Forste hjemme hos

first hjemme hos
a hjemme hos is where everyone in our chapter goes to one of our houses and does something. this time we made waffles at the house of a kid from italy. thats pretty much all we did, other than sit and talk
so that was yesterday, today was thursday. 3 hours of gym day. the first 2 arent bad, i just went into the gym with the other guys from the football team, but then comes a ton of running and... i really hate running.
anway, i got to go home early, so that was good. i watched the simpsons pretty much all afternoon, then went to football practice at 530. when we got back we had dinner, then more simpsons. id say rather productive.
ha det!

Nordlys og tirsdag

Northern lights and tuesday
so after i updated my blog last night we went outside and saw a little bit of the northern lights! it wasnt too clear until we walked down to the nearby soccer field where there werent any lights, but once we were there we definitely saw it. i tried to take pictures, but i dont think they came out very well. anyway, they were only green/white, and didnt move/werent clear enough for us to see them moving. it was still really cool, and counts as me achieving one of my goals for this year!
today was tuesday, so i had practice. not a lot of people showed up (8) so we played pickup football vs the coaches, which was really fun.
i morgen jeg ha en hjemme hos, sa jeg skal gar til en gutter huset med min local chapter, romerike.
ha det bra!

Mandag, og jeg glemte om min care package!

Monday, and i forgot about my care package!
today was a good day, pretty boring though. pretty much the only reason i wanted to update is because last night i forgot to talk about the care package i got while i was at the camp!
my dad sent over a box full of stuff i needed (yes, needed!)
-arnold palmer
-boots
-trolli sour gummi worms
-skittles
-milky way midnights
-gummy worms
-starbursts
-headphones
it was so awesome to come back to that! great taste of america, too! turns out norwegians love skittles, so ill have to get extra next time...
ha det bra

AFS leir

AFS camp
today i got back from the second arrival camp for AFS. they held it in a retreat kind of thing in Menesnali, near Lillehammer. It was awesome! (not all the boring afs stuff, but all the free time)
First, me and Ilke got on the train from Eidsvoll to Gardermoen, then transferred onto a train to Lillehammer stasjon. there, we met up with everyone else from region 1. After a forty minute bus ride we finally arrived at the camp site, we stayed in a building called etiopia.
in our room was me and the 2 other americans, and 2 belgians (honorary americans). we had two bunk beds, one of which had a double bed on bottom. we also had the biggest bathroom. at night, we built forts out of sheets (because we are mature ambassadors) and watched movies on a computer.
it was really great to see more AFSers again, hopefully this saturday we can meet up again and head into the city or something.

AFS tur/camp i morgen

afs camp tomorrow
today i didnt really do much, just packed for the camp tomorrow. me and nina went to Ilkes house, shes the other exchange student that goes to my school. i had to drop off my stuff there because of how were travelling and everything.
tomorrow after school we'll take the train to menesnali, a cabin not too far away in lillehammer. there we'll meet up with all the afsers from region 1 (the oslo region). there are 2 other americans, which will be good.
hopefully when i get back on sunday ill have a care package from home waiting for me! i may not be able to post while im away, so... yeah
ha det

Bra trening

good practice
i couldn't really think of a better title because that's all i really did today. we played punt-kick-pass (punt, etc, down the field) which i kinda sucked at but it was fun anyway. (that's why i'm a lineman).
as you can see, i've changed my blog layout quite a bit. i thought this looked a lot more like norway! When its not raining, you'll never see a bluer sky. Also, i've never seen so many rainbows... i saw one almost every day one week.
if you've been to other AFSer blogs, theyve got pictures up. i'm too cool for that. nah, i just figured anyone who wants to see all the pictures i've taken can check them out on facebook, its easier. i dont even take pictures that often... maybe 20 or 30 so far. (compared to others' hundreds). i'll work on that...
ha det!

September 19- en måned

september 19- one month
its officially been one month since i arrived with the gusteruds. I'm already 10% through my stay here, and its gone by quick.
today, me, martin, and our friend stian went to work out at the local gym after school. then we went home and just chilled... no cereal though, something very out of the ordinary.
i morgen vi har trening fra 6-8, men det er det. ha det bra!

Jeg har kokt chili!

I have cooked chili!
yep, thats pretty much it... i cooked it, with my host mom (she really wanted to learn!). It was tough to find the ingredients, even when we went to the big store in Jessheim. It came out great! Never going to be the same as home, though.
We also had a football game today, against the Trolls (from oslo). Unfortunately we lost 13-6, but played hard til the end and nearly tied it up. next time...
min norsk gar bra, men jeg kan lese mer enn jeg kan snakker. jeg skal snakker mer! ha det bra!

Spille spill og Frokostblanding

Playing games and cereal
that pretty much describes the majority of the past 3 days... gaming with Martin (and my friend Rob from the US, which was awesome) and eating a ton of cereal. So much cereal.
We have a football game tomorrow, sondag, instead of today. instead, we went to a magical place that has an insane amount of candy and imported cans of soda from america. that means i came home with 24 cans of mountain dew and, well, an insane amount of candy.
today is the guilford fair back at home, something i will definitely look forward to next year. hopefully i can find a tivoli at some point while im over here!

tirsdag og "lazydag"

tuesday and lazyday
yesterday nothing really happened other than football practice, so i decided not to post... oh yeah a kid drove tractor to school. that was interesting
today was "lazyday" as my brother put it, because we didnt do anything! we did get to play with his homemade potato cannon, which is awesome, and maybe we'll build a bigger better one sometime! after that we had dinner and then gamed the rest of the night. nothing too exciting.
jeg er spent å lage chili i morg pa min familie
ha det!

Håndball kamp

handball game
Today after school me and martin just hung out, then a little after dinner we went to a handball game at the gym building. It was only a scrimmage, though; boys vs. girls.
after that we had to walk downtown in the rain, but it was ok because we bought brownies and cartons of chocolate milk... pretty boss haha. Martins sister Camilla drove us home from there. Thats pretty much all that happened today... ha det!

9/11

today was 9/11, so i went to a memorial service with my local contacts in oslo. it was good; i felt like thats what i should have done.
After all the services and things they had refreshments, where i met the american-norwegian ambassador Barry White. i dont care if i was just a kid to him, i told him my grandfather thinks im going to be the ambassador anyway haha!
later we went back home and swam in their pool for a couple hours. they took in a guy named Giorgio, from italy. we had kebabs (american ones) and sandwiches. It was fun! Jeg er velde trott, og jeg ha skole i morgen. ha det bra!

Fest!

party!
today i got to sleep in, which was great. we had no game today so me and martin just hung out around home. my host mom's family from mandal (where my american family's hytta is) came up; we grilled and had cake. i had a burger... definitely not the same!
after dinner me and martin went to a party with the football team. it was pretty great, though they say it gets better! after that we got some kebabs and went home. 
Jeg er velde trott, ha det!

Litt skole og med venner

a little school and chillin with friends
today i got to go home early again, which is great on a friday! after that me and Martin gamed for a bit.
at around 7 i went with a couple of guys on the team to one of their houses to watch a football game. It was packers vs saints, so i didnt particularly care who won, it was just good to be doing something fun! now im just hanging at home, and tomorrow i'll be around the house mostly because my host mom's family is coming up from Mandal, where my hytta (summer house) is.

Mye gym!

lots of gym!
today was that nice 3 hour block of gym. the first two hours we can do whatever we want (as long as were doing something) but the last hour we spent running to a hill, then running up and down that hill. fun stuff...
after that was lunch, then an hour and a half of something (i don't even know what it is... i think we just talk about gym, as if we weren't tired of it or anything), then i got to go home early! i spent my extra time doing something truly great. Turned on the TV, boom theres family guy. grabbed some cereal. it was niiiiice.
after football practice me and martin just chilled, played some videogames. thats pretty much it. i dont have gym tomorrow, then get to go home early again... should be a good day!
jeg er trott. mye. ha det bra!

Jeg liker reindeer

I like reindeer
Dinner tonight was reindeer meatballs. They were great! i love trying all these "strange" norwegian foods... maybe ill get to eat some moose again!
today was pretty boring, except for gym. gym was very awkward; dancing. if you thought dancing in gym class in america was awkward, put yourself in my situation! Heres what i put on facebook:

Dancing in gym may be awkward, but try it in a foreign country where you dont know the language, barely know the students, and in a class with a lot more boys than girls. my day so far.

 That was the most eventful thing today... other than that i pretty much just played videogames with my host brother. Oh yeah, we also played yatzy (yahtzee) all together. it was really fun! i had to say all the numbers in norwegian. 

God natt!

Jeg elsker a vaere Amerikansk!

I love being American!
more on the title later. First, i had school today. It was a fairly easy day, with a lot of sleeping... My first norwegian lessons were today, and i think they went well. mostly learning how to pronounce things. then in my other norwegian class (the one thats like american english class in school) we had a library presentation, just like at Hand. They're incredibly boring here, too. Something different though: they dont think wikipedia is the devil here. in fact, she told us how to cite it!
My host father told me today that this has been the worst summer regarding weather since 1873. Its been raining a lot, he said. If it keeps up like this through the winter, it could be trouble!
for dinner we had grilled cheese, except norwegian style... they put norwegian cheese and ham, topped with ketchup, inside and toast it. it was actually really good!
ok so todays title is due to the fact that America is well studied here. one of the people from AFS is taking an american studies course at university. We were all invited to a seminar about life in the U.S. and im ready to tell them how it really is!

Dag med mange classen

Day with many classes
Now my titles are just getting stupid, with my little norsk vocabulary! Today was Mondag, Labor Day in the states. I definitely didn't want to go to school! Luckily i didnt do much afterwards, Martin had some guys from the football team over to organize his Fantasy Football league, but i didn't really want to join.
I morgen skal blir en fin dag. God natt!

Verk

Work
I couldnt really think of a better title... my norwegians not that good yet! Today was sondag, so we got to wake up a bit late (10). We had breakfast together (bread/cheese, velde bra!) and me and Martin headed out with a guy from the football team to go do some volunteer work. We met up with a few more people and laid out carpet in a huge conference center thing in a hotel. It took a couple hours but i suppose I didn't have anything better to do. After that we went home and i pretty much just hung out all day. later we had pizza and watched a movie in the basement with the projector they have. It was great!
Tomorrow it's school (I morgen er skole). Hopefully this week they get a norsk class going for me and the other exchange students. I think i could really reach my 2 month fluency goal then!

Til Bergen og Tilbake

To Bergen and Back
Today me and Martin woke up at 6 am to catch a flight from Oslo to Bergen for our second football game of the season. It was raining in Bergen, but the game went on. At least 4 of our players were injured, unfortunately. One even had to go to the hospital via ambulance due to a severe concussion. He'll be ok, i believe.
We got back late, around 1030, but stopped at mcdonalds on the way home for dinner. It was surprisingly similar to home! Not the prices though- my big mac cost $17!
the last couple days have been exhausting. Jeg er trøt! ha det!

Torsdag og Fredag

Yesterday was thursday, and it was tough. First, i had 3 hours of gym. the first hour and a half i worked with some of the guys on the football team, then a break, then we had to jog to the next town over and beyond, into the woods. then back. someone mentioned that it was about 10 km. and uphill. and i kind of suck at running.
After that was lunch, then about an hour and a half of Norwegian health class (called fitneslære (side note: i just learned how to make that letter on my computer)). after school my host mom swapped my school backpack for my camping bag. In there i had clothes, a tent, a sleeping bag, food, and other camping stuff. all together it weighed roughly a ton.
After a 4 hour hike (mostly, if not all, uphill, again) with this massive pack we reached the campsite where we would spend the night. I didnt even need the heavy tent that occupied half my bag because i got invited into a giant tent with some guys from my classes. i suppose it was good to get out there, though.
The trip back was much better, but still long, and i had to carry the tent most of the way. i was so sore when i got home finally! but i still went to football practice a couple hours later. after that i finally got to relax after such an... active... couple of days! Det er bra.