cross country skiing! :)

Today I went cross country skiing for the FIRST TIME EVER! :D

Me and Marte!



It was so much fun! At first I was absolutely freezing.  I went with my contact family but I was with Marte the whole time because she was teaching me and so that we could go slow which is really nice of her :)  So I got on the skis and she taught me how to glide, go up a hill (like a penguin hehe) and kind of how to break (haven't mastered that yet).  Then we started going on the tracks, which I love haha. It is difficult to go uphill actually.  I almost slid backwards down the hill a bunch of times!  


But yeah I took a few nasty falls.  The first was when we were going downhill and the track I was on "broke off" and went into a ditch.  So I threw myself to the ground because I decided I would rather fall on the ground than into a ditch!  It wasnt that painful though so its okay!


The next time was when we were going down a huge hill (well huge to me) and there were NO TRACKS! "AHHH" was my first reaction and I really really didn't want to go down the hill because I just knew I would fall.  Breaking on cross country skis is kind of hard.  But I had to go down breaking, which is difficult your first time, but I made it!  Then there was another hill which curved so I had to use my right foot to steer.  I thought it was just a little curve because I couldnt actually see around the trees, but nooooooooooo.  The hill continued for a very long time and I was going way to fast and I couldnt control myself anymore so I threw myself to the ground again haha.  This one was kind of painful because I rolled a few times.  


The last time was towards the end where there were two hills.  One that went straight and a hill that broke off of it going to the right.  I didnt know if we were going down the big hill or the one to the right.  Marte started going down the big hill so I started following, but then she breaked by the hill to the right.  I kind of forget how to break right since it was a last minute decision to stop so I just went to the ground again!  And guess what?! We ended up going straight of course! haha. 


So overall, cross country skiing was absolutely amazing!  I definitely wasnt freezing anymore after we finished the track.  It gets really hot while you are doing it.  I have a huge bruise on my right shin now and the tops of my knees hurt, but its all good!  


By the way, it is totally true about norwegian people being born on skis!  There were littles kids there, like 3 years old, who were learning and doing a really good job!  And there was a 2 year old that we saw going downhill skiing! Its insane! I wish i would have learned how to ski at a really young age!  And now I know where norwegians get their pink cheeks from! ;)  My pink were bright bright pink when we finished!  


Also the scenery and nature was absolutely breath-takingly beautiful today! It was stunning.  The air was cold and crisp and fresh.  There was a lot of snow. The sun was shining on parts of the snow and woods.  And it was quiet.  It was so peaceful. I really wish I would have had my camera!  At one point we were in a valley, it was amazing.  We also saw the sun set behind the mountains, and that was also so beautiful.  The sky was red and pink and the mountains were blue.  Which is why Molde is also known as the blue city!  Basically, it was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my whole life!  I will surely never forget it.  

26. desember

Today I slept in! When I woke up I bake some American cookies, it was quite exciting :) They are my favorite from home!

Then my dads family came over to have brunch. Here is what we ate:

I loved spending time with the family. I love it at home also.  Its so nice to be with the ones you love and care about!  But I was kind of getting a little sad that day.  Because I was meeting so many new people and concentrating so much and thinking so much.  I am sorry to say this, but I was honestly getting sick of norwegian because I was just frustrated.  It is a lot better now but it was just too many days with new people and constant norwegian being spoken fast between like 20 people.  But I did notice something good!  Even when I zone out or stop paying attention to everyone talking to each other, I still understand the norwegian words and what they are talking about! It was actually quite exciting.  AFS always says that around Christmas things will just begin making sense, and I guess it is kind of true.  I still feel like learning norwegian is hard though. I mean I understand a lot more than I used to, I know I am learning stuff.  But I still feel like I won't learn norwegian sometimes.  Well I feel like I will understand everything everyone says at the end of the year, and I will be able to read and write it maybe, but I feel like I will never be able to speak it well.  I know that is the hardest part of any language, speaking it, so I will just need to practice, Practice, PRACTICE!  I hope I can do it!  :)  

I also talked with my parents on skype again yesterday so that I could see them open all their Christmas gifts from us here in Norway.  I sent my mom a nice scarf, hat and earrings.  And I sent my dad a troll statue (hehe), and some cool underwear.  I also sent them a bunch of norwegian candy, smash, milk chocolate, smil etc. And Ananas brus!  We also sent them brown cheese, and my host parents gave them a cheese cutter and some magnets.  We also sent a cd with a bunch of pictures from Molde.  And my parents favorite gift, which was from my parents here in Norway, was a calendar for 2010 with pictures of me and my family here in it.  Both my parents in the US started crying when they saw it.  It almost made me cry too, but I was just so happy that they loved it!  I really miss them a lot! So mom and dad if you are reading this: I love you both and miss you both so much! Thank you for everything you have done for me, and for giving me this amazing opportunity to come and live in Norway for you! I couldn't ask for better parents :) 

Afterwards we played kortskalle again, Mamma, Pappa, Hanna, Ingvild, Edvard og jeg.  It was a lot of fun but I went to bed around 12 cause I felt so exhausted. 

27. desember

today at 5pm we had dinner at my other grandmas house.  We actually had reindeer to eat with potatoes, carrots and brocoli.  It was really good.  Haha I ate RUDOLPH! Afterwards we all sat around and just talked.  It was mamma, pappa, hanna, ingvild, edvard, kjetil, farmor og jeg.  Elisabeth my older sister also showed up.  Her plane was late because there was so much snow outside!  

When we got home we watched the movie I love You, Man.  It was really funny.  We also watched an old home video, which was hilarious.  Afterwards everyone played kortskalle but I didnt because I cant understand as much as quickly so it was just easier to watch them play.  Because then I could try to follow along and understand.  

We have sooo much snow outside it is wonderful!  I absolutely love it.  I feel like we get a lot of snow in ohio too but it seems like so much more here because when i look out the window i can see all down the mountain. In ohio all i see is across the street and its flat, haha.  One thing that bothers me kind of is that I cant really get to know Kjetil, Edvard and Elisabeth.  I mean I only have seen them I think 3 times this year.  But I am always afraid to speak english with them because I know they except me to be speaking norwegian.  But I am also afraid to speak norwegian because of the fact that I barely know them and it makes me uncomfortable.  I know I will eventually just have to suck it up and talk with them, but that will probably only happen at the end of the year!  Its also hard to show who I really am in norwegian at this point because I dont know enough norwegian to just be myself if that makes sense.  I dont know I cant really explain it right.  Whenever I am around all of them I am just quiet and dont say much and that is really NOT me.  It makes me feel kind of stupid, mad, sad and boring. I hope things will get better as I learn more norwegian and I hope I am able to talk more with them as the year goes on and really get to know them.  

25. desember

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :)


Today I started the day off right, with drinking julebrus! Haha.  I also opened two gifts from my parents at home; an Amerian Eagle hoodie and a red cashmere sweater!  I was so happy to get them!  Then we went to my grandmas house to have a christmas lunch.  It was bread with fish, cheese, meat, eggs or just anything on it.  We also had hot chocolate!  Afterwards they played the game Geni but I cant understand it all so instead I looked at some old photo albums of Hanna and Ingvild.  They were so adorable, and still are of course!  This is very random but my family started having a competition playing a toilet paper rolling game on the IPhone haha.  You have to unroll the toilet paper as fast as possible haha it was hilarious.  

I also talked with my parents at home on skype again.  My mom got a nice north face jacket and my dad got a nice leather jacket.  I dont know what all their other gifts are because they hadnt opened them all yet!  I also got to see my pets, smokey, duchess and mickey! I was sooo happy to see them, i miss them soooooo much!  Then I finished opening all my gifts from america.  I got moisturizer, a spinning pen (dont ask my dad thought it was funny!) and lots of american food haha.  Bisquick, cookie and cake mix, butterfingers, sour patch kids, red cherries, special k bars, mike n ikes, warheads, nutty bars, pop rocks, airheads, reese peices, sweet and salty granola bars and roman noodles!  

Later that night I watched Notting Hill with my whole family.  And I also gave my family a bag of sour patch kids, which my sisters loved, and some warheads.  It was funny to watch them try the warheads since they are so sour! Then I talked with my parents a little bit more and went to bed.  

I forgot to mention that a few nights ago I opened my parents christmas card.  It was really really nice.  They sent me some pictures which I hung up on my wall and some lottery tickets!  I actually won 5 dollars! woohooo....not that it does me much good here in Norway! 

24. desember

Last night we watched 'A CHRISTMAS STORY' :)  As in the movie about the boy Ralphie who wants a BB gun for christmas but everyone tells him, "you'll shoot your eye out!".  That movie was mostly filmed in the city I come from in the US.  Cleveland!  Soooo it was really exciting for me to see it.  Because every year back home, they begin playing it at 8pm on christmas eve, and keep playing it for 24 hours straight! Because it is so famous back home.  Everyone watches it on christmas eve!  Its been a tradition for many years.  Some people at home even have the lamp from the movie in their window or a fake boy in their yard with his tongue stuck to a pole.  Another famous scene from the movie.  I definitely suggest everyone watch that movie! 


Anyways, today is CHRISTMAS EVE! JULAFTEN!  This means a new celebration for me :) I woke up kind of early so that I could watch some christmas shows with the family.  And there was a stocking outside hanging on my door, it was so cute!  

Inside there were some norwegian comic books and some chocolate.  You know something that is weird for me? They don't have candy canes at christmas time! 

Then we did some errands, went to Molde Torget and dropped off some gifts at peoples houses.  When we came home we ate grøt for lunch.  Or porridge I guess you would call it in english.  Looks like this:

It was very yummy!  I will definitely have to eat it again next year haha.  We also watched a famous film here, a cinderella story, I dont know the name.  But it was pretty good!  Even though it was all in norwegian I understood most of it so that was good!  

At 3 we went to church.  It is a Protestant church but it was very similar to church at home.  It was so cool I loved going.  It was all in norwegian of course which was so interesting to hear.  Here are some pictures:

This ones a little blurry sorry.

Me and my dad :) 

At 5 the rest of the family showed up.  We ate pinnekjøtt with potatoes! I was a little skeptical at first but I tasted it and it was really good.  It was strange so I only had a little bit and ate some christmas sausage too.  

Then it was time to open all our gifts! Here is what the tree looked like before we started:

 

This actually isnt all the gifts, this picture was taken before the whole family showed up, so you can imagine was it was like after that! Haha but it was so nice.  For Christmas I got earrings, vanilla lotion with bodywash, perfume with body wash and lotion, gloves, a hat, a statue, a nail kit, training clothes, warm socks, a gift card and a wallet.  I loved all my gifts it was a really nice Christmas!  :)  Here are some pictures from the night:

My aunt and mom! 

My dad and aunt!

My sisters, Ingvild og Hanna!

While opening gifts we took 3 breaks haha to have dessert and just to take a break! Here is some of the food we had:

Brownies and Julebrus! By the way I LOOOOVVEEE Julebrus! :P

Kransekake! It is like an almond ring cake, its good! My mom's favorite :)

It ended up taking 3 hours to open all the gifts! It was insane.  But afterwards we played Kortskalle, a very fun game.  

My uncle Thomas, mom, dad, Ingvild and Hanna.  :)  

In the game everyone has two cards, one is a place and the other is a person.  You spin the spinner and either get to ask questions about your cards, get a hint from everyone about your person or place, get the first letter of your person or place or get a newspaper headline relating to your person and place.  The object is to guess the person and place.  Once you have guessed 3 of each you win! Its really a funny and good game!  

Earlier this night I also read this poem from the US to everyone.  'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It is famous at home and in the US my mom would always read it to me on Christmas Eve.  So it was really nice for me to be able to do that here.  I also talked with my family from home on skype tonight.  It was great to see everyone but also made me miss them a lot!  I love them all very much!  

GOD JUL!! 

:)

22. desember

So today, I walked to school! It was a little cold but actually really nice.  It was still dark outside and at one point it was just me in the dark in the woods with snow all around.  It was truly beautiful, even though it was so simple.  It took me about 40 minutes to get to school and then I met with my class and we got our yearbooks! They only have pictures of all the classes, I miss the yearbooks from home!  But I am still happy to have this one :)  Its a good memory.  

Then we all walked to Bjørnhuset to see the school christmas concert.  I sat with Brenda and Vanessa.  It was actually a really interesting concert!  They opened with Thriller which was really neat.  But I had to leave halfway through it to walk to the dentist, so that kind of sucked.  It took me like 15 minutes to walk there, then i spent 5 minutes actually there, and then 15 minutes to walk back haha.  It was sooo cold outside!  When I got back to the concert I had to walk back to my seat in the dark, haha bad idea.  

After the concert, Brenda, Vanessa and I went to Molde Torget to buy Chiara a christmas present.  And then went to Vanessas house to hang out.  Brenda made us REAL mexican tacos! I thought I wouldnt like them at first, but boy was I wrong! They were soo good.  We also tasted this cake thing from Italy that Vanessas parents sent to her.  It was really good also.  

Now this is where the fun really began.  We decided we would go downstairs and watch a scary movie.  So we chose 'Paranormal Activity'.  We had to watch it on streaming though, so we used Vanessas tiny computer from school and propped in up right in front of the opening to the room and turned off ALL the lights.  Lets just say, it was the scariest movie I have ever seen! We jumped so many times, well a lot of the times it was Brenda and Vanessa jumping that actually scared me haha.  Because Brenda was holding onto my right arm and Vanessa my left.  And then Vanessas mom walked into the room right at a scary party and Brenda screamed and everyone freaked out.  It was hilarious!  And later that night Vanessas sister threw a snowball at the window where we were and Vanessa and Brenda FREAKED! haha I just sat there cause I knew it was nothing scary.  But they ran from the room screaming and when Vanessa was leaving she said "Ciao Nicole!" and waved haha and left.  And then the door was locked so they couldnt get out so they came back running into the room it was hilarious.  What good friends I have right? They would leave me if something evil was coming, haha.  

That night I also got to hold a real lobster! Sounds stupid but I have never gotten to do that before.  It was soo coool! But I felt kind of sad because it was going to die :( 

Later that night they gave the cat a bath.  Haha here is what the cat looks like:  

So when they give the cat a bath, its something you have to see! All her hair goes down and she gets really skinny, its cute.  So that was fun.  

We ended up just spending the rest of the night hanging out.  We fell asleep watching 50 First Dates, and then we all woke up again and Vanessa and me could not sleep.  So we fell asleep to Toy Story the movie haha.  Just like when we were younger :) 

4. desember 2009

AHHHHH Det er allerede desember!!

Jeg kan ikke tro det.....

Men nå jeg gleder meg til Jul :)

I dag hadde jeg internasjonal engelsk heldagsprøve.

Det var så lett, og jeg skrev bare litt på spørsmål.

Etterpå jeg gikk på hos Vanessa og vi laget kake! Hjemmelaget!

Det var veldig godt, men litt rar haha.

Vi gikk ute og gikk rundt.

Vi også fant en naturlig skøyteis ring, haha. Vi hadde mye moro på den!

Vanessa gikk ned mye ha.

Min far hentet meg kl 6 og dro vi til nytt kjøpesenter å hente Marte og Pernille fra jobben.

Vi dro til film butikk og leide Drag Me To Hell.

Da vi kom hjem og så XFactor og bestilte pizza fra Express.

Det var kjempegodt! Beste pizzaen jeg har smakt her! haha også favoritt til Pernille og Kjetil :)

Vi så filmen, det var morsomt men ekkelt!!

Det var en koselig kveld!

30. november 2009

Norsk tentamen i dag!!!

Skolen begynte kl 9 og jeg var ferdig kl 12

Jeg var veldig redd fordi jeg trodde det ville være vanskelig.

Men heldig for meg, min norsk lærer fikk meg min egen prøve :))

Jeg måtte lese et brev fra en gutt i Norge til sine foreldre hjem, forstod jeg det meste!

Og jeg svarte tre spørsmål om det, veldig lett.

Etterpå, jeg skrev et brev til min venn Alex hjem i norsk om livet mitt her.

Det var ikke så vanskelig, jeg skrev en hel side.

Ca kl 13 Blake, Brenda og jeg tok bussen til huset mitt.

Vi ventet på Vanessa og Chiara å komme over.

Vi gikk sledding og Javi møttet oss :)

Etterpå hadde vi en snøvballkrig, haha.

Det var så morsomt!

Men Blake og Vanessa utro og fikk hjelp fra små barn!

Grrr....de angrep oss bakfra!

Jeg har ikke hatt en skikkelig snøballkrig i år, så det var gøy :P

Til middag jeg laget sloppy joes! haha

Alle likte dem og trodde de var kjempegodt!

Kl 6 Vanessa, Brenda og jeg gikk på volleyball trening.

Veiene var så glatt og isdekt.

Vi gled hele veien til volleyball...og falt ned. ha

I dag har jeg også lært noe om Norge/Molde.

De bare bruke salt på hovedveien fordi det er ikke bra for naturen.

Norge er et natur vennlig sted :)

Jeg liker det!

Britt Janne, min mor, har laget egen Advents kalendar.

Det er så fint og søt!!!

Og også et morsomt bilde :)

Senere jeg snakket med min mor hjem og Maaike.

Det var koselig!

Jeg også spurte Marte og Pernille å gjøre noe denne helgen.

Fredag det skal komme over etter jobb og vi skal se en film og spise pizza!

Jeg gleder meg :)

Det minner meg, på lørdag den 28 det var Martes bursdag!

Hun hadde en fest på Hotell Alexandria!

Vi også gikk på byen.

Det var mye moro!

hehe.....OOPS

29.november

Beklager at jeg ikke har skrevet på lang tid!! jeg har gjort så mye i det siste, men jeg vet fremdeles ikke hva å snakke om! xD Men jeg skal prøve og også skrive på norsk :)
Unnskyle hvis jeg har feil, du kan korrigere meg hvis du vil!

I dag jeg våknet ca kl 11 og fikk klar å dra til AFS møte hos kontakt familie til Blake. Det var mye snø ute! veldig deilig. Jeg var sååå glad! Kl 11:40 Line hentet meg å dra til ferge. Da vi ankom vi spist litt mat, kjøttsuppe, veldig godt! Etterpå vi spilte i snøen haha. Det var så morsomt fordi akkurat da vi gikk ute Brenda falt og rullet ned en bakke! haha :D men hun var ok. Vanessa laget en snømann og etterpå vi red hester!! så spennende :) Det var litt skummelt men jeg liktet det. Veldig skummelt når hesten snublet i snøen fordi det var mye snø stakk til hoven hennes! hjertet mitt hoppet over et slag, og jeg trodde jeg skulle dø, men jeg var ok haha. Det var veldig kaldt så vi gikk inn igjen og begynte å lage "Jul folk" Jeg veit ikke ka det er kalt. Etterpå Javi og jeg prøvd å lage en pryd, men vi ga opp haha. Hele dagen vi spist kjeks og pepperkaker haha, det var godt :) Blake spilte bagpipes og vi sang Musevise fordi vi skal synge det på neste søndag til AFS grøttfest! "heisann og hoppsann og fallerallera!" hahahahah så mange ganger vi sang som. Vanessa og jeg skal spille Ave Maria på AFS grøttfest. Jeg glede me! Da jeg kom hjem, jeg var veldig trøtt og lagt meg.

Halloweeeeeeeeen!

Halloween in Norway is definitely not as big as in the US, but it is still celebrated. People have parties and dress up, and some children (only young kids, no teenagers) go trick or treating. One thing they don't do though is.......CARVE PUMPKINS! So of course I had to introduce this to my family :)

Anyways, October 31st we all woke up early to get ready for the day. The first thing we did was bake a pumpkin pie. Yes I know pumpkin pie is usually eaten on Thanksgiving not Halloween, but we had an extra pumpkin to make one from. So we figured, why not try? Now I have never made a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, we usually just buy it at the store, so this was taking a real chance. We had no idea how it was going to turn out.

Here are pictures to show the cooking process:

Scooping the seeds out of the pumpkin

Cooking the pumpkin on the stove

Making the dough for the pie crust

The pumpkin is cooked :) Then we had to skin it.

Then we blended the skinless pumpkin and got this (which is what is used to make the pie)

Looks yummy right? haha nope, it smells sooooo gross!

And finally the pie, going into the oven (and this does look good)

While is was cooking we decided to CARVE PUMPKINS! Wooohooooo.

Before we started:

As you might already know, the first step to carve a pumpkin is to cut a whole in the top so that you can scoop all the gooey yucky seeds and stuff out. Let me tell you, the inside of a pumpkin feels quite slimey and gross, but of course I made my family and Vanessa take all that good stuff out with their hands. xD How nice of me haha. Here are some pictures:

Me and Vanessa

Ingvild and Hanna

Did you notice the gooey stuff in the bowl in the picture above? Thats what we were taking out. So after we finished emptying out pumpkins we got to begin carving them. This is of course the fun part :) First we drew on them with a pen though so we would know where to carve.

Everyone drawing and carving:

Here is one of our finished pumpkins:

Vanessas pumpkin (which she wanted to keep forever, until I told her it would rot ha)

After we finished carving the pumpkin pie was finished.

And me tasting it:

And yay! It was just as good as at home :) Job well done.

After that Javi, Chiara, Vanessa and me had a few hours to spare before all our friends came over for the party. We started getting the food ready and putting on our costumes.

This is a total joke haha:

Before we put our costumes on we made the dough for the pizza though.

Chiara, Blake, Ellen and Vanessa

Javi and me just watched

Yum yum

Then we put the dough in a big bowl to sit and get bigger. While this was happening we put on our costumes. We didnt really have much time to decide what we wanted to be, so me and Javi came up with something really quickly. We decided to be fat Americans. Yes I know this is a really bad was to represent my country, but it was fun. Here are our finished costumes:

Chiara painted our faces for us, it was really good.

Here is Vanessa, she was supposed to be a scarecrow, but she kind of looks like someone who escaped from prison

Chiara was a nice girl on one side of her face and evil on the other side:

And finally all of us:

Then we were ready to make pizza and for some friends to show up.

The dough after waiting 2 hours

Making pizza

Finished pizza :)

Oh I forgot here is a picture of the table before everyone arrived and we ate and everything: it looks really nice

And our pumpkins outside, they were awesome!

Getting ready to go trick or treating. Here in Norway they say "knask eller knep" I hope this is right cause I dont remember exactly! Oops...

Now for more pictures of everyones costumes:

Brenda:

Lisa, quite a creative costume I thought

Inger-Lise:

Anna:

I absolutely loved her contacts, so awesome, kind of creepy too haha. Anne is supposed to be someone who drowned.

After dinner we played sing star ABBA. It was pretty fun, I usually refuse to sing at home but here I actually sang. Then we watched Friday the 13th and had cake, pie and ice cream.

And here is the cake just because I thought it was adorable:

After the movie we all hung out and talked for awhile. Everybody was gone by 2am and my parents came home from the concert they were at at about the same time.

I really enjoyed Halloween and having some friends over. It was a really good night. It was also really nice having little kids come to the door trick or treating. There definitely weren't as many as back home, and they were all young. I do miss going out with all my friends trick or treating at home though. And I miss the American candy, haha. Butterfingers, reeses, skittles, tootsie rolls, etc. My mom here told me that they will carve pumpkins every year now probably, and Vanessa wants to do it back home in Italy. I think that is awesome, it was fun to share some of my culture.

:)