16 May, 2011

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

02 May, 2011

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

25 April, 2011

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

11 April, 2011

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

04 April, 2011

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

23 March, 2011

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

11 March, 2011

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