First real A!

As most you already know, in the US we are graded with letter A-F, where A is the best and F is flunking the test or whatever.
Well, this Monday we had our first conducting test, and I was pretty nervous, yikes..! The piece we were to conduct was "Take, O take those lips away", which is an arrangement over a Shakespear text. The song is wuite beautiful, so it was easy to get into it, but still, lots of technical stuff that needed to be in place. Fermatas, crescendos, diminuendos, piano cues and ritardandos with subdividing. And then try to relaxe, haha. But you know what?
I ACED IT!!!
(To ace something means that you got an A, which is the highest score.) I was pretty proud! Not sure I deserved it, but I'm still happy! :D

Then, Wednesday, we had both a Materials of music test, and another English vocabulary quiz, and the music test was in the class that I find a little hard. But I still got 38 of 50 possible points, and that's not really all that bad! And I know I can do better! :) English went great as usual, those quizes aren't all that hard, hehe. But I do deserve those points, I do my homework thoroughly! :)

And Thursday I ran in to four firemen! They came because the alarm had gone off, but the school thought they sorted it out. Apparently there was some kind of mix-up, so instead of putting out a fire, they took a picture with me!! Well, I WAS on fire, so technically they started one, haha. They were really nice, and HUGE! Now, I tooka picute, but my camera is REALLY bad at taking pictures when it's dark (hinthint mom :P), so here is the result:



And this Friday I went out clubbing for the first time! Interesting experience, hehe. I haven't been out for SO long, so it was nice to get out and have some fun!!

Lots of other things has been going on too, among other things I went to a leadership thing which I will attend a few more times this next month, and I was also at this seminar thing a few times, and my next blog will tell you a little bit more about that, this one is getting too long..!
I also audtitioned for a part in a smaller choit who will sing during one of our songs, so check in later and I will know if I got it or not! :)

Take care of yourself in life guys. And dream.

Family Weekend!

Well, first of all I have to say:
I Aced both my hand-in AND the vocabulary-quiz!!! :D :D :D
Although we don't get "graded" like the normal american student, I am still proud. I know I did a thorough job with it, worked with and redid several times. So feels good! :)
I had planned a longer workout that day (Friday), so I was really psyked going to the gym. I jumped on the treadmill, and right away I could feel it was gonna be gooood, hihi. So I was on the treadmill for a little over 45min, and covered between 3 and 3.5 miles, which is approx. 5-6km :D Could have went further, but don't wanna push it too hard, that was my first longer run, so wanna take it easy. But felt good, maybe I'll join the running team over here? *hihi*

This weekend was, as the title indicates, the Family Weekend! Janice has had Marsha and Tom visitng the past couple of weeks, so Marsha joined us for the first activity we were signed up for, the Family Brunch. They found out we had around 1700 people in the audatorium during that! Janice took a few pics, I'm sure I'll post them later, hehe.
Then I went to a footballgame with Cecily and her family, met up with Fran and Jillian, I cheered a LOT, there was a band and everything, so a LOT more fun than the first game I went to, hehe.
After the game there was this Icecream Social where you go get a cone and meet faculties! I got two icecreams, and met my english teacher and Dr Chabora, head of the music department, and introduced Jan to them both!
Then we went straight for dinner at a Thai Restaurant, the Thai Orchid, not too far from school. Nice food, and good service!
Dinner was followed by the Showcase, pretty similar to the Cabarét we saw during orientation week, only this was more varied and somewhat better. :)

Today I've been doing homework, and I'm soon off to go for a little jog!
So "talk" later, bye!

And here is our campus, taken Saturday the 23rd! :D

Rain has come

Yes, autumn is here, the rain has come, but I'm still in a good mood, hihi. Funny thing, the trees here are still quite green, but leaves are falling off a bit. But it's all good :D

Had an english vocabulary test this Wednesday, and from what I could tell from the peek I had, I got 29 out of 30! My one sentence on the word "impending" was a little off, guess that's why I didn't Ace it. But still pretty good! :) We also handed in out first real paper, I'm a little curious of how it'll turn out! Been to the Writing Center twice to perfect it, so should be good.
And after conducting I told our teacher Rene Clausen hi from Thomas Caplin, and we chatted a little, and he said, "Hey, good job today", hihi. "Everything is going so wellll..!" (From Moulin Rouge, hehe)

And I've had my blood drawn for the VERY FIRST TIME! I am so proud, hihi...!! I was a little scared cause I've heard some nasty stories about getting big bruises and almost wounds from having to do it several times cause they can't hit the vein! But I have good veins to draw from, so it was all good!! :D

This weekend we have the Family weekend, Janice is coming over Saturday to take part in some activities with me, looking forward to it!
Monday I have my first graded "exam" in conducting class, oioi, nervous about that one. I should do good though, gonna practice lots!

But gotta run, class soon!
Later!

Busy weekend!

I had the busiest weekend this weekend, which rally was a good thing! Maybe not for my homework, but those are minor details, hihi.
Saturday I went to a baseballgame, see picture further down! Franziska and Maureen (both international students) are in this Family Friendship program where you go to spend some time with a family once a month or so, and Kristin, their "mom" gave us free tickets and took us! Very nice lady! :)
Then we worked out and had a NICE dinner, oioi, haha.
Hawkeye and us gals!




Sunday I was invited to Janices to celebrate Marsha, Connie and Kathie who all turned 50 this year! A LOT of pepole came over, nice to meet them all! :)
I hd to leave in the middle of the party to go to an International Picnic at the Hjemkomst Center, we ate and ate and talked, all 3 Colleges around Fargo Moorhead got togehter for it (just international students though), so we met two other Norwegians, hihi. Kinda fun!
Then I went to the Writing Center to work on an english-paper, that was very nice. Going again "today" (I usually write this stuff when another day has stared in Norway, so tomorrow is today for those guys), aka Tuesday to finish it up. Wohooo!

Today, Monday, I just had a regular day. Got that test I was so excited about last week today, and I didn't do as good as I thought, but at least it wasn't all wrong!! :D So things are looking up at least, hihi. Stay positive, right? Climb every mountain and so on! :)

So I'm still doing good, reality is catching up, but so far so good. I'm early for every class (can you believe it??? :P) and pay good attention, which you need to do in these small classes anyway! :)
But I better go to bed soon, so see you later!

Breakthrough!

We had no internet this weekend, so here is my blog written
Saturday 16th of Sept 2006!


Breakthrough!

The last two days have been glorious!! Thursday I had my first tutor-session, and I just have to say: I lOVED it. Why don't we have that stuff back home? ;) Anyway, we cleared up a lot of stuff, and coming to school Friday felt SO much better! We have a little quiz every Friday to check how we are doing, and my last test went straight to hell to say the least. This time I think I got it right! All of it! :D Talk about a turnaround, hehe..! So that just made me feel a whole lot better about Materials of Music, which has been the class I've feared the most. So now it's all good!! :D
Right now I'm more worried about Aural Skills, there is just a LOT to learn and do, hoho. Some people might know of my lack in being able to read rhythms, and although it is getting better all the time, I still have a hard time with some of the hardest stuff we have here. And doing seperate rhythms in each hand at the same time, WHOA, that's a new one! But I'm getting the hang of that one too!

Conducting was good yesterday too, I volunteered again, and did good. Funny really, When I do the impulsive stuff I don't get nervous, I don't really have to time to build any nervousness, hehe. But when we prepare home I totally freak out, kind of funny, but understandable too I guess.
English was fine too, I actually think I write better in english than I do in Norwegian, haha...!!! Nothing important to report there anyway. I just the same active person. :)

So what else is new...? I really have no idea! Going to the "Heritage Hjemkomst Center" this Sunday with the international students, that'll be fun I think, at least for me who's Norwegian! :) Also going to a baseballgame tomorrow maybe, I have no idea really, haha. I've also been a good girl doing my exercising, starting out slowly and building it up. My back is feeling a lot better, yoga does wonders! :D

Oh, and Thursday I filmed around campus, and also a bit of choir rehearsals!! I'm hoping to film a little later on when we have gotten it all under our skins! Now I just need to get that batterycharger that's gone missing.... Did I leave it back home? *confused*

Friday night we went out to this place just by West Acres (a big mall in Fargo), and I took some pics, adding a couple here! The rest can be seen on MySpace at ........

See ya'll later!

Hurray!

From Friday 09.08.06:
We had our first Jazz Vocal Ensemble-gathering today, and I found another one to help with Materials of music!! YAY!!! Sitting here reading stuff on it now - starting at the very beginning just to get into it, and to actually get it all. Gonna be a long day. *sigh*
Jazz VE was good though, it's gonna be a LOT of fun I think!! :D

Ok, over to the bragging:
Once again I was "praised" during conducting, I was even FIRST to volunteer for a ritardando experiment, hehe. But then again, I have done that stuff before, so it's not too scary. I was also the only girl to volunteer, fun, hihi.
And I need to watch myself during englishclass, last class I felt like was a little too dominant, just blurting out stuff all the time. So note to self: *learn to rais your hans missy*, hehe.

And oh, oh, OH! I forgot to write about our first choir rehearsal!! Well, I met the conductor during my audition, and as I suspected he is a really nice guy. He is very "grandpa'ish", but he knows what he wants and where he wants to go, which is a GOOD thing! :D He feels like this is his calling, and he loves us already! *hihi*
I will probably go nuts about the vibrato of all these people, we are 109 in the choir!!! 1-0-9!!!! That's a LOT of people! But I love it, just as long as they can control that vibrato, sigh. *hihi*

(Jumping to Monday 09.11.06.)
Had a pretty uneventful weekend: Worked out and went to this seminar thingy. Tried to read on Materials of Music, but... It's hard, just because I need to learn both the language AND the stuff the book presents. The terms is a language on it's own, hehe. But today (Monday) I unexpectedly got help from my teacher! He is awesome, he was patient and helped me out a bit, and gave me some extra stuff to do to practice the terms and the way they think here, which is a bit different from what I'm used to.

But now I have to go, got choir again in 20 minutes! Btw: We got choir every day of the week, and the music we sing is BEAUTIFUL, my goodness. I almost cried when singing one of the songs for the first time - and that was the FIRST time we ever heard it, so guess who'll be having a hard time coping when we've rehearsed it! Haha. Anyway, I love it, and I'm sure yuou all would have too!

Well, I'm off, see ya! ;)

(Me ready for a work-out, hihi)

Feel good :)

Yesterday I had all kinds of compliments thrown at me! First during conducting class:
We had all prepared a little song called "Lord of all Hopefulness" (Deg å få skode), and were to conduct one by one in front of the others. Our focus was on start and stop (attack and release), shape and stability of the figure we made, and breath. Of course, for me who have done this quite a bit, it should be fine, but he has a different style, and is very picky about what he likes and what is right and wrong. It's a bit different from what I'm used to doing, but still just fine. Well, I got up (I was the only one not bringing the sheet up), did my thing, and he said:
"Well, I think your figure is steady and good, and I like the way you make them breathe. Very good!", or something not far from it.
Although it was a very easy task, I was as proud as a little girl with a new dress! Half the point here is that a LOT of these people have done conducting before, some a LOT of it too, and almost everyone got a comment on one thing to work on - and I didn't! I was almost dissapointed, hehe. Me and maybe 4 others had nothing to work on - but only I got the two words "very good"! :D Joy to the world!!!! :D :D

Then I had a meeting with my advisor, and after talking for a while, she and Dr. Schabora (head of musicsection) were both very surprised that the school had recommended me for the englishclass for International students. I felt proud once again, my english is apparently very good! :D
Also, after englishclass, my teacher came up to me and wondered if I didn't want to take a different englishclass that was more challenging! He would "hate for you to feel like you're not learning anything". I had actually considered it during that class, but I have a couple of other pretty heavy classes, so I think I will stay for this semester. But the offer was a nice compliment for me! :)

Well, enough bragging. I also signed for a tutor to teach me a bit in Materials of music - I am SO lost at a couple of things, cause they are a bit ahead of where I left off, and I don't remember all of the things we learned back then either. But hopefully I'll get the hang of it somehow - I need this class to do World music which is very interesting, so I really want to keep up!

Apart from schoolstuff - well, I don't really have time for a lot of others things, I spent over 4 hours with homework last night, and will be up late tonight to finish some stuff too! But it's paying off as far as I can tell, so that's great! :D
Mom, you should be proud of me - even more than you already are, hihi.

Well, I better get back to work, catch ya'll later! *wave*

Crikey!

In true Steve Irwin style I open this post with his favourite word! R.I.P, and hope you have some crocs to hunt in heaven! :)

Well, today was interesting: First class in Aural skills III, and I was a bit nervous and curious about what it would be like. And guess what: the first thing we had to do, was to get up i front of everybody and sightsing ON SOLFAGE a little song - which they recorded. HURRAY!!!! *lol* Sightsinging isn't much of a problem for me anymore, but the solfage?? YEAH, right. Haven't done that in 3 years for goodness sake! He said I could sing on lalala for today, so i did, and it went well. But I don't think it'll be a big deal getting into it again. Wohooo! ;)

Had a pretty uneventful weekend after last post, and yesterday I was in a very weird mood - I guess that first KICK you get when coming here is fading, and I was just feeling weird. Not really in a bad mood or depressed, just .... weird, hehe.
Here is a picture from back home just to make me feel good:



And with that I'll say goodbye for this time, and see you later unless I drown while doing water-aerobics!
Cheers mate!

So far so good!

Well, first days of school is over, and the weekend is here.
So far I have had 4 different classes! One of them was just a placement-test to see what level the class was at, and I haven't done that stuff in 2,5 years, so I felt VERY lost, hahaha. But I wrote SOMETHING at least, not too bad if I may say so!
I also had conducting with the well known Dr. Rene Clausen! He seems like a very nice guy, which is good, so I won't freak out, hehe. The conducting class before christmas is very basic, but I think that's good, so I'll get used to what he likes, and his style. Looking forward to it!
I have been to a volleyballgame too this weekend, Concordias team won of course, hehe. :P You can see pictures at My Space! ;)

Oh, and yesterday I was at the choir-audition! That audition was both for Chapel Choir and the womens choir Bel Canto, and if you are good enough, you make the Chapel Choir. I sang some regular warmups, and after those he said; "You sing in tune, I like that!" *hihi* Then I had to sing "Gud sign vår konge god", I think it's named "My Country" or something here. I was to sing with all the passion I had within me, and that's easy when I can't even get up there because of my cold, haha. But I did my best. After that I had to do some sightsinging - which went almost surprisingly well! I think I got it perfect! :D And then I was done, and he told me right away - you're gonna be in Chapel choir and we practise blablabla, hihi. (Usually they just put up a list, but I was one of the last ones to audition, so he knew what he had to work with I guess.) So I'm in Chapel Choir!! :D
Now you might ask why I didn't join the BIG choir, Concordia College Choir. But they apparently audition in the spring, so they filled it up and I can't join. A bit of a bummer, but at least I made the second best! :) WOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! :P

And last night I went to a houseparty with my roomies! Jenna is a music major herself, so she knows some of the people I am taking classes with, which is nice. :) So now I know a LOT of music people! One of them is Adam, which has jazzpiano as his second instrument!! His major is composing, and he has written some pieces that different groups and bands at Concordia has played at official events and so on, and although I have never heard him play, he seems talented from what I've heard. So looking forward to hearing him play!
And today I was at my very FIRST Football game in America!! The Power Bowl, the first game after school starts, kind of a big deal I hear. So we went, got into some of the rules, but it didn't help - the Cobbers lost 28-7 to a team they usually win a LOT over, but hey, at least we were there! Got some pics from that too!

Now I will go to bed, although I was supposed to be at a Norwegian girl's house tonight I decided to stay home and do some blogging and homework. So pop in later, and enjoy this picture from the Power Bowl!