HEI SONDRE HERSTAD! (february events)

(SONDRE! DU ER NO I BLOGGEN MIN! ;))

I can't even begin to explain to everyone how evil time is. I've mentioned it a million times and I even had a little excerpt about it in the first few posts on this blog, but now as the pressure of time faces me it's ALL I can think about. If you think about it, no one is REALLY satisfied with the amount of time they're given, whether it be the short time you have to complete that math test that you REALLY didn't study for or the LONG time you have to wait to receive your acceptance letter into college. You can always have way too much and you can always have way too little. It's your best friend and your enemy ALL at the same time. Let me just say that I (along with all of my family and friends back home) have always thought of my time here in Norway as a hugely long expedition, but now as I am in the latter end of my academic year here, my opinion has changed dramatically. I'm starting to freak out a little about what I HAVEN'T accomplished yet and how little time I have to accomplish it. I've been here almost 7 months and, to me, it feels like HALF of that. I am my toughest critic, and although people tell me that I am pretty good in Norwegian, I feel like I SUCK. But hey, thats the way it goes ;), I WILL go home fluent. Today I got my travel notifications for my return home and I was sufficiently depressed when I saw them, haha. As much as I want to go home to "my real life", I really want to stay here. Anyways, July 3rd at about 10:30 AM I'll be gone from Norway (only for a LITTLE while, of course ;)). Until then I gotta use the TIME I got.

Anyways February happenings:

-VISIT TO HØYANGER (Feb 12-14th): So Sanne and I went for a little weekend visit to Elianne (family friend) for her 18th birthday and stayed wither her all weekend. Høyanger is a little town (I'm talkin' LITTLE) about one and a half hours away from Førde. Sanne and I left at about 4 on Friday the 12th on the bus to Høyanger. The bus ride was GORGEOUS and I felt like a complete loser/tourist/american/again loser for taking like 2732873928732987329 pictures of the mountains and fjords, but literally I CANNOT get over the views. Norway truly IS the prettiest country ever, so all you future AFSers trying to figure out which country to choose, choose NORWAY. the RIGHT way is NOR-WAY ;). haha....yeah....ANYWAYS that friday night was her party and she had invited about 25 people for a little house party. It was a REALLY great time, once again met some really cool people, had A LOT of fun, danced and just had a lot of fun. It wasn't like a HUGE party which made it more personal and made it easier to get to know people. Anyways, the Høyanger kids are pretty cool ;). The rest of the weekend followed with some Olympics watching, junk-food eating, movie-watching fun and I hope we can visit another time soon!

-VALENTINES DAY: nothing really exciting happened but some people DO celebrate it here but not nearly to the US extent. (I had the best valentine ever, btw. ;)). I love valentines day so I kinda missed getting the carnations from friends or the paper valentines.

-IDA'S (& OTHERS) BIRTHDAY BASH AT BADA BING- THIS was a good night. :). It began with a lovely "pre-party" with the girls which was definitely fun. Then we made our way to the actual party at the local club, "Bada Bing". It was the same as the last time with dancing and almost all of my friends were there. Its ALWAYS a good time when everyone "goes out" ;). I would just like to mention that throughout the course of the night at least one third of the club became "cats" with whiskers drawn on them, courtesy of Oda, or had the word ODA written on them. THAT is what I call "labelling", haha! The only downside of the night was that I had to go really early :/ which was kinda lame. My feet literally almost fell off seeing as though I was wearing the highest heels EVER and I danced pretty much the whole time with my loves MARTE AND SYNNIVA ;). I got some good pictures (of course) and had apretty good time.

-CROSS COUNTRY-SKIING: one word: PROFESSIONAL
HA totally kidding, I actually am not so good, but I'm also not so bad. but let me just say that its definitely degrading seeing a toddler skiing faster than me......literally... but HEY! I only fell a grand total of 2 times :D. It was pretty fun and I hope to do it again!

-LONDDDDDDOOOOOOON!!!!!!!! :

Okay so during the winter break my host family (me included) and family friends went on a little vacation to LONDON! :) In my opinion, London is one of the coolest cities in the world. It's got an amazingly rich history, interesting history at that, along with a rich culture today. It's one of the most multicultural cities in the world which brings in a wide-range of languages and different cultures together. I was actually amazed with how many people I saw working or living there who had English as a second language.

The first night we got to go to the Queen musical, "We Will Rock You." which was FANTASTIC. It was really fun with all the music and I can't begin to describe HOW good the actors were at singing. There was great energy and EVERYONE enjoyed it. I LOVE Queen, so it was fun to see a play with only THEY'RE music in it. It kinda had the feel of "Mamma Mia" because the songs in both musicals are from widely-known bands, which was fun.

We did a lot of shopping (not to worry, family, not TOO much) and it was a breath of fresh air to spend less money on things seeing as though Norway is the most expensive place EVER. Not to be like those cliché bloggers but I bought a cute dress from TOPSHOP, which was a good buy. It was from their "vintage section" which is pretty cool, I guess, haah. We also went in the London eye and I took, once again, 2327398273298372987 pictures. One day we went to Buckingham palace which was literally a MADHOUSE. There were people EVERYWHERE. We went at the time in which the palace changed guards, so there is a big show of it and I sware, ALL the tourists in London were there. I didn't see anything. I'm too short :( haha. We also did Portobello road with the long street market and THAT was cool. There were all sorts of antiques and vintage clothing and also some really cool art. There were a lot of cool things by my favorite artist, the "street-artist" Banksy (http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm). There is a link to some of the things he does, I think he's awesome. I actually bought this graphic shirt with one of his pieces on it. I wanted to buy so much more than I did, but I thought I would be the responsible one and actually save money. FLINK, right? ;). I loved spending time with my host sister and my family. Sanne and I had our own room so we had an amazing time just taking pictures, chat rouletting (haha), and eating candy that you can't get in Norway ;). I'll never forget the trip and I'm so happy and lucky that I got to go :)!


HIGHLIGHTS OF LONDON:
-London Eye
-OXFORD STREET
-Alice in Wonderland things across London (The premier was going on while we were there, but we didn't go)
-STARBUCKS. TWICE. yes, just yes.
-We Will Rock You
-Red Bull
-SKITTLES AND REESES :)
-Sushi
-getting hit on at Top Shop?
-British Accents
-The Clicker.
-The underground
-being mistaken for a Norwegian with "really good English" hahah.
-Double-Decker busses

Anyways, yes, this was my February. LOOKING FORWARD TO PARIS IN TWO WEEKS ;)!

THINGS UN-RELATED:

SOME REALLY GOOD SONGS YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO:

-Phsycopedia by: Pony the Pirate
-Crash into me by: Dave Matthews
-Hey Ya by: Obadiah Parker
-When You were Young (Acoustic) by: The Killers
-Sway Your Head by: We Shot the Moon
-Dirt Off Your Shoulders (Bittersweet Symphony Remix) by: Jay-Z vs. The Verve