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..!)

Snow!!!

Today we had our first day with snow!!!!
The weathercast said it would be snow, but after 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit on Sautrday, it was a little hard to believe. But when I looked out this morning, we sure had snow. Rooftops and cars were white, and it was still coming downa little bit. It's pretty much gone already, but we had our first snowfall! ;)

And life goes on

Alright, another chapter from Anne Marie's adventure in the US, hehe.

MONDAY
Monday we got our second summary/response paper back (englishclass stuff) and again I got 20/20 points. That A sure is in sight! :D
We are also preparing a speech in englishclass this week, and I had mine as second person out (voluntarily) Monday The feedback was immediate, nice! We could get 50 points all in all, and I got 46! I am pretty happy with that, cause I felt like I was just rambling along not making any snese at all, hehe. But apparently it was pretty ok, so that A is still in sight, hihi. But I know I could have done better, so next time it will be 50/50! ;)

And during choir Mr. Smith asked for someone to sing solo on this one song with an alto solo. I thought it would be weird if I voluntered for ANOTHER solo again, so I kept my mouth shut - for a good while, haha. Noones raised their hand or indicated in any way that they wanted it, si I said, "Hey, if you just need someone to sing, I can sing it". So I sang it, not very well just because I hadn't prepared it and i was kind of thrown into it. But I sang it, haha. Kind of fun! ;)


TUESDAY
As I told you last week we had that test on Music in North India, which I was pretty curious about. We got it back this Tuesday, and as I feared - it didn't go very well. I got 62 out of 100 points, and I knew I could have done a lot better, so I'm a little mad at myself. But now I know what kind of tests the teacher makes, and the next one will be GREAT!! :) We started with Bali today, a lot of pling plong, haha. At least we won't fall asleep during classes! WOW!

During choir today we were rehearsing O Magnum Mysterium among other songs, and Mr. Smith asked all the 2. altos to sing this particualr note for him, alone one by one. When he came to me he said "Perfect! That's the sound we want!" and I got all red, haha. One other girl got that comment too, we ROCK!! ;)
And apparently all the tenors drewled over me because of my solo yesterday, haha. Choir is fun! :D

Blessed

This week has been a little busy, but then again I like being busy,
so it was fine, hihi.
Friday there was this salsanight here at school, and of COURSE I attended it! Franziska (german girl) and I danced the night away, and I learned Cha cha cha and a tiny bit of Tango!!!!!
Me and Seth dancing slasa:


Then we met up with some other friends and talked for a bit before going to Anna's place, one of the norwegian girls here. But after she finished that second drink she had, we found out this was not the place to stay, so we went to Denny's to get some food! And here is the picture of us goofing around after the salsa, I learned a lot of unuseful stuff, haha.


And I'll add another one just for fun for ya, hihi:


Saturday was the anticlimax, and it was extremely boring until the sun began to set. It had been hot and humid all day, and after being stuck inside all day I went for a walk. Went all alone cause all my friends were busy doing homework, hehe. So brought my camera and went outside, and it was just so surreal..!
It's 8. of October and 81 fahrenheit at 7pm at night, and the sun lit up the sky in a beautiful way, it was just surreal, like twilight zone or something..! I took some pictures, but you never really get to capture the feelings and the mood unless you have a great camera, and I REALLY don't have a great cam, hehe. (Another hint there mom!)
I also went to a costume shop, had some fun looking at stuff there for halloween, and they had some really good ones! :D
Spent the rest of the night just feeling a peace, content and like I'm truly at the right place at the right time here. And it makes me happy, and it makes me want to go places, makes me want to achieve my goals, whatever they may be. I feel blessed, and I am so greatful that I got the chance to go here.
Life is good! :)

Sunday I got a call from Janice who invited me for a Norwegian Folkdanceshow, so I went to see them. They are performing at the Høstfest next weekend, and they were fun to watch, and quite good! All from Telemark of course, haha. Was nice to see, and there were free cookies after, hihihi.....!

And I'm trying a new "diet" this week - eating very small meals every two hours! I seem to be hungry all the time, so figured I'd give it a try. So we'll see how it works out! And now I'm off to go for a run, so see you all later!

And guys; find your passion - it's truly worth it. :)

What a weekend!

I haven't had a chance to write about this weekend until now, so now I heaps to say!
First of all - this past weekend must have been one of the greatest since I got here! The weather was incredible, and I joined this seminar with a Mr. Paul Oakley, a FANTASTIC lecturer. The topic was Church music, but I think he could have made it about anything, and we would still be amazed. He said some things that really made me think, and without saying too much here - one can make wonders in life, and most of them you can make sure happens by doing what you can with the oppotunities given to you. THank you Mr. Oakley! :D

Sunday evening we went for a jog and ended up running along Red River which divides Fargo and Moorhead. It was so hot that i was soaked in sweat even though I wore only a spaghettis strap and knee-long pants! And I regret that I didn't bring my camera after all, because the light and the trail was just so beautiful. So we went for walk Monday, but it was getting dark real fast when we went out, so not all the pics are as good as they could have been. But here is one at least!

The picture was my idea, isn't it fun? *hihi*

Also, Monday there was another event: I mentioned me going to an audition for a part in a very small choir within the Chapel Choir last week, and Monday Mr. Smith decided. The tiny choir conisists of only on person from each voice, and guess who got the part for the altos!?!?!?! MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! I beat 4 other altos, both from the 1. and 2. alto group, hihi. *proud*
We will be performing during chapel tomorrow/today (Wednesday that is), and hopefully I'll get someone to film it! I'm a little excited, hihi.

Went shopping with Janice today (tuesday), she is so great, and helps me out a LOT. So mom, make sure you get her a REALLY good christmaspresent!!! I finally got to treat her a meal today too, she deserves something really great though.

Oh, and had the test on North Indian music today. Holy crap, if I may say so. Don't think it'll be a good one, but at least I won't flunk I hope....!

Well, I better get going, going to the writing center to work on my second hand-in in english! :)
Talk later peeps, and keep giving me comments, it's fun to read!!
*hugs*