tenke at det har vært nesten to uker siden min siste innlegg, tiden går så raskt!!! Uansett det har vært en spennende par uker, jeg hadde to prøver men jeg tror de gikk bra! For første gangen jeg føler bra om hvordan de gikk, det er en kjempebra følelse. Resten av skolen har vært litt kjedelig men bra, jeg er nesten ferdig med min matematikk klasse så det betyr at jeg bare har en økt på onsdag.

Siste helgen vi var i Sverige for å gjøre litt arbeid på hage og noe annet men for det mesteparten det var bare tid for å slappe av. Jeg leste ferdig Legenden om Narnia på norsk, og studerte til en prøve jeg hadde på tirsdag som jeg tror gikk veldig bra.

Resten av uken var ikke så spesielt, bortsatt fra lørdag og søndag. Lørdag var spennende fordi det var en grillfest med noen venner min fra skolen, det var kjempehyggelig. På søndag var det utrolig spennende, familien min og jeg reiste ned til sørland for en dags tur for å se hvor familien min egentlig kommer fra!

Det var helt fantastisk!!! Første stopp var i Kristiansand for å se en gammel bygde som var en butikk når familien min eide den. Vi hadde sett rundt i Kristiansand for en time eller noe annet, gikk ned til brygge, sett noe andre steder og vi var på veien vår igjen.

Neste hoved stopp var i Arendal, men vi hadde en kort stopp for middag på en restaurant i Lillesand. Etter middag det var tid for å kjøre resten av veien til Arendal for å se hvor de andre del av familien hadde kommet fra. På en øy som heter Tromøy.

Vi hadde litt problemer for å finne huset men vi nesten klarte det med hjelp fra noen av de som bodde i nærheten, kjempehyggelig folk der. Det var en veldig koselig dag i sørland og jeg hadde en kjempefint tid, det er så nydelig der.

Det er alt for nå, jeg skal kanskje ha annen innlegg om ett par dager fordi i morgen er nasjonal dag til Norge 17.mai, og jeg skal bære fane til skolen min, foran hele skolen, eeeeks!!

Takk for nå,
Snakkes
Jon

Life and all of its adventures.

A friend of mine mentioned something yesterday that really got me thinking about going home and what it will be like. All he did was mention one little thing but I can't get it out of my head, that thing is how much people change. I have been gone for nearly a year, everyone has had a year to grow up and change, but these changes are not noticed by themselves or the people they are in constant contact with. However for me it could very well be a large shock, I have not only been gone for a year but I have been gone for a year with very minimal contact. So I wonder, how have my friends changed, how I have changed and how things will be with me and my friends after I come home. Just some food for thought.

Anyway back to my post and I want to start by saying, my gosh does time sure fly when you're having fun! Things have been going by crazy fast, and no matter how much I want it to slow done it just seems to go by faster.

Nothing much exciting happened from Monday to Thursday last week, expect that I biked to school everyday and on Wednesday I woke up early and went for a run before school. I really wish there were some more trails on gravel and or in the woods, because for the most part there is only asphalt to run on.

Friday was actually a lot of fun, I went to Oslo with another class and one of the other exchange students, we toured the Nobel Peace Prize center, wondered around for a little while in Oslo and finished with going to the NRK studio/broadcasting center(it is the Norwegian form of NBC, however with absolutely no commercials!).

After coming back I packed very quickly for a hyttetur with 4 of my friends from school. It was a lot of fun, we started with picking up food and then a two and a half hour drive out to the cabin. Saturday we chilled out went for a hike on the mountain we were on, cooked some burgers and watched a couple movies.

Sunday we actually woke up to light snow if you can believe it, we then cleaned up and headed home, officially finishing our first road trip. I had a lot of fun and hopefully we can do it again before I leave.

Anyway that is my update for now, just an FYI point here that I will probably just be writing in Norwegian on here until the second week of June, because I will be taking a Norwegian writing exam that I want to be ready for and if I write in here in Norwegian I think it will really help me.

There is now a direct link to google translate on the right hand side of my blog, so you can use that and just change it so that it translates from Norwegian to English. So there you have it, talk to you guys later!
Jon

Påske

translate.google.com
Hallo alle sammen, tid for annen blogginnlegg. Siden mine siste to innlegger var ikke så spennende det er tid for en med noe mer, fordi tiden siden min siste innlegg var og er påskeferie!! Uken før påskeferie var litt kjedelig, en ting at var litt spennende var på tirsdagen.

Vi hadde en klubbkveld med ski laget, det var kult å ha men det var kanskje den siste ting jeg skal ha med Oseberg, men det var en bra vinter uansett om hvordan jeg gjorte i sesongen.

Fortsetter det var påske! Første helgen i ferie meg og familien min reiste opp til en fjell heter blefjell (hvis jeg huske riktig). Det var hos noe venner til familien min og det var kjempegøy og veldig koselig.

Fordi det hadde vært så varmt den par uker før der var nesten ingen snø opp på fjella. Når vi var ut på tur lørdag vi brukte ski for den første 10 minutter men der var ikke nok snø for å bruke dem mer.

Det var helt nydelig opp på toppen og så kult å se en forskjellig sted i Norge. Resten av helgen vi bare slappet av og sete i sola for det mest parten. På vår siste kveld på hytta deres sov jeg ute på terrassen. Det var en helt perfekt natt for å sove ute, ingen skygge bare stjerne og måne.

Etter på var jeg hjem et par dager før vi reiste til vår hytta i Sverige for resten av ferie. Det var en kjempegøy tid, vi hadde masse tid å slappe av, vi gikk ute på tur nesten hver dag, og på lørdag vi reiste til Göteborg.

Været var så fint, det var over 20 grader celsius(rundt 70 fahrenheit) og sol hver dag! Lørdag var så fint fordi det var så varm og det var nesten sommeren i Göteborg. Jeg bare gikk rundt byen for noe timer og sett så mye forskjellig steder (jeg skal legge på noe bilder i den neste par dager tror jeg).

Det har vært en utrolig bra ferie og har vært så koselig å slappe av å arbeide med norske min og være litt bedre kjent med min vertssøsken. Nå at det er våren jeg er spent for å ha mer tid å gjøre noe ute.

Det er alt for nå, så snakkes seinere!
Jon

No way!!! Another post!!!

Well I am writing another post because 1) It has been a week since my last post and that seems like enough time between post and 2) my first class of the day was canceled meaning that I have only one class and not until 12!! So I am currently just sitting at the school wondering how to use my time when I thought I should come and update everyone on how things were going.

Everything has been good in the past week not much happened besides school and well school. It is kind of a bummer that my days kind of run together now but that can't be helped when you get into a routine with things. Although I did have a pleasant surprise on Monday because my physics class was canceled, meaning I only had an hour and a half of school for the day and was done at 9:30!!

Tuesday was pretty average, in fact the only thing I can remember about it was that my host mothers Aunt from Canada when I got back from school. Apparently she comes once a year and visits friends and family in different parts of Norway for a couple of weeks.

Wednesday school again nothing special, got home and just chilled out and relaxed. I really seem like a boring person. Again nothing special on Thursday either. Friday I had fag-dag in my sports class that was pretty fun. Some of it was boring but later in the day we went outside to play frisbee golf, which would have been awesome because it was warm and sunny but there was also a ton of wind which made it very difficult. It was still a lot of fun though.

Saturday I went out biking with a friend out on Nøtterøy, it was good to get out in the nice weather and just chill out. Yesterday me and my host family biked out to a ferry that took us out to an island just a little ways out and we biked around there. It was pretty interesting to see, especially since it is this tiny little island with only a couple hundred people and there are no cars, just bikes, a couple tractors, and a few four wheelers.

Overall the last week has been really nice weather wise also. It has been sunny and warm nearly every day, sometimes the mornings are a little chilly but by the afternoon it is totally perfect.

I can't believe how fast time is going though, and it makes it even harder because I am both looking forward to going back and also not wanting to go back. However I feel though I am excited to start up with college, a year later than most people but oh well.

Thankfully I got a lot of money through FAFSA but I will still have a bit more in loans than I would like, but it will be manageable. Money is getting a little tight here though which has been a little bit of a bummer, but I should be able to make it stretch to the end.

Anyway, that is my post for now, hope you guys enjoy reading it.
See you next time!
Jon

Annen blogginnlegg!

This post is in Norwegian, all you have to do to get it translate into english is to highlight the text and copy into the box that shows up with this link: http://translate.google.com/# Enjoy! :D
Nå er det tid for annen blogginnlegg! Det har vært nesten to uker siden mitt siste så nå er det tid for et nytt innlegg. Tid går for fort, jeg har mindre enn tre måneder igjen. Ikke mye har skjedde siden mitt siste innlegg men der var noe gøy i begge helgene. Også beklager hvis min norsk er ikke så bra, det har vært lit lenge siden jeg har skrevet mye.

Den første helgen etter mitt siste innlegg hadde jeg en langt helgen. Det var fordi jeg hadde fag-dag fri fra skole (boo ya!). På lørdagen står jeg på slalåm med min lokalkontakt. Det var kjempegøy og var en perfekt dag for å stå på ski, mye sol, klar himmel og ikke så kaldt ute.

Etter vi kommet tilbake fra Konsberg (ski-senteren) jeg gikk til en av de andre utvekslingsstudenter som hadde en bursdag fest på kvelden. Vi spiste middag (men jeg var litt seint fordi den tok mer tid for å komme fra Konsberg), etter middag vi reiste til en bowlinghall for å spille litt. Etter bowling jeg reiste til annen venn som hadde en bursdag fest, og var der for noe tid.

Dagen var langt men gøy, og på begge fester jeg treffe noe nye folk, hadde masse forskjellige samtaler og hadde en god tid. På søndag familien min hadde noe venner for kveldsmat så det var bra å ha noe forskjellig ting skjer i løpet av dagen.

Igjen ikke mye skjedde i uke bare skole men ikke mye mer. På fag-dag hadde jeg matematikk men vi bare hadde en halv dag fordi vi har en 5 timer prøve i mai at skal være fra 12 til 5. Så etter på jeg syklet hjem å slappe av. På kvelden jeg gikk med to venner for å se I am Number Four. Siste ting som skjedde i den siste par uker var på lørdag, hvor jeg gikk til annen fest med en venn.

Tingene har vært bra i den siste, det går bra på skolen. Noen ting er vanskelig på skolen men det er bra uansett. Jeg er i en rutine nå så ting går fortere, så ikke mye er så "spennende" nå. Våren er på vei nå, og det blir varmer og varmer i den siste par uker, og jeg blir så spent for sommeren, men på samme tid har jeg mindre enn 90 dager igjen. AGH!!!

Uansett, jeg er spent for å komme tilbake til USA og start med universitet. Det skal være kult å forstå alle som folke snakker om alltid igjen, for selv om jeg forstår mye nå der er ord og noe uttrykk at jeg forstår ikke.

Det er alt jeg har for nå, håper at dere nyte lesing.
Vi snakkes!
Jon

Birken og andre ting

Okay time for another update, I know I said I will write in both Norwegian and English but that takes forever, and I don't have enough time to do both in every post. So I have decided I will alternate between the two languages, and for those of you thinking "I won't be able to understand it." All you have to do is copy and past what I wrote into google translate. Yes it will not be a perfect translation but it will get my point across, and if that is still confusing just leave a comment and I will see what I can do.

Now time for the information. Not much happened the weekend after my last post except the other exchange student from Minnesota I met came over and we watched the first two Harry Potter movies because I have never watched them and he happens to be a big fan. Other than that though it was just a weekend to chill out. I got a lot of stuff done over the weekend which was nice though.

Not much haååened for the rest of the week, pretty boring especially because I am getting into a pattern now, so a lot of things are becoming routine, which means boring for the most part. Did decently well on my last couple of tests in school which was nice. For Friday me and the other exchange students had a class together with a first grade class (first high school grade, not like 7 year olds). It really wasn't very difficult and again pretty boring, but it was nice to have something different than usual.

After that it was back home to pack for the weekend, because we were heading up north because I was doing the Norwegian Birkebeiner on Saturday! So it was a pretty awesome weekend, it was definitely a hard race, and I didn't finish as quickly as I wanted to, but I can blame that on minimal training the past month or so. I still was able to finish in 4 hours and 12 minutes though, which still isn't bad for 54 kilomters with a 3.5 kg backpack and over two mountains.

We stayed with my host mother's brother and his family, it was a lot of fun to stay with them and get to know them all a little better. It was also really cool to see another part of Norway, it is really beautiful up where they are and towards Lillehammer. Definitely a really nice part of the country.

Heading back home on Sunday we stopped in Oslo to celebrate my older host brothers birthday which was earlier in the week. We went out to eat dinner at a pizza place in Oslo and went back to his apartment for dessert later on, then it was back home.

Back home which meant back to school in the morning. It really isn't so bad just hard to motivate myself knowing that it counts for nothing, but lately things have been going a little better.

Spring is starting to show itself, for example it got into the upper 50's lower 60's Fahrenheit or about 10-15 degrees Celsius. The sun has been out in abundance the last week and trees are starting to show small blossoms. It has been really nice with the added daylight, it starts getting dark around 7 now and we haven't even changed clocks forward yet!

I am really looking forward to the nice weather, being able to run and bike again and also being able to spend time outside in shorts! Over the last few days I haven't even needed to wear a coat, my sweatshirt has been plenty to keep me warm walking to and from the bus stop.

Things have been going good though and while there are some things that I am coming to miss (like driving) and other things that kind of get on my nerves here, it has been an awesome experience so far and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It is hard to believe that it has been over 7 months already and that I only have like 3 months left, time really does go by too fast. It has also been really nice lately because I understand just about everything now and I can speak fairly well too, so I haven't been totally clueless in classes and when my friends are talking with each other which has been cool.

Anyway that is about all that has happened lately, if you have any questions just leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Thanks for reading!
Jon

Begynnelse av mars!

For dere som skal lese engelsk bare går ned i innlegge. (for those that will read it in English just scroll down in the post). Takk til alle som har stemte i min Poll, hvis ingen more skal steme jeg skal skrive på norsk og engelsk i fremtiden. (thanks for everyone that voted in my poll, if no one else is going to vote I will just say that I will write in both Norwegian and English from now on)

DET ER MARS!!!! Tid har gikk så fort, ikke så mye har skjedde siden min siste oppdatering men det føles like det har. I dette innlegg jeg skal skrive i norsk og engelsk fordi de fleste mennesker har stemte at jeg skal skrive i begge, så det skal jeg. Ok nå skal jeg skrive lit om hva er skjedde den siste en og en halv uke siden min siste innlegg.

Rett etter min siste der var ikke så mye, på tirsdag det var en vanlig skole dag unntatt i breddeidrett vi så på VM på ski! Booya! Resten av dagen var ikke så spennende men det var bra å ha lit gøy ting i skolen. Jeg glemt hvis jeg var på trening den dagen men det er ikke så viktig.

Går videre til andre ting. Det neste to dager var kjedelig, men på fredag, oh boy. Jeg hadde fagdag i fysikk som vanligvis er litt gøy, men i dag det var en tre timer prøve på starten. Så jeg er nervøse om hvordan det gikk, fordi jeg har ikke fått den tilbake. Jeg tror at det var bedre enn den siste men jeg er ikke sikkert på det.

Beste del av dagen var etter lunsj, hvor vi sett på VM stafett! (fordi der var så mye fysikk i et ski renn at vi kan lære om :D ) Neste var helgen!! Jeg elsker helgene, fordi der er tid for å slappe av og henge med venner.

Lørdag var gøy, på jeg bare sove og slappe av om morgenen og så i ettermiddag jeg gikk til en venn som er en utvekslingsstudent fra USA også.

På søndag var det mer tid for å slappe av og jeg hadde den venn fra lørdag over på søndag også for å henge ut, se på litt tv, og bare ha det gøy.

Mandag, tilbake til skole... jeg var ikke begeistret for skoleuke men etter helgen jeg var litt bedre, fordi jeg hadde tid for å bare ventilen min frustrasjoner. Ingen ting spesial på mandag, men jeg hadde helt glemte om min biologi prøve på tirsdag. AAAH!

Så mandag kveld og meste parten tirsdag jeg var så nervøse om hvordan det skulle går. Men jeg tror det var ok, fordi jeg svarte til alle på norsk. På tirsdag kveld det var trening som var klubbmesterskapet, for meg det var en 7,5 km rennet, med en 5 km rundt og en 2,5 km rundt, men på den 2,5 km løpet jeg gikk en galt vei, så til slutt jeg bare slappe av, men det første 5 km var veldig bra.

Da jeg komme hjem etter trening det var mer studering for meg fordi jeg hadde en matematikk prøve på onsdag. Yay... men det gikk mye bedre en min andre prøver for den siste par uker. På kvelden det var bare meg og en venn som er middag hos meg og bare slappe av og snakke med hver andre.

Torsdag var ikke så spesial også, bare skole med trening etter om kvelden. Etter trening jeg gikk til kino med to venner for å se filmen 127 timer. Den var en bra film men litt groteske.

Det var alt for min oppdatering, håper at dere liker å lese det! Ha det så lenge!

Well now that I did that wonderful ending I need to write it in English now.
"IT IS MARCH!!! The time has gone by so fast, not much has happened since my last update, but for some reason it feels like it has. blah blah about how I am going to write this post in both English and Norwegian. Now I am just going to write about what has happened since my last update one and a half weeks ago.

Right after my last post there wasn't much that happened, I went to school on Tuesday where nothing really special happened. Except in my sports class where we watched one of the World Championship races in my sports class! Booya!! The rest of the day wasn't so exciting, so being able to have that little bit of fun in school kind of broke things up for me. Not really sure if I went to training that night but it isn't that important.

On to other things. The next two days were pretty boring, but friday, oh boy. I had a whole day in physics for this school day called "fagdag" (or fag dag, not sure if it is one word or two), it is kind of hard to explain the whole system but if you want to know shoot me an email.

Usually with out physics fagdag it is pretty fun, but on this day we started out with a 3 hour test. I am nervous about how it went mainly because I haven't gotten it back yet. I am pretty sure it went better than the last test but I am not entirely sure.

The best part of the day was after lunch, in this period we watched the World Championship mens relay race (because there is so much physics involved with a ski race that we could learn about). Next was the weekend!!! I love the weekends because there is time to just relax and hang out with my friends.

Saturday was nice, in the morning I just slept and chilled out and later in the day I went to a friends and just hung out with him and another guy. That was about it for that. Sunday I just relaxed some more, had the friend I hung out with on Saturday over to hang out and watch the World Championship 50 km mens race with.

Monday, back to school... I was not looking forward to school, but thankfully after the weekend I was a little better because I was able to vent most of my frustration to someone, so it helped me remove some steam. However nothing special happened on Monday except for the fact that I realized I had totally spaced that I had a biology test on Tuesday, that I had not studied for at all. AAAH!

So Monday night and most of Tuesday I was so nervous about how it would go. I think it went ok though, because I answered almost everything in Norwegian. On Tuesday night there was also ski training as usual, but this time it was the club championships. For me it was a 7.5 km race with a 5 km loop and a 2.5 km loop combined. However in the 2.5 km loop I took a wrong turn, twice. So I just gave up and ski fairly slow into the finish, although I do have to say the first 5 km went really well.

When I got home from training it was more studying for my math test the following day. Yay... this test went a lot better then the others I have had in the last couple of weeks. (we are on Wednesday now, sorry if this is unorganized my English is gradually fading) I had a friend over for dinner and to just hang out afterwards, which was nice because I had been so stressed about my tests and stuff. So we just hung out, relaxed, watched some tv and just chatted for a while.

Thursday (or yesterday if you will) there was nothing special, just school with training in the evening. After training however I did go with a couple of friends to see 127 hours. It was a good movie but it was a little grotesque.

Anyway that about covers me for things, I hope you enjoy reading. See you later!
Jon

VM og andre ting

Hi everybody!!!

First I just want to say VOTE ON THE POLL! Sso far two people have voted for me to write in both English and Norwegian and only one voted for me to write in only Norwegian, but what do the rest of you have to say? Since I wrote my last post in Norwegian I consider it fair to write this one in English. There is quite a bit to tell this time because I have done quite a bit over the last week and a half ish.

Right after my last post nothing interesting happened other than me being able to use my new skis!!!!! It makes so much of a difference having skis that fit. I have used them several times now and each time I am liking them more and more.

I had a history test the week before my winter break, which I was totally not ready for. I was able to get enough studying in though to at least be able to answer a few of the questions (I think).

The next part in my week was going to watch a movie as part of the Norwegian for us exchange student. We went to see a Norwegian film called "Jeg Reiser Alene." Not a bad movie, a bit hard to understand because it was in a pretty difficult dialect but after half an hour I was able to keep up a bit better. After that those of us exchange students went to the shopping center for lunch and just chilled out for a little while.

Then my winter break started!! One week no school, just chilling out and having fun. The first weekend wasn't to much of a big deal just chilled, we went up to Oslo for some skiing and also up to a mountain for a bit (we found an area where the snow was so deep I sank to my armpits, hehe). It was so much fun up at the mountain (not sure exactly where it was, about an hour from where I live) perfect weather, nice fluffy snow and just a nice relaxing ski.

The few days following was just spent with me relaxing, catching up on sleep and doing a tiny bit of homework. After those couple of days is when the fun really started. Thursday me and my family went up to Oslo to watch the ski VM (World ski championships) which are being held in Oslo this year. We had tickets to watch the sprint race, and man was it really cool to be there.

Apart from being one of the very small number of Americans there it was a total blast. I cheered like crazy for all the Americans, and was out there with my big American flag, and when there weren't any Americans around I was cheering on the Norwegians.

It would have been so cool to see an American on the podium but to be honest it was just cool to see all of the athletes out there racing. After that it was back home and back to chilling out. However! I worked it out and I ended up going back to Oslo on Saturday and to watch the Womens 15 km Pursuit race and the mens 10 km combined race. I met up with another exchange student from the US and we both stood on the course and screamed like crazy.

After the races I went to my host brothers apartment for a little while and then went back into the city to watch the award ceremony. I got there a little late so I was in the back making it difficult to see although after about 20 minutes I had managed to shove and push my way to a point where I could see the whole stage.

After that I met up with yet another exchange student who had come done from Bergen for her winter break (Bergen's winter break is a week later than mine). Checked out most of the stuff in the Oslo sentrum with her and her host family. After wondering for a little while I headed back to my host brothers apartment for the night. Got back, we watched a movie and just chilled out. I then went to bed and man did I sleep well, one of the benefits of being on your feet and walking around all day.

Got up and it was back up to Holmenkollen for the mens 30 km pursuit race! Got there with plenty of time to spare this time because I was late on Saturday because of problems with the trains going up. Anyway, got there and found a good spot watch the whole thing, cheered on the US athletes like crazy still and was even told that I was seen on tv. After watching everyone else finish it was back into the city to look around some more, hung out with one of the exchange students ran into two others in the middle of Oslo. After chilling out some more it was back to my host brothers to pick up my stuff and eventually take the train home.

Met up with an exchange student also going back my direction, although we ended up on different parts of the train so me and another student that I ran into on the train sprinted from one part to the next at the next stop. Met with the others and headed back home, awesome winter break.

Then of course school had to start again today, so back to the normal world. Nothing to exciting happening this week except for a big physics test, so yay... Anyway that was my update, hope you enjoy reading it.

Jon

Hva skjer folkens?

Det var en veldig opptatt helgen, men ikke så mye skjedde i uke. Den startet på torsdag når jeg gikk ute for middag for bursdag feiring for to venner min, som fylte 18 år gammel. Det var veldig koselig vi spiste pizza og bare prate lit med hver andre.

Fredag på skolen det var litt kjedelig vi hadde noe presentasjon i norsk og hadde å skrive en drøftingsartikkel (det tok veldig lang tid for meg). Etter skolen jeg bare slappe av litt og på kvelden var jeg på fest til to jenter for deres 18 års feiring. Den var veldig fin fest, med masse folk, og jeg snakket mye med masse forskjellig folk om USA, hjemmested, hvordan det er for meg i Norge og mange andre ting. Det var veldig kult å snakke med forskjellig folk om så mange ting og for å treffe mer norsk folk.

Neste del av helgen var på lørdag (det var også bursdagen min!!!), familien min kom og våkne meg klokka 9 med den norsk bursdag sang og amerikansk pannekaker (left overs fra da jeg laget dem, yay for fryser). Vi spiste i rommet mitt og etter på jeg bare slappe av til etter lunsj og da vi gikk ut på ski og også stoppe på en sportsbutikk og jeg kjøpte nye ski!!! De var dyrt men jeg hadde å få dem fordi min ikke passer lenger.

Etter ski var vi tilbake hjem og slappe av litt før festen for to venner min at hadde bursdag deres på torsdag (samme at jeg spiste med på torsdag). Det var gøy men der var også litt drama, så yeah...

Og siste ting at skjedde i helgen var den Vindfjelløpet på søndag, det var en 42 km rennet og var veldig vanskelig fordi jeg hadde å bruke min rock skis (jeg glemt hva det heter på norsk). Men tiden min var under 3 timer uansett, og neste gang jeg skal bruke min nye ski. :D Det er alt for nå, tror jeg at ikke så mye skjer denne uke men vi skal se.

Ha det så lenge!
Hilsen, Jon

P.S. translate.google.com for those that don't understand Norwegian you can use google translate to figure it out, it should be understandable. What do you guys think, should I write in only Norwegian or should I write in both Norwegian and English? Leave a comment, send me an email or vote in the poll in the top right corner.

Fantastisk uke!!!

This last week has been awesome! It started out pretty boring but ended great. The fun started on Friday when I went with my sports class to Kongsberg for downhill skiing. It was a ton of fun, and for my second time downhill skiing it went pretty good. Kongsberg didn't have as many different runs as Giants Ridge but it was a whole lot longer. I had a lot of fun with everyone and got to learn some new things. After that it was off to the Kongsberg train station to wait for the train south for the AFS Camp.

I got on the train and right away ran into several people from the camp, for the most part the ride down was pretty boring except for being able to just chat with a bunch of the students. Got to the train station and waited for the last students from the south and then headed to the place where we would have the camp.

We got there and started with unloading the bus and then getting some food, followed by chilling out, talking and just relaxing. Had to be up fairly early for breakfast, after breakfast it was on to free time, hehe. Guess what we did, we built a giant snow fort! It was awesome and ended up being huge, we ate lunch and then did a short activity thing. Then it was more free time, we went for a short ski and messed around some more before dinner.

After dinner it was more chill time and we also had another short activity a little later. We also found out that there was a high chance of the northern lights for the night so we were allowed to stay up and try and catch them. So we stayed up and chilled but unfortunately no northern lights, but it was cool to just sit outside and watch the stars, there were a ton of shooting stars.

Now on to the last day, we had the boy/girl talk again, then it was on to packing and cleaning. Eventually we all had to leave :( It was an awesome weekend though and we all said bye to one of the students who chose to go back home, if you are reading you know who you are, we'll all miss you man! After the couple hour train ride home it was back home for a little bit and then off to one of my friends house to watch the Super bowl.

I found it really funny that I don't think I have ever watched the super bowl back home but watched it here in Norway, especially considering we had to stay up until 4:30 to watch the whole thing. After the weekend it was really hard to stay up, and by the time it finished we would only have an hour or so to sleep, so we decided to pull an all-nighter.

After the super bowl school on Monday was really hard but I made it through. Got home and went right to bed, and slept most of the way to morning with only an hour awake in-between. Next came another day of downhill skiing! This time with the whole school, so I got to go with all of my friends. It was a ton of fun, we got there around 10ish I think and I went straight to rent out skis for the day. Was out skiing by around 10:30-11 I think, we went on every trail and even took some paths through the woods.

We headed back at 3 and then I just chilled out, although I was pretty wiped out, so just relaxed and wrote stuff in here. Anyway the last week has been totally awesome, it has been filled with so many things and some awesome time spent with all of my friends. It is hard to believe that it has been six months already and I am really bummed that I only have 5 months left but I am determined to make the best of the time I have left.

It has also been a little hard the last little while because money has been getting a little tight because everything is so expensive, plus it doesn't help that I need to get skis which is going to cost a lot.

Anyway that is things for now, thanks for reading and sorry no Norwegian for now, I am wiped out, a little sick and ready for bed.
Hilsen
Jon

Osebergrennet!!

Okay so sticking with what I said I would do here is a short update about todays happenings, which happens to be the ski clubs very own ski race. This race was something that I have never done before, it was a sprint relay! There were two people per team and each person would do a total of four 800 meter loops, so yes there was a lot of switching. Besides being really short it was a ton of fun.

Moving on I am really looking forward to next week because 1) I am going to Konsberg skisenter (a downhill ski area about an hour away) with my sports class for fagdag next week! I am so excited especially because the only thing I need to pay for is ski rental! (money has been a wee bit tight lately). After that I am taking the train down south for our mid-year meeting with AFS, and knowing everyone from region 2 it will be a blast!

Now for the Norwegian! (those reading that speak Norwegian feel free to correct my grammar, I need it if I am ever going to get better)

Ok så å henge med det sa jeg, her er en kort oppdatering om hva skjedde i dag, hvilket var det Oseberg skirennet. Dette renn var noe at har jeg ikke gjørt før, det var en sprint stafett! Der var to mennesker per lag og hver personer hadde å gjøre fire runder med åtte hundre meter hver rund, så ja der var masse endring men det var gøy uansett, kort men gøy.

Neste uke har jeg mye å se frem til 1) jeg skal til Konsberg skisenter med breddeidrett klasse min for fagdag! Jeg er veldig spent fordi jeg må bare betale for ski utleie! (pengene har vært litt stram i det siste). 2) Neste skal jeg til sør norge (Vegårshei) for midtårsoppholde med AFS, og vite de andre med AFS region 2 det skal være veldig gøy!

Takk og hilsen
Jon

NOT AGAIN!!!

I can't believe I did it again, but in my defense December went by in a flash. It was pretty much like *zoom* and that was it. Anyway it has been a blast the last two months, Christmas was awesome and New Years was a blast.

Starting off just after my last post I went to Sandefjord for a short ski day/trip thing. It was fun, nothing really exciting though. The next morning I finally got the chance to make pancakes for my host family (thanks for the syrup mom!) It sure seemed like everyone liked them, so yeah.

The next big piece of news was a weekend trip to a ski are called Liatoppen (near Geilo). It was a lot of fun and nice to be on snow for the whole weekend, although because of lack of snow at Liatoppen we had to drive to Geilo for most of the skiing, but it was fun anyway. We stayed in a hotel and went skiing, swimming and drove up to the top of Liatoppen for dinner each night. It was a great weekend, and I did get to know some of the other guys on the team that are my age. We also played a lot of ping pong (apparently it is a tradition on the ski trips to play ping pong).

Later on in December a lot of different Christmas get together things started to happen, including a juleverksted at one of my friends house. It was a lot of fun we started off with gløgg (a warm drink that is usually served over the Christmas time), ate some risgrøt (rice porridge stuff, not sure how to describe it), made some cards and finished up with making pepperkake (pretty much gingerbread cookies).

Next part was farmors(Steinars mother) birthday, basically a time when most of the family from around the area came over to our house and celebrated. It was really cool, there were quite a few people that came over, we ate a bunch of food, and I also got to try some different Norwegian desserts which was cool. Great people, good times.

Around this time was also the final couple weeks of school. The second to last week was very hard, I had three tests a paper and a project that were all due within a couple of days. Not a very fun week, it was filled with lots of studying, stressful days and at least one totally failed test. Oh well.

The nest week (half week, we only had classes till Tuesday) was actually really nice, several of my classes were canceled and because of all the tests and stuff the week before all of my classes were really relaxed, it was nice to have that after such a rough week before.

Wednesday the last week of school was actually pretty cool, there was this whole "closing" concert and stuff. It was basically a school talent show for the last day, and just for fun me and a couple of friends wore full suits, we definitely got weird looks but it was definitely worth it. I also went to lunch with my local contact (I don't know if I mentioned this before or not but she has actually spent time in Ely!) had a great time. Everyone here is just AWESOME!!!

Next we are on to Christmas eve, here in Norway the do most of their celebrating on Christmas eve and not on Christmas day. Starting off we didn't really do much, we woke up at breakfast and such and starting around 12-1 we watched a movie called "Tre nutter til ASkepott" which is a movie that pretty much everyone watches on Christmas Eve. The really funny part is that it is a Czech/German movie with Norwegian dubbing, the best thing is that there is only one guy doing the voices, and he just uses different tones while he is talking.

The next big thing on Christmas Eve was going to church, before we went to the church we stopped at the graveyard and lit candles at Steinars dad's grave and also his grandparents grave. There were so many other people doing the same thing, when we walked out you could see all of the candles lit and lighting up the area, it is really something hard to describe.

Anyway church was good, I was actually able to understand some of what they were saying this time around. It is hard to sing though, because I always find myself trying to figure out what it is saying and end up totally off time with the words.

After church we headed home for dinner and after that it was on to the presents. One thing that is totally different was that before opening presents everyone gets together, sings and dances around the tree. It was really cool, all of the Norwegian traditions are really cool and I totally loved all of it!

Moving on we have første juledag, or Christmas day in the USA. Since we open presents and do all of the normal American Christmas stuff on første juledag it was a bit different for me, but was a lot of fun. For both første juledag and andre juledag we went and visited my host fathers family (første juledag) and my host mothers family (andre juledag). It was a lot of fun we got together ate some really good food and played some games, totally different than I am used to but totally awesome.

Nothing really interesting or fun happened until New Years. I went to a party/dinner at a friends house. We ate dinner (nachos and a really good marshmallow dessert), afterwards we just chilled out until we got to one of the most fun parts of the night. We went outside about 5 minutes before midnight and proceeded to light a bunch of sparklers and watch all of the fireworks going off in almost every direction. After that it was back inside to chill out some more and dance a little bit, it was a lot of fun, and I didn't get home until almost 3 in the morning.

School started again on the 3rd so the break seemed a lot shorter because it started the 23rd of December 23rd and ended on January 3rd, did not seem long at all. Back to school though and for the first week nothing interesting or fun really happened. I did go to another exchange students house on Friday to watch the Goonies though so that was pretty fun (believe it or not he is also from Minnesota!).

I also went over to another friends house that weekend and watched a couple of movies (the Dark Knight and A-team) on a 100 inch HD projector, with surround sound and a giant couch(can you say AWESOME)!! We also got lots of snow over the weekend but the bummer is that it was drizzling and in the mid to upper 30's (F) for like 3-4 days after.

Nothing really exciting after, school was/is good, I have had some fun stuff going on in my sports class and have gradually been speaking more and more Norwegian, and have also been understanding much more.

Last week I actually had the week off of school for an sosial aktivitets uke with AFS, which means that I spent the week working, well kind of. I spent the week at my host fathers school helping out with some of the English classes and doing some presentations on the USA. It was a lot of fun I got to talk a lot with the teachers and it was generally a great time.

Over the last two months I have done 5 races (I think, it might be 4), 10 km classic just after Christmas, which actually went pretty well. A 15km skate race (didn't go so well), sprint race (I WON, although there were only two other people in my race), a 10 km skate race (a lot better than the first skate race). Last but not least this last weekend I did a 40ish km classic race, it actually went pretty well, I finished in a little under 2 and a half hours and could definitely can harder, so things are looking good for the birkebeiner qualifying race in mid February.

That pretty much covers things! I am really going to try and update more often, most likely when something interesting, or just random little updates every couple days or something (keep in mind I am not promising but I will try). Any question about stuff that happened just leave a comment or send me a message. I also want to say thanks for all the cards and presents from everyone, sorry I haven't writing back yet, but I am trying, it has been hard to find the time to write back. Thanks for reading (maybe next time I will write it in both Norwegian and English).

Jon