Preparing for Christmas!

I have just found out how much I LOVE Christmas. I was so lucky to be invited with Fran and Momoko to their friend Katie down to Minneapolis, and I figured that would be funnier than staying up in the dorms until my family got here, hehe. We've been here since Friday, and I have loved every minute of it. I have been shopping alittle, met Katie's family and had dinner with them (they are all so nice, and a little Norwegian of course, hehe), met her friends, went out to eat, I even found a gift for my boyfriend, hihi. And for others too of course!
Yesterday we decorated their Christmas-tree, and I took over 250 pictures. Not even kidding. Some are of course deleted, that's the beauty of digital camera's! :D I got some REALLY cute picture's of Momoko and Fran in front of the fireplace and while decorating, and some of me of course, hehe. Posting when I can upload my pics to a computer with internet!

Well, I better go get dressed and stuff, later

No words

It was unbelievable.

I am of course talking about the Christmas Concert, and our last performance in Minneapolis in particular. If you could walk out of that place and not be moved in ANY way, I give up on human kind. After our Psalm 150 I was so out of it that I didn't remember all the words on our next song. Tears were building up both during and after the song, my body was trembling, and sweat was running down my back. I have never sung with such passion and emotion in my life. Maybe our concert in Stockholm with Voci Florens comes close, but still, that one song just took me over the top!

It has been straining, my voice was not happy Monday morning after out last concert in Moorhead, but then we had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off from singing to recuperate, and that was very nice. After last night though, my voice was a little shabby, but it's back to normal today. We didn't have a very good warm-up, and although I tried to do some on my own, it still was a little shaky. And two concerts in a row - well, for me who can't hold back, it's kind of tough, hehe. And sometimes you just forget to u se technique and just go for LOUD, haha. But it's all good ;)


Now, about my trip to Minneapolis!
After a 4-hour busdrive down we got settled in at the hotel, which was very nice :) We had the evening free, so some went out, some stayed in, personally we spent 1,5 hours waiting for a pizza, and when it FINALLY arrived, we got it for free of course, hehe. So we ate pizza, bought some AWESOME mikshakes and went to bed.

"Bright and glorius is the sky", got up early to go for breakfast at "Key's", a very nice place not too far from our hotel. Had a HUGE meal, wasn't able to eat again until 4.30, so I loaded myself with a blueberry pancake, hashbrowns with veggies, scrambeled eggs and a couple of toasts. I was still full after two hours had passed, haha.
Then we rehearsed at Orchestra Hall, the location pf our concert, and then went shopping for a little while. Not knowing we would go from breakfast to rehearsal to shopping, I was wearing WAY to high heals (we were told to dress up during our entire stay), so my feet hurt like hell when we finally got back to the hotel. There we had a simple but very nice dinner and BROWNIES for dessert, hihi... And some cookies of course, haha. After that it was time to get ready for our concerts, so we changed and ran over to Orchestra Hall, which is just by the hotel.
Our first concert was pretty good, but the last concert... As I said, it was unbelieveable. There are a lot of seniors in the choirs, meaning this is their last year in College. So of course this would also be their last Christmas Concert. So the emotions were hanging in the air, heavy like rain, and during Psalm 150 they all came out. Pouring, like I have never experienced before. We all gave 110% or more, me included. It was just... amazing. We recorded both of these concerts I think, so I guess the best performances of our songs will be selected. I can't wait!!!! :D:D
Bustrip home was early, hot and painful because my whole body was swollen from all the walking in wrong shoes and standing up and down for so long. Au. But we got safely!

Now, here are some pictures!


At the hotel!


Some friends, mostly from Chapel Choir


Me and my namesister in front of the stage


Ready for our last concert!

Christmas Concerts

Well, that was that, we did all our Christmas Concerts here in Moorhead! It has been GREAT, and the last two performances were just WONDERFUL!! I gave it all I had, which my voice probably can confirm, hehe. There are a few pieces I just can't help but sing my lounges out, they're just beautiful and powerful. I feel so privileged, and I am enjoying every minute right now!
This Wednesday we will be going to Minneapolis to do our two Concerts down there, in Orchestra Hall, a fairly HUGE place, hihi. Really looking forward to it!! :D And after that it will all be done with and we go back to our "normal lives" and exams and stuff. Can't wait! Ha...ha........
Anyway, here is a pic or two:

Mr. Smith while we gather up for warmups


Anne Marie and Anne Marie in front of the mural!


The last mural! :D


This weekend has just been fabulous, Friday evening we got some snow, wohoooo!!!! And last night it started snowing again, so this morning I woke up to a Winter Wonderland! :) I took some pictures this morning and came almost late for class, but the sun was just SO incredible I had to get a shot of it! So enjoy :)

Dancing

We got another snowfall this morning, SOOOO nice to walk out when everything is all white! :D I have a picture, but not sure it's worth showing here - it ain't THAT much snow, hihi. But don't worry, there will be lots more of those snowy pics.

So tonight is the big night, our very FIRST Christmas Concert this year!! :D Nylons are ready, shoes are polished and the music is memorized. Soon putting on makeup and putting up hair, gonna be GREAT!!!!!

Oh, and let me know if you wanna see those videoclips from that dancing, I put it on YouTube, so all you gotta do is let me know your username and I'll figure it out! ;) Or come find me, I'm lykkepilla of course, hihi.

Anyway, better get off here, l8ah

(Fine, I'll throw in a pic... :P)

Concert coming up!

My goodness!
This week had been interesting. We started our intensive week of rehearsal Sunday night, and we have our first Christmas Concert tomorrow already! Tuesday we had a pretty bad day, Dr. Clausen got PRETTY upset with us, and the rest of the faculties weren't very impressed with us either.
Yesterday we pulled it together and it was 4.5 notches better as Dr. Clausen said, hehe. After Psalm 150 my entire body was shaking, and I was gasping for air, sweat running down my back. But what a great sound! WOW!!!!! :D
Everybody was a little down after yesterdays lecture, but after that runthrough we all felt better I think. I really took in all that was happening, and I' really looking forward to the concert!!!! Mom, I know you know this, but you are truly missing out here... I'll try as much as i can to get someone to film it!

And just a little observation for those who watch that Bible TV-series that runs during Christmas, some kind of calymation or something: remember the voice that is the storyteller/the voice of God there? I think we got him here!!! So funny, the guy reading the texts from the Bible during the concert sounds JUST like him. It's GREAT!! I love it, just love it.

Today we will be shown the light/mural show they are playing during the concert, I'm looking forward to that! I took some pics the other day, and will take some more tonight! Here are some of the pics from yesterday:


Dr. Clausen (on the floor!) and Mr. Smith


Kelly and Amanda have mixed feelings about the concert! *giggle*


Opening mural (I think, hehe)


I had a fun day at school today; we danced West-African dances in World Musics!! You all know I love to dance, and this was just a fun as it sounds, hihi. A bit different than the other Farican dances I am familiar with, but still lots of fun. I got a few pics from that too of course!


I took small videoshots too, but I can't load them here. I might use YouTube if I figure out how to work that stuff though, so watch out for a link one of these days! :)
Now I need to read english. Bye!

Did someone mention food?!?

I had my suspicions, and now they definitely were confirmed:
Thanksgiving = food, eating, food and EATING!!

THURSDAY
Janice made a SUPERB dinner, and I ate quite a bit. And then she topped it off by having choclate fudge made, just for me!!!! I LOVE YOU JANICE! *giggle* Might not be too good for my health, but hey, who's counting calories, right..? Haha. Besides, we found out that if you eat smaller portions and more often instead, the calories don't really count. *lol*
Anyway, Janice had her nieses Kathy and Kathy and her son Justin over also. We had a good time, and I sang the Norwegian table prayer before dinner of course, They really liked that. And turns out that Kathy (Justin's mom) likes to make Norwegian/Scandinavian food, and she makes lefse and kromkaker and sanbakkels and looots of good stuff! Mom, you should meet this woman! Got some pics here for ya:


After dinner we played this game Joker, here we are:


I won my first game, just cause they were nice to me, but still, hehe. Fun! And then we had the famous pumpkin pie that is a must at every Thanksgiving!!




FRIDAY
The BIG shoppignday in the US, I mean HUUUUGE, the biggest the have! People sleep ouside stores to get the deals they want. This one guy was interviwed because he has been the first one outside "best buy" the last 4 years. This year he spent Thanksgiving outside there. WOW. I got myself a NICE pair of boots, and cute little camera, hihi. Here are my boots:


The rest of the day was pretty laid back, we went for a walk in the BEAUTIFUL weather, it was really nice outside, and since I forgot to take picture of the dinne yesterday, here is a picture of the leftover dinner which was the exact same thing, hehe..!




SATURDAY
I felt so bad after sitting around eating all that food, so I went for a little morningrun in the coldness. It was a few degrees below 0 celcius, and my lounges are not used to that yet, so it was a very short trip. But at least I got out a little bit! Then Janice had made pull-aparts for breakfast, oh my, they are GOOOD, hihi. Got a pic of course:


Then Lyle, Matt and Anna came to eat dinner here, we had a good time too, and dinner was FAB as usual. And I loved Lyle's beanstew or whatever it's called :)
We played another round of Joker, and then after Matt and Anna left, the rest of us played Mexican train, another pic:


It was a good day :)



SUNDAY
Today I actually joined Janice when she went to church, I thought that would be a fun experience. And it was! I even witnessed a baptism, I was right smack in front where they baptized that cute little girl (Meghan). The service was very different from how we do it back home, but Janice told me that the late Sunday service usually is a little more laid back and loose.

Then we went to Space Alien Grill & Bar, oh for FUN!!! *giggle* I took a BUNCH of pictures, here are a couple:




We had some fun, haha. Now I'll be going back to my empty appartment, do homework and then there is choir tonight. Christmas concert is coming up you know!!!

Swingdance!!

Just have to say this:
Tuesdays I was kindly enough invited to dinner across the hall to the girls living there! We were in all 8 people, a good crowd around that little table, haha. But it was very nice, I had a good time.
After dinner most of us went out to this place called Avalon downtown - it's a dancingschool where you can come every Tuesday night and just dance! The first hour they have teachers teaching some stuff, then we dance til we drop, hihi. Gonna go there a whole lot more as long as I can!! :D FUN!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D

In a coouple of hours I will be going to Janice's to ahve Thanksgiving dinner, looking forward to it! So I better go pack, see you all!

Oops!

I just realized that I didn't tell you how my concert with Vocal Jazz went!! Well, it went fine, Momoko was kind enough to tape the whole thing for me, so I got it all on tape!! :D There is also a cd with just the audio, so I'll have a better audio tape than the camera can do.

And Friday night ISO had this Showcase, and I sang "Den Fyrste Song" as act number two. Got someone to tape this one too! ;) It was a great show, lots of different stuff, dances and songs and even a chinese "ako" I think she called it, a stringinstrument that looks like they attatched two strings to a broom shaft, hihi. So fun to see and listen to though! :)



After the show Fran and Jillian and me went to hang out at Erbert's and Gerbert's, nice :)
PIC:



Last night Fran and I went out at 10.30 to look at the stars - there was supposed to be a meteorshower with it's peak at 11.15 or something. I didn't know that Fran was a Astronomy-fan until yesterday, that's awesome!!! Her father is an astronomy teacher, so she grew up with loking at stars and planets and all that cool stuff! :D That is just so cool, now I have someone to look at the stars with, hihi. It was a little cold, but I had a fantastic time! :D

Today - who knows what will happen..!

Haircut!

I've been thinking about getting a new haircut for a week or so now, and Tuesday I went for it! And here is the result:


Life is alright these days, don't have a lot going on - but after tomorrow I will have! Got our internation Festaival this week, gonna perform "Den Fyrste Song" at the Showcase :)
But gotta go, see ya!

Ridiculous!

I forgot to post this!!!

Last weekend I had more fun than I have had for quite some time!
Me and a few friends, mostly international students were going to this Mexican restaurant, "Mexican Village" or something, hehe. Anyway, Jillian said we could walk over, and we don't really have a car, so we had no choice anyway. None of them had been there before, so we didn't know exactly how far it would be.
So we start walking. And keep on walking. And walking. And walking, and walking and walking, haha, we walked probably 2 miles or so! Me being a Norwegian and all I can stand some pretty bad weather, but the wind here is fierce!!! But it wasn't all THAT bad after getting warm from walking, but the wind here gets bad...wow.
Anyway, we finally got there, and we had some VERY nice food, and got VERY full, oh my.... Not good at all, not gonna do that again until Christmas at least! I was just smiling as we went back (very nice to walk off that dinner btw) cause we looked like we were in the Arctic or something, hoods and scarfs and beanies and mittens, hair blowing everywhere, hahaha.... FUN!!!! :D

Here is a picture:

Busy, but nice!

After last week I needed a good, sufficient week - and I got a semi thing, but at least I got some stuff done, and I was more social and just had a better time than last week..! So here are some of the highlights of this week:

Monday
- Audition for the International Student Organization, I will be singing "Den fyrste song" at the festival we have next week! :) I'll probably throw in a "stev" too, we'll see.
- Went swimming with Tessa :)

Wednesday
- Handed in our 3rd Summary/Response paper in English :S

Tuesday
- Had World Musics exam, woah... gonna be interesting to get back!

Thursday
- Had a presentation of Samba in World Musics with two others in my class, we've had some fun preparing for that, oh my, haha.
- Had a nice workout :)

Friday
- Got quiz back, 19/20, was one word which I kind of knew I screed up.
- Had our first mass-rehearsal for the Christmas concert, fun! What wasn't so fun though was that one girl fainted and had a small seizure, yikes. But she was ok.
- Went to the a musical they put up here on campus - which I SO wish i could be a part of, but I missed the auditions.... Besides, I think it crashed with stuff, and I probably was better of spending my time on other stuff. Like chatting :P haha... Anyway, it was FUN!! :D


This weekend Vocal Jazz Ensemble has their first real concert, looking forward to it! Gonna make someone tape it, don't worry, hehe.
Oh, and by the way, you should all stop by Chapel Choir's new website!!
Go to
www.concordiachapelchoir.com
and see for yourself, we have video's there! :D

That's all for now, see you all later!
Adding a picture just because :)

What goes up most go down

And so it did this week.
Started with me going to bed a little too late a few days, and then I skipped the workouts a little cause I was tired, and then I skipped homework cause I was sleepy, and next thing you know I even didn't show up for one of the classes cause I was so tired.
I was almost at the point of giving up, and felt like skipping school the next day. But said to myself that if I skipped school this would become an endless evil circle, so got up and went to school. Thank goodness! Still felt a little depressed and out of focus, and almost fell asleep during yoga, but I was there and did it.

Then, Friday I hooked up with Tessa and went swimming, and that was very much needed. We made a deal about going to workouts 3 times a week together, and it's nice to have someone to go with. Makes it harder to skip them! ;) And who knows, maybe I'll drag her along into the weight room too? *hihi* :P

So far I've done quite a bit of homework today, and it feels good. Going to a concert later today, the Concordia Orchestra just came back from a tour and is holding their Homecoming concert today! :) Jenna is in the orch. and she is pretty pooped after the tour, hehe. But I'm sure it'll be good!

Here is a picture from another pullover that was made RIGHT outside our window, hihihi, we payed close attention, and the officer was kind of cute, so...hihihi. Here it is!



Today I got a lot of homewrok done, so I feel a whole lot better! I started making plans for "tomorrow", and it works like a charm :D
See ya!

*lol*

I made Maya put me in these backgrounds, hihi....... FUN! :P







More coming I think, hihi..!

Concert and Halloween!

This Sunday we had our first real concert with Chapel Choir!
I was pretty excited, hihi. And the best part was, I knew I had people sitting in the audience listening to me! Joel, Sue and Art all came down from Devils Lake too, and Lyle came from Alexandria, and that was REALLY nice of them, I really appreciated that! So thanks guys..! :D
(And can you believe it, I didn't take ONE single picture..!! *sob*)

The concert was good, our last few songs were really good I think, and my sextet-solo went well! :D I think Mr. Smith really enjoyed parts of our concert, he started stretching out notes more and stuff, hehe.
And today (Monday) he had talked to Dr. Clausen, and apparently he liked our "O Magnum Mysterium" so much he would like us to perform it on the Christmas Concert!!! That song has been done by Concordia College Choir before, and it's a HARD piece when it comes to intonation and keeping it interesting, so that's kind of a big deal! And Dr. Clausen is preeeetty picky about stuff, so we consider it an honor, definitely! *cheer*
And PS: There will be a DVD made from the concert, hehe)


And as you can imagine, Halloween is kind of a big deal over here! We had a dance tonight, and I had some fun for sure! The most fun thought was taking the pics AFTER the dance, haha. We had a dance here at school, yes, hihi. I dressed as Lara Croft (kind of an insider "joke") and a couple of friends of mine took some pics, hihi. They laughed their heads off at times, lol.
Here is a small selection!







I think they turned out kind of good, hihi. We had heaps of fun taking them anyway! But payed for it by getting just B+ at the conducting thing we had today... We were to rehearse a piece of our choice for 10 min with the "choir" (the rest of the class), and there were some things I should have thought more about. But oh well, next time!!! ;)

They also had a sale at the Bookstore, so I bought heaps of Concordia items! :D Got present's for my peeps back home and stuff, hihi.

And Prexi had ice on the water this morning, and snow came flying a little bit, looked neat:

Still going strong, but...

Yeah, still going strong, but I can definitely feel that my efforts so far has taken it's toll. I'm needing more sleep these days, and if i don't get it, the days get long and I get tired. But it's just a matter of getting to bed in time! Nothing I can't overcome, hehe.

School is still going good, Got good grades on the latest tests and stuff in English, and we had our first TAPED test in conducting! Yes, we get it all on DVD, hihi... I feel like I did an ok job, but after seeing some of the others I know I could have done it even better. I think I should team up with someone and work together before exams just to exchange ideas and stuff. I worked with a classmate now too, but she has never conducted before, so there are of course limitations to what kind of feedback she can give. Still, it's good practise! Ultimately it's all up to me! :)
Anyway, I was getting to my grade: I got an A!! :D

I really hope I can keep up the good work in this class, and also improve in the other classes I have! It's just a matter of keeping up the good work, and making it even better! :D Motivation is the key! It's kind of a cricle: You need motivation to do a good job, when you do a good job you get results, and good results gives even more motvation! :D

Leaving you with a couple of pics from a birthdayparty we were at this weekend, hehe.

Same old same me ;)


Prashan managed to spill cake all over me when passing the cake around, hihi. (And yes, I managed to eat most of it, haha)


Birtday kid :D


Oh, and we had a little session where we played Balinese music! We had a blast, it was SO much fun, I got all excited, hihi. Since we don't have Balinese instruments we had to make up stuff, so that's what we did! So here is a picture from that!!

Pictures!

I just had to post these, I love the way my cousin Maya made these look :) The last one is a joint result of two masterminds working together :P







Let me know what you think :)

Artsy fartsy

Apparently I "signed up" for some stuff, and now I need to make sure that people get this:
The first 5 people that write me a comment on this post will receive some art form me - IF you post this stuff on your own blog!
See, there is a catch, hehe... I just wanted some art from my cousin, that's why I'm posting this stuff. Don't even know if I got any art, but I'll find some for ya if you do what you're supposed to do!

Here is the "official" statement:
*The first 5 to comment will receive "some kind of art". It can be a small painting, poem, picture ect.. I can't guarantee the quality, so you will not be allowed to go "hey, this suck!" afterwards! The only catch is that you have to post the same in your journal. So go for it.*

Leaving you with a small "piece of art" right here, hihi... :P

Oh my

Busy week! Or something...!
Started out with more snow Thursday, hihi:

Doesn't it look pretty in white? *giggle*

Well, the snow melted that same day, and then Homecoming started! It opened with a bonfire by the footballstadium, and we had lots of fun freezing our noses off, hihi. Throwing in a more artistic pic from that one:


Friday night there was the Harvest ball, which we of course attended! The Harvest ball is a semi-formal ball, but some people REALLY dress up! I brought only one dress, so that's what I wore, hehe.
Here's a pic!

Or two :P

Maybe even three? *hihi*


After the ball I hung out with a few friends at their appartment and stayed up until 5am, haha.... Got some good stories from that "event", ask me about it, hihi.

Saturday was the famous Homecoming parade, and that was pretty fun! The weather was BEAUTIFUL, and candy was thrown, so I was pretty happy! A happy Cobber, hehe. Then there was the footballgame which we lost BIGtime, goodness; 49-14. Wow. But that night they had the John Holm's Dance, which had a beach theme to it this year. I'll just show you a few pics, haha:





I only slept 3,5 hours night to Saturday, and after all this stuff going on, I was pretty tired at 1am in the morning:

Momoko thought I looked like a teddybear and took a picture - if I had a teddybear that looked like that, I'd get me a new one! Haha....


Sunday was pretty relaxing, got some homework done and just chilled! Oh, and Fran and I went for a jog outside, the weather was really gorgeous today too! I have HEAPS of nature pics from that trip, so if you wanna see how the path along Red River looks like, i think I got most of it in pictures, haha. Here is one though:



Then I sang mom her birthdaysong over Msn, happy birthday mom!!! :D My mom is the greatest mom out there, I am so lucky to have the parents that I have. They are like yin and yang, and I got the best from both of them! ;)


This week has been a bit lazy, the rain kicked in again, draining energy from my body, although I haven't been really tired. Today we went to the Hjemkomst Center to see the exhibit they had there, so we got the see the Stavkirke they have there, a replica of a church by Sognefjorden! Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Vikingship they have cause they're fixing it, but we got to see a lot of stuff from it! Hehe. Here is a picture anyway:


(Disregard the car :P)

I also FINALLY got my insurance papers, and guess what my mom had put in there??!!!?? FREIA MELKESJOKOLADE!!! I was in 7th heaven I tell ya! And in there was also the cd from the guys back home in Sjeselong that did a recording without me (rude :P), so now I have them here with me, I like it boys!


And now I REALLY need to do homework, so catch you later!
(Man this is along post..!)