Bitten

I've been bitten by my new pet that I got after christmas. I was sitting there with my pinky out, minding my own business, and so my pet jumped up from his bowl and bit me. Yes, from his bowl. It's a fish. Oh, funny story about the fish too, let me tell you! I got a fish bowl for christmas, so I decided to buy a fish. The bowl was pretty small, so the lady at the pet store adviced me to get a betta fish. So I did, bought a fish, named him Charlie and brought him home and put him in his bowl. First thing the damn fish did was to swim down to the bottom and start eating the pebbles I had arranged in the bowl for decoration. Next thing he does is to discover his own reflection in the bowl and freak out and try to attack it. I wasn't sure what to do, I figured he'd settle down after a while, so I left him alone for a little while. That didn't happen, when I came back a couple of hours later the poor bastard was dead. My dad said at dinner today "Well, no wonder he died, I'd probably die too if I ate pebbles and ran into glass walls." So I got a new fish, named him Johhny Bravo, put him in the bowl, this time under close observation. Johnny didn't settle down in the bowl either, I tried putting him on the middle of the floor so there would't be other things to distract him, I cut off the leg of one of my tights and pulled over the bowl, but to no help. So I moved him to a plastic bowl my mom uses for baking. Or used. Johnny is very happy there and is still alive and kickin'.

"Heeeere's Johhny!"
And here's a part of a letter that I wrote to a friend describing what we do on christmas eve.

Here we start the day watching a movie called “Three nuts for Cinderella”, which is a Czech movie from the 70’s, and there’s a man who has dubbed all the voices, but you can still hear the Czech actors in the background. Yeah, it might not be the greatest movie ever, but it’s part of the Christmas tradition to watch it. My cousin Elisabeth even bought it on DVD and brought it with her when she came visit me, so we could all watch it together on the 24th like we always do. So after we’ve done that, we usually go visit some family, we usually go visit the part of family we’re not spending the evening with. So in the evening we go to whichever part of the family we’re celebrating Christmas with this year (we usually start planning that in October) , have a big Christmas dinner, and then we just sit around and drink coffee, and then we eat rice pudding. And in the rice putting there’s a hidden almond, and whoever gets the almond wins the marzipan pig (which is a pig made of marzipan dipped in chocolate, I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now, you’re smart). After we’re finished that, we open the presents, we open them one by one, one of the kids is the designated hand out person, and has to read out who the present is for and who it’s from, and then the person it’s for opens it. And that usually takes a good while, but it’s a lot of fun because you get to see the reactions on everyone’s faces.

Merry Christmas!

As you all know it's almost christmas, so lately I've been on my best behaviour! For example today, I got home from school, started making christmas cookies (a kind called brown sticks, now doesn't that sound yummy?!), then I did some laundry, and then I went to spinning class at the gym, then I came home and shoveled all the snow out of our driveway, then I did the dishes! So that's why I'm writing today, in case Santa didn't notice. See, Santa! I've been all good this year, at least today :)

This is my russ-card. It's a mock business card, and it's part of our graduation tradition. Mine says:
The name of my school,
Eli Rugaard
Adr: Soup street aka Subagadå (Subagadå is norwegian for soup street, which is the actual name of the street I live on)
Member of: the scouts, VIK (the gym I go to), and Plenum (this one is an inside joke..)
Wine is not a very good cure for love
The greener grass on the other side
is probably just artificial turf!

Last week I went to a friend from school's house and we went sledding and made waffles and watched the polar express! And we took pictures and made it into a christmas card! So, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

dec. 6th

At this date a year ago I went swimming! It seems so unreal, we have 10-20 degrees and three inches of snow here!

Last friday I was at a scout meeting, in 10 degrees weather. I got a ride with Mona, and a mutual friend of ours came along too (gosh,that sounds kind of proper). Mona was going see her boyfriend, and our friend was going partying, and me, I was going walk around in the woods for a couple of hours. They asked me "Eli, is that really something that you do for fun on a friday night?" I didn't know what to answer right then and there, but now that I've had some time to think, I've come to the conclusion that yes, I do find it fun. I really do enjoy walking in the woods, cheeks getting all cold and red, freezing toes... Well, I don't really enjoy the freezing toe-part, but thats just part of the deal.

This is my russ-photo, or senior picture I guess. We had our first russekro (party for the graduates/13th graders), and the theme was traffic lights. You had to dress in green if single, yellow if you're talking to someone, and red if you're in a relationship. It was alright, it was really convenient with the color codes! And there are plenty of parties to come, so I will tell you more about that later :)

Scouts

Whenever I write that nothing is really going on, something crazy happens. So guess what? Something crazy happened. I just joined a group of scouts called the Rover scouts, it's for people over 16. I went to a meeting monday, and then I went to one friday where we played reball (like paintball but with without paint, haha). After we were done playing reball, the other scouts told that to be accepted into the Rover scouts you have to go on a secret mission. They also told me that there were three other guys who were doing going out on a mission tonight, and that if I wanted to, I could join them. So I did.

So I picked up my sleeping bag at home, and put some woolen underwear on. This is woolen underwear. Some might say that they're the ugliest clothes ever designed. They're very tight, and, well, here's a picture:

That's not me. We had a camera on the trip, the only pictures we took were ones when we were in our sleeping bags with only our noses poking out, or of the sky and the lake we slept next to. Basically everything that you didn't have to get out of your sleeping bag to take a picture of, haha.

So about this mission. They dropped me and the three 16 year old guys that I was going with, off at the end of some little bitty road in the middle of nowheres. This was around 12.30 at night. We got a map and a route we were supposed to follow. Oh, and did I mention that it was pitch black outside, and even with headlights, it was hard to see more than maybe eight feet in front of you, there was about 40 degrees fahrenheit out, and ofcourse it rained (and even sleeted some) the whole night. So around one in the morning, we started walking. There was no trail or path. Through swamps, up mountains and steep hills, down mountains and steep hills, and the going down part was almost worse than climbing up because everything was so wet and slippery. So we walked and walked, I had a backpack that was about 15 lbs, and it got heavier and heavier as it got more and more wet. At about 5.30 in the morning, as we were standing in the middle of a swamp, all I wanted to to was to just sit down and cry my eyes out. I was physically exhausted, I was soaked to the skin, and I had bad blisters on both feet. Well, I kept going. And 10 minutes later we found a road! A real road with asphalt! By then we had only walked a third of the route, so we figured we'd never get there in time, so we decided to find somewhere to camp to get some rest. So we walked along the road, well actually we walked in the middle of the road, the place was deserted. We walked past three houses, until we came upon this old barrack. It looked like something off a scary movie, so we werent too psyched about sleeping in there. So we camped out at a little parking lot, we had a tarpaulin, so we used that to build a tent-ish thingy to protect ourselves from the rain. We had to sleep all huddled together to keep warm. Me and three 16-year old guys that I'd met for the first time that same day. It went pretty well, I kept waking up from the sound of my own teeth chattering, but other than that it was great. We slept, or atleast relaxed from about 6 to 10 in the morning.

We had gotten a kvikk lunsj (the norwegian version of a kit kat-bar), which was the only food we had with us, so we shared that for breakfast. We called the guy that had planned our trip to say that we weren't able to make it in time, he told us that he'd never expected us to make it there anyways, so he gave us another route to follow. I had to summon all the motivation I had left in me to get out of my somewhat warm sleeping bag to put on my wet clothes, and keep on walking. For the first quarter of a mile, my toes were so frozen I could have swore they were about to break and fall off. We hadn't even walked a mile before we saw a bone, then another couple of bones, and then a skull, lying on the path. I'm guessing it was a sheep. So we must have slept not even a mile away from something that was so big it could kill sheep. It was so much easier walking in daylight, and we even had a trailto follow for the most part! There is such a HUGE difference between walking on a tiny trail and walking with no trail. Speaking of HUGE, this is what met us when we were about halfway to our goal saturday.


Yeah, and they were standing maybe 10 feet from the passage we had to go through. And they had a baby calf, which means they're more likely to attack. But we got past them. And we reached our goal. After 3,5 hours of walking. And guess how far we had walked that day? About three miles. We didn't walk slow, but the terrain did impede our speed by quite a lot, all those darned swamps and mountains! And also, I was with three boys scouts, and from time to time they were like "Hey lets go up on that hill so we can get a better view of things", I just wanted to yell "Dude! It's pitch black outside, how is it going to make any difference if we stand here or on some damned hill????"And the night, friday night when we had walked for 5 hours straight, we'd only walked 6 miles. When we got to that parking lot that was our final goal, I was so relieved, so tired, so hungry, but most of all so proud of myself! I wanted to quit quite a few times, but I stuck it out! It took all the strenght and energy I had in me, so when I got home, I slept for 14 hours straight, and then I had to go to work. But I got through it all!


Did you know that it's possible to get blisters under the sole of your foot?

Casting Crowns

Hey! I went see Casting Crowns sunday. It was awesome. Other than that nothing is really going on. It's cold here, and I'm excited for christmas.

Today we're making "lefse" at our house. It's, hmm well I really don't know how to explain it. It has butter and sugar in the middle. Its good. And it looks like this:

Nice was nice.

Bonjour! Adapting the french way of life; loaf under arm!

So Nice was indeed very nice! I had a great time, we went shopping, ate good food, sat on cafe's, ate great food, went to a couples of museums, and ate awesome food! Pretty much all we did was eat and relax, it was great! We had so much good food! They had lots of good italian restaurants, local food, we went to an indian restaurant one night... There was just so much food, and don't even get me started on the desserts! There was this ice cream place just down the street from our apartment in the old town, and it had 100 different ice cream flavors!

One night we decided to just eat at the apartment, so my sister and I were sent out to go get some raviolis (stuffed pasta). Turned out the pasta place in the old town was closed, to we had to go find another one. We knew what direction it was in, so we started walking. After we'd walked for a mile, we realized that we didn't really know where this supermarket was, so we asked a local woman. In french. I speak some french, but with their accents and how fast they talk, it was hard to understand much. So i asked (in french)"Where is the supermarket?" and the woman said something something bus station, something something 4 blocks, something something left. We knew where the bus station was, so we walked there, and when we still didn't see it, we decided to ask another french lady. She said something something keep walking something on your left. So we kept walking, and when we'd walk for forever and a half, we thought maybe we'd walked to far, so we (I keep saying we, but truth is I asked and my sister stood like 10 feet away pretending not to know me) asked a random man in french. Fortunately, he didn't speak french, so I asked him in english where the supermarket was, and he pointed to something behind our backs. We turned around, and there it was, just across the street. The raviolis were super awesomely good so in the end it was worth all the work.

Adapting the french way of life 2: Coffee and crepes-breaks as often as possible

The little mall, Nicetoilet - I mean Nicetoile!

Oh yes, I went there. I took a picture of myself in the mirror. And truth is, I can't promise you it wont happen again, but I'll try to control myself.

So as you see, I got my senior jacket! And getting it was a bit of work. Because I've been home alone all day, and for some reason the key to my bike wouldnt work so I had to walk to the store. And when I got back from the store, I went check the mail, and there was the little paper that you hand in at the post office so you'll get your package. So I had to go back to the store/post office to get my package, but I realized when I was almost there that I had forgot said paper. So I had to walk home, and then walk over there again. I was kind of feeling like Charlie on his way to the chocolate factory, golden ticket in hand!

I'm leaving for France monday, so au revoir Norway and Bonjour France!

The big C

Hi, I'm going to France monday. Hopefully I'll experience something interesting and blogworthy. Lately I've been training for the cooper test. And what is the cooper test you ask, well the cooper test is a practical test in P.E where you run as far as you can for 12 minutes, and you get a grade based on how far you run. 7 laps is an A, and you need atleast 4 laps to pass. So I've been practicing at the treadmill at the gym.

Do you know how boring it is to run on a treadmill when the only show that's on the tv is a norwegian soap opera or some gay dude doing makeovers on random people? It's pretty damn boring! So to keep myself entertained, I've started doing math on the treadmill. I convert from miles to kilometres, I see how many calories I burn per minute and how much it'll increase if I increase my speed or incline by this and this much. I've also figured out that the treadmill counts kilometres wrong. Say if you run at 10km/hr, you run 5K in 30 min, right? Not according to this treadmill. So I figured out how much oh dear lord I am even boring myself right now. Sorry. I will update when I get back from France.

Aww I saw on my little map thingy that I installed yesterday that I had one visitor from Norway and one from Louisiana! Thats so nice. Hello!

Stuff Norwegians put on their bread

Nugatti, the Norwegian verison of Nutella. Awesome

Homemade jam that your mom or maw maw made

Brown cheese made from goat milk. This is awesome. We also like to put sliced peppers on our cheese sandwiches

Red beats... Not my favorite but my grandma loves it

Mackerel (fish) in tomato sauce. This is really good, I just had some! We also like to spread liver patee on bread, I know it sounds disgusting but it's really good!
It's common for people to bring lunch bags with sandwiches to school, everyone does it in first grade, but still now I'd say the majority of the people in my class makes their own sandwich and brings with them. I think it's great, it's cheap, and it's always fun to compare sandwiches with your classmates :)

Ozzzzzyyyy!!

Hey! Guess what I did this weekend? It was so awesome, and so worth the hundred-something dollars I payed for the ticket! I went to a festival here in Stavanger to see Ozzy Osbourne live in concert! He was really good live, a lot better than I expected for a sixty-something year old man. The whole concert was just intense, and the music he played was a good mix of old stuff and some of his newer songs. Standing like 15 feet from the stage in a crowd of 12.000 people is something everyone should experience.

There were other bands too, like Madcon and Bare Egil band. Bare Egil Band is a dude that is most famous for a song about a man that dies falling down stairs, so yeah, but it was still a pretty good concert. And Madcon is a norwegian rap duo, they're pretty good if you're into that kind of stuff.. Here's a song by them

Ok now that you've listened to it, play it again. Once you know it well enough, you should go out in the streets and sing! People will be like "Wow, that's a cool song!" and you can say "Yeah, it's by some norwegian band I listen to", that'll make you sound very internationally smart, or you can say "Yeah, it's just some lil song i wrote"... They won't know the truth, I promise I won't tell :)

I like to cook

In our first religion class, we were asked what we like to do in our spare time. We went in a circle, so the whole class got to answer. I was one of the first ones, so before I got to summon myself enough to sum up my life in a few words, my turn was up, and I didn't have an answer. My class did though, Eli likes to cook, they said. I'ts true, I do like to cook, but it got me thinking, because there are alot of other things I like to do, more than cooking. But cooking, that's what my classmates remember me by. Doesn't it make you wonder what your classmates would say about you?

But I mean, cooking is cool, I can live with that. It's not like they said "Eli, yeah she likes to kill teddy bears..." Funny story, I was in geometry, or actually I wasn't in geometry, I was in the rest room. But as I came back into the classroom, I noticed it was very quiet, and they were all looking at me. I checked for toilet paper sticking to my shoes, but no, so I went sit down. The teacher comes up to me and asks me
- Eli, do you like to kill teddy bears?
- Umm, no...? Why?
- You have a murder teddy bear on your pencil case...?
I don't even remember what I answered, but that was the only time I was really glad the teacher went back to teaching geometry, instead of just chatting to us.

The picture is from valentines day 2009, I made pink waffles for two of my friends. Yeah, norwegian waffles are heartshaped, how cool is that?

Standing in the gym in my panties.

It's true. It wasn't a dream, and I did it voluntary. Well, before I say anything more, I should explain that I wasn't prancing around the whole gym in my underwear, me and two friends just tried on some pants in a corner. Still confused? I was trying on some pants that I need to order because I'm going to be a Russ this year. See explanation below. And, I mean, the gym was empty except for me and the two other girls I was there with, so no need to act all shocked :)

Russ (singular and plural) is a participant in the traditional Norwegian videregående skole (equivalent to high school or the British equivalent to sixth form) graduation ceremony known as russefeiring (russ celebration). Russ are easily recognized by their distinctive overalls and caps (russeluer) resembling student caps. Tradition dictates that they wear the overall and the cap from the 1st to the 17th of May

The Russ celebration is practically a big ole party that we 13th graders do in the middle of exams... Let me explain further by copying some more from wikipedia:

The russefeiring traditionally starts on the 1st of May and ends on the 17th of May, the Norwegian national day. Participants wear coloured overalls, drive matching cars, vans, or buses, and celebrate almost continually during this period.



Oh, and not only do we party, we also do something called "knots". The Russ committe (Yes there is a Russ comittee, we're pretty serious about this) makes a big list of things you can do, and if you do one of these things on the list, you'll get a knot or some symbolic "souvenir" tied in the string of your Russ hat. Examples of Russ knots:

Spending a night in a tree (earns a stick from the tree)
Eating a Big Mac in two bites (earns a piece of the wrapping)
Drinking a bottle of wine in 20 minutes (earns the wine cork)
Crawling through a super market while barking and biting customers' legs (earns a dog biscuit)
Spending a school day crawling on hands and knees (earns a toy shoe)
Spending the entire russ period sober (earns a fizzy drink cork)
Drinking 24 beers in 24 hours(girls) 12 hour (boys)
Go for a swim before the 1. of May (earns a popsicle)
Ask random people in a mall if they can lend you a condom (earns the condom)
Break up with a random 16 year old very public.
Sleep on school grounds for a whole night.
Run over a local bridge or from the school to the sentre or similar place naked.
Sit in a round about with a sign that says "We'll have drink if you honk your horn!"
Host an aerobic class at the local pub and get at least ten people to join.
It's common for every school to have about 100 knots.

I'm not planning on doing all these knots, but I think being a Russ is a great tradition, and I'm really looking forward to it! Go Russ of 2011!!

what can I say...

Remember earlier this summer when I didn't have anything to write about? Well, thats not the case anymore. Our lodge burned down monday night. There was an accident with a lamp (you know those big industrial strenght ones that lumberjacks use) that we guess must have tipped over, and because the lodge is in the middle of the mountains, a fire truck could never get up there. So it burned down. All the way down. This happened monday night, and when I went to work tuesday morning we still didn't know how serious it was. It sucked being at work, not knowing. And I couldn't talk to anyone about it really, because I didn't know how bad it was. And how do you talk to people about that, anyways? Just bring it up in casual conversation "Oh and our lodge burned down last night...". I still havent mentioned it to the people at work, I just don't know how to bring it up. The insurance company has been great so far, theyre dealing with all the paper work. But we might not get permission to rebuild it, and then if we do, do we want to? It's never going to be the same.

So now 7 years of hard work fixing and repairing is gone. Seven summers where we could have went to Nepal or Germany or whatever, instead we spent it at our lodge painting, hammering, fixing. And we didn't want it any other way, we chose to spend our summers working on the lodge because we wanted to, my family really enjoys it. Or should I say enjoyed. That place had soul, and we gave it even more soul when we put our souls into it working on it.

I'm going to miss it so much. That lodge was our "thing". We have a normal house, a normal car, but that lodge was extraordinary.

REPORTING LIVE FROM...

This is Eli, reporting live from the Science Farm! Yes I am on my laptop at work, no need to go "SHAME ON YOU ELI" just yet. I'm working a wedding shift, I just sit here at the office in case something happens, but usually the wedding manages fine on its own, which means I'm on my own, sitting here in the office eating candy, watching movies and checking facebook. And to do so, I get payed overtime :) Life is good! No wait, scratch that. Life is not so good, my neighbour is in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I am SO jealous. I read on her blog about places she's going that I've been to, how much fun she's having, even the heat doesn't sound so bad, and it all just makes me want to come back! Good thing I'm getting payed overtime, so I'll be able to afford it.

Well, I can't come visit Louisiana just yet, my next trip goes to the south of France during fall break in October. We're staying in Nice, and Nice is truly a nice city, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Hiking

Today I watched kids run into walls. Let me explain: At the museum there is a "senses tunnel", it's pitch dark and the point is to use other senses than your vision, and there is a safety camera hooked up to the tv in the reception, so today I watched kids (and grown ups too, even funnier) run into walls.


Over to a different topic. I went hiking to our lodge this weekend. Here are some pictures.This is my mom and dad. I told them to smile american style.
We got to our lodge saturday, and sunday we went for a hike in the mountains. We went on a hike to a mountain top half a mile above sea level. Our lodge is about 1/4 of a mile above sea level, so it was a pretty steep hike. It took us about 90 minutes to reach the top, and when we got there we realized we had only walked like 2 miles... But then again it was really really steep

Hiking rule no 1: If your backpack weighs less than half your body weight, it ain't real hiking.

On the top, you can see our lodge faaar down there, just a little red dot.

Hiking rule number 2: When hiking, always wear clother that are ugly, ill fitting, and out of fashion. This picture is a great example: me wearing my dads paint stained fleece and a t-shirt I got for free in 7th grade that still is way too big, and my mom is wearing matching fleece sweatpants and shirt... But the reason we took this picture was to show off how outdoorsy we are, we cooked our dinner (sausage, potatoes and onions, real fancy, hiking rule no 3: When on a hiking trip, do not prepare fancy meals) outside over the fire, and we also ate it outside. How outdoorsy is that!

Over 2000 people have viewed my blog profile! Yayyy!! That was sort of my goal, so now I need a new one! I was thinking maybe my new goal should be to get someone to comment on my blog posts, but that just seems like a little too much to ask for...

It seems like whenever I open my mouth, my sentences always start with "at the museum bla bla bla" or "back in america bla bla".

I will try to update soon with pictures from our lodge and when we went hiking this weekend :)

oh hi there

Hey look, its American Eli. I miss her! She was always so happy, and she didn't have much to worry about. Norwegian Eli works a full time job right now, and she is worried about money and her future.

Today I wanted to tell you about something that I've been thinking about thats very different in Norway and USA. In Norway, almost everything is closed on Sundays. All the grocery stores are closed, all the malls and other shopping places are too. It's just restaurants, movie theatres, and museums that are open. It can be kind of aggravating sometimes, like when you wake up sunday morning and realize you're out of bread, but mostly I find it's a good thing. It makes it easier to keep the day of rest sacred. And most people don't cut their grass just because it's sunday and it would be considered disrespectful towards your neighbours.

I got my first pay check this week! It was a great feeling, knowing that I worked hard (weeeell maybe not "hard"...) for my m. And it felt good to be able to transfer some money into my savings account, so now I just need to figure out what I want to do with my life so I'll have something to save up for.

Hi,
I usually blog on thursdays. It has become part of my new routine. The routine is usually: ride bike to work, work, ride bike home, go for walk with Mona and her dog Oscar, eat, sleep and then repeat the whole thing the next day. And when I ride my bike to work I see sceneries like this

Yeah, it's pretty, but it's getting old.

So there is nothing else I think may interest you today, I've been wanting to show y'all pictures of my lodge, my mom and dad are going this weekend but I cant go because I have to work :( I will however try to remember to take pictures of my house because I promised someone (Shelbi) to post that so you guys can see.

And now let me tell you something atleast a little interesting or funny, or well atleast I find it interesting and funny. In Denmark, when someone die they say that they have "stillet sine træsko" which translates to that they have put away their wooden clogs... SO bye for now, and try not to put away your wooden clogs so we can meet again!

happy anniversary!

It's been a month since I came home from the US of A. It doesn't seem that long ago, but at the same time, my life in America just seems so distant. So, what have I been up to lately? Well, my life this past week can easily be summed up in one word: work. Right now, it's where I spend most of my time, and ALL my energy. But its fun. Most of it is. There are parts that aren't as fun, such as when I ride my bike to work and choke on bugs, or they get caught in my eye and I can't blink them out. Oh, and the other day when we cleaned the chicken cage, we found a dead chicken at the bottom of the cage, it stomped to death by the other ones and then buried in hay. Yeah, so for a minute there I wasn't too fond of the chicken, but all was forgiven and forgotten later that day when I watched an egg hatch. It was really cool, and when the little bitty chicken finally got out, he was so exhausted he could barely keep his head up!

Hey look, it's you guys. My american friends, or some of you at least. I took some of the senior pictures I got and glued them to a paper and stuck them in a frame. And yeah, thats the color of my walls.

Another thing I wanted to tell you guys about was weird Norwegian sayings we have. There is one that goes "It's better to have a dead bird in your hand than ten (alive ones) sitting on your roof". So that was the Norwegian saying of the day, now to the random Norwegian fact of the day: Every day around 6-ish, they have news for deaf people. It's only for a couple of minutes, with some news anchor talking with her hands about the latest news, and there's no sound. Someone should start that in America too!

Hi! I'm back from Denmark. Denmark was cool, as usual, and it seems like my grandpa is doing good. In Denmark we ate lots of popsicles, our popsicles are on sticks and not in plastic mini bags or whatever you want to call it. I'll upload a picture later and then you'll see what I mean. We also rode bikes everywhere, and thats when I noticed something funny, the streets had the weirdest names! There was this one street named dog cry lane, another one was friend mountain street, and the best one was the one named "the knee". Maybe it was because we were on this godforesaken little island. Yeah, it was literally godforesaken, they used to have a church but ther decided to turn it into a spa... Denmaek was great, I left Norway as a child and came back as and adult. Yeah I turned 18. 18 is a big deal in Norway, its like your 16th and your 21st combined because you are allowed to get your drivers liscense and buy alcohol :)

And today was midsummer nighs eve. We celebrated it as we do every year, at my dads friends farm. We bbqed (you cant really call it bbq because we dont use bbq sauce, we just grill stuff) and we had a big bonfire, kinda like the one y'all have in Lutcher, only bigger and uglier.

the science farm

Hallo! This is the museum where I work, its name translates into something like "the Science farm." Part of it is an old farm from late 1800s that they still keep that way so people can see how they did all the farming stuff way back when, and part of it is a science and technical museum. The museum part has a lot of hands on stuff, with different experiments. I think its really cool, I like that kind of stuff. Like for example there is this thing where you can pull to measure how much one horsepower is, and how many horsepowers you got in you, and on the farm we got horses and a very friendly ox who likes bread and to lick peoples clothes. So the last week I worked 40 hours, which is alot! And in addition to that, I've been around every evening, visiting people, catching up with friends... So I got plenty of stuff going on, which is good, that way I dont have too much time to sit around and think about y'all back in Louisiana, which would probably just make me sad.

Friday I'm going to Denmark. I'm going visit my grandpa. I told some of y'all about this situation, so yeah, hopefully its not too weird. But I love Denmark, so I'm sure its gonna be a nice vacation. So now I told y'all what I'm up to here in Norway, so now its your turn to get in touch with me and update me on whats going on with you :) Feel free to contact me on facebook at any time!

I've had some troubles adapting back to the Norwegian lifestyle. One thing that I had the most trouble getting used to was flushing the toilet. In America, the "flush handle" is on the side, on Norwegian toilets its on the top, and its either a thing you pull or a little button you press. But I'm starting to get the hang of that too!

hallo!

Hi, I'm back in my fatherland, the mother ship, whatever you want to call it. I know I promised to start blogging in english for you, my dear american friends. And I will, just not quite yet. I'm kind of busy at the moment working, sleeping, hugging my sister, visiting my grandparents, going for walks with Mona and her dog, and stuff like that. Yeah I started work yesterday, and it was great. I started the day off making sandwiches, and ended it chasing sheep that had escaped the little museum farm. Yeah, I work at a museum, it's cool. I will tell y'all more about the museum, and show pictures of my house and family like I promised, later. Now I need to go get some sleep, because I'm giving a tour of the museum farm to a bunch of first graders first thing in the morning :) Oh and one more thing, I watched a tv show about a swedish cook trying to make jambalaya, she put tomatoes and cod in it and served it with greek youghurt... Thats swedes for you! Stupid swedes...

florida og farvel

Nå er jeg hjemme i Norge, men jeg kom på at jeg hadde ikke sagt hadet, og så hadde jeg heller ikke fortalt om avskjedsfesten min og turen til Florida. I Florida gikk vi tur på stranden, Shelbi og Darren på bildet over. Vi var veldig mye på stranden, hele lørdagen. Så jeg ble solbrendt. Veldig solbrendt, men bare på ryggen. Det kjentes godt da jeg måtte dra rundt på 15 kg håndbagasje på flyplasser på mandag og tirsdag. Men ja, vi bada, fløy med en drage (ikke en Drake, haha), og bada litt mer.

På lørdagskvelden var vi og åt på restauranten Guy Harveys, og etterpå kjøpte vi frozen yoghurt.

Going away-partyet som Brianna arrangerte for meg :) De hadde lagt en stor plakat som alle signerte, som ikke passte inn i kofferten desverrre, og en album med bilder fra hele året mitt i USA, og der signerte alle som var på festen og skrev en liten kommentar, veldig koselig :)

Brianna sin mor hadde kjøpt kake til meg :) Vanligvis er sånne amerikanske kaker veldig fine, men smaker ikke så godt, men denne var faktisk ikke så verst.

svipptur til florida :)

Nå skjer ting så fort her at jeg ble nødt til å blogge i dag og. Det har skjedd veeeldig mye siden sist. Ja, i går var jeg først hos tanten til Drake og spiste lunch klokka 12, så var vi innom på en baby shower for mr. Lott, band direktøren, og etter det slapp Drake meg av hjemme. Så hadde jeg ca 2 minutter til å finne bikinien, skifte og springe gjennom hagen over til Frank, for vi skulle "down the river" som de kaller det her. Faren til Frank, mr. Frank, tok oss med ut i den fine båten hans, og så sto vi på knebrett! Det var 35 grader ute og strålende sol, og det var faktisk ikke så vanskelig å stå på sånn brett, det var veldig kjekt helt til jeg fallt av og slo hodet i brettet. Så da kjørte vi rundt i båten, hørte på musikk, bada, hoppte på sånn tau i fra en brygge og sånne koselige sommerslige ting. Tiden gikk veldig fort, litt for fort, for jeg skulle til bestemora til Drake på kveldsmat, så da jeg kom hjem hadde jeg bare 10 minutt på å få ut de verste flokene av håret og skifte klær og sånn. Så kom Shelbi og henta meg, og da vi kom frem til maw maw Marilyn's house var det veldig mange biler der, men det tenkte ikke jeg noe mer over, før jeg kom inn døra og alle ropte SURPRISEEEEEE!! Det hadde jeg ikke forventa! Jeg ble selvfølgelig kjempeglad, og Tyler klarte selføligelig filme meg stående der med tårer i øynene, uten å si et ord. Bestemora til Darren hadde til og med laget en kake der det stod "we will miss you Eli". Så da åt vi smørbrød og kake, og så hadde de til og med gaver til meg :) Koselige folk. Etterpå stakk vi bort til Heidi, der spillte vi Apples to Apples, et veldig kjekt brettspill. Og såå gikk vi til Tyler og fant golf cart'en, der stabla vi på 6 personer og så kjørte vi rundt. Det gikk selfølgelig ikke bra, den gikk i stykker midt i en park et godt stykke fra huset til Tyler. Og akkurat da ringte selvfølgelig faren til Heidi, hun måtte hjem øyeblikkelig, så da måtte vi springe hjem til Tyler, og så henta vi en bil som vi slepte golf carten hjem med. Vi oppdaget da vi kom tilbake til parken at bilen hadde ikke krok, så jeg og Drake måtte sitte i baksetet og holde en stropp som var bundet fast til golf carten, gjennom den åpne bagasjeluken. Det var sikkert et veldig smart syn. Oooog galskapen ender ikke der. For da vi kom tilbake til Tyler sitt hus, snakkte vi med moren til Tyler, tanta til Shelbi. Jeg husker ikke hvordan vi kom innpå det, men vi bestemte oss ihvertfall for å reise til Florida. Såå jaaa, vi fant et hotell, booket rom, så fredag reiser vi til Florida for en helg :)

fotball og football

Graduation var så amerikansk, akkurat som i filmene! De hadde de flate hattene og kapper, og på slutten kasta alle hattene sine opp i lufta! Jeg fikk ikke delta i selve graduation på grunn av noen normerte prøver som de tar i 8. og 11. som jeg ikke har tatt.

Før graduation var jeg borte hos Blaine som bor nedi gata, og så var vi på selve gratuation, og så var jeg hos Drake, og så reiste vi til "the boat club" der det store graduationpartyet var.

Og i går spillte jeg fotball! Som i skikkelig fotball, ikke amerikansk. Det var veldig kjekt, vi var en liten gjeng som gikk bort og spillte i en park i går kveld. Hehe, jeg forstår hvorfor american football er den store tingen, for fotball kan de virkelig ikke. Men jeg klager ikke jeg, det var ganske kjekt å drible stjernespilleren på american football-laget, hehehe. Tror det var første (og sannsynligvis siste) gangen jeg ble valgt først og var toppscorer. Vi starta i sekstida, og spillte i to timer i 30 grader. Og etterpå spillte vi ultimate frisbee. Så etter to og en halv time med løping rundt var vi svette og gode. Og nå skal jeg øyeblikk spise lunch med hele familien til Drake hos bestemora hans :)

ok bye!

Jeg er yndlingsutvekslingseleven til coach LaCombe og mr Hennis :D Var pa mitt siste FCA-mote i dag, og det var til aere for seniorene. Sa da matte vi 4 seniorer holde tale plutselig, og sa kunne andre komme opp og si ting om oss. Og det var veldig koselig, de fleste sa mange fine ting :) En fyr som jeg ikke kjenner kom opp og snakkte om hvordan jeg hadde vaert som en soster for ham, jeg husker enna ikke hva fyren heter, tror jeg har sagt hei til ham i gangene pa skolen et par ganger, hva skal man si da? Hehe, kanskje like greit at jeg ikke kommer til a se han igjen... Det er trist a tenke pa at dette var mitt siste FCA-mote, jeg kommer til a savne det, spesielt slutten av motene nar alle gar rundt og klemmer hverandre! Veldig koselig, det kan vi godt begynne med i Norge og. Under to uker til jeg kommer hjem na. I morgen er det high school graduation, men jeg far ikke lov til a "walk the field" sammen me de andre, men jeg skal ihvertfall bort og se pa, og sa pa noen etterfester. Ooog neste uke har Brianna arrangert et going away party for meg, det kommer til a bli trist. Og min siste helg her i Amerika skal jeg pa camping med Frank, vi skal sta pa vannski og sant :)

beltebank

Whitney, Emma og meg på sports banquet sist torsdag, et koselig bilde før et litt mindre koselig blogginnlegg.

-Hallo. Nå har sommerferiemodus starta for fullt her, Shelbi tror det er mandag på lørdag og lørdag på søndag. På fredag var jeg hos Kristin og Kaitlin og grilla, eller bbq'et som de kaller det her. Vi tegnte med kritt i oppkjørselen, spiste hamburgere, spillte billiard og de som klarte sitte i ro så film. Men det jeg egentlig ville fortelle om var at da de fleste andre satt inne og så film, var jeg ute med en gjeng gutter og spillte billiard, og så kom vi på snakk om noe. Josh fant et belte på et bord, og jeg vet ikke helt hvordan vi kom innpå det, men de begynnte å fortelle om hvordan de hadde blitt slått med belter og lignende som barn. Alle fire hadde flere ganger blitt slått fordi de hadde gjort noe galt. To av dem pleide også måtte knele i ris hvis de hadde gjort noe ekstra fælt. Jason måtte på legevakten da han var tretten, for faren hadde albuet ham i nesen så han fossblødde... Blaine mente at han fortjente det hver gang han ble slått, og han respekterer foreldrene sine fordi de gjorde det, og alle fire var helt enige om at de kommer nok til å slå sine egne barn når den tid kommer.

-Jeg satt med haka på knærne, jeg har ennå ikke helt innsett at jeg er i sørstatene, og dette burde egentlig ikke overraske meg. Og så kom jeg til å tenke på hvordan jeg hadde reagert hvis jeg ble slått da jeg var 5, 8 eller 10 år. Først så innbilte jeg meg selv at jeg aldri gjorde noe galt, så derfor har jeg aldri fortjent det, men etter litt videre tenking kom jeg fort fram til at jeg var nok ikke alltid en engel. Jeg fikk veldig fort dårlig samvittighet da jeg var liten, og en skjennepreken fra mor og far fikk meg til å tenke i dagesvis, hvordan hadde jeg da reagert om jeg ble slått?

-Ok, over til noe litt mer hyggelig igjen. På lørdag var jeg hos Shelbi og spiste Crawfish og så film, Sherlock Holmes. Bra film, jeg likte den, men Shelbi sovna. I går var jeg på Walmart, og så hos Shelbi og bada, og så på Subway, og så så vi film igjen, Marley and me. Og i dag, i mens dere der hjemme har feirt 17. mai, har jeg jogga en runde i stedet for å gå i tog, spist bringebærsorbet i stedet for lollipop og pinup, og lagt hjemmelaga pizza i stedet for skinkegrateng hos farmor. Norsk 17. mai slår den amerikanske any day. Forhåpentligvis blir 17. mai som russ neste år mer spennende. Nøyaktig to uker til jeg kommer hjem i dag.

as we go on we remember all the times we had together!

Var på camping i helgen med Shelbi og familien. Det var veldig kjekt. Vi var på Fountaine Bleu i Mandeville (sikkert veldig nyttig for dere når jeg nevner stednavn, forklarer jo veldig mye), og denne campingplassen hadde mer trær og skog enn sement. De hadde og mange fine stier til å sykle og jogge på. Familien til Shelbi er så koselige, og de er veldig snille. Sa hadet til tanta til Shelbi på søndag, og så begynnte vi begge å grine. Og det var da det slo meg at hvis jeg begynner å grine av å si hadet til tanta til Shelbi, kommer det ikke til å bli lett å si hadet til Shelbi og alle de andre. Jeg kjenner jo kje tanta til Shelbi så godt! Og det var sløsing av tårer for jeg så henne igjen på mandag da jeg var med Shelbi sin familie og åt middag etter senior mass. Og det hadde ingenting å gjøre med bildet over, hehe. Dette bildet var fra tirsdag, den siste dagen jeg spiste lunch i kantina, kommer ikke til å savne kantinematen :P Og se på håret til Josh, sånn hår har ca. alle amerikanske gutter, hehe.

Jeg er brunere enn Josh (dette er ikke samme Josh som på det første bildet, mange her heter Josh). Dette bildet er fra siste skoledag. Det var ganske trist. Vi hadde bare to økter, skulle egentlig ta eksamen i gym i første time, men det slapp vi for vi tok med donuts til læreren. Only in America... I andre time hadde vi allerede tatt eksamen, tok den tirsdag, jeg leverte min inn blank for jeg får B i det faget uansett, så da var det ikke vits å stresse med en unødvendig eksamen :) Mange leverte den inn blank, de fleste seniorene driter i skolen de siste månedene, for de har allerede kommet inn på college, så så lenge de ikke stryker i noen fag gjør det ingenting. Men på slutten av andre time så spillte de en sang over høytaleren, Graduation song by Vitamin C, og så møttes alle seniorene i hallen og sa hadet og grein litt.. hehe, noen mer enn litt og. Og jeg var overraskende nok ikke en av de verste! Men det var veldig trist. Etter det gikk de fleste til Alex og bada og sklei på sånn slip n slide, sånn glatt ting man sklir på. Og da klokka ble 2.30, når alle de andre slutta på skolen, var vi tilbake og sto klar med vannballonger og bombaderte alle som kom ut. Dette var en av disse her amerikanske senior tradisjonene, hehe :)

Kristen, meg og Shelbi på senior mass som var på mandag. Og i dag var det sports banquet, for alle seniorene som har deltatt i en sport, og så fikk vi god middag og en plakett. Oooog ja, i dag var jeg i New Orleans med mr Tony og miss Tina. (hahaha oppdaget nettop at jeg skrev mr og miss automatisk, men det er det jeg kaller dem, alle ungdommer kaller folk som er eldre mr og miss, hehehe). Men ja vi var i New Orleans på D-day museumet de har der, og det var veldig bra, og etterpå var vi på Hard Rock Cafe, og så på en mini shoppingtur :) Så nå skal jeg bare nyte sommerferien min, nyte sommerværet og nyte mine siste dager her..

LSU

LSU sin campus var veldig fin. Det er veldig tydelig at LSU er et college med mange penger, for de sparte ikke på noe! Maskoten deres er en tiger, så på campus hadde de en ekte tiger (som i levende, pustende, kommer fra jungelen) i et stort bur. De hadde fine annlegg for alle de diverse sportene. De haugevis av basseng, men de hadde ett ekstra kult med en tredemølle innbyggt i bunnen så man kan løpe under vann! Men campusen var veeldig veeeeldig stor, så stor at de har egen tannlege på området, eget apotek, en fotdoktor, en fingerdoktor, en fyr som bare er ansvarlig for å ta røntgen, og alle disse er kun for idrettsutøverene. For man må være veldig god for å kunne spille college sport, og man må være EKSTREMT god for å kunne spille for LSU. Det er en i klassen min som skal dit for å spille american football, han er ranka topp 10 av high school football-spillere i hele landet (nå skal dere liksom bli veldig imponerte). Men altså, det er veldig stor forskjellsbehandling av idrettsutøvere og "vanlige folk". Han fotballspilleren er stokk dum (unnskyld, men det er sant...) og hadde aldri kommet inn på LSU hadde det ikke vært for at han er så flink i football.

Ellers har jeg sprunget med Frank i dag, og da snubla jeg over en ståltråd og trynte skikkelig. Har en del blåmerker som er veldig fargerike, men det er egentlig ikke vondt. Og det første jeg tenkte etter at jeg falt var "Yess, nå kan vi diskutere skadene mine i Sports Medicine i morgen!"

Nå har jeg vært veldig flink å blogge i det siste! Tre dager på rad, det har aldri skjedd før.

Og hvis dere lurte, fyren med bananen ble tatt av politiet etter en liten biljakt!

Sir Francis Drake the sea dog

Coach LaCombe: Sir Francis Drake was a dog y'all! He was a real beast, a sea dog! What would we call people like him today?

Shelbi: SEAL!!!!!!!

Coach LaCombe: Yeah, I was kind of looking for something more like Pirate.

haha I love you Shelbi

Jeg blir litt svimmel når jeg ser på hvor mange som har vert inne på bloggprofilen min. Nesten 2000 folk, og det kan jo ikke være mor og far alle gangene?

Shelbi og Drake kom tilbake fra band trip'en i dag, det var koselig. De kan være ganske uforDrakelige (hahahahaha), men jeg savnet dem! Og de var bare borte 5 dager, hvordan skal dette gå når jeg skal hjem?

Åja, bildet! Bildet er av en vegg på skolen, alle seniorene får sette håndavtrykkene sine på veggen som et minne. Who dat er slagordet til the saints (New Orleans american football-lag som vant the superbowl), og den blomstertingen er en fleur de li, logoen til Saints, men også sånn symbol for Louisiana generelt. Min hånd er helt nede til høyre, den er grønn, den kom ikke med på bildet. Det står Eli, Cross country og track mellom fingrene. Ja for det nevnte jeg ikke, men man skriver navnet sitt og tingene man har deltatt i i løpet av high school.

I morgen skal jeg på field trip til LSU, Louisiana state university. Det er det største universitetet i Louisiana med ca 30.000 studenter... Så det blir kult å se, så det kan jeg fortelle om neste gang jeg skriver her.

Hallo, nå har vi bare 11 skoledager igjen! Rart å tenke på. Var på pool party hos Brianna på fredag, det var kjekt. Det er veeldig varmt her for tiden, men jeg klager ikke! I morgen reiser Drake og Shelbi fra meg, de skal på band trip til Florida, de drittsekkene :( Neida, kan jo ikke få med meg alt. Ellers er alt bra, jeg bruker ettermiddagene til å hvile og se på tv som en ekte amerikaner i stedet for og løpe på track-trening. Neida jeg har ennå ikke tid til å ligge å dra meg hele dagene, er alltid noe som skjer, og det er jeg ganske glad for fordi jeg vet ordet av det er jeg hjemme igjen!

alligatorer og avslapping

Drake, våre to nye venner, og meg :) solbrendte og slitne etter en lang dag med mye løping!
I går var mitt siste track meet (track meet = friidrettskonkurranse). Det var district, der de beste trackfolka i mitt distrikt konkurrerte, og de beste av dem går videre til regionals. Og jeg kom altså ikke videre da, for man måtte komme på 1. 2, 3 eller 4. plass. Jaja, er ikke sååå lei meg, blir ganske herlig å komme hjem før klokka 17 om ettermiddagene, og slappe av i stedet for å løpe. Jeg satte ny personlig rekord i 1 mile (1600 m) på under sju min, så det er jeg fornøyd med, men det holdt bare til sjette plass, var oppe på 5. plass et par sekunder, men hun slo meg i innspurten. Men jeg er litt glad jeg ikke kom på femte, for da hadde jeg bare irritert meg over hvor nær jeg var.. hehe. Men Drake kom videre, han satte og ny personlig rekord, 4.55! Jeg ble minst like glad som han, og jeg lovte å skrive om hvor flink han var på bloggen. 2 mile-tida mi var ikke like bra som jeg hadde håpt, men som coachen min sa "Some people are put on eart to run, some people aren't. And for those who arent put here for running, for them to go out and run like that, that takes a lot of courage! I'm proud of you babe!" Åja, det har jeg vel ikke nevnt før. Alle her kaller hverandre for babe, sweetie, boo, og sånt! Det er veldig koselig, og det synes jeg vi kan begynne med i Norge og :)

Forrige lørdag var jeg og mr Tony på en swamp tour her borti en plass. Vi kjørte med en båt ut i en stor sump og kikkte på alligatorer som var både to og tre meter lange!! Tour guiden vår var en tretten år gammel lubben gutt med blondt hår i hestehale, han var mer opptatt av å prøve å fange disse bestene med en alligatorfiskestang enn han var om å vise oss rundt. Virket litt halvskummelt, men vi kom da fra det i live! Og så har jeg holdt en aligator som dere ser på bildet :D

Rundt 6 uker til jeg kommer hjem nå. 31. mai!