Busy, but fun week!

Where do I start?
Hm, well, I got a few papers and tests back and they are all in the upper range of the grade-scale! Conducting, Spanish, and a presentation in Music Ed. class. So things are going good, and I don't really have any major troubles this semester. Although, my english class is kind of challenging, and there's a LOT to read! But so far it's ok I think - and I think I can do better.
Spanish is demanding just because we speak it too little, and I would like to get it into mys system. But hey, it's been like 3 weeks, I'll give it some more time, hehe.

Tuesday I had my first voice lesson where I taught a student! It's part of our Voice-metods class to do so. She is very eager, and we have fun, so I think it's going to be good! :)

Wednesday I went out with Tessa - she decided I should come Salsa-dancing with her, and so I did, hihi. You know I love to dance! We had a BLAST! Even our ride there (taxi) provided some good fun, our driver was crazy, hehe. I/we danced for about 4 hours, I got to dance with an intructor, and I also danced with Carlos, Tessa's friend, and that was so much fun!!!! LOVED it! :D

Thursday I had my first appearance with The Concordia Choir! Only problem was that I freaked out because I started with the wrong song for some reason, and that put me off so much that I was paralyzed the entire concert! Very little focus on my part, can't say I've ever been like that before. New experience! But although I stood there like a zombie it was fun! :)

Friday night there was an A Capella conert on campus, that was fun! :) After that I was across the hall from my appartment wathcing a movie while my friends were sleeping, haha... It was a very cheerful evening, I was in a very good mood and wanted to go out dancing again! So I danced in my chair at the concert, hihi... I love being so social again! :D

Saturday Tessa and i went swimming, we swam 1,6km, we were pretty proud! :D At night we went out to this dance event, but the music got a little monotone, so we went to a bar and sat there talking instead. We had such a good time, and we took lots of pictures of course, hehe... Here is one!


Tessa bought me an Orgasm, haha....


I also started tutoring in Spanish, altough I really don't need it, it's nice to get inout from a private tutor, make sure you pronounce stuff right, and just practice conversation and vocabulary! The guy that is tutoing me, Mike, is also very nice, so I don't mind going. He brags about me too, haha... :P By May, when I am going to Peru I will ROCK in spanish!!! :D

Both Saturday and Sunday was pretty cold, and it still is today (-24 Celsius!), so I'm wrapping up real good when going outside! Sunday it snowed and left really nice powdersnow (which I didn't get any pictures of before it blew away again... *sad*), it was so pretty out!
But now I'm gonna stop writing before this gets waaaay too long, hehe. Just leaving you with the picture of the year, hihi...

Social time

I must admit - last semester I wasn't very social. So this semester I am going to do something about that!
So I've been dining with friends a few times, hung out with them on occasions, and the funniest thing was inviting Tessa (a Norwegian student here, the only one from the same school as I) over for some brown/goatcheese on Wednesday! She has missed that stuff sooo much, and when she took her first bite, she was in heaven. Gotta post her picture, hihi:



Thursday I was at the grocery bingo they have here every once in a while, just Fran and I! We brought our spanish homework, and some german and Norwegian chocolate, YUMMMM! And somehow I got in a realtionship with a gay guy during the night, haha.... Anyway, I am enjoying myself a little more than this fall, and it actually give me more energy and more motivation to do good in school! So so far it's all good!

Fran with bingo, books and CHOCOLATE!


This weekend I am going to a couple of recitals (small concerts that features one student) and I am even invited out for dinner to celebrate my celloteachers birthday! At the same time the Norwegians are gathering up at a "pizza-party" the Norewgian dude here is throwing for the two new Norwegian students here, so I'm a little torn to be honest. I want to get to know the other celloists, but I also want to hang out with the Norwegians, so.... Well see! It's all good anyway!
See ya in a week ;)

Life is good

Alright, I admit I am a pretty positive person in general, but life is good these days! I feel like I put a descent amount of time into my homework/school, take time to meet friends, work out and good around.
I just came back from my second cello lesson, and she said I had good progress and had a totally different sound compared to put first lesson. I am very motaivated for this, and I even felt I didn't get to practice as much as I wanted, so I think this is going to be a productive semester!!! :D

When walking to my lesson today it had just started to snow again outside, and I couldn't help smiling. A little snowflake found it's way to my cheek, and melted there, tickling me so I giggled, hihi. Isn't it funny how these little things can brighten your day? It's still snowing a little bit out. The flakes are few and far apart, but I love the way you can see them dance around, making their way to the ground after a tumbling journey from above... Dance my dear ones, dance!

Once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been,
and there you will always long to return.

- Leonardo Da Vinci

First week of school

Well, first week of school after the break is hereby over and done with, and I survived!! *hihi*
Wednesday I had my first voice lesson, and Thursday I had my first cello lesson that I've had in 9 years, yikes!!! Voice lesson was ok, we talked a little, found a couple of pieces to sing and stuff. I am still getting over my cold, so the voice isn't all there yet. The cello lesson was fun, I learned HEAPS just during my first half hour! I found out I lacked a LOT of basic good techniques, even when I used to play, so I am really looking forward to this semeste with cello. The teacher is stricts, but fair, and we are getting along good I think. She for sure knows what she is doing!! :D

I also started learning spanish, and my first two days were just overwhelming! But I'm geting there I hope, the book isn't as good as I wished it was compared to my needs and methods for learning, but hey, I'll get there I think! ;)

All in all I am just very excited about this semester, the only class I am a little worried about is my English literature class. There is a lot of reading and we are analyzing stuff, which I haven't done in 6-7 years, so that's gonna take some time to get into. But I used to do alright in those kind of things, so hopefully I'll be alright, just need to get into the "groove", hehe.

Choir is going good, I love most pieces we are doing, they all hav emoments of grace in them! So for those who are able to come to our concert during the tour - look forward to it!
Now I'm off for comedy night, see ya'll!

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WOW, what a Christmas!!

This post is going to be LOOOOOOONG unless I manage to be short and concise - which I doubt, hehe. Anyway, here we go!

As most of you know, I spent Christmas here in the US with my family and our relatives. Before I picked up my family at the airport, I stayed with a very nice family who took me in for a while (as I have written before), and I had a great time staying there. Thank you to Katie and her parents!!!!


I picked up my family at the airport Thursday the 21st, and we headed northwest for Paynesville the first night. Maureen and Dwayne took good care of us before we moved on to Fargo/Moorhead the next day. We did some shopping and then spent the night in Janice Kjesbo's house. I'll always feel at home there! Next day (Saturday) we went to Grand Forks to drop off the rental car. Jeff picked us up and drove us to Devils Lake after some shopping and an excellent meal at their house!

It was weird realizing it was Christmas Eve the next day! And it was kind of sad not being able to watch "Tre nøtter til Askepott" with my sister at 11am as I usually do - but at least I had my sister there! :D Weird not eating "risengrynsgrøt" too! I got confused I even forgot to dress up for dinner, which made me sad... And although the food was excellent, I missed moms Christmas dinner, hehe... No offense Janis! AFter dinner we went to a Candlelight service, which was nice. :) Then it was time for presents, and we had a good time opening each others presents and presents from friends back home, hihi. I got a lot of good gifts! :D


We spent the next couple of days just chilling and hanging out, shopping a little too of course, hehe. Tuesday night Janises house got very crowded as three of her daughters brought their families to her house, haha, it was crazy! People eating dinner all over the house, on the floor and I wouldnæt be surprised if someone sat in the bathroom, lol. Loved it! All of the people were great, and of course we made some music with Bonnie's boys, they are all very musical, at least the one old enough to play instruments. Good fun, hehe.


On Wednesday we moved out to the famous Bibelcamp by the lake (Devils Lake of course), and what a cirkus, hihi. We all got settled in, and within the next 24 hours people kept pouring in. For 4 days we played games, talked, goofed around and just had a blast. Staying up WAAAAAAAY past bedtime and getting up way to early compared to that gets to you after a while, but we did it, haha. I didn't go to bed before 3.30 am for one week I think, hihi. We even managed to give Calen a new hairdo!



Friday evening we had the late celebration of Christmas Eve, and had the Christmas Program and the gift-orgie, my goodness. Wrapping paper flying all over, people climbing the same paper trying to get to someone to give them a thank-you-hug, gifts being traded here and there, cookies being sent etc. It was madness, and I smiled the entire time! And I got a lot more presents than I thought I would, my goodness!
At the end of the week it was sad to see everybody go, but at the same time we were all so tired that it probably was for the best, haha. I now have friends all over this country, and I loved getting to know everybody.

New Years Eve was just weird. Private households aren't allowed to shoot fireworks here NYE, and the "city" of Devils Lake sure didn't send up any. People even started to go to bed before midnight! OUTRAGEOUS!!! But we youngsters went out in the streets screaming and cheering as I usually do around midnight, and the boys rang a few doorbells so we had to run. Fine, I'm childish, but I had fun, hihi...

Then it was time to send my family home. We spent Monday night at Lyle's place in Alex before going in to Minneapolis Tuesday morning/afternoon. We managed to squeeze in dinner at Doug's before sending them off! The goodbye was alittle rushed, I don't either of us realized we wouldn't see each other for another 4.5 months! But I got a few good hugs before they left, so I'm happy!

It was pretty empty in my appartment when I came back, a bit of an anticlimax, but kin dof nice to just relaxe a little. Joel and Sue helped me with some groceries too, so I'm set for the weekend. And tomorrow is my first day in the concert choir!!! *cheer*

At last I just want to thank everybody for their hospitality and good companionship, I had such a good time with all of you!

I MADE IT!!!

I can't believe I haven't written this here yet, but I got big news:

I MADE THE CONCORDIA CHOIR!!!!

This is the big concert choir that tours through some of the states every spring, wooooot! The last week before christmas I got an e-mail saying there was an opening for an alto 2 and a barryton, so I signed up for an audition of course! I felt that the audition went ok, wasn't perfect, but close to it. I even managed to smile a little and relaxe and show my personality, which apparently had something to say in the matter according to the evalutaion sheet. The next day I checked my e-mail probably 50 times before I finally got the good news - I was their new alto 2!!!!
Most of you know that I have been mad at myself for not being able to try out for this choir, and here was my chance. I grabbed it, and what do you kow, I got in! Even if I hadn't gotten in, I would at have had the chance to try out for it, and that was all I wanted - a chance. So getting in is just a GREAT bonus, hihi.

Go to http://www.cord.edu/dept/music/ensemble/choir/tour/ and see where we are going!

CAN'T WAIT!!! :D :D :D :D